The Inside Passage (Ted Higuera Series Book 1) (20 page)

Echo Bay, Canada

Gulls wheeled and
cried in the gray sky. Low flying clouds scudded across the slate background.
Swells built up by the stiff breeze across the long stretch of Cramer pass
crashed into the old pontoon. Ted topped off the water tanks while Chris
refueled the
Defiant
. Hearing footsteps approaching, Ted looked up to
see Meagan running down the dock.

“They don’t have a
telephone here.” Meagan called as she approached. “We’re going to have to go
all the way back to Port McNeil.” She grabbed onto the lifelines for support
and paused to catch her breath. “They said we could use their radio, though.”

“Na, not a good
idea.” Ted pictured the terrorists crowded around a two-way radio. “Anyone can
listen in on a radio transmission.”

“We can e-mail the
Coast Guard.” Meagan said.

“E-mail’s not
secure.” Ted’s security training brought on a knee-jerk reaction.

“You think a bunch
of sketch Arabs way out here are going to be monitoring the Coast Guard’s
e-mail?” Meagan’s look told him she thought he was some kind of an idiot.

“Y’ never know.”
He held back his temper as he deliberately coiled the water hose. “Messin’
around with a bunch of armed terrorists could be dangerous,
chica
. These
guys’re pretty sophisticated. It’s easier to steal an e-mail than it is to
intercept a cell phone call.”

“Well, we can’t
use the radio.” Chris wiped down the deck around the fuel fill line. “The
terrorists might hear it and know that we’re on to them.”

“If they knew,
we’d be sitting ducks in the
Defiant
.”  Meagan, recovered from her
exertion, climbed aboard. “They might come after us. Any powerboat could outrun
run us.”

“Meagan’s right.”
Crap,
Ted thought,
how come Teddy’s agreeing with
her
?
“We have to go
back to Port McNeil.” He stowed the water hose in the lazarette. “There’s sure
to be a Coast Guard station there. At least they’ll have a telephone so we can
call somebody.”

“Who’ll we call?”
Meagan asked. “We can’t just call the FBI. We’re in Canada.”

“Yeah.” Chris
headed down to the cabin. “I wonder who handles terrorists up here.”        

Ted thought the
question over. “It’s got to be the Coast Guard.” He followed Chris down the companionway
hatch. “They have ships and helicopters. This is about sinking a cruise ship.
They’re the ones to call.”

“All right. Let’s
pay for our fuel and get out of here.” Chris grabbed his wallet. “It’ll take us
all day to get back to Port McNeil.”

****

William and Mary Island, Canada

“Hani, take
Mohammed and Kalil and look for our intruders,” Qayyum said in Arabic. “They
are slow and wind-bound. They can’t be far. Find them and stop them. Be back by
sundown tomorrow. May Allah go with you.”

Hani understood
the orders, but Mohammed translated for Kalil.

“Yasim, you
monitor the radio,” Qayyum continued. “See if the kaffirs try to contact the
authorities.”

Hani headed to his
boat to get her ready. He already thought of the
Valkyrie
as
his
boat.

Mohammed and Kalil
checked their AK-47 assault rifles.

“Get a rocket
launcher out of the storage shed.” Hani took command of the mission. He didn’t
expect any resistance, but he wanted to be ready for any eventuality.

On Hani’s command,
Kalil fired up the engine while Mohammed went to the foredeck to haul in the
anchor chain with the rusty windlass.

“Weigh anchor,”
Hani shouted down to the foredeck.

Mohammed winched
in the anchor and made it fast.

With a smile of
satisfaction, Hani put the boat in gear and headed down the bay.

****

Queen Charlotte Strait, Canada

Even though the
Defiant
sped along at seven knots in the fifteen knot winds it was much too slow for
Ted. He bristled with impatience; this was not fast enough for this important
mission.

“Can’t you get any
more speed out of her?” Ted asked. “Maybe fire up the engine?”

“She sails faster
than she motors.” Chris was enjoying the sail much too much for Ted’s taste.

Gray, overcast
skies had brought them a fair wind all the way from Echo Bay. They threaded the
passages between islands until they were surrounded by green hills. A tiny
break in the islands opened to the northwest.

The Hole in the
Wall, between Fox and Bonwick Islands, led to the Queen Charlotte Strait and
open water. Port McNeil and civilization lay behind Malcolm Island, twenty miles across the Straits.

“We can make Port
McNeil before dark, if this wind holds.” Chris stood behind the wheel with one
foot up on the cockpit coaming to accommodate the boat’s heeling.

“When are your Dad
and Candace going to be up here?” Meagan sat in her customary position in the
lee of the cabin. “The
Star of the Northwest
isn’t going to stop up here
anywhere are they?”

“I think they’re
scheduled to stop at Campbell River, then their next stop is Juneau.”

“Can’t we call
them and warn them?”

Ted pulled his
cell phone from his pocket and flipped it open. “Damn. Still no reception.”

 Chris’ eyes
darted between the compass and the sails. “I don’t have any idea how to get
hold of them.” 

“Would they even
believe us?” Ted pondered how they should handle the situation. Warn the
Canadian authorities? Call the cruise line? Call Homeland Security?

“Sheet in the jib
a little, will you?” Chris glanced at the wind vane on top of the mast. “I
think the wind’s shifting on us.”

Meagan cranked the
winch. Inch by inch the sheets tightened and the
Defiant
picked up an
almost imperceptible amount of speed. 

“I think we can
make the Hole in the Wall without tacking,” Chris said.

Ted’s pulse
quickened as they approached the narrow opening between the islands.
Híjole
,
is he really going to try to sail though that little hole?

Gray cliffs
dropped steeply to the water. The opening couldn’t be fifty yards wide.

“There’s deep
water all the way up to the shoreline.” Chris said. Taking a deep breath, he
committed the
Defiant
to the narrow passage. The rocky ramparts loomed
over them on both sides.

Ted’s pulse
quickened and his breath came in short, shallow gulps.

The wind held
steady. Time slowed down. Ted looked up at the sheer gray walls towering above
him. The
Defiant
surged forward, they cleared the Hole in the Wall and
the
Defiant
entered Phillips Passage. Ahead, Ted could see open sea.

“Ease the sheets,”
Chris ordered.

Meagan responded
and they dropped off onto a beam reach. The
Defiant
charged through the
ocean swells like a thoroughbred.

“Look, what’s that
in the water?” Meagan reached for her camera.

“Thar she blows!”
Chris pointed. “It’s a whale. A humpie, I think.”

“Yo, dude!” Ted
forgot all about the narrow passage. “I’ve never seen anything like that
before.”

The giant creature
surfaced less than half a mile from the boat. It lifted its huge head, blew its
lungs clear, rolled over on one side and waved at them with flippers nearly as
long as the
Defiant
, then sounded, its tail hanging momentarily in the
air.

 “There he is
again. Look at the spout.” Meagan danced up and down, the camera in her hand
forgotten. The whale dove again, then broke the surface like a nuclear
submarine doing an emergency surfacing drill.

“Look at him!” Meagan
shouted. “He’s standing on his tail.”

Ted was stunned as
the whale, all forty tons of it, leapt completely out of the water and stood on
its tail for an instant, then plunged down in a gigantic belly flop.
We sure
don’t see anything like that back in the barrio.

“Oh God. This is
totally awesome.” Meagan finally raised the camera in her hand and clicked off
a few shots, catching mostly the wave left by the whale.

“What’s that
beyond the whale?” Chris pointed towards the horizon.

“It’s just another
boat, dude.”

“Doesn’t it look
familiar to you?”

Ted grabbed the
binoculars and focused on the boat just emerging from Fife Sound.

“
Mierda
. I
think you’re right, dude. That’s the fishing boat.”

“What fishing
boat?” Meagan snatched the binoculars from Ted. “Oh shit. What do you think
they want?” She spat out the words like a machine gun.

“It can’t be
good.” Chris said. “Why’d they be out here?”

“I think we
shouldn’t stick around and find out,” Ted said. “Maybe they found the crate you
left open.” He turned to Chris. “Can you get any more speed out of this tub?”

****

Fife Sound, Canada

Every time he took
the controls of the
Valkyrie
, Hani gained a little more confidence. She
might be old and slow, but she was stable and predictable. It would have been
absurd to send them in pursuit of a powerboat in this old sow, but she could
out run a sailboat.

Hani explained to
Mohammed and Kalil that the blue sailboat’s most likely escape route was down
Hornet Passage, then through Fife Sound and into open water in the Queen Charlotte
Strait.

He planned to
overtake the sailboat in the Strait. Far from land, there would be less chance
of witnesses. If they sank the boat in deep water no one would ever find it.

It’s funny,
though
,
I wasn’t thinking about the people. Only the boat.
Yasim and
Qayyum had drilled into them that they were fighting a monster, a machine. They
must not think of them as people. They were the enemy, non-believers.

So be it. They
would sink the boat. If there were non-believers on board, it wouldn’t matter.
The only thing that is important is the cause.

“Hani,” Kalil
shouted down from the crow’s nest atop the mast as they cleared Fife Sound and
entered the Straits. “I see a sailboat. It’s blue.”

Hani put the
binoculars to his eyes. There it was. It must be about ten kilometers ahead of
them. A blue sailboat with yellow and white lettering on its side. 

Could there be two
blue sailboats with their names painted on their sides way out here? Too much
of a coincidence. This had to be the one.

“Get your weapons
ready” Hani shouted to Mohammed and Kalil. “We’ll run them down. When we get
close, you and Mohammed can blow holes in their hull with your rifles. They’ll
sink in minutes.”

“We can’t leave
survivors.” A smile spread across Mohammed’s face.

“Shoot anything
that floats.” Hani felt a tightening in his gut. “We may need to weigh the
bodies down so they’ll sink. We have extra chain in the chain locker.”

“Allah Akbar.”
Mohammed shouted and raised his rifle above his head in a salute.

The Queen Charlotte Strait

Twenty miles of
open water separated the
Defiant
from Malcolm Island and safety. A light
mist hung in the air under the overcast sky. Somewhere behind them, the big
green fishing boat disappeared into the haze. The mist and fog severely limited
visibility. To port a ragged line of islands marked the end of the Queen
Charlotte Strait, somewhere to starboard the next land was Japan. Ted knew the terrorists wouldn’t stop coming.

The boat
re-materialized out of the mist some five miles behind them.

“
Jesu Cristo
!
There he is.” Ted pointed at their pursuers.

“Can we get away?”
Meagan asked.

 “Our best bet is
to try for Port McNeil.” Chris sounded confident enough, but his breath came in
short gasps. “Maybe there’ll be enough boat traffic that they won’t try
anything. Ted, sheet her in, I’m going to put the whip to her.”

Ted responded
instantly. Within minutes the
Defiant
raced along on a new course that
took her a quarter of the way up Malcolm Island, rather than around the
southern point.

“We’re going for
speed. We need to stay ahead of ‘em.”

“Oh God, Chris,
they’ve spotted us!” Meagan’s voice cracked as she spoke.

She pointed
towards the distant boat. “Look, they’re changing course right towards us.”

Even from this
distance, Ted could see the green boat push aside an enormous white bow wave as
she sped towards them
.

“C’mon baby, if
you ever went fast, now’s the time to do it,” Chris coaxed his boat.

As though
responding to his plea, the
Defiant
put her lee rail down and sped along
her course. The knot meter pegged at seven knots, occasionally inching upwards
towards eight.

“The GPS says we’re
doing almost nine knots over the bottom,” Chris said.

“Yeah, well
they’re starting to catch up.” Ted looked over Chris’ shoulder with the
binoculars. 

The
Defiant
started the race with more than a five mile lead, but the fishing boat steadily
closed on them. Ted glanced up at the gray sky. The sun’s weak rays turned more
yellow and the horizon began to take on a shade of pink.

Meagan followed
his glance to the sky. “Maybe we can lose them after dark”

“Not a chance. We
can’t stay ahead of them that long.” Ted looked back at their pursuers.

“What are we going
to do, Chris?” Meagan grabbed Chris’ wrist with both hands.

“I don’t know.”
Chris had a terse look on his face. “I’ve got to think.” He put his arm around
Meagan’s waist and pulled her close.

There was a long
silence in the cockpit.

“You better think
fast, dude.” Ted put down the binoculars and turned towards Chris. “They’re
gettin’ closer.”

Ted scanned the
vast track of empty water. There was no place to hide. They had to make the
safety of Port McNeil.

“There, along the
coast of Malcolm Island.” Chris pointed. “That’s our best chance.” Small
patches of fog materialized along the island’s shore. “Guys.” Chris pointed
towards the shore.  “There’s a fog bank forming along the island. If we can
make it to the fog, maybe we can lose ‘em.”

“Shit man, they’re
thinking the same thing.” Ted aimed the binoculars at the fishing boat again.
“They’re bringing out one of the SAMs.”

“Why would they
shoot a missile at us?” Meagan danced from foot to foot.

“We’re still out
of rifle range,” Chris replied. “Maybe they’re afraid we’ll escape into the
fog.”

“Whatever they
think, these guys are serious, dude. They’re setting up the missile.”

Ted focused the
binoculars on the distant boat. In the lenses, he saw a smallish man struggling
with the bazooka-like weapon on the foredeck of the fishing boat. Another man
took up position at the first man’s shoulder and slammed a rocket into the
tube.

“Oh my God, Chris,
they’re gonna shoot at us!” Meagan grabbed Chris around the waist and tried to
hide behind him.

****

On Board the
Star of the
Northwest

“Something old,
something new, something borrowed, something blue.” Candace’s mom handed her a
pair of topaz earrings and matching necklace. “These were my mother’s. She
would be so proud to see you now.”

“Thanks, Mom.”
Candace caught her breath in her throat.
Damn, I’m not going to cry. I’ll
ruin my makeup.

She could hear the
wedding singer through the thin door. The murmur of a crowd filled her head.

“Stand back, let’s
take a look at you.” Mom held her by her shoulders at arm’s length.

Candace turned to
the full-length mirror with a satisfied smile. When she was younger, she had
used her looks to her advantage. As she entered the world of business, she
tried hard to be recognized for her mind and work ethic, not her face and
boobs. But wow! The woman staring back at her from the mirror took her breath away.

Long black hair
draped around her face in ringlets. The hairdresser had woven strands of baby’s
breath into her curls. Her green eyes gleamed from a smiling face. She looked
herself up and down.

The low-cut gown
showed off just enough cleavage. It clung to her slim waist and flowed over her
hips. Getting rid of those last five pounds had been hell, but worth it! The
hours of Pilates paid off.

In her heels, she
towered over her mother. She would stand eye-to-eye with Harry at the altar.

You’ve really made
it.
It had never been her plan to marry a rich man and settle back into a
life of leisure. When she was little she had been Dad’s only son, quite the tom
boy. While Jenn and Trish played with dolls and fussed over clothes, she was
hunting or fishing with Dad, working with the dogs, riding horses.

By the time she
was in high-school, she was so obsessed with Susan Dey in
LA Law
that
she didn’t have time to mess with boys. Education was everything for her. It
was her ticket out. She would move to LA or New York, become a partner is a
prestigious law firm and make a name for herself. She envisioned herself
sitting on the Supreme Court.

There was a soft
knock at the door. Dad slipped into the room.

“You ready,
honey?”

Dressed in a
tuxedo, her father was gorgeous.
Mom always said I got my looks from Dad.
She respected her father’s values. With his looks, he could have had any woman
in town. Instead he chose mom. She wasn’t bad, but she was a mousy little
brunette with buck teeth and a slightly crooked nose.

Dad wasn’t
impressed with his own or anyone else’s looks. It was what was inside that
counted. The heart, the mind, the values.

“They’re
just about to start.” Dad’s voice sounded so calm and together. “Let’s get in
place.” From somewhere far away, Candace heard the strains of Wagner’s “The
Wedding March.”