Key Raiders

by Matt Lincoln

  “Yeah, it’s a little stiff,” Muñoz admitted, rolling her shoulder awkwardly again. “But I’ll be fine. And there’s no way I’m missing this. Birn’s my partner.”

  She met my eyes with a fierce gaze of her own, and I knew that the topic was closed. Muñoz was coming with us, and I wasn’t about to complain. I had been worried about doing this without her, after all, and if there was any chance she was ready and available to accompany us on what we hoped would be the final leg of this mission, I was going to take it.

  “Good,” I said, nodding to her. “We’re glad to have you. Stick close, though. We’re going to have to get you a new phone when we get back to Miami.”

  “I don’t know if we’re even going to get cell reception out there,” Penny called back to us, clearly having been listening in on our conversation. “Pye’s pretty remote.”

  “Then that advice goes double for all of us, then,” I said, my mood suddenly grim again. “We’ll need to stick together. No splitting up on this one.”

  “I’m all for that,” Muñoz said darkly, no doubt thinking of how splitting up went for her and her partner the last time.

  “So you don’t get to steal all the glory this time, then, Marston,” Holm said, raising his eyebrows at me. “I’m good with that, after the stunt you pulled in the Bayou.”

  “Stunt I pulled…” I repeated, my jaw opening slightly. “Come on, man, you know why we split up. And you were there when we found the treasure!”

  “I know, I’m just messing with you,” he grinned, elbowing me in the ribs and laughing at me.

  “Har, har, har,” I joked back, rolling my eyes.

  “I’m gonna miss you guys more than I expected,” Muñoz chuckled as she watched this interaction.

  “You’re not alone,” Penny said dryly. Then, standing up from where she crouched by the sail and dusting off her hands, “We’re all ready to go here if you are.”

  “Alright, then,” Holm said, taking a deep breath and climbing aboard. “Let’s go camping.”

  “We’re not actually going camping,” Muñoz pointed out as she brushed away my attempt to help her climb onto the boat. “We’d better not actually be going camping. The hospital was enough disruption for me on that front.”

  We all climbed into what had become our usual positions on the sailboat, and Penny navigated out of the bay again, this time heading off in the opposite direction from the caves.

  “How long does this trip usually take?” Muñoz asked, rubbing her shoulder and wincing again, though she hadn’t had any trouble getting on the boat. I made a mental note to have Holm and me in front and behind her at all times when we got to Pye Key, just in case something went wrong with her injuries.

  “A little over an hour, I’d say,” Penny said, nodding as she thought about this. “Sometimes less, sometimes longer, depending on the ocean’s mood that day.”

  “Is it the next Key over?” I asked, trying to think back to the drive that Holm and I had taken down there and wondering whether I’d seen where we were going without realizing it before.

  “No, we have to go around another one first,” Penny confirmed. “Looe Key.”

  “Is that another small one?” Holm asked.

  “Smaller than Little Torch, not as small as Pye,” she mused as she navigated the sailboat out to the right, making the dock a mere speck behind us now. “Though not much is as small as Pye. Except maybe Crab and Melody.”

  “Crab and Melody?” Holm repeated, his brow furrowed together in confusion.

  “That’s two really little keys up above Pye,” Penny explained.

  “What are they used for?” I asked. “Could the gang have anything to do with those islands, too?”

  “Oh, I doubt it,” she said, waving a hand dismissively at this notion. “Some movie star owns Melody. I think that they film a TV show there? I don’t know. I don’t really keep up with any of that stuff. Anyway, Crab’s just a random island that’s… well, full of crabs. Not many people go there, just some tourists. And it wouldn’t be easy to hide out there. The island’s not covered in forests like Pye is.”

  “Got it,” I said with a nod. “I’m guessing no one lives on either?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “Not on Crab, anyway. I can’t speak to the proclivities of random movie stars, however.”

  “Fair enough,” I chuckled.

  The ride was nice, and the ocean was fairly calm that day, though not quite as calm as it had been the day before. There was a nice breeze coming off the water, and it alleviated some mugginess from the southern heat and sun.

  Eventually, we made it to what I imagined must be Looe Key. I couldn’t tell much what it was like from so far away in the water, but I saw a lot of sandy beaches and a number of palm trees lining the side. It was shaped almost like a half-moon, and we sailed along the long side, so we got a good view of the island. I noticed more than a few beachgoers lazing around in the morning sun, but it wasn’t nearly as packed as Little Torch was, and that wasn’t saying much.

  “This area’s a pretty well-kept secret, isn’t it?” I asked, turning back to Penny. I noticed that her eyes glistened in the sun just as well as they did in the starlight the night before.

  “It is,” she confirmed with a nod and a cute little laugh. “It’s where everyone on the larger islands wants to retire.”

  “While the larger islands are where everyone in mainland Florida wants to retire,” I chuckled, casting a glance over at Holm.

  “Yes, I guess you could say that,” Penny agreed. “It’s a simple life down here, but it’s a good one. Until Jamaican drug dealers show up, that is.”

  “I guess you’ve got me on that one,” I relented.

  “So, what’s the plan when we get there?” Muñoz asked, and from her body language, I could tell that she had amped herself up since we left, instead of letting the calming ocean and island scenery relax her. “I didn’t get to debrief with you guys after the cave.”

  “Well, Pye Key’s small, but it’s kind of a jungle,” Penny said, her tone and expression suddenly serious. “There’s a ton of foliage and not a lot of organization to it. Not too many well-traveled paths, and not too many places I can see as a more central campground.”

  “Sounds like a good place to hide,” Holm remarked.

  “Yes, yes it does,” Penny said, her brows furrowed together in worry now. “So, I’m afraid that it might take us some time to get to where we need to be. That’s why I insisted we leave so early in the morning.”

  “I’m glad I made it back in time, then,” Muñoz said, her arms crossed as she stared out across the water, a loose strand of her hair flying in the ocean breeze.

  “So are we,” I muttered, thinking again how much worse off we would be without the third MBLIS agent. We had no idea what we were walking into, where we were going exactly, or how many goons there would be when we did find them. And we didn’t know what state we would find Birn in, if any.

  “It will take us some time, but we can probably cover the whole island today if we move quickly and don’t stop much,” Penny said, looking around at all of us to make sure that this was okay. “Does that work for all of you?”

  Her eyes lingered on Muñoz, and so did Holm’s and my own. All four of us were highly trained operatives. We knew that. But Muñoz had just been shot, and in her dominant arm at that.

  “I’m fine,” she reiterated, more than a little forcefully this time, and she did not uncross her arms. “Nothing’s going to stop me from coming. And it wasn’t that bad. Just a surface wound is all. My arm’s a little stiff, but that’s it. I can still hold my gun. I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t.”

  “Understood,” Penny said, giving her an appreciative nod. “So I think we should start on the perimeter of the island and then work our way inward. I honestly don’t know what a good spot for them to set up camp would be. I’ve been wracking my brain about it and just can’t think of one. My worst fear is that
they’re spread out all around.”

  “Oh, God, you don’t think so, do you?” Holm groaned, throwing his head back at this thought.

  I can’t say that I liked it much myself.

  “We’re going to have to be extra careful, then,” I muttered. “Not make any noise.”

  “That’s right,” Penny agreed. “With an island this small, you never know how far a sound’s going to travel, even outdoors. Especially gunfire.”

  We were pulling around to the island by then, and I could tell that it was quite small. It was green, too, all around, with little sign of a beach anywhere except along the very outer rim of the island. I didn’t see any other boats anywhere in sight.

  “Is that it?” Muñoz asked. “That’s Pye Key?”

  “That’s it,” Penny confirmed, pulling the sailboat around and pressing it into shore.

  30

  Penny

  Penny pulled her sailboat into a remote corner of the shore that she thought would be most likely to avoid detection. There wasn’t any sand anywhere, just mud and tangled trees, some toppled from the regular storms that ravaged the region.

  She anchored the boat in close between a few of the fallen trees that were scattered about the shallowest region of the water.

  “Come on, tuck some branches around it,” she instructed the MBLIS agents when she hopped precariously onto a large outstretched branch and then onto a dryer patch of the mud.

  The three agents all followed her and helped her obscure much of the sailboat with fallen branches, grabbing flashlights from the boat to carry with them first. If someone looked closely, of course, they would be able to tell what it was. But from a distance, they probably wouldn’t think twice.

  “Good thing your boat’s made of wood,” Robbie remarked when they were finished, his hands on his hips.

  “I guess so,” she laughed before turning to face the rest of the area.

  It was just trees and trees all through the island, and there wasn’t even a decent entrance to the forest to be found in this area. This was the only decent patch of mud, as well, so going around to find a different way in would involve getting even wetter and muddier than they already were, and Penny wasn’t keen on starting the day that way. They had no idea what was in store for them later. It was best to remain dry-ish and in good spirits for as long as possible.

  She squinted at the homogenous mesh of green in front of her, cocking her head to try to see it from a different angle. Then, she began to spread the branches apart and push her way through.

  “Come on,” she said again, beckoning for the MBLIS agents to follow her again.

  To their credit, they didn’t complain as they followed her into the darkness behind the branches, or when the branches themselves no doubt scratched them up as they did Penny.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said there wasn’t a path,” Ethan remarked as he filed in behind her.

  “No, I wasn’t,” she said, shooting a sly smile back at him. “Though there are much better places to walk than this. I just don’t want to run into any of our, er… friends, so early.”

  “Good thinking,” he murmured, as Sylvia came up behind him with Robbie drawing out the rear.

  That was good, Penny thought. Sylvia was sharp. There was no doubt about that. But with her injury, it was best for the rest of them to stick closer to her in case she was exaggerating how recovered she was. Not that Penny could blame her if she was. With her partner missing, she would no doubt go to any lengths to get him back and to do it herself.

  They pressed on like this for some time, until any light from the ocean behind them slipped away, obscuring them in almost total darkness but for the small cracks shining in from the canopy of branches above them.

  Ethan moved to pull out his flashlight, but Penny placed a hand gently on his wrist, shaking her head slightly at him.

  “No,” she murmured. “There’s still some light. And we’re going to want to conserve ours for the nighttime if we’re still here. Plus, it could increase the chances of drawing attention to ourselves.”

  “You’re right, of course,” he said, nodding to her in agreement and placing the flashlight back around one of his belt loops. “There’s enough light to see, anyway.”

  “If we really squint for it,” Sylvia piped in from behind him, and Penny chuckled.

  “I warned you it would be like this,” she reminded them. “But don’t worry, there’s a more open path up ahead soon, I think. It’s where I usually take some tourists.”

  “You take tourists through here?” Robbie called from behind the female MBLIS agent. “You’ve got to be joking.”

  “Well, I don’t take them through here, exactly,” Penny laughed. “Not really. I take them a different way to get to the same place. There’s an easier way than this. I just thought we might run into someone else elsewhere.”

  “When’s the last time you came here?” Ethan asked her.

  “Oh, I’m not sure,” she said, pursing her lips as she thought about this and pushed yet another branch out of the way as she pressed forward. “Maybe three weeks ago? Yes, that sounds right. I took a small group out who was here on a family reunion. We had to leave early when the grandma thought she was having a heat stroke.”

  “Did she?” Ethan asked, his eyes bugging out a little in concern.

  “God, no,” Penny chuckled, shaking her head. “She wasn’t even that old, just dramatic. She was fine.”

  “Okay, good,” he said with a smile, and Penny liked that he was concerned, even for some random old woman with a taste for drama that he didn’t even know. “So, did you run into anyone else while you were here?”

  “Nope, not at all,” Penny said, shaking her head as she removed yet another branch that was obstructing their path. She had thought about this already and realized that she hadn’t run into anyone the last few times she’d been out to Pye Key, not that that was saying much.

  “Interesting,” Ethan said, nodding slowly at this. “They’ve definitely been setting up shop here for longer than a few weeks if all our witnesses, including yourself, are to be believed.”

  “Yeah, that’s true,” Sylvia called from behind them in a low voice to not draw unnecessary attention to themselves. “That means it’s more likely than not that they’re all gathered in one place, right? If they were spread out more around the island, you probably would’ve run into them before now.”

  “That would make sense,” Penny said, feeling a little more hopeful at this, as she wasn’t interested in fighting off different pockets of gang members all across the island, lessening their chances of finding the missing MBLIS agent before his captors realized someone was on to them. “The question is, where?”

  “You would know that better than us,” she heard Robbie say, though she could not see him even though she knew that he was only a few feet behind her in the trees.

  “I have a couple of different ideas,” Penny assured them. “It’s just a matter of testing them out.”

  Eventually, Penny and the agents came to the more well-worn path, if you could even call it a path, and there were fewer branches scratching and gnawing at them then. There was also more light poking in from above them, though the trees were still thick and the canopy wide. Small streams of golden light poked down through the sky of green, littering the dirt before them.

  There was no one there, and they kept pressing forward until Penny led them through another thick, dark set of branches to yet another path, and then another. If they hadn’t all been wearing long sleeves, they would’ve been scratched up and possibly bloody by then from all the branches.

  Shortly after noon, on their third such trek through some difficult terrain, Robbie piped in.

  “I’m getting hungry,” he grumbled. “And we haven’t found anyone yet.”

  “Of course you are,” Ethan chuckled, shaking his head and shooting Penny a bemused look.

  “It wouldn’t be bad to stop and take a rest,” Penny reasoned, c
learing away a few branches and plopping down on the ground right where she stood. “Come on, everybody, gather round.”

  Penny pulled some sandwiches she had packed from the pack at her side and passed them around.

  “You don’t take the tourists through this way, do you?” Robbie asked, giving her a wary look and scratching at his arm, which was no doubt itchy and irritated beneath his sleeve from all the branches, much like her own.

  “No, of course not,” she laughed, shaking her head and pulling her own peanut butter sandwich from its plastic bag. “There are smaller, easier paths around the edge of the island. I usually stick there, taking some lighter ones in deeper if the group is up for it. I’ve taken a couple of particularly adventurous groups in even deeper, but it’s not often that happens. I’ll mostly come out on my own if I want to go really deep and make an adventure out of it.”

  “Do you do that often?” Ethan asked her, chomping down on his own sandwich.

  “Not much,” she said, grinning at him. “Just when I get bored with my retirement.”

  “And how often is that?” he asked jokingly, raising his eyebrows at her.

  “Oh, I don’t know, once every few months or so,” she said, turning back to her sandwich but unable to keep the smile off her face.

  They carried on like this for much of the day and into the evening, transitioning back and forth between the easier paths and the difficult terrain full of scratching branches. They ran into no one as they walked, and they heard nothing but the hooting and chirping of birds and cicadas in the distance.

  Finally, they arrived in a clearing where Penny thought they might find the campsite they were looking for. But no one was there.

  There was more light poking through the branches up above now. Well, not light, really, since it was dark by then, but starlight.

  “Wow,” Sylvia said, staring up at it as Penny and the two male agents examined the clearing some more. “Why is there so much?”

  Not understanding what she meant straight away, Penny followed the woman’s gaze upward.