by Matt Lincoln
Eve grinned and then pushed a bowl into my chest. “Eat this first.” She took out a beer and handed that to me as well. “Go sit down, and we’ll discuss a few things while we eat. Is that acceptable?” She was playful in her orders, which was fun to see for a change.
“Yes, ma’am, councilor,” I smirked at her and walked back to the sofa, with gumbo and beer in hand. She joined me within a minute or two, plopping right down next to me and narrowly avoiding spilling hot soup all over both of us.
“Sorry,” she apologized sheepishly and dug into her bowl. After a bite or two, she started the conversation. “You probably already knew this, but your cars-for-hire guys were Yabut. I contacted a few friends, and they gave me all the info they could on them. Fake names, fake IDs, illegal passports, that sort of thing…”
“That’s what I figured,” I nodded. “I guess the Judge is still angry enough to keep the ordered hits out on my life. I don’t know if I should be flattered or annoyed.” I slurped up a few spoonfuls of the soup. It wasn’t bad for takeout gumbo.
“Well, they failed and are now completely off the grid,” Eve commented and sighed as if that was an unsatisfactory ending to it. “They either went underground or were bumped off themselves.”
“Bumped off?” I laughed at her phrasing. “What are you, some kind of old-timey gangster attorney now?” I shook my head, still amused by it. “Bumped off…” I repeated.
“Be nice, Mr. Header. I’m planning to bump you somewhere once you finish that gumbo.” Eve looked directly at me and raised her bowl of soup to drink the rest of it. She defiantly and loudly set it on the coffee table, downed a good portion of her beer, and then stood up, eyeing me with that beautiful grin of hers.
I followed suit, finishing both my beer and gumbo in record time. I stood up, reached out for her hand, and she practically jumped into my arms. Her legs wrapped around my waist and her arms flung around my neck. She was so rambunctious that she barely let me come up for air. We made it to my bedroom, I slammed the door with my foot behind us, and the rest was magnificent, delicious history.
13
Jake
I was the last one to arrive the next morning at the marina, which my team all made sure I knew. Rosa was probably the most impatient of the three, which I could understand. She was going to be leading the dive since I had to wait to get cleared after my slight concussion. Rosa gave me a stern glare and mouthed the words, “about time.”
Doc was at least polite about it and simply asked how things had gone. “A late night, I presume?”
I gave him an appreciative nod as confirmation.
Xavier was too busy to notice and was already setting up Wraith with all the gear he personally was going to need. He did look up when I boarded the boat and ever so subtly checked his watch. I flat out refused to comment on that.
I took my seat as captain and got Wraith ready to go. Rosa made sure she did all the final checks as Doc settled into the fourth chair, the one that had been empty for far too long in his absence.
I turned back to him. “I know I’ve already said it, but I’m glad that you’re back with us, Doc.” He nodded appreciatively.
“Hey, just a quick question, though,” I added. “Where’s Zaid today? I know that you didn’t leave him alone, right?” I was teasing, but I was curious.
“Oh, yes, well, I asked George to watch over him today,” Doc replied with a shrug. “He was going to give him a checkup as well. I already have, but I thought that a second opinion might be best.” Doc cocked his head comically. “I might have a bit of a bias since he’s my grandson. For developmental reasons, I’d prefer for someone else to be the judge of if he’s on track.”
“Sound advice,” I nodded. “I don’t suppose I could get him to clear me for diving then, could I?” I glanced over at Rosa and smiled to let her know that I was only joking. She gave me such a look that I quickly turned from her. “Not that I’d ever try to rush medical recovery or anything like that…”
“I will give you an examination when we get back from this trip,” Doc offered, then followed up with, “And the sooner we get started, the sooner we can make that happen.”
“Okay, Doctor Snark. I can take a hint.” I smirked at Rosa and got Wraith ready to go.
We pulled out of the barn and headed for the open water. The weather today was a bit rougher than it had been last time, but it wasn’t anything that we couldn’t handle.
“Looks like rain is coming our way,” I teased. “Maybe we should just call this off for today.”
My idea of humor wasn’t respected today, it seemed. I got another nasty look from Rosa and a mere grunt from Doc. It was Xavier, however, that added context.
“Based on his statements so far, I would say that Header is not only in a good mood but also a tad resentful at not being able to go on today’s dive,” he observed. “All in favor of ignoring the remainder of his comments, please say or sign ‘aye.’” He and Doc both called out their “ayes,” and Rosa signed it more than once.
“Good thing then that I’m the boss and own the boat, aye?” It was all in good fun and a welcome change to all the crap I’d been dealing with. We all settled into an easy conversation about the last time we’d dived in the rain. We all had different recollections of when that was, and it carried us all the way to the Speirs site.
I volunteered to pull in the buoy to check for any signs of tampering done to it. The rain was kind of light and wouldn’t be much of a problem so far. Rosa and Doc had already gotten into all the gear that they could before we’d arrived, and Xavier was uploading the information from his sources. I was feeling a tiny bit resentful of not being able to go down there today, but I resolved not to let it overtake all the other duties that I was going to be responsible for up here.
Plus, it wasn’t like this was all going to be over with today’s dive. The goal today was to retrieve Declan Speirs from the stairs where I’d found him on the prior trip. Then, once he was secured on Wraith, the hunt for the case of collectibles, the Speirs inheritance from Liverpool, was next on the list.
If there was enough time after that, the search for all the other crew members’ bodies would begin. That would most likely need one more trip out, if not more. We just had to hope that the Hester stayed in good enough condition that we could continue to dive in and recover them.
Doc walked out to the deck first, geared up and ready to get wet. I looked him over, checking to make sure that all his equipment was in working order. The LEDs that encircled his wrists and ankles were fine, as was the headlamp. We’d decided to add extra bright penlights on the forearms that could be turned off and on by the diver and remotely. Xavier was in charge of that aspect.
I adjusted the minuscule wet-cam to give us an eye-level view. That way, everything they saw, Xavier and I could also see up here on the monitors. This was a newer mechanism of Xavier’s own design that he was excited to try out. If it worked, there might be a wider market out there someday.
Once I’d double-checked Doc’s air tanks, I tapped on his earpiece to let him know that Xavier would want a mic check before he went into the water. Doc nodded and did his regular rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon.”
“Coming through nice and clear. Okay, Doc’s good to go,” Xavier announced as Rosa joined us on the deck of Wraith.
I performed the exact same checks on Rosa’s gear that I had with Doc. Once everything was clear, I gave her a thumbs-up and pointed to her forearm keyboard. It was another of Xavier’s newer instruments. It was a lot like the older one, but now he’d updated it with simple replies that should make it easier for Rosa to communicate underwater.
I stayed with them until they both slipped into the ocean and disappeared from my sight. I took a very deep breath and gave myself a few moments to handle my disillusion at not being down there with them. Then, I headed inside for the next phase of the dive.
Xavier was already receiving their feedback and typing in commands to their equipment a
nd cameras. He’d created the cameras to shift angles, and they even had a limited telescoping feature. He was shaking his head when I walked up next to his station. “Doc camera isn’t reacting as fast as it should. I’ll just have to add it to the list of bugs I need to work out.” He sounded flustered at this.
“It’s a beta run, Xavier. It’s not the end of the world.” I hoped that would help. I watched the screens as Rosa and Doc descended quickly in the murky water. It all looked good from where I was.
“No, it's not. It’s not even a Gamma or Delta run. More like… an Iota run.” This was as close to sulking as I’d ever seen Xavier on a live mission. He usually saved his technical-difficulty rants and meltdowns for afterward.
I noticed that Rosa’s LEDs were bouncing off of something ahead of her. Xavier’s tech concerns would have to wait.
“She should be getting close to the opening I marked,” I informed him. “Of course, now that the beacon isn’t sending, she might have a harder time.” I shook my head, knowing full well that it wouldn’t matter. “Why is she not using the guideline to follow? Doc is, look. What’s going on with her?”
“Ask her.” Xavier pushed a spare headset at me, and I slipped it on my head. Once I had adjusted the headpiece, the tiny mic sat directly in front of my lips.
“The mute/talk button is on the tang,” he recommended.
It was a little distracting, the mouthpiece placed in that manner, but I’d get used to it. “Rosa, why aren’t you using the guideline? It would take you right to the opening of the boat.”
I wasn’t sure that she had heard me at first, but maybe there was just a delay. Soon, she started typing at the keyboard, and a synthesized voice that sounded a lot like Mia’s voice spoke, translating Rosa’s text.
I was looking for other elements of the wreck. Make sure nothing broke off.
“Okay, that makes sense, but next time, use the guideline. It’s not there just for decoration.” I scoffed and clicked the mic off so that they couldn’t hear me. “I’m writing her up for that.”
Xavier’s eyes doubled in size, then he said, “Wait, you actually do stuff like that?”
“No, but maybe I should start.” I was only half kidding. We needed to do this by the book. We were already behind schedule, and the longer we left the bodies down there, the more likely someone else would find them, or else they wouldn’t be in good enough condition to bring to the surface. Ocean predators and even schools of fish would not leave fresh food alone for long.
Xavier wisely decided not to ask any more about my remarks and focused on his job instead. We watched Doc’s camera feed as he easily found the opening and headed in. He startled some angelfish that startled him right back. I chuckled and was glad that it wasn’t me that had done that.
Rosa glided in after him, and they both carefully made their way to the passageway and ladderwell where I’d found Declan. From what I could see, it looked like nothing had been disturbed. It didn’t appear that anyone else had dove here, and that took a lot of worry off my mind. So far, we were the only people that had been down to the Hester.
Watching their movements and actions from up top on the boat was getting problematic. I trusted my team, but I wasn't comfortable with not being a part of the dive aspects of this mission. Once they reached the body, I had to step away from the monitors. I walked over to the cabinet storage and pulled out one of the body bags we’d purchased for the retrieval mission.
I grabbed a few of the smaller evidence bags, just in case they brought up something else this time around. It was my plan to place Mr. Speirs and everything on him directly into the bag and leave it for later inspection. We still hadn’t heard back from any reputable legal agency, even though Xavier had taken over the task of trying to alert and get a response from them.
The only positive feedback had been from Jamaica, but then they stopped answering his emails, so he considered that a dead-end now. Sadly, this wasn’t too strange of a situation. Being way out here, not many governments in this part of the Atlantic wanted to expend the means that it took to recover a boat that had very little payoff for the crew and the officials.
That was why small groups like my team were often hired to do the retrievals. Privately owned companies and enterprises could get the job done quicker, cheaper, and with a lot less red tape. Not that services like ours came cheap, but we were more likely to act on a call such as this.
Once I got the bags laid out on the deck and the lift in place, I headed back in to check on the progress. Xavier was talking them through the placement of a harness meant to distribute the weight of the corpse evenly between them. This was the more gruesome part: tying the cords onto the body so that they could safely bring one up.
Seeing this now, I wondered if it wouldn’t be a better idea to have three divers for the next go around. That would mean I’d need a second person up here with Xavier, and I didn’t have enough time to call up any of my reserves. Not that I had that many, to begin with. I was super critical of who I let on my boat, and that list got shorter by the year, it seemed.
Rosa and Doc struggled to get the harness placed effectively, but once they did, they made good time back to Wraith. I was waiting on the deck for them with the lift already lowered for delivery of Mr. Speirs’ body. They placed him as carefully as they could manage from their positions in the water, but this sort of thing was never a pretty sight. Once he was up top with me, Xavier came out and helped me place him into the bag. I stopped to take pictures of the wounds on his head and on his chest. We would need proof that he came out of the water in this state, and as gruesome as it was, we had to cover our butts in this matter. Then, I zipped it up, and we all shared a moment of silence, whether we’d intended to or not.
Both Rosa and Doc took a minute of fresh air to calm their nerves before heading back down for the case. I didn’t push for them to return to the Hester right away. Sometimes this kind of retrieval would be harder than other times. It just depended on the person and the situation. Once they were ready, they’d let me know, but until then, they could just float alongside Wraith and gather the strength they needed to return to their task.
Doc nodded that he was going back down, took the guideline that was connected to the buoy, and dove. Rosa followed suit a minute later, letting him have enough time to put a safe distance between them both. I again watched them until their lights were gone under the water before I returned to Xavier.
Now that they were a bit more familiar with the area, they moved more rapidly to the opening of the Hester. Rosa took the lead this time, as this was going to be more of a searching procedure than the last dive. Xavier and I watched them swim to the same passageway and past the ladderwell this time around. There were several doors along their path, and they had to stop and try each one.
A boat such as this didn’t have many of the guest amenities that others did, but we knew from Claude Speirs’ information that this boat had three guest cabins. The crew’s sleeping quarters were all on the left side of the passage that they were swimming through, leaving the guest cabins on the right. This would help us out a great deal by narrowing it down considerably.
The first door was already split some, and it would take a little pressure to be able to get through it. Doc and Rosa both worked extra carefully as the jagged, sharp splinters could tear, rip, or puncture a suit at any time. Once they made their way in, they saw an empty space. It was obvious after a few seconds of looking at it that no one had been in there, and there certainly was no suitcase or evidence of an occupant.
Xavier and I had been uncharacteristically quiet as we watched Rosa and Doc navigate the door and the room. I hadn’t even realized that there was no chatter at first. I guessed that we were all so caught up in the moment and the mission task that it hadn’t seemed too important.
“That room is a bust. Let’s move on, okay?” Xavier requested of them politely.
The rain outside had picked up, but we still weren’t in any great dange
r from a storm or choppy conditions. Still, the weather might turn nasty quickly, and it was better to be prepared for that than to ignore it and hope for the best. That might work in other situations, but the stakes out here were too high to play with.
Doc and Rosa moved out of that cabin and back into the passageway. They reached the second door in a few moments, and it was in far better shape than the first. The handle took a bit of prodding, but it did open finally. Inside was a tiny cabin that looked identical to the first. There was a narrow bed along the wall opposite the door. A nightstand was next to that on their right. On the left was a set of drawers and a few empty shelves. A smaller, less impressive looking door was placed in the corner and most likely led to the private bath and privy.
There was a rectangular window above the bed that would have given the occupant a genuinely nice view of the ocean, but now, all anyone would be looking at was the dark water of the ocean floor. That aside, the cabin was snug but well designed and placed. The best thing about it was that we could all see one large, wheeled case on the floor and several other bags of luggage all around.
“Let’s hope that this is it.” I wanted to sound authoritative about the situation, but watching them was making me nervous in a suspenseful way. Rosa got to the larger case first and looked it over for a name tag. Doc took the smaller ones, lifting them into view and also looking for name tags.
That would be the surest way of knowing if we’d found Declan Speirs’ cabin and belongings or not. There wasn’t another passenger registered on the Hester, but we didn’t want to take any chances. Verification was key at this stage. We had to make sure that this was exactly what we’d been sent to find.
Doc’s wet-cam focused on the name tag of the luggage that he was holding. Now we just hoped that Declan was the kind of man that filled that out before traveling across the world. Xavier typed in a few commands, and the telescoping feature on Doc’s camera moved in.
