Gunner took a deep breath and stared out across the water. “When did you plan on telling me?”
“I was going to wait until you got settled in and unpacked. I came to your house, but the lady watching over Howard said you had to go to work. Man, I know what that means. So I waited for you to come back. You showed up before I could get over to your place.”
Gunner leaned over the rail and watched the wake of the boats lap up against the pier. He shook his head.
Sammy continued. “If this is a problem between us, I’ll walk away from all of this. I’ll go right back to my job at the Tap Room or become a damn oysterman. I don’t want this to screw up years of being friends.”
Gunner turned and smiled. “Sammy, I get it. No worries. I guess I have to wonder when Dowling and the past will be left behind. After I learned what really happened to Heather during that spacewalk, I was gradually getting over it. Hell, I even killed the bastard responsible. I still miss her, but I’ve got some closure, you know.”
“You do?” asked Sammy.
Gunner sighed. “Well, there is one loose end, but revenge is a dish best served cold.”
“So they say,” added Sammy with a chuckle.
Gunner began to laugh and slapped his friend on the back. “Hey, I’m sorry I came at you. I just—” He was cut off by Cam and Bear’s arrival.
“Who’s thirsty?” Bear’s baritone voice boomed as he arrived.
Sammy leaned in to Gunner and whispered, “Are we good?”
“Yeah. Better than good. Say, how long does my free beer offer last?”
“Forever, my friend. As long as you and I are both on this planet, Sammy’s Suds are yours for the takin’.”
The group worked together to ice down the beer and then made some small talk about the tiny island in the midst of so many military installations. After an hour, Sammy went down and ordered them a couple of dozen Chesapeake Bay Oysters together with a basket of soft-shelled crabs. When he returned, he was carrying his iPad.
“Hey, check this out,” he said to the group as he handed the device to Gunner. “It’s like a ghost ship situation.”
Gunner studied the live stream on CNN’s website. A helicopter was circling a ship sitting adrift in the ocean north of Puerto Rico. The chyron read Mystery Surrounds Research Vessel Discovered with Entire Crew Dead. He passed it over to Cam and Bear to read more.
He stood to stretch his legs and arch his sore back. Hurricane Archie had been a little rougher on his body than he’d let on to the medical team who examined him. He drained his beer and turned to retrieve another when the functional equivalent of a fire alarm filled the air. It was their cell phones ringing simultaneously. It always meant one thing.
Time to go.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Moa, Cuba
Cuba had experienced a resurgence after President Miguel Diaz-Canel surprisingly moved the island nation toward a democratic-elected government with free, monitored elections. The first president of Cuba who wasn’t named Castro, he took the extraordinary measures after succeeding Raul Castro in 2021. When Raul, the brother of famed communist Fidel Castro, mysteriously died in his sleep six months after stepping down from office, President Diaz-Canel surreptitiously moved Cuba away from a dictatorship toward a free, democratic state.
Across the island, there were still pockets of the old guard who were Castro loyalists and continued to believe communism was the best way to govern Cubans. After Raul Castro’s death, they saw the winds of change blowing as the new president cozied up to the administration in Washington. With promises of economic aid and trade agreements for Cuban tobacco and sugar, the former communist holdout went mainstream. However, many refused to accept the advancements.
They aligned themselves with underworld, secretive cabals around the globe for funding and logistical support. They used their personnel to frustrate the new Cuban government. They aided their benefactors in covert terrorist operations in the region, including Florida. They also provided safe haven for criminal fugitives who found themselves on Interpol’s or the FBI’s most wanted list.
The urgent call to action to the cell based in Moa came through the ordinary channels, including the chat platform used for online players of Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends. Anonymous players often spoke in coded terms using virtual private networks to communicate.
They used many methods to pass along information, most designed to avoid the prying eyes and ears of America’s National Security Agency. However, the exchange of USB sticks, packages delivered by courier, or dead drops were time-consuming. Even sending encrypted email and SMS text messages using disposable SIM cards to mobile phones had their security pitfalls.
Within hours, private jets began to arrive at the Orestes Acosta Airport, struggling to land on the six-thousand-foot runway. Experts from around the world, each with their own set of special skills, brought their own gear and personnel to undertake the monumental task asked of them.
Although they trained for this operation frequently, most never thought this day would come. They also never imagined pulling off their last mission on behalf of their employers. They’d descended upon the Baltic Sea with little notice and left with a prize that earned them a hefty bonus.
Just days before, using the same submersibles that were now in transit to the westernmost tip of Puerto Rico, the operatives dropped thousands of feet below the surface of the Baltic Sea. Within hours, not only had they severed all transmission cables and anchors holding a sixteen-ton underwater observatory, but they towed it for seven miles underwater until it could be raised to a salvage ship without detection.
Through careful planning and reconnaissance, the operatives learned the observatory would be uninhabited for a period of two hours while the crew went through a shift change. The underwater thieves moved quickly and efficiently, working together to shred the
