Dark Moon Walking (37 page)

“Who's Percy?” Claire was looking back and forth between them. “And who are these boys you two are talking about?”

Dan stepped up onto the stern deck. “I'll let Walker fill you in. I've got to get on the radio.” He walked away before either of them could protest. No way was he going to be the one to explain it all to Claire.

It took both persistence and time to reach Mike. Rosemary said he was in Vancouver overseeing security for some conference they were having there, and she patched him through to the temporary office that had been set up for the purpose. The desk guy at that office said Mike was over at the conference center and couldn't be reached. Dan said it was urgent, lied a little by giving his old rank, made a couple of vague threats, and was finally patched through to Mike's cell. By that time there was so much static on the connection that he could barely hear anything, but it was better than nothing.

“Dan? Where the hell are you? I can hardly hear you.”

“Still up north. Look, we've got a major problem up here.”

“You have a problem?” Mike was shouting into his phone, and behind him Dan could hear the sound of heavy traffic and people talking.

“Yeah. Two men dead, maybe three.”

“What?”

“Murder.” Dan spoke as clearly as he could, keeping it simple and hoping Mike could make it out.

“Murder? Did you say murder?”

“Yeah. Listen, can you get back to your office? We need to talk.”

“You serious?”

“Yeah. Go. To. The. Office.”

“The office? Oh, yeah. Okay. Give me five minutes, okay? Five minutes.”

“Okay, I'll call you in five.”

Five minutes later, Mike picked up the phone on the first ring.

“What the hell is going on? Did you say you had a murder up there?”

“Yeah. Actually, two of them and maybe a third.”

“You gotta be shitting me! Are the marine boys there?”

“No, but they sure as hell should be. The coast guard's on site though.”

Dan told Mike what had happened, giving him the sequence of events as he knew them but omitting the part about Walker and his friends maybe playing a role in sinking
Snow Queen
. He wasn't sure that had actually happened, and even if it had, he wanted to keep Walker out of it. His involvement would only confuse the issue.

“So where is this white-haired guy now?”

“I think he probably took off in that helicopter. You might be able to track it. It was blue, real dark blue, on the top, with a silver belly and a couple of turquoise stripes between. Had a bunch of lettering over the registration number, so I think it was a charter. Came in from the southwest and headed out in the same direction, so probably based on the north end of Vancouver Island.”

“Okay, I'll have the guys check it out. What time did it take off from Spider Island?”

“Around two o'clock. The other guy might be in it too. The dark guy with the ponytail. He's the one who shot Harry, and he took the captain with him at gunpoint when he left
Snow Queen
.”

“Shit! This is something I don't need right now. It's crazy down here.”

“What's happening that's got you so worked up?”

“Hell. It's one of those United Nations/G8 things. Got everybody but God himself arriving here today, and all their goddamn lackeys and mumbo-jumbo artists got here last week. Even got a bunch of superstar assholes going to be doing a concert over at Rogers Arena in a couple of days. All we need now is for Oprah to drop in and really turn it into a circus.”

“Sounds like you're having a good time.”

“Yeah, right. Anyway, back to your stuff. You said the coast guard was there now?”

“They were when I left. They arrived about the same time as the crew boat and about five minutes after the blue chopper left.”

“Huh. I'll call them and see what's happening. Stay by your radio. I'll call you back.”

Dan stood and stared out over the water, the phone in his hand. Talking to Mike, giving him the basic facts of what had taken place over the last few days, had felt good. It had made him feel important, although that was too strong a word. Needed, maybe. Part of a team. It had taken him back all those months to when he had been a member of the force, one of the guys, contributing to something. It was a good feeling and he enjoyed the buzz it brought, but at the same time he realized it was a life he no longer wanted. And it wasn't because of Susan and the searing memories that anything to do with his old life usually evoked. It was more about Walker and Claire sitting out there on the stern. Even Annie and Tom were in there somewhere. They had taught him something. Changed something. He couldn't put it into words just yet, but it was there all the same. Something quiet and solid.

The radiophone chimed, interrupting his reverie. It was Mike.

“You got your
VHF
turned on?”

“Yeah.”

“Switch to 83A. The coast guard wants to talk to you. Leave this open and we can have a three-way.”

Dan turned the
VHF
to 83A. “
Dreamspeaker
.”

“
Dreamspeaker
, this is the coast guard. Is that Dan Connor?”

“Yeah. Got Mike on the radiophone too.”

“Okay. You reported a possible kidnapping. I think we've got the guy you said was kidnapped here with us. He says he's the captain of
Snow Queen
.”

Dan inhaled a sharp breath, and a smile lit his face. “Is he okay?”

“Got a hell of a big lump on his head and a headache to go with it, but we've got him up and walking around. Took a while to figure out who he was, but now he's madder than hell.”

“Can't say I blame him. You got anyone else there?”

“No. There was a bunch of guys here when we arrived. Odd-looking guy in charge. Had real white hair. Said they were doing some mining research. They looked okay, so we let them go. A crew boat came and got them.”

“Shit! You know where they went?”

“No, but we're sure as hell going to find out. We've got the guys back at base trying to track the crew boat now, see where it came from.”

“They have any canisters with them? Metal things maybe two, three feet long? Kind of bullet shaped?”

“Yeah.” The guy's voice sounded wary. “We thought they were instruments of some kind. You telling me they're not?”

“I'm not sure what they have in them, but it's not instruments. More likely weapons.”

“Guns?”

“Maybe. They looked like they were rehearsing some kind of raid when I was there, and it sounded like weapons being assembled.”

“Don't have any bullets though.” Walker had come into the wheelhouse so quietly that Dan hadn't heard him.

“What? How do you know that?”

Walker held out a bundle that was wrapped in a striped blanket. “Took these from the canisters they left on the wharf.” He put it down on the floor.

“Who's that you're talking to?” asked Mike.

“Hang on,” Dan said to Walker. This was turning into a circus. “His name is Walker,” Dan said to Mike. “He's the guy who called me.”

“He was there with you? You didn't tell me that.”

“No, he wasn't there. He . . . ah, shit! I'll let him explain later, but he's got a bunch of stuff here he says he got from some of the canisters.” Dan glared at Walker as he spoke and received a raised eyebrow and a quiet smile in return. He shook his head in disgust. Walker had always had a knack for driving him crazy. He bent down and opened the blanket. A handful of bullets, all different calibers, gleamed brightly in the sunlight streaming in through the windshield, and a grenade lay beside a small metal canister. In the center was a bottle of what looked like cooking oil, a small spray bottle and a short fuse.

“What the fuck is this?” Dan couldn't quite understand what he was seeing.

“I asked the boys to keep one of everything and bring it all to me when they were done. This is it.”

“The boys?”

“What have you got there?”

“Who's Walker?”

It was chaos. Everyone was talking at once, and Dan had no hope of figuring out who was who, let alone answering.

“Okay. Okay. Hang on a minute. I'm not quite sure what we've got here, but it doesn't matter. I'll figure it out and let you know, but right now the priority has to be finding these guys and stopping them before they kill anyone else.”

“Yes, you're right.” It was Mike speaking. “But you've got some explaining to do once we've got this sorted out. And make sure you stay put. We need you to show the marine guys where this Robbie guy is stashed.”

“Yeah, yeah. I'm not going anywhere. Just find these assholes before they do anything else.” Dan reached over and turned all the switches to standby.

THIRTY-TWO

“They did what?” Dan lifted his gaze from the blanket with its weird array of objects to Walker's face. He had that
Alice in Wonderland
feeling again and he was the rabbit, falling down that fucking hole. Walker just grinned.

“You're telling me a bunch of punk kids sailed into Shoal Bay in the middle of the night, in a storm, and just emptied out all this shit into the water?”

“Paddled.”

“What?”

“They paddled, not sailed.”

“Jesus! Fine. They paddled. And then what?”

Walker shrugged. “They went home.”

Dan let his breath out in a thin stream, fighting to retain both control and sanity.

“Okay. Fine. And what about
Snow Queen
? They sink her too?”

“No, that was me.”

“That was you.” God, he was back to the repeating thing. “What exactly did you do? Paddle up and pull the plug?”

“Nah. Stuck a knife up into one of the through-hulls. Jammed it open.”

Dan shook his head, trying to clear it. “Walker, the through-hulls are underwater.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Damn near froze to death.”

Dan stared at him. “You swam out to it? Are you nuts? You could have died. You should have hypothermia.”

The three of them were sitting around the chart table in the wheelhouse, the items from the canisters spread out in front of them.

“Percy pulled me out and fixed me up.”

Claire's face was painted with a mixture of amazement and disbelief, her eyes dark with concern. “You really swam out to that ship?”

Walker nodded. “Yeah.”

“Was it you who wrapped that kelp around the prop?” she asked.

He grinned again. “Yeah. Worked, huh? Wasn't sure it would. Those were some crazy propellers. They were hung off some kind of pods. Looked a bit like those canisters, only bigger.”

“Pods?” Another memory of the silent ship that had slipped past when he was anchored up north ran through Dan's mind. “I've read something about that. Some kind of new propulsion system. It's electric. Run by generators instead of a diesel. Bet that's why it was so quiet.”

Walker nodded, suddenly serious. “Yeah. Before this all started, I kept getting this feeling there was something out there, but I couldn't see it or hear it. Must have been that ship.”