Villains and Vixens

by Charles Dougherty

"Did they buy the island or something?" Mary asked.

  "No one knows. But the police, they will not do anything. Some of my friends, fishermen, they see boats around the island late at night. Not local boats. They think maybe the narco traffickers are using it. Maybe they pay the police? I don't know, but it is best not to find out, I think."

  "We heard there were ruins there, from the American colonists who came here in the late 1700s, after the revolution. We wanted to explore them. There's one big house in particular that we read about."

  "Yes, I know that place. The story is it belonged to a pirate. But you cannot go there now. That is where the bad people are. There are six men, like soldiers. They stay there all the time. Some others, they come and go. The bosses, we think. There are twelve people there now, counting the soldiers."

  "How mysterious," Mary said. "How do your friends know all of this?"

  The man looked sheepish for a moment, and then said, "Girls. Sometimes when the bosses are not there, the soldiers will go into George Town, to the bars. And they are looking for girls, you know? Not nice girls."

  "Oh," Mary said. "So they tell the girls things to impress them?"

  "Yes, and sometimes, they take some girls back to the island for a few days." He shook his head. "And then the girls, they tell their friends about how these men are living in that big house. They have fixed up some rooms for the bosses. Very nice, the girls say. The soldiers, they live in another building — what used to be the kitchen and servants' quarters, back in the old days."

  "This is so fascinating," Mary said. "Like a book, or a movie. How exciting!"

  "No, not exciting. Dangerous. These men are bad people. And except when they take the girls there, nobody from here is allowed to go there. This makes many of us angry, that they have taken over the island. But these men, they have guns. They have made threats to the girls, about talking, and to fishermen who come too near. You must stay away from there."

  "Thank you for warning us, then. We will definitely stay away from Dogfish Cay. But there are other loyalist ruins we can explore, aren't there?"

  "Yes, ma'am." He pointed over our heads. "Some on Man O' War Cay, some on Crab Cay. All safe to go to. But not Dogfish Cay."

  "Well, thank you so much for your help," Mary said. "We should go see if we can catch some lobster for dinner."

  "It was my pleasure to visit with you, and thank you for the beer. I hope you find many lobster."

  "Thanks," I said, as I started the outboard and pulled away from the dock.

  We skirted the Fowl Cay shoreline until we reached the island's northeast point. I steered northeast for a few more yards until we were in the midst of the coral heads. Then I shut the outboard down.

  "Shall I drop the anchor?" Mary asked.

  "No, let's put our gear on and get in the water. I'll tow the dinghy as we snorkel; there's not enough wind to give me any trouble with it blowing around."

  27

  We took our time, drifting along on the surface and watching the coral landscape beneath us. The water was between six and ten feet deep, shallower over the coral heads. The bottom between the coral heads was sandy, with broken pieces of coral and occasional patches of weed. Mary dove periodically to get a close look at the shells on the bottom, or to study the sides of a coral head. The few lobster that we saw were too small to be worth catching.

  After about an hour in the water, I put a hand on Mary's leg to get her attention. She stopped kicking and let her feet sink, her head coming out of the water as she looked over at me.

  Pulling the snorkel from my mouth, I said, "How about a little break? Let's sit in the dinghy and drink a beer."

  "You tired?"

  "No. Look over your shoulder."

  We were in a patch of coral heads about 150 yards southeast of Dogfish Cay, having drifted well to the southeast from our starting point.

  "Oh, I see," she said, putting her hands on the tube of the dinghy.

  She scissored her legs, and the thrust of her flippers lifted her into the dinghy. As she rolled to a sitting position, her feet in the water, she removed her flippers and put them in the dinghy. While she worked the strap of her mask free of her hair, I paddled around to the other side of the dinghy and hoisted myself aboard.

  "We should drop the anchor this time," I said. "We don't want to drift much closer to Dogfish Cay."

  She dropped the little folding anchor, and I took two beers from the cooler. Twisting the top from one, I handed it to her and opened my own.

  "Cheers," I said, tilting my bottle toward her.

  She clicked the neck of her bottle against mine. "Cheers. Too bad we're not finding dinner."

  "It's early, yet, and there are more places to try. Right out there, for instance." I pointed past Dogfish Cay at a small, low-lying island. "That's Whelk Cay."

  Mary shifted her position, moving to sit beside me, so we were both facing Dogfish Cay. "Whelk? Like the sea snails?"

  "Right."

  "They're edible, aren't they?"

  "Yes. But I'd rather have lobster. Or almost anything else."

  "Why? You don't like whelk?"

  "They're okay, I guess. I don't like the texture. Too chewy to suit me."

  "Like conch?"

  "Sort of. You see the guy on Dogfish Cay checking us out?"

  "Yes." She turned toward me, putting her arms around my neck and giving me a lingering kiss.

  When we came up for air, she said, "Think we were convincing enough?"

  "I don't know about him, but you fooled me. For a minute there, I thought I might get lucky."

  "Later, maybe." Smiling, she turned toward the island and took a sip of her beer. "Looks like it worked. He's moved on."

  "Yes. Once you attacked me, he put his binoculars away. I mean, he watched for a minute, but I guess he decided the show wasn't worth waiting for. Not enough action to keep his attention."

  She elbowed me, hard. I was massaging my ribs when she asked, "Were you watching him that whole time?"

  "I thought you were just doing that to provide cover for us. Didn't you mean for me to keep an eye on him?"

  "You play the part of a cad all too well, Finn. You old villain, you can forget about getting lucky any time soon."

  "Sorry. I thought we were working, anyway."

  "Might as well, I suppose." She picked up the binoculars and trained them on Dogfish Cay. "He's about to round the northeast corner. His back's to us, and he's got a rifle slung over his shoulder. Guess our friend at Fowl Cay wasn't exaggerating."

  She twisted her torso, sweeping the binoculars from right to left. "There's another one coming around the western side, headed this way. He's armed, too. Those boys are serious." She lowered the binoculars. "Should we move?"

  "Wait for this second one to walk the length of this side of the island," I said, "and let's time him. If we see the first one reappear on the northwest corner about the time this one rounds the southeast corner, we'll know they have two men on watch. Or if we see a third, that's worth knowing, too. That'll come in handy tonight. Then we can move up to Whelk Cay and get a look at the island from the other side."

  Mary lifted her binoculars again, studying the shoreline of Dogfish Cay for several seconds. "I missed it before; I was too focused on the sentry. There's a pier of sorts about a third of the way across from the left. It's made from the same coral rock as the island, so it's tough to see. I can't tell, but it may enclose a small-boat basin."

  Reaching for the binoculars, I took a quick look. "You're right. I saw movement on the other side of it, like maybe a speedboat rising and falling with the swell. It's hidden most of the time; it only pops up on the crests."

  "There might be a path from there up to the houses," Mary said.

  "Did you see something like that?" I asked.

  "No, just guessing. I wonder if that pier is new, or if it's left from the loyalists' days."

  "Hard to know. I can't imagine why loyalists would have settled on that lump of roc
k. Given that most of them were plantation owners, that place looks wrong. Nothing would grow on all that rock."

  "There's a bit of scrub," Mary said. "There must be patches of dirt in there. Anyway, the man at Fowl Cay said the rumor was they were pirates."

  "I'm not looking forward to picking our way through all that broken coral in the dark," I said.

  "Our guy just finished his pass along this side," Mary said. "Thirty minutes. And here comes the first guy, back again. They must be on a path, to be moving as fast as they are."

  "You sure it's the same guy coming around again?"

  "Yes. Same T-shirt. There are only two of them on watch at a time. Let's go to Whelk Cay."

  I nodded and cranked the outboard, steering for the center of Whelk Cay. That took us past the eastern side of Dogfish Cay at a distance of about 150 to 200 yards. The character of Dogfish Cay's shoreline didn't change; it wouldn't be any fun getting ashore tonight. Whelk Cay was a raised sand bar about two hundred yards long, and from my study of the chart, maybe a hundred feet wide at its widest point.

  "Let's beach the dinghy," I said, as we approached Whelk Cay.

  "All right. Are we going ashore?"

  "Yes. It looks like this is mostly sand. We should be able to find a clear spot to beach the dinghy, then we can walk over to the other side. There may be enough of a rise in the middle of the island to give us a little cover. We can lie on the sand looking over the ridge and study Dogfish Cay without being visible."

  28

  We settled in on the other side of the low ridge of sand and took our time surveying our target. Dogfish Cay was about a third of a mile away. With our elbows on the ground to steady the binoculars, we could make out enough detail for our purposes. From this angle, we could even see the ruins of the big house. It sat just below the crest of the high ground in the middle of Dogfish Cay, so it was hidden from our view earlier. There were people moving around outside under a large canvas awning.

  "Strange awning," Mary said. "It looks like it started out white, but it's mottled looking. And those curtains on the sides, they aren't hanging straight down. They're pulled farther out in some places than others and maybe staked to the ground. Looks random. I can see through them in spots, but not everywhere."

  I chuckled. "That's camouflage netting. You've never seen it before?"

  "No. Guess I missed something, not being in the military, huh?"

  "Not enough to worry about. You spotted it; that's what counts."

  "It's not doing them much good, if we can see it, is it?"

  "It's there to foil satellite surveillance or aerial photography, like from the balloons and drones the DEA use. From a distance, it breaks up the straight lines and recognizable patterns."

  "So that's why Aaron didn't notice anybody in the satellite photos," Mary said. "How many people do you count under the awning?"

  "Six. Did you get a count?"

  "Yes. The same. That would be Grissom, Stringfellow, Theroux, and their counterpart from Miami. Plus two others. You think they might be part of the security force? The two extras?"

  "Maybe," I said. "Our friend on Fowl Cay said there were six guards. Two are on duty. If they work eight hours a day in two four-hour watches, that means two would be asleep. The other two would be doing whatever they do to pass the time. It could be two of them, but I doubt the hired help would mingle with the big shots. You think they would?"

  "No. Just checking," Mary said. "That smaller building off to the right with the covered walkway to the big house must be the servants' quarters the man in Fowl Cay mentioned. The covered walkway was a standard thing back when they put the kitchen in a separate structure. Kept the rain off the food when the servants brought it to the dining room."

  "Yeah," I said. "And the guy on the dock said there were six guests there. So that means Lavrov's deputy and the computer geek Aaron mentioned are with Grissom and his pals right now."

  "The computer geek — I wonder why he's hanging out with the bosses," Mary said. "The other one's probably Lavrov's second in command. Sergei, last name unknown. No surprise that he's mixing with the honchos. But I'm not sure about the computer geek. He should be hiding in a dark corner playing video games. I wouldn't expect him to be socializing with Grissom and the boys."

  "Why do you say that?" I asked.

  "If O'Hanlon was running his operation on the back of an envelope, I don't think the data centers have anything to do with drug smuggling and human trafficking. So there would be no reason for the computer nerd to mingle with the mob types. But then why even bring him here?" Mary asked.

  I shrugged. "Security, maybe. It's a safe place to keep him. And it's outside the States, but close enough if he needs to get there in a hurry."

  "How do you suppose he's communicating?"

  "A broadband satellite connection would be my guess," I said. "That type of gear is small and portable, these days. Small enough so he could move it inside during the daytime, out of sight of any aerial surveillance."

  "So, what do you think, Finn? Seen enough?"

  "We've seen about all we're going to. You ready to go back to Isabella?"

  "Yes. It's going to be a long night; we should rest while we can."

  "I'm for that. We'll need to check in with Aaron later, but we should have a rough plan worked out before we call him. Let's go home and take a long nap. We'll figure out how to do this when we're fresh."

  Two hours later, I woke from my nap. Mary was still asleep. It was mid-afternoon, time to figure out how we were going to carry out our mission. I filled the coffee pot and put it on the stove. Mary woke up as the coffee finished percolating.

  "Yes," she said, rolling to a sitting position on the settee where she napped. She rubbed her eyes.

  "Yes?" I asked, with a chuckle. "Yes what?"

  "Yes, I'd love a cup of coffee. Didn't you offer me one just now?"

  "No, but I was about to wake you up."

  "Guess I dreamed it, then. Must have been the aroma."

  I filled a mug and handed it to her, pouring another one for myself. As I filled the thermos, I asked, "Ready to make some plans?"

  "Sure," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "We're going to swim in, right?"

  "Yes. There's no other way to be sure somebody won't spot the dinghy."

  "That's where I came out, too. But where will we leave it? You're not thinking we'll swim from here, are you?"

  "No. We can take it out to Whelk Cay again."

  "Why there, instead of among the coral heads off Fowl Cay? That would be closer."

  "It would be a little closer," I said, "but they'll be less likely to expect an attack coming from the Exuma Sound side of the island."

  "That's a good point," Mary said, scrunching up her brow.

  "Why the frown, then?"

  "The speedboat in that basin behind the pier."

  "What about it?" I asked.

  "We should disable it, to be sure nobody uses it to escape. You know — just in case something goes wrong."

  "You're right. Got an idea of how to manage that?"

  "Well, I like the idea of attacking from the offshore side, but — "

  "Wait," I said. "I've been assuming we were going to swim in together."

  "Me, too. You have a different idea?"

  "Well, maybe. We've got those earwig radios from Aaron's care package. We could split up and still coordinate our attack."

  "Okay. With radios and the night-vision goggles, I feel like this is some sci-fi game. I'm not used to having stuff like that. But go ahead. What are you thinking?"

  "Well, the NVGs will play a part, too. What if we took the dinghy straight to those last coral heads out to the southeast of Fowl Cay — the ones where we were closest to Dogfish Cay?"

  "You mean the ones where you thought you were going to get lucky?"

  "Yes, those." I smiled.

  "Okay, we anchor it there? But that's not on the side where you wanted to land."

  "No it's n
ot. But we won't anchor there. I wasn't factoring in all the high-tech goodies Aaron left us. We can hang out in that spot with the thermal imaging scope and wait until one of the guards has walked past the pier. It took him about 30 minutes to walk from the northwest point to the southeast point, and the pier's in the middle, roughly. Okay?"

  "Okay," Mary said.

  "So a few minutes before he passes the pier, I'll start swimming. I won't be able to use the NVGs in the water, but you can keep watch and call me on the earwig; they're waterproof, and I'll be on the surface, so I'll have reception. We'll time it so that I get to the basin just after he passes it. That will give me around ten minutes to work before the next guard comes around the northwest point. Still with me?"

  "Yes."

  "Once I'm in the basin, you take off and run straight over to Whelk Cay and beach the dinghy. Meanwhile, I'll disable the speedboat that's in the basin and set up an ambush for the guard. You'll be swimming to the offshore side of Dogfish Cay. We'll stay in touch on the radios to make sure we have the timing right, but what we want to do is hit both guards at the same time. That way, there's less chance they'll raise an alarm."

  "But what if our timing's off, Finn? I'm not sure I'll have time to land the dinghy and swim in that fast."

  "That's the beauty of the radios. If you're delayed for some reason, I'll just wait and let my guard pass me by. When you're in position, we'll get another chance to hit them at the same time — or close enough."

  Mary grinned. "I like it. I was worried about that anyway, when I thought we were swimming in together. How were we going to nail both guards before one of them figured out something was wrong? Problem solved. So we take them out, then meet up at the servants' quarters?"

  "Yes. We slip in and kill the four remaining guards, and then move to the big house. If we wait until early morning, everybody should be asleep, and we can take them one at a time."

  "Nothing to it," Mary said. "I like it. Shall we call Aaron and fill him in?"

  "Yes. Let's go up in the cockpit so the phone can acquire a signal. You bring the thermos; I'll get the phone."