The Atlas Murders (56 page)

 He repeated, “three three
zero, now go and have something to eat.”

 It was a clear night and
they sped on over the calm sea checking every echo on the radar. From what
Kerstin could tell by the size of the echo and their speed they had passed a
few merchant ships and numerous yachts. Then a thought suddenly struck her. She
went up on deck. “Henry, if another one of these CIA launches was out there
looking for us, do you know what our big give away is?”

 He looked at her puzzled. “No,
I have no idea.”

“Speed!”

“What!”

 “Speed could be our
downfall. You see those lights,” she said, pointing to port, “she’s a cruise
liner doing about twenty five knots and she stands out against normal craft
because of her speed. When we reach our point of alteration at one hundred
hours we’ll cut back speed to a normal ten knots. I believe it would be safer.”

 Henry was amazed at her tactics
and her sound reasoning. “Yes, I believe you’re right. It would make us less
conspicuous if we’re picked up on their radar.”

 “Now,” she laughed, “I have
one more kind of silly request, and tell me if you think so.”

 “Come out with it. I’m sure
it’s anything but silly.”

 “I want you to screw off the
name plates. This one here she leaned over the rail and touched it, and the one
on the port side. I’d like you to paint a new name on the blank side of the
plates. You can then screw them back on with the new name facing out.”

 “Great idea! only I’m not
great at painting. What will our new name be?”

“The ‘Ayola’, in honor of our
little passenger. And don’t worry, I’ll do the painting.”

“Brilliant all round!

 Taking down the two plates
took little time and Kerstin retired to the main cabin where she used all her
artistic skills to make the plates look convincing. When they had them back in
place it was time to make the alteration of course. Kerstin was at the controls
and she shut down to ten knots and altered course to one zero five, which would
take them to the northern tip of the island. She told Henry to take a couple of
hours shut eye. “At this speed it’ll take us twenty five hours, but later
during daylight, we might if we’re all clear, go up to fifteen or twenty knots.”

 Henry turned in and she was
left alone with her musings. She thought about little Ayola; was possible she
could be an orphan? Not once had she mentioned her family or wanting to return
to Venezuela. Maybe it was too soon for her to discuss her future, and the
child’s English was limited. This didn’t stop Kerstin feeling a lifting of her
spirit as she dared to imagine herself, Henry and Ayola being a family. She realized
now that the void in her life was much greater than she had cared to admit – oh
but for a child to love and care for, she sighed.

 Henry relieved her at four
hundred hours and brought her a cup of tea. “I checked the radar before coming
up and we are all alone; no echoes for forty miles at least.”

 She took a much needed sip
of tea. “If you need me just shout.”

 “Right, now get a bit of
rest; you’ve certainly earned it.”

 She went below and Henry
encountered nothing of note for the next four hours. The sun was now climbing
in a clear blue sky, as little Ayola came to see Henry.

 “Kerstin, will I call her,
she asleep?”

 “No Ayola let her sleep a
bit longer. She is very tired and was late going to bed. You understand?”

 “Yes, I understand. I speak
small English. You like I make something to eat for you?”

 “Yes, that would be great. You
make whatever you think, there’s plenty of food in the fridge.”

 As she skipped away, Henry
was delighted to see she was more relaxed and friendly. The resilience of youth,
he thought.

It was nine hundred hours
when Kerstin made an appearance. She was bright and breezy after a sound sleep.

“There’s nothing to report,
so if you take over for a bit, I’ll go below and get some breakfast. Oh, and we
have a new cook, you know. It’s Ayola, and judging by the smell she’s doing a
fine job,” he exclaimed, before quickly adding, “she wasn’t cajoled, she
volunteered.”

“That’s great Henry, she must
be feeling brighter.”

Henry sat down and Ayola served
up a big plate of fried bacon, sausages, eggs and pancakes. “Ayola, this is the
biggest breakfast I’ve ever had, it looks delicious.”

 She was so happy, she
blushed and turned away. “I hope you like, coffee?”

 “Yes please.”

 She poured his coffee and
excused herself to go to Kerstin. Henry hadn’t enjoyed a breakfast like it for
some time.

 After he had eaten, he got
some food and a packet of cocaine and went to Chen. He had left it a bit late;
Chen was trembling and moaning, he was clearly in full scale withdrawal. Henry
handed him the packet of powder but Chen was so far gone Henry had to get a
book and spread it out in lines for him. He sniffed the lines and after some
time he became lucid again. Henry took off the leg ties and led him to the
bathroom. He left him there for some time and when he returned he gave him
coffee and some food. After Chen had finished eating he put the leg ties back
on. “Now Chen, when we get the cocaine to this Pedros character, you can go
where you like when we get into Kingstown. I’ll give you all the cocaine in the
safe and one thousand dollars that I’m sure you’re probably owed in pay. For me
to do this you will have to co-operate with Pedros. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand. I have
done nothing; I hurt no one, only work for Mr. Tukola.”

“When you go keep out of the
way of the police.”

“Yes, you will do that for me?”

“Only if you tell me all. How
does Pedros get onto the rock?”

 “His brothers, they are
fishermen, they puts him on and takes him off when the drugs are gone.”

 “When does the launch come
for the drugs?”

 “No one knows that. Not
Johnny or Mr. Tukola, maybe a week or a day or two weeks.”

 “When they come have they a
signal for Johnny to show it’s them?”

“Yes, they have a special
signal only Johnny know, not even Tukola or anybody else know that signal. They
also change it every time they come and he has a new signal for them every time
and they have a new one for him. How they work is, they signal with a lamp to
him, if it is right he signal back to them. If either signal is wrong they go
away and leave the drug.”

 “So both signals have to be
right before they come in, and who dives down to get the stash?”

 “They have divers, and then
they speed off. Maybe towards the Atlantic Ocean or south again towards Venezuela
- no one knows. They have the fastest launch in the Caribbean, much faster than
Windsong so the Americans can’t catch them.”

“How do you know all this
when you only drop the cocaine off?”

 “You see Tukola, only comes
on the launch when we are taking girls back or collecting some. He never comes
when we go for the drugs only. Sometimes they might bring the drugs like now
and we’d not have been told first. He doesn’t like having them on board when
he’s with us like this time now. You see Johnny’s brother, he comes with me to
get the drugs and he told me all about the collection of the cocaine.”

“What is our signal to Pedros?”

 “We signal with the lamp;
dash dot dash dot, and he signals back dash dot dot. Then we drop the drugs in
close. I’ll show you.”

 “Ok, but everything you told
me better be true. If all goes well, I’ll let you go your way.”

“It true.”

 The noon sun was hot and
relentless. Kerstin pulled her wide brimmed hat up from her face. “I think we
could up speed to fifteen knots and Henry, will you do radar watch.  If you see
an echo tell me immediately so I can shut down before they notice our speed. If
we work this successfully it’ll take five or six hours off our time; we still
have one hundred and forty miles to go.”

 Two uneventful hours passed
with only a fleeting echo passing at distance. Henry got a cold drink from the well-stocked
fridge and some cookies and continued his watch.

Henry was eating and glancing
at the turning screen. Then he saw an echo break the side of the screen and looked
like it was crossing over to intercept their course. He put the cursor on it
and a range ring. It was thirty eight miles away and almost on their port beam.
As it got nearer he called Kerstin who put the Windsong on auto and came down.
She checked and it was still on an intercept course. “Henry it’s one of them
and at our speed they’ll be with us in a couple of hours. We’ll carry on as we
are and if they start to harass us we’ll ignore them. When they’re right
alongside us we can open up at any time and try to outrun them.”

 “Do you think they might
open fire on us?”

 “We’ll just have to take it
as it unfolds, but I suppose they just might.”

 Ayola wasn’t aware of the
gravity of the situation and Kerstin didn’t want to alarm her. However, she didn’t
want her on deck when the CIA launch came up to them.

Another look into the radar
confirmed her fears; they were closing in. “Henry, go up and take her, I’ll
stay below and keep watch. We should have them visibly in less than an hour.”

At the controls, Henry picked
up the glasses and searched for their pursuer. He saw a ship but she was a big
freighter, then he noticed speck of white. He put the glasses down as the glare
was hurting his eyes.

The next look the white speck
was bigger and quite noticeable. He summoned Kerstin who grabbed the
binoculars. “That’s them, Henry, our calculations couldn’t have been better. We
must remember that they won’t be looking for a boat of this name, so we might
just get away with it.”

 Henry looked worried. “I hope
you’re right but if it comes to the crunch, we’ll run.”

 “Oh yes, we’ll run but we’ll
lose the drug drop.”

 When the vessel came close
they saw she was a big launch more a small ship. There were men all over her
deck in combat style clothing - a boarding party. Making sure Ayola was safely
in her cabin, Kerstin took over the controls. Henry was below looking at the
radar. He saw a small coaster ship three miles on their port bow. He went up to
Kerstin. “See that coaster, if we alter course slightly she’ll have to go
around our stern and she’ll come very close. Having the coaster as an observer
would do no harm. It might even deter the CIA launch from boarding us.”

 “How right you are.”

Kerstin eased to starboard
and put the coaster in a ‘give way’ position. Shortly after this, she saw
coaster alter course to ‘come round’.

 The CIA ship hailed them. “Ayola,
what port did you sail from?”

 “Havana,” Kerstin shouted
back through the hailer.

She then hailed the coaster
as she passed close astern. “Are you not being harassed by these pirates? We’ll
radio report your position and your company name.”

 The coaster slowed down and
the crew stood watching. The stopping of ships and yachts was becoming more
frequent and many mariners were resentful at what they saw as heavy-handed and
cavalier behavior by the CIA.

Kerstin slowed and moved
closer to the coaster like a cygnet would swim to her mother. It seemed to unnerve
the commander of the CIA ship and he pulled away. He moved about mile away as
he seemed to be making up his mind what to do. The CIA launch then made one
more run at speed around the
‘
Ayola’ throwing up a big wash which tossed them around
before speeding away to the south. That might have been the end of their
interest but Kerstin was still cautious.

“Henry, we’ll keep our course
and speed. We’ll have to wait until they’re out of radar range before we decide
to open her up to full throttle.”

 “Aye-aye skipper. You did a
great job. How did you think of Havana – a port in the only country they
couldn’t verify our leaving?”

 “I just don’t know, it came
to me in a flash but it sure worked.”

 It was two hours before the CIA
launch disappeared off their screen. Kerstin called to Henry, “we’ll hold this
course for another hour and then we’ll go for it.”

 It was coming up to eighteen
hundred hours and they hoped to reach St Vincent before dark. But Kerstin was still
apprehensive. It was important that they kept an eye on the radar in case there
were other launches tailing them.

Needing to stretch his legs,
Henry came on deck and broke the silence. “In the excitement I forgot to
mention; I got Chen to talk and I have all the details of the drop.”

Henry described the procedure
to Kerstin and though he didn’t trust Chen completely, he was sure most of what
he told him was true.

“You take over here; I’ll go
and keep radar watch.” She marked in their position on the chart and saw that
two hours at thirty knots would get them under the lee of the land before dark.
It was very hard for radar to pick out good echoes if they stayed close in
under the cliffs. She took another look at the radar screen and saw nothing to
be anxious about, so went back up to Henry. “I’m sure we can give her full
throttle now. We’ll be under the island in a couple of hours.”