“Sam!” Dr. Malgas called. “Can I have a word with you, please?”
“Keep your ears open. You understand German. You can figure out what she says if you get close enough. Let me see what Billy has on his mind,” Sam excused himself.
“Aye,” she nodded. “Wonder what wisdom he has to share this time.”
“Be nice,” Sam smiled and winked at her. Nina was adamant. She had to know what Crystal would be so secretive about while Sam joined Billy Malgas on the front porch.
“Can we take a walk, Sam?” Malgas suggested.
"Aye, sure," Sam answered. "You seem incredibly tense for someone who is about to make a historical discovery, Billy.”
“That is what I wanted to talk about, actually,” Billy said anxiously, pulling Sam out on the street, where only the pale white orbs of the lamps could witness their conversation.
“Oh, okay,” Sam frowned. “If this has something to do with what was said during that argument…”
"Please, Sam. Allow me to explain. This is weighing heavily on my conscience, and I need your advice. I have been waiting for a moment to discuss this with you… why I initially called you,” Billy started. His voice croaked like a tired old man’s, giving Sam a foreboding feeling he could not shake.
But before the conversation could go any further, the two men were distracted by a ruckus in the neighborhood. Three voices echoed angrily in the usually quiet street.
“I know that voice,” Billy exclaimed. “That’s Cheryl, Sam. It sounds like she is in trouble!”
Cheryl was being jerked around by her arms. Two men were trying to push her into a vehicle, but she was putting up a massive fight. Her screams for help were muffled by a thick, powerful hand over her face by the large man restraining her as she kicked out wildly. As Sam and Billy rushed to her aid the other man punched her hard in the face, rendering her unconscious.
“Hey!” Sam shouted, tackling the brute who had punched her. While Sam was scuffling with him, Zain and Sibu came running, having heard the commotion from the house. They quickly subdued the attackers, but Billy insisted on knowing what was going on.
“Who are you?” Billy growled at the man Sibu was holding. “What do you want from Cheryl?”
“None of your bloody business!” the man replied, pinching his broken nose as Sibu pushed his head into the sand among the short grass with his knee. Purdue came running along with the neighbors.
“You had better tell me or I’ll let Sibu use you for target practice, you bastard!” Malgas sneered angrily.
“I’m her dealer, for fuck’s sake! I’m her dealer!” he told them. Suddenly Billy’s face sank. His rage turned to disappointment as he got up from his knees, dusting off his jeans.
“She is still doing drugs?” he asked Zain and Sibu. Zain nodded, “Yes, more than ever.” He deliberately told Malgas in front of Purdue and Sam, to eliminate her from the equation. They would never allow a strung up junkie on their excursion and would leave him with less to worry about. After all, he did not need her anymore.
Together with a kind neighbor who had offered his help, Billy Malgas escorted Cheryl to the hospital to tend to the cut above her eye. The hospital also had a rehabilitation program for drug addicts he intended to commit her to. Sam went back to the house with Purdue at his side.
“I can’t believe it,” Purdue sighed. “You alright?”
“Can we just get on the bloody ocean already?” Sam begged.
"Funny you should say that," Purdue smiled. "Crystal just informed me that the salvage tugboat has arrived a few nautical miles out that way." He smiled eagerly, pointing to the eastern horizon. "All I have to do is get on the tug and from there we can nudge the wreck a few more meters. It is virtually a stone's throw from the edge of the 12-mile-zone, obscure as it might be.”
“So we’ll be in a nutshell on those demon waves while you are fiddling with that gadget of yours again? Are you high? What if the tug capsizes?” Sam scowled. “You know, sometimes your genius is seriously questionable.”
“No, Sam. I may be reckless, but I’m not stupid,” Purdue retorted calmly, looking up at the beach house as they passed through the gate. Sam could not help but wonder what Malgas had wanted to tell him. Crystal, Nina, and Mieke were packing everything up for the harrowing trip ahead to reach the salvage tug that was waiting for them in international waters.
“Cheryl and Dr. Malgas will not be joining us on the trip,” Purdue informed them, followed by the two security advisors who nursed the skin over their knuckles with some ice from the freezer.
“My God, Sam!” Nina shouted inadvertently at the sight of Sam’s bloody mouth and nose. She instantly realized that she was not supposed to care, when Crystal was already checking his cuts.
“I have just the thing to fix you right up, Liebling. Come,” Crystal urged him. She took him by the hand and dragged him to the upstairs bathroom with her. When she closed the door to be alone with Sam, Nina felt a nauseating twist in her innards. Reflexively she turned her attention to Purdue and decided to keep to his company from now on.
Chapter 25 — Welcome Aboard
The next morning was overcast. Out on the sea, the bizarre occurrence had returned, but with Purdue’s new configuration the disturbances caused by magnetic waves were less conspicuous and certainly far less destructive. He was concerned that his locator may have been unable to establish the precise location of the wreck. Purdue found it increasingly peculiar that his sonar would occasionally report no object at all at the very spot the wreck had been detected a moment before.
“I am dumbfounded by the wreck disappearing every now and then,” Purdue mumbled behind his hand. His chin was resting on his palm as he leaned on the table, studying the oddity and considering every scientific theory he could summon to try and solve the conundrum.
“Maybe your magnetic waves are interfering with your sonar,” Nina suggested as she sank on the sofa next to him. The rest of the group was preparing to leave, so she had come to help him. “We can figure all that out on the boat. We have to go.”
“I know. I know,” he sighed. Purdue loathed admitting defeat when he couldn’t solve a scientific puzzle. With his knowledge of sound waves and frequencies, radar, sonar and the like, he expected to have at least some inkling of what caused the ship to disappear. But he was at a loss. He accompanied Nina onto the yacht he had hired to take them out to sea, courtesy of a local who was kind enough to go out this early and dumb enough not to ask why.
The yacht crashed down over each crest of white foam thrashing to the next wave as they were heading towards the edge of territorial waters. Sam and Crystal were keeping the skipper company while the security advisors seemed to be engaged in an argument over football scores. Nina held fast onto the steel railing next to the bench she sat on, trying to keep steady in the fierce rolling of the vessel. Mieke did the same, regretting that she had agreed to come on the trip to represent Dr. Malgas.
"Ewww," she winced as she caught sight of Sibu vomiting over the side, pale as a sheet from seasickness.
“Oh dear,” Purdue howled. “I hope he is the only one affected to such an extent. How are you feeling, Nina?” He smiled, knowing that he was going to get one of her looks again.
“Oh, I am just dandy, thank you,” she snapped, clinging to the handle and Purdue’s arm at the same time. He remembered something she had said before they had left the land, something that made more sense than she would have guessed.
“Nina, you said my sonar was disturbed by the EMR I used to induce the seismic activity, right?” he asked suddenly.
“Aye,” she answered, “but remember that I know very little about physics, Dave. It was a guess at best.”