by Matt Lincoln
“Aren’t you always obsessing about it?” Muñoz asked with a chuckle and a slight roll of her eyes.
“Fair enough,” I laughed, nodding to her.
“The Dragon’s Rogue, huh?” Penny asked. “That’s quite a name.”
“It’s quite a story,” I said, staring up at the sky again and noticing that there were many more stars out now. They practically blanketed the sky already, and there would no doubt be many, many more the later it got in the evening.
“I told you it would be nice down here,” Holm said, flashing me a grin and following my gaze up to the burgeoning night sky.
“I would say that ‘nice’ is a bit of an understatement,” I murmured, still immersed in the scenery, the beautiful dome of a sky stretching across the seemingly endless clear water. It was even more beautiful than I remembered from my trips to Key West. I imagined that it was even clearer up there on a small Key like this one.
“Not doubting my decision to go for the quiet life down here anymore, are you?” Penny asked, her sea-green eyes twinkling in the starlight.
“I never doubted it!” Holm exclaimed, spreading his arms wide as he soaked in all the beauty that surrounded us. “I’m sold!”
“He’s not kidding,” I told Penny. “He’s been talking like this all week, ever since we got back from New Orleans.”
“Must’ve been a tough case, then,” she laughed.
“You could say that,” I chuckled.
We were rounding up on the shore now, and we sat in silence, enjoying the night air, as she docked the boat right next to the long wooden dock. Red flashing lights from an ambulance blared in the distance, up near where I’d parked my car.
“I’ll run up there and tell them we’re here,” Muñoz said, getting up and practically leaping down the stairs and onto the dock. “The medical professionals will probably want to move him themselves.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” I said, glancing back down at Dante and thinking about how frail the man had been in my arms, so much so that I was afraid he might snap like a twig if I attempted to lift him again.
“How’s he doing?” Penny asked softly as Holm followed Muñoz off the ship, getting up herself to lower the sails after the sailboat was anchored.
“Still alive, but barely,” I murmured after I reached over to check the Jamaican man’s pulse again.
“I know he was smuggling drugs, but still,” Penny said, shaking her head as she gazed over at Dante.
“I’m with you,” I sighed. “No matter what he’s done, to survive all of that for so long, alone in that cave with the dead body of his friend? It would really be a shame for him to die after the fact, having been through all that. A bit lackluster, you could say.”
“You could say that,” Penny agreed with a small laugh. “It would definitely be a shame. He’s a fighter, that’s for sure. Not necessarily for the right things, but I have to admire that much.”
“Yes, there’s nothing I admire more than fight,” I said, my eyes lingering on hers as I spoke. “You were really great today. I’m glad you were with us.”
“Me too,” she chuckled. “I haven’t had this much excitement in a while.”
“Thinking of coming out of retirement?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at her.
“Not for a second,” she assured me, shaking her head. “But this has been fun.”
“Well, we’ll keep you updated on what’s going on with the case,” I promised her as we watched several paramedics carry a gurney across the shore as they made their way toward us.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said, pointing at me and pulling a post-it note and pen out of a drawer beneath the steering wheel to write something down. “And I still want to hear this old pirate story of yours. Here’s my number. We should grab dinner while you’re here.”
“You can count on it,” I said, taking the number from her and meeting her eyes one last time before I got up to assist the paramedics. “I’ll call you later.”
13
Ethan
“Is he going to make it?” Holm asked one of the paramedics as they loaded Dante into the ambulance in a feverish frenzy.
I had walked up to join the other MBLIS agents, following closely behind the medical professionals and the Jamaican man, leaving Penny behind me to finish up docking her sailboat with a promise to talk again soon.
“Hard to say,” the young man said, pursing his lips and shaking his head as he looked warily down at Dante. “He was out there a long time, and he’s severely malnourished. Honestly, it’s kind of a miracle he’s lasted this long. We’ll probably have to airlift him to Key West if I had to hazard a guess.”
“What’s on Key West?” Holm asked blankly.
“A hospital with more than two beds in it,” one of the other paramedics, a woman with a single long blonde braid, called from inside the ambulance, giving a dark, humorless laugh.
“And more than one doctor,” a third paramedic, an older man, said with a long sigh.
“Understood,” I said, nodding to them all as the younger male paramedic followed his colleagues into the ambulance. “Please, keep us updated if you can.”
I pulled out my wallet and grabbed two of the business cards that I always kept on me, and handed them up to the young man.
“I’ll make sure to do that, thanks,” he said, nodding to me.
“Give the other one to the doctor, if you get the chance,” I said, and he nodded again as he shut the ambulance doors behind him.
The ambulance zoomed away soon after that, sirens blazing and lights flashing as it went.
“Well, that was something, wasn’t it?” Muñoz asked with a long sigh after the ambulance disappeared around a corner down the road, and I turned to see that the bags under her eyes were significantly larger now than they had been earlier, and that was saying something.
“Come on,” I said, brushing her shoulder and unlocking my car before opening the passenger side door for her. “Let’s get back to the resort. We all need some rest, especially you.”
She nodded weakly, and I rounded the car to get in the driver’s seat as Holm climbed in the back. We drove in silence back to the hotel, parked, and filed into the lobby.
“Back so soon?” the clerk at the front desk asked cheerily when we walked inside. “You must be early risers.”
I blinked and checked my watch and was shocked to see that it was only eight in the evening. It felt far later than it was.
“Yeah, I guess you must be right,” I chuckled, shaking my head in surprise.
“The bar’s still open upstairs,” the clerk pointed out. “It’s right across from the restaurant. Pretty quiet down there, too, only a few people in there. Most are out on the town still.”
“Thanks, we’ll have to check it out,” I said, nodding to him and flashing him a grateful smile.
“I’m not sure I’m going to last that long, guys,” Muñoz muttered as the three of us made our way to the elevator.
“I don’t blame you,” Holm chuckled, squeezing her shoulder. “You should get some rest. Marston and I will check out the bar upstairs. Who knows? We might learn something.”
“You’re not wrong about that,” I added as I pressed the button for the elevator. “Bartenders hear everything. Just ask Mike.”
“That’s a good point,” Muñoz said, stifling a yawn.
The elevator doors dinged open, and we piled inside.
“You on the third floor with us?” Holm asked, his finger hovering over the corresponding floor number on the wall. She nodded, and he pressed it.
“We’ll walk you to your room,” I said, smiling at her. “Feel free to sleep for as long as you want. You’ll need it. And if you want us to bring you any food or anything, just say the word.”
“You’re good guys,” she said, smiling between us. “I’m glad you’re here. But I’m okay, really. I just need some sleep.”
The elevator doors opened again on the third floor, and Holm and I
followed Muñoz to the end of the right-hand hallway until we reached her room, which was on the opposite end of the hall from ours.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to try to eat anything?” Holm asked Muñoz, his brow creased together with worry.
“I’m fine,” she said with a small laugh, shaking her head at the both of us. “Stop worrying. I’ll eat in the morning, I promise. Take the win that I’m finally going to try to get some sleep.”
“Okay, okay,” Holm said, holding his hands up to show that he was giving up. “I’ll take the win.”
“This was a good day,” I said, smiling at her. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but we’re a step closer to finding Birn than we were when we got here. Several steps, even.”
“Yes, I know,” she sighed, leaning back against her still-closed hotel room door and gazing across the hallway at a long picture of a coral reef hanging on the wall. “I just wish we had something more concrete than a random guy named Daniels no one knows anything about and a drug-smuggling pirate from another country who’s probably going to be dead in the morning.”
“Yeah, I’m right there with you,” Holm agreed with a grim nod. “Though I’m not sure that he’s going to be dead. He struck me as a bit more resourceful than that, no matter how thin he looked.”
“Yes, Penny and I were just talking about that,” I said with a small smile. “No matter what Dante’s done, it would really suck for him to survive all that just to die in a hospital bed zonked out on pain meds.”
“Ah yes, Penny,” Holm sighed, flashing me a grin. “How is it that the women we meet on the missions always end up swooning over you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, taking a sudden interest in the sea-blue carpet and feeling some heat swell around my cheeks.
“Like hell you don’t,” Muñoz said with a bemused laugh, glancing over at Holm. “You weren’t kidding about that, were you?”
“No, I wasn’t,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “I never get that kind of interest from random women on the job. Why do you think that is?”
“Are you really expecting me to answer that question?” Muñoz asked, laughing and raising her eyebrows at him.
“Alright, alright,” he said, shaking his head and waving his hands in the air. “Probably not.”
“We all have different strengths, my friend,” I said, clapping a hand on my partner’s shoulder, and then all three of us burst out laughing, and Muñoz’s laughter even sounded a little delirious.
“You definitely sound like you need some sleep,” I said, smiling down at her when we all weren’t laughing so much anymore. “So we’ll leave you be and let you try to get some. But first, I think maybe we should just try to come up with a game plan for tomorrow.”
“Of course,” Muñoz agreed, nodding to me. “I think I’ll be able to sleep better if I feel like we have some kind of plan, as well.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said, as much for my benefit as for her own. I doubted I would be able to sleep all that well, either, considering how my thoughts were ensconced in worries about Birn, what had happened to him, where he was, and how he was doing now. I hoped that wherever he was, he would be able to get some peace tonight like we were.
“Well, whatever we do, we’ll have to plan around your date,” Holm said, waggling his eyebrows at me and shooting me a wink.
“Date?” I repeated, feigning ignorance. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Right,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes. “Like you didn’t plan to meet up with her later when you hung back with her on that sailboat. I’ve known you long enough to know better than that at this point, Marston.”
“Alright, alright,” I said, holding my hands up in the air. “I might have arranged to talk with her about my search for the Dragon’s Rogue should I have a free moment. Someone like her could have a good perspective on my situation. But of course, the mission—and more importantly, Birn—comes first. There’ll be no planning around anything but what’s best for finding our guy.”
“Okay, okay,” Holm chuckled, shaking his head in wonder at me. “And I already knew that you’d say that, of course, I just wanted to take another jab at you before the opportunity got away from me.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” I chuckled, flashing him a half-grin before returning my attention to Muñoz. “So where do you think we should start first? This is still your case, first and foremost, after all.”
“Oh, don’t ask me that,” she sighed, shutting her eyes tight and pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “I don’t know how able I am to think straight right now. The world’s already swimming a bit. I’m so damn exhausted. It’s been nearly forty-eight hours since I slept last.”
“Alright, I won’t pressure you,” I said kindly, noting again how out of character this was for someone as usually sturdy and professional as Muñoz. Hopefully, she would be back to some version of herself after a good night’s sleep.
“I think we should start with this Daniels character, don’t you?” Holm asked me. “Your new girlfriend said he—or she, I guess, since it’s a surname—could be new in town and probably owns property. There has to be a record of that, then, doesn’t there? You’d think some local officials would be able to tell us whether that’s true or not.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I said, shooting Holm a look. “And she said she would ask around about that for us. But yeah, I think that that’s as good a place as any to start.”
“Yes, if this Daniels person is involved in the drug smuggling somehow, chances are he or she knows where Birn is, or can lead us to someone who might,” Muñoz said with a small smile. “And that would be valuable information, so we got more out of today than I originally told myself. That does make me feel a bit better.”
“This is a small island, too, even with all the tourists,” I said, thinking aloud. “So it shouldn’t be all that difficult to track down one person. That should be our priority for tomorrow, and hopefully, we’ll have an answer by the end of the day at the latest.”
“And time is of the essence in situations like this,” Holm said, his expression dark, no doubt thinking of when he went through something similar to Birn not too long ago. “I should know that better than most.”
“It turned out well for you in the end, though,” I pointed out, not wanting to add to the considerable mental load that Muñoz was already carrying. “Time is of the essence, but we can’t give up hope. Like we said before, they would be stupid to harm a federal agent any more than they already have. It’s the difference between a stint in prison and potential capital charges.”
I didn’t give voice to what I already knew the others were thinking, what I was thinking as well, which was to say that someone who already went so far as to kidnap a federal agent may not be in the most logical frame of mind, to begin with.
“Get some sleep,” Holm said, reaching out and squeezing Muñoz’s shoulder one last time. “We’ll see if we can get anything out of the bartender downstairs.”
“Just make sure not to blow our cover,” she said, smiling up at him weakly. “I think it’s in our best interests for these guys to think we’re just three more tourists, just in case they’re involved in any way.”
“Don’t worry,” I told her as she opened the door. “We’re on the same page.”
And with that, Holm and I waved goodbye as Muñoz disappeared into her room.
14
Ethan
From Muñoz’s room, Holm and I headed back to the elevator and downstairs to see if we could learn anything in the bar. If anything, I figured we could grab a drink and take the edge off after an incredibly stressful day. Since waking up that morning, I’d learned that a close colleague was missing in action, and I’d been shot at in the middle of a dark cave by a man with an errant shot. Add all this onto my already considerable anxiety surrounding Grendel’s journal, and I’d say a drink wa
s definitely in order, at the very least.
Holm seemed to be thinking similarly, and when we walked into the bar across from the restaurant where we had enjoyed an early dinner, he immediately ordered a scotch for each of us.
We both sat down at the bar. The place mirrored the topography of the restaurant across the hall, with dim lighting and booths running around the perimeter of the room, though there were a few tables scattered throughout as well, unlike at the restaurant. The decor was a bit darker, however, with gray walls and a charcoal tiled floor and old black and white photographs of ships hanging on the wall in lieu of the brilliantly colored photos of sea creatures in the rest of the hotel.
There were a couple of guys in a booth off to the right-hand side of the bar, and a single gruff-looking, bearded bartender who looked to be in his mid-forties. Other than that, the place was empty.
“Thanks,” I said when the bartender gave Holm and me our drinks without saying a word. “You from around here?”
He had already started to turn around when I asked the question, and he seemed simultaneously surprised and annoyed that I was trying to talk to him. I figured he was sick of dealing with tourists trying to make small talk with him all the time and thought back to what Mike had told us about his reasoning for opening a bar in Miami instead of the Keys. Yeah, I wasn’t about to retire anytime soon.
“Key West, originally, like lots of us who work for a living in the Middle Keys,” he said gruffly, barely glancing up at me as he wiped down some glassware.
“Work for a living,” I repeated with a low chuckle. “So, you mean besides the ones who retire down here.”
“Yeah, you have to have a pretty penny to retire and not work at all on Little Torch,” the guy said, shaking his head. “Key West, maybe, but Little Torch might as well be a private resort island, for the housing prices around here.”
