Thunder Storm

by Matt Lincoln

  I set Wraith on autopilot and sat back in my chair, watching the waves ripple past the hull. I wanted to enjoy the downtime while I still had it.

  “Did you call your dad before we left?” Marston was looking back at Alejandra with more concern than I was accustomed to seeing on his face.

  “I did,” she nodded resolutely. “I told him I wouldn’t be reachable for a couple of days. I think he is a bit concerned with his other child going to the same island where the first child disappeared, but he didn’t say much other than to tell me repeatedly to stay safe.”

  “Well, your brother didn’t have us when he was there,” I reminded her. “We will make sure to keep you safe.”

  “Thanks,” she muttered, looking down at her hands. I knew she was nervous, but she looked like she was trying to hide her nerves and put on a tough facade. I couldn’t imagine why she’d feel the need to do that to me, but one look at Marston helped me to connect the dots. There was something going on between the two of them. I had suspected it earlier, but the way they were looking at each other now confirmed it for me. I looked back at Rosa, who nodded her understanding. She’d noticed it, too.

  Mona Island was stunning, a sharp combination of cliffs, forests, and beaches. When Wraith drifted up to the island, there were no other boats floating nearby, which translated nicely to us having the place to ourselves. We moored up and headed to shore, each of us grabbing a handful of camping equipment or food supplies with us. We all trudged through the sand as we headed toward the tree line, and when I found a trailhead, I led the way through the trees to a clearing.

  “We’ll set up camp here, and then we will start spreading out and canvassing the area more thoroughly,” I announced.

  “This looks familiar,” Marston muttered. “Wait.” He dropped his bags and disappeared into an opening between two trees.

  “Marston!” I yelled, but it was too late. He had already made up his mind. “Well, we can set up camp here, and Marston can play catch up when he returns,” I decided, hoping it would be a quick trip for him. I didn’t like us getting separated so early on.

  He came back just a few minutes later. His eyes darted around frantically as he took in his surroundings.

  “This is the same campsite that Miguel and his group were set up in,” Marston informed us. “Just that way, there’s a clearing with a small pond. That’s the scene of the crime. We are literally right on top of where we need to be.”

  “Perfect,” I replied swiftly. Rosa seemed happy about the news, but Alejandra’s face paled in response. Marston must have noticed at the same time I did because he suddenly sped toward her and gently rested his hand on her arm.

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered into her ear. “We should have had this conversation before we left. This has to be incredibly difficult for you. Maybe you shouldn’t have come.”

  She recovered quickly, shrugging him off. “I’m fine,” she assured him, although the quaver in her voice gave her away a bit. “I’ll be fine,” she amended. “Let’s get set up.”

  Marston didn’t argue, and we set our tents up quickly, followed by a nicely set up fire in the center of the clearing. Alejandra set up the coolers packed with food beside the women’s tent, and Rosa set out the cooking utensils and supplies for later right next to that. When everything was set up, Marston broke the silence that had come over our small group amid the concentration.

  “I’d like to head toward the crime scene and then follow the path that we believe Miguel was dragged off to. I feel like there is something else there that we need to see.” Marston led the way down the path, and I let Rosa guide Alejandra through before me. As Marston had described, a pond took up most of the clearing that we walked into, and various boulders littered the space around the pond, giving it a cozy and quaint feel.

  Most of the space looked different from when I’d first laid eyes on it, largely due to the MBLIS team taking what they needed on their first trip. The National Wildlife crew would have probably been the ones to come in after them to finish the cleanup. What we were left with were clear water and stones that looked like they’d been scrubbed clean, although I still saw shadows of the evidence of the brutality that happened here. I only hoped that Alejandra didn’t notice the shadow stains and was taking in the general details of the space instead.

  “Marston,” I barked, “you were here on site before the cleanup. Walk us through it.”

  Marston walked through everything, describing the positioning of the bodies along with the half-unpacked bags waiting for the campers to return to them. He then led us over to another path that looked uneventful until he told us of its significance.

  “This is where someone dragged Miguel and Maria. We found scuff marks in the dirt consistent with kicking and flailing, along with traces of cocaine that we thought either shook off someone’s clothing or fell out of their pocket, although we didn’t find anything else that could have been used as a storage method. This is what I wanted to see. I want to walk completely down this path to see where it leads.”

  “I’m going with you,” Alejandra volunteered. Marston looked at me with a shrug, so I took over the conversation.

  “I don’t want anyone wandering off on their own,” I amended. “Alejandra, stay with him, and don’t leave his side. Rosa and I will scout this area up here.”

  “Deal,” Marston agreed. He held out his hand for Alejandra, who slipped her fingers neatly through his. He led the way down the trail, leaving Rosa and me in the clearing.

  “You’re much more astute than I am,” I pointed out, looking over at Rosa. “Tell me, how long had that been going on?”

  Rosa laughed. Since I first saw them, she signed. I don’t know how long it had already been going on at that point, but it seems like it’s dialed up the intensity lately.

  “Yeah, I’ve been getting that vibe,” I agreed.

  Rosa and I walked around the site, but it had been thoroughly cleaned, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I was starting to wonder if we’d been wasting our time coming out here, but I reminded myself that I had Wraith here with me, so that alone made the trip worth it. I may have been on a mission, but I had to be allowed to have a little fun.

  After poking around for longer than was useful, rustling leaves and uneven footfalls caught our attention, and Rosa and I turned to find Marston and Alejandra coming back through the trees.

  “We found it!” Marston shouted, feeling victorious.

  “You found it? You found what?” I darted my eyes up and down the two of them, but whatever they had found, they had not brought it up with them.

  “A cave,” Alejandra sang. “It has pockets full of cocaine.”

  “It looks active,” Marston added. “Some fresh footprints and clean cocaine bales are mixed in with the older stuff, the stuff covered in a layer of dirt. This is a regular stop.”

  “It’s not too far out, is it? I asked, wanting to take a look for myself.

  “Not terribly,” Marston assured me. “I’d like to stake it out overnight and into tomorrow to see if we get any hits.”

  “We should,” I agreed. “You should also grab some more samples for your girl, Bonnie, while you’re down there.”

  “Good idea.” Marston looked over at Alejandra, who was bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. “Did you find anything up here?”

  “No.” I shook my head, disappointed in my lack of results. “This place has been pretty much wiped clean. Show me this cave. I’m formulating a plan, but I need to see where exactly it spits out.”

  “Sure thing.” Marston led the way back through the brush, and I followed closely behind, leaving Alejandra and Rosa by the pond.

  The trail was densely lined with thick foliage that seemed to creep along and connect all of the plant life together, forming a solid wall of green on either side of the path. Every so often, a log jutted up from the ground before me, or a dip in the trail would make me lose my footing for a moment, but for the most pa
rt, it was an easy hike. The ground began to slope downward slightly, and after a few more twists and turns, we were tossed out unceremoniously onto the beach.

  “What the hell?” I muttered to myself. Sure, we were on the beach, but it wasn’t the beach we had originally landed on. I looked to my left and saw a familiar-looking black, jagged rock sticking out into the ocean. When I had steered Wraith closer to land, I had remembered that rock being on the other side of the beach. We had simply been shifted over, around the corner, by the looks of it.

  “This is good,” I mused happily as the realization set in. I stepped forward to get a better view and could make out the sand on the other side. The rock was pretty sizeable, though, growing in height as it extended into the water, which would work well to our advantage. It also just so happened to be the same color as Wraith. “If I tuck Wraith up against that rock, we will have a quick escape if this goes south.”

  Marston nodded. “It’s always smart to have an escape plan. What are we escaping?”

  “Where’s the cave?” I asked, still formulating the details of my plan.

  “Follow me.” He waved his hand lazily for me to follow him and led me a couple of hundred feet down the beach. There, tucked into the side of the cliff and covered by more unkempt foliage, was a cave opening.

  “How the hell did you find this so quickly?” I asked, impressed at his discovery. If I hadn’t already known it was here, I would never have found it.

  “Alejandra spotted it,” he informed me as he brushed some of the palm leaves out of the way. “She was going on and on about the beauty of this island, and the little hidden gems. From up on the trail, she spotted it, but by the time we hit bottom, we didn’t see it. I only knew where to look because of where we were on the trail.”

  “How was she looking out here instead of watching where she was walking?” I wondered out loud as I followed him inside.

  “We, err, weren’t walking at the moment,” he muttered. I decided I wasn’t going to ask him any more questions. Instead, I looked around the cave.

  The dark cavern was surprisingly spacious and deep, and although at first there was nothing out of the ordinary, as we went deeper, I began to notice pockets in the walls. They looked to have been manmade, carved out purposely by someone for a specific reason. As we walked even deeper, I began to see why. Each pocket acted as a shelf, holding multiple bricks of cocaine. On the ground, bales were stacked against the cave walls, and in the center, a makeshift table had been constructed out of a couple of boulders and a slab of what looked like marble. I walked over to the stone slab to take a closer look. Slightly camouflaged by the gorgeous swirls and flecks in the stone were powder lines, and as I walked around to the backside of the table, I found a couple of bar stools and a decently large hinged box on the ground between them. I flipped the hinge up and found an array of supplies in there, including plastic wrap and tape.

  “This is where they separate and prep everything for local dealers,” I realized. “This is interesting.”

  “How so?” Marston asked. He was crouched down in front of one of the stacks of bales, studying it with his back to me.

  “Well, most cartels wouldn’t have a largely untouched island at their disposal on which to do this. I have to assume there’s a transfer here. The Dominicans bring the cocaine here, and then the next group down on the totem pole collects their bricks and brings them to the locals.” I closed the lid on the box and secured the latch, leaving it just as I’d found it. “There has to be some sort of transfer of hands here, otherwise setting this up doesn’t make much sense.”

  “So, all the Dominicans are doing is taking the bales and bringing them here to the island?” he asked, standing up and brushing his pants off.

  “Yeah, and then maybe repackaging before heading back home.” I walked around and looked at the pockets. Each one had a letter etched beneath it. “Then the next group comes in, collects their shipment from their designated pocket, and continues on.”

  “Why do it this way?” Marston asked, noticing the etched letters as I ran my finger across one.

  “Less exposure?” I guessed. I paused for a moment as I considered his question. “Let’s say whoever is running things wants to take extra precautions to avoid getting caught. The longer the chain, the longer it will take to reach the top, right?”

  “The more people involved, the less likely they are to all be trustworthy,” Marston countered.

  “Unless no one knows who the others are,” I offered. “These etchings are just letters. There are no names, no identifying marks. If you’re secretive enough, this could be feasible.”

  Marston set his hands on his hips as he looked around the cave and considered my theory. “It seems to be a sound theory,” he finally acknowledged. “You should talk to Alejandra. She told me what her dad had told her.”

  “About what?” I asked, turning suddenly to face him.

  “He knows drugs are being run out under the Dominican flag, but he could not trace them to any source in the country. He believes they are actually working out of Haiti somehow, evading him while also making him look incompetent. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but now that I’m listening to your story, it’s all coming together.”

  “How?” I muttered, not seeing a connection.

  “Let’s assume that someone in his trusted circle is behind this,” he mused. “He wouldn’t want to be found out, would he? Moving his business dealings to Haiti not only makes the President’s job harder, but it also protects himself from being discovered. That, plus your theory… it makes sense.”

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “There’s only one problem with your theory, though.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, a puzzled look on his face.

  “It’s based on an assumption.” I began pacing as I worked it out in my head. “If it isn’t someone in government, if it isn’t someone higher up with a lot to lose, your theory doesn’t really stand. It could, but it takes our suspect from careful to insanely paranoid, and I just don’t see it. If you’re this paranoid, maybe you’re in the wrong business.”

  “So then that further proves my point, doesn’t it?” Marston asked.

  “Maybe,” I muttered. “We need more information.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “We can leave the campsite where it is. It’s innocuous. No one would stumble upon us and think we were up to anything shady. Let’s take turns staking this place out. A lot of these pockets are empty, and I’d be willing to bet someone comes to put some work in on these bales tonight or tomorrow.”

  “And we got that lucky?” he asked, looking skeptical.

  “Yeah, apparently,” I shrugged. “No one is going to leave bales like this stacked up and unattended for long. That isn’t very good business sense. This needs to move quickly, so even if I’m wrong and nothing happens tonight, we won’t need to wait much longer.”

  Marston wandered up toward the entrance to the cave. Looking around first to ensure nothing had been moved out of place, I followed him out into the sunlight.

  “Whoever we catch here, needs to be questioned,” Marston muttered. “We need to get information out of them.”

  “That’s not a problem,” I reminded him. Marston might have had to abide by the rules, but I didn’t have a rulebook, and he knew it.

  “Yeah, maybe for you,” he argued. “I can’t do my job based on your intel. When they ask how I tracked down the suspect, I can’t say my friend beat the ever-living crap out of someone until they gave us his name.”

  “Sure, you can!” I teased. “What could go wrong?”

  “I can’t imagine,” he chuckled.

  He was right, of course. Any intelligence I’d glean wouldn’t be actionable on his end, but precious time could be wasted by going through the proper channels and sending whoever we caught back to the main island to be processed and interviewed.

  That wouldn’t stop me from getting the information that I needed, though
. Marston could handle himself, and he was always good at finding loopholes and dancing on the line without crossing it. I wasn’t worried about him catching up, but I couldn’t afford to slow down and wait for him.

  The two of us headed back up the trail to the pond where we found the two women perched on top of one of the boulders, signing away, deep in conversation. They both looked up when we emerged through the trees, and the way Alejandra’s eyes lit up, you’d think we’d been gone for ages.

  Took you long enough, Rosa signed playfully. Did you find anything good?

  “Oh yeah, we did,” I replied brightly. Marston and I proceeded to discuss our plans with the women, and Rosa was, of course, immediately on board.

  We just need to protect Alejandra, Rosa reminded me. I nodded immediately, but Alejandra’s voice cut through my thoughts.

  “You need to worry about catching these people, not about protecting me.”

  Marston, who’d been propped up against a nearby tree, suddenly stood up and took a step toward her.

  “Your brother was kidnapped in order to be used as leverage against your father,” he snapped sharply. “Now, you’re here, in the same place, dangerously close to the exact same situation. There is no chance that any of us are leaving you unprotected.”

  Alejandra took a step backward as the gravity of what Marston had just told her hit home.

  “He could have said it nicer, but he’s right,” I shrugged. “Lucky for you, you’re here with three ex-SEALs.”

  “Yeah, they don’t call us elite for no reason,” Marston quipped, his voice considerably more relaxed.

  Rosa rolled her eyes, but I noticed the edges of her lips curl up as she listened to us.

  Don’t mind them, she signed to Alejandra. Alejandra giggled, relaxing amid the banter.

  “Well, let’s head back to the campsite and draw straws to see who gets the first watch,” I announced, heading through the tree line back toward the campsite. What was supposed to be a relaxing trip out to the island to do a second evidence sweep had escalated quickly into a risky stakeout, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I thrived off of the adrenaline rush this kind of experience tended to generate.