Thunder Storm

by Matt Lincoln

  After the jitters settled a bit, I pulled out my phone and called Diane. I wasn’t sure if she had already gotten an update from Bonnie, but I wanted to be sure we covered all of our bases.

  “Ramsey.” Her short, clipped voice came through clearly.

  “Diane, it’s Ethan,” I replied.

  “What’s going on down there?” she asked, her tone changing to something closer to friendly.

  “We’ve IDed all of the bodies. There appears to be two missing. Miguel García, which we already knew, and a young woman.”

  “Girlfriend?” she guessed.

  “Probably,” I agreed. “There is nothing to prove the extent of their relationship other than a shared tent.”

  “Do we have any information on her?” Diane asked as I heard her typing away in the background.

  “Yes,” I replied, staring absentmindedly out the window. “Bonnie worked it out. The woman has dual citizenship with Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. We are tracking down addresses, but our next step is to go visit President García and get his view of things. While we’re there, we can visit any addresses that this mystery woman might have connections to.”

  “Okay, sounds good,” Diane replied. “You should know that the budget won’t allow for me to have you traveling back and forth multiple times. Please use your excursions wisely.”

  “Of course,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “I’m going to see if Header can set us up, just like he did with this suite.”

  “Yeah, seeing those pictures that Holm sent me definitely gave me a heart attack before he admitted the low cost.” I could hear the humor in her voice, and I knew that she was trying not to laugh. “I’m glad you boys are at least having fun.”

  “I mean, it could be better,” I pointed out. “I could be on the beach.”

  “Hey, you’re there, aren’t you? You’ll get your downtime, don’t worry.” Diane was confident in her statement, and she was right. We always managed to get some downtime during our cases, and I didn’t see any reason why this would be any different.

  “Good point,” I admitted. “I’ll call you once we hit the Dominican Republic and let you know how things go down there.”

  “Please do,” she requested before hanging up the phone.

  With that phone call knocked out of the way, I sent a message to Jake Header.

  Need a ride to DR. Think you can help?

  I knew Header had more than a few toys at his disposal, but I wasn’t holding my breath that he would loan me his pride and joy. Wraith was his baby, and as far as supercavitating stealth boats are concerned, this one took the cake. I was sure he had other modes of transportation we could use, though. At least, I hoped.

  I was about to give up on an immediate response when my phone chimed again.

  You can have X’s yacht. When are you leaving?

  I wasn’t sure who X was, or why he had a yacht, but I wasn’t too concerned about it. If this was all good in Header’s book, it was okay by me, too.

  As soon as possible, I replied. We want to get a head start on this.

  I sat back down to take another experimental sip of coffee. The responses were coming through quicker now.

  You can take it today. Meet at my place.

  Header sent over his address, and I quickly mapped it out on my phone. It looked to be about thirty minutes from us. I sent Bonnie a message to let her know what the plan was and packed my own bag while I waited for Holm.

  By the time Holm came back out of his room, my coffee cup was empty, and I was bursting with energy.

  “Are you ready to go?” I asked, jumping up out of my seat. Holm looked fully functional now, with his hair slicked back off his face and his eyes bright and focused.

  “Looks like the coffee hit you as hard as it hit me!” he laughed. “Yes, let’s do this. What’s the plan?”

  “The plan is, we head over to Header’s place and get our hands on a boat. We should grab our bags.”

  “Do we have a place to stay?” Holm headed back into the room, and I heard him chucking a few things into his bag.

  “Yeah, you could say that,” I chuckled. “We’re taking a yacht.”

  “A yacht?” Holm’s voice echoed out from the bathroom. “We need to work with Header more often.”

  “Yeah, no kidding,” I mumbled.

  Once Holm was ready, we headed out the door and bore left to rap quickly on Bonnie’s door.

  “A yacht, huh?” She raised an eyebrow at me as she stepped out of her suite.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?” I knew she’d probably be more helpful here, but with Clyde flying in today, we would have things covered here without her.

  “I mean, it sounds fun, but you know I have plenty to do here.” She closed her door and led the way down the hall. “We found a camera that we need to develop the film on, and I want to take a closer look at everything else we found.”

  “Alright,” I conceded. “Enjoy the Mustang while we’re gone.”

  “Oh, I will!” she called out as she jabbed at the elevator button. “Believe me. Clyde isn’t getting near the driver’s seat.”

  Holm laughed beside me. “At least it’s in good hands.”

  “Yes, I promise not to drive it through any floods while you’re gone,” Bonnie joked.

  I clutched my chest dramatically. “Was that a jab at me?” I hadn’t meant to destroy my last department car in the flood. Sometimes though, the mission called for going above and beyond the call of duty.

  “Not at all,” Holm replied sarcastically. “I’m sure it was just a passing comment.”

  “Mm-hmm,” I muttered below my breath. We stepped onto the elevator, and I dug through my pockets as it descended, coming up with the keys to the Mustang. “I’m driving it to Header’s, though.”

  “I’ll roll my pants up, then,” she teased.

  The trip to Header’s was pretty easy, as the main road took us straight to his town of Isabela. As we turned off the main road and headed deeper into town, I realized we were headed toward the water, and had no doubt that he would have picked a spot right off of it. After a few careful turns, the overbearing solid gate that appeared on the corner stood out amongst the rest of the houses.

  “That has to be his,” Holm chuckled from the backseat. “Talk about protective measures.”

  The Mustang slowed to a stop next to a keypad with a camera. I lowered the window and pressed the button.

  “Marston, you’re finally here.” Header’s voice called out through the speaker.

  “Yeah, let me in,” I called out.

  The gate slid open, exposing a decent length driveway that sloped upward to a two-car carport. Both slots were filled, and I recognized Header’s oversized pickup in one of the spaces. I pulled up behind it and looked over at the house.

  The one-story building was painted stark white, with a wide black front door, black window frames, and a black roof with solar panels. The front lawn was perfectly manicured, and as far as I could tell, the lawn wrapped around to the back of the house as well.

  The front door swung open wide to reveal a woman with deep red hair and dark brown eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a braid, and something about her was very familiar. She smiled warmly but stepped silently to the side to let us in.

  “Hey, I’m Ethan,” I said by way of introduction, holding my hand out for a handshake. She shook my hand firmly, then began using sign language. It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. I suddenly knew exactly why she was so familiar.

  “I remember you,” I breathed. “You were on the…” I chuckled to myself. “You were on the yacht with the Doc. Was that his yacht?”

  I flashed back to that day not too long ago on Wraith, when Header got injured, and I had to take over the controls and call for help. “Not a doc. The doc,” he had said. Then a goateed man in aviators and a young woman with braided hair and sign language skills came to save him.

  The woman shook her head, and Header came walking
up to us then.

  “I see you’ve met Rosa,” he grinned. “And no. They are two separate people. Come on in, and I’ll introduce you.”

  Holm and Bonnie followed us into the main room of the house which was open and airy. The kitchen was at the front of the house, with a window overlooking the front lawn and the wall beyond it. Past the living room and to the back of the house, the view was breathtaking.

  “Holy crap,” Bonnie muttered behind me.

  “Yeah, you said it,” Holm added.

  The entire back wall of the room was made of glass, and a set of glass double doors opened to a large wooden deck with a pool dropped at the far end of it. The edges of the pool were lined by a glass railing, creating an almost unimpeded view of the ocean which dropped off the edge of the cliff that bordered his backyard.

  “Header,” I breathed, “you’ve been holding out on me.”

  “Oh, don’t give me that,” he argued. “I’ve been telling you to visit me, and all you do is remind me about my place in Biscayne Bay as if I don’t have a job to do.”

  “Well, I mean, if you had sent some pictures, I might have cleared my schedule.” I was just now turning my focus on the other people in the living room.

  “Marston, Holm, Bonci, I’d like you to meet Doc and Xavier.”

  “X,” I muttered under my breath. I guessed that the skinny guy with the dark curly mop of hair was the yacht owner. That would make the other guy Doc. He still sported the same goatee I remembered from our last encounter, but this time, it seemed a little grayer.

  “Header, am I finally officially meeting your mystery team?” I looked around the room. Header’s team had been cloaked in so much secrecy, that if it hadn’t been for that one incident that day on the water, I would have never known they even existed.

  “Yes, you are,” he replied pointedly. “Please bear in mind that they are a mystery team for a reason. I’d rather their identities not leave this room.

  I nodded my agreement, and Header looked over at Holm and Bonnie to get theirs as well.

  This team, though, seemed oddly familiar. Doc and Rosa had the same look in their eyes. The look that said they’d seen some dark things. The same look I saw in Holm, and the same look I knew I had.

  “You’re all prior service.”

  “Rosa and I ran together in the SEALs for a bit,” Header nodded. “The only one who isn’t prior service is Xavier, but he’s our resident nerd, so we forgive him.”

  “He gets a pass,” Doc nodded. “He’s a freaking genius.”

  “Rosa...” Holm stepped forward. “Did you two run together after you left our team?”

  Header nodded glumly. “You guys may have seen some things with me, but Rosa’s seen worse.”

  Rosa nodded in agreement. As sure as I believed her, I also was sure I did not want to ask for details.

  Bonnie spoke up suddenly. “I hate to do this, but Clyde just messaged me. The plane landed.”

  “Leaving so soon?” Doc asked as he got up from the couch. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

  “Likewise,” she grinned. “I wish I could stay longer. It’s a beautiful place.”

  “Thank you,” Header replied graciously.

  Bonnie gave me a pointed look, and I tossed her the keys to the rental.

  “Enjoy it,” I teased.

  “Oh, I will,” she promised. With a final wave, she was out the door.

  “Well, I know you two have a case to work. Follow me downstairs.” Header walked out the front door, and Holm and I followed him. I was beginning to wonder how we were going to get down any stairs from outside the house, but then he stopped at a door that was buried behind some foliage. He held his thumb to the pad, and the door unlocked.

  “Close the door behind me, would you?” he asked before descending the stairs that lay right inside the doorway.

  The stairs were stone, and so were the walls. Red strip lighting lined both sides, allowing us to see well while not ruining our night vision. At the bottom of the stairway, there was another doorway, and beyond that, an enclosed dock. Pulled in against the pier was none other than Wraith.

  Wraith was Header’s less legal version of the military’s Ghost. A sleek black paint job and ability to float low on the surface of the water made it virtually undetectable by human eyes, and his radar tech on board made it virtually undetectable by other radar systems. No boat was perfect, but Wraith was damn near close. I had gotten closer than anyone else could possibly get, and I still knew there was tech on board that I was not privy to.

  Header walked past Wraith, and I noticed the white yacht on the other side of it. Holm and I trailed behind him as our eyes lingered over Wraith’s hull.

  Header spoke as he walked. “I had the other side blown out to make room for the second dock recently. Xavier visits too often for me to have him sitting outside, drawing attention to my hiding spot.”

  Xavier’s yacht was not the biggest one I’d ever seen, but as soon as I set foot on it, I knew it’d be a luxurious ride. Up on top was a lounge area with white cushioned sofas, and once we stepped inside, I took note of the dark, luxury touches, from the glossy dark wood bar top to the black leather seating area. Header showed us two bedrooms that we could use before bringing us up to the helm where the really impressive stuff was.

  “I’ll admit,” he said once we were all at the helm together, “I am not sure of the extent of the technology up here. This isn’t Wraith, though. It isn’t built for a fight. It’s built for evasive measures and intelligence. Xavier’s a geek, but he’s not a warrior.”

  “I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out what we need to,” I assured him as I scanned the panel. A lot of it was obvious, but there were several buttons and dials that I had no idea what to do with.

  “Yeah, I could get used to this,” Holm added lightheartedly.

  Header shrugged. “Perks of the job. You two have time for a meal before you head out? There’s plenty of basic amenities on board, but Rosa’s cooking, and you probably don’t want to miss it.”

  I looked over at Holm, who shrugged. “We have to eat, right?” he asked.

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “Alright. We will leave right after dinner.”

  “Sounds like a good deal.” Header reached up over his head and pulled a set of keys from behind a speaker. “You’ll need these. Hit this button here, and the door will open to let you out. Hit it again once you’re out if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course,” I assured him. Header tossed the key onto the cushioned white Captain’s chair and gestured for us to follow him back off the boat. He paused right before stepping onto the pier.

  “Oh, Marston?” he called out, looking behind him.

  I met his eyes. “Yeah?”

  “Don’t scratch her,” he warned.

  Holm barked out a laugh as he came up beside me and clapped me on the shoulder. “Once again, your reputation precedes you,” he teased.

  I rolled my eyes, but I knew it was all in good spirits.

  Yeah, we may have been working a serious case, but damn, I was enjoying this trip so far.

  Chapter 8: Ethan

  Header hadn’t been lying. Rosa was an amazing cook, and she whipped up a fantastic dish of arroz con pollo. The flavors of the chicken and the rice melded together perfectly, and the tostones on the side were the perfect touch. By the time Holm and I grabbed our bags from the car and began ambling down to the yacht, I was so stuffed I could hardly move.

  “I wish we had a bigger team with us,” Holm muttered as he climbed on board. “Birn would love this.”

  “You’re right,” I agreed, “and you know Muñoz would have loved that meal.”

  “Ugh, I don’t want to talk about food right now,” Holm groaned. “It was the most delicious meal I’ve had in a very long time, but I think I underestimated how much it would fill me up. I can barely move.”

  “I know the feeling,” I added.

  Holm led the way up to the helm, and I was
close behind him. The keys were right where Header had left them, although that didn’t surprise me at all. The security measures surrounding this dock must have been substantial, considering what toys and tech he was hiding.

  We got settled and brought the yacht to life, and Holm pressed the button to open up the roll-top door that concealed the dock from view. The bright sunlight illuminated the space, making it truly look like a cave. The glint of the light against Wraith’s glossy hull might have drawn some attention if we had a clear view of the water, but it looked like we’d need to exit at an angle in order to ensure a clear path. I deftly maneuvered the yacht out into the open water, and Holm closed the door once we were clear. The paint on the door matched the cliff face surrounding it almost exactly, and once we were clear of the small crop of stone, the entrance to the dock was impossible to see.

  “I have to say, this is incredibly well-thought-out,” I mused, scanning the rest of the cliff face for some kind of identifying mark. I couldn’t find any.

  “I can see why he chose to live here,” Holm added. “To have Wraith tucked safely below his house must be pretty damn convenient.”

  “Yeah, no kidding.” I got my bearings and began heading toward the Dominican Republic. After setting the controls exactly where I wanted them, I settled back into the Captain’s chair with a comfortable sigh. “We’ve got about ten hours.”

  “It’s a good thing we ate, then,” Holm joked as he made himself comfortable.

  The water was impossibly blue, with splashes of various shades of turquoise. The ripples and waves sparkled in the light, and the sun was warm against our skin. It couldn’t have been more picturesque, and I certainly didn’t mind the long trip.

  When we did finally pull into the Dominican Republic, the trip had actually felt too short. Santo Domingo was still sleepy at four in the morning, and after docking the yacht, Holm and I both went down below for a much-needed nap.