“The American planes turned in another slow arc. They came back, their machine guns firing into the water, into the survivors. After that, nothing moved. I kept very still and they never spotted me. If I’d made it inside that hatch, I would have died with them.
“Once the planes were gone, I swam to the wreck site. The water was full of sharks tearing into the bodies. I expected to be eaten at any second. I found a piece of wood and began swimming toward the closest island which I now know is one of a group called Îles de la Petite Terre. I do not know why the sharks left me alone. Perhaps because there was so much food.
“When I reached the island, it was night and I was exhausted and cold. I spent three days on that island. I was near death when a fisherman found me. He was from Dominica and he took me home. He knew I was a sailor, but he kept my identity secret. Later, I married his daughter, and we told everyone my name was Jules and I came from Guadeloupe.” Henri’s body shook again as he struggled to cough up the fluid in his chest.
The young woman came out the back door and brought a wood box to Henri. Then she turned to Cole. “If you please, my great-grandfather is tiring.”
Cole nodded and stood. “That’s quite a story. Thank you so much, Henri.”
Henri raised a hand like a traffic cop. “The papers are most important. It is possible they are still in the captain’s cabin. But there is something else.” He pointed to the coin Cole wore. A mischievous smile played around his wet lips. “I took five of those from the hold the last time I visited Woolsey. There is more, much more. Through the years, I melted down four of them and sold the gold. The gold from those four fed my family for many months.” Cole saw the old man’s body tense as he struggled to quell another threatening cough. His voice was barely a whisper when he said, “I wanted more, but I was always too frightened to search for it. Didn’t want anyone to come searching for me. I spent my whole life in hiding. Then I told your father my story, and you see what happened to him.”
Henri’s pale eyes looked at him, and Cole felt him asking for forgiveness.
“You had a family to think about, Henri.”
The old man nodded, then opened the box and withdrew a sheet of paper. He handed it to Cole. “This is a sketch of what I could see on Îles de la Petite Terre and the other island Marie Galante. I went back on my father-in-law’s fishing boat after the war and came up with this best guess as to the position where Surcouf went down.” He pointed to an X on the sketched chart. “The water is thirty to fifty meters deep and then –” The old man lowered his hand to indicate the drop off. He started coughing again, and his granddaughter walked around behind him and patted him on the back. When he could speak, he reached out and grasped Cole’s forearm. “Do what I should have done years ago. Find her. Find Surcouf and Operation Magic for me and for your father.”
Cole knelt down in front of the old man and looked into his pale blue eyes, now red-rimmed and shiny with tears.
“I will Henri. I promise. And when I do, I’ll come back to tell you all about it.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
Aboard the Bonefish
Scott’s Head Bay, Dominica
March 30, 2008
3:05 p.m.
Riley screwed the cap on the diesel jerry jug she had just emptied into her tank, and she looked up at Cole. “We’ve got to get moving.”
Bonefish was rafted up alongside the Shadow Chaser in the Scott’s Head Bay anchorage. Earlier, as they had hurried back to the dinghy from Michaut’s house, Riley mentioned she was concerned about how much fuel she had left on board after motor sailing nearly the whole way from the Saintes to Dominca. Cole insisted she bring her boat alongside the big trawler to top off her tanks.
He pumped his hand like a conductor signaling the violins to bring the volume down. “Almost there,” he said.
Theo’s face appeared at the rail. “Hey cap, I’ve got the radar running and we’ve got a suspicious target out there.” He hoisted another yellow plastic jug over the cap rail and handed it down to Cole. “This is the last one, right?”
“Yeah,” Cole said.
Riley checked her watch. “Cole, it’s almost 3:30. Theo, what was that about the radar?”
“We’ve got an AIS receiver, you know the Automatic Identification System, so I can see the names on some of the radar targets. There’s a cruise ship and a smaller cargo ship up off Roseau. On my screen, when I go out to the twenty-four mile range, there are a couple of boats that aren’t broadcasting any AIS data. We don’t know who they are. And one is headed south along the coast, coming fast. Faster than that boat the Brewsters had in the Saintes – racing boat faster. It might be a pleasure boat, but it worries me.”
Riley poured the last of the diesel into her fuel tank deck fill. She didn’t like that news much either. They’d tarried too long here already. “Theo, have you thought about going outside Dominica — along the Atlantic coast?” she asked. “It would mean a bumpy ride, but it would put the island between us and anybody who might be heading south looking for us.”
Theo slapped his hand on the cap rail. “I like the way you think, Captain Riley. I’ll go check the milage on that route.”
She screwed the cap on the last jug and stood. Her legs were stiff from kneeling on the deck.
Cole slipped his arms around her. “I wish you’d come with us on Shadow Chaser. Leave Bonefish here. We could set a second anchor.”
“I can’t, Cole. She’s my home. God only knows what that maniac would do to her if he found her unattended. I know your boat is faster, but I’ll be right behind you.”
“And if that maniac finds you alone on your boat in the middle of the channel? I’m having a hard time putting that picture out of my head.”
“If he’s going to find anybody, it’s going to be you. You’re bigger, more visible from satellites and it’s possible there is some sort of tracking device on there.” She nodded toward his boat.
“Right. You know I’ll be searching for that damn thing all night,” he said. “Do you have a weapon aboard?”
“No, most of these islands impound your weapons while you’re visiting. And I never wanted to lie on my Customs declarations. Of course, now I’m wishing I had. What about you?”
He shook his head. “No guns. Same reasons.”
“Cole, listen, if we’re all together on your boat and we don’t have any weapons, what makes you think I’d be safer with you? He’s already tracked your boat to Dominica once. They’re on one boat. It’s standard operating procedure not to put all your eggs in one basket. It makes more sense to split up.”
Theo leaned over the rail above their heads. He coughed and they moved apart. “Riley, I think you’ve hit on a great idea. It’s only a few miles more for us to go out and around the southern tip of the island. After that, it’s a straight shot to the area your man has marked on his chart. It will be rough, though. The forecast is for winds a little north of east at eighteen to twenty knots, stronger in gusts.”
Riley grabbed one of her shrouds and shook it. “She’s a tough old girl. She’ll be fine. It will slow us down, but we’ll get there by morning.”
“And what about you?” Cole asked, his arm around her waist again.
“I know how to take care of myself. You know, we’d better get moving.”
He swung around to face her, wrapped both arms around her waist, and lifted her feet off the ground. Nose to nose, he said, “You know, you are one stubborn lady.”