******Chapter 6
On his way to the bridge, Charge saw 2Dads sitting in the juniors mess staring at the laptop in front of him holding his head in his hands. Charge joined him at the bench.
"I thought you are still lying in the wardroom. Did Swain allow you to walk around?"
"No he didn't." the other sailor mumbled. "But I couldn't stay there, it was deadly boring. Charge, I saw something on that ship that made me unfocused for a moment, I know! But I can't remember what it was and that drives me crazy!"
Charge patted him on the shoulder. "It will come back. But you know maybe I can help. I was on that ship as well, you remember that much, right?"
2Dads made a face. "I'm not stupid, ok?"
"Sure you're not." Charge reassured him. RO came in with a cup of coffee.
"Mind if I join you?"
"No, sit down." Charge invited him. "We are discussing the incident on the fishing vessel."
"Oh, is there something to discuss? I thought it was pretty obvious. 2Dads didn't pay attention and got shot. He and Swain fell overboard. End of the story. Is there more to it?"
2Dads sighed. "I saw something but I can't remember what it was. I'm having a look at the video right now to see if there's a clue."
"No, you can save your time. I saw it three times. There's nothing. Although it is kind of impressive to see the shot and the fall out of your perspective."
"Maybe you saw a ghost?" Spider came in with his breakfast. "Or you're own mermaid at last." he added. All chuckled.
"Sure, don't mock the afflicted, right?! I know what I saw!"
"So you remember? That's great, tell us!" Spider nudged him.
"Ouch! Mate be careful! As I already emphasised I do not remember what I saw but that I saw something! That's why I'm sitting here trying to find out what it was. Now leave me alone - all of you! Your mocking isn't helpful at all!"
With this he stood up, grabbed his laptop and sat down at the nearby table. The others looked at each other, grinned and continued with their breakfast. Charge stood up and wanted to leave for the bridge when 2Dads shrieked.
"I've got it! Look at this!"
Everyone gathered around the laptop. Nobody said a word, finally RO asked with caution:
"2Dads, you sure you're ok? Maybe Swain could have a look at you again."
"Don't you see it?!" 2Dads saw the blank looks on his crew mate's faces and explained:
"There's a wet suit hanging inside that cabin! You can see it through the open hatch."
"We can see that." Spider got his voice back. "But that isn't unusual on a ship, is it? These fishermen have to have a look at their ship's hull from time to time, getting rid of sea shells and stuff like that. Or maybe they just like to go for a swim in their spare time?"
"Of course, how stupid of me! You are right! But tell me which one of these big square-shouldered gorillas down in our brig do you think is wearing a small-sized sky-blue wet suit with a small yellow dolphin jumping at one shoulder?"
Startled his crew mates looked at the screen again.
"Don't you recognise it?" 2Dads asked impatiently.
"Recognise what?" Bomber looked over his shoulder. She had watched the assembly from the galley and had come to see what was going on.
"That wet suit!" 2Dads pointed at the frozen picture on the screen in front of him.
"No?" Spider answered cautiously. "Should we?"
"You of all should, yes Spider. Isn't it obvious?!"
"Guys, I think I know what he's talking about." All eyes were on Bomber as she pointed at the wall next to the door. On the noticeboard hung the pictures RO had printed out. On one of them was a young red haired woman waving her hand, floating over a reef. She was wearing a blue wet suit, the yellow dolphin clearly visible on her right shoulder.
"I go and tell the Boss. We have to ask them how that wet suit came aboard their ship."
2Dads jumped up.
"Mate, I'm sorry but that is going to be a problem." Charge answered. "The Feds took them over this morning, the Marlin as well. Your evidence is gone."
"Sir, I've got Commander Marshall on the phone." RO announced.
"Thanks RO. I take the call here on the bridge. Put it on speaker." Mike knew all of his crew wanted to hear the news NAVCOM hopefully had about 2Dads' claim. RO told the Commander to wait 'till he'd made some adjustments then nodded to the CO.
"Commander Marshall? This is Mike Flynn speaking. I hope you do have some news for us?"
"In fact I have, Mike. Good ones and bad ones. Feds searched the Marlin the minute she berthed. They did find the wet suit and the marine institute confirmed that it is in fact one of theirs. It could be the one of Miss River but we don't know that for sure. The men that where on the Marlin still are claiming that they don't know what we're talking about."
"How do they explain shooting on our boarding party?" Mike wanted to know.
"Well the captain of the Marlin insists on his earlier statement." You could hear that Commander Marshall hadn't believed a word of it.
"The one he gave us? That they thought they were boarded by pirates? That's insane, Sir!"
"You know, I know, the Feds know. But they do have a really smart lawyer at hand. Mike, it is possible that they have to let them go until the hearing. I call you if there's any more news on this."
Mike Flynn stood up from the captain's chair and turned to look at his crew. Kate shook her head in disbelief. She stated what everyone had in mind.
"That can't be. We're so close to find out what happened and then nothing?"
"Sir, I do have an idea." RO came forward. "The Feds have at least some intel about the Marlins movements, right? I could try to retrace their route. Maybe we find something then."
"That is worth considering, RO. Good thinking, go ahead."
"Sir, I'd like to assist." Kate volunteered. Mike nodded his consent. If someone could retrace the course the Marlin had taken it was the two of them.
Slowly Sara came up and broke the surface. She let the BC do the work, enjoyed the warm sunshine on her face and tried to relax a bit. How had she gotten into this mess? The young woman didn't blame the crew of the Hammersley for not getting the hints she had made. They barely knew her. Although she had hoped they would do better than do nothing. But what really hurt her was that the director of the institute she had worked for over seven years now had believed her story without any doubt. He even had given her sightseeing tips like to visit the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park. Sara sighed.
Of course Walker hadn't let her go after she had made the calls. She had begged him, tried to convince him that she wouldn't say a word, she even proposed to actually go for an outback trip and never come back to Cairns. He had just laughed.
"You know as much as I know that you wouldn't do that, right? I do have other plans for you. Tom said you're an experienced diver? That you swim like a mermaid? I believe 'a nature talent' were his words. And from what I just saw I tend to think he's right."
That had cut her to the quick. She remembered the young sailor sitting in the tender, all wet and a little confused, calling her a mermaid. The blushing later every time he saw her, excusing himself a thousand times. She couldn't hide a little smile.
"You're smiling. That means I'm right?" Walker had pushed her out of the inflatable back on deck. "You're lucky I am in need of an experienced diver. So you could give us a hand. Maybe we can talk about the release after that."
"You know I would never go diving with one of you! Nor do anything else for you. What you're doing is not right, many people will get hurt or already have been so. And I can't even if I'd like to. I do have a concussion I'm pretty sure of it. And your friend over there", she had emphasised the word making it sound like anything else but the true meaning, "did probably break my nose. So no, I won't go for a dive any time soon."
Walker had grinned. "Well we're going to talk about that again later. Now you better get some sleep and nurse your nose, sunshine. There'll be work to do soon."
Sara could hear the noise of an engine now. A boat was coming closer. They were back to pick her up but it would sure take them an other ten minutes to reach her. She drifted back into her memories.
"I told you I can't go diving like that!" Sara exclaimed. Nothing she had said so far had made any impact. "I do have problems breathing right here up on the boat. What do you think is going to happen if I go down there? If you want to kill me, do it yourself. I sure won't give you the pleasure to take on the job for you."
"Sunshine, I think you don't understand. That's not a question of whether you like it or not. You will go. And I won't kill you if you don't go."
Walker's last words had made her suspicious. What was he talking about? She hadn't had to ask for more information.
"You know, Tom had had visitors. There was a navy ship looking for you. Don't cling to false hopes, they believed every word he said. But now we know your Robert, don't we?" "You can't do that!" Sara had been frightened. "He has nothing to do with this!"
"Oh I won't harm him. I always was someone who goes for the bigger things."
Sara paled.
"I can see we do understand each other. If you don't go and do some work for me, I will test one of my little toys on that warship. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to it."
"You're crazy. You must be. There are 24 innocent people aboard that ship." Sara had never felt so helpless in her entire life. If she continued to refuse working for Walker, he would sure do what he had threatened to do. If she would give in, there was the chance that she went straight into a serious diving accident.
Finally she had given in. Now she had been on ten dives so far and it always had been the same. The submarine unloaded his cargo in watertight containers, she went down there, secured the cargo, tied a rope on it and then Walker came back and took her on board with the cargo.
"A single diver is hard to spot from a plane. If we'd stop and stay here someone could become suspicious. But like that we are just a tourist fishing vessel under Australian flag, cruising up and down next to this wonderful tropical paradise. Innocent and not worth a look for anybody."
Later that night, Sara overheard a conversation between Walker and Jack. She had come up on deck to get some fresh air, hoping her developing headache would go away. She could hear Jack shouting and decided to have a look. Carefully she sneaked closer.
"They boarded the Marlin yesterday. What if they find something?"
"Jack, relax. You know there's nothing they could possibly find. Let the Boss take care of it."
Jack was pacing up and down the deck.
"Walker, the Feds asked questions. About a wet suit! I told them to get rid of it the minute they discovered it!" Jack was getting furious now. "How stupid could one be? There's that yellow dolphin on it, you can clearly see where it comes from!"
Sara smiled. So at least that plan had worked. She remembered they both had been furious when they had discovered that she accidentally had forgotten her wet suit on the Marlin when they had changed the ship for better cover.
"Calm down, mate. There's just one more dive and then we're finished. There will be a break until the next shipments come. We won't like to make anyone suspicious, will we? And there's still my backup plan."
Sara pricked up her ears. That was going to be interesting. Walker looked around but couldn't see her crouching behind a pile of ropes.
"You know I have some friends at the Cairns' dockers? Our little warship won't be a problem when it comes to it." Sara couldn't see the sneer on Walker's face but she shuddered with his next words. "BANG!"
Both men laughed aloud. "You managed to get some explosives aboard a warship? Mate, that's cool." Jack sounded impressed.
"Yeah, told you I'm good. That's the reason I'm the captain and you're not. Now listen. If something happens you have to finish the job. There's a transmitter with the explosives. He's broadcasting on 775 kHz. You can detonate the bomb without actually being on that ship, you just have to be in the near distance. I'll show you how to do it."
Steps came closer to the position Sara still was crouching. She tried to make herself as small as she could. The men walked by without noticing her. Before leaving her hiding place the young woman waited for another few minutes. She had to inform the Hammersley about the danger immediately. They would know how to find the transmitter and the explosives with it. But how could she do so?
I hope you liked it. Please comment :)