Bluewater Quest Page 11

  "Is this at one of the places we're looking at already?" Liz asked.

  "Yes, unless it forces us to reconsider," he said.

  "The only one I can think of is the Bat Cave," Dani said.

  "But nobody would store anything there," Liz said.

  "The Bat Cave?" Rick asked. "Where's that?"

  "Soufrière," Liz said.

  "It's a cave in the cliff on the north side of the harbor. There's a huge colony of bats there — apparently has been forever. The tour guides take people there in small boats to watch them come and go. There's even a park mooring right outside it — like only a few yards away. We've spent the night there before. There are so many bats that you can hear them squeaking as you fall asleep."

  "But it's flooded," Dani said. "I've never heard of anybody going in there. It's a narrow fissure that runs from below the water up — I don't know — maybe a couple of hundred feet. I don't know how far back into the cliff it goes."

  "I don't think that could be it," Liz said.

  "Unless it's changed somehow in the last several hundred years," Shellie said.

  "The person to ask is Sharktooth," Dani said. "If there are caves, he'll know about them."

  "Why's that?" Rick asked.

  Dani shrugged. "He's a font of local knowledge. We'll ask him tomorrow."

  "They're already moving," Ashley said, studying the tablet that showed the location of the tracker she had placed on Vengeance.

  "No big deal," Ed said. "That's why you put the tracker aboard. Where are they?"

  "Fifteen or twenty miles out to the northwest."

  "So they've been under way for a while," Leila said. "What's out that way? Anything?"

  "Nothing close," Ashley said, zooming out. "The Virgin Islands, but they're a few hundred miles away."

  "Think they found out something yesterday?" Bert asked.

  "Don't waste time on speculation," Ed said. "Let's get our act together and get on their trail. Figure they've had a couple of hours head-start; that puts them over the horizon. We can follow them without being seen, if we hold that distance."

  Ten minutes later, Aquila was under way, motoring out of Admiralty Bay. "Let's get some sail up," Leila said. "The ride will be better, if nothing else. Ash, take the helm and just hold this course; we're pretty much aimed straight for Vengeance."

  "Got it," Ashley said, sliding behind the helm and taking over from Leila.

  "Come on, Bert," Leila said. "Let's unroll the main. You handle the outhaul; I'll get the sheet."

  "Ready, Leila?" Bert asked, a few seconds later.

  "Yeah. Go!" she said, and let the mainsheet run as Bert began to unroll the mainsail by pulling in the outhaul. With the mainsail flying, the boat heeled 20 degrees from the horizontal.

  "Okay, Bert. Let's get the Genoa out. I'll handle the furling line and you take the sheet this time."

  "Got it," Bert said. "Ready when you are."

  "Go!" Leila said.

  Bert pulled in the tail of the sheet hand over hand, rolling out a few feet of the big headsail. As the sail began to flog, he switched to cranking the sheet winch, and Leila belayed the furling line, releasing a foot or two at a time, letting the sail fill smoothly.

  When the sail had unrolled completely, Leila asked, "How's the course?"

  "Good," Ashley said.

  "Kill the diesel, Ed," Leila said, her eyes on the Genoa.

  She turned to look at Ashley. "How's the helm? Are you having to fight to hold our course?"

  "No," Ashley said. "It's almost like I don't have to steer."

  "Good," Leila said. "Let's put the autopilot on." She moved back behind the helm with Ashley and pushed a couple of buttons. "Okay," she said. "Get yourself a cup of coffee and relax."

  Ashley dropped her death grip on the helm and shook the kinks out of her arms.

  "Okay," Ed said. "So now all we have to do is make sure we don't overtake them."

  "That's not going to happen," Leila said.

  "Feels like we're hauling butt, to me," Ed said.

  "Yeah, but their boat's faster, probably by a knot. Maybe two," Leila said.

  "How do you know?" Ed asked.

  "For one thing, it's ten or fifteen feet longer. The speed of a displacement hull through the water is a function of waterline length," Bert said.

  "But … " Ed shook his head. "Suppose we wanted to catch them?"

  "The only way that could happen is if they decided to slow down for some reason," Leila said.

  "We should have gotten a faster boat," Ed said.

  "This is what was available," Bert said.

  "A speedboat," Ed said. "We should have gotten a speedboat."

  "There's a problem with that, Ed," Leila said. "A speed boat wouldn't blend in down here. This is sailboat country, if you haven't noticed."

  Ed grunted and nodded. "You got a point there." He headed for the companionway. "Guess I'd better let Tehran know we're moving again."

  "Anything back from them on the whaling question?" Bert asked.

  "Not yet. They're checking."

  16

  "They've stopped," Ashley said, touching the screen of the tablet that showed the tracker's location.

  "Where are they?" Ed asked.

  "Hang on," Ashley said, swiping at the screen. "Let me get the sat nav app up." After half a minute, she said, "They're in Martinique, at the south end of the island, up in a big bay. Just a second." She zoomed in on Vengeance's plotted position. "The closest town is Ste. Anne. It says they're in an anchorage area."

  "So maybe they've stopped for the night," Leila said.

  "Probably," Ashley said. "Looking at the chart, there's no other reason they'd go into that bay. It's a dead end. They'll have to backtrack before they'll have a clear shot at anywhere else."

  "Let me see," Ed said, reaching for the tablet. He stared at it for a few seconds, zooming out, then zooming back in. "I'd say that's their destination — not an overnight stop."

  "Why's that?" Bert asked.

  "It's way out to the east," Ed said. "There are plenty of other spots where they could have stopped. That one puts them maybe 20 to 30 miles out of their way if they were planning to head north again in the morning. They must have wanted to go there, for some reason."

  "They had a couple of hours' head start on us," Ashley said.

  "So what?" Ed asked.

  "I was trying to figure out how long before we'd get there."

  Leila took the tablet from Ed and fiddled with it for a few seconds. "Our ETA's in four and a half hours."

  "Wait," Ed said. "That makes no sense. They were only ten miles ahead of us when we started. We're making eight knots or better. Four and a half hours would be almost 40 miles."

  "I told you, their boat's faster," Leila said. "Plus, they knew where they were going, so they may not have wandered off course as much."

  "But we were using the autopilot," Ashley said. "That kept us on course, right? I don't get your point."

  "The autopilot just held us on a constant compass course," Leila said. "The current and the wind have both been pushing us out to the west for the last ten hours."

  Ashley frowned. "That much?"

  "Yeah," Leila said. "If you drew a line from Bequia on the chart to represent the course we steered, we'd probably be ten miles or more to the west of the line."

  "Why didn't you take that into account, then," Ed asked.

  "If we had known our destination, we could have allowed for it. We'd have been sailing closer to the wind, though, so it would have slowed us down. It kind of evens out. That's the way sailing works. It's not like land navigation. Cars don't go sideways; they go where you point them."

  "Should we start the engine?" Ed asked.

  "We're going faster under sail than we would with the engine on," Leila said.

  "What about using both?" Ashley asked.

  "It won't help," Leila said. "We're already making hull speed."

  "What's that mean?" Ed asked.
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  "It's as fast as the boat will go," Bert said. "No matter how hard you push it, it won't go through the water any faster than hull speed. That's a physical limitation of a displacement vessel."

  "Sounds like bullshit to me," Ed said.

  "It's true," Leila said, "but if you don't believe it, go ahead and start the engine. Smell the fumes and listen to the noise; I don't care. You're the boss."

  "Watch it, woman," Ed said. "Make yourself useful and fix us some dinner."

  Leila locked eyes with him, her jaw clenched. His face flushed, and after a few seconds, he looked away.

  "Come on, Leila," Bert said. "I'll give you a hand."

  "Glad you suggested dinner under way," Dani said. "I'm beat."

  "I think we all are; I could see Rick and Shellie were fading," Liz said. "It was a long day. I wanted to take a hot shower and crash when we got in."

  "You weren't the only one. I thought Rick was going to fall face first into that seafood curry before it was over."

  "Shellie's serious about learning to sail," Liz said. "It's hard to tear her away from the helm."

  Dani smiled. They were lying in their berths on either side of the forward cabin, conversing across the narrow space in quiet tones. "I really do like her," Dani said. "Both of them, actually. But her especially."

  "Because she's hooked on sailing?" Liz asked.

  "Well, that's to her credit, all right, but it's more than that. She's … I don't know how to put it. She's easy company, I guess. She's a good listener; she encourages me to tell her stuff without making me feel like I'm being interrogated. Or patronized."

  "She's a nice person," Liz said. "Rick is, too."

  "Speaking of Rick," Dani said, "did you get around to asking him whether he could think of a reason why someone would be following him?"

  "No. I didn't get a good opening earlier, and then we discovered that the people on Aquila were definitely following us, so I didn't see the need to bring it up. You disagree? I thought once we knew … " Liz shrugged.

  "Well, knowing whether we're being followed was part of it, for sure," Dani said. "But now that we know, the question is why. Are they following him? Or have we stepped into some other mess without knowing it?"

  "Other mess? Like what?" Liz asked. "Montalba's on his way to prison, and we haven't crossed anybody else lately."

  "Guys like Montalba don't give up easily. Prison's a minor nuisance to people like him."

  "But it was Connie that he was after, anyway," Liz said. "Why would he have somebody following us?"

  "Revenge, maybe," Dani said. "He's got a reputation to protect. And for all we know, he's got people following Connie and Paul, too. I still can't believe she had the drop on him and let him live."

  "You need to let that go, Dani. It's not healthy. Besides, you wouldn't have killed him in cold blood; you know Connie wouldn't either."

  Dani frowned. "It would hardly have been in cold blood. He was — "

  "We weren't there," Liz said. "We don't really know. And it's over; there's nothing to be gained by rehashing it. You can't change any of it."

  "Right. I keep telling myself that. Maybe I'll eventually believe it. But why's Aquila following us, then?"

  "Well, maybe one of them is obsessed by Vengeance," Liz said. "She turns heads often enough. Even Shellie's fallen under her spell, and she wasn't even a sailor."

  "Come on, Liz. That's a stretch. They broke in and — "

  "Why do you say they broke in? It could have just been a druggie."

  "We've been over that," Dani said. "It had the earmarks of a professional job, and you know it."

  "True," Liz said. "It probably wasn't a druggie. You're right. But that doesn't mean it was the people on Aquila."

  "Odds are it was," Dani said. "But we'll know for sure if they show up here tomorrow. There's zero chance that they'll come here by coincidence."

  "My bet is that we've shaken them," Liz said. "How would they know we were here? There are too many places between Bequia and here for them to check them all."

  "Yes, I agree. If they show up here in the next few hours, we'll know they're following us. And that would almost guarantee that they have some way of tracking us."

  "You think they left a tracker when they broke in?" Liz asked.

  "You said they weren't the ones who broke in, Liz."

  "I just said we didn't know for sure that they did. If they've put a tracker aboard, that would change my opinion."

  "Okay. Good for you, Pollyanna." Dani grinned when Liz stuck her tongue out. "If they do show up here, I'm going to ask Phillip to get somebody aboard to sweep for trackers or eavesdropping stuff."

  "Makes sense," Liz said.

  "Think you can keep Rick and Shellie occupied in the morning? Give me a little time to handle that without having to explain it to them?"

  "Okay," Liz said. "But if I'm going to ask about whether Rick thinks somebody's following them … "

  "Maybe you should hold off on that," Dani said. "They might think we're paranoid or something."

  Liz giggled at that.

  "What's funny?" Dani said, scowling.

  "Nothing. I'm punchy; let's turn off the light and get some sleep."

  17

  "Caves?" Sharktooth asked.

  The group was finishing breakfast on the veranda at Phillip's house. Rick had described his project to the others in some detail, with Dani and Liz pitching in when he spoke about trying to identify the island where the Moors had been.

  "That's the latest clue," Rick said. "The Moors supposedly used a cave for storage. It was in the mountains that were near their settlement."

  "And you think the settlement was in one of those three harbors?" Sharktooth asked. "Why just those three?"

  Dani explained her theory about St. Lucia or Martinique as the most likely landfall for the Moors.

  Sharktooth and Phillip both nodded their agreement.

  "But why only those harbors?" Phillip asked. "There are a number of other places on St. Lucia and Martinique that come to mind."

  "There's a small fragment of a hand-drawn map," Rick said. "It shows the settlement, camp, whatever it was, on the shoreline up inside a distinct cove. And Dani and Liz pointed out that they would have chosen a spot with fresh water. Plus, the mountains." He looked at Dani and raised his eyebrows.

  "To me, Soufrière is the most likely," Dani said. "The sketch chart shows two prominent, distinctive peaks."

  "The Pitons," Maureen said. "Is that what you're thinking?"

  "Yes. There are hills that match up in the other two harbors, but they're much less dramatic than the Pitons. The sketch almost looks like a child's drawing of the Pitons."

  "What about Jalousie?" Sharktooth asked.

  "That's what I was thinking, too," Phillip said. "It's more protected."

  "Where?" Rick asked.

  "Jalousie's between the Pitons," Dani said.

  "You didn't mention it," Rick said.

  "No, I didn't. There are two reasons. Whoever drew the sketch went to some trouble to render those peaks — made them distinct from the other high ground — and they form a range line that points to where the sketch shows the camp. The intersection of the range and the shoreline is right where the Soufrière River flows into the harbor."

  "Did they draw a line through the peaks?" Phillip asked.

  "No, but it was so obvious they didn't need to," Dani said.

  "Plus," Rick said, "that fragment is a reproduction of something that was in one of the original documents. A scribe could have overlooked the importance of a sight line when he was transcribing it."

  "That would put the camp underneath the town of Soufrière," Sharktooth said. "Even the river's probably not in the same place after all the development that's gone on over the centuries. You'll have a hard time excavating anything."

  "I'm not sure there's anything to excavate," Rick said. "We don't have any indication that the Moors built anything permanent; they had some kind of shore
base, but these were seamen, traders. They were exploring, not colonizing."

  "But what about this mullah they left behind," Maureen said. "Was he a missionary or something?"

  "That's doubtful," Rick said. "The Moors weren't into proselytizing, as a rule. There's no mention in anything I've read that would explain why he and his group stayed behind. My guess is they were trying to maintain a trading presence. Khashkhash may have been planning to send a fleet back after he returned to Spain. His ships were described as laden with riches, so he would have been able to find plenty of support for a second voyage, I'd think. But we really don't know. I have to admit, I was skeptical about the chance of finding anything."

  "You say 'I was,'" Sharktooth said. "Are you less skeptical now, for some reason?"

  "Well, the notion that they had a cave where they were storing things gives me a little more hope that we might find some sign of their presence," Rick said. "Especially if the cave isn't well-known. And from what Dani and Liz said, caves aren't a common thing in the islands."

  "About that cave …" Sharktooth said. "There was a slave rebellion in St. Lucia in the early 1700s. It persisted for quite a while, and the runaways hid in a network of caves and tunnels. They intermarried with the remnants of the Caribs. There's still a village up on the southern side of Gros Piton called Fond Gens Libre — Valley of the Free People. Back in the old days, it was called Unionvale.

  "They were called Maroons, those people. There's been some effort to turn the area into a tourist attraction, with guided hikes. There's one place they call Brigands' Cave, but the rumor is there are a lot of unexplored tunnels and such in the area."

  "But those would have been more recent, wouldn't they?" Rick asked. "The tunnels, I mean. You're talking about hundreds of years after the Moors."

  "Yes," Sharktooth said. "That's so, but the Maroons hid up there because it was rugged country and there were at least some caves to begin with. How much they dug them out is a big question. Nobody's put any effort into researching any of that. The government's focus is on beaches and sport fishing — marine related tourism. That's where the money comes from. People don't come to a tropical paradise to study the history of the colonial era — certainly not about slavery and slave rebellion. Besides, the island people have conflicted feelings about that era — the days of slavery, and even colonialism. Some of it's too recent, too raw."