Bluewater Drone: The Eleventh Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers Book 11)

by Charles Dougherty

"The girls?" Greg asked.

  "Yes."

  "But nobody's looking for any of them; we screened them carefully, remember?" Greg asked. "To make sure none of them had anybody that gave a shit what happened to them."

  "Except the chambermaid. Somebody's probably looking for her — they went to the trouble to sneak her aboard and gave her an encrypted satellite phone, and a damn good spy camera."

  "She wasn't out there; she's still recovering."

  "Too bad she didn't know anything. Is she going to be salable in time?"

  "Yes. No problem. Doc's done the breast augments, and he also changed the shape of her nose, and made her cheeks look a little more gaunt. Once the drugs take hold, she won't remember who she was, and nobody will recognize her."

  "Not at a glance, anyway," Danilov said. "But there's DNA and fingerprints."

  "That's true," Greg said, "but only if she's in somebody's database and somebody else bothers to run checks on her. That seems unlikely."

  Danilov thought for a moment. "I'm not sure of that; remember, she wasn't just a chambermaid — she was spying for somebody. She could be in a database and somebody could be looking for her."

  "Yes, but once Veronica takes delivery, she'll be off the radar — nobody's going to find her after Veronica sells her on. If you're really worried about it, we could do away with her, Andrei."

  "But we're already one short for the next delivery. Any progress on that?"

  "Ricardo's watching the resorts for young, single women who're by themselves. He'll find somebody."

  "He'd better, or I'll sell him instead."

  "Veronica doesn't deal in males."

  "No, but she's got the contacts. We've got enough of a track record with her so she might take him as a favor."

  "You want me to tell him? Put a little pressure on him?"

  "Not yet. He's so twisted he might like that idea. Who knows, with him?"

  Chapter 19

  "Any news from your leading lady?" Greg asked.

  "Yes. I emailed the script to her last night. She said their guests wanted to go sailing today, but she thought she'd get a chance for a read-through while her partner entertained them. The guests are wanting a sailing lesson, so she thought she'd have some free time during the day."

  "Think she'll like it?"

  "Cassie's a pretty exciting character," Strong said, "and Dani knows I think she's a good fit. She'll read the script and see herself as the heroine; how could she not get hooked?"

  Greg shook his head and grinned. "I've learned one sure thing about women over the years."

  "What's that?"

  "I can't fathom how they think. You seem to have better luck with that than I do. I hope you're right; Andrei is eager for you to start filming."

  "Is he wanting to watch, or what?" Strong asked, frowning.

  Greg shook his head. "No, I don't think that's it. He's just impatient to see movement; he knows he won't see any return on his investment until the film's released."

  "Once I get Dani Berger signed, things will start moving."

  "Assuming she likes the script, what's your next move?"

  "I'll ask her to join us aboard Platinum Odyssey for a few readings with me."

  "How long do you think that will take?"

  "Once I get her here, probably a day or two. Why do you ask?"

  "I've got a villa lined up to serve as your base of operations. I can move you in there in the next few days."

  "Cool. I can start bringing some of the crew out here, once you've got that squared away. And some of the supporting cast. We've already got a solid team shaping up."

  "I know; Andrei and I have been following Angelika's daily reports on the project."

  "I didn't know she did daily reports," Strong said, worry lines creasing his brow.

  "Andrei doesn't fly blind; she gives him an update on his cash flow every 24 hours. Don't feel exposed; it's not just your project. It's everything he's into."

  "No wonder I haven't seen her much," Strong said. "She must be busy."

  "If you're missing her, I could drop a hint," Greg said, winking.

  "No, that's okay. I'm — "

  "Resting up?" Greg laughed.

  "Kind of."

  Once you move to the villa, she'll have to work a little harder to get to you, anyway."

  "Um, I ... " Strong shook his head.

  "What's on your mind, Kev?"

  "I'd like to bring Dani here at first instead of to the villa. Is that okay?"

  "Sure. Just as long as it happens soon; I think Andrei's got some plans to move the boat in the next few days. Why do you want her here?"

  "Platinum Odyssey's the perfect setting for, uh ... well ... "

  Greg laughed. "You think it'll be easier to seduce her out here?"

  Strong grinned. "It's a romantic thing, being out here on a luxury yacht. It kind of sets the mood, and there are no distractions."

  "Not to mention that she'll be a captive audience for your, ah ... suggestions?"

  "There is that. Of course, I'll need some private time with her, at least until we've, ah ... reached some agreement."

  "That won't be a problem."

  "When is Andrei planning to leave?"

  "I don't know. You should be okay if you get her out here in the next couple of days. Once you've settled things with her, we can move you both to the villa. Think that'll work for you?"

  "Yes. Thanks. Uh, how about logistics — getting her out here?"

  "Let me know when and I'll fix you up with one of the boats and a couple of crew."

  "Great, Greg."

  Greg nodded. "Good. Well, I need to get with Angelika; we have some things to go over."

  "Better you than me, my friend," Strong said.

  "She doesn't see me in that way," Greg said. "We've shared some experiences that she finds a little off-putting, you might say. See you later; good luck with Dani Berger."

  ****

  Dani was struggling to get through the script; she had never enjoyed reading scripts, even for plays that were favorites of hers. The plot of Cassie's Dream might have promise, but the presentation in script format was too cumbersome for her. She was relieved to feel the satellite phone vibrate in her pocket.

  She'd been expecting Phillip to call after their email exchange last night. Closing the cover of her iPad, she fished the phone out, glancing back at the cockpit as she brought it to her ear. Blaine and Mindy were intent on sailing Vengeance, and Liz was not in sight. Noticing the time on the phone's screen when she checked the caller i.d., Dani thought Liz was probably in the galley fixing lunch.

  "Hello, Phillip," she said, keeping her voice down.

  "Dani?"

  "Yes. Can you hear me okay?"

  "Yes. Do we have a bad connection?"

  "No, I just don't want our guests listening in."

  "Is this not a good time?"

  "It's okay. They're sailing the boat, and Liz is below fixing lunch."

  "Sailing? You sure you can talk?"

  "Yes. They wanted to learn to sail; we're almost to Barbuda. Liz is fixing lunch and the two of them are at the helm. I'm up forward, reading. We're planning to anchor behind the reef at Spanish Point for lunch, and then let them take her back to Antigua while we coach them. What's on your mind?"

  "Clarence recognized the man who attacked you from the photos you sent. His name's Chernov; he's been Danilov's muscle for 15-plus years."

  "Danilov, huh? Interesting. I'd been thinking he must have been working for one of Danilov's competitors. What could he have been up to?"

  "I don't know, but he's ex-Spetsnaz. He got that knife the hard way, I guess. Clarence told me a little more about his surveillance job."

  "Yes? What did he tell you?" Dani asked.

  "I still don't know who he's working for, but whoever it is thinks Danilov has cruise missiles on Platinum Odyssey."

  "Cruise missiles? What on earth could he be doing with those? Any idea of what kind?"

&nb
sp; "No, but he said his client has hard evidence that they're nukes. The guess is they're probably Russian in origin."

  "Think he's dealing?"

  "Clarence doesn't think so. He's checked that out with J.-P. There aren't any rumors like that making the rounds."

  "How could that be related to Kevin Strong?"

  "It may or may not be. Danilov's an entrepreneur; he's got his fingers in all kinds of things."

  "I guess that explains why they shot down Blaine and Mindy's drone, anyway."

  "Yes, although there was nothing to be seen in the video except ten nude women stretched out around the pool. There's no sign of any armaments, nuclear or otherwise. Except for the shotgun, of course."

  "Has Clarence heard from his agent? The one who went missing?"

  "No. He's sure she's compromised."

  "That means they must know someone's watching. They've probably interrogated her."

  "No doubt. But she didn't know anything, so they won't know who's watching them, or why. She was recruited through a cutout in Marseilles."

  "But they'll assume somebody's onto the presence of nukes," Dani said.

  "Not necessarily. Platinum Odyssey is Danilov's base of operations for all kinds of odd businesses. Clarence says he's dealing in women, drugs, money laundering, you name it. Movies, too, I guess. He figures there may be enough going on that Danilov can't be sure what the agent was looking for. Her last message was that there were ten women being held incommunicado; she thought they'd been heavily drugged or brain washed. She tried to talk to a couple of them and got the same kind of spaced-out response both times. If that's when they caught her, they might be confused about what she was doing."

  "The women by the pool," Dani said.

  "Maybe."

  "Where does Strong fit in? Did Clarence have any idea?"

  "We checked him out. He appears to be what he says he is. He burned his bridges as far as acting jobs go when he started trying to produce his own films. The last one that bombed was backed by mob money; Danilov bought them out."

  "Mob money?" Dani asked.

  "Big budget films are a good way to clean dirty money, apparently," Phillip said.

  "You think Strong knows what's going on?"

  "Hard to say. He must at least suspect. I mean about using the movies to launder money. Not necessarily the other stuff."

  "Why did Clarence decide to tell us all this?" Dani asked.

  "He's looking for help," Phillip said.

  "What kind of help?"

  "He wants to get Marie LaCroix aboard Platinum Odyssey," Phillip said. "Any ideas on how he could do that?"

  "Sounds like they're short a chambermaid," Dani said.

  "Bad joke, Dani. They're not going to fall for that twice, anyway. But Strong may be a weak spot. Word is, he likes the ladies."

  "I can vouch for the truth of that," Dani said. "The problem is, I'm the lady he's got his eye on right now."

  "Can you think of any way to get him interested in Marie? You know her as well as anybody does. She's an attractive woman."

  "Let me think about that. I'll kick it around with Liz; she's a lot better at this girl and guy business than I am. I'll get back to you this evening, after we get back to Antigua and get the guests put to bed. By the way, I owe Strong a call tomorrow, after I've finished reading the script, so plug that into your thinking."

  "Okay. He's looking for your reaction to the script, I guess?"

  "Among other things. I told you he wanted to make me a star, didn't I?"

  "Yes, but I thought you and Liz were just clowning around. He really said that?"

  "Yes, the moron. I'm sure he wants me to audition for some of the sex scenes, whether he's serious about putting me in the movie or not."

  "Don't tell me things like that, Dani. I know you're a grown woman, but I still think of you as a twelve-year-old."

  "Okay, Dad. Don't worry; he's not my type. I need to go; Liz just put lunch on the cockpit table."

  "Call me tonight?" Phillip asked, ignoring her sarcastic response.

  "Or email. It depends on the guests. 'Bye, now."

  ****

  "What's Strong been up to this morning?" Danilov asked, pushing some salad around on his plate.

  "Waiting to hear from Berger," Greg said, taking a sip of wine.

  "Any idea of the timing?"

  "She's supposed to be reading the script as we speak; he thinks she'll call tomorrow."

  "Then what?"

  "Then he wants to bring her out here and seduce her."

  "I could have guessed that, Greg. What about the movie?"

  "I think the two things are joined in his mind. Once he gets her, she's going to be Cassie, and he'll get on with making the movie."

  "You talk to him about when he's going to start actually doing something? Like filming?"

  "I told him he needed to get moving; that you were getting impatient. I also told him about using the villa as a base of operations. He thinks that'll work well. Once he gets Berger in hand, he'll be ready to move to the villa and start bringing in the rest of the crew. He says things will move quickly, then. I told him he needed to get Berger on board sooner, rather than later, because you were starting to think about getting underway."

  "Yeah, okay. I'm not sure about getting underway, though."

  "Oh? What's happening?"

  "There's some debate about the best time for us to deliver our little surprise."

  "I thought that was tied to the election. That's not until November, right?"

  "Right. Early November, we were supposed to be in range of New York and Washington. They were trying to decide whether to strike before, during, or after. Then there was a faction that wanted to do it during the inauguration."

  "That's months from now, either way. I was worried about getting the women to Veronica, not the other thing."

  "Yeah, me, too. But they're thinking about striking during one of the party conventions, now."

  "That's much closer in, time-wise."

  "Both next month," Danilov said, nodding.

  "Which one?"

  "There's apparently a huge argument about that. They can't decide which candidate would do the most damage if elected."

  "Damage?" Greg asked. "I guess it depends on whether you're trying to damage the U.S., or somebody else."

  Danilov laughed. "Personally, I don't think it matters. Either one's likely to ruin the U.S., and do a lot of damage to everyone else. It's just a question of timing."

  "Philadelphia's easy enough to reach, but how about Cleveland? Is it even in range?"

  "Yes, but we'd have to be closer to shore. We'll have to be extra careful, if they pick Cleveland."

  "So what's your bet?" Greg asked. "Which one's going to be the target?"

  "There's a third faction arguing to hit both conventions. I'm thinking they may prevail."

  Greg thought about that for a minute and began to chuckle. Danilov grinned, and after a few seconds, both men were laughing.

  "A hard reset," Danilov finally said.

  "Reboot their political process," Greg said. "That has to be a pro-U.S. faction, wanting to give them a chance to start over from scratch and get it right. But they might actually find a couple of candidates that made sense, if they did that."

  Danilov shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows?"

  Chapter 20

  "They're doing well," Dani said. "You did a good job with them this morning."

  "Thanks. They're quick studies, both of them," Liz said. "I was planning to talk them through getting the anchor up and getting under way, but they wanted to try it by themselves. They asked me to speak up if I saw them doing something dangerous, but otherwise, just to let them fumble around until they figured out what they needed to do."

  "I thought they'd be busy making video of everything," Dani said. "I'm surprised."

  "We talked about that while you were reading the script this morning; I asked, because I thought the same thing. They want to get a fir
st-hand understanding of how it all works; they said they'd do a better job of presenting it if they had some experience."

  "That makes sense," Dani said. She and Liz sat on the foredeck in the shade of the headsails, enjoying the ride as their guests sailed Vengeance back to Antigua.

  "How's the script? Did you finish it?"

  "I did, but getting through it was something of a trial. I've always had trouble reading scripts. I guess maybe it's a learned skill, but I really prefer reading stories that don't have all the peripheral comments."

  "Did you like the plot?"

  "It has some interesting points, I guess."

  "You don't sound enthusiastic."

  "I know. I'll work on that before I call Strong."

  "What are you going to tell him?"

  "I'm not sure, now. I was going to blow him off until I talked with Phillip."

  "I thought that was probably who you were talking with when I was fixing lunch."

  "Uh-oh. You couldn't hear me, could you?"

  "No. I glanced out the portlight under where you were sitting and saw you put the iPad down on the side deck. I was curious, so I poked my head up and looked out the butterfly hatch and saw you on the phone."

  "Oh, good. I didn't want Blaine and Mindy to hear that conversation."

  "What did Phillip say that makes you think you shouldn't say no to Strong?"

  "It wasn't about Strong; there's not much surprising there, except that his last failed film was bankrolled by the Mafia. Phillip figures they were hiding dirty money and didn't care about the movie."

  "That's interesting. I wonder how Strong managed to get Danilov signed up for this one, then."

  "Danilov bought out the mob, probably for the same reason they bankrolled Strong to begin with."

  "Money laundering?" Liz asked.

  Dani nodded. "He's into all kinds of crooked things, from what Phillip learned from Clarence."

  "I guess that's not surprising to me," Liz said, "But why would you play along with Strong, then?"

  "I'm not quite sure what to do, Liz. Clarence recognized the thug that attacked me, by the way. He's ex-Spetsnaz. He's worked as muscle for Danilov for a long time."

  "That surprises me, that he works for Danilov. Why would he have attacked you, then?"

  "That's a puzzle. But there's more. Clarence's client has evidence that Danilov's got a cruise missile with a nuclear warhead aboard Platinum Odyssey."