Barracuda (21 page)

Denise loaded her breakfast plate with French
toast and coffee, and then made her way over to the belligerent
Aussies. She thought them to be a bit rowdy and obnoxious, but fun.
She knew it would be an interesting week with such opposite dive
clubs sharing the
Thor
.

She sat down at Rat’s table and could smell the
residual alcohol from the previous evening’s partying. “The
forecast is for a perfect day of diving, gang, so be on the boat at
seven sharp. We will hook up to the carrier and then I will go over
the dive profile. We should be in the water by eight and do a
checkout dive on the flight deck. With deco, the total bottom time
will be about sixty minutes. Then we’ll travel back to the dock,
and the Californians will go to the
Nagato
and dive a
similar profile. When your surface interval is complete, I’ll come
back for your group. You guys stated that you wanted to do a second
deeper dive on the
Saratoga
. Any questions?”

“We can penetrate the wreck on the first dive,
can’t we?” Bulldog asked.

Rat immediately kicked his leg under the table
for asking such a foolish question. Steve had already telephoned
Denise, so she was expecting the Aussies to try to enter the wreck
at the hatch site for their scavenger hunt. Denise was glad that
Steve had affected temporary measures to keep the hooligans from
penetrating the
Saratoga
.

“There is absolutely no penetration of the USS
Saratoga
, but I’ll talk more about that during the dive
profile speech later. Enjoy your breakfast, guys.”

Like most slender women, Denise ate like a bird
and finished her meal before walking her tray back to the serving
station. She poured herself another cup of coffee and walked over
to another table of Renegades. She would be coy and try to figure
out the game plan for the scavenger hunt.

Meanwhile, “Are you a moron?” Rat asked
Bulldog.

“What? Like she doesn’t know we’re going in?”
Bulldog replied.

“She isn’t supposed to know until after we do
it,” Rat warned. He kept an eye on Denise until she left the
cafeteria and headed down toward the dive boat. Then he called all
the Renegades to his table.

“We will pretend to listen to the bitch’s dive
profile, but this is
our
dive profile,” he announced. “When
she gives us the divers down signal, we descend down the mooring
line and head straight for the hole that Bill and Bob made. At that
point, its every diver for themselves, and the scavenger hunt
begins. Be careful, be daring, and be victorious!”

***

Tanya called Disco and asked him to have
breakfast with her. He thought that this was quite unusual, but
agreed. He had been trying to get into her “tight as a clam’s ass”
pussy for some time. All the men lusted for her, but she never took
a lover on Shark Alley Island. She was all business but sexy as
hell.

Tanya needed Disco’s help. She was repulsed by
the very sight of him and all the other henchmen, but business was
business. Having returned to her casino room to recover her purse
but found her passkey missing. It was then that she realized that
the cop had set her up.

She was furious, but she could never tell Andrej
or Hiroshi that the cop had stolen her passkey and then used it to
steal the Bible. Her position at the resort was in dire jeopardy
now. She had to eliminate the cop before he could use the ledger to
cause her further harm. She desperately needed Disco to perform
damage control before her aspirations of running the resort were
crushed.

When Tanya entered the Marina Del Ray, Disco was
already there. She closed her eyes, held her breath, and then put
on an Academy Award-worthy performance.

“You look yummy this morning,” she whispered
into his ear, brushing her silky hand across his face, silently
shuddering as she felt his beard stubble and smelled his vodka
breath.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Disco asked
warily.

“I was afraid for you last night when I heard
all that gunfire,” she purred.

“Why are you suddenly so concerned about my
safety?” he wondered.

Tanya was afraid she might be losing him and
decided to change strategies.

“Okay, let’s call a spade a spade. I’m ambitious
and I need a big strong partner such as you. I am smart enough to
know that I cannot take over and run this place by myself, so I
want to work out an agreement with you as a full partner.”

Tanya knew that she was really going out on a
limb. If Disco turned her down and ratted her out to either Hiroshi
or Andrej, she would be sleeping with the fish by nightfall. But at
this point she didn’t really have a choice.

“I also need a strong reliable man in my bed,”
she continued. “This all-business act is growing old. I need a
lover.”

Suddenly, all the blood stopped flowing to
Disco’s brain and was detoured to his groin. He had the IQ of a
carrot, but also the lustful hormones of a caveman. Disco thought
this might not be a bad idea. This sexy creature was certainly
ambitious and could conceivably pull her plan off—and he wanted to
be her man and ride her coattails to prosperity.

“If I agree, what do you want me to do?” he
asked.

Tanya felt him wavering, so she leaned over the
table toward him to give him a good peek at her ample cleavage.

“We’ll make a great team, baby,” she said. “With
my brains and your brawn, how could we miss? Champagne and sex
every night as the money rolls in day after day.” She now had to
deliver the
coup de grace
. The thought of this loathsome
beast touching her was so repugnant that she almost couldn’t utter
the words.

“Disco, I have two jobs for you to do, and then
you can come to my private casino room tonight and collect your
carnal reward.”

***

Micko had gotten a great night’s sleep after
calling Buddy on his cell phone and informing him of the exact
location of the money-laundering Bible. He knew that dangerous days
lay ahead, and he didn’t want it all to be for naught; so he let
Buddy know everything that was happening. Micko knew that Buddy
needed time to assemble a team of agents, and arrange
transportation. He just hoped Buddy would be quick about it.

Now he was awake, and it was a gorgeous day.
With his newfound confidence, his fears and nightmares were over
and he looked forward to a good investigation.

Micko didn’t go to the restaurant for breakfast.
Instead, he went to find Flacka. She wasn’t at the pool bar, so he
thought it might just be too early for her. Instead, he walked to
the dock and bought coffee and cake from a local merchant. He
continued down the dock to the
Hummingbird
and saw that
Celestial and Regis were busy loading up the boat with scuba
tanks.

Micko threw his dive bag on board and asked
where the scientists were. Regis pointed up toward the hotel, and
Micko could see the pair struggling with their dive gear. He took
one last bite and swallowed it down with the rotgut coffee.

“I’ll give them a hand while you guys load up
the
Hummingbird
,” he said.

Micko met them and offered to carry the
professor’s bag.

“I’ll carry it myself, son,” the doctor replied.
“Help James.”

Micko noticed that the professor was carrying
the re-breather and asked, “Would it be all right if I tried that
before the week is out?”

“Are you trained to use a re-breather?” the
professor questioned.

“I was trained to use one of the earlier models,
but I see you have the CCR 2000. That’s top of the line, but I can
handle it if you do the gas mix,” Micko replied.

“Okay, you can try it later.”

The trio half-carried and half-dragged all the
remaining gear onto the boat and beat a hasty departure lest too
many people notice and asked questions. The water was as flat as
glass, and the sunrise was spectacular as the
Hummingbird
hummed across the lagoon to the passageway.

***

Disco met Tanya at the sport fishing boat at
five o’clock in the morning. He brought his henchman Nike along,
and the two spent the better part of an hour loading the boat with
various pieces of equipment.

Steve came to the boat and stated, “I need this
boat to recover the Barrett brothers’ bodies.”

“We need it right now,” Disco barked. “You can
use it later.”

Tanya hid in the downstairs sleeping quarters so
that Steve wouldn’t see her.

“I have the recovery team coming here in half an
hour,” Steve insisted.

“You and your recovery team can have the boat in
the afternoon!” Disco snorted.

Nike walked up to Steve and bumped his chest in
a silent challenge. Steve knew that he was overmatched, so he
backed off and went into the scuba shop to telephone his recovery
team of the change of plans.

Disco fired up the
Happy Monkey
, and Nike
loosened the bow and stern lines. Soon they were entering the
middle of the atoll.

Once they were out of sight from land, Tanya
peered through the wheelhouse porthole with a pair of high-powered
binoculars. She watched the
Hummingbird
and wanted to
discreetly follow it. “Disco, throw out a few fishing lines so it
looks like we’re on a fishing expedition,” she yelled over the roar
of the twin 550 horsepower Mercury engines.

Disco was driving the boat, so he relayed the
message to Nike, who promptly complied. The threesome pretended to
fish until Tanya said, “There they go. Follow from a distance so
they don’t get suspicious.”

Tanya was wearing a large straw hat, sunglasses,
and a yellow windbreaker to conceal her identity. She knew that the
cop would use binoculars to peer back at them, so she had to stay
out of sight or her plan would fail.

***

The
Hummingbird
easily crossed the atoll
until it reached the turbulent waters of the passageway.

“See the floating buoy?” James yelled to
Celestial as he pointed to the marker for the u/w video system.

Celestial nodded and moved the
Hummingbird
into position. On Regis’ mark, he dropped
anchor. The pair worked well together. Regis directed the anchor to
be dropped hundreds of feet up current of the marker, and after
Celestial played out the anchor line, they were right on top of the
marker buoy. The scientists could drop over the side of the boat
and follow the buoy straight up and down without fighting the
current to return to the
Hummingbird
. The rear boarding
ladders were right at the mooring line.

Micko helped the scientists into their dive gear
and double-checked everything before they entered the water.

“You’re worse than a mother hen,” the professor
groaned.

“Better to be safe or you’ll be pulling another
Robinson Crusoe,” Micko joked.

The professor nodded that the point was well
taken as he climbed down the Christmas tree-style ladder. He
entered the water and held on to the buoy for dear life as James
took a few seconds to join him. The current was swift as the pair
descended the mooring line to the rocky bottom, but not as severe
when they reached 130 fsw. The professor held onto the life-saving
line as James quickly removed the camera from its u/w bracket and
snapped it onto his BC vest D-ring. The entire dive lasted less
than ten minutes.

Back in the lagoon, the water was so calm and
the weather so perfect that visibility was ten miles or more. Micko
noticed the sport boat following and watched with his mediocre
binoculars. Nothing was obviously suspicious, but Micko was a
seasoned police veteran and had an uncanny sixth sense that was
putting the rest of his senses on full alert.

The scientists popped to the surface sooner than
anyone had expected. James handed the camera to Regis, and then
both divers climbed back aboard the
Hummingbird
. Celestial
and Regis pulled anchor, and they made a wide turn and headed back
into the safety of the atoll.

Micko directed Celestial to drive to the mooring
ball of the
Apogon
. He needed to find evidence on the skiff
that might point to Disco as the criminal who had caused the
scientists to be marooned and nearly killed. Micko felt sure that
Buddy would bring a law enforcement army with him, so he wanted to
tie up all the loose ends before they arrived.

He helped the scientists remove their gear, and
almost immediately after, they helped him on with his own dive
gear. Before Micko was diver-dressed, Regis had the
Hummingbird
tied up to the
Apogon
’s mooring line. The
five men had a pre-dive discussion about what Micko might find on
the skiff to prove that it was the one that the professor and James
had rented. No one noticed the sport boat approaching from the
south.

The
Happy Monkey
moved closer and closer
to the
Hummingbird
until it reached the wreck of the USS
Gilliam
, a 426-foot U.S. attack transport ship. Disco and
Nike tied up to the mooring line and pretended to be game fishing,
while Tanya watched the activity on the
Hummingbird
. When
she saw the cop gearing up for a dive and was sure that nobody was
watching them, she ordered, “Hurry up and get your dive gear on,
and then lower the equipment.”

***

Andrej was furious. His morning was not going
well. The previous night the rebels had caused mayhem, and the
Bible had gone missing. At the moment, he couldn’t locate Tanya or
Disco.

“That bitch!” he yelled at Alex. “I’ll kill her
with my bare hands.”

Both Andre and Alex knew that it was Tanya’s
passkey that had been used to steal the Bible because the concierge
had returned the card to them that very morning. They knew that
they had to pass the blame to her to save their own skins. Andrej
needed Disco to kill and dispose of Tanya, as well as to find the
Bible. He was sure that the cop had it, but with enough physical
persuasion, it would be returned. All was not yet lost. They had to
torture the cop, get the Bible back, blame Tanya, and then punish
her. Then all would be normal again.