Buzzard Bay (60 page)

ir Harry looked over at the captain, “Have you got anything on radar?”

“Once in a while we get a blip of something out there, but it could be almost anything.”

“Okay, stop the engines and turn out all the lights and curtain all the rooms off,” Sir Harry told the captain and then went back to the phone.

“How in hell do I know you are really out there, Henekie? I think your bluffing.”

“Well then, why did you just shut out your lights and stop,” Henekie wanted to know.

“I’ve got cash on board, Henekie, lots of it. Take what you can and get out. If you figure you’re going to take Lena out to Smyskin’s yacht and get that money, you’re crazy,” Sir Harry’s voice sounded a little strained.

“You are missing one piece of the puzzle, Harry old boy,” a different voice came on the phone.

“Is that you, Green? How in hell did you get in on this?”

“The doctor’s body parts quit working, so I decided to come out here and see what you were up to,” Green answered.

“Interesting company you’re keeping these days, Mr. Green, but then you both do like to stick your nose in other people’s business, don’t you?”

Henekie’s voice came back. “I’ll sweeten the pot, Sir Harry, you give me Lena and a million cash and I’ll give you Green.”

ir Harry’s mind was racing; he had got a concession out of Henekie, maybe he could make this work. “Okay, let me talk to Lena.”

“I can put a boat over the side and see if we can sneak up on this guy,” the captain said.

“No, you have no idea what this man is capable of. We’ll negotiate our way out of this if possible.”

ir Harry made his way back into the stateroom and sat down beside Lena. “Is there any way we can get that money without you being there?”

He’d obviously caught Lena off guard. “I don’t know. Why?”

ir Harry decided to level with her. “Someone wants to take you off this boat in exchange for Bob Green. You would like to get off this boat wouldn’t you, Lena?” Anything was better than the situation she was in now.

“Well, there might be a way. That banker is not the owner of the bank, he is just a signing officer. I could appoint you as a signing officer of my bank. I think I can give you pretty good documentation, but we’ll have to talk to the American banker.”

ir Harry led Lena up to the captain’s deck and put her through to Smyskin’s yacht on his ship to shore phone.

“Hope they are treating you well,” she said to the banker when he came on the phone.

“Yes, yes, very well,” the banker answered.

ir Harry was happy to hear that he was in a good mood.

“We’ve had some problems in Nassau tonight. The airport has been closed, and most of the communications are out. As a consequence, it is not safe for me to travel,” Lena told him.

“I have therefore given Sir Harry signing authority with my bank to act on my behalf. I hope this is all right with you.” The American banker was hesitant to answer.

“I guess if you had a witness who is a commissioner of oaths in the United States, it might be acceptable.”

Lena didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, he witnessed my signature, and he will be available in person on your yacht. His name is Wilbur Smith, and he is the man in charge of the CIA for the Miami and Caribbean area.”

The banker sounded very impressed.

“Sounds like you’ve been very thorough Miss Lena. Yes, that will be quite adequate.”

“Perfect, Sir Harry and Mr. Smith will arrive at the yacht in about an hour.” With that, she signed off.

ir Harry did a little jig. “You are a clever little devil when your back is against the wall, Lena.”

“I’ll never feel safe as long as you’re around,” Lena leveled with Sir Harry.

I wouldn’t worry too much about anyone bothering you again with Henekie behind you, but what he has in mind for you, I don’t know,” Sir Harry warned her.

Lena shrugged, “Can’t be any worse than what you had planned for me, can it?”

ir Harry didn’t answer. He was already on the phone to Henekie. “All right, we have a deal. How do you want to handle the exchange?”

“I’ll have my man bring Green over in a small boat,” Henekie told him. “Don’t forget the money. Put it in a suitcase that Lena can carry, and make sure she sees the money. We wouldn’t want some kind of a bomb in there, would we, Sir Harry?” Henekie didn’t wait for an answer. “When I get Lena back to my boat, I’ll turn on a small green light on the bow, and you’ll see me head away. Then it will be safe for you to continue on.”

“All right, bring him over,” Sir Harry told him.

Henekie darkened his face and hands before they got on the boat. “Before we go, Mr. Green, I have to tell you what’s about to happen. You’ve got fifteen minutes or less to get off that boat once it gets underway. There’s no way Sir Harry can be allowed to get away. He has too many friends for any of us to stay alive long if he does. I don’t like to send a man into a bad situation without evening up the odds a bit.”

He put a small round piece of metal in Green’s hand. “See this lever? Keep your thumb on it. When it’s released, you have five seconds to get something between you and the blast. Anything will do—a body, door, wall, anything that will stop the shrapnel. When you get on the yacht, they’ll frisk you down, but it will be dark, and I’m betting they won’t check your hands. If they do, you’ll have to use this a little quicker than we planned, that’s all. If I see the flash of that going off, I’m going to wait about twenty seconds and then let the yacht have it, so you and your wife had better be off by then. You’ve been in some tough spots before, Green, piece of cake, right?”

Henekie shook his hand, “Just don’t accidentally take your thumb off that lever for God’s sake.”

Bob Green sat in the front of the boat, and Henekie sat at the back with the motor; they didn’t talk again. When they reached Sir Harry’s yacht, the exchange was quick; Bob and Lena’s eyes met as they passed each other, but there was nothing to say. Bob climbed the stairs up on to the ship’s deck and was immediately subjected to a body search. Henekie was right; they patted Bob down but didn’t check his hands.

“All right, just wait here with us until they call for you.”

Time was of the essence, but Bob knew he had to be patient. He looked at the starlit sky and felt the warm sea breeze on his face. “Not a bad night to die, I suppose,” he thought.

Lena sat quietly in the front of the boat thinking that the man driving was of no consequence until she heard his voice.

“Hello Lena.”

“You,” she gasped recognizing the voice. “This is your entire fault, Henekie. You’re the one who stole that money.”

“I had to, Lena, I promised it to a man in return for my life. Now I’m saving yours because I finally realized you’re more valuable than anything I’ll ever come up with in my time. No one will ever bother you again, and in return you’ll give me the money to do whatever I want to do.”

“With your success rate at business, this will cost me a lot of money,” but for some strange reason, Lena felt very safe right now.

When Henekie arrived at his larger boat, he helped Lena move to the back of the smaller boat and sat her down. “This is as far as you go with me, Lena. See that fire on shore? Novak’s there waiting for you.”

“Are you expecting me to drive this boat all the way over there by myself?” Lena sounded about to panic.

“You can do it, Lena. I’ll set the throttle at half speed, and all you have to do is turn this handle to steer it.”

Henekie went to the front of her boat and screwed in a pipe. A green light appeared on the top of it then he came back to her.

“Just keep that light between you and the fire. Novak will see you coming and help you out,” and then he jumped into the bigger boat and put the outboard in gear.

Lena left screaming, but he saw she was heading in the right direction.

ir Harry and his captain scanned the water with their binoculars watching for a green light. “There it is,” the captain shouted. Sir Harry saw it too; he began to relax as they watched the light move across the water away from them.

“Okay, let’s get this baby moving,” Sir Harry told the captain. He went outside to the back and hollered over the railing, “All right, bring Green up to the stateroom.”

Bob Green followed the men up some stairs down a narrow hallway to a heavy-looking wooden door. Of interest to him was that the bathrooms were situated along the hallway. The wood door opened, and Sir Harry invited him in. He held out his hand, but Bob paid no attention to him. All he saw was July sitting on one side of a large table. He sometimes forgot how beautiful she was until he saw her in person again. Those big blue eyes full of questions: are you all right, where have you been, or if she was really worried, where in hell have you been, you son of a bitch?

“All right, have a quick hug you two, then we have to get down to business,” Bob heard Sir Harry say. It wouldn’t have mattered what Sir Harry said. Bob and July were in each other’s arms.

“I love you,” July whispered in Bob’s ear.

he expected to hear the same words of endearments from Bob, instead she heard, “Tell them you have to go to the bathroom.”

“All right, that’s enough,” Sir Harry told them. “If you don’t break it up, I’ll have you put in separate rooms.” Bob and July sat down across from Sir Harry.

“Tell me what happened to the doctor.” Sir Harry wanted to know.

Bob started to tell him when July interrupted. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she told them.

“Of course, my dear. They are just down the hallway,” he pointed to the wooden door. July got up and headed for the door then Sir Harry seemed to have a second thought.

“Maybe you should escort her, Wilbur. We wouldn’t want something to happen now that we’re this close.” Wilbur got up and followed July out the door shutting it after him.

Bob gave a sigh of relief that narrowed the odds a lot, and July was out of harm’s way. Bob assessed the situation. Sir Harry was directly across from him. The only one armed was the guard, and he was sitting behind Sir Harry reading a newspaper. Now was the time; he pushed the table skidding Sir Harry and his chair into the guard, and they both went sprawling. Bob tossed the grenade into the two men and then flipped the table on top of them and stood on it. He felt the men struggle to lift the table then there was a deafening bang, the table lifted tossing Bob off and sent him rolling across the floor.

Bob didn’t stop to see if he was hurt. The explosion from the grenade gave him a headache and he couldn’t hear anything but his goal was to get to Smith before he knew what had happened. Bob threw open the wooden door; Wilbur was standing there about to come in.

“What’s going on?” was all Wilbur got out before Bob punched him right between the eyes. Wilbur went down like a stone.

“Come on, July,” he yelled. “We have to get out of here.”

July came rushing out of the bathroom, and they headed up the hallway back the way Bob had been brought in. Bob wanted to get down to the lower deck before they jumped, but as they came out onto the upper deck stairs, Bob saw someone on the steel steps running up toward them.

“We’re going to have to go over from up here,” he told her. She didn’t ask any questions. They climbed the railing; she grabbed his hand, and they jumped.

Henekie kept one eye on his watch and the other on the sea. We can’t wait any longer, sir,” Tommy warned him.

“All right, Tommy, make your run.” Tommy turned the boat toward Sir Harry’s yacht and opened her up. Henekie had pretty well given up on Bob, but just as they started their attack, he saw a flash of light and knew Bob had detonated the grenade.

Problem was he had little time to let Bob off the yacht. Henekie moved in far closer to the yacht than he wanted to before he fired. He watched as the missile went into the heart of his target. As they turned away, it was as if the whole top of the yacht lifted away. Even Henekie hadn’t expected that much of a reaction. Tommy had the boat wide open as the sky above them filled with debris. Henekie could feel the heat from the explosion on the back of his neck; he knew they’d be lucky to get away. He couldn’t see any hope for Bob Green at all.

Bob and July had simultaneously left the railing as the blast occurred. It flipped and tossed them through the turbulent air, and then they hit the water hard. It was as if a giant force was pushing them down. Bob struggled to fight his way up but July was limp beside him. All this time, she had never let go of him, and he wouldn’t either, because, well, because that’s the way it was.

It was Rikker who saw the green light first. “I think there’s a boat headed our way,” he yelled, bringing everyone to their feet. They were standing on the beach watching the green light bobble toward them when they saw the huge explosion behind it.

They stood in awe, forgetting about the approaching boat, until Lena appeared out of the darkness plowing through the sand and up onto shore scattering everyone.

Novak was the first to reach her. She was frozen to the steering handle and shouting verbal abuses which made him think she was all right. Novak released her hand and stood her up, but all her attention was on the burning yacht.

“The son of a bitch blew it up. He blew Sir Harry to kingdom come.”

“Who did, Lena?” Novak wanted to know.

“Henekie. He got me off the boat.” Novak put his hands on her shoulders trying to get her to focus.

“Where are the Greens?” he asked her.

he started to cry. Novak had never seen Lena cry before; when it came to emotion, it was like she hung a curtain of steel around herself.

“They were on the yacht,” she told him. Novak looked down at her boat. The boat itself looked all right, but the motor had stalled, and the prop was definitely bent.

“Okay guys, I want you to take Lena to my place. She’ll be safe there,” he said as he handed her the keys. “Rikker and I are going to see if we can get this boat to run and go on out to the explosion. See if you can get someone out there as soon as you can.”

The men helped Rikker and Novak get the boat down to the water then they loaded Lena into the jeep and left. To Novak’s amazement, the motor still ran, but the prop was pretty wobbly, and they could only travel at a slow, agonizing speed. At times, they were sure they saw a bright light scanning the waters around the fire and hoped it was a rescue boat looking for survivors. When they finally got out to the wreck, it was daylight.