More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) (38 page)

“Oh hell no. You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You’re looking for that goddamned boat!”

“No I’m not. We’re just…uh…sailing around.”

“I’ll give you two seconds to take that lie back.”

I looked over at Cindy. She was smiling. “Fine. Yes, I am looking for the boat, but that’s it. If I find it, I’m calling Jardine and the task force and letting them take care of it.”

“Promise that’s it?”

“You said so yourself; I’m not a superhero. I just play one on TV.”

“Not funny. Promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I will.”

Her face softened a little. “How’s the kid?”

“Keeps talking my ear off. I can’t get in a word edgewise.” I winked at Cindy, who chuckled. “I think we’ll be fine.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do.”

“What do you think of the vidbook?”

“It’s pretty cool. Does it have games? I was sort of hoping to give Cindy something to do this afternoon.”

“Games? Are you insane? Who works for me? Only the biggest gamers on the West Coast. See that red arrow button? Press it.”

I did and up came the boys’ names as well as Danica’s, only hers said DaBoss and mine said, of course, DaPrincess. “Okay.”

“Scroll down to Carl’s name and hit enter.”

I did, and in less than two seconds, the screen split and Carl was on one-half of the monitor. “Yo Princess.”

I cut my eyes over to Cindy, who had her hand clamped over her mouth because she was snickering. “Hey Carl. I’ve got a kid with me and she would like to play some cool games on this thing. Would you mind walking her through it?”

“No prob.”

“There’s just one problem. She doesn’t talk.”

“Sounds like my kind of girlfriend. Then all she has to do is listen. Can she do that?”

I looked at Cindy, who nodded. “She says yes.”

“Cool. Hand her over.”

“And Dani? Don’t worry. I won’t do anything stupid.”

Handing the vidbook back to Cindy, I continued to the marina. A part of me considered taking her back to my apartment, but I just didn’t want to leave her alone. It didn’t seem right. It was bad enough that she had been handed off to someone she barely knew; the last thing she needed was to be kicked to the curb twice in one morning. Besides, this was just reconnaissance to see whether or not anything would pan out.

As I drove back to Berkeley, my mind wandered around in search of any clues or ideas that I might have missed. If Rupert and I found a boat and he could get us close enough, I would be able to sense the energy of the individuals inside. It was possible I could detect Bob’s energy, but not if he was surrounded by a lot of other energy. The key, again, was Smiley.

Autistic and Down’s Syndrome people have a different energy field than the rest of us. When I was in the Bayou, Melika taught me about the different kinds of emotional energies different people emanate. If Smiley was truly a savant, I would be able to pick it up...
if
we could get close enough.

Then I would contact Jardine and the task force and maybe even the Coast Guard. Danica was right that I was no superhero. I sure as hell didn’t want to get in the line of fire. All I needed to do was do what I do best: feel.

Turning to Cindy, I asked if she had ever been on a yacht. She shook her head.

“Well, before we go back to my place we are going on a yacht with a friend of mine. He is...well...he’s one of us. You can trust him, okay?”

She frowned a second and then pointed her finger back and forth at me and her.

“What’s one of us?” I asked. She nodded. “That’s a good question. One of us means that we are not like everybody else. We’re special. You’re special, and Melika is going to show you just how special you are. Does that sound like fun?”

She squinted and pointed at me.

“Not enough, eh? We are paranormals, which means above the norm. We call ourselves supers because our powers are supernatural. That’s what we all are.”

She nodded again. I so wished she could talk. As odd as it seemed, I enjoyed the company. It was nice to have someone to talk to even if she didn’t talk back.

“Rupert is a really nice guy. It’s his yacht and he’s taking us out so I can see if a certain boat is floating around the bay. Does that sound like fun?”

Cindy gave me to thumbs-up and a huge smile.

“It’s a beautiful day for being on a boat. Of course, anything is better than being back in that hospital, huh?”

Nod. She closed the vidbook and dropped it in her backpack.

When we got to the
Necromancer
, Rupert was standing by the side of the boat, waving. “Well, who have we here?” he asked, kneeling in front of Cindy as she boarded. “Hi there. I’m Rupert, captain of the
Necromancer
. Do you know what a necromancer is?” Rupert cast a look over at me. I nodded. “A necromancer is someone who can communicate with the dead. Pretty cool, huh?”

Cindy nodded.

“Her name is Cindy.”

“Welcome aboard the
Necromancer
, Cindy. Feel free to check it out.”

Which is precisely what she did. She scrambled all over it, high and low, and I was worried she would get into something.

“Stop worrying, Echo, She can’t hurt anything. She’s just a kid.”

“Thanks, again, Rupert.” Looking out at the robin’s egg blue sky, I inhaled the fresh sea air. It was a clear day with low swells and high-flying gulls.

Rupert rose and helped me aboard. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had two good-looking women on my boat, so the pleasure is all mine. Now, I’ve got the best equipment of any boat this size, so the chances of us finding a ship the size of what you’re talking about  are pretty good.” Rupert pulled the ropes and released the
Necro
from the pier. “I’ll get us out to the open water, Echo, if you and Cindy would bring the food up from the galley. I took the liberty of having a little spread delivered.”

A little spread?

When Cindy and I went downstairs, we were treated to a buffet that included paper thin slices of lox, creamy pate, three different kinds of cheese, fruits and vegetables, muffins, bagels, lunch meats, condiments and several chocolate truffles along with chocolate-covered strawberries.

Cindy and I just stared at the food. Her eyes were as big as mine. “Oh wow. I told you he was a nice guy.”

She nodded quickly.

I lightly touched Cindy’s head as she set the tray down and went back downstairs. “Expecting an army?”

“This is kind of like a stakeout, and you have to have good food for a stakeout. We will not perish.”

I smiled at him. He had a boyish charm I’d always found quite appealing. “What’s our plan?”

“Well I think we should cruise by the Bay Bridge first. My equipment will locate all craft within twenty miles of the
Necro
. When we spot one, we can just cruise by and let you take a look. I take it we’re looking for a vessel at least forty feet long that’s going to hold a minimum of twelve men. I mean, if you’re carrying anywhere from one to two dozen kidnap victims, they would be best in the cargo hold of a larger ship.”

“Preferably the kind of ship that would go unnoticed and unbothered by the Coast Guard.”

Rupert turned and studied me. “Then you’re looking for a ship like this one or a container vessel. Even after nine-eleven, our ports are our weakest link. Hell, you could back a cargo ship up to any pier in San Francisco and load it full of stolen goods and no one would be the wiser. We just don’t have the security, so you’re looking for either really rich or really poor.”

“What if it flew a Colombian flag?”

“Why not just shoot off a flare? I seriously doubt they are flying that flag.”

He was right. But if there was no Colombian flag, what had Smiley seen? “You find the vessel, Captain and I’ll let you know if there’s energy in it that matches our missing guys.”

Rupert looked at me. “Melika said you are powerful...but I never imagined—”

“I know, I know. Empaths don’t get a fair shake from the rest of you. I mean...what’s the benefit of knowing how someone feels?”

“Actually, I could see a huge benefit to it. And it must be very helpful in your field.”

“It has its perks.”

Rupert and I climbed the ladder to the Captain’s loft, or whatever it’s called. “And we’ll do what when we find the boat?”

“Call the Coast Guard.”

He laughed. “Um...I hate to break it to you, but they’re not like cops, you know? The Coast Guard is seriously undermanned in this part of the country. It’s not like they’re lurking around the corner waiting for a crisis.”

“Then we call the task force see if they have any power to get a boat to check it out.”

“So we’re just going to recon the boat and call it a day?”

“That’s the plan. I don’t want any trouble, Rupert. I wouldn’t put either you or Cindy in danger. Speaking of which, I need to go down and check on her.”

“I’ll let you know when we are in visual of any boats.”

Downstairs, I sat across the table from Cindy who was playing a game on the vidbook. With every passing moment away from the hospital, her features began to soften and she looked less and less like a little girl and more like a teenager. “Having a good time?”

She nodded.

“I’m really glad. Now, I want you to know that once we get you to Louisiana you can always call me, day or night if you ever feel lonely or just want to hear my voice, okay?”

Nod. Blink.

“I would never let anything bad happen to you. Do you trust me?”

She nodded, and to my surprise, pointed at me.

“What? Oh. Do I trust you? Absolutely. I think you’re a really good thing.”

This made her happy. Trust is just a hard commodity to come by when you’re a ten-year-old supernatural kid whom no one understands. I wondered what she had done to make her aunt and uncle distrust her enough to ship her off so easily, but it must have been a whopper. That’s how it usually happened with most of us; a display of our abilities was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I wondered what her straw was.

“Coming up on a few boats, Echo,” Rupert announced from above.

I jumped up as we approached.

“There are rules to water navigation, just like there are rules of the road. How close do you need to be?”

“This is good. Just keep going by it. The amount of energy I’m looking for is pretty large, so I’ll know it when I feel it.”

“Ten-four. I’ll just keep cruising boats until you see one that fits the bill. Do you think Cindy would like to sail the boat?”

“Oh, Rupert, I think she should really like that.”

I helped Cindy up the ladder. “Have a good time. Just don’t crash us, okay?” She took off up the ladder as if she was born to it.

As I stood on the deck overlooking the blue-green water of the San Francisco Bay, I felt a sense of calm wash over me. I don’t know if it was because I was really doing what I longed to do or because I had done the right thing by Cindy, by Bob and by Smiley. I just felt really good. I wanted this story. I wanted a happy ending for Cindy. I guess I just wanted it all.

We must have checked out a dozen or so boats before I heard Rupert cut the engines. “Cargo ship off the port side. It’s not flying a Colombian flag, but you gotta take a closer look.”

I looked over at the ship, lowered my shields and was nearly knocked over by a wave of energy that had not been present on the other boats.

“Umm...Rupert?”

He came down the ladder and stood beside me. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

I nodded slowly and pointed to the name of the ship. It was called the Juan Valdez…a Colombian coffee bean farmer in 1970’s television ads. “That’s what Smiley saw.”

Rupert nodded. “You picking up anything?”

I nodded again. “Strong energy bundle, coupled with the kind of energy I’m looking for from a certain young man.” My heart picked up its pace and I nodded once more. “That’s the one.”

“Would binoculars help?”

I shook my head. “Not really. My kind of energy read has a limited distance. Energy has a certain distance it can travel before it dissipates. This is...really strong. Strong and desperate There’s a fear even the weakest empath would be able to pick out.”

“How sure are you? You might want to…oh shit.” Rupert was looking through a pair of binoculars, and before I could answer, the whining sound of a speedboat drowned out his words as it approached us. It came from behind the bow of the cargo ship. “Looks like we have company!” Rupert yelled, motioning to the approaching boat. It was one of those superfast ski boats and it was coming right at us. Super fast. “Don’t see many of those on the bay!” Rupert yelled. “Better call in the troops!”

“Maybe they’re just reconning us.”

Rupert looked at me sideways. “Don’t risk it. I’m reading death all over that boat. What about you?”

I concentrated harder than I had in a long time. I felt fear, death, hopelessness and despair. I also felt anger, wrath and boredom.