Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) (23 page)

She dragged her boat down to the water’s edge, pushed off, and jumped in. The water was shallow for nearly the first quarter mile, too shallow for sailboat moorings. The night was very dark but a tiny sliver of a moon had just peeked over the island of Ko Lon out in the bay. The moon provided little light but it did make it easier to be certain she was headed in the right direction. Since the wind had chosen this night to quit entirely, she rowed slowly. Sound travels far over the water, especially when it is still.

After so many months on her mooring out in Ao Chalong Bay, Riley had made friends with most of the boaters around her. She knew the Aussie couple on the big catamaran
Incommunigato
had flown home for a month of visiting family and no one was aboard their boat. Their mooring was on the opposite side of her boat from where Benny’s boat was anchored. She had been watching his boat as she neared, and so far there had been no sign of movement there. She shipped the oars when she pulled up to the aft swim step on one of the big cat’s hulls, then climbed out and tied up her dinghy. She took off her sandals and put them in the backpack after she pulled out the line she’d collected. She tied the line around her waist so she wouldn’t lose it. She slipped into the water via the ladder off the cat’s swim platform and started swimming a gentle side stroke toward her own boat, holding her
backpack above the water and keeping
Bonefish
between herself and the fishing boat on the other side.

When she came alongside
Bonefish
, she tucked her backpack under the swim ladder and then kept swimming even more slowly. Her breathing sounded loud in her ears, but she hoped it was just her imagination.

The fishing boat’s engine was angled forward so the propeller rested just out of the water at the end of the long shaft. She untied the line around her waist and wrapped it around the prop. She was about to start back to her boat when she looked at the engine. Unlike most marine engines, these were air-cooled automobile engines and she just might be able to reach the air intake manifold. She liked hedging her bets, so she reached around behind her back, under her polo shirt, and undid the clasp on her bra. She threaded the straps around her elbows and the bra floated free. She grabbed the bra and she couldn’t resist running her hand over her breasts. It felt so much better in the water without it.

At the stern of the wooden boat she placed one hand on the side of the engine well. She knew what came next would rock the boat a bit, but she hoped he wouldn’t notice. She took a deep breath and pulled herself partway out of the water. Just as her hand reached the gaping air intake, she heard a cough from inside the boat. She froze half out of the water and watched for movement at the other end of the boat, where she could just make out the mound of a figure under a tarp. With two fingers, she pushed the bra as far as she could, then lowered herself back into the water. The boat rocked even more as he shifted position and coughed again.

Riley realized her polo shirt was white and it would glow in the water if he happened to sit up and look. She pulled the shirt over her head and pushed it under his boat. Holding her breath, she started to swim.

All the way back to her boat, she was expecting a dart to hit her in the back of the neck. But a few minutes later, she was pulling herself up on her swim step and climbing into her cockpit. She unlocked the boat, turned off her alarm, and went below to change into some dry clothes.

Once dressed she looked around the familiar cabin and thought about putting to sea for such a long voyage. She always carried a good supply of canned and dry goods, so she was fine on food. Her Caliber 40 sailboat had tankage for just over two hundred gallons of diesel fuel, and she liked to keep her tanks topped off so she didn’t have to worry about too much condensation in her fuel. And as for water, her reverse-osmosis water maker could make twenty gallons of fresh water out of salt—per hour. She was ready to go. As always.

She went through the rest of her pre-departure routine, throwing switches for instruments, autopilot, radar, and radios. While swimming, she had noticed the outgoing tide, and now she reckoned that she could use that current. At the bow, she paused briefly to note the faint light in the eastern sky, then threw off her mooring lines and let her boat drift free. The tide would carry her south past the fishing boat, and once she was far enough away, she could start her engine, set her course for Langkawi in Malaysia. Hopefully, by the time he awoke, she would be out of sight.

Her plan looked like it was going to work perfectly until she realized that the current was carrying her boat directly toward the eighty-foot-long gleaming navy-blue hull of the
Merlin II
, the exorbitantly expensive ocean-racing greyhound that Billy Barber called home.
Merlin II
was moored about two hundred feet from where Benny had dropped his anchor. She knew what the paint job on that hull cost. Billy had told her. Several times. There was no way she could let her white hull collide with that perfect navy-blue hull. When it was clear that there was no way she could avoid it, she turned the key and fired up her engine.

Ao Chalong
Phuket, Thailand

November 19, 2012

The noise of an engine starting jolted him awake. Benny threw off the tarp, sat up, and looked for the woman’s boat. The mooring ball was floating alone; the boat was gone. He jumped to his feet and turned. He didn’t expect to see the white sailboat so close to his boat and even closer to the fancy blue one. He heard the engine revs increase as her boat swung away from the blue boat and began to pick up speed. The sky was a bluish gray but there was already enough light for him to see the woman’s face when she turned and stared at him over her shoulder. She wasn’t afraid and that surprised him.

Benny reached for his bag. This woman had been too much trouble to him already and now she was disrespecting him. He untied the top of his bag, reached inside for his blowpipe, then stopped. He could kill her easily enough. The distance was not too great, but Hawkes wanted her alive. Where were the other two? If the old man had the artifact now, and he wasn’t aboard, how would he locate him? No, he couldn’t kill the girl, no matter how much he wanted to.

He stepped to the back of the boat and thought back to the lessons that his cousin had taught him for starting the engine. He went through each step, and he was thankful when the engine roared to life on his first try. It sounded very loud in the still morning air. The next step was to pivot it by lifting the front tiller and then lower the prop into the water. When he bent down he heard the engine noise change. He knew from driving cars that when an engine sounded like it was coughing, it was not good. Then the sound died altogether. He could no longer even hear the sound of the woman’s boat.

Benny swore. He knew nothing about mechanics. He stepped to the side and looked at all the metal parts and hoses and wires. Then he saw something that looked like white fabric dangling out from a hole. He reached down and grabbed it. When he pulled, it would not come at first. He pulled harder and something tore. It came free. He saw he was holding a white, lacy woman’s bra.

He saw from the corner of his eye that her boat was widening the gap very quickly. Sailboats were not supposed to be fast, he thought. Benny tried to start the engine again and this time he had the throttle so far open, the engine seemed to scream. He lowered the revs down to idle speed.

Then he remembered the anchor. He could not put the boat into gear with the anchor on the bottom. He hurried to the front of the boat and pulled the rope in hand over hand. When he got to the chain it was heavy, but there was only about twenty feet of it. He piled it on top of the nets he’d been using as a mattress. The anchor was muddy, but he didn’t have time to clean it.

Benny ran to the back of the boat, lifted the engine to put the prop in the water, and shifted it into gear. Not more than five seconds after he put it into gear, the engine stopped again. The sun was just peeking over the top of the island. Benny lowered the front end of the engine and the first rays of sunlight lit the ball of bright orange rope wrapped in a tight ball around the propeller.

The white sailboat had cleared the anchorage, and it was heading for the mouth of Ao Chalong Bay. The woman stepped away from the steering wheel and walked to the side of her boat. He saw her raise a hand and wave.

Shanti Lodge
Phuket, Thailand

November 19, 2012

Cole wondered what was taking her so long. He guessed by the angle of the sun out the window that it was perhaps 6:30 a.m. When he awoke to find Riley’s side of the bed empty, he assumed she had gone to the head. After all, she had fallen asleep very early the night before.

He tried to fall back asleep, but once he’d started thinking about her, that was the only thing that filled his mind—and other parts of his body. As he waited for her in all his morning glory, he thought back over the recent hours he had spent with her. He pictured her running down that dock in Bangkok and taking that flying leap onto their boat as it was pulling away from the dock, frowning as she drove the boat, staring out the bus window as they made their way south, and snoring softly as he covered her with a sheet the night before. For more than twenty-four hours he’d been wanting to take her in his arms and kiss every inch of her. This morning, finally he would get that chance.

If only she would come back from the head. Suddenly, it occurred to him that she might be sick. He threw off the sheet and swung his
legs over the side of the bed. He reached for his clothes on the chair next to the bed. That was when he noticed her phone was no longer plugged in where he’d left it the night before. She probably wanted to check her email and had taken it with her. But her backpack and clothes were gone, too. Perhaps she’d wanted to shower. He wanted to believe that but the two towels slung over the other chair back made that difficult.

Breakfast. That was it. She’d gone down to breakfast without him. He pulled on his clothes. He was in no hurry. For the moment, he could not be sure she had left without saying good-bye. He could believe she was downstairs eating, chatting with Kim, waiting for him to come down. Or try to.

As he descended the stairs, he could see into the dining room. A slender Thai girl was placing sugar bowls and cream pitchers on the tables. She was the only person he could see.

“Good morning,” he said. He saw from the clock over the bar that it was actually after 8:00 a.m.

The girl placed her hands together almost as though she were praying.
“Sawadee ka,”
she said in a lovely singsong voice.

Cole nodded in return. “Have you seen an American woman with brownish-blond hair to here?” He touched his own shoulder to indicate the length of her hair.

She shook her head. “Sorry.”

Cole gave her an order for his breakfast and said he would be back downstairs in about ten minutes. He returned to the room and went to the bed stand where he had emptied his pockets the night before. The cheap little Thai phone he had bought on arrival in the country was there. He picked it up and dialed.

“Hey. It’s me,” he said.

“So,” Theo said, “did she rock your world?”

“She’s gone.”

“Say what?”

“I can’t believe it either,” Cole said. The truth was he didn’t want to.

“She didn’t like leave a note or anything?”

“No. I woke up and she was gone.”

“Mon, what did you say to her?”

“Me? Why is everything always my fault?”

“Because you’re the crazy one, that’s why.”

“Are you checking her website? I don’t have any way to get on the Internet here.”

“Of course I am. As we speak. And yes, there is something there. Listen—”

A robotic voice came through the cell phone: “Dear Cole, I’m sorry to leave in the night like this without waking you, but I didn’t want to argue with you. I can’t leave my boat. It’s my home and office. So I’m on my way—just south of Ao Chalong Bay. I took care of Benny. Suffice to say he should not be a problem for me now. You need to keep your eyes open for him, though. He wants the Tibetan prayer gau (and its contents), and he doesn’t know who has it. He will go after you if necessary.