Knight's Cross (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 3)

by Christine Kling

  Cole looked at the two of them and thought about how close this had been. He couldn’t fathom what he’d do if he lost either one of them.

  “That’s a nasty gash on your temple.” Riley ran her fingers over the top of his head through his close-cropped hair.

  “Probably a piece of glass,” Theo said. “Ouch!”

  “Sorry,” she said. “There’s an even bigger cut in your scalp.”

  Cole sat down on the couch next to him. “So what happened?”

  “You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now. When Cole Thatcher starts saying people are out to get him, listen up. Pay attention, Theo.”

  “Hey, buddy. I’m so sorry. First you end up blind from that mess in the Turks and Caicos. Now this. Again, this was meant for me.”

  Riley stood up. “Cole, let him tell his story. Once we have the facts, we’ll deal with it. Go ahead, Theo.”

  “Well, Leia here woke me up from a sound sleep with her barking. I didn’t hear a thing. She does that sometimes when she hears people walking to the head in the night, but this time it sounded different. Her barking was more insistent, so I got up.”

  Cole reached over and patted the dog, but she wouldn’t take her eyes off Theo.

  “She led me up the ladder to the wheelhouse. As soon as I opened the door, I knew someone had been in there. I could smell a stink of cigarette smoke. It was strong—like the stale breath of someone who’d just been standing there.”

  “In the wheelhouse,” Cole said.

  “Yeah, mon. But it gets a whole lot worse. See, Leia started pawing at the cabinetry under the instrument panel and whining. We’d been working on installing those last two displays yesterday, and we had one more left to do, so I wasn’t surprised to find the doors left open. But I got down, stuck my head in the cabinet, and the tobacco smell was stronger in there.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “I had a look around. Used my fingers to see. I’d been in there only a few hours before. Just because I can’t see doesn’t mean I’m no good at wiring. The guys in the yard understand that I’ve got good hands for it. There’s lots I can do. They just have to tell me the color of the wires.”

  “That makes me feel better,” Cole said. “’Cuz recognizing the red wires from the black ones kinda matters.”

  Riley grabbed his forearm. “Let the man tell his story.”

  “So what I felt in there was something that hadn’t been in there yesterday afternoon when we quit. It felt like somebody had stuck a wad of clay onto the side of that last big display. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I felt some wires going into the clay, and then I found a circuit board. I almost soiled my pants when I realized what it was.”

  “C-4,” Riley said.

  “I’ve seen enough movies, read enough books. All I could think about was all that work we’d put in to make that bridge perfect. It was my dream command center, and I wasn’t going to let some tobacco-breathing Neanderthal destroy it. So I climbed out and lifted the display out of the hole she was resting in, plastic explosives and all.”

  Riley placed her hand on his forearm. “That really took courage, Theo.”

  “When I think about that crater out there, it feels rather stupid.”

  “You saved the boat, man. Riley’s right. That took balls.”

  “But wait. The guy was still aboard. I’d just got the monitor out of the cabinet, and the port-side door opened. I thought I was dead for sure.”

  “What happened?”

  “We were face-to-face. I could smell the tobacco on his breath. Leia saved me. She launched herself right at him. I heard her growl, and then the guy crashed against the side of the cabin. I bolted out the starboard-side door and headed aft to get off the boat. I was sure he was right behind me, but the only thing I could do was to keep going. Thank goodness I’ve walked these decks hundreds of times, and I was able to get down the stairs to the main deck and down the transom ladder with the display tucked under one arm.”

  “I can see, and I’m always tripping on this boat,” Cole said. “You’re amazing.”

  “All I was thinking was, Get off the boat. As soon as I thought I was far enough away, I set that thing on the ground and started running. It was only seconds later when it went off. The blast knocked me down, and little pieces of glass and metal flew everywhere. And half the dirt that used to be in that hole landed on top of me.”

  “Theo, I’m so grateful you seem to be okay,” Riley said. “I’ll still feel better after a doctor looks at you.”

  “Definitely,” Cole said.

  Theo leaned back against the couch cushions. “But why?”

  “Because you could have some kind of internal—”

  “No, Cole,” Riley said, “he means why did somebody just put a bomb in this boat?”

  Cole took her hand in his. “It wasn’t just somebody, Riley. You know who this was. The same guy who bombed the Marine House in Lima. The guy who gave you those scars on your back.”

  “Cole!” The word seemed to explode out of her mouth.

  “Riley—”

  “No. Seriously. I’m not going to argue whether he could have survived that boat explosion or not. But if there is one thing I’d bet my life on, it’s that Diggory Priest would never smoke a cigarette. He was an egotistical health junkie. A clean freak. Theo said our bomber had bad smoker’s breath. That means it wasn’t Dig.”

  From the stern of the boat they heard the sound of knocking. “Hallo? Captain?” It was a man’s voice.

  Cole stood up. “That’s probably the doctor. I’ll go see.”

  After closing the door, Cole stepped out onto the aft deck. He found not the doctor but a man in a green uniform. A car was parked not far from the crater in the yard. On the side of the car he read the word Jandarma.

  The officer looked at him with black eyes. “You are the captain?”

  “Yes.”

  The man turned away and looked at the crater. When he turned back to face Cole, he said, “You were lucky. Terrorists usually kill somebody.”

  Adakoy Shipyard

  Adakoy, Turkey

  April 14, 2014

  After Cole closed the door to the aft deck, Riley sank back into the cushions on the settee. “What are we going to do with him, Theo?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s fixated on the idea that Dig is alive and after him.”

  “But Riley, somebody just put a bomb on this boat. Somebody is after him.”

  “Yes, of course, but Dig? That’s not rational. I can’t deal with people who aren’t rational.”

  “Well, you’re supposed to be marrying him, so you’d better learn how.”

  “I don’t know, Theo.”

  “Are you saying you’re not coming with us when we launch the boat?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know what I’m saying. It’s just that he’s the captain. We’re putting our lives in his hands. And he keeps insisting he’s seeing a ghost.”

  “So what do you suggest?”

  “Let’s look at the facts. First, Cole said someone was following him. Then, that guy rear-ended us. The same guy followed us to Malta, where he used a fairly sophisticated drone to listen in on our conversation.”

  “Cole told me about that when he called last night. I wish I could have got my hands on that drone.”

  “It was like nano-small and it was no toy—more military. Anyway, when we chased him, he fired a gun at us. But if he’d wanted to kill us, he could have. He probably heard or even recorded us discussing the cipher text in the journals. The next day, someone attempted to plant a bomb on the boat. We have no idea when he meant to detonate it. I think when he saw you take the bomb off the boat, he decided to cover his tracks by killing you and destroying the bomb. So, who is this guy?”

  “Riley, if you don’t think it’s Diggory Priest, then why don’t you help Cole find out who it really is?”

  Theo was telling her the same thing Hazel had. “How am I sup
posed to figure out who he is? I don’t even know what he wants.”

  “He wants the same thing Cole wants,” Theo said.

  “And what’s that?”

  “Whatever it is that James Thatcher wanted Cole to find. Thatcher wrote, There is an object of great power inside—and now that you’ve solved the cipher text, we know it’s inside the Upholder. Like us, they want whatever is inside that submarine.”

  “They? You’re starting to sound like Cole.”

  Cole’s voice interrupted them when he opened the doors. “Right through here.”

  The man who entered certainly didn’t look like a doctor. He was wearing a green military-looking uniform, and he wore a sidearm. He had a full head of dark-brown, wavy hair, a mustache, and thick, bushy eyebrows that made him look perpetually angry.

  “This is Maggie Riley and my first mate, Theo Spenser. Captain Danyal Pamuk here is with the Turkish Jandarma. He’s here to investigate the bomb.”

  Theo stood and extended his hand about fifteen degrees to the right of the man. The officer stepped in front of Theo, took the offered hand, and stared at his eyes.

  “Yes, I am blind. Until you start speaking, I won’t be sure exactly where you are.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Captain Pamuk said.

  “Theo’s the one who found the bomb and got it off the boat before it blew,” Cole said.

  Captain Pamuk’s English was heavily accented, but fluent. “So you are my witness?”

  Riley stood and offered her hand. “Don’t discount him, Captain. He may not be able to see, but he has fantastic observational skills. Why don’t you sit down?” She pointed to a chair opposite the coffee table.

  The Turkish policeman sat, and the plastic made a loud crinkling noise.

  “My apologies for the state of our boat, here,” Cole said. “We’re still finishing up some last-minute jobs.”

  “This is a new boat?”

  “Yes, and we have been very happy with the quality of the work done here in Turkey.”

  Riley smiled. Cole was laying it on pretty thick. She didn’t think he’d been happy since the day they’d sailed in on Bonefish and he had started asking them to change things. None of it was the yard’s fault. They had done terrific work.

  “Do you have any idea why terrorists would target your boat?”

  The question shocked Riley out of her private thoughts. “Terrorists?” she said.

  “No, I have no idea,” Cole said. “Other than perhaps we appear as rich American capitalists.”

  Why was Cole not objecting to the idea that this was a terrorist act?

  “I hate these Islamists,” Captain Pamuk said. “Don’t get me wrong. I am a proud Muslim. But these bombings against foreigners? It is ignorance.”

  “Until this happened, we have found Turkey to be a nation full of warm and kind people.”

  “Do you know what is the difference between an Islamist and a Muslim?”

  Cole turned to look at Riley. He shrugged and raised his eyebrows. She thought he was hamming it up a bit too much, but Pamuk didn’t seem to notice.

  “No idea. What is it?”

  “A Muslim wants to read the Qur’an, go to mosque, and say his prayers many times every day. An Islamist wants you to read the Qur’an, go to mosque, and say your prayers many times every day. Turkey is a country of Muslims.”

  Riley chuckled and dipped her head once. “That’s certainly what we’ve found. We adore Turkey.”

  “I appreciate your country, too. I have a brother, he lives in Miami Beach.”

  “Really?” Cole said. “I grew up not far from there.”

  Captain Pamuk nodded, and his eyebrows danced up and down as he spoke. “He owns a frozen-yogurt store. He makes so much money he drives a Cadillac and lives in a condo with a sea view. He sends me pictures. America has been very nice to my brother.”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Cole said.

  “For this reason, I am very sorry this happened to you.”

  “Captain, as you can imagine, this incident is very disturbing. We want to work with you, but for the safety of my crew, we would also like to launch and get under way. In fact, we were planning to launch the boat today.”

  “What?” Riley said. From the look on Theo’s face, she saw he was equally surprised.

  “Yes, our launch has been delayed for many weeks, and we are now finally ready to go. I understand that you need to do an investigation. Do you think we can complete everything we need by the end of the day today? This is not meant as an insult to your country. As I said, we love Turkey. But for the safety of my crew, I think it best we depart as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, yes, of course. I will get a crime-scene crew out here today.”

  “That’s very kind of you. I will also have to clear out with Customs and Immigration and make the arrangements for leaving our sailboat here.”

  “I have another brother who is an agent in Marmaris. He can help you take care of all that.”

  Captain Pamuk rose and nodded his head at Riley. “I will leave you, then. Within the hour my team should arrive.”

  “We’ll be here,” she said.

  Cole escorted Captain Pamuk out the aft doors. As soon as the doors were closed after the Jandarma, Theo said, “Seriously, Cole? You think we can just launch this afternoon and take off?”

  “Assuming the doctor says you’re good to go, Theo, that’d be our smartest move. They won’t be expecting that.”

  “That’s just crazy. With all these systems, we can’t just take off. We’ve got to break in the engines slowly. I want to test everything. No matter how well we’ve built this boat, there will be problems.”

  “Do you really want to stick around here and give them another chance to blow up the boat and maybe kill us all next time? Which is worse?”

  “Cole,” Riley said. “I don’t even know if it’s possible. There’s so much to do. I’d have to move stuff off Bonefish, we’d have to schedule the travel lift, pay up all the bills with the yard. Then you have to unpack your shipping container. What about things like provisions and dishes and linens and all the crap people need on a boat?”

  “Look,” Cole said, “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy or that we’ll get everything done. But if we divide up the chores, and we all go in our different directions, we can get a hell of a lot done.” He checked his watch. “It’s just a little after eight o’clock. Theo, after the doc looks you over, you go talk to the yard crew and see if you can get them to splash us this afternoon. I’ll go move anything that’s left in my container. Riley, you take the morning to work on getting Bonefish ready to be left alone on her mooring for a while and pack up whatever you want to take along on the new boat. This afternoon, you and I will go to town and order provisions and clear us out. We’ll tell the yard we only plan to take her out for a trial run, but we want to pay our bill in full before we go.”

  Again they heard a knock on the boat’s hull. Cole looked out the window of the aft doors. “Looks like the doctor is here, Theo, and she’s quite attractive.”

  “Roger, roger, Captain.” Theo stood up and headed for the stairs down to his cabin. “I guess I’d better put some trousers on, then.”

  Adakoy Shipyard

  Adakoy, Turkey

  April 14, 2014

  Riley took the dinghy back out to Bonefish and started tossing her toiletries into a duffel bag. Her thoughts tumbled like clothes passing the window in the dryer door. She saw flashes of her life down in Lima, sneaking out of the Marine House to go make love with Diggory Priest, carrying her fellow marine out of the fire as the skin on her own shoulder burned through to the flesh. She saw her mother sitting on the couch in their Paris apartment, Mikey on her lap, a picture book open across his knees. Her father in his DC townhouse, sitting by the street window and looking at her as though he couldn’t remember her name. As a foreign-service brat, she had grown up in so many different places; she now realized Bonefish had been her home long
er than any other.

  After ten minutes, when she found herself putting her little zippered shower bag into the duffel, she realized she wasn’t packing to move into a new home. For a short trip? Maybe. And maybe her packing told her that she’d already decided not to go at all. She’d taken out the sweater her mom had knit for her and the dress she’d worn to her brother’s funeral, and then she’d put them back. They stayed here on her boat, because this was her home.

  Mikey, help me out here, please? How can I go to sea on this new boat under Cole’s command when I think he’s losing his mind?

  You think, Sis, or you know?

  I think.

  Then go find out some facts.

  Riley walked across the yard toward the front office. Wes and Ellen, an older American couple who were wintering in the marina aboard their cruising ketch, stepped into her path.

  “We’re so sorry about what happened to your crewman this morning,” Ellen said. She wore her usual stretch jeans and plaid shirt. On her collar was a small American-flag pin.

  “Theo’s going to be fine,” Riley said. “The doctor put a couple of stitches in his scalp, is all.”

  Wes nodded. Thanks to copious amounts of gel, Wes’s white hair never moved, even in the wind. The first time Riley had met him, waiting for his wife outside the showers, he had been sure to tell her he was a US Navy man.

  “World would be a better place if we could just get rid of all of them,” he said.

  “Sorry? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Riley said.

  “Muslims,” he said.

  Ellen leaned in closer. “We heard it was terrorists.”

  “What?” Riley looked from one to the other.

  “Who else do you think is trying to kill Americans?” Wes said.

  “We don’t know who set the bomb,” Riley said.

  Wes turned down the corners of his mouth and looked at her over the top of his glasses. “We know, Riley. It’s not Americans trying to blow up innocent people. It’s them. I don’t know how Muslims can call themselves religious. It’s a cult of death. They stone people and behead them. Blow them up. They hate all Christians and Jews.”