Covert Crossings Page 9
“What happened?”
“We went back to the boat after dinner Sunday evening. I noticed that the cabin light was on. I didn’t think I had left it on. We went below to check. There was a guy with an assault rifle in the galley.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. I was in shock.”
“And?”
“He said his name was Saif. He showed me his phone. It had pictures of Darlene and Devin. And their spouses.”
“Okay. Go on.”
“He said that they wouldn’t be harmed – if we did as we were told.”
“What was that?”
“We were to wait for his ‘associates’ to arrive.”
“How many?”
“Five more men. Eventually they all arrived. Each had a backpack and a duffel bag that looked like it could contain an AK-47.”
Our waitress comes over. She is artificially cheerful. My guess is that she had a hard night last night, and would rather be sleeping instead of working right now. We order drinks. I tell her that we’ll be having lunch, but not yet. We’ll let her know. She goes to get our drinks.
“Mike. One thing. I think it’s important. Saif did not have pictures of you or Lauri. I don’t know why. Maybe they don’t… “
“They know. They know about me. I’m sure they didn’t when they chose you, but now they do. It’s harder to surveil someone with my training. They did not to try to get pictures of us. That was smart.”
“Makes sense.”
“So, there are now six of them on board. Did you get any other names?”
“Only one. Saif’s second in command, Qasim. Saif was reasonably -- nice, I guess is the word. Qasim was a surly bastard. And he got seasick during the crossing. I was glad.”
“When did you actually cross the lake?”
“Monday evening. They made us wait to leave. They wanted to get here about dark.”
“Here?”
“Yeah. We went from Leamington to Vermilion. We got here just at dark. Saif waited until the club quieted down, and then made a phone call. A white commercial looking van with no markings showed up about twenty minutes later. They all piled in and left. The end.”
“The end?’
“Yeah. The end. They were gone. That was it.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. We thought – we hoped it is a one-time deal.”
“You just pretended it didn’t happen. You didn’t tell anyone?”
“No. Nobody. We really thought that was the end of it. And it looked like it was. Until the Fourth of July.”
“And on the Fourth?”
“Saif called.”
CHAPTER 36
“I need a break, Mike.”
Mike pauses his phone. I flag down our happy waitress. We all order sandwiches; even Kate.
We just all sort of hang out until our sandwiches arrive. We make it a point to talk about nothing important.
* * *
We’re finishing up our sandwiches and working on our second round of drinks. Mike checks his phone and looks at me. “So Saif called on the Fourth?”
“It was about midnight. We had just gotten back to the boat a little while before.”
“Did he sound like he knew where you were?”
“He did. I didn’t think about it then, but he did. Wait; he said he did. He told us we had to go back to Leamington on Saturday, pick up another load of his people, and take them to Put-in-Bay on Sunday.”
“And you tried to refuse.”
“Yes. He reminded me of the pictures on his phone. We did what he wanted.”
“So, you picked up more guys in Leamington and ferried them to Put-in-Bay.”
“There were four guys – and two women.”
“Two women?”
“Two women. Mid-twenties. Dressed in slacks, blouses, and hijabs. The women stayed in the aft cabin. The men forward. Their leader was named Hamza.”
“What else?”
“Two big things. One, Qasim was back in Canada. I don’t know how or why. He didn’t cross again; he stayed in Leamington. Maybe he’s some kind of ringleader there.”
“We’ll want descriptions from both of your perspectives. You said, ‘Two things...’”
“Saif met us in Put-in-Bay. He just walked up to us as we were walking back to the boat. He said he goes by ‘Sam’ in the U.S.”
“What did he do?”
“He talked to the whole group down below; we were told to stay topsides while he talked. Then Sunday evening, he escorted some of them from our boat at Miller’s; I assume to the ferry.
“A debriefing, you think?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
“What else?”
“That’s it. They left. We slept. You called. We left.”
Lauri has been holding Kate’s hand. She looks at Mike. “This is horrible, Michael. You’ve got to make it stop.”
“We will. I promise.”
CHAPTER 37
“You did good to get a burner phone, Dad.”
“Sounds like there’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”
“No. Well, yes. But -- use your regular phone for everything except contacting me to talk about this. You don’t want them to suspect that you have another phone. We can assume that your regular cell phone is compromised. Kate’s, too. And your home phone. And all email accounts. They’re very good at this stuff.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly. You feel violated. You have been.”
“Your home has an alarm system, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it does.”
“Is it set? Do you usually set it?”
“If we’re going to be gone for a short time, no. Overnight or more, yes. And we have nosey neighbors that keep an eye on things.”
“Good. Your home has probably not been bugged. But we’ll look.”
He pauses. Then continues. “I’ll talk to my people when we get to your house. They’ll come up with a plan. They’ll start moving today. And they will be monitoring your phones and email, too.”
* * *
We go back to the boat and pretend to relax. The girls drink wine. Mike drinks beer. I drink San Pellegrino.
I’m not sure why it’s this way, but in United States, sailboats dock bow in and powerboats dock stern in. This means that as we sit in the cockpit, we’re about six feet from the wharf – and passersby. We can’t talk about what we really want to talk about, so there are periods of quiet.
Even though it’s Monday evening, there are quite a few people about. Several times, I introduce passing club members to Mike and Lauri. And explain that they paid us a surprise visit on their way home to Denver.
A little before dark, I give up. “How about we head home? What do you all think: Pizza Galley pizza, or burgers on the grill? Unless you have another idea, Kate?”
“No, I don’t. I really don’t want to cook tonight. I vote for pizza. And Pizza Galley gets my vote.”
Both Lauri and Mike agree. Kate gets up. “We have a menu below. I’ll go get it, and we can order now, and pick it up on the way home.”
“Sounds good. Mike and I will button down the hatches. I expect it won’t take more than fifteen minutes to be ready to go.”
After significant bargaining, we decide that we’ll never agree on one kind of pizza. We order two -- one with lots of meats for the guys and one with lots of veggies for the girls.
* * *
In a half hour, we’re home with our pizzas. I see my neighbor, Geoffrey out in his front yard. Geoff is a retired roofing business owner, the current HOA President, and the neighborhood busybody. I walk over to chat. “Hi Geoff.”
“Hi Peter. Is that your son, the Marshal?”
“Yeah. And his wife. They’re on their way home to Denver and decided to stop and see us.”
“Home from where?”
“They were in Europe. But I have a question. One of our club members had his home broken into. The police theorize that the bad guy
s might have seen their boat gone for a while, figured they were cruising, and broke in to their house. You haven’t seen anybody around here, have you?”
“No. And it would be hard to do here. We’re a small development, we’re gated, and everybody knows everybody. Strangers would stick out.”
“That’s what I figured, too. But the cops say that this has happened before. Not here, but at other clubs. They say that a gone boat is like piled up newspapers – an invitation to bad guys.”
“Wow, I never thought of that. It makes sense, though.”
“I just thought I’d ask. You never know…”
* * *
We eat our pizza out on the deck as the sun goes down. Daisy joins us. Pizza is her favorite food in the whole world. Watching the ever-changing sunsets is one of my favorite things about our home on Lake Erie. Mike gets up. “Can I use your library, Dad? I want to make some phone calls.”
“Of course.”
He picks up one more piece of pizza, and heads inside.
* * *
It’s full dark, we’re full, the lake breeze has kicked up, and Mike’s not back. “You guys want to go watch TV?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
We don’t have a TV in the living room. We planned it that way. Lack of a TV in the living room promotes conversation. We head downstairs to the family room. Mike is still on the phone. He’ll figure out where we are.
We all settle in to watch a rerun of a Last Man Standing episode. We have all 130 episodes on the DVR; it’s good entertainment while we wait for Mike.
Half way through listening to Mandy take advantage of Kyle’s naiveté, Mike comes down. I pause the DVR. “Okay?”
Mike gets a beer out of the fridge and sits next to Lauri. “Not much to tell yet. Plans are being made. We’ll be informed. I’m sure we will hear something tomorrow.”
Lauri stands up. Nerves, I think. “What did they say?” Her voice is a little shrill. Nerves, definitely. She sits on the arm of Kate’s chair.”
“Easy, toots. Dad and Kate are not the first boats to be used like this.”
Now it’s Kate’s turn. “We’re not the first? This has happened before? How many times? Once? Twice? Lots?”
“I don’t know how many times, but enough times that they were not shocked to hear about it.”
My turn. “Crap…”
“Because I’m me; because of my position. And because of Dad’s past, HS views this as an opportunity…”
“An opportunity?” Kate is very unhappy with Mike’s use of that word.
“An opportunity to catch some bad guys, and to hurt their whole operation. I think they’re right. I think we can make a difference.”
“How? What do they want us to do?”
“Nothing. Yet. We’ll know more tomorrow.”
Lauri returns to her seat next to Mike. I slide over next to Kate. We hold hands. I restart Last Man Standing.
THIRD CROSSING
CHAPTER 38
Mike and Lauri left the day after they arrived in Vermilion.
Mike said that he had to go back to Denver. But that he’d be back. And that he wouldn’t leave again until this was finished.
Lauri said, “I’ll be back with him.” Mike said, “No, you won’t.” Lauri said. “Yes, I will.”
I suspect that Lauri will win.
Homeland Security said to await further instructions.
That was right after the Fourth of July. It’s been almost three weeks. We have heard nothing. Nothing from Mike. Nothing from Lauri. Nothing from Homeland Security. Nothing from the terrorists.
It’s maddening. Our lives are on hold.
* * *
Mike calls! He calls my burner phone. “Hey, Dad. I’ve finally got some news. Are you alone? Can we talk?”
“Yes, and yes! The silence has been slowly driving us nuts. Can I go get Kate?”
“Yes, do that. I’ll wait.”
I’m in our basement office overlooking Lake Erie. I think Kate is in her office up in the loft. Because our home is three stories, we’ve installed intercoms to prevent screaming and yelling. I push Talk. “Kate, Mike’s calling on my burner phone. He wants you to hear what he has to say. Meet me in the kitchen, okay?”
“I’ll be there before you are.”
I actually beat Kate to the kitchen table. I set the phone down on the table, and put it on speaker. “Kate’s on her way, Mike.”
“I heard.”
Kate comes down the stairs and around the corner past the dining nook. She plops down next to me. “Hi, Mike! We’ve been waiting for you to call. I want to say, ‘With bated breath,’ but I’m not too sure what that means. The waiting has been infuriating. I hope you have good news. Some news. Any news…”
“Well. I have news. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. It kind of depends on how you look at it.”
I want to scream. We both want to hear any news. “Tell us what’s going on.”
“This isn’t real exciting, but it’s important. You’ll get a FedEx box later today with two secure phones. Destroy the one you’re using right now, and use the new ones. But only for calls to us. There’s one for each of you.”
“Calls to us? Who’s ‘us’?”
“The good guys.”
“American and Canadian?”
“Yes. As I told you before, you are not the first people to be used like this. It’s happening on many of the Great Lakes, but Lake Erie is their favorite, probably because of the relatively short distances and the proximity of cities and towns on both sides.”
“How many others have been used to provide ferry service?”
“I’m not at liberty to say, but it’s been going on for several years.”
“Wow. Amazing... How does it end?”
“They usually get tired of using a specific boat after several trips, and move on. It’s fairly random.”
“Has anybody been hurt?”
“No one has been killed, but there have been some incidents.”
Kate interrupts. “Incidents?”
“I can’t go into details. But I’ll say this: People who have cooperated have not been hurt.”
“Oh, fine…”
My turn to interrupt. “You didn’t call to talk about the past.”
“No, I didn’t. Both the American and Canadian intelligence and counter-terrorism organizations are involved. They are happy to have me involved. I can’t go into a lot of detail, but this ties in closely with my regular work in Europe. They are aware of your past, Dad; they view that positively, too. They think that the perps made a major error by selecting you for their ferry service. They see it as an opportunity to hurt the terrorist organization in a significant way.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you are willing to cooperate, they think they can apprehend key people on both sides of the border.”
“Again, what do you mean?”
“They want to go after more than just your passengers. They want the people who are sending them. And receiving them.”
“How long does this go on? I think I can speak for Kate on this. We don’t want to play games with the terrorists; we want to end it.”
“If we plan it right, they think they can accomplish their goals with one more crossing. They want to have a planning meeting next weekend.”
“Okay… Where?”
“Rattlesnake Island.”
“But there is nothing there. It’s a privately-owned island with a dozen summer homes. A rich people’s hangout.”
“Precisely. It’s small. It’s private. It’s a good place for Canadian and American officials to meet without attracting attention. Can you go?”
“Well…”
“Good. They’ll be expecting you late Saturday morning. The harbor is on the southeast side of the island. Call the Rattlesnake Island Club on VHF channel 16 when you’re a mile offshore.”
“Do I have any choice?”
“Not if you want to end this, Dad.”
CHAPTER 39
We don’t plan to leave for Rattlesnake Island until Saturday morning, but we’ve come to VYC late Friday afternoon. We’ll take on fuel, get ready for our trip, and have dinner at Martino’s, one of our favorite perch joints.
Fuel first. As we’re preparing to move Morning Star to the Fuel Dock, our next-door neighbor, Barron, appears in his cockpit. “Where are you guys off to this weekend?”
“Actually, we’re just going to the Fuel Dock now.”
“And then where?”
“Nowhere tonight. But we’re going to Marino’s later; want to join us?”
“I think yes, but I’ve got to clear it with Katya. She may have made other plans. I’m always the last to know.”
“I understand. I’m the same way. We’ll be right back. Probably head for Marino’s about six. Let us know.”
I start the engines. While they’re warming up, Kate frees the lines. There is zero wind, so Morning Star just sits at our dock. I put the engines in gear, and move fifty feet to the Fuel Dock. Norman sees us coming and meets us there. “Hi, Captain.”
“Hi Norman. We just need to top off the tanks for a short overnighter to Put-In-Bay.”
“No problem. Does your holding tank need attention?”
“Nope. Just diesel.”
We tie up. Daisy gives Norman one greeting woof. She’s sitting quite happily in her usual spot on the port settee.
Daisy seems to be back to herself now. But when we first got to the club today, she wasn’t...
She was reluctant to walk out onto the dock, and reluctant to get on the boat. When I put her aboard, she very slowly, and very suspiciously checked everything out. Lots of sniffing, and lots of looking. After a good ten minutes, she went over to her port settee, and looked at me. “Okay. It’s safe. Put me up.”
I did, and she hasn’t moved since.
I open the deck plates to the tanks, and Norman hands me the hose. I start with the starboard tank. “Shouldn’t need too much. I’ve only done a round trip to Leamington since my last fill-up.”
“What kind of fuel consumption do you get?”
“Around thirty-five gallons an hour at cruising speed.”