The Minoan Cipher

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Hawkins paced the deck of the Santa Maria, his mind churning. Every minute that passed put Kalliste further out of reach and deeper in danger.

He was about to start back toward the bow when a taxi drove along the dock and stopped near the boat slip. Calvin got out of the cab and gave him a wave. Another passenger emerged and followed Calvin up the gangway. The man looked to be in his thirties. He had a movie-star handsome face and a rugged build. He was dressed beach casual in shorts, leather sandals and a blue polo shirt. An LA baseball cap was clamped down over a thatch of long, platinum-colored hair.

As Calvin came up the gangway he noticed the stony gaze in his friend’s eyes. “It’s okay, Hawk. He’s clean. Carrying his hardware in my backpack. This is Chad. I guess his name was Pouty when you met before.”

Hawkins was in no mood for games. He had expected to see the red-faced Englishman, not an aging beach bum. “We’ve got a problem, Calvin. This isn’t the guy I met on Crete.”

Lapsing into a British accent, Chad said, “You’ve got a short memory, guv’nor. How could you forget the delightful chinwag we had atop a hill in Gournia and our lovely chat on Spinalonga?”

Hawkins stared at Chad in disbelief. The voice was definitely that of the loquacious Englishman.

“That was you?”

“One and the same, old chap.” Chad switched back to an American accent, “I was trying to get your attention. Hope it worked.”

“It worked, whatever your name is. Time to talk.”

Hawkins led the way into the pilot house. He slid into the captain’s chair and told Chad to take a seat. “Tell me who you are.”

“It’s a long, sad story,” he said.

“I’m sure I’ve heard longer and sadder ones.”

Chad took off his ball cap and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “To begin with, I was born in California.”

Chad laid out his progression from California beach bum to Special Ops and the encounter with the IED that ended his acting career and his engagement. He described how he’d parleyed his actor training into being a master of disguise, which led to a mercenary career using the name Leonidas, up until Salazar fired him. That’s when he became Hawkins’s shadow and protector.

Hawkins could have kicked himself. “I must have been asleep at the switch not to pick you up trailing us in Crete and Santorini.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. I ditched Pouty and changed my persona to the American tourist you see before you. I’m good at what I do.”

“Evidently.” Hawkins narrowed his eyes. “My question is why you do it? One minute you’ve got me and my friends in your sights. The next, you’re risking your ass to save mine. What gives?”

Chad shrugged. “Salazar wanted you dead. I took the contract, but he reneged after I screwed up. Figured if I kept you alive I could use you as leverage so he’ll pay up.”

“I don’t buy it, Corporal. You could have turned me over to Salazar any time you wanted. Instead, you kept me out of trouble. Not once, but twice. Then you did the same with Calvin. Why?”

“Maybe I’m just a nice guy.”

“You’re not a nice guy, Chad. You’re a cold-blooded killer for hire.”

“And you were a SEAL. Part of your job was killing people.”

Chad was closer to danger than he knew. Under the calm exterior, Hawkins was like a sleeping volcano.

In a quiet voice, he said, “I wouldn’t go there if I were you. You cost me a million dollar submersible and you sank my friend’s boat.” He made a pinching gesture with his thumb and forefinger. “I’m this far from taking you thirty miles out to sea and letting you swim back to Spain, the path you planned for me.”

Chad glanced at Calvin, who nodded in agreement.

He swallowed hard and the smug expression vanished from his face. “I was out of line. Maybe I came over to your side because we’d both got busted up. You in Afghanistan. Me in Iraq.”

Without shifting his hard gaze from Chad’s strangely perfect features, Hawkins said, “You’ve been listening to our guest, Calvin. Think Chad’s being straight with us?”

Calvin folded his arms across his chest. A lazy smile came to his lips. “I could hear the violins playing when he got into that band-of-brothers, us against the rest of the world stuff, Hawk. We’ve gotta remember Chad’s an actor.”

Hawkins said, “Why didn’t you find another gig, Chad? Salazar is rich and powerful. Why do you want to go up against him? The cost-benefit ratio doesn’t add up.”

“I wanted to score big so I could get out of the business.”

“I don’t think so,” Hawkins said. “Guys like you are the maggots of this world. And there’s plenty of decaying flesh to keep you busy. I don’t trust you, I don’t like you, and I don’t believe you. Calvin, please escort Mr. Chad off this boat before I change my mind about the long swim home.”

Chad raised his palms. “Wait.” No change came to the perfect face, but his voice was emotional, “I met a girl in Cadiz. Young kid. Pretty thing. Name was Isabel. She was a prostitute, but I got to be more than a customer. She accepted me for what I am.”

“What are you, Chad?”

“I’m a monster.” Slowly, he peeled the mask off his face to reveal the massive scarring. The lip-less mouth opened wide. “Boo,” he said.

During his recovery in Walter Reed hospital, Hawkins had seen lots of men with burn injuries, but these were the worst he’d ever encountered.

“What happened to you?”

“Convoy outside of Mosul. Road was supposedly cleared, but the bad guys snuck an IED in before we got there. Humvee was one of the early ones with no bottom armor. My crew was killed. Vehicle became a bonfire. I was the marshmallow.”

“Sorry, Corporal.” His voice had lost its edge. “Where does your Cadiz girlfriend fit in?”

“After I messed up the job on your boat, Salazar said he was still going to pay me. He said he was sending someone to my hotel with the money. Salazar doesn’t play nicey-nice, so that should have raised a red flag with me, but I was high on grass. Couple of his thugs showed up. Isabel answered the door. They killed her. I was getting out of the shower. I nailed one, then the other.” He paused. “Now do you know why I want to get to Salazar?”

“Revenge is the most plausible reason you’ve given us. How’d you screw up the missile attack?”

“I was stoned there, too. I wasted a Spike on the guy on deck.”

“Rodriguez, the government observer.”

“Don’t know his name. He had it coming. Salazar had used his connections to get a spy on board. Rodriguez called in when you were over the shipwreck and Salazar gave me the order to launch.”

“Why did Salazar want me killed?”

“He wanted to torpedo the expedition. He’d got the government to refuse a permit for the project, but the Spaniards changed their mind when you joined the project. He needed to stop things fast. I’d done some at-sea stuff for him before, and had been on call to stop the expedition.”

“Which is exactly what he did after you screwed up.”

“What are you talking about?”

Hawkins told Chad about the helicopter attack on the wreck site. “Could Salazar order up an operation like that?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“From the sounds of it, Salazar has a lot of clout,” Calvin said.

“No doubt about that, but I always had the feeling that he was working for someone else,” Chad said. “He seemed afraid of making a quick decision. He’d tell me to wait. Almost as if he were checking with a higher up.”

“Any idea who it was?”

“Only that it was someone who wanted to stop you from diving.”

“What do you want from us, Chad?”

“You want to help your friend. I want to get to Salazar. Maybe we can work together.”

Hawkins turned to Calvin. “What do you think?”

“Dunno,” Calvin said, “A stoned-out pothead with a score to settle isn’t the kind of guy I want watching my back.”

“Don’t blame you. But I know I can’t take Salazar on alone,” Chad said. “You would still call the shots. I haven’t forgotten how to follow orders.”

“I don’t trust you either, but we’ve got to get to Kalliste.” He glanced at Calvin who gave him a nod.

“Okay, Chad. You’re in, but one screw up and you’re dead meat.”

“The only dead meat I want is Salazar.”

“In time. You can deal with Salazar after we rescue our friend.”

“Okay. Where do we start?”

“At Salazar’s castle. Let’s go for a ride in the country.”