But in a minute the signal came in, booming and shrilclass="underline" R — go ahead, N3—R — go ahead — K—
I had no message but somehow I felt better when I heard them come in. A tenuous link to my people, but a link just the same.
I pounded the key. K — testing — K—testing — AR—
The answer came ghosting back. K — AR— Silence.
I flipped the toggle to off and gave the crew some orders and went to start the engines. The crew did pretty well with the lines, and I backed Sea Witch out into a making tide and pointed her downstream on a diagonal slant to get some westing and hug the far shore. The sun came over the horizon and turned the flat lead color of the river into gold and silver. The far reaches were empty, a lot of vacant water, but a couple of tugs were crawling upstream and to the north a fat white tanker was lying at the Con Ed dock.
I was conning her from the cockpit today, not wanting to be any more conspicuous than necessary. The tan general came to stand beside me and kissed my ear, and I told her to go away.
“Getting this scow through harbor traffic is not going to be fun and games,” I told her. “Go find something to do.” I wondered how soon she would miss the money and what her reaction would be.
“Wash the dishes,” I said. “You’re crew and I like a tidy] galley. And it might be a good idea if you stay under cover1 until we’re at sea. No use taking chances.”
That was good, coming from me. Taking chances? This whole crazy mission was a chance — and not much of chance, at that. I was beginning to have a very nasty feeling about this deal.
“See if you can get a marine forecast,” I told her. “And let me know.”
Not that it made any difference. I had to go to sea anyway, because anything less than a hurricane would not impress Hawk. I had my orders.
Lyda gave me a smart salute and a mocking smile. “Aye, aye, sir. It shall be done.”
She was her former lovely self again by now. The morning megrims were over, and she was full of bounce and hope and excitement. I would have given a lot to be able to peer into her brain just then. It would have been a help, for we had a long bull session coming up and I was wondering how many lies she was going to tell me and how I could spot and discount them. And how many lies I would have to tell her? Not many, I thought. I wouldn’t have to lie much. I could just leave out certain things.
Lyda stayed in the deckhouse as I worked Sea Witch through the traffic and under the Narrows Bridge and into the outer harbor. A cruise liner was coming in and a couple of rusty tramps going out, and off Sheepshead I ran into a covey of fishing boats. No real sweat. Pretty soon we began to roll and pitch a little and I could feel the open sea under Sea Witch. She was well laden, and she rode low and steady. I made my southing and she began to roll slightly in the long, flat quartering swell. About five minutes later I heard sounds coming from the deckhouse. Then no more sounds. She was in the bathroom.
Ten minutes later she poked her head out of the deckhouse. She clung to the frame and she was the greenest dark girl I had ever seen.
She said: “I’m sick, Nick. Ohhh — I’m so sick!”
I liked that. A really sick person can’t plot much mischief and I could tell from one look that this kid had a real bad case of mal-de-mer.
I nodded and kept from grinning and gave her some phony sympathy. “Lie down,” I said. “Look in the medicine cabinet. I thought I saw some pills there this morning. If you don’t feel better pretty soon I’ll come and fix you a nice big bowl of thick stew.”
“B — bastard!” She clamped her hand across her mouth and turned and ran.
The Coast Guard cutter picked me up just beyond Ambrose Light. Her name was Excalibur, and she came swirling in, making a big creamy circle, and I saw her officers watching me through glasses. I raised my right hand and made a chopping motion down toward my left wrist. I did it three times. A moment later her blinker answered, a pale eye in the daylight: R — AR—: Received and understood.
Excalibur left me then and ran east until she was just a dot on the horizon. Then she turned south and began to dog me down the coast.
Hawk was on the ball.
Chapter 6
The marine forecasts were right for once, and the good weather held. I fueled at Virginia Beach and headed for Key West with Excalibur still herding me. I worked her once on the CW transceiver, in plaincode, and was told that she would escort me to the eastern end of Cuba and then leave me. From there I presumed she would run up to Guantanamo. Anyway I was going to be on my own in the narrow gut between Cuba and the north coast of Haiti.
Lyda was a pretty sick girl for two days, then she got her sea legs and began to bounce back. A little weak and wan, but showing signs of being the Black Swan again. She evinced no interest in sex for the time being, and that was all right with me. Finally I had to sleep, and trust her, and I did and when I woke up after about 12 hours she had the cruiser on gyro and was sitting there in the chair staring at me. Damned if she didn’t have that big Webley in her hands, both hands, and was pointing it at me and it was shaking a little, up and down and sideways. It was a big heavy gun and she was a nervous girl and I was very, very careful. I spoke softly, gently, and I smiled at her.
“Better think it over,” I said. “You can’t run this cruiser by yourself. And that Coast Guard cutter knows I’m in command and they’ll be checking before they leave us. If I’m not around they’ll take you into custody and you’ll be in real trouble.”
The big revolver wavered as she thrust it at me. “Where’s the money, you bastard?”
“Oh, that!” I tried to sound tres gay, as though the revolver didn’t bother me in the least. “I hid it. Don’t worry about it. It’s safe and you’ll get it back when this is over.”
She looked mean and anxious and doubtful. “You didn’t do anything crazy? Like throwing the money overboard?”
I reached slowly for a pack of cigarettes and she didn’t shoot me and I figured I was over the hump.
“Use your head,” I said. “Do I look like a man who would toss a hundred thousand dollars overboard?”
“More than that,” she said. “Almost a hundred and fifty— and no, I guess you wouldn’t do that. Throw it overboard. But where is it?”
I lit up and blew smoke at the ceiling and said, “I’m not going to tell you that, Lyda. You’ll just have to trust me. I thought that was the whole idea — that we would trust each other. If we don’t, if we can’t, we might as well call this thing off right now. We’ve only got half a prayer now, and if we fight each other we don’t have any chance. Now put down that goddamned cannon and stop being a fool.”
She lowered the revolver but her eyes sparked yellow at me. “That money is all I have in the world. All we have — my people. I’m responsible for it.”
“Wrong,” I said. “I’m responsible for it. It’s invasion money and there is not going to be any invasion, so you don’t need it now. Tell you what I’ll do — just before we go into — Haiti I’ll show you where it is. I won’t give it to you, but I’ll show you where it’s hidden. Okay?”