Renee stared at him. “What if the boat’s tainted?”
“Right, of course,” Robert said. “We can’t even let it dock.”
“That video might be a crock. Even CNN hasn’t been able to confirm it,” Dominic argued. “It could be nothing.”
“I hope it is nothing,” Robert said. “But why take the chance? If we’re wrong, no harm.”
“If we’re wrong, we’ll get fired.”
“Better fired than letting something on this island that might harm us.”
“Or kill us,” Renee added.
Dominic looked at her. “You agree with him?”
“Dominic, you’re the one who told us about it in the first place,” she said. “You know this isn’t nothing.”
Dominic looked back at the monitor. CNN was showing a montage of the found boxes. Each time another came up, a graphic identified the new location. New York, Mexico City, Madrid, Cairo, Hong Kong, Lima. The list of locations went on and on.
He looked back at Robert and Renee. “What do we do about the people who want to leave?”
Early the next morning, all one hundred and ninety-three people on the island gathered once more in the restaurant. Taking turns, Dominic, Renee, and Robert explained the situation as they saw it, then Dominic presented the options.
“You can either stay or leave, that’s up to you, but if you do leave, you cannot come back. The boat should be here at 8:30. If you want to be on it, you need to be down at the dock no later than 8:10. That’s in thirty-five minutes. Questions?”
There were plenty, but most were from people needing to hear again what Dominic and the others had already said, so they cut off the questions after ten minutes.
Isabella Island was graced with a magnificent sheltered bay. The ferry’s route took it between the two offset arms of land jutting out from either side of the bay that created a natural channel between the Caribbean and the bay itself. The dock was located across the bay from the channel exit. At the moment, one of the resort’s speedboats and all three of its scuba boats were tied to the pier, waiting.
One hundred feet to the west was the swimming platform — a wooden deck built on top of two dozen airtight drums. Or at least that’s where it had been until shortly after the sun had come up, when Robert and two of the guys who helped maintain the water sports equipment had cut it from the ties that held it in place, and towed it out closer to the passageway. There, they used a couple of anchors to hold it down. Robert had tested it. He reported it was a bit wobbly, but it would do.
The first of those wanting to leave arrived at the dock a few minutes before eight.
“You can get on Scuba One,” Dominic told them.
After Scuba One was filled, Dominic and Robert directed new arrivals to Scuba Two, then Scuba Three. When the last boat was nearing capacity, Dominic worried that a second trip might be needed, but they were able to squeeze everyone on. All told, there were sixty-three who wanted off — fifty-seven guests and six staff.
Robert looked at his watch, then back at the sea. “We should be able to see them by now.”
Dominic put a hand over his eyes to cut the glare. The bay was on the east side, facing away from Costa Rica, so the boat had to come all the way around the calmer end of the island on the right. There was no sign of it yet.
When the ferry still hadn’t shown up ten minutes later, Dominic had one of the employees hand out bottles of soda to those waiting on the boats. Water would have been better, but as Renee had pointed out, it would be smart to hold on to the water they had for now.
“Maybe they’re not coming,” one of the staff members standing on the beach with them said.
It was a definite possibility, Dominic thought. Who knew how crazy things had gotten on the mainland?
But a few minutes later, Robert said, “There it is.”
The medium-sized, two-deck passenger ferry had just peeked around the corner of the island. They watched it until it was almost to the seaside mouth of the passage.
“You’d better go,” Robert said.
Dominic hesitated for a second, then nodded and jogged out to the speedboat where Jalen Dunn, the speedboat pilot and water-ski instructor, was waiting. As soon as he was on board, the boat pulled away from the dock and raced across the bay.
Dominic glanced at the repositioned swimming platform as they passed by. Was that really all that would be standing between them and potential death? He didn’t have time to ponder it, though, as the speedboat suddenly entered the choppier water of the passage.
Ahead, he could see the ferry entering the other end.
“How far do you want to go?” Jalen yelled.
“This is probably good,” Dominic hollered back. “We want to make sure they get in far enough that they don’t just turn around and leave.”
Jalen throttled the boat down to a point where the motor held them in place with the moving current. Picking up the electronic megaphone Robert had put in the boat earlier, Dominic nervously played with the switch.
The wait seemed to take forever. When the ferry was about two hundred feet away, he could stand it no more. “Now,” he said.
Jalen revved up the engine, and drove the speedboat all the way around the ferry and back up the other side, slowing and matching the bigger boat’s pace as it came abreast with the bridge.
As they’d circled around, Dominic had tried to determine how many people were on board. He saw a handful at most, which made him feel better. They had been expecting at least fifty people on this trip alone.
On the bridge, he could see one of the ferry’s crew glancing over at their boat. He raised the megaphone.
“Attention, Albino Mer,” he said, using the ferry’s name. His voice echoed across the water, just above the sounds of the engines. “Attention, Albino Mer.”
This time the door at the side of the bridge opened, and Carlos Guzman, the boat’s captain, looked out.
“Good morning, Carlos. It’s Dominic.”
Carlos put his hands around his mouth and shouted back, “What’s going on?”
“There’s a problem with our dock,” Dominic said, using the story he, Robert, and Renee had worked up. They worried if they went with the truth, the Albino Mer would leave without taking those who wanted to go home with them. “One of the pillars has rotted through. Stable enough for our smaller boats, but didn’t think we should chance it with you.”
“So what are we supposed to do?”
“Already got it worked out,” Dominic said.
A few minutes later, as the two boats cleared the end of the passage, the floating platform came into view. Scuba One was already pulled up next to it, with the other two boats approaching quickly.
“We’re going to use the platform to transfer everyone,” Dominic said through the megaphone.
“Would be easier if the boats just tie up to our ramp in back.”
Of course the captain was right. “Pull up beside the platform,” Dominic said as if he hadn’t heard the other man. He glanced at Jalen. “Take us over there.”
Jalen increased their speed, taking them toward the platform and cutting off any further conversation. By the time the Albino Mer completely cleared the channel, the speedboat was tucking in behind Scuba One.
“Get them out there,” Dominic yelled across to Robert. He didn’t want to give Carlos any excuse to try anything other than using the platform.