The seams in the rock would shatter under the force of the explosion, and fragments of rock would seal the tunnel. Anybody who survived the explosion would be trapped, and whatever was down in that vertical shaft would never be seen again.
She would snorkel the base of the cliff in the morning to be sure there wasn't an underwater entrance. Once she blew the tunnel closed, she would keep watch at the outer entrance on the cliff face long enough to be sure no one who might be in the outer cavern survived the blast.
Satisfied, she tried to roll onto her stomach so that she could crawl out to where she'd left Ed, but the tunnel was too narrow. She scooted along on her back until she got to a wider spot, then turned over and crawled out.
"Well, what did you find?" Ed asked.
"This is it. It has to be the place." She gave him a quick summary of her plan.
"So I don't have to crawl into that tunnel?" he asked.
"Only if you want to critique my plan; I'd be glad for your suggestions." She smirked, knowing he couldn't see her face.
"No, it's a great plan. What else do we have to do in here?"
"You mix the ammonium nitrate fertilizer with that quart of motor oil. Right in the backpack will be fine. I need to go back in there with one of the burner phones and see if there's a decent signal. I think we're close enough to the entrance."
"What if there's not?"
"Don't worry; I've got an alternate plan. Get to work."
She took a phone from the backpack Ed had been carrying and powered it on. "So far, so good," she said. "Five bars out of five."
Clamping the phone in her teeth, she crawled back into the tunnel, rolling onto her back and skidding into place. She took the phone from her mouth and held it against the top of the tunnel, touching a button to illuminate the screen. "Four bars," she said, moving the phone up into the lower part of the crevice. "Still four bars. It's meant to be." She worked her way back toward the entrance on her back.
"Well?" Ed asked, his hands in the backpack, kneading the mixture.
"We're good," she said, reaching into the other backpack, the one that held her supplies. Withdrawing a plastic bag, she took out the two improvised blasting caps she had rigged earlier.
After they left the restaurant, but before they began climbing, she'd pulled the bullets from the brass cases of two .380 caliber rounds, careful not to spill the powder. She had soldered pigtails of insulated wire to two 12-volt incandescent bulbs using a butane soldering iron.
Then she'd broken the glass envelopes of the bulbs, taking care not to damage the fragile filaments of tungsten. Sliding the tungsten filament of each bulb into the gunpowder in its own brass cartridge case, she'd fastened the base of the bulbs into the cases with duct tape.
Applying voltage to the pigtails would cause the tungsten filaments to burn in two, sparking and igniting the gunpowder, which would set off the primer in the shell case. The resulting small explosion would detonate the mix of fertilizer and oil.
Earlier, on the sail from Martinique to St. Lucia, she'd performed surgery on the two cheap cell phones and tested them. She had left a pair of thin wires coming out of the case of each phone. The wires were energized by the phone's battery when it rang. Now, she powered on each phone and stuck the ends of the wires to her tongue, making sure there was no voltage present. Satisfied, she connected a blasting cap to each phone.
"Ready with the mix?" she asked.
"Yeah." Ed hefted the backpack.
She put a roll of duct tape around her wrist, took a phone in each hand, and lay on her back again, her head in the tunnel opening.
"Put the backpack on my chest," she said. "Top toward my face, straps down."
"Okay?" Ed asked, as he watched her slide into the tunnel.
"Yeah, sure."
"Be careful," he said.
"Would you rather do it yourself?"
"Uh-uh," Ed said. "I'm not trained for it."
"No?" she asked.
"No."
"Then shut up. All your bullshit's making me nervous, and you don't want my hands shaking while I do this."
The Saudi colonel studied the report from his agent in St. Lucia, nodding as he saw that their work was bearing fruit. The American professor had found the cave, though that was not surprising.
It was clear to anyone who made an effort to learn about crossing the Atlantic under sail that the most likely landfall would be in the latitudes of St. Lucia or Martinique. Further, the foundation had sent Everett a 'revised translation' that referenced a cave in a cliff that overlooked the bay where Khashkhash had established his shore base.
That, along with the fragmentary sketch of the island's shoreline, had apparently been enough of a clue to send Everett to the cave where the goods were hidden. They'd done everything but put an 'x' on the sketch and label it 'cave.'
The report mentioned that Everett had engaged a local guide who had shown him a cave that was a popular tourist attraction, but it was on the wrong side of the mountain. Today, Everett had met another local who helped him scale the cliff above the anchorage and make his way across a ledge to the correct cave.
He had come away empty handed, but that was to be expected. The stash was in plain view from the main part of the cave, but it was at the bottom of a 15 to 20-meter vertical shaft. Everett would need some climbing equipment to get to the prize.
The cave was perfect, the agent wrote, as there had once been a passage from a small beach which afforded sea level access to the storage cavern. The passage was under water now, and closed, too, as the roof had collapsed at some point, probably centuries ago. While no longer useable, the ruined passage would be evident once Everett explored the cavern. That would explain how Khashkhash and his men would have come to use the cave.
The agent expected that Everett would return in a day or two with equipment that would enable him to descend into the storage cavern. Meanwhile, there might be a problem. There was a second group of Americans on another yacht, and they appeared to be shadowing the Everett party.
The agent was asking for instructions. He wanted to know if the colonel was aware of the party. He provided details of their yacht, descriptions of the men and women in the party, and even their names, which he had obtained from a contact in the customs office.
The colonel was alarmed. He needed time to ponder this. He would make a discreet inquiry through his back-channel contact in the Directorate of Intelligence. Maybe they would have some record of these four people. Or perhaps they were part of some rival operation. He needed to know as much about them as he could learn before he briefed the Prince tomorrow.
"Did you find what you expected?" Ashley asked, as Leila and Ed pulled out chairs at the table. The remains of the dinner Ashley and Bert had shared were still on the table.
"Yes, I think so," Leila said. "We left a surprise behind, as well."
"Ah!" Ashley said. "That's good, then. You can still order dinner, if you're hungry. Bert and I split a salt-fish curry."
"I'm okay," Leila said. "I'd like to get to bed early tonight; I've got an early project in the morning. You hungry, Ed?"
"I guess I'll just make a sandwich back at the boat. Should I call Rupert to pick us up?"
"There's no need," Ashley said, smiling. "I solved that little problem."
"You got a new dinghy?" Ed asked, eyebrows rising.
"Close. The owner of this place overheard my phone calls about the dinghy. His brother-in-law has a business taking people on kayak tours of the Bat Cave, and he's in the midst of upgrading his kayaks. He had some he wanted to sell. I bought two of them. He threw in the paddles, so we're all set."
"But there are four of us," Ed said.
"They're two-seaters," Ashley said.
"Where do we have to go to get them?" Leila asked.
"He delivered them. They're tied to the dock down on the beach, ready to go."
"Good job, Ash," Leila said. "That'll make things a little more manageable."
"Y
eah," Ed said. "I've even recovered my appetite. Think this place can do a quick burger?"
"I'm sure they can," Ashley said, waving at the waitress who was hanging back in the shadows.
The woman ambled over to the table and took Ed's order. "We got the bes' burgers in St. Lucia," she said.
"Should I order two?"
"Not 'less you powerful hungry; they half-poun' burgers. Beer?"
"Sure. And some French fries."
"I be right back wit' the beer. The burger an' fries be a minute or two. Anybody else need anyt'ing?"
Everyone shook their heads, and the waitress went back to the kitchen.
"You and Ash can go ahead back to Aquila, if you like," Ed said, looking at Leila. "Since we've got two kayaks."
"We need to talk about tomorrow," Leila said. "You think it's okay to talk here, Ash?"
Ashley waited until the waitress put a beer in front of Ed. When the woman left, she said, "Sure. They had a couple of other customers while you were gone, but there's nobody here but us, now."
"Wonder why they're still open?" Ed asked.
"They do some late evening business, they told us," Bert said.
"So, what about tomorrow?" Ashley asked.
"Okay," Leila said. "I'm going out early to snorkel along the base of the cliff. There's a chance that the cave opens to the sea somewhere around that reef we noticed. If it does, we'll need to make sure nobody gets out that way. And if there's access, we'll want to make sure whatever's in there is destroyed. If there's no access, the stuff will be hidden forever, because the cave's going to be sealed off."
"That sounds easy enough," Ashley said. "I could do that, if you want."
"I'd rather do it; I've got a better sense of where the opening might be," Leila said. "Once I've done that, Ed and I will get in position to watch the entrance to the cave from the cliff. I'll want you and Bert to keep an eye on whoever's left aboard Vengeance. That's probably going to be Everett's wife, at least, because she's hurt."
"We can handle that," Ashley said, "but I don't think this place will make a good base for us tomorrow."
"I agree," Leila said. "It's going to be early, before they open up here, for one thing."
"Right," Ed said. "And hanging out here two days in a row might attract attention."
"Yeah," Leila said. "You and I can wait along the road with the camera, pretend we're taking pictures of birds or something. Once we see them traversing the cliff face, we can move onto the wooded part of the trail."
"Bert and I can get some coffee and hang out on one of those benches along the waterfront in town," Ashley said. "That'll give us a good view of Vengeance." She paused as the waitress returned with Ed's order.
"That was fast," he said.
"The cook, she quick; she gettin' t'ings ready for the people soon come. We get people from the resort up the hill, mos' nights. But they come late. Jus' wave if you need anyt'ing else."
"So, what's the rest of your plan, Leila?" Ashley asked.
"We need to stay flexible. All those people need to die, and their boat needs to vanish without a trace."
"And whatever's in that cave," Bert said. "We're supposed to destroy that."
"The blast will take care of that," Leila said. "And it'll probably take care of anybody in the cave, but I'll want to go up there and check afterward to be sure we've sealed it off, and clean up any survivors."
"What about Vengeance, then," Ashley asked. "Whoever's aboard is going to hear the blast, maybe see smoke or something. They'll be raising an alert."
"You need to be ready to jump in that kayak," Leila said. "I'll give you a heads-up a few minutes before the blast, so you can get in position. Then you board Vengeance and subdue whoever's aboard."
"You want them alive?" Bert asked.
"Yes, until we've got a handle on the situation."
"How about their boat?" Ashley asked.
"Stay on their mooring until I tell you to leave. We may need it, or the people, if something unforeseen happens. There'll be plenty of time to get it out of the harbor in the confusion after the blast."
"What about Aquila?" Ed asked.
"It depends on how things play out," Leila said. "But most likely, you and I will take her and meet up with Ash and Bert."
"Where?" Bert asked.
"Due west until we're out of sight of land. Then we can sort everything out, sink Vengeance, and head back to Grenada. Just make sure your phones are charged. Like I said, we need to stay flexible. There are a lot of moving parts here, and we only control some of them."
"How's the burger, Ed?" Bert asked. "Maybe I should get one."
Leila looked at Ashley and rolled her eyes. "I'm going back to the boat and get some rest. You guys do what you want." Leila stood up
"I'm with you," Ashley said, getting to her feet.
"Let's go, then. See you in the morning, Ed, Bert," Leila said over her shoulder as she and Ashley left.
31
"Let's move to the trail," Leila said. She and Ed had been waiting on the road, watching the cliff face through the camera's telephoto lens while they pretended to photograph birds. "Something changed?" Ed asked.
"Yes. That Rasta that was with them yesterday just came out of the undergrowth. He's maybe three or four minutes behind them, crabbing his way across that ledge toward the crevice."
"Okay," Ed said, as they began to walk along the deserted stretch of road. "I wonder what the story is on that cave."
"You could have gone through the tunnel last night," Leila said.
"No, that's not what I meant. You told me about that."
"What, then?" she asked, as they trudged along.
"Well, you said there used to be an opening to the beach. I was trying to imagine what it would have been like when Khashkhash and those people were here."
"You've bought into that story, then?" Leila said.
"Why not? You said there was that stash of stuff down there, and no way to get to it."
"That's not quite what I said, Ed. I don't buy all that bullshit about the Moors."
"Then why are you doing this?"
"I have my reasons. I don't owe you an explanation."
"Okay, but do you think somebody put that stuff in the cave before that sea-level entrance caved in?"
"I have no idea. What difference does that make to us? We've got our mission; there's nothing unclear about it."
"But Leila, don't you wonder? Where's your sense of history, of romance?"
"You sound like a teenage girl, Ed. Now I get it. I finally understand."
"Get what?"
"Those pictures of you and that other … never mind."
"I told you, those were from a fraternity skit, Leila."
"Uh-huh."
"You can be a real bitch, sometimes. You know that?"
"It's what I was trained for. Now shut up. Everett and that woman from Vengeance just went into the crevice. The guy with the dreadlocks is catching up to them. Save your breath and let's hustle."
"If you can see the cave entrance from here, we could stop now," Ed said. "It might be better if we didn't get too close. There's no telling what that much explosive is going to do to the cliff face."
"It's only the equivalent of around 10 or 12 pounds of TNT," Leila said.
Ed squinted at her and shook his head. "It's not out in the open, though."
She stopped for a few seconds, thinking about that. "Yeah, okay. You're right. It is pretty well tamped by all that rock. We can wait here until I set it off. Who knows?"
"You have a cell signal?" he asked.
She took out her phone and touched the screen. "Yeah, it's a solid five bars, just like up in the cave."
"That skinny Rasta just went into the crevice," Ed said. "How long are we going to wait?"
"Let's give it a few minutes," she said. "It would be best for us if all of them were through that tunnel before I set it off. Say another five minutes?"
"Yeah, okay," Ed said. "You going
to call Ash?"
"Yes." Leila poked at the screen of her smartphone and held it to her ear. "Ashley?" She was silent for a couple of seconds. "Yes. Can you be aboard Vengeance in — say five minutes?" She listened again. "Good. Go for it." She listened again. "No. Just call me if you run into trouble. I'll blow it in about five minutes from the time we hang up. You get aboard and sit tight. Ed and I will need about 15 minutes after the blast. We're going to scale the cliff and make sure nobody got lucky. I'll call you when it's all clear. Remember what we talked about last night, in case something goes wrong." She disconnected and made note of the time.
"Everett's wife and the one with the reddish blond hair must be on the boat," Ed said.
Leila nodded. "So?"
"We're going to just waste them?"
"You got a problem with that?"
"It's pretty cold, Leila."
"Damn right. That's the best way. Cold. Then we know for sure."
"But … " he shook his head.
"Hey, Ed?
"What?"
"Blowing up the cave with three people in it's not cold?"
"It's … but we'll be right there with them, the Everett woman and what's her name."
"Liz," Leila said. "Liz Chirac."
Ed didn't say anything. Leila checked the time and looked at him. She saw the sweat beading on his forehead.
"Ed?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't have a problem killing people as long as you don't have to watch them die. That it?"
"Yeah, maybe it is."
"You know what that makes you?"
"What?"
"A coward. You have no respect for human life. If you're going to kill someone, you should at least show them the courtesy of looking them in the eye when you do it."
"What about the people in the cave?"
"That's one of the reasons we're going up there afterward — to pay our respects."
"You're fucking insane, Leila."
"And you're a chickenshit, Ed."
"Watch it. I'm your superior."
Bluewater Quest Page 21
