seals, birds, crabs, and cows today. I’m assuming that all but the cows are native to this area.”
Drake laughed. “It’s not the cows you have to worry about, it’s the bulls. Although I suspect you won’t find a bull in the same pasture with cows.” He shifted his gaze to the blue water beyond the cliff. “If I’m not mistaken, that rock is called Lion Rock.”
Melody looked at the large rock that did indeed resemble a lion.
“What’s that in the water next to it?”
“It’s a boat of some sort.”
They detoured closer to the cliff but kept running. Something didn’t look right to Drake.
“That’s a bad place for a boat. It appears to be a very rocky area.”
“The way it’s tilted, I suspect it’s come upon hard times. It’s a strange looking boat. I’ve never seen a boat that looked like that.”
“It looks like a small submarine.”
Drake flashed back to the day on the beach at Malibu. He vaguely remembered seeing a shape in the water that rapidly disappeared after the shells were fired. At least he thought he had seen a shape. Maybe it was his imagination filling in details. The Navy and Coast Guard still hadn’t found anything. This place was remote enough that there was a good chance nobody else had spotted the boat if it hadn’t been there long. “I’m going to report this to Blade.” “Maybe there’s a pay phone in the park.”
“I’m not in any hurry to start World War Three. Let’s wait until we finish the run. Especially since we’ve got an excellent chance of gaining on everybody.”
Melody looked behind them. The closest runners were specks in the distance. “Anything you say, guv.”
She had seen enough violence in her life to echo Drake’s sentiment. She hoped that the boat would not turn out to be sinister. They angled over to the park road and continued their fast pace, determined to put more distance between themselves and the other runners.
Drake and Melody ate dinner in a Cayucos restaurant with several of the other runners. Nobody mentioned seeing the boat at Lion Rock, so the two didn’t bring it up. Either the others didn’t go close enough to the cliff to see it, or they didn’t think it remarkable. Regardless, Drake and Melody didn’t want to be the ones to start rumors.
They had moved into fifth place during the day’s run. Although they had gained on the two leading teams, they were still far behind them in elapsed time.
Tom invited the two to join a card game in one of the rooms of the motel. Melody, who had lost her roommate and needed to take her mind off Grace, said she would sit in for a while. Drake was still following his nightly routine of bathing, stretching, and going to bed early. He excused himself.
The message light on Drake’s telephone was flashing when he returned to his room. The message was to call a number collect. No name. Drake recognized the number as one belonging to Blade. He had talked to Blade earlier. Blade must be working late. Drake placed the call. Blade answered, repeating the number. The operator asked him if he would accept the charge from Oliver Drake.
Blade said, “Yes, ma’am.”
The operator said, “Go ahead,” and clicked off the line.
“Well, you old son of a bitch, you may be on to something.”
“Always glad to be of service to my country.”
“We haven’t yet landed personnel on the objective, but we’ve got choppers doing flyovers and taking pictures. It looks like the real thing.”
Blade was taking precautions in case somebody was listening in, so it must be important. How important, Drake wondered? “Is this going to start the big one?”
“Too soon to tell. Curious things going on. This place is remote, but not that remote. We think that it’s only been there a short time, probably since last night.”
“It was abandoned and drifted onto the rocks?”
“Unlikely, considering its location. Also, strange coincidence. You were present at the original incident. Now you’re the one who makes this discovery.”
“The other runners were present in Malibu. And any one of them could have made this discovery.”
“True. But you’ve all got the same employer. I’m sending Slick up there. He’ll meet you tomorrow.”
“Not during the run. We can’t afford to stop.”
“You’re really into this thing, aren’t you? I fear for your energetic lifestyle. When I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until it passes. All right, Slick will meet you tomorrow evening.”
“I’m not sure where we’re going to stay-”
“Don’t worry your pretty head about that. I think we can probably find you. Don’t underestimate us.”
“I’d never do that.”
CHAPTER 25
Today’s run goes from Cayucos to San Simeon (Hearst Castle) by way of Cambria, a lovely tourist trap. If you’re up to it, we’ll take a tour of Hearst Castle this afternoon. Stay on Route 1 the whole way, but be very careful. In some places there isn’t any shoulder. Run single file on the left side of the road along the narrow stretches and keep a sharp eye out for cars. The good news is that the road is fairly flat. The altitude never gets much above 200 feet. Because it’s Saturday, there will be weekend traffic.
What they didn’t expect to see were hitchhiking hippies, off to commune with nature in the Big Sur where their troubles would vanish in a puff of smoke. The girls, ranging from twenty-something to teenage, wore long hair and long skirts with loose blouses covering bare skin and lugged bedrolls or backpacks. The boys had equally long hair, and except for their dress, it was sometimes difficult to tell one sex from the other from behind.
Most were headed north; they stationed themselves on the right side of the road, trying to grab rides with weekenders who had carloads of children. When a Volkswagen camper with flowers painted on the sides that wasn’t already packed came along, it was like manna from heaven to them.
The runners and the hippies stared at each other as the former flashed by. They came from two different worlds, separated by a narrow strip of asphalt. Drake saw good looking girls and wondered what would happen to them if they were picked up by the wrong man. That made him speculate about free love. Which made him wonder when some of them had last washed, as he got a closer look at straggly hair and dirty clothes.
Melody interrupted his reverie. “If I were the mother of those girls, I’d lock them up until they were thirty- five.”
“You’re too young to be their mother. You’re not even thirty-five, yourself.”
“I’d lock myself up, too. I’m thinking ahead. I might get married some day, you know.”
Married. Drake pictured himself being married once in a while, but never seriously. However, it did have its attractions, abundant sex being one of them. He decided to change the subject before Melody guessed his thoughts. “It looks like we’re going to be running in a posse all day. No chance to excel on this road. We’ll be on it for a long time.”
“There will be other opportunities. We’ve moved up to fifth place. Who would have guessed that when we started out? At least we shouldn’t lose ground to anyone.”
In fact, several of the teams were lagging behind the group with various ailments affecting feet and knees.
Melody spoke again. “What do you think Blade’s up to? Isn’t this a job for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marines?” She sang, “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Lion Rock.”
“Blade sees a conspiracy based on the fact that we were present at Malibu and also the ones who found the
