Smith's Monthly #12

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  Of course, the police didn’t buy the fact that three men just sort of zapped Cutbank and then floated Donna out, even with all of us telling somewhat close to the same story.

  They did an autopsy on Cutbank and ruled that he had died of a heart attack. Made sense to me since there wasn’t a mark on him. They didn’t know what to do about the blood on the floor, so they didn’t do anything and I mopped it up.

  That all happened three days ago and now it’s time to head to work. Tonight will be the forth night since they took Donna.

  I don’t know what to expect when I open up Sandy’s. Sometimes I think Donna is just going to come walking back in the door live as can be.

  And then sometimes I think that they just might dump her three-day-rotted body off after doing what they pleased with her for three nights.

  That thought makes me sick, but it could happen. Sometimes you just never know.

  I don’t like to think that, so that’s one of the reasons I’ve been covering for Donna the last three nights and holding her job open.

  I can always hope.

  HEARTBURN

  Mr. K. Berwick once said,

  “You marry the person who is available

  when you are the most vulnerable.”

  Two Nights ago, at five o’clock

  I was vulnerable.

  There was on one available.

  So, I had a beer instead.

  Beer always gives me heartburn.

  A close approximation.

  (First appeared in “An Anthology of New American Poetry” in 1976)

  What came before…

  Nineteen-year-old Danny Hawk, his uncle, and his best friend Craig, were in Cairo to look for his missing father. Danny had witnessed the death of his only contact in Cairo, Professor Davis, because the professor had Danny’s father’s journals.

  Danny knows that the men who had killed the professor were now after him and the journals. Danny finds the journals and gets his uncle and friend to safety in an airport hotel where he tells them what happened. They decide to keep searching for Danny’s father and try to rescue him.

  Along the way, Danny and Craig find some help from a street kid named Bud and twins from South Africa who had worked with Danny’s father.

  They managed to escape the men chasing them twice so far, but Danny wasn’t sure their luck would hold a third time.

  And it barely did. They finally decided to head out of Cairo.

  Beyond the headwaters of the Amazon, in the Republic of Congo, after a few more close calls, they hire a guide to take them into the jungle in search of a lost ancient city.

  And even into the jungle on the Trail of Elephants, they are followed.

  Then Danny barely escapes death when he falls through a floor in an old temple. The rest rescue him, but when they reach the bottom the men following them throw down the rope and trap them under the ancient city.

  But what they find next is amazing. An ancient council chamber.

  And they find the fourth Hydra Journal entry.

  HYDRA JOURNAL ENTRIES FOUND SO FAR

  The water flows uphill.

  The birth of a snake, the path of elephants.

  Under the teaming masses, the river becomes clear, the path muddy.

  From the highest city, power flows to the many.

  So they head for South Africa where Ed and Ernie are captured. And if it is discovered who they really are, they will be executed. Somehow, Danny, Craig, and Bud manage to rescue them.

  THE ADVENTURES OF HAWK

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  October 3, 1970

  Cape Town, South Africa.

  THE FIRST NIGHT sleeping on the tops of the tall stacks of crates had been nerve-wracking. The crates were square, and Danny could barely lie side to side without his head or feet being near an edge. So all night he had a constant fear of falling asleep and rolling off.

  He had managed to use a few of his clothes from his bag as padding and a pillow, but the rough surface of the wooden crate top still dug into his skin every time he moved. And any noise from outside the huge warehouse made them all sit up and hold their breaths in the dark. The dock was a busy place, day and night, so there were a lot of noises.

  It had been a very long night.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the sun finally came up, casting bright streams of light through the huge warehouse. From on top of the crates, the place looked more like a giant checkerboard, with the spaces between the crates dark lines. Since the tall stacks weren’t much more than four feet apart, all of them had gotten used to jumping over the dark between the crates. It had twisted Danny’s stomach the first few times, but now he knew it was nothing more than a really wide step to get from one to another.

  Bud had vanished without a word just as the first light of day was starting to color the dirty windows of the warehouse. Now, suddenly, he appeared from out of the dark near Danny’s crate.

  “The British ship docked last night,” Bud said. “They’re just finishing unloading it now.”

  Danny had been worried a lot about how they were going to board tomorrow morning, in the light, with all the dock hands around getting ready for the ship’s departure.

  “I think,” Danny said, “that when it calms down some around the ship, I should go talk with the Captain. See if we can board late tonight.”

  “Good idea,” Ernie said. “Better than in the light.”

  “We can go on separately as well,” Ed said. “Less chance of us being noticed that way.”

  “And I’m going with you to talk to the Captain,” Craig said. “Less chance of a policeman paying attention if there are two of us.”

  “I’ll make sure there are no police around before you go,” Bud said.

  “Good,” Craig said. “I can’t say I was looking forward to another night on top of this wooden mountain.”

  Everyone agreed to that, then talked softly for a while about what might be the best time to board if the captain of the ship allowed it. They decided that around eleven would be the best, since that appeared to be when there was a shift change of workers and thus the fewest number of people around.

  For the rest of the morning, they all tried to sleep some more. Then, just after one in the afternoon, with the twins staying up on their crates, Bud gave the all clear.

  Danny and Craig climbed down and strode out into the heat, headed for the ship, pretending to act like they belonged there and knew what they were doing.

  There were a few dock workers a good warehouse distance away, but no one seemed to be anywhere near the British ship.

  Danny felt really exposed out on the dock beside the huge ship, and even more obvious walking across the long plank way up to the ship’s deck.

  “Are we supposed to ask for permission to board?” Craig asked as they neared the edge of the ship.

  Danny shrugged. “I have no idea, but I would think so.”

  “I don’t see a doorbell,” Craig said.

  “Or even a place to knock,” Danny said, looking both directions along the ship as they hesitated before stepping on board. He had a hunch they would be doing something wrong if they went on board without someone’s permission, so he decided they would just stop and wait.

  They stood there for a good thirty seconds, both of them looking around, not only for someone on the ship, but for guards with guns to come running in their direction along the dock.

  No one seemed to notice them.

  “Now I know what a target on a shooting range feels like,” Craig said.

  “Let’s give it another minute, then board and find someone,” Danny said. He was sweating in the hot sun and for the second time in two days, his hands were shaking.

  At that moment, a voice with a clear British accent echoed down at them from up near the top of what looked like the bridge of the ship. “Permission to come aboard. Come to the top level.”

  Danny didn’t see who shouted, but waved his hand in acknowledgement, then
he and Craig boarded the big freighter.

  The ship was long, with open holds in the front and back decks, and a three-story center area. Their footsteps echoed on the metal decking and it seemed even hotter on the ship than it had been on the dock, if that was possible.

  “You ever get the feeling we’re going from the frying pan into the fire?” Craig asked.

  “In more ways than one,” Danny said. “More ways than one.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  October 3, 1970

  Cape Town, South Africa.

  INSIDE THE STEEL-PLATED structure, it wasn’t any cooler. In fact, it seemed to be warmer.

  “I hope our cabins have air-conditioning,” Craig said softly as they climbed the metal staircase.

  “Dreaming again,” Danny said.

  Craig made a snorting sound. “I used to dream of girls and football.”

  There was nothing Danny could say to that. Because his best friend had come with him, Craig had been shot at more than once, been trapped in a cave, had to jump off a moving ferry, and run from gunmen from the top of one building roof to another. Danny couldn’t ask for a better friend, of that he had no doubt.

  The upper deck had doors and windows open, and a slight breeze was blowing through the bridge area, cooling it a little.

  “Come on in,” a man in a blue uniform said from what looked to be the bridge area. The windows were huge along the front, and there was a giant wheel with a chair behind it square in the middle. The panels under the windows were filled with instruments the entire width of the room. And there was another big table along the back wall that held maps and charts. Hundreds of them from what Danny could tell.

  “I’m Captain Townsend,” the man said in a clear British accent. He smiled and extended his hand. “I assume you are two of my passengers to South America.”

  Danny and Craig both shook his hand as Danny did the introductions. The captain’s hand was firm and calloused. He was shorter than Danny by a few inches and looked stout, as if he hadn’t missed a meal in a long time. His uniform jacket was tight, and his tie slightly loose. Danny couldn’t even imagine wearing a jacket and tie in this heat, but the captain didn’t even seem to be sweating.

  “Ya know,” Captain Townsend said, smiling, showing a mouthful of really brown and twisted teeth, “I admire a man who has respect for another man’s ship. So, what can I do for you boys? You know we don’t set sail until tomorrow morning?”

  “Yes, sir, we do,” Danny said. “But we were hoping we could board later tonight, to stay out of the way tomorrow morning. We’d stay in our cabins and be no problem, I can assure you.”

  The captain looked first at Danny, then at Craig, no longer smiling. “The ticket master said you American boys were on the run from something. Now that wouldn’t be serving your country, would it?”

  Danny shook his head. “No, sir. We are both in college and not needed for military service.”

  Now the captain really frowned. Danny had a hunch he had clearly been ready to give them a long lecture on duty to a country.

  “I don’t much like taking on trouble on my ship. If not service, then what are you running from?”

  Danny glanced at Craig, who just shrugged. Danny had no intention of going through the long story of the Hydra League, but he could tell the captain a little of the truth. Selected parts.

  “I’m looking for my father,” Danny said. “He disappeared in Cairo a number of months ago. We have information that leads us to believe he was taken to Peru. Four of my friends are helping me on this search.”

  The captain nodded and just waited for Danny to go on. This man was clearly very smart.

  “Craig and I are from Washington State, and while in Cairo, we met Bud and the twins, Ed and Ernie. Bud is from Cairo and Ed and Ernie are from here. They are all about our age.”

  Now the captain was nodding, as if he was ahead of Danny’s story, but still waiting.

  “Ed and Ernie are black,” Danny said, watching the captain’s face. The man didn’t seem to have a reaction, so Danny went on. “Their parents were killed by the South African government for protesting against apartheid. The government here is looking for them as well.”

  “For heaven’s sake, son, why did you boys come back here then?”

  “We were in Kenya,” Danny said, changing the truth of his story a little to make it easier to tell. No point in telling him about a hidden city in the jungles of the Congo. “That was where we discovered we needed to go to Peru in my father’s search.”

  Again, the Captain nodded. “And you had to change ships here? Now I see why you want to come on board tonight.”

  “Sleeping on a wooden crate in a warehouse can get tiring,” Craig said, smiling.

  The captain laughed. “I can see why it would. But you are putting you and your friends at great risk by telling me this.”

  He moved over a few feet and picked up a piece of paper. On it in big red letters was the word ‘Wanted.’

  The captain gave the paper to Danny. “It says there your two friends escaped from a dock jail yesterday, with the help of at least two white boys.”

  Now the captain was no longer smiling.

  Danny felt his stomach clamp up into a knot. He forced himself to try to breathe, but he didn’t get much of the warm air.

  “Have I said lately how screwed we are?” Craig muttered, staring at the wanted poster.

  Danny ignored his friend and squarely faced the captain, looking him in the eye. “Yes, sir, the twins were taken by port security because of their skin color and the fact that our last captain said they looked suspicious. If the government had discovered who they were, they would have been killed without trial. I was the one who broke them out of that cell.”

  “We all helped,” Craig said, smiling a sickly smile.

  “As I said, I don’t like trouble on my ship,” the Captain said. He stared at Danny for a minute. Then he nodded. “But I like the policies of this South African government even less. Half my crew is colored, or as they are wanting to be called now, black. My first mate has a dark skin color because he has a father from Pakistan. I hate even docking here.”

  He took the paper back from Craig and wadded it up into a ball and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. “Come on board tonight at eleven during dock shift changes,” the captain said, his voice very serious. “Your cabins are numbered seven and eight on the deck below this one. Stay inside until we are at sea and someone comes for you.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Danny said.

  The captain nodded. “Just don’t make me sorry I’m doing this.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  October 3, 1970

  Cape Town, South Africa.

  THAT NIGHT AT ELEVEN, Danny went on board first and alone, greeted by the captain. “I got most of my crew below securing the cargo. Make it quick.”

  Danny nodded and waved for the rest to come forward. The captain sounded as worried as Danny felt. That wasn’t a good sign.

  Craig came from the right and was halfway up the gang plank when Ernie appeared out of the shadows and came up the plank behind Craig. Both of them had disappeared with a quick thank-you to the captain when Ed appeared and came on board, followed quickly by Bud. It all took less than a minute.

  “Stay hidden until we come to get you,” the captain said to Danny as he turned away to let Danny follow Bud inside.

  The cabins were warm, but not unbearable. Ed and Ernie took one with only two bunks, Craig, Bud, and Danny took the other one that had three.

  As Danny closed the door, Bud dropped onto the bunk. “I hope prison beds are this comfortable.”

  “I don’t like this,” Bud said, walking around in a circle in the middle of the room like a caged animal would walk. “We are trapped here, trusting the honor of a British captain.”

  “If we’re going to get out of this country,” Danny said, “we don’t have a choice.”

  None of them slept during the next six hours
. Danny just sat on a bunk facing the door, expecting it to be opened at any moment by a South African policeman with a big gun.

  Bud alternated between pacing and sitting on the floor in the corner. Craig just lay on his bunk staring at the ceiling. They didn’t talk. They felt like they didn’t dare.

  It was still two hours from sailing when the door did burst open, but it wasn’t the South African police, but the captain. “Quickly, bring your things. You have to hide.”

  Danny scrambled to his feet, grabbing the case with the copies of his father’s notebooks and his clothes bag, then went out the door behind the captain, a half step ahead of Bud.

  The captain said the same thing to the twins, then without waiting to see if he was being followed, went down the hallway to a staircase and then started down.

  He didn’t stop at the main deck, but kept going down the tight, circular metal staircase.

  Danny lost track of how far they went down, but clearly they were going down into the cargo hold.

  At the bottom, the captain shoved open a hatch and went through, waiting until all five boys had followed him.

  The inside of the freighter’s cargo hold was almost as large as the warehouse, and just about as tall. Lights were strung along the ceiling and they gave the place a dim, eerie glow.

  Parts of the cargo hold were stacked with the same kind of crates they had spent the night before on. They were all well tied down to the walls and each other. It seemed the big wooden things were standard shipping crates for this area of the world.

  The captain pointed to the large stacks of crates secured against a bulkhead. “Climb up on top and stay very silent and out of sight, no matter what you hear. We’re done loading this area, but there will be inspectors walking through.”