Hurricane (22 page)

“
Really? You never said.”

“
Just call me Broxton.”

“
Keep calling me, T-Bone, like the steak,” he laughed and Broxton joined him.

“
I work for the DEA.” Broxton said.

“
Sheeit.”

“
Yeah, it was my job to bust guys like you.”

“
I heard what you were talking about back there. There’s lots bigger fish.”

“
I’m not out to bust anyone anymore. I’m just giving you background.”

“
Okay.”

“
I was working out of the American Embassy in Trinidad when an informant tipped me that the boat Stardust was dirty. But I had no proof, so one night I went aboard and had a look for myself. Nothing. Clean. Now you know why.

“
Then I get a call from an old partner of mine. He was working in the Director’s office and he tells me that I’m on the agency’s most wanted list. Someone put a lot of money in my account and everyone thinks I’m dirty. My name’s on everyone’s list, and a lot of folks start trying to make me dead.

“
So I get paranoid and start trying to get out of Trinidad, and just before meeting you I call Dawson, that’s my partner, and this girlie sounding German answers the phone and tells me he’s killed my friend.

“
I told the bastard that I’d be coming for him, and it’s a promise I’m going to keep. Especially now that I know he works for the DEA. He set me up and killed my friend. I’ll get him. If I never do anything else on this earth, I’ll get him.”

“
And the other boat?” T-Bone said. “Fallen Angel.”

“
There’s a couple of pretty ladies on board I wouldn’t want hurt for anything.”

“
Damsels in distress?” T-Bone’s eyes sparkled.

“
They’re somewhere in the Caribbean and they’re in trouble. I want to help.”

“
Damsels in distress, being chased by evil Germans. Very bad,” he said. “Where will they go?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
Then we’ll head south, to St. Lucia. Everybody goes through Rodney Bay. There’s a nice beach bar. Typhoon Willie’s. We’ll wait there and ask questions. I know everybody in the Caribbean who can keep his mouth shut. We’ll have a lot of eyes looking, a lot of ears listening. We’ll find those damsels and we’ll slay those dragons.”

Broxton shook his head. If T-Bone was your friend, he was your friend.

“
Okay, Billy Boy, cut that fucker loose and lets go south.”

“
I really hate that name,” Broxton said.

T-Bone just laughed.

Chapter Twelve

South of the Cape Verde Islands, off the west coast of Africa, the winds at sea level were pacing the winds aloft, blowing away from the giant continent. The sea breeze converged with a rapid wind headed toward the Island group. The water below was unseasonably warm and the colliding winds curved upwards, taking evaporating moisture from the ocean below toward the heavens and a westward moving high pressure area.

Lightning flashed, thunder roared. A storm was born.

“
How could they have known? How could they have followed us?” Julie said, lowering her hand from her forehead. She looked west and saw the steep green of St. Lucia through the early morning light. They were far enough away that the mountains didn’t cut off their wind, but the wind had shifted and was now out of the northwest. Almost on the nose. They were sailing close hauled, and they were down to five knots.

“
Radar,” Meiko said, looking through the binoculars. “They’ve got all their sails up, and I think they must have the engine on, too, because their jib is sort of luffing.”

“
And we’ve only got the jib up,” Julie said. She glanced at the wind speed indicator, eighteen knots of wind, then she turned to study the boat in back.

“
I think they’re gaining,” Meiko said. “What are we going to do?” She turned toward her mother. Her ponytail was whipping around and she was biting her lower lip.

“
Put up more sail,” Julie said. She didn’t have any illusions about what those men would do if they caught her. At the very least they would take the boat back to Trinidad, dropping them off along the way. She didn’t want to think about the worst.

Meiko started the engine and after a few seconds she added some power. The rumbling of the diesel was music to Julie’s ears. Henry knew his business. She stole another quick look at the knot meter and frowned. They’d picked up less than a knot.

“
Okay, darling, turn into the wind and I’ll go up and start hoisting the main.” Julie had never pulled the sail up by herself before, but she’d seen Victor and the men from the shipyards do it a number of times. She thought she could handle it.

“
They’ll gain on us when we slow down,” Meiko said.

“
We’re just going to have to be quick about it,” she said. “Once we have the main up, turn back on course and give it the gas. We’re going to use all we have.”

Meiko eased the boat into the wind and the headsail started to luff as the wind fell out of it. By the time she had Fallen Angel all the way around the big jib was making cracking sounds, like thunder, as it flapped across the deck. Julie knew it would be suicide to go up there with the sail snapping like a dragon’s tongue. One hit and she’d be over the side.

“
Mom, we forgot to roll up the jib.” Meiko was bobbing on her toes, straining to see around the whipping sail.

“
We’ll have to take some of it in,” Julie said, and she grabbed a winch handle and started cranking on the furling line.

“
Hurry, Mom!”

“
I’m going as fast as I can,” Julie huffed. She was hunched over the top of the winch, both hands on the handle, turning for all she was worth. When she had the jib halfway in she pulled the handle out of the winch. “That should keep it out of my way,” she said, then she crawled on her hands and knees up to the main.

“
You didn’t clip on!” Meiko yelled after her.

“
No time,” Julie called back, but she was facing away from her daughter and Meiko couldn’t hear.

The wind gusted, giving Snake Eyes a burst of speed and Julie trouble as the boat started rocking with the waves. She uncleated the main halyard and started to haul up the sail. She struggled it about a third of the way up the mast, but she wasn’t strong enough to get it any further.

She pulled on the halyard, using it to help pull herself into a standing position. Then she wrapped her hands around the line and used her weight to pull on it, but she was only able to raise the sail a few feet more.

“
I need help,” Julie shouted back, and Meiko came forward, holding onto the boom for support.

“
If we both pull we should be able to get it up,” Julie said and both women grabbed onto the main halyard and pulled.

“
Mom, Victor took the reefs out, we have to pull it all the way up.”

“
We have to get it on a winch,” Julie said. She dropped back down onto her buttocks and wrapped the mainsheet around a winch, put in a winch handle and started grinding.

“
I need help here,” she said, and Meiko dropped to the deck and they both grabbed onto the winch handle and cranked.

“
We gotta hurry, they’re getting closer.”

“
Just a little more,” Julie said, and she pulled on the handle with an effort she didn’t know she possessed. “Got it,” she said, and the sail was up.

“
Okay, let’s get back there and get her on course.”

They crawled back to the cockpit, fighting the slippery deck and the rocking boat.

Julie took the wheel.

“
They’re so close,” Meiko said. The boat was coming toward them at an alarming rate. Julie turned back on course. Another fifteen or twenty minutes and they would have been on them, but the wind filled Fallen Angel’s sails and she healed over onto a starboard tack, gliding through the waves, just off the wind.

But it wasn’t enough.

“
Look at the knot meter,” Meiko said, and Julie smiled when she saw that there were doing six and a half knots. “And we’re almost into the wind,” Meiko added, “they’ll never catch us now.”

“
They’re still back there,” Julie said, “We don’t seem to be losing them.”

“
But Fallen Angel’s faster.”

“
Kurt has a huge Caterpillar diesel in Challenge, he can power through anything, I’ll bet his brother has one too.” Meiko was right, she thought, Fallen Angel was faster. A lot faster. She’d been sailing on Kurt’s boat and she knew that it was built for cruising, not racing. His brother’s boat couldn’t be any faster. Without that big engine they’d be sitting still back there.

“
But our engine’s on,” Meiko said.

“
Our engine is tiny compared to his. We’re just wasting fuel,” she said and she shut off the engine.

“
Mom, we’re not giving up?” Meiko was holding on to the binnacle, looking over her mother’s shoulder. Her fingers were as white as when she was holding the wheel.

“
Hardly.” Julie smiled. “We can still roll out the jib.”

“
Yeah,” Meiko whirled around and took the furling line off the winch and eased it out. The wind caught the big sail with a loud whoosh, and it billowed and flapped in front of the boat.

“
Tighten it up,” Julie said.

Meiko stuffed a handle in the sheet winch and ground the jib tight.

“
Look,” Julie said, “nine-point-seven knots.” She was as tight as the jib, muscles rippling, sweat dripping from her brow.

“
We’re losing them,” Meiko squealed.

Julie grabbed onto her hair to keep it out of her eyes as she turned around. They were steadily pulling away from Snake Eyes and her German crew.

“
I’d say we have about a knot, maybe a little more, on them. At this rate it’ll be ten or fifteen hours before we’re out of radar range.” But she didn’t think it made any difference, because by then they would be in Martinique. And the first thing she would do would be to notify the Gendarmes about Snake Eyes. She sat back behind the wheel and spent a few seconds enjoying the morning. The sun was glowing yellow-orange on the left. Whitecaps on top of three to four foot swells were quartering them from the right. The wind was fresh on her face and they were leaving Snake Eyes in their wake.

It wasn’t a pleasant sail, and only a few days ago she would have found the constant spray uncomfortable, but now that they were sailing hard on the wind, doing almost ten knots, and outdistancing a boat with a powerful motor, she was beginning to appreciate the fact that Fallen Angel was built more for speed than comfort.

“
I’m gonna go down and get some coffee, you want some?” Meiko said.

“
Sure, black and strong.” Julie tossed her daughter a smile.

“
Is there any other way?”

“
Coffee’s on,” Meiko said, coming back into the cockpit and handing her mother a warm mug. She was smiling and Julie liked the way the early morning sun bounced off her clear brown eyes. She was a woman, but she was a girl, too.

Julie took a welcome sip of the strong coffee. The warm mug in her hand was a pleasant contrast to the cold, spray filled, morning. She looked over her shoulder and the wind whipped her hair around her face. Snake Eyes was getting smaller in the distance.

“
I’ll bet they figured they’d just sail alongside and snatch the boat,” Meiko said.

Julie took another sip of her coffee and nodded.

“
But they won’t give up, will they?”

“
Not if he’s like Kurt. He’ll be like a pit bull and he’ll keep coming and coming, waiting for us to relax, or make a mistake. Then he’ll be there and he’ll pounce.”

“
What are we going to do?”

“
How would you like to learn French?”

“
You know I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“
Well now you’re going to get a chance. We’ll go into a marina in Martinique and stay put. Kurt’s brother and his friends can nose around all they want, but they won’t be able to do a thing. You can’t bribe the French to look the other way like you can a lot of these other island governments. One wrong move and our German pals will be learning the language, too. From the inside of a French jail.”

“
I’m in love with Victor,” Meiko said changing the subject.

“
I’d guessed as much,” Julie said.

“
You didn’t say anything.”

“
I didn’t want to lose you,” Julie said.

“
You would never lose me.”

“
When your father and I got married we both lost everyone we loved. His family was as racist as mine. I didn’t want that to happen to us.”

“
So you don’t approve?”

“
But I’ll never stand in your way. It’s your life and I’ll always support you.”

“
But you don’t approve?” Meiko looked away from her mother and studied the boat behind them. They were still pulling away from it. Before long they wouldn’t be able to see it at all.

“
It’s not for me to approve or disapprove, that’s your job.”

“
But I want you to like him.”

“
Honey, that’s between me and him. I’ll try, for your sake.”

“
Thanks, Mom, I couldn’t ask for more.” She stepped behind the wheel and hugged her mother.