“Damn,” Sam muttered. “Break off. Come and get us out of here.”
“Roger that.”
They jumped in the truck and arrived at the Taveuni Airport, where they learned that Anna had recovered sufficiently to curse the man who had killed Aussie. They put T.J., Jason, and three of the men on the chopper. Sam motioned to Anna to get in so he could send it off.
“I’m going when you go,” she said in a voice so hoarse she could barely make herself understood.
He picked her up and put her in the helicopter. “No plan B,” he said, ready to handcuff her to the seat.
She raised an eyebrow, but he couldn’t read the dark eyes or the emotion that she held submerged. For some reason what he did at this moment seemed to him very important. Whether he would stay and T.J. would leave or whether he would take T.J.’s seat beside her. All of her concentration was on him; she looked nowhere but into his eyes.
T.J. looked from one to the other.
“T.J., would you mind waiting for the second chopper?”
“Not at all.”
As he went past him, Sam turned.
“Do my cheeks look hollow?” Sam whispered.
T.J. looked puzzled for just a second, then began to laugh. “At least it’s a fine ass you’re kissing.”
They flew at Mach .9 in the Gulfstream planning a nonstop to Victoria, BC, where they were to meet Grady. Anna made it a point to sit beside Jason on a couch as they began the trip. By the time they took off, the pepper spray had largely worn off, although she found herself a little red-eyed and blinking.
Sam had given Anna the blue oil and she rubbed it into Jason’s back. He became unusually relaxed. Anna hoped they could make the oil last until they got to Nutka, who had a small supply. After that it would be a serious issue.
She put her arm around Jason and hugged him mercilessly while Sam watched and chuckled. Anna finally got a chance to lay out her apology to Jason. Sam noticed that she didn’t leave out any details and took more than her share of responsibility. Jason listened but said little until she was finished.
“Sis, you know when I make a bad equation, I spend my time trying to get it right. That’s what you’ve done. You’ve got it right so the way I see it, the old equation is outdated, lost in the dustbin of history.”
Anna had gotten her lip gloss on, and was now planting butterfly circles all over Jason’s right cheek.
“Most of the men in this country would just love what you’re getting, Jason.”
“She’s my sister.” Jason smiled. “She’s pretty but she’s my sister.”
Anna felt ebullient.
“I suppose the morons want me back,” Jason said.
“I would like to fight for you, Jason. Maybe get rid of a guardian of your person altogether or get me appointed. How would you feel about that?”
“No more Mr. Roberto? That would be grand. I think he’s gone over to the Nannites.”
“We’re going to meet Grady. She’s going with us,” Anna said.
Jason thought for a minute.
“I’m worried,” he said. “I’m afraid she won’t think well of me because I haven’t seen her.”
“I’m nervous too, partner. I haven’t been her favorite. I saw her at Sam’s office but we haven’t really talked yet. She’s in love with Sam.”
“I know you will do great with Grady,” Sam said. “Anna will too, but you know they both are a lot alike, which makes it interesting.”
“Well, if we’re so much alike, how come she never argues with you?” Anna said.
“Oh, she did.” Sam smirked a little. “Now are you going to ask how come you continue to argue with me?”
“No, I don’t think I’ll ask that.”
After a time Jason went to sleep and Anna looked at Sam. “What?” he said when she continued looking.
“I’m sleepy.”
There was another couch. Without a word Sam found a pillow and put it in his lap. Anna lay down, put her head on the pillow and her hand in his. Soon Sam leaned back in the corner of the couch and fell asleep.
Although Jill had accompanied Grady to Victoria, the plan was for Jill to return to Sam’s office in LA. They were staying at the Empress Hotel under alias names because they were uncertain about when the Gulfstream would arrive. Sam had them remain at the hotel preferring to meet them there with the crowds, and the activity.
As they unloaded into several cabs at the Victoria Airport, Jason appeared nervous. Anna knew that it was too soon for the oil to wear off.
“Relax. She’s your daughter. The second you tell her that you love her and that you’ve been sick, she’ll start to respond. I promise.”
After they were in the cabs Sam leaned over to Anna. “You look as nervous as Jason.”
“Grady and I never really talked. You know she’s dead set on pleasing you so she just smiled grimly at me.”
“Relax,” Sam said. “You just lived through Devan Gaudet. How bad can this be?”
They called the Empress and told them to be on the boardwalk along the waterfront across the street from the hotel. They drove along the harbor and found Grady and Jill easily.
Anna decided to move decisively and end the drama. Without waiting she jumped out of the van and hugged a startled Grady.
“I’ve made some huge mistakes with your father. And as to you, I’ve been a know-it-all overbearing aunt. I’m sorry and I want to start over.”
Grady barely hesitated. “You’re fine. I’ve been jealous because you had a perfect family, a fabulous career, and my family has been screwed up and my life a mess. I hated you for it. Ah, you also like to fix things.”
“Yeah. I’m a real control freak. Maybe you and I can make it. You can fix me for a while. Your dad and I have made a start. I want to make a start with you.”
Grady stood looking in her eyes for the longest time.
“I’ll try,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Jason was in one of the cabs with the bodyguards, sitting beside Yodo, who now understood that he was to guard Jason at all costs. Grady got into another cab with Anna and Sam. Jill took her leave and grabbed a taxi for the airport.
“We have one more passenger,” Sam said.
Anna looked at him, curious. “This group needs a shrink.”
They drove a short distance to the Museum of Natural History, where they found Spring waiting out front. She loved museums, especially those filled with Native American exhibits.
They took vans to Sydney and awaited the ferry to Galliano Island.
“Would you like to meet your father?” Anna asked.
“At a ferry?” Then quite predictably for Anna, Grady looked at Sam.
“It’s forty minutes until the ferry. How about if Grady and I take a walk over there by the water? Anna can get Jason from the car behind. I can tell you that you will also get Yodo.”
“I don’t want to be a wuss but I’m nervous,” Grady said.
“Come on,” Sam said. Grady bounded out of the car and went with Sam. Anna went for Jason, who seemed to have taken to Yodo, who now followed him around like a towering shadow.
The wind was blowing and there was a chill. Whitecaps dotted the water, gulls circled, and bundled-up fishermen watched their rods and played in their plastic buckets, no doubt trying to figure how to make their bait look intriguing to a codfish.
“She’s waited a long time to talk with you, Jason,” Anna began. “So she’ll be a little nervous and a little excited all at the same time.”
“Since I’m normally nervous, this feels pretty usual.” He gave her his twinkling smile. When they walked up to the rail along the beach, Sam and Grady were facing the bay. Jason came up and stood beside Grady, who turned when he arrived. They stood apart for a second. Grady threw her arms around him.
Anna watched Grady’s face and knew it would work out.
Sam and Anna walked back to the car, not looking back.
“So far that was easy,” Anna said.
“All the ingredients were there. You just had to shake and stir.”
When they arrived at Galliano, they were picked up in a car borrowed by the crew of the
Inevitable
and taken across the island to Montague Harbor. It took three trips in the car to move all the people and luggage.
Normally bustling in the summer, Montague Harbor was completely abandoned now with not a single yacht at anchor. The small store and resort on the bay was closed up and the place was entrusted to a caretaker until spring.
Across the channel the small town of Ganges on Saltspring Island was likewise buttoned up for the winter, the moorings and docks largely pulled in for the southerly storms. As on Galliano, only the year-round island residents were about and street traffic was light, coffee shops were opening late and closing early. The ice cream parlor sat forlorn in its solitude.
The caretaker at Montague Harbor, a young man with ponytailed hair, lived in Ganges and most nights commuted by boat across the channel. He had a pregnant bride at home. He stood on the dock watching until T.J. engaged him in conversation, leading him off from the group. Sam came over after a minute, looked at the young man, and smiled.
“Everybody is curious about
Inevitable.
What would you like to know?”
“Where are you going?”
“Up north. All the way to the tip of Vancouver Island, up the Inside Passage. We’re just the crew and maintenance people, but we brought a bunch of friends along for the ride. In the winter the owner gives us a free trip. This time it’s kind of a bachelor party.”
The young man had plenty of questions about the boat, its range, horsepower, and cruising speed.
Perfect.
Anna stood to the side just to be safe. With her stocking cap, glasses, and platinum-blond hair, there wasn’t much chance that she would be recognized.
“What is it doing here?” Anna asked, glancing toward the giant yacht at anchor in the harbor.
“The owner is a friend; he’s letting us use it until we can make other arrangements. I figure in a couple weeks we will have found something more permanent for Jason. Something with a bomb shelter. So to answer your question, the boat is here waiting for us.”
When they pulled away from the dock, they could barely see the yacht in the gray drizzle and mist that hung like wet flannel, dampening sound and creating an eerie indistinctness that made one yearn for the warmth and definition of an open-hearth fire.
“Nice boat,” Anna said when she stepped off the large gangplank. “Where’s our room?” She looked weary. “We’ve been traveling for twenty-four hours.”
“It was a tortured route, but then nobody knows we’re here.”
“The last time I was on a boat it met with a sad ending. Isn’t this a sitting duck?”
“In this weather it’s nearly invisible. Of course we could try a Vancouver police station with our story and see how it goes.”
“I just thought maybe a house with a large grounds.”
“This moves constantly and in this weather is nearly impossible to find, unless you knew exactly where to look.”
“I’m not entirely convinced, but you’ve managed to keep us alive so far.”
By the time Sam showed her the owner’s stateroom and living space just behind the bridge, the weather had closed in so thoroughly that no land was visible even though they were less than a half mile from shore. The crew had weighed anchor and they were inching slowly forward out the narrow mouth of the harbor.
Sam took her to the bridge that by itself was worth a million dollars in electronics. They turned south, edged across the channel, and stopped midway, still completely fog-bound.
“What’s happening?” Anna asked.
“We’re getting off,” Sam said.
“But we just got on.”
“Surprising, isn’t it?”
“That’s why you told me to leave the bags on the deck.”
In minutes Sam, Anna, Grady, Spring, T.J., Yodo, Sanford, and an anxiety-ridden Jason got into a Zodiac inflatable speedboat and quietly motored off into the fog.
“I’m not believing this,” Anna said above the whispering motor.
“No one else will either. And that’s the point.” Sam said. “If anybody figured out that we went to Galliano, they will eventually find the dock boy. And what’s he going to tell them?”
“We went north. To Alaska. A bachelor party.”
“And when they learn about the yacht they’ll figure we can tick off over three hundred nautical miles every twenty-four hours—easily. Leaves a search area that’s utterly massive. We could have gone out the straits of Jaun de Fuca and down the coast to California, we could have gone to the west side of Vancouver Island, or Puget Sound and Seattle. Or as I said, we could head all the way to Alaska.”
“Where will the
Inevitable
go?”
“First to Vancouver, where three women and two men will leave the boat and board a private jet for Europe. They will land in London, leave the plane, and disappear. The yacht will sail on.”
“And go where?”
“Wherever they want as long as they keep moving. Those guys get a free winter cruise. But they will act exactly as if we were on board and they were protecting us. When they go into a harbor the men will watch the boat from the shore.”
“So all the guards went that way?”
“Uh-huh. All those guards did. We have others.”
“And was I the last person to find out what’s going on?”
“Oh, no. The crew and all those men were planning for us to be on the yacht. They had no idea we were getting off.”
“When did you tell them?”
“I told only T.J.”
“God, you are paranoid. What is this costing?”
“I’ve learned through hard, sad experience that a ruse works better if everyone involved actually believes it. People act according to their expectations. I pulled in some chits to rent the place we’re going for less than two hundred thousand dollars. A bargain for a woman worth two hundred fifty million.”
They traveled through the fog and mist to a long, slender harbor at the very end of the bay. There a passenger van waited, cloaked in the night, its engine running and lights off.
Anna knew only that they were winding up the side of a mountain, the headlights flashing on the green of trees, grasses, and ferns, a few aluminum mailboxes on white wood posts, grass a foot tall clumped at the bases. There were no streetlights and, after a time, no houselights, only the black illuminated to gray, and then it became so thick that they crawled up the road clinging to the center strip. Billions of tiny droplets grabbed headlight beams and spread them to a halo of rainbows—the result of driving in a cloud.