CHAPTER 40
T
he sun had just risen yet it remained bleak this morning. The crew watched from the wheelhouse of the ninety-six-foot steel hull as it came upon the beam of a fishing boat. The thirty-foot aluminum gill-netter bucked its way into the oncoming waves and wind.
“That's a pretty small boat to be out here in this kind of weather,” Laura Newman offered.
“Those tribal fishermen are toughâthey'll be okay,” said Captain Dan Miller.
The
Hercules
's owner sat in a pedestal-mounted chair behind the helm, his right hand resting on the oak wheel. The instrument panel fronting the wheel contained a digital compass, knot meter, various engine and fuel gauges, autopilot controls, multiple depth finders, two radar displays, GPS unit, and VHF and single sideband radios.
Laura stepped up to a radar display and peered at the screen. Dan had given her a tutorial on radar navigation. With her computer skills, its operation was straightforward.
The screen refreshed as the radar dome mounted on top of the pilothouse made another orbit. Laura identified the approaching peninsula eight miles away. She glanced through the windscreen; the wipers cycled at maximum as a new torrent cut loose. She spotted a brown-gray smudge on the horizon.
“Looks like Point Roberts is straight ahead,” she said.
“Right, we'll be there in about an hour.”
Laura chartered the
Hercules
with Miller as skipper. Unable to find a deckhand on short notice, Laura volunteered, paying Miller five hundred cash for his tutelage.
Miller instructed Laura in the basics of helm and engine control. Always a quick study, she ate it up. It didn't hurt that she'd been around boats before. One of her Caltech professors owned a forty-foot racing sloop. She'd spent numerous weekends crewing.
Laura reached into her coat pocket and removed her new cell. She hit the Speed Dial.
Dammit!
Her worry festered. During the fourteen-hour run north, she called at the top and bottom of every hour. Each time the voice mail greeting of her company phone answered.
Laura again checked the radar display. She peered through the windscreen with binoculars. The approaching coastline remained a blur, but she could see a few structures. She carefully searched for familiar features.
Finally, she spotted the house.
She called again; still no answer.
Where is he?
* * *
Yuri drove into the driveway of Laura's rental house at 7:16
A.M
. He'd found Elena's Mercedes in the condominium's garage. The onboard GPS navigator guided him straight to the Point.
Laura should have the ROV by now. Despite the lure of the North Van deep-diving equipment, the underwater robot offered another avenue that could be the
Neva
's salvation. He wanted desperately to examine it.
Yuri stepped out of the sedan. His lower left leg throbbed but he ignored it. Laura's BMW was not in the driveway. He walked to the garage and looked through a door window.
Where is she?
* * *
Hammering rain and howling wind continued to assault the southern shore of Point Roberts, but the
Hercules
had moored to a channel-side end-tie deep inside the basin. Before entering the marina, Captain Miller called the harbormaster for a temporary slip assignment.
Miller and First Mate Laura secured the workboat to the floating concrete pier. She went ashore alone.
It took Laura twelve minutes to walk to the beach house. She found a Mercedes-Benz with BC plates parked in the driveway. At first, she thought it might belong to a new renter but dismissed that notion. The previous day she'd extended the rent on the beach house for another week. The sedan must belong to one of Yuri's Russian colleagues.
Laura stood at the front door. She turned the unlocked doorknob.
“Hello!” she called out as she stepped inside.
No reply.
She walked toward the kitchen and again called out but still no response. She snapped an ear toward the nearby stairway, detecting a weak but familiar cadence.
Laura bounded up the stairs, heart racing. She entered the master bedroom.
Stretched out on top of the bed, Yuri snored steadily.
CHAPTER 41
“Y
uri!âYuri, please wake up!”
He did.
“Are you okay?” Laura asked, stroking the side of his cheek.
He didn't reply. Instead, he sat up and wrapped his arms around her.
They embraced for half a minute and he kissed her, for the first time everâa passionate kiss that electrified Yuri.
He slipped a hand under her blouse and cupped a breast. She moaned.
Laura started to pull her jeans off when Yuri finally sensed trouble. Part of him wasn't responding.
The desire, the heat, the wantâeverything had been tracking; yet those precursors were not enough.
The nerves that controlled his lower left leg had been slowly returning to life, but another part of his body remained inert. Only then did he understand another dreadful consequence of decompression sickness.
“Something's wrong with me. I'm sorry but I can't . . .” He couldn't say it.
They hastily redressed. He couldn't wait to exit the bedroom.
CHAPTER 42
N
ick came out of the beach house's garage. “It's not in there!” Nick announced as he climbed back into the passenger side of the Suburban.
Expecting to find her Mercedes at Yuri's hideout, Elena's angst doubled. “If he didn't come here, where the hell did he go?”
“Who knows?”
“Try the tracker.”
Nick reached into a coat pocket and removed the RFID transceiver. He turned it on and waited for a response. Ten seconds later he reported, “No hits.”
“We've got to find him!”
“I know that!”
Both sat silent for half a minute until Elena turned to face Nick. “I know he's here someplace.”
“That's possible but he could just as well be stuck somewhere back in Vancouver.”
Elena said, “So what do we do now?”
“We wait for him to show up.”
“Here? He knows this vehicle. If he sees it, he could run.”
“Where's he going to go, and who is going to help him? Remember, he still thinks that we have that dive company on board. I'm sure he doesn't suspect that we tried to trap him. For all he knows, he just fell asleep last night.”
“Hmm . . . I see your point.”
“We should stay here and let him come to us.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe we should drive around here and see if we can spot the car.”
Nick smiled. “You're worried about the Mercedes, aren't you?”
“It's one of the nicer perks for this assignment.”
Nick laughed. “Remember, Elena, you don't own it. The SVR does.”
“It's mine as long as I have this assignment.”
“Well, unless we reel Kirov back in, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than that damn car.”
“That goes for you, too!
“All right then,” Elena said, “let's assume he shows up. Just what do you have planned?”
“We talk.”
“You know he won't come back.”
“He might, if we reason with him.”
Annoyed, Elena said, “Nick, we can't have him running loose down here.”
“I know that but think about what he's been trying to do. Thirty some men are still alive, and he's their only hope.”
“They're expendable; you know what the chief said.”
“But we can't just walk away.”
“Yes, we can.”
Elena reached into a coat pocket and removed the nine-millimeter Beretta. From the other pocket, she produced a steel cylinder. She attached the sound suppressor to the pistol's muzzle. Holding the weapon by its barrel, she handed it to Nick.
He eyed the weapon. “We don't need that yet.”
“Yes we doâtake it!”
“Put it away.”
“No. We're going to end this situation today, one way or the other.”
Nick refused to accept the pistol.
Elena slipped the Beretta into her coat pocket. She opened the door and stepped out.
“
Where are you're going?” Nick asked.
She looked back. “I'm going to search the house; he could be hiding in there. That woman could be with him, too.”
Major Orlov scowled as he opened his door and joined her.
CHAPTER 43
“T
his is well constructed,” Yuri said.
“I thought you might think so.”
Yuri leaned over
Little Mack
, examining the remotely operated vehicle's television camera. Laura stood nearby. The ROV and its supporting equipment were set up on the
Hercules
's spacious afterdeck.
Yuri examined one of the four ducted electric drive motors. “How much lift can it generate?”
“I'm not sure. When Captain Miller comes back, I'll check with him.” Miller had just left for the harbormaster's office to pay the moorage fee.
Yuri continued to look over the underwater robot. At last, he had a tool that could make a real difference for his shipmates. His growing admiration for Laura also buoyed his spirits.
She had risked everything. No one except for Grandfather Semyon had ever done anything like that for Yuri.
Yuri remained standing next to the ROV, amazed at what Laura had accomplished. “We need to go out there tonight. I must contact the
Neva
.”
It had been almost a day and a half since his last communication with the submarine.
“What about the weather?” Laura asked. “It's nasty out there.”
“This vessel can take it.”
Laura agreed. At a hundred and fifty tons,
Hercules
would be a stable platform for deploying
Little Mack
in the rough seas.
“What are we going to tell Captain Miller?” she asked.
“What does he know so far?”
“Only that we're searching for some lost cargo in deep water.”
“Good, we'll keep it that way. But he must remain in the pilothouse at all times. He cannot see the video output from the robot.”
“What about the buoy? If your crew deploys it, he'll see it for sure. And when you connect the phone, how will you explain that?”
Explaining the buoy would be easy: an acoustically triggered underwater release mechanism. But hooking up the phone, Yuri's only means of communicating with Borodinâthat would be harder to cover up.
* * *
After exploring the beach house, Elena and Nick stood next to the Suburban.
Elena said, “With all of that female clothing upstairs, Kirov's woman friend must still be around here.”
Nick lit a Winston. He took a puff and responded, “She may not be coming back, but then again she could be late.”
Elena reached into her purse for a cigarette, annoyed that Nick didn't offer one of his. She lit up and turned away from Nick.
Nick said, “Let's wait here a little longer, and then we'll drive around.” He took another deep drag. “You know he loves that burger place up the road. Maybe we'll hang out there at lunchtime and see if he shows up.”
“Normálâ²no.”
Okay.
CHAPTER 44
L
aura Newman watched as the couple approached. She stood in the wheelhouse twelve feet above the water, sipping tea.
She'd spotted them a minute earlier as they walked along the floating pier. The woman, her long golden hair billowing in the wind, appeared out of place with an umbrella. The man, a trim six-footer wearing blue jeans and a windbreaker, fit the typical marina patron profile.
The pair walked alongside the
Hercules
. Laura made the connection. She stepped into the companionway that led down to the galley, headed forward to the crew quarters where Yuri was napping.
“Yuri, your Russian friends are outside on the dock.”
“What?”
“It's the pair you met with at Fat Billie's.”
Yuri sat up, swinging his legs over the side, using both hands to leverage the left limb into place. He stood and rubbed his eyes.
“What are they doing here?” Laura asked.
“I'm not surprisedâI did take one of their vehicles.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Talk to them.”
Laura watched from an open door that led to the aft deck as Yuri and the two visitors caucused on the fantail. The ROV and its support gear remained on full display. She could hear their voices but couldn't make out one syllable.
“If you won't come back to Vancouver to meet with the diving company, what are you going to do?” Elena asked. She spotted her Mercedes in the marina parking lot and Nick used the RFID tracker to trace the tagged business card in Yuri's coat pocket.
“I've thought about all that,” Yuri said. “They probably have the right gear but it's going to take too long to mobilize to Point Robertsâat least several days, maybe even a week if they have to get border clearances; and if we try to rush 'em, they'll be very suspicious.
“Plus we'll have a huge security problem with their crew.” He gestured toward
Little Mack
, parked at their feet. “With this ROV and staging from this vessel I can be working on the
Neva
tonight. And we'll have only one person to be concerned with.” He pointed toward the wheelhouse: Captain Miller's domain.
“What do you plan to do with him?” Elena asked.
“If we keep him confined to the bridge deck he won't know what we're doing back here. Laura's convinced him we're trying to salvage something valuable but illicit.”
“If he suspects what's really happening, that could be a huge problem for all of us.”
“Then he will be dealt with.”
“I don't know. It sounds risky to me.”
Nick commented, “Elena, his plan does make sense. It'll be much easier to maintain security with just one person.”
Elena ignored Nick as she peered at
Little Mack
. “What good is this thing, anyway?”
“It'll allow me to assess the damage and design a repair.”
“What kind of repair?”
“There's a breach between Compartments One and Two. I'm going to send the ROV down an open torpedo tube to see if we can find it. If it can be sealed, air will be pumped into Compartment Two. That may help pull the hull's seawater intakes farther out of the mud, allowing the reactor to run at full power. That will buy the crew a lot of time.”
Nick squatted down next to
Little Mack
. “This looks pretty big. Can you really get it inside?”
“I'll probably have to remove part of the frame and then it should fit. But if debris is in the way that could be a problem.”
Elena said, “Let's assume for the moment that this all works and you come up with a way to fix it. How are you going to implement the fix? Surely this thing can't do it.”
“You're right. A diver will have to go down and apply a patch.”
“Just where are we going to get a diver to do that?”
“You're looking at 'im.”
“Oh, come on. You can't even walk right.”
“True. But under water I'll be fine.”
“But how will you make the dive?” Nick asked. “Don't you need special equipment?”
“I still have my gear stored back at the beach house. I do need a new dive light and some extra glow sticks. You should be able to get them for me at a dive shop.”
“What's a glow stick?”
“A plastic packet filled with chemicals. Break it in half and the chemicals mix, producing light.”
“Coolâwhat else do you need?”
“I need to recharge the tanks of my rebreather with helium and oxygen, plus I'll need extra oxygen and compressed air for decompression during ascent.”
“Dive shops carry that stuff?”
“Probably compressed air only; you'll need to get the helium and oxygen from a specialty dive shop that services rebreathers. I'll also need more soda-lime for the scrubber.”
“What's that?”
“Soda-limeâit's a mix of calcium oxide and sodium hydroxide. It's used to remove carbon dioxide, part of the rebreather.”
“Where do we get that?”
“Specialty dive shop. A medical supply company should have it, too. Soda-lime is used to treat respiratory illnesses.”
Nick's forehead scrunched up. “We'll try to get it all today but . . .”
“I don't need the gas or absorbent tonight but maybe tomorrow, the next day for sure.”
“What do you need for tonight?”
“Nothing. We're just going to make a test run with the ROV.”
“Okay.”
* * *
Laura and Yuri were alone in the wheelhouse, standing next to the helm. Orlov and Krestyanova departed ten minutes earlier and Captain Miller just retired to his cabin.
Alarmed at the spies' unplanned visit, Laura let Yuri know her opinion of the pair.
“I don't trust them, especially the blonde.”
“What's wrong with her?”
“When you were outside talking with the other one, I followed her up here with Captain Miller. He offered to show her the bridge controls.”
“So?”
“It was disgusting. She cozied up to his side and continually praised him for his nautical skills.”
Yuri's right eyebrow twitched up. “She was probably just trying to be friendly.”
“That went way beyond friendly. It was as if she was trying to seduce himâand he loved it. I don't know what would have happened if I had not been there.”
“That is a surprise. I don't know what to make of her behavior.” Yuri inched closer to Laura. “Nick, however. I like him. He's clearly on board with the rescue.”
“But she works with him.” Laura turned away, staring down at the deck.
“Let me worry about her. I still need their help but I'll keep an eye on them both.”
Yuri reached up with his left hand and caressed Laura's neck; her skin sizzled from his touch. A moment later, he kissed her on the forehead and whispered, “Laura, what you have done for me and for my crewâthis wonderful boat, the ROV, the money you've spentâI'm indebted to you forever.”
Laura didn't reply. Instead, she buried her face into his shoulder and pulled him closer.
* * *
Laura sat at the mess table in the galley. It was a couple minutes before noon. She just brewed a cup of tea. Yuri napped in the crew cabin while Captain Miller slept in his stateroom. She remained too wired to rest.
Laura sipped the green tea, using both hands to clasp the mug. The heat of the porcelain diffused into her fingers. Yuri's burning touch and his warm words of gratitude remained fresh, too
.
And earlier in the morning, back at the beach house, the flames of passion that engulfed Laura were of blast furnace proportions. The fire had never been that intenseânever.
Only now did she question that encounter, concluding Yuri's failure must have been a consequence of decompression sickness. And then a new shocker hit.
She'd buried the package of condoms somewhere in her suitcase. There hadn't been any thought of breaking that magical spell with Yuri for birth control.
A minute passed and that revelation evolved into a new panic.
Laura hadn't considered the timing until now, not with what had happened the past two weeks. Her menstrual cycle was steady and when she did the math, the numbers were a concern.
“I can't be,” Laura said to herself.
Starved and needing release, she'd had sex one evening with Ken after a movie dateâa couple of weeks before his last blowup.
Contraceptive pills gave Laura headaches and she did not trust implants, so they relied on condoms. And during their reconciliation, Ken hinted about wanting a baby. But Laura wasn't ready, her work too demanding. Besides, she remained leery of Ken's motives. With the pending divorce, Laura had been relieved that Ken could not leverage a child.
Or could he?
Laura gasped in revulsion as a new suspicion jelled.
He wouldn't dare!
She made a mental note to examine the condoms for sabotage.
Thirty seconds passed. “I just can't be,” she repeated to herself.
Laura then had another memory flash: Her stomach had been in a knot lately. She'd attributed the nausea to a bug of some kind. But doubt now put in an appearance.
Could it be morning sickness?
Laura's spells had started in the pre-dawn hours but now occurred randomly. She'd suffered another upset stomach the previous evening, almost vomiting while aboard the
Hercules
. She credited the nausea to motion sickness and downed a Dramamine tablet.
Laura sat quietly for the next couple of minutes, mulling over the facts.
She finally convinced herself to stop worrying, attributing her menstrual condition to stress. Plus she probably did pick up a bug of some kind.
Once Laura was home and rested, her cycle would return to normal.