Cradle (49 page)

Carol glanced at Ramirez. He was squirming. ‘In the meantime,’ she continued, ‘you
can start by giving us an official, written apology, returning all our property, and
making adequate payment for all the damages. In addition, I want exclusive access
to all Broken Arrow files from this moment on. If you don’t agree to all these terms,
you might as well prepare right now to read about the Gestapo tactics of the United
States Navy in the next edition of the
Miami Herald
.’

Uh oh
, thought Winters.
This is not going to be easy. This woman reporter intends to play the bluff and threat
game
. He pulled out a cigarette while he was thinking. ‘Would you please not smoke in
here?’ Carol broke into his train of thought. ‘We all find it offensive.’

Damn these aggressive nonsmokers
. He replaced the Pall Mall in the pack in his pocket. Winters had been thrown off
at first by Carol’s rapid attack, but he eventually regained his composure. ‘Now,
Miss Dawson,’ the commander began, a minute later. He looked away from the trio, in
the direction of the front door. ‘I can understand why you might be upset by what
has happened. I will admit that our men may indeed have acted in an unwarranted manner
while they were searching your rooms to find evidence. However…’ Winters stopped in
mid-sentence, turned around, and came back toward Nick and Carol and Troy.

‘However,’ he repeated, ‘we are talking about treason here.’ He waited to let
his
threat register. ‘And I don’t need to tell you, Miss Dawson, that treason is serious
business. Even more serious than journalism.’ He hesitated again for effect and his
voice became very stern. ‘If any of you have knowledge of the whereabouts of this
missile and have conveyed that knowledge to a member of
any
foreign government, especially one viewed as inimical to our national interests,
then you have committed treason.’

‘What kind of dope have you been smoking, Commander?’ Carol replied. ‘We freely admit
that we’ve been looking for your missile. But that doesn’t make us spies. You have
no case against us.’ She glanced at Nick. He was admiring her performance. ‘I’m simply
a reporter covering a story. This treason business of yours is pure fabricated bullshit.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ said Lieutenant Todd, unable to restrain himself. ‘Then where were these
pictures taken?’ He showed the photo of Troy in full diving regalia in the initial
underwater room with the red and blue walls. He then turned and pointed to the backpacks
sitting in the opposite corner of the room. ‘And what were your two friends doing
with fifty pounds of gold after their dive tonight?’

‘All right, man,’ Troy remarked in an exaggerated manner. He took a step toward Lieutenant
Todd. ‘All right. You’ve figured it out, haven’t you? We found the missile and sold
it to the Russians for fifty pounds of gold.’ His eyes widened as he looked at Todd.
‘And now the missile is on board a submarine on its way to Moscow or wherever…. Come
on, man, get serious. We’re not that stupid.’

Lieutenant Todd’s temper flared up. ‘You black bastard—’ he muttered before Commander
Winters jumped between them. Winters needed some time to think. Todd’s questions were,
after all, still unanswered. Even if there were good answers, it was not difficult
to understand how someone could have come to the conclusion, based on the photographs,
that there might be a conspiracy involved.

In addition, there was the issue of defending the actions of his junior officers and
the investigating team.
If I let these three go now
, thought Winters,
then we are essentially admitting that we made an error in the first place
… Ramirez was gesturing at the commander. He nodded outside with his head. Winters
did not understand at first, but Ramirez repeated the motion.

‘Excuse us a second,’ Winters said. The two officers walked out on the porch above
the steps, leaving Todd with Nick and Carol and Troy. ‘What is it, Lieutenant?’ Winters
asked.

‘Commander, sir,’ Ramirez answered, ‘my career is the Navy. If we release these three
now, after no formal questioning—’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Winters interrupted abruptly. ‘I wish that none of this today
had happened. But it did. Now we must finish it up properly and thoroughly or we have
no defence for what we did.’ He thought for a minute. ‘How long would it take you
to get the video and sound equipment set up for a formal interrogation?’

‘About thirty minutes,’ Ramirez replied. ‘Maybe forty-five at the most.’

‘Let’s do it. While you’re getting ready, I’ll prepare the list of questions.’

Shit
, said Winters to himself as he watched Ramirez walk briskly toward his office on
the other side of the base.
I am indeed going to be here all night
. He thought of his missed chance with Tiffani.
I’d better call her and explain while I’m drafting these questions
. He felt a sudden burst of anger toward Lieutenant Todd.
As for you
, he thought,
if we come out of this unscathed, I will personally see to it that you are transferred
to lower Slobbovia
.

It was after eleven o’clock. Lieutenant Todd stood near the front door. He was holding
a billy club in his hand. Once before in the evening, just after Nick and Troy had
reached the Pelican Resort car park, Todd had used the club on Nick’s back to coerce
him into the car. Nick could still feel the welt.

‘How long is all this going to take?’ Troy asked. He was standing near the desk. ‘Can’t
we go home now and get some sleep and come back on Monday morning…’

‘You heard what the man said,’ Todd replied. He was definitely gloating. ‘They’ve
gone off to prepare for a formal interrogation. You should be using this time to get
your story straight.’ Todd pounded his palm with the billy club.

Troy turned to his companions. ‘All right, team,’ he said with a wink. ‘I move we
blow this joint. Let’s overpower this geek and blast out of here.’

‘Just try it, you shits,’ Todd rejoined. He smacked one of the empty folding chairs
with his club for emphasis. ‘I’d like nothing better than to report that you tried
to escape.’

Nick had not said much since Winters and Ramirez had left. He now looked across the
room at Todd. ‘You know what annoys me the most about this, Lieutenant?’ he said to
his captor. ‘It’s that people like you,’ he continued, without waiting for an answer,
‘end up in positions of power or authority all over the world. Look at you. You think
that because you have us under your control, that makes you somebody. Let me tell
you something. You aren’t shit.’

Todd did not try to hide his dislike for Nick. ‘At least I can find white men to be
my friends,’ he replied sarcastically.

‘I do declare,’ Troy chimed in swiftly. ‘I believe our associate Lieutenant Todd may
be a bigot. We may be talking to a true life honky. Let’s see if “nigger” is his next—’

‘Boys, boys,’ Carol interceded as Todd started to move toward Troy. ‘Enough is enough.’
The room became quiet. Troy walked back over to his friends and sat down in his chair.

A minute later Troy leaned over to Nick and Carol. As he was whispering to them, he
put the gold bracelet right next to his mouth. ‘You know, folks,’ he said, ‘if we
don’t get out of here soon, we may be here all night. I can well imagine the questions
taking three or four hours. And that means the Navy will get to the dive site before
us in the morning.’

‘But what can we do?’ Carol asked. ‘It would be a miracle if they let us just walk
out without any questions.’

‘A miracle, angel,’ said Troy with a grin, ‘is just what we need. A good old-fashioned
miracle. Like the blue fairy.’

‘What are you shits whispering about over there?’ The truculent Lieutenant Todd began
to walk toward the bathroom at the west end of the long room. ‘Knock it off. And don’t
try anything. The outside door is locked and I have the key.’ He didn’t close the
bathroom door. The urinal was fortunately out of view to the right.

There was not much light in the back of the small bathroom. As Todd was finishing
his piss, he became aware of a strange sensation all over his right side, as if a
thousand very small needles were sticking in him. Puzzled, he turned toward the corner.
What he saw there sent an incredible shock of terror racing through his system.

In the corner, partially hidden in the poor light, was what could only be described
as a six-foot carrot. The thicker end of the creature was balanced on four webbed
pads planted on the floor. There were no arms, but about five feet above the ground,
just under a maze of blue spaghetti of unknown purpose on top of its ‘head’, four
vertical slits, each a foot long, were cut in what might have been its face. Out of
each of these slits something strange was hanging. Troy would later explain to Nick
and Carol that these were sensors, that the carrot saw, heard, smelled, and tasted
with these dangling extensions.

Lieutenant Todd did not wait to study the creature. He let out a whoop and backed
quickly out of the bathroom. He did not stop to zip his fly. When the weird orange
thing next appeared in the light at the door to the bathroom, the lieutenant was certain
it was going to follow him. He stared at it, petrified and immobile, for half a second.
Then, when it did indeed move toward him, Todd immediately turned around, unlocked
the front door, and burst through it.

Unfortunately he forgot about the eight concrete steps. In his panic he tripped and
fell. He smacked his head hard on the second step and tumbled down to the bottom.
He lay unconscious on his back on the sidewalk in front of the building.

Carol had cowered against Nick when she had first seen the carrot. Then they had both
glanced at Troy. He was smiling and humming to himself, ‘When you wish upon a star…
makes no difference who you are.’ He seemed so blasé about everything that Nick and
Carol even relaxed temporarily. However, after Lieutenant Todd disappeared out of
the front door and the carrot turned to face them, it was difficult to remain calm.

‘Nuts,’ said Troy with a big smile. ‘I was really hoping for the blue fairy. I thought
she might make me rich, or maybe even white.’

‘All right, Jefferson,’ Nick said. His face looked as if he had just eaten a lemon.
‘Please explain what that thing in front of us is.’

Troy first walked slowly over to the corner of the room to pick up their backpacks.
‘This, Professor,’ he replied as he then walked directly up to the carrot, ‘is what
we might call a holographic projection.’ He put his hand into and through the orange
body. ‘Somewhere in the universe there is supposedly a real life creature like this,
but
they
have only sent his image to help us escape.’

Even with Troy’s explanation Nick and Carol did not want to come any closer to the
stationary carrot than was absolutely necessary. They moved with their backs against
the walls until they reached the door. ‘Don’t worry,’ Troy laughed. ‘It won’t hurt
you.’

The sensor hanging out of the slit on the far right of the carrot’s head was totally
incomprehensible. Carol could not take her eyes off of it. It looked like a wad of
gooey honeycomb stuck on the end of a majorette’s baton. ‘What does it do with that?’
Carol asked, pointing as she preceded Troy out the door.

‘I don’t know, angel,’ Troy answered. ‘But it must be fun.’

Nick and Troy joined Carol on the platform at the top of the stairs. They all saw
Todd at about the same time. They were naturally surprised to find him lying at the
bottom of the steps. His head was bleeding. ‘Should we help him?’ Carol wondered out
loud as Troy bounded down the stairs in front of her.

‘No way,’ Nick replied quickly.

Troy bent down beside Todd and carefully examined the unconscious lieutenant from
head to toe. He slapped the big man lightly on the cheek. Lieutenant Todd did not
move. Troy winked at his friends at the top of the stairs. ‘The professor was right,
my man,’ he said, breaking into a grin, ‘you really aren’t shit.’

‘So I kissed her,’ Carol said with a laugh.

‘You did
what?
’ asked Nick. They were in Troy’s old Ford, driving toward the Hemingway marina. After
leaving the base they had walked the mile and a half to Troy’s duplex to pick up his
car. Carol was beside Troy in the front seat and Nick was in the back next to the
backpacks containing the gold and the information discs.

Carol turned around to Nick. ‘I kissed her.’ She laughed again as Nick screwed up
his face in disgust. ‘What was I supposed to do? The woman is stronger than most men.
She had me pinned on the floor. There was something just a little suggestive about
the way she was holding me….’

‘Whoooee, angel,’ Troy slapped the dashboard with his left hand. ‘You are amazing.
What did superkraut do next?’

‘She released her grip on my wrists. Just for a second. I think she was deciding whether
to kiss me back.’

‘Yuch,’ said Nick from the back seat. ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’

‘So you smashed her on the side of the head and then ran off?’ asked Troy. Carol nodded.
Troy laughed heartily and then became more serious. ‘Be careful if you ever see her
again, angel. Greta does not like to lose.’

‘But you’re wrong about her in one respect, Carol,’ Nick remarked. ‘Greta’s not into
women at all. She likes sex with men too much.’

Carol found Nick’s comment smug and even irritating. She spoke across the front seat
to Troy. ‘Why is it, Troy, that men naturally assume that any woman who has sexual
relations with men could not
possibly
be interested in having sex with another woman? Is this another example of their
belief in their own innate superiority?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. Carol turned
around again to talk to Nick. ‘And in case you’re wondering, the answer is no, I’m
not a lesbian. I am relentlessly heterosexual, as much because of my San Fernando
Valley middle class background as anything. But I will admit that sometimes I grow
extremely tired of men and what I call their baboon demonstrations of machismo.’