by Andrew Watts
“It’s coming,” Henry said. His face was sunburnt and tired. “You know, it’s not so much the heat out here…it’s the humidity…”
David tried to smile, but his mouth muscles wouldn’t make the shape. “Yep.”
“There,” said Henry. “That should do it.”
“Looks good. The shade will be helpful, too.” David leaned as far under the tent as possible while still holding on to the wheel.
Henry’s lips were chapped. His neck and shoulders were bright red and blistering from being in the sun. David imagined that he didn’t look much better.
They had made the sail as soon as the boat’s gas had run out. Henry’s design. He was pretty crafty, David would give him that. He had used the rope from the small anchor, several of the shower curtain rods, and a half-roll of the duct tape, and turned them into what David thought resembled a jib. Then they’d used similar parts to increase the area of the rudder. It was crude, but it did the job. There was a steady wind coming from a non-ideal direction, but David did what he could to make it work and maneuver them west.
Henry, putting away the “tools,” said, “Okay, let’s make a bet. We make it to land, get rescued by a boat, or die of dehydration. What do you think it’s going to be?”
“Don’t forget sharks.”
“Sure. Good point. So you’re taking sharks? I think we die of dehydration first, personally. But…” He stopped and froze his gaze to the west. His words became more rapid. “Actually, I’m gonna change my bet. David, look. I see something,” Henry said.
David leaned over and peered in the direction Henry was looking. There was a dark shape on the horizon.
Henry said, “Do you see that? Just to the right of where the front of the sail starts. I think it’s a boat.”
David thought so too, although he couldn’t make out what kind of ship it was. It would be a minor miracle to find someone else out here. Even more miraculous would be if they were spotted and rescued.
Henry said, “I’m going to signal it with the mirror.”
“Wait.”
“Look, we’ve been over this. We agreed that if we saw anything…”
David squinted as he tried to make out the features of the vessel. A mast, a radar, fishing nets…anything that might give them a hint as to whether it was a friend or foe. He said, “You sure you don’t want to wait until it gets closer to make sure isn’t a warship at least?”
“I’m sure. We might not want to pass up opportunities,” Henry said. He held up an empty water bottle. “Beggars can’t be choosers.” He scratched at the peeling sunburnt skin on his neck.
David bit his lip and jiggled his empty water bottle, then looked at the dark spot on the horizon. Even if they did signal it, that thing was so far away that whoever was on board probably wouldn’t spot them.
“Okay. But assuming they’re civilians and this doesn’t get us killed or captured, let’s remember the plan.”
Nathan heard one of his deck men yelling from the bridge. It sounded like Byron, his good-for-nothing nephew. Christ, now what was the matter? Their icemaker had been on the fritz for the past week. No fishing and a ten-day steam to Darwin. Could have been ten years, it would have been the same effect. You can’t store fish without a working icemaker. They were over one hundred miles west of the Philippines by the time they’d finally fixed it, only to discover a major hydraulic leak that prevented them from reeling in their catch effectively. Once again, no fishing. The ship was going to need major maintenance. Nathan’s chief engineer informed him that they needed to head back to port as soon as possible. Back to bloody Darwin.
Nathan climbed up the ladder to the bridge to see what that idiot nephew of his was blubbering about now. When he got there, Byron was looking through his binoculars—not wearing them the way he was taught, as usual—and getting more excited by the minute.
“Nathan, someone’s signaling us! They look like they’re in distress. Look.”
Nathan frowned. What the hell was he talking about? They were in the middle of the Pacific. Quite a ways from land. Nathan didn’t expect anyone else around these waters. He grabbed the binoculars from Byron’s hand. The chief engineer was coming up the ladder behind them now. Wonderful. Let’s just get the whole crew in here. A month-long sightseeing cruise with no fish to show for it.
Nathan centered in on the raft. Or was it a motor vessel? The thing looked like a security boat you would see around a naval base. But there were tarps covering it, and he could make out two men huddled together in the shade. One of them was flashing something at them that reflected in the sunlight. That’s what must have caught Byron’s eye. A good thing, too. There wasn’t anyone else out here for dozens of miles. This was one of Nathan’s favorite spots to haul in a catch because no one was ever around. And these assholes were floating on some navy raft in the middle of his secret fishing territory. He sighed. Better go help them out.
Nathan said, “Come right five degrees. And wake up McCormick. Tell him we’ll need him to put his nurse hat on today.”
Seven hours later, Nathan tapped his fingers on the metal table in his personal cabin. His two recent rescues sat across from him. The door was shut.
They were a sad sight. Peeling skin and chapped lips. McCormick had checked them out and given them plenty to drink. They had taken showers and put on oversized clothes borrowed from the crew. They were still guzzling down water nonstop. Like they were afraid it would run out.
Nathan took in a deep breath and let it out through his nostrils. If it wasn’t one thing it was another.
“So let me get this straight. You gents have been working for the US government on some type of secret project that you can’t tell me about. There are well-equipped Chinese criminals after you, and you think that if I was to call or radio or email anyone and let them know that I’ve picked you up, I would be putting us all in grave danger. Is that about the gist of it?”
Henry nodded vigorously.
David said, “I know this sounds very unusual, but…”
Nathan held up his hand. “Unusual is picking up two Americans in the middle of the Pacific. What you’re telling me is a plot out of one of them crazy books that my nephew’s always reading.”
David and Henry exchanged nervous glances.
The ship captain closed his eyes as he spoke. “Still, this has been a strange time at sea for me. I usually have good luck. Catch lots of fish. This time, though, my luck’s been rotten. Maybe I help you two out, it will turn around, eh?”
Henry was back to nodding and smiling.
“But tell me, how do I know you two aren’t wrapped up in something criminal yourselves? How do I know you aren’t running drugs or girls or some such rubbish?”
Henry said, “I wish to God that we were.”
Nathan frowned.
Henry squirmed. “I guess what I mean is that I wish that was our only problem. I don’t mean additionally. I mean like as a substitute problem. For our actual problem. That problem being…the sophisticated Chinese criminals that are after us.”
David said, “Uh…what he means to say is that we’re in a lot of trouble, but not for something that we did wrong. Please, Captain, we need your help. We just have to get to a safe place without alerting anyone. Please believe me when I say that Henry and I could be taken prisoner or worse. And you and your men could get caught up in it.”
“And what is it exactly? What might we get caught up in?”
David said, “We can’t say.”
Nathan scoffed.
He looked at each of them and shook his head. He didn’t like not knowing exactly what they were running for. But he could tell that these men were harmless. Nathan knew the sea and he knew people. He could trust these men at their word, he was sure of it.
“I’m going to have to make sure my men don’t call home and blabber about any of this. That’s all these kids want to do nowadays is text on their phones and apps about what they’re doing. Nobody does anything. They
just text or app people about it.”
The two men sat waiting.
Nathan said, “The best way to do this is to secure all phone and email usage until we get back to Darwin. They’ll be angry. The only way to send email is on my own computer, and I’ve got the only two satellite phones locked up in my room. I’ll talk to my engineer. And to my nephew, Byron. They’re the only other ones with access to my quarters who might come in here when I’m not around. The engineer’s a good man. He’ll oblige. And my dumbshit nephew will do what I bloody well tell him. What do you want me to tell my men? About your situation?”
David said, “Anything you want. We’ll stay out of the way and help out however we can. We just need to reach land safely.” David hesitated. “And it would be best if no one knew about our entry into whatever port you drop us off in.”
Nathan said, “Well…now this isn’t a ferry boat. We’re heading to our homeport in Darwin. I need to go straight there and get this boat fixed. We’ve got room and food, but I’m not stopping and wasting time with drop-offs. My company’d have my ass.”
David said, “How long until—”
“Twelve days, as long as nothing else breaks on this gal. She hasn’t been very friendly of late, however.”
Henry said, “I’m sorry, but are we still talking about the boat?”
David looked disappointed.
“You gents in a hurry?”
David said, “We’ll be fine. Thanks.”
Nathan tapped his fingers on the table some more. “As for dropping you off without anyone knowing, I think I can figure out a way. I’ve got a friend who works the tugs. He’ll be good for a lift, no questions asked.”
David said, “Captain, thank you so much. You have no idea how much we owe you.”
“Well, like I said, maybe this’ll all come back my way in the form of good luck. If not, you come pick me up next time I’m stuck out on the water, eh?”
David and Henry walked out of the captain’s cabin and down the stairs to the galley. Through the lone oval window they could see that it was dark out now. They sat down across from each other in one of the three booth-style tables where the crew ate their meals.
Henry said, “Things are looking up.”
“For us…”
“You worried about everyone back on the island?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Of course. But like you said before, this is the best way to help them. It wouldn’t make much sense to get all this way and get caught.”
David said, “Yeah. I know in my head that we’re doing the right thing. If we hear a helicopter out here, there’s nowhere to run. No stormy night to give us cover. But it’s still hard to leave people behind. And it’s harder still not to ask the captain to borrow his phone and call my wife.”
Henry said, “You might get to talk to her for a moment, but that could also be the last call you make. And you could put her in danger.”
“Because they might be able to triangulate our position?”
“Yup.”
“I really want to call her.”
“Let it go, brother. It’s the best thing for everyone. I know it sucks.”
David said, “Yeah…”
“Now remind me, what was it you were telling me about transponders on boats?”
David said, “Lena’s men saw us go out to sea. Maybe she assumes we drowned. Maybe not. But if she wanted to recapture us, a good place to do it would be while we’re stuck on a commercial fishing trawler for twelve days. Now this fishing trawler has got a transponder. And just like every other navy in the world, the Chinese Navy tracks all of those transponders so that they know where all of the commercial shipping traffic is. If the Chinese version of the NSA intercepted our satellite call, they would be able to triangulate our position and get one of those helicopters or warships on top of us in a flash. And if we turned off the transponder, that might look just as suspicious. Either way, they would be able to find us.”
Henry said, “So what’s the plan from here?”
“Well, now we know we’re going to Darwin, Australia. You ever been there?”
“No. Although one time I took a cruise to the Galapagos.”
“Close, but I’m not sure that will help. Anyway, we agree that we’ll make calls once we get there.”
Henry, getting into serious mode again, said, “Alright, let’s say they are monitoring all calls that they think we might make. Family, work, hell, maybe even some government or news station numbers. The NSA has programs that can scan for word patterns and hone in on the right voice or combination of words and flag that one for someone to monitor it. Same thing for email, but that’s easier since it’s just words.”
David said, “And we think China can do that.”
“Based on what we’ve learned on the island, I think it is a given.”
“How do we know that they won’t be waiting for us once we get there?”
“We don’t. But if they know we’re on this boat, why wouldn’t they just apprehend us out here, where there are no witnesses? I think if we make it to Darwin, it’s a moderately safe assumption that Lena and company won’t know we’re there until we try to communicate.”
“Darwin’s reasonably far from China. I think we’ll have a window before anyone tries to come and get us. So what will Lena do when she learns that we’re there?”
Henry said, “I think she’ll send some henchmen to come grab us—or worse. Let’s call it a six-hour flight from there to China. I’d have to check for sure, but that sounds about right for now. Plus two hours for the Chinese SWAT team that they send after us to get on a plane and find us in Australia. That gives us eight hours from our first phone call to when we’re in danger.”
David said, “So we need that first phone call to count. What should the plan be there?”
“I would think that we would want to get multiple government authority figures in the room. We know there are breaches—Chinese spies in our government. We need to spread out our information to a wide enough group of people that we don’t get unlucky and have one of the spies end up being the person we’re talking to. They’d hide whatever we tell them, call Lena, and it’s game over for us.”
David nodded. “You’re right. I think I know someone at my work that I can trust. A guy named Lundy. I’ve known him for years at In-Q-Tel. Good guy, family man, trustworthy as far as I know. We can get him on the line. But that won’t spread out the information like you’re saying. If we’ve got eight hours, let’s use the first call to tell my friend the quick information dump. Then we’ll get him to round up people from the CIA, Pentagon, whoever we think needs to be on the call—and we’ll give them an hour to get in a room together. He’ll have the connections to make that work. He’s tight with the CIA and has contacts in several other government agencies from the work we do. Then we’ll call the whole group back and give all of them the details.”
“We’re still putting a lot of faith in your friend.”
“I know. I don’t see how we can avoid that. We have to start somewhere.”
Henry frowned. “Can we just go to a newspaper? Or the Darwin police?”
David said, “How’d your phone call with your ex-wife go?”
“Less than ideal. It could have been better.”
“Why do you think that was?”
“Because she’s a spiteful old bitch?”
“No. It was because we had not established credibility and trust. Even if she did trust and believe what we were saying, she wasn’t equipped to take the right action. The first time we tell someone about this, we need them to trust what we are saying, and have the ability to take the proper action. We can’t go to the police without passports and talk about a Chinese invasion, just like we can’t go to the newspaper. There’s way too high a chance that they will think we are crazy and we’ll be apprehended by Lena’s goons before we can really do anything meaningful. We can’t take that chance. We need to hit a home run with our first at-bat.
”
Henry cracked his knuckles. He nodded. “The two-phone-call plan could work. I’m a little worried about the Chinese version of the NSA jamming our second phone call. But I might have a way to get around that.”
“What about the Chinese SWAT team they send after us eight hours later? We might be able to make phone calls and warn people, but how do we protect ourselves?”
Henry said, “We’ll have to use our first two phone calls to ask for security. If they have the right US government pull, we should be able to get Australian protection. Or they can send us to the US embassy. Not sure where that is. Probably Sydney. I need to look at a map.”
“What if the Chinese SWAT team gets there sooner?”
Henry said, “I might have a way to buy us some extra time with that too. Let me think it over.”
David said, “Okay. We’ll have several days to go over our plan before we get there. Now we just need to pray that the Chinese don’t find out where we are—or where we’re headed.”
“With any luck, they’ll think we drowned in the storm. We almost did.”
David said, “Luck’s fickle.”
Two hours later, Byron lay in his bunk. He had just finished the second book in a new science fiction series. It was about thousands of people who were living their whole lives below ground in a dystopian future. Their days were filled with endless physical work and sheer boredom. It reminded him of working for his uncle on the trawler.
Uncle Nathan had made him stand the midwatch every night since they’d been at sea this time around. There was only so much holding a wheel and pointing it at the same compass heading that Byron could do before he drifted back to his books to pass the time. He loved to read. Sometimes they drifted a little off course. It was a big ocean, however, and there were very few reefs to worry about this far out.
