'Well, in any event, you're about to get your wish,' she said. 'Here comes someone for you to meet right now.'
8
Jason turned to see a man walking toward their table. He was tall and lean, and walked with the smooth stride of a predator. His gaze was focused, but he didn't miss anything around him, either. That, however, was where the resemblance ended. From his clothing, he looked more like he should be panhandling for loose change on some dirty street corner rather than living in an Inuit village. His dirty blond hair and blue eyes made him stand out even more in a village filled with dark skin and even darker hair and eyes.
'Tina, my love, you didn't come to see me this morning,' he said as he reached them. 'I thought you would want to take a trip out to see the pretty new cruise ship that's parked herself in the harbor.'
'Sorry, I've been occupying her time this morning,' Jason said.
The man ignored Jason and directed his next comment to Tina. 'Maybe you have some time this afternoon,' he said.
'Chris Marley, this is Jason,' Tina said. 'I'm afraid that you'll just have to miss out on my company. I'm busy today.'
Reading her body language, Jason could tell that she was uncomfortable with the man. She got to her feet and motioned with her hands. 'If you'll excuse us.'
Jason stood quickly, purposely crowding Chris to make him step back. He wanted to give Tina room to walk by without getting any closer to someone who made her so obviously uncomfortable.
Jason took a cue from Tina's reaction to the man. On a hunch he said, 'Excuse us,' in Russian.
'No problem,' Chris replied in English.
Jason didn't say anything else, but turned and followed Tina outside.
'Who was that guy?' Jason asked.
'One of the local dregs of society,' she said. 'Just the sort you're looking for.'
'He's obviously not Inuit. What's he doing here in the village?'
They walked to a Jeep she had parked outside. Jason didn't realize that it was their mode of transportation until he heard the beep of the alarm being turned off. He looked back at Tina in surprise.
'You did notice that there were other cars here, right?' she asked.
'Yeah, I just wasn't sure you owned one.'
'Believe me,' she said, 'when winter hits, no one wants to be stuck with just a snowmobile or an ATV.'
She climbed into the Jeep and Jason got in the passenger's side. She started the vehicle and pulled away from the curb, then resumed their conversation.
'Chris showed up here about five years ago. He came in with an oil outfit trying to convince the village to allow exploration drilling. The company did everything right. They promised the town council that if the right amount of oil was found no one in the village would have to work again, while promising the village elders to respect the land and our culture. They drilled two test holes. First one showed nothing, but the other looked like it had struck the mother lode. Chris was on the drilling crew.'
She laughed bitterly.
'Anyway, one night he got drunk in the bar and started spouting off how it was all a scam and basically the rights that people were going to give up weren't to have a couple of oil pumps in the backyard, but an open-pit gold mine. The oil test had been rigged to show a large deposit of oil, but there really wasn't any. This village sits on a rich mineral deposit. The company was run out of town and Chris was the hero, even though he didn't really remember it the next day. The company he worked for had brought in a boat to tour their investors around the coastline. Since they were in such a hurry to leave, they left it behind. Chris uses it to fish and on occasion takes out a tour group. No one from the company has ever asked about it and no one out here cares. I suspect that he has nowhere else to go.'
'Do you think he uses his boat for other things besides fishing and tourists?' Jason asked.
'You mean like smuggling?' she asked. 'I wouldn't doubt it. He's not burdened with a particularly strong moral compass. The only direction his compass in life points is straight to him.'
'I know the type,' Jason said.
They drove along the coast and Tina pointed out the areas on the map that might be useful. Jason took digital images of the sites they visited and downloaded them. There were several spots he planned to revisit when he didn't have company and had time to explore a little more.
Once they were back in the village, Tina maneuvered the Jeep into a parking spot in front of a small mechanic shop.
'What are we doing here?' Jason asked.
'There's someone else I want you to meet.'
They went into the main office and waited for an attendant. The wait wasn't a long one. A man who looked a lot like Jason stepped out of the shop and came to a sudden stop behind the counter.
Jason's sharp indrawn breath was the only sound in the room. He couldn't have been more stunned if he had walked in and seen the president. The man, who had been wiping his greasy hands with a rag, stared at what might as well have been his own reflection.
'Who the hell are you?' he growled.
'Jesse, this is a friend of mine, Jason. I thought you two might want to meet.'
'Why would you think that?' Jesse asked.
'Isn't it obvious?' Tina said. 'You two look almost identical. You could pass for twins. And you have the same last name.'
'Lots of people look the same in the world, Tina,' he said. 'What is it they say? We're all supposed to have a twin somewhere or another. I guess you found mine. Congratulations.' He stuffed the greasy rag into a pocket of his coveralls. 'If that's all, I'm busy.'
Jesse went back into the garage and left the two of them standing at the counter.
'Come on, Tina, let's go,' Jason said.
'Don't you want to know more?' she asked.
He shook his head. 'Not right now.' He glanced in the direction Jesse had gone. 'And even if I did, he clearly isn't interested in finding out more, either.'
Tina offered him a look of exasperation and he sighed. The woman could say more with a look than many could with four sentences, he thought.
'Hey,' he said, 'at least now I know where to go when I have the time to look for answers, okay?'
She nodded once, and he followed her out of the shop.
Jason sat in his cabin syncing the information stored in his PDA to his computer. The activity in the water for the area all seemed normal, and there were no signs of a submarine showing up on the Scorpion's radar. If the supercavitation specs were accurate, the water displacement alone would set off multiple sensors. He was beginning to feel as if the whole mission was a wild-goose chase. What were the odds that the Russians had actually come up with the money
Plus, the meeting with Jesse had thrown him more than he wanted to admit. The other man really could have been his twin.
He tapped some keys on his PDA and used a Room 59 back-door access to the FBI's computer system. He wanted to look up Jesse and see what he could find out. The files quickly loaded on the small screen and he read the summary notes.
Siku, Jesse. Age: thirty-two. Current state of residence: Alaska. Family history: mother, Cressa Siku, deceased. Father, unknown. Siblings: unknown. Criminal record: misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, two convictions prior to age eighteen. No other convictions. Alert: current suspect in small-arms smuggling from Russia.
