Dead Men's Harvest

Chapter 38

A fast flight took us to Langley Air Force Base, just north of the city of Hampton, Virginia. One reason for heading there was to drop off Walter so he could continue to coordinate things from the headquarters of the Air Force’s 480th Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing. The other was that it was a short hop for Hartlaub and me to the nearby naval base at Hampton Roads, the harbour at the mouth of the Elizabeth and James Rivers where they spilled into Chesapeake Bay. From there it would only be a short chase to catch the freighter currently cruising south past the Barrier Islands off the coast of North Carolina.

My original plan was to steal a boat and chase Cain by sea, but that held a couple of major flaws. For a start, an underpowered craft would never catch a ship going at full steam, so I would have to take something big and powerful. Something like a launch or speedboat would have been ideal for my purposes, but easily missed. The Coast Guard would be alerted and we’d be captured in no time. There was no way I wanted to hurt anyone in pursuit of their duties, so a fight with the Coast Guard wouldn’t happen. I could approach a civilian crew, tell them of my problem and throw Jennifer’s life on their mercy. But any sane person would tell me to sling my hook and immediately alert the authorities. As much as I hated to do it, I had no other recourse left to me. I had to work with a naval crew.

The sun was casting its last fingers of day over the harbour as we stood on the dock, studying the boat that sat below us. It was akin to the lifeboats I was familiar with from back home in the UK, a metal shell with inflatable cushions and a small cabin towards the front. The boat bore no insignia, which was good, because Cain had warned he’d kill Jennifer immediately he saw a naval vessel approaching.

‘We’re going to have to take the crew with us,’ I told Hartlaub as we made our way down to the boat. ‘But there’s no way they can be involved.’

‘They won’t be. They have their orders to drop us and then pull back.’

‘That suits me fine. If we do this the way I intend, I don’t want any witnesses.’

He showed me an eye tooth. ‘Don’t worry, that also suits me fine.’

I took the lead, moved down and on to a gangplank out to the boat. Smaller craft bobbed on the dark water of the dock. Across from us was a rusting hulk that looked like it hadn’t put to sea in the last decade or two, but the backdrop was dominated by massive aircraft carriers and warships. If we failed to stop Cain, I wouldn’t put it past Walter to order one of them after him instead.

There were only two crew members on board, one of them a fit young guy with corn-coloured hair and freckles, and another man, of stockier build, maybe ten years older with the ruddy complexion of a seafarer. Neither was in uniform, but they still struck me as military men. The younger one had a flashlight in his hand and was crouching down at the motor, going through maintenance chores. The other was in the cabin, nose deep in paperwork. I took it that he was the commanding officer.

Maritime protocol usually requires permission for you to come aboard, but I didn’t rest on etiquette. With Hartlaub at my heels I stepped over the thick rubber and on to the deck. My boots thudding on planks brought the older man’s head out of his papers. Dumping my backpack on one of the benches, I walked towards him, extending my hand. ‘You were expecting us?’

‘So you guys are my mysterious passengers, huh? Am I allowed to know your names?’ The older man’s eyes twinkled. He had received his orders and understood that this trip was off the record. Reading the humour behind his gaze I decided he could be trusted.

‘Hunter,’ I said shaking his hand. ‘My friend’s Hartlaub.’

‘Call me Lassiter.’ He winked.

‘Which of you is the pilot?’

‘I am,’ said the young man, as he approached with Hartlaub.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Terrence. Terrence Fletcher, sir. US Navy.’

‘Terry?’ The young man nodded back at me. ‘Drop the formalities, OK? Forget that you’re with the Navy for the next few hours.’

‘I’m not sure I can do that, sir. I’m-’

‘Getting off the boat if you don’t do as I ask,’ I finished for him.

He squinted, glanced sharply at the other man and Lassiter shot him a grin. Finally he nodded, ‘You’ve got it, sir.’

‘Right, Terry, work your magic and take us out of here.’

Terry looked at the older man again. Terry was the pilot, but the other was in charge. Lassiter had final say on whether the boat sailed or not.

‘Forget rank, Terry. Just take the fucking boat out before I decide to do it myself.’

Behind me Hartlaub chuckled. ‘I like your style, Hunter. How to win friends and influence people.’

‘If no one else has noticed, we’re in a hurry here,’ I said.

Terry took us out of the dock and into Chesapeake Bay at a steady clip. Above us rose the bridge connecting Norfolk to Northampton, crossed by a steady flow of traffic, lights sharp against the darkening sky. Beyond the bridge the bay widened as it greeted the open water of the Atlantic, and I urged Terry to speed up. He gave the boat all it had; the nose lifted and we shot across the waves at what I guessed was a steady forty knots.

Terry was a good man and my surliness had possibly ruined his day. It didn’t sit well with me, but needs must. When weighed against the fate Jenny faced, a harsh word or two was a necessary evil. Still, I couldn’t let it go on. Once we were a couple miles offshore, I clapped the guy on the shoulder and made my apology. Leaving Terry at the controls, I moved to his friend. Lassiter had sat on a folding chair bolted to the cabin wall so he could watch an instrument panel. There was a chair opposite him and I perched myself on it.

‘Sorry for being an ass back there,’ I said.

‘We’re service men. We’re used to taking orders from asses. As, I’m damn sure, are you.’

He had that right.

‘Look, I guess you got your orders, but apart from that you’re most likely in the dark.’

‘What’s new, huh? But you’re right, I think we do deserve an explanation,’ Lassiter said. Terry turned from the controls, nodding in agreement.

Where did I start? There was far too much back story to give them all the details, so I elected to go directly to the finish. ‘Put it this way, unless we get there in time an innocent woman is going to die horribly.’

Then I told them about Cain and what he would do to his hostage if we didn’t stop him. They wanted to know why a full response team wasn’t dealing with things. It was a good point, but I explained that Cain would slaughter Jenny if a response team showed up. By the time I’d finished Terry was shivering with the flow of adrenalin through his body and Lassiter had gone a funny green colour that had nothing to do with either the play of light in the cabin or with the rise and fall of the waves. I noticed that Terry had leaned heavily on the throttle again. I’d won a couple of new allies.

Lassiter tapped the instrument panel. Back at Langley Air Force Base someone under Walter’s guidance was feeding through coordinates for the suspect freighter. ‘She’s off the Barrier Islands, east of Roanoke,’ he said. ‘She’s come to a standstill.’

‘How long until we get there?’

Looking at other displays, he said, ‘There’s a storm heading in. It’s going to slow us down.’

I nodded at the dials, unable to decipher them. ‘What’s your best guess?’

‘We could throttle back, conserve fuel and still be there within a couple hours. Or we can go full out and do it in half the time.’

‘Full throttle then.’

‘We won’t have enough fuel for a return trip.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘As soon as we’re on board I want you to call the Coast Guard, the police, the rest of your Navy buddies if you have to. If we manage to get Jenny off the ship, I’ll only need you to take her a safe distance away. We can always have the boat towed back to port after.’

‘And what if you don’t manage to get her off?’

‘Don’t, whatever you do, try anything heroic,’ I cautioned. ‘Back off to a safe distance and do like I said. Call in reinforcements.’

‘You said this lunatic will kill the woman if he sees a naval vessel.’

‘Yes, that’s true. But if we get on board and fail to save her, she was already dead. Most likely me and Hartlaub won’t be coming back either. If that’s the case the Navy’s welcome to Cain and anyone else still alive.’

‘Jesus,’ Lassiter said. ‘To think this morning I was complaining that I was sick of routine duties.’

Taking the man’s comment as a sign of approval, I relaxed back on to the chair. Hartlaub had been watching us all and his amused demeanour hadn’t changed. He couldn’t have heard much of our conversation over the noise of the engine and the slap of the boat on the waves. He indicated a solid wedge of steel-grey clouds piling in the night sky. ‘Looks like there’s a storm brewing, guys,’ he called. His words would prove prophetic in more ways than one.