Stone Undercover

by Bob Blanton

  “Matt, Brea says you’re like a fish whisperer,” Emily said. “You guys have seen the best fish so far, so we’re sticking with you.” Emily gave Matthew a hard look as she talked.

  Matthew blushed a bit. “Just lucky, I guess.” Obviously Emily had figured out that he was using his portal to quickly search for the best spots.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Wow, that was great,” Jennifer said. “I can’t believe all the fish we saw.”

  “Hey, what’s up with all of you abandoning us,” Tyler complained, as he climbed up on the deck.

  “Didn’t you notice during the last break that Brea was telling us about all the beautiful fish she and Matt saw?” Alex said. “It sounded so great, we decided to tag along.”

  “Well we saw some great fish, too,” Tyler said. Jason and Jeffrey both nodded in agreement.

  “We’ll see who has the best pictures,” Alex said. “Did you see a turtle?”

  “No turtles,” Jason admitted.

  “Pooh.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Everyone was lounging around the deck resting up. The warm sun was making everyone sleepy and they were questioning if they were going to go back in. They had less than an hour left in the tour.

  Matthew tapped Alex on the arm and motioned for her to follow him but to keep quiet. Brianna was already waiting for them on the bottom stair.

  “What?”

  “A turtle,” Matthew said.

  “Where?”

  “Wait and follow me.” Brea and Alex slipped into the water right behind Matthew. Matthew used his portal to alert Emily about the turtle and then led the way. He swam to the ocean side of the reef and went quite a way into the deep water before he stopped and waited for Brea and Alex to catch up. He waved at Emily who was making it into the water with Jennifer in tow.

  “Okay, do a bunch of deep breaths so you’ll be oxygenated,” Matthew said. “Then take one deep breath and dive.”

  When they dove, they were almost on top of a large, green sea turtle. Alex pulled her camera out of her shoulder holster and pulled up right in front of the turtle to get a picture. Then she floated to the side as it passed her and got off another two shots before she had to go up for air.

  “Wow. That was amazing. Do you think I can get another shot?”

  “You’ll have to catch him,” Matthew said. “He’s heading toward the beach.” He then pointed in the direction of the turtle so Emily and Jennifer could maneuver to intercept it.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “You’re going to love that chick flick,” Matthew teased, as he worked his way up on deck again.

  “What do you mean?” Jason asked.

  “She got a great shot of a turtle.”

  “Why didn’t you let me know?”

  “I just know how you like chick flicks,” Matthew teased. “Besides, I think I owe you; you’ve been riding me about chick flicks for two weeks.”

  “Where are the girls?” Tyler asked.

  “Trying to keep up with the turtle,” Matthew said, pointing toward the shore.

  “Did Alex get her picture?” Mrs. Stevenson asked.

  “Yes, she did.”

  “That’s good.”

  “You didn’t want to do any snorkeling?” Matthew asked, noticing that Mrs. Stevenson had dry hair.

  “My sinuses don’t like being under water. I’ll enjoy the photos. Plus I’ve been able to sit here and snack on these wonderful hors d'oeuvres and drink this nice wine I brought along.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Look, they rent Hobie Cats,” Emily yelled.

  “They’re too small,” Tyler said.

  “No, we can rent two and race them,” Emily said. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

  “I can’t sail,” Jennifer said.

  “We can teach you.”

  “All right, all right,” Tyler said.

  “Prepare to get whipped,” Jason said. “I love these things.”

  Emily ran over to the rental booth and talked to the salesman. After a few minutes she came back. “I’ve rented two of them. There’s a racecourse laid out over there about a quarter of a mile offshore. You have to make a triangle, one upwind tack, then after the last buoy you turn downwind for the finish line. Who’s going to race first?”

  “One or two-man teams?” Jason asked.

  “Two-person teams,” Alex said, giving Jason a poke in the ribs.

  “Two-person,” Emily said. “We can pair up as couples.”

  “You should be first,” Matthew said to Emily. “It was your idea.”

  “Okay, Tyler and I against who?”

  “We’ll take that challenge,” Jason said. “Winner keeps racing, loser goes to shore to lick their wounds?”

  “Fine by us,” Tyler said.

  “Let’s go,” Emily shouted. She ran by Matthew and whispered, “No cheating.”

  “What did she mean by that?” Brianna asked.

  “How should I know,” Matthew said. “I don’t even know how to sail. I assume you’re going to be the captain.”

  “No problem,” Brianna said. “We just have to wait for Emily and Tyler to bring the boat back.”

  “You’re making an assumption there,” Matthew said.

  “Not much of one,” Brianna said. “Jason won the Catamaran Challenge at the yacht club two years in a row.”

  “We should be able to see the action from over there,” Matthew pointed to a small rise on the beach. “Do we have a chance against him?”

  “Maybe,” Brianna said. “He won the one-man races. Now he has to direct Alex and…”

  “Well, you explain things to me now,” Matthew said.

  “Okay, the only thing we should worry about is when we have to tack. I’ll call out when we are tacking, then you have to slide back to the back corner of the boat with me and let go of the jib.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Then as soon as the mainsail pops, you move to the opposite front corner.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then when I move to your side of the boat, you tighten the jib. I’ll slide up beside you as I finish the tack. Then we’ll be sailing again. When we’re going downwind, we’ll lean out to get the weather hull out of the water.”

  “Okay, I’ve got it. It looks like they’re ready to start,” Matthew said.

  “They’re going to lose for sure,” Brianna said. “Tyler has the tiller.”

  “So?”

  “Emily is a much better sailor. I thought they might have a chance to make a race of it; with Tyler’s extra weight, they can handle more wind.”

  “They’re ahead right now,” Matthew said.

  “Yeah, but here comes the tack… Tyler lost too much speed in his tack; Jason’s tack wasn’t great, but good… See Jason and Alex just blew by them.”

  “How did they do that?”

  “Jason didn’t lose much speed when he tacked. Tyler almost stopped. All that extra weight takes time to get moving,” Brianna said.

  “Here comes the last course change, they just have to fall off the wind and come home.”

  Jason and Alex crossed the finish line several lengths ahead of Tyler and Emily, with Jason pumping his fist in the air.

  “That was fun,” Emily laughed, as she and Tyler beached their catamaran.

  “It looked like it,” Matthew said. “I guess it’s our turn to face the music.”

  “We’re going to win,” Brianna yelled. “Shape up or ship out!”

  “Yes, captain.”

  Matthew pushed the Hobie Cat off the beach as Brianna trimmed the sails. It took them a few minutes to reach Jason and Alex.

  “You ready to get thrashed?” Jason called out, as they sailed up beside him and Alex.

  “Don’t count your chickens too soon,” Brianna said. “Who calls the start?”

  “Challenger gets to call go,” Jason said. “The starting line is just ahead.”

  Brianna let out a shrill whistle to start the race. The two Cats stayed even coming i
nto the first turn. Brianna’s and Matthew’s discussion on how to handle tacking paid off as they had a fast tack and pulled well into the lead. Jason and Alex were catching up fast as they approached the final turn. On the downwind run, they were neck and neck, with Jason and Alex just edging them out at the finish line.

  “Pooh, I thought we had them,” Brianna yelled.

  “Great race,” Jason called out. “Way to tack there on that first turn.”

  Brianna smiled and yelled, “How did you catch us?”

  “I was tighter to the wind,” Jason yelled back. “You just need more practice.”

  “Your tack sure was better this time,” Brianna said.

  “Yes, I figured I’d better do some coaching before we raced you. Alex is a fast learner.”

  “Darn it. Do you want us to send Tyler and Emily back out?” Brianna asked.

  “No, we’ll come in with you. Alex wants to lie in the sun and warm up.”

  “That was a great race,” Emily said, when the racing teams reached the beach. “Brea, I thought you had them.”

  “So did I,” Brianna whined.

  “Jason, do you want to race again?” Emily asked.

  “Not now, Alex wants to lie in the sun. I thought I’d give Jen and Jeffrey lessons if they want.”

  “Yes, that’d be real nice,” Jennifer said. “Come on, Jeffrey.”

  Jason took one of the two Cats and pushed it out into the water. Jennifer and Jeffery waded out after him and climbed aboard. Once they were settled, Jason leveraged himself on board and waved at the rest of the gang on the shore. “See ya in thirty.”

  “Tyler, do you want to go out again?” Emily asked.

  “No, I’m good,” Tyler replied, a bit moodily.

  “Brea?”

  “I’m with Alex, lying in the sun sounds perfect.”

  “Matt, come on, we can make it fly,” Emily begged.

  “Sure, why not?” Matthew replied.

  “We can try some experiments,” Emily whispered to Matthew, as they pushed the Cat into the water.

  “Like what?”

  “We’ll think of some.”

  Once they had the Cat out beyond the racecourse, Emily luffed the sail. “Okay now what can we try?”

  “Well, we should be able to head into the wind much tighter. I can push the sail like I did with the sailboard.”

  “Let’s try that. First let me get moving, then we’ll see how close to the wind we can sail.”

  Emily got the catamaran moving, “Okay, now give me some better wind,” she said, as she steered more directly into the wind.

  Matthew opened his portal against the sail, making it as big as he could. He put the other end up front but angled so that the wind hit it more directly.

  “The jib is useless,” Emily said.

  “Of course. I’ve only got one portal.”

  “Let me stop and take it down. Don’t want to be too obvious that we’re sailing in an impossible direction.”

  “I’ll get it,” Matthew said. He dropped his portal and moved forward to take in the jib. Emily fell off the wind to keep the catamaran moving.

  “Okay, here we go again,” Matthew said, as he took up his position by the mainsail.

  “This is great,” Emily yelled. “Can you give us more push?”

  Matthew changed the angle of the other end of the portal so that it was more directly facing the wind.

  “Whew,” Emily yelled. “It’s almost like sailing downwind. How about some more?”

  “Okay,” Matthew yelled back.

  “Too much,” Emily yelled, as the catamaran’s upwind hull started to lift out of the water. She started laughing as the Cat settled back down and slowed. “We were moving fast, but we were giving up as much leeway as we were making headway.”

  “Why’s that?” Matthew asked.

  “No keel and no centerboard on a Hobie Cat. So we’re relying on the hull to keep us from slipping,” Emily explained. “What can we do downwind?”

  “Well, we can push as hard as we want going downwind.”

  “How fast can we go?” Emily asked. “The wind is about ten miles per hour right now.”

  “We can do that or even faster,” Matthew replied.

  “How can we go faster?”

  “Well, the wind speed increases with altitude, so I just have to raise the other end of the portal up. It’ll be a bit of an issue if we’re going faster than the wind, since then the sail would be pushing the air in front of it,” Matthew explained. “But then it’ll just spill around the sail.”

  “Can you push on the mast? Then I can turn the sail so it catches less wind,” Emily asked.

  “Sure, anything you want.”

  “Great, let’s try it,” Emily said.

  “All right, here goes.”

  “We’re going to crash,” Matthew yelled. The catamaran was skipping on top of the swells, flying across the troughs.

  “Okay, okay,” Emily yelled. “Close it down.”

  Matthew shut the portal down, and the catamaran quickly slowed.

  “We must have been doing thirty,” Emily laughed. “That was really fun.”

  “I just hope nobody noticed,” Matthew said.

  “We’ll just say we caught some good wind,” Emily said. “It’s not like someone had a radar gun on us.”

  “I hope not. Do you want to try anything else?”

  “Could you lift us out of the water?” Emily asked

  “I guess I could put the portal against the deck and let the wind force lift us up,” Matthew replied.

  “Let’s try it. We’ll have to do it downwind since we can’t use the water to squeeze us upwind.”

  Matthew opened his portal below the deck and used the other end at higher altitude in the wind. He adjusted the angle to create the right amount of force to keep the boat just above the water.

  “Cool, we’re flying,” Emily yelled. “Can you steer us?”

  “I think so,” Matthew yelled back. He angled the portal below the deck to add direction force to it. By increasing the angle of the other end to increase the force, he had the Hobie Cat moving in whichever direction he wanted. “It would be easier without the sail.”

  “Yes, but that would definitely look weird,” Emily yelled. “Let’s go back now.”

  Matthew closed his portal and let Emily take control of the boat.

  “Hey, you sure were able to keep your portal open a long time,” Emily said.

  “Yes. I’ve been able to increase the time steadily,” Matthew replied. “I can manage over an hour now.”

  “That’s great. There’s Jason.”

  “Hey guys, you were really flying out there,” Jason yelled, as they sailed up beside him.

  “We got some great wind,” Emily said. “How is the lesson going?”

  “It’s been fun,” Jennifer replied. “I still don’t think I could manage on my own.”

  “I think Jeffrey could,” Jason said.

  “Well, I’ve sailed before,” Jeffrey said. “So I don’t have so much to learn.”

  “Are you heading in?” Jason asked Emily.

  “Yes. I think it’s time to turn these guys in unless you want to add another hour.”

  “I think we’re all good,” Jason said. “Another hour of sun, then we’ll have to head back.”

  “Yes, and back to San Diego tomorrow,” Emily said. “But this has been great, hasn’t it?”

  “Yes, it has,” Matthew agreed.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  The next day, it was time to head back to San Diego and school. They flew in the helicopter back to Honolulu where they met the jet and their extra passengers, including the patient they were ferrying to Seattle. This time they were only taking four Marines to Seattle since the patient’s nurse and her equipment took up two of the seats. Otherwise it was an uneventful trip.

  Spring Fever

  The last two weeks of April were relatively quiet. Matthew continued to check on what was happening wit
h Sayid every chance he got. Sayid was staying at a house in Florida, and Matthew only caught him talking on one of the burner phones once.

  Based on Caruthers’ briefings, Sayid was continuing to sell off his liquid assets. He now had amassed over seventy million dollars in the trading accounts. Matthew checked Sayid’s email activity on his personal phone and didn’t see anything new. Of course he didn’t expect him conduct too much of his business via email.

  Checking out Sayid’s browser history, he’d seen that he was continuing to look at the numbered account. Wanting to be able to get more information on that account, Matthew loaded an app on Sayid’s phone that would send him an alert anytime the browser accessed the bank website where the numbered account was. All he could do was wait.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Yeah,” Brianna clapped as Matthew, Jason, Emily and Alex entered the family room. “The SAT is over.”

  “Whew, I survived,” said Jason.

  “You guys were the ones who opted for two full weekends of prep for the test instead of studying with Matthew and me,” Emily said.

  “Well, I’m happy to have my boyfriend back,” Brianna said.

  “It was only two days a week,” Matthew defended himself.

  “But that was on top of two days a week that I had late tennis. So that meant we only had three days a week to spend together.”

  “Oh what a sacrifice that was,” Jason said.

  Brianna slugged Jason on the arm and then gave Matthew a kiss. “How do you think you did?”

  “Okay,” Matthew said.

  “Oy, don’t be giving us that okay stuff. I’m sure you and Emily aced it,” Alex said. “I just hope I did well enough that I don’t have to take it again.”

  “I’m sure they did,” Tyler said, as he gave Emily a kiss and a hug.

  “I hope so. I hate taking long tests like that,” Emily said.

  “Well, let’s get this party started,” Brianna said, as she brought out the cake.

  “We get cake,” Matthew said.

  “Cake!” yelled Sonja, Hanna and Jessica at the same time.

  “Whoa, another cheering section,” Matthew said, as he picked Jessica up.

  “Well they wanted to congratulate you, too,” Brianna said. “Plus cake, how could they turn it down.”

  “Did you make the cake?” Matthew asked.

  Jason snorted soda through his nose. “You’re kidding, right?”