Fallen Hunter (Jesse McDermitt Series) (23 page)

“You’re sure I don’t need to take a class?” she asked. “That’s an awful lot to remember for
just a shallow dive.”

Julie was sitting behind her and said, “I’ve never taken a class. Dad and Jesse taught me to dive when I was a kid. We’ll be right with you the whole time. Just remember to breathe.”

“And don’t breathe the water,” she said.

Julie laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s exactly what they said to me, when I was ten.”

“You did this at ten years old?” Julie asked.

“Yep,” she replied. “Used a little tiny air bottle that’s normally used as a backup. What you’re about to see is breathtaking so remembering to breathe really is important.”

I put a backpack on my tank and attached my first stage to it. Then I put on my weight belt and fins and lifted the rig over my head and slid it down onto my back. Grabbing my mask, I shuffled over to the transom door, opened it and stepped down onto the swim platform. “Shuffle your feet like that and take tiny steps.”

“You’re not wearing a wetsuit or one of these vest things?” she asked.

Deuce and I laughed and he said, “We’ll stay down until the first person’s air reaches 800 pounds. With a new diver, that’s usually about fifteen minutes. He won’t get cold that fast.”

“I rarely use a BC,” I added. “After a few dives, you’ll know exactly how much weight to use and won’t need one either.”

Deuce stood up, ready to go and helped Julie up, then shuffled around and helped Tina to her feet. By then, Julie had stepped down onto the platform, put her mask on and said, “Watch how Deuce and I enter the water and do the same thing.”

When Tina had made her way to the transom door, Julie took a long stride, while holding one hand over her mask. Her head barely went under. Once she was clear of the platform Deuce did the same thing, but since he wasn’t wearing a BC either he went under for a second.

“Okay,” I said. “You see how they did that? It’s called a giant stride entry. Step way out and keep your legs apart like you’re trying to do a split. Once you’re in the water, scissor your legs together. Keep one hand on your mask and regulator and the other extended out to the side. I’ll be in the water before you know it. You ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” she said somewhat hesitantly.

“Good girl,” I said. “Whenever you’re ready.” I pulled my mask on and put my regulator in my mouth and waited. First timers are always hesitant, but she stepped right off, with Deuce on one side and Julie on the other. I fell backwards off the side of the platform, then kicked over and surfaced right in front of her as she came up.

Taking my regulator out I said, “Now just let a little air out of your BC, like I showed you until you feel like you’re starting to descend.” She did so and we started down to the sandy bottom together.

At first she tried to use her fins like she was walking, pushing with the bottom of them. I stopped her and pointed two fingers at my eyes, then pointed to Julie and Deuce ahead of us, finning toward the reef. She watched them for a second, then nodded her head and started finning after them. She was a bit too heavy, so I came up beside her and pushed the auto-inflator on her BC, putting a small charge of air into it. The sudden sound startled her, but she came up off the bottom a little. I gave her the okay sign and she nodded.

I held her hand as we finned toward the reef. Deuce and Julie had already reached the outer fringe and were looking back, waiting.
Just ahead of us, a pair of porgies swam past, followed by a large French angle fish. I felt the excitement in the squeeze of Tina’s hand. As we approached the edge of the reef more and more fish became visible against the multicolored reef. There were several blue striped grunts and yellow tail snappers hanging above the reef. A queen angle fish swam out of a crevice and disappeared into another. Dozens of tiny damselfish of several kinds darted in and out of holes and cracks and a pair of spotfin butterfly fish cruised along the sandy bottom at the edge of the reef.

I looked at Tina and her eyes were wide behind her mask, and a near constant stream of bubbles coming out of her regulator. We followed Deuce and Julie as they finned around the right side of the reef. Conrad only covers a little over a quarter acre maybe, but there’s more life in that one quarter acre than about any reef I’ve ever seen.
Deuce had a catch bag and was looking for lobster for lunch. This reef usually has quite a few, so I knew lunch was virtually in the bag. We came to a narrow cut in the reef and let Julie and Deuce go on ahead, while we turned into the cut staying close to the sandy bottom. Under one ledge we found a nurse shark about four feet long, just resting. Tina was startled at first, but followed my lead as we slowly approached the docile fish. Near its tail I reached out and gently stroked its skin, then pointed to Tina to do the same. She tentatively reached out and ran her fingertips over the coarse skin. A shark’s skin is full of denticles giving it the feel of rough sandpaper.

We continued further into the cut to the end and then went up and over the top
where some beautiful staghorn coral was growing along with barrel sponges, brain coral, gorgonian, and purple sea fans. The gorgonian and sea fans gently swayed in the light surge, performing a seductive and suggestive dance. A large barracuda hung motionless just off the edge of the reef as we finned back down to the bottom. Near the sand we spotted a juvenile French angle fish, dark black with bright yellow stripes and two rock beauties, bright orange and black, dancing in and out of the light filtering through a narrow gap in the surrounding coral.

Turning right, we met Deuce and Julie halfway around the reef as Deuce was putting a lobster in the catch bag. I could tell it wasn’t alone. I held my pressure gauge up in front of Tina and she lifted hers up to look at it. Holding up nine fingers, I jerked my thumb upward. Deuce motioned that they were going to continue around the rest of the reef with a circular motion of his fingers. I nodded and took Tina’s hand as we slowly finned our way to the surface. We’d only been down about fifteen minutes, but I was already getting a little cold.

When we broke the surface Tina pulled her mask down below her chin, looked at me and grinned. “Can we go back down again?” she asked.

“I only have four tanks,” I said and saw her grin turn into a frown. “But, I have a compressor to refill them,” I added. “We’ll start them filling while we have lunch. Deuce should have enough to eat. Next dive, I’ll show you how to catch lobster
for tonight’s dinner.”

We climbed aboard the
Revenge
and removed our dive gear. Tina said, “I can’t believe all those beautiful fish. I’ve never seen or imagined anything like that before. And I touched a frigging shark! None of my friends are going to believe that.”

I wrapped a big towel around her and removed the two tanks from both our rigs. “I’ll get the hoses ready to refill the tanks. Deuce and Julie will be up in about five minutes.”

“Anything I can do to help?” she asked.

“I got it,” I said. “Why don’t you help them up, when they get to the platform?”

I went down to the engine room, unrolled the four air hoses and started the generator, which powers all the onboard electrical systems including the small air compressor. When I got back out on deck, Deuce and Julie were handing their fins up to Tina and climbing aboard.

“
A quarter of our limit down,” Deuce said as he lifted his catch bag up to me.

“What’s that mean?” Tina asked.

“Means he’s already started on dinner,” I said. “The bag limit is six per person.”

I opened the bag and looked inside. “All nice size, too,” I said.

Deuce helped me hang the tanks in the water to fill. Then I mounted a small portable grill in one of the rod holders so that it hung over the side of the boat. We had a lunch of grilled lobster tails, with steamed broccoli from the galley and sliced pineapple.

By the time we finished lunch the tanks were full and we got ready for our second dive. I gave Tina a net and tickle stick and explained to her how to use the stick to coax the lobster out of a crevice and into the net.

When we got back in the water Tina was much more comfortable. We found lobster almost immediately and she managed to catch three with the net. I got another three by hand and Deuce and Julie got another eight. Once we were back aboard, we had sixteen to take back with us. We hoisted anchor and started back to Marathon with three hours of daylight left.

“I could stay out here all day,” Tina said. “I still can’t believe all that beauty was just below the surface.”

“Not to mention all that bounty,” Deuce said.

Our plan was to bring Deuce and Julie to the island and they’d go back to Marathon
taking both the Grady and my skiff. With Rusty and his skiff, they’d be able to bring nine people to the island when Doc and Deuce’s team arrived in the morning. Tony, Art, and Chyrel would come by helicopter, along with two other team members that were Tony and Art’s backups.

An hour later, we were tied up under my house. Deuce and Julie wanted to g
et back to Marathon before dark, so we pulled the Grady and my skiff out and they left an hour before dark. “Don’t eat all that lobster before we get back,” he said as they pulled away from the dock.

“I put
four traps in the deep part of Harbor Channel yesterday,” I said. “Should be able to have a lobster lunch for the whole crew tomorrow. See you guys in the morning.”

Tina and I walked up the steps to the deck as Trent and Pescador came up the rear steps. “I overheard you,” he said. “Been catching a lot of fish with your
dog’s help. How many will there be tomorrow?”

“About two dozen,” I said, “Counting your family.”

“I have plenty enough then,” he said. “Put about forty filets in the cooler the last couple of days.”

“Good,” I said. “We’re going to need it. Want to go out with me early in the morning and pull the lobster traps?”

“Sure,” he said. “I got those other three tables built you wanted. Had some lumber left over and made some stone crab traps and set them out.”

“You’re an industrious man, Trent,” I said as I looked out over the trees to the southwest. “Sunset’s in about an hour, have y’all eaten?”

“No, we were waiting for you to get back,” he said. “Charlie has about a dozen stone crab claws already and is making blackened snapper.”

We followed Trent down to the tables on the far side of the clearing. He
had done an exceptional job on them and Charlie made a great meal. Tina and I cleaned up so they could get the two kids to bed and then we walked out to the dock. Pescador was in his usual spot waiting for the light show to begin.

“When are we going to leave tomorrow?” Tina asked.

“I’d like to be able to drop Tony and Art about midnight. We’ll probably leave here just before sunset.”

“How long will we be gone? I’ll have to find someone else to take my shifts for a few days.”

“I’m thinking they should be able to get enough information in three days to be helpful. We’ll be getting back here by Friday, at least. I don’t suppose you have any vacation time coming, do you?”

“I can call the manager and request it,” she said.

I saw Trent and Charlie walk out onto the sandbar and sit down. They seemed to be having a discussion, Trent was pointing toward shore and motioning with his hands. I could see Charlie smile at him and nod her head, agreeing with what he was saying. Slowly the sun started to slip toward the far horizon. There was a bank of high cumulus clouds just to the north of it and the sun bathed them in a beautiful red glow. Tina leaned her head on my shoulder as we quietly watched the sun set. It almost seemed to sizzle as the water reached up and grabbed the lower edge of the orb. The air all around seemed to take on an orange glow, casting long shadows from the trees on the nearby islands.

Slowly, the sun sank into the sea and as it disappeared and the sky started to grow dark Tina said, “No green flash tonight?”

“No,” I said. “It’s actually pretty rare. We were lucky the other night.”

We sat there a few more minutes and I noticed Trent and his wife got up from the sandbar and walked, hand in hand, to the little cabin. “We should go to bed,” I said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”

We got up and walked to the house, with Pescador trotting ahead.

I woke very early the next morning and was able to get out of bed without rousing Tina. I let Pescador out and started the coffee pot. Breakfast would have to wait a while. I wanted to get out to the lobster traps and be back before anyone arrived. Deuce had texted me to expect the chopper about 0900 and the team was meeting him at the
Anchor
at 0830, so everyone should be here by 0915. I heard someone, or rather, felt someone coming up the back steps. It was Trent, with Pescador leading the way.

“Figured you’d be up early,” he said. “Gonna be a long day for you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “No rest for the wicked.”

“
Wanna go out and pull those traps?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Coffee’s about ready. Want a cup?”

“Wait here a minute,” I said and went into the galley to find Tina already pouring three cups and filling a thermos.

“Thanks,” I said. “But you didn’t need to get up. It’s barely 0400.”

She smiled and said, “I’ve always been an early riser.”

“Farm life, huh? Trent’s out on the deck
. We’re leaving in a minute to go pull those lobster traps. Want to come along.”

“Y’all go ahead,” she said. “Charlie and I are going to get things ready here. Have you thought about where everyone’s going to stay?”

I thought about it a minute. There’d be Trent’s family, Chyrel and a bunch of door kickers. I didn’t know how many would be staying on after we left for Cozumel. I assumed Chyrel and the two standby operators would stay. “Chyrel can stay here,” I said. “The Trent’s can stay where they are and anyone else that stays over can fill up the other cabin and sleep under the stars.”

“You’d have your guests sleep outside?”

“They’re not guests,” I said. “Half of them will probably prefer it, anyway. From what Deuce told me, most of these guys came from elite military units. Snake eaters.”

We carried our coffee outside. I handed a cup to Trent and we sat down at the table on the back of the deck. “What time are y’all shovin’ off?” Trent asked.

“Before sunset, about 1600,” I said. “That’ll put us just off Cuba about midnight and in Cozumel by mid-morning.”

“If you’d like, I can have Williams run up here and check over the engines,” he said. “No better mechanic anywhere around.”

“Might not be a bad idea,” I said. “It’s an eighteen hour run.”

“I’ll call him,” he said as he was getting up. “He’ll be here by the time we get back.”

“He must have a fast boat,” I said.

“Nope,” he replied. “
He’s got an old de Havilland Beaver float plane.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “All he needs is an excuse to fly. And gas money.”

“Call him,” I said. “Tell him I’ll pay him $500 to come up and look the engines over. It’d be worth that just to see one of those old planes.”

Trent got his phone out and made the call. “We should be back in an hour,” I told Tina. “When Williams gets here, would you show him to the boat?”

“Sure,” she said.

I got up and walked to the front steps, kissing her on the cheek. I went down to the docks and opened the east door and then climbed aboard the Grady and started the engine.

Trent came down the steps and as he was untying the lines he said, “Williams’ll be here in twenty minutes. He was already at the airport planning to go for a ride anyway. I told him he could tie up to the end of the pier. He wasn’t real happy when I told him I was putting
Miss Charlie
up for sale.”

“If he’s as good as you say, he won’t have any trouble finding work,” I said. “I could pay him to come out here once a week and spend a day or two going over the boats. Maybe three days, when we get the generator and aquaculture system going.”

We idled out the channel to Harbor Channel and turned northeast about a mile to the first trap float. Pulling up the trap, I could tell by the weight it was going to be a good lunch. It had nine legal sized lobster in it and a few that we had to let go.

“How’s Williams gonna land in the dark?” I asked.

“There’s enough starlight for him,” Trent replied. “Besides, he hasn’t always been against drug smuggling.”

Trent rebaited the trap and tossed it back in the water. I shined the light in the direction the next trap was supposed to be and finding it, I idled toward it. In the distance I heard the sound of an airplane with a radial engine. A minute later it flew over, banking sharply to the left. Two bright spotlights came on as it lined up for a water landing on the north side of the island. We pulled the other three traps and started back to the island with another
thirty lobster to add to what was already in the refrigerator.

As we idled up the channel and under the house, Williams came down the steps carrying two large tool boxes. He set them on the dock next to the
Revenge
and said, “Hey Skipper, how ya doing Jesse?”

“Doing well enough,” I said. “Thanks for coming up.”

“Sorry if I cut your fun flight,” Trent said.

“Don’t worry about it, Skipper,” he said. “
Happy to oblige.”

Trent and I tied off the Grady and I showed Williams aboard the
Revenge
, while Trent carried the cooler full of lobster up the steps.

“This is a real beauty,” Williams said. “What year is she? I’m guessing ’98 or ’99, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “She’s a ’98.”

“I’m
also guessing you have the bigger 865 horse engines right?” he asked.

“Drop on down and take a look,” I said. “There’s a couple crates stored below, but you can squeeze past them easy enough.”

He opened the hatch, squatted down and stepped into the engine room. He let out a low whistle, then stuck his head back up through the hatch. “Drug runner special, huh?” he said.

“Bought her at a Coast Guard auction in ’01,” I said. “Some smugglers loss was my gain.”

“I’ve only seen one other Rampage with twin 1015’s,” he said. “You’ve taken great care of this boat, Jesse. I could eat off this deck down here.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But,
the credit goes to my old First Mate, Jimmy Saunders.”

“I know Jimmy,” he said. “Good kid. I doubt there’s any problems, but I’ll run a full diagnostics on my laptop on both the main engines and the gen-set, check all the fluids and filters. Won’t take but about an hour.”

I headed back up the steps to the house. Tina wasn’t inside so I went down the rear steps and crossed the clearing. It was starting to get light to the east and I had a pretty good idea where she was.

“Thought I’d find you out here,” I said as I walked out to the end of the pier. She was sitting with Pescador under the wing of Williams’ plane. I walked along the old bird, admiring the lines.
The Beaver is used in a lot of remote places especially up in Canada and Alaska. It was able to take off in a short distance, due to its large wings and could carry six passengers and the pilot or over a ton of cargo.

Tina looked up and said, “It’s a real pretty plane your friend has. I’ve seen it fly around Key West sometimes. Is it new?”

“New?” I said. “No, it was probably built before I was born.” I sat down next to her on the pier and she took my hand in hers as we waited for the sun to rise. There were low clouds to the east blocking the sun, but the colors were still pretty spectacular. Living on an island you learn to not only live off the sea but to appreciate the beauty in everything around you.

Far in the distance, I heard the sound of a heavy helicopter. Sound carries over water and I knew it was probably still a few miles away. “Let’s get back to the clearing,” I said. “We’re about to have company.”

As we passed between the two bunkhouses, Trent and Charlie came out with the kids. The chopper passed slowly over our heads. It was a Bell UH-1, commonly called a Huey. Noting the flag, the pilot continued over the island, turned a wide circle and approached from the southeast. I trotted across the clearing and guided him into the center of the clearing. Tony, Art, and two other men jumped from the skids while the chopper was still a foot off the ground. They turned around and pulled several bags and cases from the two open doors, as Chyrel climbed out of the right front of the aircraft.

I walked toward them and nodded
in the direction of the tables by the bunkhouses as the chopper lifted off the ground and disappeared over the west side of the island.

“Good to see you again Art,” I said once the noise died down.

“Nice to see you again too, Jesse,” he said. “These two guys are Donnie Hinkle and Glenn Mitchel. Both SEAL’s before coming over to DHS. Guys, this is former Recon Marine, Gunnery Sergeant Jesse McDermitt.”

Reaching out my hand to the two men I said, “Haven’t been that in a few years. Just call me Jesse.”

“Pleasure, mate,” said Hinkle with an Aussie accent.

“Heard about you, Jesse,” Mitchel said taking my hand
after setting his bag on one of the tables. “One of my instructors at Camp Atterbury told us about an impossible shot some Jarhead made in the Mog in ’93.”

Tina looked from Mitchel to me and I said, “Lucky was all. Donnie, Glenn, meet Deputy Christina La
Mons.
She’ll be going with Deuce and
me to drop Tony and Art off. And these are my caretakers on the island, Carl and Charlie Trent.”

The two men shook hands with Tina and Charlie, then
Trent stepped forward and shook hands with the two men and said, “If there’s anything you need, just yell. Since you’re the first to arrive, you’ll get dibs on the bunks in the east bunkhouse over there.”

Hinkle looked around the clearing and stopped on a small area under some hibiscus and jasmine and said, “Thanks, mate. But I think we’ll pitch camp over yonder. Leave the bunks for the city boys.”

Trent looked at the two men, then at me and shrugged. I nodded to Hinkle and they picked up two of the four packs and walked towards the wood line. I made them to be a sniper team as soon as Hinkle mentioned Atterbury. The massive old base in Indiana is where SEAL Snipers are trained.

Once out of earshot
, Chyrel said, “Those two are kind of strange if you ask me.”

“Not strange at all,” I said. “In the spring, I string a hammock over there at night.”

Tina looked up at me and said, “What was he talking about an impossible shot in the Mog? What’s a Mog?”

“Mogadishu,”
I said. Then changing the subject I said, “Deuce and the rest should be arriving in a few minutes. Let’s get down to the docks.”

Without waiting I turned and headed across the clearing. Tina ran to catch up and said, “You’re a sniper?”

“I was. A long time ago,” I said. “Now I’m a fisherman.”

Walking
up the steps to the house I could hear the approaching boats. Deuce was right on time. As I walked down the front steps, Williams was just coming up out of the engine room.

“Everything looks great, Jesse,” he said. “You had a loose clamp on one of the air to air’s, but I tightened it up. Also tweaked the injectors a little over the stock setting on the computer. You might get another knot at wide open throttle.
”

“Thanks Dave,” I said. “Every little knot counts. Stick around for lunch? Got lots of fish, lobster, and stone crab claws.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he said looking down the dock where the first of three boats was idling up to. “Looks like you’re having a party.”

The first boat to tie up was Rusty
, with Doc and Nikki aboard, along with two other men. Deuce pulled up behind him with four men aboard and Julie brought up the rear with two women and another man aboard. That surprised me. I thought all of Deuce’s field team would be men. Deuce left the Grady for his team members to tie up and came to where Williams and I were standing beside the
Revenge
, as Doc and Nikki walked up.

“Deuce,” I said. “This is Dave Williams, mechanic extraordinaire
, my new First Mate and former Navy Corpsman, Bob Talbot and his fiancé Nikki Godsey. Dave just squeezed another couple knots out of the
Revenge’s
engines. He also owns one beautiful de Havilland Beaver docked at the north pier.”

“No kidding?” Deuce said. “You gonna be around a while? I’d love to see her.” Knowing Deuce as well as I did, I knew this question was as much to me as it was to Williams. He was asking if Williams could be trusted.

“Yeah,” I said. “He’s gonna stay for lunch at least.” I was telling Deuce that I trusted him and he should, too. Then I said, “I’m thinking of offering him a job as well.” Williams looked at me puzzled and I added, “Trent’s selling his shrimp boat and Williams is his Engineer. With all these boats I seem to be collecting, plus the power plant and aquaculture system, I think I can keep him busy enough. Hell, he could work full time on
The Beast
and never run out of work. Besides, I’m hoping he’ll let me have some seat time in his Beaver.”

“You fly?” Williams asked.

“Not fixed wing,” I said. “Flew rotaries in the Corps from time to time.”