Doc Ford 19 - Chasing Midnight (32 page)

I focused the monocular, then held a fist away from my face to gauge the distance. “Green marker number nine, maybe a quarter mile northwest.”

When Tomlinson was done, I checked the time, then said, “Give me the phone.”

It was 2:30 a.m.

W
hen Kahn answered, I said, “Don’t talk, just listen. You’ve got thirty minutes to live. Got that? Thirty minutes—unless we get you off that boat. I can help if you cooperate.”

It took Kahn a long second to react, but he finally did, saying, “
You?
What do you want?”

“Do the twins think you’re talking to Densler? Don’t do anything stupid, just answer the question.”

He said, “Her picture came up, so, yeah—” then his tone changed when he finally figured out what was happening. “Oh…
Winifred
. I understand now. I couldn’t, uhh… I couldn’t hear what you were saying at first.”

The man sounded shaky and out of breath, which told me he was scared.

I said, “Is someone holding a gun on you?”

“Uhh… no. Geness decided we should take the sturgeon out and release them. So… so that’s what we’re doing. Uhh… letting the fish go. Maybe rescue those dolphins, too.”

I wondered if Kahn actually believed that.

In the background, Odus was yelling, “How’d the bitch get a call out?” as I asked Kahn, “Is the Chinese woman with you?”

“
Yes…
uhh… I think it’s a good idea myself. About the fish, I mean. But I really can’t talk right now, we have to go under a bridge pretty soon.”

Holding the phone to my ear, I started the Whaler’s engine and took a look. We were only three hundred yards off the vessel’s stern quarter, and Big Carlos Pass bridge was still almost two miles away.

At the southern lip of the pass stood the high-rise condos of Bare Key Regency and Casino, the lights an aggressive checkerboard of neon blues and greens. Kahn had just told me they would soon go under the bridge, but it was possible the twins had lied to him. Maybe they actually planned to detonate their bomb near the casino’s dolphin pens. If true, it was still possible they could make it by three a.m. because the casino was closer.

Whatever their destination, the yacht would soon have to turn sharply north, a switchback that would cause it to pass within a hundred yards of the Whaler. Because the Dragos was so much heavier, it couldn’t have made it across the shallow delta where we now waited. I knew that the autopilot would follow the channel every foot of the way.

I told Kahn, “No matter what the twins say, don’t hang up. I’m trying to save your life. Understand?”

“I… I’m beginning to.”

“Are they running low on ammunition? I need to know.”

“They were just saying…” The man hesitated. “I heard that, too—just a few minutes ago. I’m hoping it’s true.”

Kahn had overheard the twins talking, apparently.

“Are they out?”

“No! No… uhh, definitely not. Look, Winifred, I don’t know how many fish we have.”

“Fish” equaled “cartridges.” Kahn was trying to help, which told me he definitely wanted off that boat.

I put the Whaler in gear and started idling across the shallows toward the section of channel where the yacht would pass closest. “Can you move freely around the boat?”

“Uhh… well, yeah. Not entirely, but pretty much.”

What did that mean?

In the background, Odus was now shouting, “I told you to hang up that goddamn thing, asswipe!” which caused Kahn’s voice to change when he said, “I wish I could help but I really have to go—”

I cut him off, saying, “
Listen
to me—you’re going to die, anyway. Twenty-nine minutes, that’s all you have. But it doesn’t have to happen.”

I could hear Kahn arguing with Odus, telling him Densler was worried, so what was the big deal? Then he said into the phone, “I’ve got to hang up soon, so make it fast.”

Through the monocular, I could see a person scrambling up the ladder from the yacht’s afterdeck, as I said, “The Super Mario bag the twins are carrying, I think there’s a bomb in it.”

Kahn whispered something that sounded like
“Oh my God”
while I continued talking. “It’s set to go off at three a.m. But now they can probably detonate the thing with a remote because we’re out of jamming range. Which means, anytime they want, that boat will become a fireball. Are you with me so far?”

Kahn made a coughing noise. “I’m sorry to… uhh… to hear that, Winifred. Yeah, I’m definitely listening.”

I wanted to tell him to stop using the woman’s name so often—it was a dead giveaway, but I couldn’t waste the time. “Get Umeko, get your partner, then think up some excuse to go to the back of the boat. Tell the twins you want to look at the stars or something. Can you do that?”

Voice suddenly louder, Kahn surprised me by saying, “A… a meteorite shower, huh? That’s pretty cool, Winifred. Yeah, there’s a big open deck. Trapper’d probably like to see it, too.”

The guy was a terrible actor, but I said, “Good. Okay, don’t answer, just listen. In less than two minutes, you’re going to hear something hit the hull of your boat. It’ll sound like a sledgehammer. The moment you hear it, jump overboard. All three of you. Less than two minutes from now, so you’ve got to move fast. Make sure Umeko is with you. She has to be with you.”

In the background, Odus was now screaming at Kahn, so I raised my voice and kept talking. “Jump overboard, you hear me? Don’t hesitate or you’re going to die. Swim to the edge of the channel—water’s only a foot or two deep there. You’ll be able to stand up, so keep your shoes on. A boat will be there a few minutes later. But make sure the girl’s with you or we won’t stop.”

Kahn sounded dazed when he replied, “Are you absolutely sure that’s true?”

Phone wedged against my ear, I nudged the throttle forward so the boat would flatten itself in the light chop, a more responsive idle speed. “Your only other option is to throw that backpack overboard. Do you know where it is?” Which is when Kahn made a yelping sound of pain as if he’d been slapped, so I focused the monocular to see what was happening.

A few seconds later, a man appeared at the steering-room door while the autopilot turned the yacht northward as I knew it would. At the same instant, Geness Neinabor’s monster voice caused the phone to vibrate against my cheek.

“You neurotic old bitch!” he shouted. “Talk to me, Winnie! It’s about time we met.”

I put my hand over the mouthpiece, wondering if the man would keep talking if Densler didn’t respond. He did.

“If you hadn’t passed out, we’d have brought you along. As if God cares about drunken sluts! I can feel you listening, old woman. So listen to this!”

Through the lens, I watched the most dangerous twin step out onto the deck and draw his arm back. By the time he’d launched the phone into the air, I had the bow of the Whaler pointing at the yacht and had picked up the rifle.

“Take the wheel,” I said to Tomlinson. “Keep idling toward them, keep the chop off our stern.” Then I slid down the bench seat so we could change places before sharing the little bit I’d just learned from Markus Kahn.

When I’d finished, Tomlinson said, “But why the rifle? You’re not going to shoot anyone, right? I was pissed off at that lunatic earlier, but I didn’t really mean it. I can’t take part in killing a person, Marion, I just can’t.”

I used a look to remind my pal of what had happened at Armanie’s house earlier, then removed my glasses so I could use the scope. “We need a diversion so they have time to jump,” I explained, fitting my left arm through the rifle’s sling. “And maybe scare the twins into switching off that autopilot. If they don’t jump, we might have to force that big bastard aground. Which will be tough enough without fighting a robot at the wheel.”

“They’ll jump,” Tomlinson said. “They’re idiots if they don’t jump. After that, all we have to do is pick them up, right? We’re done chasing the Diablo triplets, right?” The man was amped up, jittery, but he was doing okay.

I rested the rifle’s forearm on the windshield frame and popped open the scope’s lens caps. “We’re getting as far from Kazlov’s yacht as we can, once they’re out of the water. I’d like to save those fish, but it’s not worth the risk. Umeko, she’s the one I’m worried about.
I think they’re watching her a lot closer than the two guys. Or maybe her hands are still tied. Something’s wrong, I’m not sure what.”

The rifle scope had an illuminator switch, I discovered. When I touched it, the crosshairs became two intersecting filaments, ruby red, that I tried to steady amidships on the yacht’s hull less than three hundred yards away, its bow visible as it angled toward us. The optics made the yacht appear ten times larger, but they also magnified the sea conditions as well as the hobbyhorse rocking of the Whaler. I’ve never been seasick in my life, but I felt mildly dizzy when I looked through the scope for more than a few seconds.

“Don’t worry about me trying to snipe one of the twins,” I told Tomlinson. “I’ll be lucky to hit the damn boat.”

The man had no idea what I was talking about, so laughed, “Sure, Annie Oakley, sure,” as if I were kidding.

I wasn’t.

He was looking over his shoulder to the north. “Oh, man, that
really
sucks. The chopper’s moving away from us, not getting closer. Maybe I should try to call the Coast Guard myself.”

I got to my feet. “Stand by,” I told him because I had switched to thermal vision and could see movement on the yacht. Two people appeared outside the steering-room bulkhead… stood there briefly as if looking at the sky… then climbed down the ladder to the aft deck.

“Kahn and the other guy are out,” I told Tomlinson. “They’re both too tall to be Umeko.”

“So you can’t shoot, right? There’s no point in shooting if she’s not free. Where’s the girl?”

“Stop leaning on the throttle,” I told him. “Just keep us flat… flat and steady.” With my thumb, I disengaged the rifle’s safety but continued to watch through the TAM.

The yacht was closing on us at an angle that gave me a better view of the helm area. There was at least one person inside the cabin, maybe two, but the autopilot was still steering the boat because there was no one at the wheel.

Belowdecks, the heat signatures of the diesel engines radiated through the hull, making it impossible to know if anyone was in the forward area where there would be sleeping quarters. The sturgeon were probably stowed aft where I’d seen a cargo elevator, which meant I wanted to hit the vessel somewhere amidships—but there could be sleeping quarters there, too. If I pulled the trigger now, the odds of me hitting the boat were fair, the odds of me hitting an unseen passenger astronomical, but just the thought of it made me cringe.

“Shit,”
I said. “Where is she?”

Tomlinson told me, “Beta waves can pierce a boat’s hull like butter—I’ve done it before,” then began whispering, “Get your butt out of there, lady. Come on out, you little China doll,” repeating it over and over as if he were at a racetrack and horses were coming down the stretch. But then he stopped and said, “Doc. About twenty-five minutes. We’ve only got—”

“Quiet,” I told him. A third person had appeared on the upper deck. Not a tall person, so it might have been Umeko, but possibly one of the twins. At that distance, I couldn’t differentiate between female and male.

“What’s going on? What do you see?”

“Quiet,” I said again. “After I fire, get ready to change places fast. I want you down on the deck. Stay low in case we hit something when we cross that flat.”

“Bullshit, you’re worried the Diablo brothers will start shooting at us.”

I
wanted
the twins to take a few wild shots at us—they were low
on ammunition—but I didn’t respond. The third person had grabbed a handhold and was looking down at the afterdeck as if conversing with Kahn and Trapper. If it was Umeko, her hands weren’t tied, which caused me to suspect it was one of the twins. Odus, probably. But then I changed my mind when the third person swung down the ladder, moving fast. Why would Odus leave his brother alone to join two guys who had tormented and bullied him until tonight?

“I think she’s out,” I said, getting a tight wrap around the leather sling. “I’m not sure, but I think so.”

Now Tomlinson was whispering, “Jump and swim, jump and swim, jump and swim your radical asses off.”

“Keep us steady,” I told him. Bracing my knees against the console, my cheek and left hand pinning the rifle to the windshield, I got ready to fire… but then checked the cabin one last time—and was glad I did. Instead of one heat signature near the helm, there were now… two? I couldn’t be certain, but it looked like one person standing, one sitting. If true, there was no longer a chance of hitting Umeko when my bullet punched through the hull.
If
I hit the boat.

Index finger riding parallel the trigger guard, I put my eye to the scope. Instantly, I was isolated in a tunneled world of amplified light and motion that the luminous crosshairs struggled to convert into quadrants. At first, I couldn’t even find the damn yacht, let alone focus on it. But then I realized the vessel’s black hull, two hundred yards away, had flooded the lens with a darkness that I wrongly interpreted as water or night sky.