“Wow, you shoulda gone into advertising with that outlook.”
Crouch looked grimly to the skies. “Jensen has half a day head start. Let’s move.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Another flight and another few hours behind them, and Alicia was starting to feel decidedly light-headed. Of course, the other option was riding the waves and that prospect excited her even less. Crouch plotted the course to Santa Catalina and called them all to the windows when the island drew close.
Alicia stared below once more, by now used to the sparkle shimmering off blue waves and expecting nothing less. The gentle roll of the seas lay unbroken below and she saw no sign of other vessels.
“The way Henry Morgan is portrayed,” Caitlyn posited, “you would think he was king of the pirates.”
Crouch glanced over. “It has been said before that there was once a great pirate council,” he told them. “Though these days it’s vehemently refuted. Probably rightly too. Pirates have been romanced in both their intellect and their dealings, but I daresay a few, like Morgan and Edward Teach and Calico Jack had the brains and the resources to put together a congress of sorts.”
“Slightly different eras,” Caitlyn said.
“Ach, only just.” Crouch grinned. “Give a man a vision to hold on to.”
“I guess he was a king of his time then,” Caitlyn said. “I wonder what it was like growing up alongside his legend.”
“Depends how true the stories are,” Crouch said finally. “And we’ll never know. We’re close now, people.”
Alicia put her face close to the window and ignored her light stomach. She quelled the need to return to everything that was new and held all new promise. She was loyal. She was a soldier and would fulfill her promise.
And, one day she would get Crouch properly alone.
Below, the steady glitter gave way to a large lump of gray hills and greenery, a couple of slices of beach to either side. They could quite clearly see the footbridge connecting Santa Catalina to its neighboring island. The misshapen mass looked deserted at this altitude, and Healey started to take the seaplane down.
“Wait,” Crouch warned. “Take a tour first.”
Healey corrected and sent the battered seaplane on a circuitous route around the island. Alicia saw his unspoken question and voiced it aloud.
“How do you make a slow-moving seaplane look unsuspicious, Michael?”
“Who knows? Act like sightseers.”
“I guess we are, but what about the bullet holes?”
Crouch gave her a rare grin. “Flew over a military range?”
“They armed the seagulls,” Caitlyn said.
“Caribbean hospitality,” Russo finished.
Healey circled the island once and then again a few hundred feet lower. Features became more visible, the tops of jagged hills and the spread of the canopy; the hidden places a group might frequent; the density and danger of the rocks near the beach.
Small inlets scattered to the north and south.
A large seaplane off the coast.
“It has to be,” Crouch said, squinting.
“We’ll look bloody foolish if it’s a local tour,” Russo said.
“Healey, take her down around the side of that outcropping. We’ll go over the top of the hill. Russo, don’t forget this time we have the script.”
“Ah, I’d forgotten that.”
“To the leeward I resolve to stash that which sorely plagues. This time the rocks will tell their story and the rising tides a tale. But rarely when they’re high, never again under sail. Never again. It is here, but fear you must. Peril awaits.”
“It’s the right side of the island,” Crouch said.
“But there’s no beach,” Russo peered down as they passed over for the last time. “Just a dirty great chunk of cliff.”
Alicia closed her eyes. “Ah, Russo, I guess it comes to us all.”
“What?” A growl.
“Age and the loss of vision. You saw the dirty great chunk of cliff but not the sea cave at its base?”
“Sea cave? Shit.”
Alicia tended to agree. “I don’t mind a bit of swimming,” she clarified. “But like I said, diving’s for friggin’ dolphins.”
“That’s why I figure we go over the top,” Crouch said. “We might find another way in. Cave. Blowhole. Stream bed. Natural formation. It’s a good bet, and we really need to come at Jensen in a way he least expects.”
“He lost a lot of men in the last encounter,” Caitlyn said.
“My guess — he has plenty left and they’ll be even meaner.”
Healey brought the seaplane down and taxied toward a break in the rock formations that led toward a sloping, mossy bank dotted with trees. Alicia clapped him on the back as the craft drifted to a stop.
“Progress.”
“Nice pep talk. Thanks.”
“Anytime, Zacko.”
The team exited the seaplane, piled into a dinghy and made a slightly undignified but short run to shore. Alicia beached the boat and Russo tied it up. Ahead, trees provided cover and gloom-ridden shadows and a break from the heat. They pulled themselves up and then threaded a way between mossy trunks, unable to find any kind of path. The struggle was awkward for a while as the slope steepened. Alicia found herself hanging onto a tree and pulling Caitlyn up. After that the incline eased and they made better progress. The canopy of leaves above began to thin out, allowing specks and then larger spots of sunlight to dapple the trunks and branches.
Alicia made ready to replace her sunglasses as the tree line thinned ahead.
Crouch slowed and then knelt behind one of the bigger tree trunks. The vegetation ended rather abruptly about ten meters further on, giving way to smooth, hard gray rock. The rock was a plateau, stretching in all directions, a rolling plain of slippery, unbroken boulders. The formation ended in the distance in a pointed promontory. Alicia and Russo scanned the area. Alicia tapped Crouch on the shoulder.
“Let’s go, boss.”
The team eased their way out into the open. Alicia held her fully loaded handgun tightly. The rifle was out of bullets now but the handguns had plenty of reserve. No hidden figures became visible. Slowly, they picked their way across the rock, wary of the drop-offs to both sides. Alicia saw Crouch casting about, clearly hoping for a hole or passage into the rock below, but nothing presented itself.
Alicia began to grow a little despondent. This hunt was not as forthcoming as those that had gone before. It felt to her almost as if she needed to press the issue a little. Force it all out into the open. But then, that was her true nature.
Halfway to the far edge now and still they crept along, finding nothing. They kept low, conscious of the sea vistas opening up slowly to the east and west. As they crept nearer to the edge a low roar reached Alicia’s ears, a roar that started to get louder and louder.
She stopped. Russo stared over at her, nonplussed. Crouch gave a little chuckle from behind.
“Get ready.” It sounded like he was moving back.
“For wha—”Alicia started to say and then it happened.
The thunder increased in volume and the ground shook. Alicia swept the rocks with her vision, saw nothing. Then, directly ahead, a spout of water erupted skyward — a perfect jet of seawater. Like a fountain it shot high and then came back down, drenching everything around.
Which included Alicia and Russo.
Crouch laughed and so did Healey and Caitlyn, the young solider more so than the rest. Alicia turned to Crouch, her entire body dripping. “What the fuck? Why didn’t you warn us?”
“No real reason. But I did think Healey might enjoy the spectacle.”
Russo spread his hands.
Crouch shrugged. “Collateral damage?”