Death Echo

There weren’t any room lights on in any of the motels that serviced the marina. Emma didn’t need that kind of signal to be certain Faroe or Grace was watching.

She had turned her gun over to Faroe. A girlie.22 purse pistol might have been explained away as a city girl’s paranoia, but the Glock? Way too much firepower. Illegal to carry in Canada, too.

Mac had kept his knife. Male necessity, apparently, expected and accepted by all but the airlines.

A restless night in separate beds hadn’t done either of them any good. Today Mac kept watching her, catching himself, and looking away.

It will be even more fun aboard Blackbird, she thought. Sharing a bed. God. Never saw that one coming.

Faroe had. So had Grace. They had told her-and Mac-to suck it up and do the job.

Mac had made it clear he would rather do Emma.

It was mutual.

While she waited, he punched in Blue Water’s code at the gate. The techs were gone, but portable work lights set up on the dock still flooded the yacht. A cool breeze rose with the distant dawn, ruffling the marina’s polished black surface.

Lovich waited for them at the bottom of the ramp. Silently he passed keys and a thick envelope to Mac, ignored Emma, then followed them aboard Blackbird. Heavy privacy screens shielded the salon. Light gleamed faintly through various cracks.

Mac opened the stern door into the salon. When he saw that someone was waiting for them, he shouldered Emma aside and went in first.

A blunt-faced man with dark shoulder-length hair and a darker mustache was seated on one of the salon sofas. Even in the filtered light, his black eyes glittered. He had no expression.

“Are you going to introduce us,” Mac said to Amanar, “or should I just call him Stoneface?”

The third man said something that sounded rude, crude, and insulting. Then he gestured bluntly toward the cargo they had carried aboard.

Amanar’s face seemed to flatten, but he did as he was told. He searched everything Mac and Emma had carried onto the boat, including the seams of the duffels. He found nothing unexpected.

Stoneface grunted and gestured.

“Sorry,” Lovich said in a low voice. “I have to search you. Mr. Paranoid over there thinks you might be wearing a wire.”

Score one for Faroe’s own paranoia, Mac thought. A great big one.

Without Faroe’s mandate that they go in as soft as possible, they would have brought along something that could detect bugs, radiation, and certain chemicals.

And they would have been busted before they even left the dock.

“No problem,” Mac said calmly, holding out his arms. “But you touch her and you’ll be eating your own hands.”

Amanar said something quickly to Stoneface.

Stoneface looked at Emma and said something.

“Um…” Amanar cleared his throat. “He says it’s not optional.”

Calmly Emma began stripping.

Four men stared at her, not knowing what she knew-she’d worn her string bikini under her clothes. Though there were clouds racing across the stars, she had hopes of sitting on a sunny deck.

When she was done removing clothes, she lifted her hair off her neck with both hands, pirouetted, and then stood with her hands on her hips in unsubtle female challenge.

If she was wearing anything but skin, it would take more than a strip search to reveal it.

“Put your clothes on,” Mac said gruffly.

She gave him a real slow smile. “You sure, big guy?”

Mac’s eyelids lowered. “Babe. You need spanking.”

She licked her lips and lowered her eyelids right back at him. “Works for me.”

He forced himself to look at Stoneface. “You feel more like a man now?”

Lovich cleared his throat, went through Emma’s clothes like they burned, and threw them at her.

She wiggled into her jeans, slid into her snug black pullover and ignored the wind jacket. She clipped on her cell phone and smoothed everything in place with slow hands as she waited for orders like a good little girl.

Or a really bad one.

Mac didn’t know whether to cheer or strangle her. She’d taken what could have been an ugly situation and turned it into a farce. He glanced over at Amanar. The yacht broker’s cheekbones were flushed. With jerky motions he searched the stuff they had brought aboard. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, condoms, clothes, cooking supplies.

Emma watched indifferently. She knew there was nothing more deadly than hot sauce in the provisions.

Stoneface saw that Emma and Mac both had computers and fired off fast questions.

Lovich asked, “Why the computers?”

She rolled her eyes like a four-year-old. “Same reason I have a cell phone. Just because I’m on vacation doesn’t mean I’m unplugged. How else can I keep up with the latest Hollywood sex swaps?” Before Lovich could ask, she added, “Mac uses his as a backup nav system. He’s real cautious.”

Lovich translated.

Stoneface let them keep the computers. And the camera Emma had brought with her. Their cell phones drew a look, but he didn’t touch them. In the modern world, cell phones were like oxygen, a required part of living.

Silently Mac kept counting the money he’d been given. Accurate to the last rumpled bill. Nice to work with professional crooks. They paid up front and on time, in cash.

“Sorry about the search,” Lovich said roughly. “He’s from the old country. Doesn’t even trust his reflection in a mirror.”

“I’m surprised he has a reflection,” Mac said. “We finished with the party games now?”

“Uh…”

Stoneface got to his feet and stalked out the door. Seconds later he reappeared on the dock. With smooth, powerful strides, he went up the gangway and vanished.

Both cousins let out a silent breath.

“The fuel tanks are full,” Amanar said to Mac. “When you get to Campbell River, top up the tanks. Then motor north like you’re going to the Broughton Archipelago. You’ll hear from us if and when we want you to change course. You have five days to get to the Broughtons, max. The owner could be ready to pick up even sooner.”

“Weather permitting,” Mac said neutrally.

“That boat will take anything the Inside Passage can dish out,” Amanar said.

“That boat hasn’t had a shakedown cruise. You know as well as I do that something will go wrong. Likely more than one thing. Just a fact of life and complex electronic and mechanical systems.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” Amanar glanced quickly at his cousin, and just as quickly away. “Get going. Don’t spare the fuel-you’re sure as hell being paid for it. You’ll hear from us.”

Mac stuffed the money into the front pocket of his jeans. “Any preferences in Campbell’s fuel docks or is it captain’s choice?”

Emma swallowed laughter. She hadn’t known Mac long, yet she had no doubt that he was pissed.

“Uh…no,” Lovich said. “All the documentation you need for crossing the border is in that ring binder,” he added, waving a hand to the wide, padded pilot’s bench.

Mac picked up the binder, read through the documentation, and looked up. “Anything else I need to know? Radio codes, rules of the sea, Canadian nav markers?”

Amanar’s mouth flattened at the unsubtle mockery. “You’re being well paid.”

“Did I complain about the money?” Mac asked.

Lovich grabbed his cousin’s arm. “C’mon. I’m ready for breakfast. It will be good for what ails us.”

With a final glare at Mac, Amanar allowed himself to be led out the door.

Emma was careful not to say anything she wouldn’t mind having overhead. “What a dickhead.”

“Amanar?”