Hurricane (25 page)

The women got up to go and Julie turned toward the big man and said, “I have two cases of Carib on board. I wouldn’t think of offering them to you, because you might think it was a bribe of some kind, but if you drop by evenings after work, you could help me drink it. Those cans don’t last too long in this heat and I can only keep a couple of six packs cold at a time in my refrigerator.”

“
A beer or two after work. I would be delighted,” Sanchez said, and the women left.

“
Mom, he’s gross. Fat and old. How could you invite him on the boat?” Meiko said as soon as they were out of the Captain’s earshot.

But Julie guessed right. Captain Sanchez turned out to be a great friend. He came by that first night and they drank beer, talked, and watched the sun go down. And they discovered they had a mutual fascination for chess. The next night he brought the beer.

He was a dedicated player and sometimes their games lasted well into the night. They quickly became settled in a routine. The captain addressed her as Mrs. Tanaka and she called him Captain Sanchez. The friendship was fast and Julie knew he was a man she could trust, but she also knew the government in Venezuela was as corrupt as the government in Trinidad. Everything was for sale. He could only do so much.

“
Hey, Mom, look who’s here,” Meiko, said, interrupting them as Captain Sanchez was setting up the board one evening, nine days after their arrival. Julie followed Meiko’s pointed finger and smiled. Left Home, Alice and Chad’s thirty-two foot sloop was sailing toward them, anchor hanging from the bow, Chad up front ready to drop it.

“
I’m gonna dinghy over and say hello,” Meiko said, and Julie and Captain Sanchez watched her climb down into the dinghy and motor over to Left Home. Julie was looking forward to catching up on the yacht club gossip.

“
Don’t you want to see your friends?” Sanchez asked.

“
I do,” Julie said, but I want to get even for the way you trounced me last night first. Tomorrow’s soon enough.

Sanchez smiled through his mustache and set up the board.

The next afternoon, while Julie and Meiko were fishing with the old men, Sanchez interrupted their sport.

“
Both Snake Eyes and Challenge left Chaguaramas Bay early this morning. Headed this way.

“
How’d they know?” Julie said. Then she looked up at Left Home anchored peacefully off shore. They had an SSB. She turned to Meiko. She wanted to scream, but it was too late.

“
I just wanted to talk to him for a minute,” Meiko said. “I wanted to know why he hadn’t come. Captain Sanchez’s man never called him.” Meiko was glaring at Julie.

“
I gave the order,” Sanchez lied. “It’s true I wasn’t there personally to see that it was carried out, but I gave the order. It’s not my fault,” he added, and Julie was thankful that he could lie so gracefully. And he was lying, because that first night she’d asked him not to notify Victor, and after she told him why, he readily agreed.

“
How do you know this?” Julie asked him.

“
I’ve had them watched ever since you first came here. I have been in the Guardacoasta a long time. I have some yachtie friends, like you, that I can trust. I get an SSB update on those two boats every morning, in code of course, right after the Caribbean net.”

“
Meiko,” Julie said, “anybody can listen in on SSB traffic. When you told Victor where we were you told the world.”

“
I didn’t know.”

“
It doesn’t matter,” Julie said. “We have to go.”

“
Can’t you arrest them when they get here?” Meiko asked.

“
For what?”

“
You can keep them away from us, though, can’t you?” Meiko said, and Julie truly felt sorry for her. She looked devastated.

“
What if they have legal papers impounding the boat?” Sanchez said.

“
But this is Venezuela, not Trinidad,” Meiko pleaded.

“
We’re a country of laws. I would hate to have to hand your boat over to those men. It pains me to say this, but you should go, now. When Dieter Krauss’s Germans get here, I’ll tell them that you left for Margarita.”

“
You know Dieter?” Julie said.

“
I know of him,” Sanchez said.

“
There’s another thing,” Julie said. “We’ve been laying around enjoying ourselves while Rome burns.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
We blew out the clew on the jib, remember? I told you about that.”

“
I remember.”

“
We need that sail. It gives us our speed. We need it fixed.”

Sanchez spoke in Spanish to the three old men.

“
They’ll fix it for you,” he said, turning back to Julie.

“
It’s thick cloth, the clew has to be tough. Do you think they can do it?”

“
They’ve spent their whole lives weaving and stitching the long fishing nets, I’m sure they can handle your sail.”

Then Sanchez handed Julie more bad news. “By my calculations they are three hours away, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. You maybe could get away without them seeing you, but if they have their radar on, and if they’re watching?”

“
What should we do, Enrique?” It was the first time she’d addressed him by his given name.

“
I could send your friends on to Margarita right now. If they are looking on their radar they will see a boat going exactly where I will tell them you went.”

“
And what about us?”

“
You hug the southwest side of Testigo Grande, right under Testigo Pequeño, and when they come around the south side of the big island you motor around the small island on the north. The anchorage is not so pleasant, but you will be out of their sight. Then when they leave, you wait until they are out of radar range and shoot, like a bullet, up north.”

“
That could work,” Julie said.

“
The water is deep over there. And there’s no protection against the swells.”

“
How deep?” Julie asked.

“
Sixty, seventy feet.”

“
I’ve got four hundred feet of chain and we’ve been in rolly anchorages before. We’ll do it,” she said, and she stepped forward and gave Sanchez a hug that started his mustache twitching.

“
Okay, get that anchor up,” Sanchez said, and Julie and Meiko hustled to the dinghy and motored out to Fallen Angel.

“
You don’t really think it was Victor, do you?” Meiko asked.

“
No, honey, I’m sure it was just a coincidence,” Julie said, but she wasn’t so sure.

“
Because Victor would never do that.”

“
I believe you honey.”

“
Really, I know him.”

“
Can we talk about it later? We’ve got a lot to do right now,” Julie said. The words came out more harsh than she intended and Meiko clenched her fists, but she dropped it.

On board Meiko started the engine, while Julie leaned over the side with her foot on the windlass button, watching the chain come up. She heard the sound of an outboard and saw Sanchez motoring out with the three old fishermen in their pirogue. The anchor clanged into place and Julie stood, holding onto the rolled up jib.

“
Your sail,” Sanchez said, and Julie remembered the blown clew.

“
Do I have time?”

“
These are three of the best net men in Venezuela. It will only take a few minutes, you don’t even have to put the anchor back down.”

Sanchez was right about the quality of the work, wrong about the time involved. It took an hour, but the sail was stitched and the clew reinforced, as well, if not better, than any sailmaker would have done the job.

“
All right,” Sanchez said when they were finished. “We go now,”

Julie hugged him again, then she hugged each one of the fishermen. Then Meiko hugged Sanchez and she too, hugged the fishermen, kissing each one on the cheek. All three men were blushing and smiling as they climbed down into their pirogue.

Sanchez was the last and before he started down he said, “listen up on eighty-eight, just in case.” It was a little used channel and the chance that Challenge or Snake Eyes would be on it was rare.

“
Okay, let’s get the jib sheets reattached,” Julie said, as the men were motoring away. Meiko grabbed the port sheet and Julie the starboard, and they fed their lines through the clew, tying them off with bowlines. That done, Meiko took her place behind the wheel. Julie stayed up front, to guide her into the shallow water between Testigo Pequeño and Testigo Grande.

Meiko motored Fallen Angel into position, going dead slow, as she followed Julie’s hand signals. When they were as close to the island as she dared, Julie dropped her arm and Meiko put the boat into reverse for a second to stop it, then she put it into neutral.

Julie dropped the anchor, turned, gave Meiko the thumbs down sign and Meiko killed the engine. With an arm wrapped around the jib, she wiped the sweat from her forehead. The sun was straight overhead. If there was a devil, Julie thought, this was the kind of day he’d be out and about in. And then she thought about the German devils headed her way and shivered despite the heat.

Her tank top and shorts were covered in sweat and the sun was scorching her shoulders red. There was no wind and the water was flat calm. Her world was silent, like the middle of the desert, only she was seeing water, not sand.

She ran her a hand through her hair, like her clothes, it was wringing wet with sweat. A fly landed on her arm and she shooed it away. Another followed and she swatted at it, but it was too fast. Hot, muggy and flies, not her favorite combination.

She wasn’t looking forward to a long conversation about Victor and she hoped Meiko wouldn’t bring him up. She was tired of lying. And although she had only been running and hiding for a little over a month, it seemed like she’d been doing it forever.

“
Now, I guess we wait,” she said, stepping into the cockpit.

They didn’t have to wait long before the radio crackled to life. “I can see them,” Sanchez said. “You have an hour or so.”

“
Thanks, Enrique,” Julie said and then they were back to radio silence, waiting and swatting flies.

After a few minutes Julie wanted to scream the quiet was so loud. Her daughter never brooded, but she was brooding now. Sitting, head in her hands, looking down at the cockpit sole, acting like a misunderstood, lovesick child. But still, Julie preferred the roaring silence to conversation about Victor.

“
Problems.” Sanchez said, his voice over the radio breaking the lull.

Julie clicked the talk button, “What is it?”

“
They split up, one’s coming around the north end the other the south.”

“
What are we going to do?”

“
Do you think you can squeeze between the two islands?”

“
How deep?” Julie asked. The small island was fifty feet from the larger one.

“
Seven feet in the most shallow,” Sanchez said.

“
Then that’s a negative,” Julie said. “We draw nine.”

“
Standby I’ll get back to you,” he said, and again they were waiting.

A minute later Sanchez was back. “Julie,” he said.

“
I’m here.”

“
We’re going to create a diversion, just as the boat on the north comes around Pequeño.” Then he said, “You should tuck in as close to Pequeño as you can.”

“
I’m pretty close now.”

“
You have to get closer.”

“
I’m in fifteen feet.”

“
It’s soft mud. You can power into seven. I’ve seen boats dig into two feet of it lots of times. Get closer.”

“
Right,” she said. Meiko started the engine, while Julie brought up the anchor, and once again Meiko was following her mother’s hand signals as she called out the depth from the cockpit.

“
Fourteen-eight,” she said and Julie was pointing to a tiny inlet. Fourteen-three, and Julie was still pointing. Thirteen-two, twelve-six, twelve, Julie still had her arm extended, but now it was shaking. “Eleven feet,” Meiko said. She was driving the boat, slow, slow, alternating between forward, neutral and reverse to keep it at a crawl.

Then Julie pointed off to the right and Meiko cranked the wheel all the way over and the boat started to turn. Meiko worked the gears, alternating between the shift lever and the throttle lever, to bring Fallen Angel around in a tight circle, so that they were facing away from the island, and Julie came back into the cockpit.

“
We’re in ten feet of water,” Meiko said.

“
We have to be in closer or they’ll see us when they come around, so let’s back it up,” Julie said. Meiko put it in reverse and added a touch of power.

“
The depth gauge doesn’t work in reverse,” Meiko said.

“
Keep backing up, till we can’t see the point.”

“
I feel the drag. I think were in the mud.” Meiko kept her hands tight on the wheel and the wheel straight.

“
A little more,” Julie said, and Meiko increased the power.

“
Okay, neutral.”

“
Just in time,” Sanchez scratched over the radio. “They’ll be coming in about fifteen minutes. You’ll hear machine gun fire as they round the bend. Don’t be alarmed. It’s intended to keep their eyes forward.”