The man had probably already left his cabin. If the hit team landed on the ridge, he’d walk into their arms. The president might even mistake one of his killers for me. I pictured him approaching with his hand outstretched. An easy target. I imagined his transitioning facial expressions-confusion, surprise, realization.. . then anger. The man was a fighter.
Would his last thought be that I’d betrayed him? Yes, the logical conclusion. His brain might spend its final microseconds, racing a bullet’s furrow, trying to make sense of my treachery.
I paddled harder.
I’ve known patriots and I am no patriot, but communal allegiance is deep-wired; dates to the Paleolithic. We are predisposed to sacrifice for the greater good. The greater good for what-a nation, a sports team, a street gang, a religion, a murderous cult, a pal-varies with our backgrounds.
The possibility that an American president might die believing I’d betrayed him was repugnant. But how could I stop four guys with automatic weapons?
I had no idea. Maybe catch them in the swamp. Slip up from behind, and… then what?
Not a clue.
I’d have to manufacture opportunities. Not unfamiliar. Before restarting life in Florida, I’d spent years in small, vulnerable countries gathering data, ingratiating myself to locals, dealing with dangerous men, impossible situations, making up the moves as I went.
I’d think of something.
Right.
I went through my list of makeshift weapons: emergency gear, mosquito spray, pocketknife, flashlights, a shaving kit, fire starter, lighter, flares, and a half-empty fifth of vodka-a prop to convince Secret Service I was drunk. There were also two wooden paddles, and a third made of aluminum and plastic.
I pictured myself swinging a paddle like a broadsword. Attach a burning flare and I had… nothing. They’d shoot me the moment I was in range.
I had flashlights that might be useful. Not the Maglite junk commonly carried. Some guys buy expensive golf clubs. I buy serious flashlights, and the best lab equipment I can afford. It’s a reaction to dealing with hurricanes and small wars.
I had three, palm-sized LEDs. One, a high-tech marvel made by Blackhawk, was powerful enough to cause retina damage. It also had a strobe that caused blinding dizziness, according to the literature. Useful, if true.
I thought about how to work it: Come up from behind with a paddle, then with my unusual flashlight, and then…? Well… hope my survival instincts kicked in.
There was that word again.
I paddled through pockets of sulfur-warm air, then bubbles of cooler air, the density of mist varying with each advection exchange. For a few minutes, it seemed as if the fog might be lifting. Then, abruptly, three strong strokes sent the canoe gliding into a cloud so thick that I couldn’t see beyond my knees.
Disorienting. I drifted, expecting visibility to improve. It didn’t.
There was no visual reference. I took a couple of experimental strokes and it felt as if the canoe veered wildly to the left. I used the paddle as a brake, applying back pressure, but it only magnified the sensation. I tried to touch bottom, couldn’t.
I sat motionless for a moment, yet it still felt as if the canoe was rotating at the same cauldroning speed as the fog. With a couple of sweep strokes, I attempted to compensate but made it worse. I became more confused.
I couldn’t see the island; didn’t know its direction. If I’d been flying an airplane, I would have panicked. Instead, I was just peeved at my incompetence. The only choice was to sit patiently until visibility improved.
I placed the paddle across my knees and reached into the pack for another look at the GPS. That’s when I heard it: the springratchet clatter of someone trying to start a motor. A pull starter with a rope. I heard it again… then again.
A lawn mower makes a similar sound when it’s out of fuel: spark plugs firing into dry cylinders. But this was no lawn mower. It was an outboard… probably the outboard motor on the assault team’s rubber boat.
I couldn’t see the inflatable, but it was no more than a few dozen yards away. The starter cord was being pulled with enough force to create small waves that reached me seconds after the ratcheting sound. I fought the urge to escape blindly into the fog. Instead, I sat immobile. I touched one hand to a paddle… then began to search inside my bag with the other, feeling for a flashlight. I found one, put it in my jacket pocket. Found another, then found the lighter, too.
As I drifted, water molecules moved inside my inner ear, bursting as if carbonated. The silence amplified a nearby exchange: men whispering, strident, frustrated. The language was unfamiliar. Complicated syllabics, vowels harsh, rhythmic. There was a momentary silence… then, much closer, I heard the outboard’s starter gear clatter four times in quick succession.
The motor wouldn’t start.
I felt a balmy gust of wind. Fog stirred. My canoe pivoted as if under sail. I drifted in silence for several seconds, removed my glasses and cleaned them as I waited. I thought I was staring in the direction of the inflatable when, from behind, I felt something bump the canoe… something elastic, springy, no sensation of weight.
I turned, expecting to discover I’d drifted into mangrove limbs. No. I’d collided with the rubber boat.
The moon was high, silver as an arctic sun. Enough light to cast shadows but not enough to reveal detail. I couldn’t see facial expressions but the men in the inflatable had to be stunned. We stared at each other dumbly as our vessels revolved, then bumped again.
That roused them. They lunged for their weapons; I threw my hands out as if to fend them off. It’s a reflexive, defensive posture, and why most people shot in the face at close range are also missing fingers. That’s what came into my mind as they stabbed rifles at me-I’d be missing fingers when my body was found. An odd, final vanity for a man who was about to die.
I lowered my hands to hide them… or perhaps because, even as a victim, I remained a determined disciple of the clean kill. I released my breath, curious, at some remote level, how my brain would signal the intrusion of a bullet. Darkness or a shattering light? If these men were pros, they wouldn’t hesitate… but they did hesitate.
Why?
I realized that my eyes were closed. I opened them. I gulped for air and voiced the first finesse that came to mind. “Don’t shoot. You need me. I can start your engine.” My voice was improbably calm.
The men replied with threatening gestures that I interpreted as commands. I raised my hands again, still expecting the killers to fire. They didn’t. I became more confident when a voice asked, “Who are you?”
The man was whispering for a reason. He didn’t want to give away their position.
From the distance came the rumble of engines: a patrol boat, Coast Guard probably. The hunters were now being hunted and here they were with a motor that wouldn’t start.
My confidence grew.
A red beam drilled a smoky conduit through the mist. The flashlight panned across my face, the canoe’s deck, my backpack, my clothes duffel. “You are Secret Service?”
I laughed, careful not to force it. “Me? I’m a… mechanic.”
The man’s English was spotty. I had to repeat the word twice.
“Why you then following us?”
He kept his voice low. I raised mine as if we were a hundred yards apart.
“Following you? In this fog? I couldn’t follow you if we were in the same boat and your ass was on fire.”
They didn’t laugh. But they didn’t shoot, either. That was the way to play it, I decided. Stay aggressive.
“Not so loud. Not necessary to be shouting.”
“I’ll speak any damn way I want. I paddled over trying to be a nice guy, help you start that engine. And this is the thanks I get?”
There was a pause of reconsideration. They were desperate, I realized. Escape mode.
The man doing the talking was next to the throttle-their leader. I watched him focus for a moment on the patrol boat. It sounded closer
.
He began to hurry… turned and pulled the outboard’s starter cord. Nothing. He adjusted the choke, then pulled again, three times fast-it wouldn’t start. He made a blowing sound.
“If you are mechanic, why this boat for rowing?”
“Because I don’t want to go to jail for drunk driving. That’s why.”
I reached toward my feet, found the vodka bottle, and held it up. At the same time, I palmed a flare from my open bag and slid it into my pocket. “I figured you were cops. But that can’t be. So why you got those guns in my face?”
In the silence that followed, I wondered if I’d pushed too far. I was relieved when a man with better English interceded.
“We are soldiers. Guests of your military-but this is secret. You know war games? But we can’t get goddamn engine started. We are supposed to be at a certain location by midnight but now we have this goddamn trouble.”
He used slang like an ornament, profanity learned from a book. I couldn’t place the accent or his static progressive verbs. Indonesian or Middle Eastern. It meshed with the million-dollar reward.
“You’re foreigners.”
“Yes… Singapore. America’s friends.”
He sounded friendly, but I didn’t buy it. I’d worked with Singapore’s Special Operations Forces. Pros, very tough, and they didn’t carry AK-47s.
“If you’re friends, lower those goddamn guns.”
The friendly terrorist thought for a moment, then pretended not to understand. “We must find location named ‘Palm Island Resort.’ ”
“In this fog? Palm Island’s six or seven miles of thin water and oyster bars. Good luck.”
“Yes, good luck. Already too much bad. You know way?”
He’d missed my meaning, but I replied, “Palm Island? Sure.” I nodded, and made a vague gesture with the vodka bottle, maybe pointing east toward the mainland or west toward the Gulf of Mexico. I didn’t have a clue. “It’s not far. I could run it blindfolded.”
The men were getting impatient. One of them held my canoe’s forward thwart. The boat rocked precariously as he reached beneath his seat. “Engine. You fix?” He was holding an object vertically. A small knife.
“They haven’t made the engine I can’t fix.”
He touched the blade to his neck. “Then fix. ” I pretended to take a gulp of vodka, then thrust the bottle toward him. He was so surprised he nearly dropped the knife. “Have a drink. You’re not mad, you’re just thirsty. But move your ass first. I need room to work.”
I live next to a marina and it’s a rare week that I don’t help some newcomer start his boat. The problems are typically minor because small outboards require only three essentials: fuel, air, spark. It simplifies troubleshooting.
The plastic gas tank was full, fuel hose connected. I removed the hose from the engine and sniffed. The smell of gasoline should have been strong. It wasn’t.
As I said, “I need a screwdriver or a knife,” I felt the boat shift. I turned. Knife guy had moved behind me, close enough that his knee brushed my back. He had a full, black beard, heavy glasses.
He was positioning himself to cut my throat-probably as soon as I got the engine going.
“Perfect,” I said. “Thanks.”
The man didn’t react for a moment when I reached to take his knife. Then he knocked my hand away.
“Hey, you want your motor fixed or not? I need a knife. ”
The friendly terrorist was listening to the patrol boat, trying to gauge its heading-not easy because of the fog, but also because the diesel engines now blended with a familiar, rhythmic thumping. It was the sound of an approaching helicopter.
Tampa Coast Guard was joining the hunt. Or maybe a military chopper from nearby MacDill Air Base.
The man snapped, “Folano!,” then added a few anxious words I didn’t understand.
Folano slapped the weapon flat-bladed into my palm, then was silent, letting his anger fill the boat. The knife had a polished handle and a short, curved blade. Nice. I touched a finger to the edge-sharp. No wonder he didn’t want to loan it.
I said, “Appreciate it, Folano,” then turned and removed the engine cowling.
Once again, I found the fuel hose. It had a standard quick-clip connector with an inset brass bearing. The bearing functioned as a valve. I squeezed the primer bulb, then used the tip of the knife to push the valve open. Gas should have squirted. It didn’t.
I unscrewed the gas tank’s plastic cap and heard a vacuum rush. Open a fresh jar of pickles and the sound’s similar.
A vacuum. That was the problem. They hadn’t opened the air vent, so gas couldn’t flow. A common oversight.
I opened the vent; replaced the cap.
The engine would start. But I wasn’t done.
“Hand me that red flashlight.”
I was working on a forty-horsepower outboard, an older OMC, with the throttle and gearshift built into the tiller. A lot of power for a small boat. I searched until I found the internal safety switch. It had distinctive wiring, yellow and red. Bypass the safety switch and an engine will start in gear.
Dangerous.
I cut the wires, then twisted them together, bypassing the safety switch.
I found the carburetor, inserted the knife, and bent the butterfly plate wide open. The engine would now get maximum fuel delivery no matter how the throttle was manipulated. There was no way to stop the gas flow without cutting the fuel hose.
The engine was now rigged to start in forward gear, at full speed.
Very dangerous.
It’d taken me less than two minutes. With my back to the men, I locked the engine cowling in place, then pretended to lunge after something I dropped.
“Damn.”
“What now has happened wrong?”
I stared into the water for a moment before I sat up and took the vodka from the bearded man. This time, I really did have a drink.
The friendly terrorist asked, “Why have you stopped working on the engine?”
“It’s fixed.”
“How can you be certain? You haven’t started it.”
The patrol boat was still cruising the island’s west side, maybe confused in the fog, but the helicopter was closing in.
“Trust me, it’ll start.” I patted the seat next to me. “Give it a try.”
I made room as the bearded man said something, then tried English. “Where knife?”
I jabbed my finger at the water. “Down there, knife.” I was looking at the bad knot they’d used to tie my canoe to the inflatable. If the rope didn’t break, I’d have to cut it free-which is why I’d wedged his knife securely into the back of my belt after pretending to drop it.
The bearded man growled a reply as I took the special strobe flashlight from my pocket and braced myself. The friendly terrorist’s hand was on the throttle.
I watched him lean toward the starter cord. The man put all his frustration into that first pull…
4
Ignite a rocket on the rear of a small boat and the results would have been similar. When the engine fired, the inflatable catapulted into the fog like a dragster. Men in front were thrown backward. The bearded man landed face-first in the bilge. The friendly terrorist would have been launched over the engine if I hadn’t grabbed him by the belt.
I was going overboard myself soon. I didn’t want his company.
Over the engine noise, he shouted, “This goddamn thing! How to stop my crazy motor?” The man wrestled with the tiller handle. He couldn’t reduce speed and the transmission wouldn’t allow him shift to neutral without decelerating. “Son of a beech. What bad shit is now happening?”
My canoe, still tied to the inflatable, became a wild, swinging rudder. It caused the little boat to veer left, then right, as we tunneled an accelerating arc through the mist. Fog sailed past my face as if driven by a twenty-knot wind. It was inevitable that we’d soon hit something-an island, an oyster bar, rocks. I didn’t want to be aboard when it happened.
I had the high-tech flashlight in my hand. When I punched the switch, it began to strobe with a dizzying, irregular rhythm. Each starburst was intensified by fog, each microsecond of darkness magnified the boat’s speed. My brain was unable to process the chaos and I had to blink to stem the sudden vertigo. The terrorists felt it, too: four faces frozen, wide-eyed, with each explosion of white.
“Idiot! You blind us!”
That was the plan and I wasn’t done.
I looped the flashlight’s lanyard over the tiller and pulled the flare from my pocket. I pictured me popping the gas tank, flare burning, as I cut the canoe free and rolled overboard. These guys liked bombs-let them experience what it was like to ride a floating incendiary. The inflatable would blaze like a torch.
But then, out of nowhere, a dazzling incandescence appeared overhead. It was brighter than my strobe and so unexpected that we all ducked. The circle of light swept past our little boat, touched the water ahead, then found us again.
I turned. The fog was so dense my eyes registered only vaporous glare. Where the hell was the light coming from? Then I felt a faint seismic vibration. It moved through the boat’s hull and into my chest, increasing incrementally. The cadence was familiar.
A moment later, a thudding sound accompanied the vibration, the flexing whomp-ah-whomp-ah-whomp of rotating blades, and I knew the source of the light. A helicopter was tracking us, flying low off our stern.
“Goddamn! What bad luck is here now?”
Maybe bad luck for all of us, depending on the helicopter. Coast Guard helicopters are equipped for rescues at sea. Military helicopters are equipped with machine guns and rockets. Which had the Secret Service called?
“Mechanic. You take!” Panicking, the friendly terrorist shoved the tiller toward me and lunged for his assault rifle. The boat turned so violently that I almost went overboard with bearded guy. It also snapped the rope holding my canoe. The loss of drag caused an abrupt increase in speed that almost flipped us.
I pushed the man off me and climbed back into my seat. The friendly terrorist was on his knees trying to shoulder his assault rifle. The other men were also struggling to get to their weapons.
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