Chasing the Lost (11 page)

“You need anything?”
Kono asked.

“You just bring me what I need.”

“Have enough water?”

“I rowed over yesterday,”
Tear said, nodding toward the west.
“Jugs be full.”

Kono nodded. He knew others checked on the old man and brought him things. But the man had pride, and he still pulled that old rowboat to Parris Island every week or so to fill his jugs of water and buy supplies at the Post Exchange. Tear had served in the Marine Corps many years ago, drafted into the service and going, because no matter what his differences with the past, he believed in his country. Tear often reminded Kono that a great war had been fought, started near here in Charleston Harbor, and many
buckra
had given their lives to free the Gullah and other blacks. That was something to be remembered.

The old man had not yet said a word about Sarah, sitting on the boat, watching them.

Tear sat down on the concrete stoop, a deep sigh indicating the extent of the arthritis that penetrated his bones. Kono had tried to get the old man to let him take him to the VA for treatment, but Tear’s appreciation of the government only went so far, and his pride bound him to his homemade remedies.

“What bring you here?”
Tear asked.
“Other than pleasure of my company.”

“Russians.”

Tear wagged his finger.
“I told you. You stay clear of them.”

“They’ve stolen a child. I am helping to return the child to his mother.”

“That woman?”
He did not point or even look toward the boat.

“Yes.”

Tear sighed.
“Why?”

“For a friend. From long ago.”

“The son of Lilly Chase.”

It didn’t even occur to Kono to ask how he’d made that connection or knew that Chase was back. The old man’s sources of information were a wide net—which was why Kono was here.
“Yes.”

“That is very deep waters,”
Tear said. The old man looked past Kono, out at the water, the sun going lower in the west, reflecting off the waves.
“This is a magic place, but the magic is both good and bad. There have always been those who went both ways. It is something that is in the air.”

“You mean like pirates?”

Tear snorted.
“Yes. You and your pirates. And those who hunted pirates. They did it for the bounty. So were they any different than those they hunted? The man who killed Blackbeard, whose flag you fly, he was never paid the promised silver and gold for that. He died bitter because of it. Did he have a better life? Were he a better man?”

Kono said nothing.

“The roots of the tree burrow deep and wide,”
Tear said.
“You cannot see into the hearts of other, why they doing what they doing.”

“I know my own soul.”

“That child is not your real reason for wanting to go after the Russians,”
Tear said.

Kono remained silent.

“You have always been like the alligator, boy. Hooded eyes behind those glasses. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Alligator can wait week just to get little deer. You been waiting long time on Russians. You and your fr’un, who name be Gator. No chance there. But it was no Russians’ fault. You know that. Each man, each woman, make own choices.”

“They do,”
Kono agreed.
“But baby get no choice.”

“Ahh!”
the old man said it as if the words hit him in the stomach. Tear reached up and took Kono’s hand.
“He your friend?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell him of your sister and of the one not yet here into the world she was bearing? Did you tell him of your other friend’s rage?”

* * * * *

“You look like shit,” Riley said to Chase.

“Hi to you, too,” Chase said.

“Horace!” Erin ran to the front door of Chase’s new home, but stopped short of hugging him because it would cause pain.

“So Karralkov didn’t confess?” Riley said, lifting his beer and taking a drink, but he was watching Chase very carefully.

Gator laughed and took a tilt of his own beer.

“Chase, this is Gator,” Erin said. “Gator, Chase.

Gator nodded. “How do the others guys look?”

“There were four,” Chase said. “They tossed me out, but made sure I went head first.” Erin scooted past him to get her med kit from the Volkswagen. He looked around. “Where’s Kono and Sarah?”

“Not here yet,” Riley said. “Anything broken?”

Chase shook his head, which he immediately regretted. “No. Karralkov just wanted to make a point. He says he had nothing to do with Cole. Beyond that, he wasn’t very communicative.” Chase had fought his desire to unlock the compartment, grab his pistol, and go back into the club, but the fall down the stairs had knocked enough sense into him to realize that attitude is what had gotten him thrown down those stairs in the first place. It was time to think before acting.

“Believe him?” Riley asked.

“No.” Chase nodded toward Gator as Erin came in, opening up her kit. “Heard you took out two Russians wanting to find out about me.”

“It was nothing,” Gator said. “Only two, and one was already hurt. Not four. And there were no stairs.” He pulled a beer out of a cooler. “Want a cold one?”

“Sure.”

Gator tossed it to him.

Riley put his beer down. “Farrelli did say your neighbor, Rollins, is into SAS for almost a million. But he didn’t think Rollins would turn to kidnapping.”

Everyone turned as the rumble of an engine echoed up from the Intracoastal. Kono was pulling in to the dock, expertly feathering the engines as he brought
Fina
to a halt.

“I don’t think so, either,” Chase said.

“I went over to talk to him when I got here,” Riley said. “He’s not going to win any awards for friendliness. And he’s wigging out about something. He’s scared of the Russians. He says Karralkov is trying to take over everything. And, for what it’s worth, he thinks the Russians kidnapped Cole.”

Chase started to turn his head to look out at the dock, but Erin smacked him to keep him still. “I’ve got to suture this,” she told him, “but I don’t have any anesthesia.”

“Just do it,” Chase said.

“Yeah,” Riley said. “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

“No shit,” Gator was nodding, not catching the irony in Riley’s voice. “It really is.”

“Men,” Erin said as she pulled out a loaded suture. “It’s going to leave a scar, Horace. I can take you to the hospital and get a plastic surgeon to do it. He won’t leave a scar.”

“Ha!” Gator laughed. “A plastic surgeon for the wussy man. And Horace? What kind of name is that?”

“Just do it, Erin,” Chase said.

Gator lifted his Ranger shirt, exposing a long, jagged scar that ran down his right side. “RPG shrapnel.”

Erin held up her free hand. “Let’s not be doing the ‘who has the biggest, baddest scar’ thing, okay. I’m sure you’re all manly men, and I could care less.”

Gator frowned and dropped his shirt. “I was just saying, a little scar over the eye could be, what’s the word—”

“Distinguished,” Riley said.

“Stupid,” Erin muttered.

Kono and Sarah entered. As soon as she saw Chase’s face, she ran over and threw her arms around him. “I’m so sorry! What happened?”

Erin poised in her suturing and Riley grimaced in pain. Sarah let go of him and stepped back. “Karralkov?”

Chase started to nod, then paused as Erin stuck the needle through and out once more. “Yes. He says he knows nothing.”

“He’s a liar!” Sarah said vehemently.

Riley took a sip of beer. “Criminals do have a penchant for obfuscating the truth.”

Gator scrunched his face as he tried to process that, and then simply said, “English, dude.”

“They lie,” Riley said. He turned to Sarah. “You have no clue who your husband’s business partner is?”

“I always thought it was someone in Antigua.” Sarah faced the group: Chase, Riley, Erin, and Gator. “All I know from Walter is that Karralkov’s people took down the site two weeks, and extorted five million from SAS. He sent two thugs to Erin’s business to try to find out who Chase is. It’s Karralkov. He’s got Cole, and we’ve got to get him back. And we don’t have much time.”

Gator pointed with his beer at Chase. “
We’re
not off to a very good start.”

Chase looked at the others. “If it’s Karralkov, I doubt he has Cole at his club. That would be too obvious. Sarah, have you heard anything more from your husband? Has he talked to the kidnappers again?”

“Nothing. He has a routing number for an account in the Caymans where he’s to divert all the bets in the last twelve hours of betting. Most gamblers wait as long as possible before placing a bet, wanting to know the latest news and watching how the numbers go. He’s got to switch the funnel tomorrow morning.”

“What about proof of life?” Riley asked.

“You mentioned that before,” Sarah said. “How do we do that? How do we get them to prove they have Cole? And that he’s alive?”

Chase answered. “Have your husband ask the kidnappers to ask Cole something that only Cole would know. If they send back the right answer, we know he’s alive at least at the time of the asking. It should be a positive question, one that doesn’t make Cole feel threatened, but one that only he has the answer to, and they can’t Google or find out any other way.”

Sarah nodded. “All right. I can do that. I can have them ask Cole what he called his first bicycle. He named it. He’ll remember it.”

“Do it,” Chase said.

Sarah’s fingers ran over the keyboard. “Done. What else?”

“Pay.”

Everyone turned to Riley. He expanded on his statement. “Have your husband do it. There’ll be another Super Bowl next year. But your child, that’s not something you can afford to risk. If we go after Karralkov, it could turn into a blood bath, and we have no clue where he’s holding Cole. You know,” he added, focusing on Chase, “from your time in Delta Force, how hard a successful extraction is.”

“You were in Delta?” Gator looked impressed for the first time. Still, he disagreed with Riley’s reasoning. “But even if her husband pays, they’re just as likely to dump the kid in the water as give him back.” Erin gave him a dirty look, which flew right by him. “I’m sick of these fucking Russians. This is America, damn it.”

Everyone inside was silent for a moment, then Erin snipped off the thread attached to the needle. She trimmed the piece that was now temporarily part of Chase’s head.

“I know where the Russians are hiding,” Kono said.

“How about leading with the important news?” Erin said, shoving her gear back in the bag.

Kono ignored her. “South of Savannah, off Sapelo Sound. They got a pretty nice operation. Long dock, some covered slips. No road access, only get there by water. If they need be gone, they be lost in the tidal lands in a minute.”

“What are they doing there?” Riley asked.

Kono shrugged. “Drugs, most likely.”

“Did you eyeball it?” Riley pressed.

“Not yet.”

Riley stared at him. “How do you know, then?”

“We know,” Kono said, turning to face him. “The Gullah. We know who comes and goes in our country.”

“You didn’t know this morning,” Chase noted.

Riley was resolute. “I still say pay.”

“I vote pay, too,” Erin said.

“We a democracy?” Gator asked. “I say we shoot the shit out of these fucks. They got her kid.”

“I want to go after them,” Kono said in a quiet voice.

“This isn’t a democracy,” Riley said. “Sarah. Call your husband. Let’s find out where he stands. We go in guns blazing, it’ll bring a war none of us wants. A lot of people will die. And,” Riley added, “we still don’t know for certain Karralkov has your son. What if we’re wrong?”

“All right, all right,” Chase said. “Let’s not—”

“My son!” Sarah’s voice cut through, urgent but not panicky. “I want him back!” She pushed past Kono onto the back porch next to the dead pool. She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and fired up.

Chase stepped out to follow her. “Sarah, I think—”

Sarah screamed as a red slice opened on her shoulder. The high-powered bullet that had just clipped her hit the sliding glass door, shattering it. The echo of the shot following the impact was long enough to let each of the men there who’d been shot at before, which was all of them, know that the shooter was across the Intracoastal, somewhere in the wetlands.

Chase grabbed Sarah and dragged her down as Riley, Gator, and Kono all pulled pistols, knowing they were ineffective against a sniper at this range, but combat instinct ruled. Everyone was down, braced for another shot.

Chase started crawling back into the house, pulling Sarah, and Riley low-crawled to him to help. They pulled her in, and everyone gathered behind the downed tree.

Erin checked Sarah’s shoulder. “Flesh only. You’ll be okay.” She pressed down on the wound, stopping the bleeding.

“We need—” Riley began when a phone rang.

Everyone looked at Sarah. With her good hand, she dug in her pocket and retrieved her cell phone. She hit the screen.

“Yes?”

There was a pause.

“Walter, they just shot at me!”

Another pause.

“You’re certain?” Sarah looked at Chase and mouthed
Russians
. “Pay them, Walter. Do what they say. Divert the funnel! Give them the damn money.”

“This way,” Chase said, pointing to the hall off the front entrance.

Sarah leaned forward, listening hard. Riley gave her a tug to get her moving.

“Anyone have a long rifle in their vehicle?” Riley asked. They all crawled along the floor to a bedroom that looked to the front of the house and had no opening to the rear.