The Gift of the Dragon

by Michael Murray

  Alice and Nanette smiled simultaneously at Anna’s exuberance.

  “Please forgive my breathless daughter, Alice. We are isolated here, and there are no children nearby. Anna’s just recently able to go swimming again after her therapy. Jacob told you why we are here?”

  Alice nodded and touched her scar. “I understand. I was in a bed most of last month recovering from this. When I was finally able to get out, I was very happy.”

  Nanette looked concerned. “That looks bad, does it still hurt?”

  “Not anymore. Not really.”

  Anna kept jumping up and down. “Mom, open the door, let them in for breakfast! And… ice cream!”

  “I am sorry,” Nanette said. “Welcome to Sugarloaf Key. Please do come in.”

  Jacob smiled too, looking relieved.

  “Thank you, sis. Please meet Alice Sangerman. We just came over from Miami. It’s a long story, but she has something I wanted you to look at.”

  Nanette looked worried then. “From Miami? On that boat? Oh dear, you must be exhausted,” she said, looking at Alice. “Come on in, I’m sure you need a shower.” Nanette took Alice’s hand and said over her shoulder, “Anna, can you show your uncle to the kitchen? Make sure he washes his hands before he touches anything.”

  Martin

  Martin Almaribe looked up from the mission briefing as the plane went into its final descent, flaps up and wheels down. Out the window of the jet, Marathon Key Airport looked like a widened part of Highway 1, the single road that links the Keys to the mainland.

  On his right, Johan Siegert spoke up. “Did you know that, despite the name, there is actually no Marathon Key. Marathon is the name of a Florida city that sprawls over seven small keys.”

  “Fascinating, Johan, you read the same part of the briefing that I did.”

  Siegert continued, “The name came from the grueling pace of work endured by the men building the Florida East Coast Railroad, which gave the rail stop on Vaca Key the name Marathon Station. The main businesses of Marathon are sport fishing and diving and smuggling, so the marinas of Marathon are home to many long-range, fast boats.”

  “Well, that should make it a fine place for us to find a boat and some gas. I am glad we are landing here and not Charlie’s Chicken Farm!”

  “Why would we go to this Charlie’s Chicken Farm?”

  “You tell me, Pigpen, what’d you do?”

  Marsdale broke in, “Charlie’s Chicken Farm is a kind of military jail, Johan.”

  His brow deeply furrowed, Siegert stopped talking. That made Martin happy. The young German meant well, but his mix of seriousness with a strong personal odor did not sit well with Martin.

  When the plane landed, Thorn led the way to a rented van with a driver waiting for them in the bright Florida sun. They herded aboard with their gear and headed south on the Overseas Highway to Boot Key Marina. There, a shiny white thirty-two-foot open boat with twin two hundred and fifty horsepower outboards waited for them, engines running. As the men loaded their gear on board, Thorn spoke with the marina employee, who tried to show him how to use the boat.

  “The SeaCraft is a good make, though a bit slow for my liking,” Thorn pontificated to the bored-looking employee. “Too bad you guys don’t have any Contenders or a Fountain. Those are fast boats! This boat with the two fifties hits what, forty-one? Forty-two?”

  “The boat will do about fifty miles per hour with the throttles wide open, sir.”

  “Right, so forty-one knots. So this is all you have?”

  “This is our best boat, sir.”

  Almaribe rolled his eyes at the marina guy and said, “Hey, righto, Captain Thorn, sounds like this little yacht will do. Let’s let Jimmy here get on with his gig while we get ours on.”

  Thorn glared at him for that. Now look what I have done, Almaribe thought. He was thankful that Alan Marsdale broke the tension by saying, “Hey Michel, let’s get this show on the road. We have to get to the fish!”

  “Okay, Mr. Marsdale, you are right. We have some bait to kill! You have my permission to leave the boat, Joe!”

  Looking relieved, Jimmy the marina guy and his clipboard disembarked, leaving Thorn and Marsdale at the helm of the boat, looking over the controls, while Almaribe and the rest of the team stowed their gear. As a fishing boat, the SeaCraft had a large forward area for fighting and landing fish. Here, the men laid their black duffels like five short body bags. They arranged them with their carbines, or in Thorn’s case his shotgun, lying at the top, so that the weapons were only a quick unzip away. Sanchez suggested that they cover the bags with a tarp as they looked a bit odd, and the Coast Guard might get suspicious if they happened to pass a patrol, but Thorn dismissed that suggestion.

  “Unwind your panties, Sanchez! The local Coasties and Po Po have been told to leave us be. We’ll show up in their computers as an undercover mission of Miami PD.”

  With that, Thorn revved up the big engines, shouting, “Ready to go, ladies!”

  Marsdale pointed back at the marina office, where they could see Pigpen running toward the boat, zipping up his fly.

  “JeeSUS,” cursed Thorn. Then he said, “Sanchez, get the rope up front there free! Almaribe, get the rope at the back!”

  Sanchez cast off the bowline while Martin freed the stern line. A regular Captain Bly, he thought as Thorn sat impatiently with his hands on the throttles while Siegert ran for the boat. The boat had drifted several feet from the dock by the time Pigpen made it, forcing him to jump.

  Thorn waited until Pigpen’s feet were in the boat before gunning the big engines, cutting the wheel, and jetting from the dock in a roar of sound and exhaust. Siegert sprawled on the deck as they raced by the line of boats moored in the harbor. Thorn ignored voices yelling at them to slow down as large waves from his wake rocked the lined-up boats.

  Marsdale shouted, “The wind is from the north. We should take the southern route.”

  “Why? It’s longer.” Thorn yelled above the roar of the motors.

  “Smaller waves on that side. The boat will go faster. Also fewer boats.” Almaribe chimed in.

  Thorn nodded and cut a hard left into Sister Creek, which got them quickly into the open ocean, where they turned west around the sole of Boot Key. Once into the long, deep course of Hawk Channel, Thorn pushed the throttles to the stops, the engines howled, the waves were torn to shreds by the boat’s sharp bow, and they raced west away from the morning sun.

  Alice

  The shower, breakfast, and coffee had Alice feeling like a human being again. Anna got sent to watch a recording of a show called iCarly, with a promise of lobster hunting and ice cream after the adults rested.

  As she bounded off to her room, Alice said, “Nanette, Jacob says you are a ‘reverse engineer’? Used to work for the government?”

  Nanette said, “Well, my title was 'investigator,' but yeah, a big part of what I did was reverse engineering before I quit working there to care for my daughter. I can’t really talk about what I did, my lawyer says.” Alice saw her give Jacob a stern look.

  “Nanette, Alice has some scary people hunting her, and they seem to be after this necklace she has. I looked at it, but I can’t see why anyone would want it that bad. I was hoping you could help?”

  “May I see it?”

  Alice took off her necklace and handed it to Nanette. Nanette held it in the palm of her hand for a moment. “It’s quite beautiful. This is a Chinese dragon instead of a European one.”

  Alice looked at the silver dragon with its black hair and claws.

  “Does that mean anything?”

  “Well, maybe, maybe not. The western dragon was generally a symbol of evil, going way back. The Greek word drakon meant a huge serpent, a water snake. In the Bible, the devil takes the form of a dragon during his fight with Michael.” Seeing Alice’s look of confusion, she said, “The Archangel.”

  “Oh,” Alice said, wishing she had her phone so she could ask Ami about the story.

&nb
sp; “You can tell by the eyes and the shape of the head: this dragon is Chinese. In China, the dragon was a symbol of power over weather, good luck. Longevity.”

  “So a dragon is a good thing in China and a bad thing in Europe?”

  “Right. It’s common in China to say things like ‘He is as great as a dragon’ or ‘I hope your son will become a dragon.’”

  “It’s amazing that you know this, Nanette!”

  “Well, my career kind of depends on my being a know-it-all.” Nanette grinned.

  Jacob chimed in, “Nanette was always getting in trouble for reading history books when she was supposed to be studying her math or physics.”

  “Yeah, math just seemed so simple and logical to me. History was fascinating because so many people did such strange things to each other. I wanted to find out why.”

  Alice asked, “Did you?”

  Nanette laughed. “Hah, then I’d really be smart. No, I am much better at figuring out what things do than why people build them. Anyway, this can’t just be a pretty Chinese dragon necklace. It’s not even real silver—just coated steel and obsidian with some gold plating on the tail. There must be something more here for people to be chasing you for it.”

  “Wait just a second.” Nanette got up and walked to the adjacent office, leaving the necklace on the table. Alice stared uncomfortably at it. She did not like to have it off her neck.

  Jacob got up and got three Land Shark Lager beers from the fridge, opened one, and placed it before Alice.

  “Not drugged, I promise.”

  Alice stared at the beer and then at Jacob. “Not freaking funny, Jacob.”

  “Sorry,” he said, looking sheepish.

  She took a drink anyway, enjoying the crisp flavor.

  Nanette came back in the room with her iPhone and a strange device attached to it.

  She noticed the beer on the table. “A little early, isn’t it, Jacob?”

  “Hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere,” Jacob said with a little too much volume. “Come on, Nanette, we just escaped a gunfight and then ran all night for our lives. We’ve got a thirst.”

  Alice noticed that Nanette smiled a small smile. “Okay, brother, I guess you do deserve a beer for living through what you have.” Then she looked worried. “These people who are after you… could they have followed you?”

  “No, there was no one left of the gang that attacked Alice. I made sure of that, Nanette.”

  “Good. Well, I know you know how to lose a posse.” This exchange mystified Alice, but with the route they had taken, she could not see how anyone could have followed them. After they left No Name Key, she had seen no other boats anywhere behind them until they had made it to the gas dock at Old Wooden Bridge marina.

  Nanette held up her iPhone with the strange gadget hanging off it. “This is a cool toy I bought for looking at the tiny creatures Anna sometimes brings in from the sea. It’s actually a sixty-times magnifying lens that works with the phone’s camera.” Nanette looked up shyly. “I like electronics.”

  A ring of LED lights surrounded the lens and lit up the necklace brightly. Nanette stared at her phone’s screen and then motioned to Alice.

  “Come over here and take a look at this.”

  Alice moved her chair over next to Nanette.

  “See these tiny lines here?”

  Alice leaned in, with Jacob behind her. A magnified view of the dragon’s golden tail showed on the screen. She saw grooves of a less-shiny golden material etched into it. Alice could not see them with her eye alone, and they were barely visible on Nanette’s magnified screen.

  “I’d say this is a USB device, like a thumb drive. I am guessing that somewhere there is a computer with a port the shape of the tip of the tail.”

  “Wow. What gave you the idea to look at it with your lens?”

  “Well, everything else is nicely curved about the necklace. Except the tip of the tail, that looks squared off. It made me think it might be something like a plug. Not only that, but you see this looks like gold?” Nanette pointed at the material between two of the grooves on the phone’s screen.

  Alice nodded. “I thought it was gold.”

  Nanette put the dragon’s tail between her teeth and clenched her jaw, causing Alice to gasp.

  “Don’t worry, Alice, look. No dents. The tail is not gold plated. This is tinite, a very hard ceramic. The person who made this really knew what they were doing!”

  “Why is it made from that?”

  “Well, tinite is non-conductive. So the real gold wires that make up the connector don’t short out.”

  Jacob took a swig of his Land Shark. “Nanette, I knew you were the smart one in the litter!”

  Nanette sighed. “Well, I can tell you part of what it is, but I am not sure what it is for. It may be a drive or a hardware key that unlocks a device. I would have to break it open to tell for sure, but that would ruin it.”

  “Don’t break it!” Sara would never forgive her!

  “I won’t, Alice.”

  Jacob said, “Nanette, if it’s a drive or a hardware key, why would they want it?”

  “We used hardware keys where I worked to secure laptops and tablets people took out of the office. Basically, the files on the device are encrypted and can’t be viewed unless the key is inserted. Or if it’s a drive, it might have files on it they want.”

  Jacob hit the table with the palm of his hand. “That must be it!”

  Alice shook her head. “Maybe, but that can’t be the only reason. Guzman could have poisoned me and taken the necklace. Instead, he tried to capture me.”

  Alice thought about the man in Tampa. He seemed to want her dead. Could there be more than one group of people chasing me?

  Jacob leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, well, we solved one part of the mystery, anyway. This thing fits some hole on a computer somewhere, and someone wants it back.”

  He looked intently at Alice. “Do they want you because you know what this key fits?”

  Alice shook her head again and blew her bangs from her face. “No, I have no idea. It’s possible I had an idea.”

  She looked at Nanette and pointed at her scar. “I lost a good bit of my memory, along with some brain cells.”

  Nanette looked sadly at her. “Oh, my dear, that’s terrible.”

  “Yes. Yes it is.” Alice smiled ruefully.

  “They say goodness is never forgetful. So I must be pretty bad.”

  Jacob stared at Alice. “You forget your past, but you remember your Shakespeare. I think that your memory loss is temporary and you’ll remember everything soon.”

  “I hope so!” Alice said fervently.

  “Anyway, another variation of that quote is ‘goodness is never fearful,’ in which case you are very, very good.”

  Alice looked more closely at Jacob, whose eyes seemed to be twinkling at her in the soft light of the kitchen. “Why, thank you, Jacob, but I’ve no idea whether I’m really good or just too dumb to know better.” He smiled back at her, and she thought she saw something like longing in his eyes.

  Michel

  The SeaCraft’s GPS unit looked as large as a laptop computer. Alan Marsdale pointed down at the map display and yelled above the roar of the wind and the double motors.

  “Less than a mile from target, sir.”

  Michel nodded and slowed the boat down and then killed the motors. The team sat in large beanbag-type chairs frequently used by offshore fishermen for cushioning. As the boat slowed and the pounding into the two-foot chop eased, the men rose, moved to the rear of the boat, and began putting out the decoy fishing gear as planned.

  “We’ll make a couple passes to check out the scene,” Michel said. Then he yelled out, “Everyone, attention!”

  Sanchez, Almaribe, and Pigpen stuck their fishing poles in the rod holders along the rear and sides of the boat and turned to look at Michel, who stood facing them from the helm.

  “We want to take these people alive, at least until we fin
d Alice Sangerman. You’ll know her because she’s the cute blonde.” Michel leered, and Almaribe and Pigpen grinned.

  “If our intelligence holds, the other woman is a government scientist, mid-forties, dark hair. The man who rescued Sangerman may be her brother, a former FBI agent who resigned last year. He could be dangerous. We know Sangerman is dangerous.”

  “I’ve scoped the best way to handle this. First, we’ll scout out the target location with a couple of passes.”

  Michel touched the screen on the big GPS and moved the map display to show an area ahead of them. He pointed at a long, northward-thrust oval of land on the map.

  “Up here is where the drone puts the subject’s boat. There’s a house just south of that with a good dock. No one’s there. Most of the places at the north end of Sugarloaf Key are vacation rentals that are empty now—I can’t imagine why.” Michel said the last sarcastically, wiping the sweat of the one hundred and five–degree day from his brow.

  “We’ll make a few passes until dark and then work our way into the dock of the empty house. This house is much farther inland than the target’s, and the dock has a long causeway.” Michel saw that Marsdale had pulled out the iPad displaying the drone’s live feed. Fucking Marsdale, always wanting to be the center of attention!

  Grabbing the iPad away from Marsdale, Michel pointed at its screen. “These are the latest visuals from the drone.”

  The men moved closer so they could see the display in the shade of the boat’s Bimini top.

  Michel went on. “These are mangroves—nasty, thick, bushy things. Inland here,” his finger moved to a lighter-gray section of the map, “is sand with some patches of grass, palmettos, and small stuff, easy to move over. We’ll cut north over this to the target’s driveway and then quietly move down that to the house.”

  Almaribe jabbed Siegert. “You heard the man. Remember quietly, okay? Don’t go singing any of those German battle songs you like.”

  “Of course I will not sing them when we are on the mission, Martin!”