Dark Moon Walking (12 page)

Walker and Claire lay and watched as a steady stream of men emerged from the new arrival and stepped onto the deck of the black ship. They clustered together for a few minutes and then there was a brief flash of movement in the cockpit as someone came out and called them in and they all moved aft and disappeared. The black ship lay quiet yet again. After watching for a few minutes, Walker pulled out the tiny radio once more. He needed to let Dan know that something was going on.

TEN

Javier Fernandez checked his men again. He had to admit, Harry's idea to dress them as loggers and put them in a crew boat was brilliant. It provided the perfect cover. Who would question seven loggers heading back from camp?

Gunter and Trip had been searching for three days and had come up empty. Likely the girl had drowned or was holed up somewhere. Either way, they were not going to find her in time. So far it appeared no one was checking on her absence. That could change at any time, but at least with the crew boat, the danger of discovery was not so high.

He glanced up at the wheelhouse, where Harry stood watch. Fernandez had told him to call Gunter and Trip and the other two back an hour ago, and they should be arriving anytime now. They were already a day behind schedule. They had lost hours of daylight and the few left would not give them enough time to retrieve all the canisters safely. With the girl still missing, he could not risk
Snow Queen
being seen in Shoal Bay. It would raise too many questions and put the whole operation at risk. They would have to rely on the crew boat, and it did not have winches and lights. That meant they could not work at night. They would have to haul the last of the canisters in the morning and it would take the rest of the day to assemble and test the equipment. That left less than two days to rehearse the attack. It was tight, but it was doable.

Almost two hours after it arrived, Claire and Walker watched the crew boat leave again. They were too far away to see any of the men who had gone aboard it in detail, but there had been a lot of them. They had also seen the two dinghies return, and the four men in them had joined the others. The dinghies were both still floating off the stern of the black ship.

“It's heading your way,” Walker told Dan. The roar of the crew boat's engines had faded enough to allow him to speak at a reasonable volume, although the wake was still pounding along the shore.

“Damn. We need to know if they're going to Shoal Bay,” Dan replied. “I got hold of Mike and he's going to pass everything we've got so far on to the marine division. He can't promise they'll act on it, but he thinks they will at least call me.”

He snorted. The sound transmitted through the radio as an explosive burst of static.

“Knowing Mike, that means he's probably going to really put the screws to them, but it may take a while and until I hear from them, I'd rather not stray too far from the radio unless I have to.”

Walker grimaced as he heard the words, knowing what was coming and feeling the twist of guilt in his gut as he thought about what he would have to ask Claire to do.

“Look,” Dan continued, “I know it's asking a lot from both of you, much more than I damn well should, but do you think you might be okay there for a while longer?”

Walker glanced over at Claire. She had lost some of the tension he had seen when he'd first found her, and while she wasn't completely back to being the confident girl he knew from Shoal Bay, she was much more alert. “Think you could handle another night here?” he asked.

A shadow crossed her face, but she quickly masked it. “You fixing supper?” she asked.

He smiled. “Sea cucumber coming up.” Then he said to Dan, “Yeah. No problem.”

The call Dan was waiting for came less than an hour later. The police boat was under the command of a sergeant by the name of Carl Hargreaves. Dan had never met him, but he knew him by reputation; the marine-division guys who had worked with him said he was a hard-ass, but good at his job. Hargreaves didn't sound happy about talking to a civilian, and Dan quickly realized that he wouldn't welcome too much in the way of input or suggestions. Dan would have to be careful with what he said and even more with how he said it. On the other hand, Dan had information that Hargreaves needed.

“The thing is, they couldn't see who was in it,” Dan said as he told Hargreaves about the crew boat leaving the black ship. “They're too far away. But it looks as if it's headed in this direction. If you come here, you need to stay out of sight.”

“Yes,” Hargreaves agreed, “and you need to stay where you are.” The message—and the caution it contained—was unmistakable.

“Not a problem,” said Dan, working to make his voice amiable. “But Walker and Claire are out there alone, keeping an eye on that black ship. If they need me, I'm going—and I won't be asking permission.”

There was silence, and then Hargreaves grunted. Dan took that as acceptance even if it wasn't exactly agreement.

The police boat Hargreaves commanded, the
Lindsay
, was a sixty-three-foot catamaran with a top speed of almost thirty knots. Hargreaves told Dan they were heading south down Laredo Channel and were due to dock at Shearwater in a couple of hours. Even if she was not held up there, it would take several more hours for her to reach Dan—if she did. More likely Hargreaves would stop at Ivory Island or Bella Bella and launch the big rigid inflatable boat, or
RIB
. It could hold several men and, at forty-five knots, could travel much faster than the catamaran. It was also much easier to hide.

An hour after their first conversation, Hargreaves called him back. “I've got three guys headed your way in the
RIB
. I'm putting them onto Dowager Island, just north of Thistle Point. There's a beach they can haul out on there and it looks like they'll be able to walk over to the south shore and get in behind a group of offshore rocks. Should be able to get a good view of Shoal Bay from there.”

Dan smiled with relief. Not only was Hargreaves sending the troops, but they were going to the same spot Walker had chosen to watch from. It was better than he could have hoped for. “Thanks, man. Any idea of the
ETA
?”

“Well, it depends on how easy the walk is. They should be on the island about half an hour from now. Maybe a half-hour walk?”

“Great. I really appreciate this.”

Hargreaves grunted again. Dan was beginning to think that might be his normal form of communication.

It was a little over two hours later when Dan heard from him again.

“That crew boat your people saw just arrived in Shoal Bay. The guys have it tied up at the wharf.” Hargreaves was on the phone with Dan and he was relaying the information from his team on the ground.

“They see that guy with the short
white hair?” Dan asked.

“Hang on. I'll check.”

This three-way relay thing was not the most direct method of communication, but it was the only one that ensured privacy.

“Nope. They've got seven guys who look like loggers. They're all standing out on the wharf,” said Hargreaves.

“Watch for the guy with white hair,” Dan said. “If he's there, there's a good chance those guys aren't loggers.”

“Okay. I'll tell them.” There was a pause, then Hargreaves cut the connection.

Dan called Walker back. “The crew boat's in Shoal Bay. They've got seven guys that look like loggers out on the wharf.”