Double Vengeance
By JSRobertson
A large yacht was anchored
near the entrance to the channel the submarine Seaview uses to leave her
pen from the Nelson Institute of Marine Research. They were prevented from
getting any closer to the institute grounds by security so they had to stay
where they were. They had put out fishing lines from the deck making it look
like they had just stopped to fish.
There was a man on the upper deck with high powered binoculars watching
the employees and staff at the institute as they held their annual picnic on
that warm Saturday afternoon. He was
only interested in one person so he zeroed on that man, Lee Crane. He watched him for most of the afternoon. When he wasn’t watching him, he was watching
his wife, Janet, and how he interacted with her. “You’ll be sorry Commander,” he said out
loud to no one in particular, “You’ll be sorry.” After watching him for a few hours, he put
the binoculars down, ordered the crew to pull in the lines, they left the
channel and headed out to sea.
((()))
After everyone had left the
picnic, the admiral asked Lee, Janet, Chip, along with Chip’s date Julie, to
wait before they left as he needed to talk to them. He had to talk to Chief
Sharkey first but would be with them shortly.
Lee, Chip and Janet stood in front of the main office wondering what the
admiral wanted. When he was finished
talking to Sharkey, he walked over to them.
Chuckling as he looked at them he remarked, “The three of you look like
you’ve done something wrong and are in trouble.”
“We weren’t sure why you
wanted to see us,” Lee responded anxiously.
Smiling, “You’ve been working
very hard so I just wanted to let you know I’m giving you the day off on Monday
unless you feel you need to do more preparations for the mission on
Wednesday.” They were going to check on
some sensors they had placed near
“The crew will load the
supplies and gear needed for the mission on Monday and Tuesday. Once that is
done we are good to go first thing on Wednesday at high tide,” Chip told the
admiral.
“That’s just what Sharkey
told me,” the admiral continued. “So
I’ll see you on Wednesday morning. I
have a meeting tonight with a prospective client but I’ll tell you more about
it later.”
“Thank you sir,” Janet said
with a smile as Lee and Chip nodded their heads in agreement.
((()))
The admiral got into his car
and drove to his house so he could change his clothes for the meeting as shorts
and a collared shirt were not going to work.
He was meeting the client downtown on the waterfront at an outdoor
cafe. He changed into his black suit,
white shirt and black tie. He climbed
into his car for the thirty-minute ride to the waterfront. The cafe with its red and white striped
awning was tucked in with some town houses that faced the waterfront. After the meeting was over he walked down the
lighted stone path passed a stairway leading into one of the town houses. Just
off the porch was a huge rubber tree that almost covered the door. Just ahead of him on the stairs to another
house, the admiral saw a man with a tall, very attractive brunette. He had his
arm around her waist and gave her a long romantic kiss before they entered the
house. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn the man was Lee. He only caught a glimpse of his face but
noticed he was the same height as Lee and had the same curly black hair as his
captain. He continued walking past the
house, looking at the door as he passed it by.
He walked to his car wondering if his mind was playing tricks on
him. Once in his car, he took out his
phone and dialed Lee’s number.
“Hello admiral,” Lee answered
recognizing the number. “Is everything
okay?”
“Yes Lee. I just wanted to tell you I met with the
client and we aren’t going to be able to help him. Enjoy your day off,” the admiral told him
sighing in relief that the man he saw wasn’t Lee. He drove home thinking about what he was
going to do with his time off.
((()))
It was early on Sunday
morning when Lee and Janet got up. They
were sitting outside on the patio having their morning coffee when Lee said,
“We’re going to sail to
Grinning, “Lee, whatever you
want to do is fine with me. As long as I
can have you all to myself, I don’t care what we do,” Janet said tenderly as
she gave him a kiss.
Returning the kiss, he replied,
“I have a surprise for you. I’ve made
reservations at a hotel for dinner and we’re staying overnight on the island.”
“You were pretty sure that I
would agree to go.” Lee just gave her
that special smile. “Well I guess I
better start packing us some lunch and clothes for the trip,” Janet answered as
she went into the house.
After Janet went into the
house, Lee called down to the dock to have Tony ready the boat for them.
An unfamiliar voice answered
the phone. “Hello, this is Adam.”
“Hi Adam, this is Lee Crane
is Tony there?” he asked puzzled not sure who Adam was.
“No sir. He called in sick today so I’m taking his
place. What can I help you with
Skipper?”
Lee was surprised that he
knew who he was. “I’m going to take my
boat out today and need to have it readied for sailing. Is there anyone there who could take care of
it?”
“Yes sir, I can. I know I work as a mess specialist on Seaview
but I’ve been sailing all my life. I’ll
make sure she’s ready to sail. How soon
would you like her ready to go?”
“Sorry Adam, I didn’t realize
you filled in at the dock,” Lee replied embarrassed he didn‘t recognize the
crewman’s voice, “is an hour too soon?”
“No sir. She’ll be ready in an hour.”
“Thanks, Adam. We’ll see you then,” Lee answered and disconnected
the call.
Adam quickly made a phone
call. “You’re in luck, boss. He’s going out today.”
“Great, thanks for letting me
know,” a man replied. He too had a grin
on his face.
((()))
Lee and Janet packed their
cooler with sandwiches, fruit, and drinks.
Janet took a small bag out of the closet so they could pack some
t-shirts and shorts. Since they were
going to dinner, Janet put in a sun dress while Lee put in a pair black pants
and white shirt. Janet had also put in
suntan lotion and hats for both of them.
Before they left Lee called Chip but it went directly to voice mail, “Hi
Chip. Just wanted to let you know Janet
and I are sailing to
“Did you get a hold of
Chip?”
“No, but I left him a
message. I pretty sure he’s with Julie,”
Lee grinned.
“I hope he’s having fun,”
Janet grinned back. “Maybe we can have
some fun too,” she hinted deviously.
Lee nodded in agreement as
they grabbed their gear and headed to the dock.
When they arrived they saw Adam waiting by the boat and had her ready to
go. Lee’s boat was a 22’ one mast cat
boat. He bought it for the name ‘Second
Dream’. He purchased it used not to
long after he got the job as captain of the Seaview which he considered
his first dream. He had it totally
refurbished so it looked like brand new.
It would hold up to four people but yet small enough for Lee and Janet
to handle themselves.
“Thanks Adam,” Lee said as
Adam took the cooler Lee was holding and put it on the boat. He then took the bag Janet had and also put
it on the boat. Lee helped Janet down
the ladder and climbed aboard. “We won’t
be back until sometime tomorrow. I’ve
let Mr. Morton know in case there’s a problem. He can reach me by radio if the
phone doesn’t work.”
“Okay Skipper. Have a good time,” Adam replied as he untied
the lines and threw them to Lee who stowed them in a locker. He watched them as they sailed out of sight
down the channel into the ocean.
He pulled his phone out of
his pocket, “They just left and I put the tracker on board,” he reported.
((()))
It was a beautiful day for
sailing, just the right amount of wind, the sky was free of clouds and the
ocean was not too rough. Janet had only
been on Lee’s boat a couple of times but they had never sailed as far as they
would be today so she was a little leery when they couldn’t see land anymore.
“Lee,” Janet said softly,
“Can this boat tip over?”
Chuckling he replied, “No
sweetheart. Why do you ask?”
Looking embarrassed she
answered, “I tipped over a sailboat the one time I went on it. It was a lot smaller boat and it hit a wake
from a motor boat that wasn’t supposed to be there and I couldn’t get the jib
out fast enough and it flipped over. We
managed to grab the center board and right the boat but it was pretty scary.”
He patted her hand trying
hard to not laugh. “Don’t worry sweetie,
we’ll be just fine. The only danger
sailing to Catalina is staying out of the shipping lanes and watching the
weather. But I checked the weather and
its clear sailing all the way and I know where the shipping lanes are,” he
reassured her. “I’ll show you how to
sail the boat so you’ll know what to do.”
“Thanks Lee,” Janet responded
as he showed her how to steer the boat and work the sail. After her sailing lesson, Janet grabbed some
sandwiches and water out of the cooler. As they sat next to each other in the
cockpit eating their sandwiches, Janet watched her husband as he sailed the
boat. “What’s wrong?” he asked when he
saw her staring at him.
“You look so relaxed, happy
and enjoying the sea air,” Janet told him.
“You really do enjoy being in or on the water don’t you.”
“Yes, I love it,” he replied
giving her a kiss on the forehead as they continued on to Catalina Island
unaware that there was a yacht following them.
((()))
They reached Catalina in the
late afternoon and not a moment too soon as the weather was quickly
changing. Lee found a slip at the dock
and tied down the boat, lowered the sail and locked her up while Janet grabbed
the bag she brought with. Lee took the
bag, put it on the dock and helped Janet out of the boat. They walked hand in hand to the end of the
dock and to the hotel.
They checked in and went to
their room which had a beautiful view of the dock and ocean. Lee was happy he could see his boat from the
window. The sky had gotten darker and it
threatened to rain. After sailing all
day, they were tired so before they got dressed for dinner they took a
nap. Lee helped Janet removed her
t-shirt revealing the skimpy swim suit she had underneath. It didn’t take him long to remove that
too. Janet helped Lee remove his shirt
and shorts. They spent the next hour
tantalizing each other before they joined in love. They laid there catching their breath for
awhile before Lee got out of bed and turned on the shower. He soaped up and before long Janet joined
him. He washed her back while she washed
his. They quickly finished showering or
they would be late for dinner.
“You look fantastic,” Lee
told Janet after she finished putting on her sun dress and just a touch of make
up.
“You don’t look too bad
yourself,” Janet replied looking over Lee who had rolled up the sleeves on his
shirt and slipped on his boat shoes.
Janet walked over to him put her arms around his neck and he lowered his
head so she could give him a tender kiss. “We better stop now or we’re never
going to make dinner,” Lee told her returning her kiss. “We better finish this later because I’m
hungry,” he snickered.
“Me too,” Janet
admitted. They left the room and walked
down to the restaurant.
They enjoyed their dinner and
were going to head outside for a drink when it started to storm. They returned to their room where they
watched the lightening and the boats bobbing in the ocean as the sea got
rough.
“How will we get home if the
weather stays like this?” Janet asked worriedly.
“I checked it out, this is
just a small storm and will be over before morning, so don’t worry. Besides we do have an engine. It would be a rough ride but we could do it
or we take a tour boat back to shore and fly home. We can always come back and get the boat
later on. I’ve left it here before,” Lee
told her.
“Okay Lee. I know you wouldn’t put us in danger,” Janet
replied and took his hand and pushed him down on the bed giving him a very long
passionate kiss which led to other activities.
They fell asleep and woke up very early the next morning to an overcast
sky but no rain and a fairly calm ocean after the storm. They checked out and made their way to the
boat and launched it for the long ride home.
((()))
They had been sailing for a
couple of hours when Lee heard an SOS come over the radio. There was a boat in trouble and was
broadcasting the longitude and latitude over the radio. Lee left Janet to sail the boat. As he left the cockpit for the cabin, he
snickered, “Don’t worry, sweetie, you can’t flip her.”
Janet looked Lee, “Thanks
honey,” she deadpanned.
Lee went to the cabinets
where he kept the charts. He laid them
out on the small table in the cabin and quickly located the boat. He returned to the cockpit and took over the
steering.
“That boat is only a few
miles ahead of us. We’ll only have to
veer slightly off course,” he told her.
“We should see if we can help them.”
“No problem,” Janet
replied. “I wouldn’t want to leave
anyone stranded out here if they needed help.”
Lee slightly altered their
course and before long came across the cabin cruiser in trouble. Lee had Janet take the bumpers from the
locker and put them on the side of their boat so Lee could pull up along side
the crippled boat without damaging either one.
“Hi, I’m Lee Crane and this
is my wife, Janet, how can we help you?” Lee asked the man by the side of the
cruiser.
“I’m Arnie and this is Danny,
he replied pointing to the other man on the cruiser. My engine stopped
working. Do you know anything about
motor boats?” he replied looking over Lee’s sailboat.
Lee noticed him looking at
his boat, “Yes, I know about boat motors,” he answered looking at Janet who was
trying to hide her grin.
Lee dropped the sail on his
boat and left Janet in the cockpit while he jumped aboard the cruiser. He looked at the engine but couldn’t find
anything wrong with it. He stood up and
was standing on the deck of the cruiser wiping the grease off his hand with a
rag Arnie had given him. As Lee wiped
off his hands he told Arnie, “You better call the Coast Guard and have them tow
you back. I can’t find anything wrong
with your engine. Maybe you got bad
fuel.”
As Lee was talking to Arnie a
large yacht stopped about one hundred feet off the port side of Lee’s
boat. A man on board yelled to the men
on the cabin cruiser. “Is there a problem?”
Lee responded as he continued
wiping off his hands, “He’s going to need a tow back to the mainland. There’s something wrong with his motor.”
“No Commander,” Arnie replied
as he pulled a gun out from under his shirt.
“There’s no problem,” he said as he started the engine.
Lee stared at him and
realized they had been set up.
“How do you know who I am?”
Lee demanded as Janet sat on their boat not knowing how to help Lee.
“It doesn’t matter how I
know, just do as I say and nobody will get hurt,” Arnie told him.
Lee elbowed Arnie in the
stomach hoping to catch him off guard but he managed to stay on his feet. He hit Lee on the back of his head, causing
him to fall on the deck where he lay stunned for a few minutes.
“Lee,” Janet yelled trying to
get off their boat and onto the cruiser to help him. She was stopped by Danny who had come aboard
their boat and pushed her back into the cockpit. She quickly brushed his hands away.
“I’m okay,” Lee told Janet as
he slowly stood up from the deck rubbing the back of his neck. “What do you want with us?”
“I’ll let the boss tell you,”
Arnie replied as he pulled out some zip ties from his pocket and tied Lee’s
hands in front of him, put the cruiser in gear and motored over to the
starboard side of the yacht where there was another man waiting to help them
aboard.
“What about my wife,” Lee
asked, “please don’t leave her there alone.”
“Don’t worry, Danny will stay
with her until you get back,” Arnie replied as he stuck the gun in Lee’s back
pushing him up the ladder to the main deck of the yacht.
Once on board, Lee was led to
the main salon on the luxurious yacht where a man had his back to them when
they walked in. Lee noticed the well
appointed salon had two couches, teak tables and a flat screen TV.
“Welcome aboard Commander,”
the man said to Lee. “Too bad Arnie had
to hit you, please don’t try anything next time he will shoot you,” he replied
calmly as he turned around to face Lee.
Lee looked at the man and
couldn’t believe what he was seeing; the man looked just like him.
“What the hell is going on
here?” Lee shouted.
“Now Commander is that anyway
to talk,” the man said strongly. “I
better explain who I am and why you’re here.”
“I think you better,” Lee
hissed.
“My name is Paul
Gallagher. I’m an agent for the PR and a
submarine captain. Now you’re probably
wondering why I look like you, well I’m going to take your place on Seaview
and your life. You see, three years ago
when you were on a mission in the PR, I captured you and was bringing you to my
superior for interrogation when you managed to escape. My superior was pissed with me, as you had
gotten away from them once again. To
make up for my embarrassment as I had never failed on a mission before,
I vowed to get you and return you to the PR.
I knew the only way I would be able to get to you was to be you. I made my way into the
“I don’t recall anyone by the
name of Paul Gallagher,” Lee said curtly.
“Now Commander, there’s no
need to be nasty. I was hired under the
name of Sal Silver,” he told Lee who recognized that name. Paul continued, “I watched your every
movement and took note on how you handled yourself with the crew and Janet but
most of all how you commanded Seaview.
I didn’t want anyone to notice any difference when you’re not in command
and I am. After a year of service, I
left Seaview and had plastic surgery done so I could look like you. I had to make sure I was fully recovered
before I put my plan into motion. That
time is now. Sorry Commander, you will
not be going home today. I will be
taking your place.”
“You won’t get away with
it. The admiral and Mr. Morton will see
right through you and know you’re not me.”
“Oh Commander, I wouldn’t bet
on it. I placed small cameras in the
control room, wardroom, and other various parts of the boat. I’ve been studying you for over a year. I also discreetly made videos of you. I learned how you talk, walk, and eat,” Paul
replied proudly. “I even placed one in your cabin so I could see how you made
love to your wife,” he said tauntingly.
Lee lunged for Paul when he
heard about the camera in his cabin but was stopped by Arnie who grabbed Lee by
the arm before he got to Paul. “What are
you going to do with Janet?” he asked worriedly. “She’ll know you’re not me.”
“Don’t worry Lee. I will take good care of her. Maybe she’ll
even like me better,” Paul sneered. “I
only need a couple more things, give me your watch, ring and phone. I know you never go anywhere without them.”
Lee was seething as he
reluctantly removed his watch and ring and put them in Paul’s out stretched
hand along with his phone. He quickly
put the watch and ring on and put the Lee’s phone in his pant pocket. “Take him below,” he ordered Arnie.
Arnie took him by the arm and
was leading him away from the salon when Lee raised his arms and hit Arnie in
the face causing him to fall to the floor.
Lee tried to make a run for it but was stopped at the door by a huge
man. Arnie scrambled to his feet, walked
over to Lee and punched him in the face jerking his head back. Lee lost his balance and fell to the floor
where Arnie kicked him several times in the ribs. Lee let out a low moan as he heard them
crack. Arnie pulled Lee up by his arms
and pushed him down the stairs to the lower deck and into a storage cabin near
the engine room. The only items in the
room were a mattress and the paper goods they used on the boat. They weren’t
taking any chances on Lee escaping so they had a dead bolt lock on the door which
Arnie engaged as he left. Lee looked around the room and saw there was no way
out except through door. He noticed it
was very hot and stuffy in the room. He looked around and knew there would be
an air vent somewhere but with all the cartons and cases he couldn’t see
it. Even though his ribs hurt and it was
hard to move with his wrists zip tied together, he managed to find the vent
after moving some of the supplies out of the way. He took a deep breath of
fresh air. Lee carefully sat down on the mattress as his ribs were hurting even
more after moving the supplies, his jaw was sore and his eye swollen closed. He
was worried about Janet and what Paul would do to her as he thought of a way to
escape.
((()))
While Paul waited for Arnie
to return he had summoned Howie to the salon for some final instructions.
“After picking up Arnie and
Danny at the marina, proceed on course for the island. I will let you know when to assemble the men
and have them there.”
“Yes sir,” Howie replied as
Arnie returned from below. Howie left
the salon and went up to the bridge to tell the captain as soon as the cruiser
left the side of the yacht to get underway.
Arnie, make sure you keep Crane locked
up. He’s very devious and will escape if
given the chance. I will let you know
via phone if any action needs to be taken. Also, if possible, video everything
that involves Crane, I don’t care what it is. I might need it to keep his wife
in line.
“Yes sir,” Arnie answered
with an evil grin on his face.
Paul had packed some things
to take with him. He wouldn’t mind
wearing Lee’s clothes but some items were too personal to share. Paul fingered the ring and smiled as he would
finally get his revenge on Lee Crane.
“Let’s go,” Paul said as Arnie picked up his
suitcase. They made their way to the
back of the yacht and onto the cruiser for the short ride to Lee’s boat. He couldn’t wait to see Janet’s reaction when
she saw him. He figured he wouldn’t be
able to fool her but it would be fun toying with her.
((()))
Janet watched as the cruiser
took off for the yacht with Lee. She
wanted to follow the cruiser but wasn’t sure how to put up the sail or start
the motor. She turned to Danny, “Why are
they taking Lee...what are they going to do with him...how did you know where
to find us?” she asked angrily.
“Look lady,” Danny said
nastily. “I don’t know anything. I was told to stay here and watch you, so
that’s what I’m doing...so just be quiet.”
There wasn’t any room to pace
so she sat there staring at the yacht wondering what they were doing with
Lee. Thirty minutes had passed when
Janet finally saw the cruiser rounding the back of the yacht with Paul and Arnie. Arnie pulled up alongside the boat and shut
down the engine. He waited for Paul to
board the sailboat. Janet looked at Paul
and couldn’t believe what she saw. The
man looked like Lee but she knew immediately it wasn’t him. His eyes gave him away. Even though he had the same color as Lee,
they had no warmth.
“Any problems?” Paul asked
Danny.
“No, none. Just asked a few questions but I didn’t give
her any answers.”
“Thanks Danny. You and Arnie can return to the marina and
meet the yacht. Howie has the instructions
on what to do next and knows what to do with Crane. If there are any problems, just call or leave
a message.”
“Yes sir,” the men replied as
Danny returned to the cruiser. He pushed
the cruiser away from the sailboat and it quickly caught up to the yacht as it
headed south. Paul pulled in the bumpers
and put them in the locker and sat down next to Janet who moved as far away
from him as possible. She was still
staring at him. He could tell she knew
he wasn’t her husband the minute he stepped on the sailboat.
“Who are you...what have you
done with Lee...where are you taking him...how did you find us?” Janet
demanded.
“Hello, Mrs.
Cra...Janet. I’m Paul Gallagher. “As far as all your questions, Lee is fine
for now and you don’t need to know where I’m taking him. I had a tracker placed on your boat. I’ve been following you since you left
“No, I will not,” Janet
replied furiously.
“Yes, you will because if you
don’t and give away my identity, Lee will pay for it,” he said harshly as he
took a phone out of his shirt pocket. “You see this phone is connected directly
to the yacht. If you do something I
don’t like, I will tell them to torture your husband. Look, he’s already been injured.” Paul showed Janet a picture of Lee with his
eye swollen closed and a bruise on his jaw.
Janet took a deep
breath. She was near tears but didn’t
want to give Paul the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
“Just what gave me away?” he
asked looking her over. Not bad,
he thought. I just might enjoy being Lee Crane.
“Your eyes,” Janet snapped
back, “They have no warmth.”
“Well, I can’t change that,”
he replied coldly, “I think we better get underway as we don’t want to get in
too late as Nelson or Morton might send out a search party for us.” Paul hoisted the sail and steered the boat in
the direction of
“Why are you doing this?”
Janet asked softly.
“For revenge,” Paul said
calmly telling her exactly what he told Lee.
“Now Janet, I have some ground rules for you to follow. You already know about giving my identity
away and what will happen. We will follow
Lee’s normal routine so I don’t arouse any suspicion. I know we’re leaving on Wednesday morning for
“Yes,” Janet answered
fearfully.
It was a long trip back to
((()))
Lee had fallen asleep but
woke up when he heard the lock disengage on the door. When the door opened Arnie was there with a
sandwich and a couple bottles of water.
“Here’s dinner,” he said to
Lee handing him the paper plate. Lee
looked at him and then at his wrists.
“Are you going to remove
these so I can eat?” Dinner, Lee
thought. How long have I been
asleep? He looked at his wrist for
his watch forgetting he had to give it to Paul.
“I’m sure you can figure out
how to eat with those on,” Arnie replied sharply.
“Can I use the head?”
“I guess so, but I’m warning
you don’t try anything. Howie is waiting
right outside the door and he will have no problem stopping you from escaping.”
Arnie led Lee down the hall
to a small bathroom right outside the engine room. He waited outside while Lee took care of his
business. Lee looked around and noticed
a couple more doors. He heard the
engines and knew they weren’t running at top speed so wherever they were taking
him they weren’t in a hurry. Arnie
grabbed his arm and escorted him back to the room. Lee saw Howie, a man weighing about two
hundred and fifty pounds, blocking the stairway. Arnie shoved him in and locked the door. Lee sat down and managed to eat the sandwich
and drink one of the bottles of cold water. He put the other bottle on his jaw
and eye. He took a huge package of
toilet paper and set it up against the wall in front of the mattress so he
could rest against it instead of laying down which aggravated his sore
ribs. He sat there for a few minutes
before dozing off.
((()))
It was almost dark when Paul
and Janet finally docked at the harbor at NIMR.
Adam was there to meet them.
“Hello, Skipper, Mrs. Crane,
did you have a nice trip?” he asked nodding his head at Paul which didn’t get
by Janet.
Damn, she thought. That’s
how the tracker got on board. Adam is
working with him and he‘s on Seaview too.
Paul stepped out of the boat
and offered his hand to Janet to help her out but she declined and climbed out
on her own. Adam jumped on board and
removed Paul’s suitcase along with the small bag Janet had and the cooler. Paul took his suitcase and Janet’s bag while
Adam took the cooler to the Crane’s car.
Once the gear was loaded Paul said to Adam, “I’ll see you on board Seaview
Wednesday morning. Thanks for your
help.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied and
walked back to the dock to take care of the sailboat.
“Give me the keys to the
car,” he ordered Janet who reluctantly handed them to him. He unlocked the doors and held the door open
for her. He climbed in the driver’s seat
and started the car. “Tell me how to get
home from here.” Janet gave him the
directions. She sat looking out the
window trying to figure out how to let the admiral and Chip know Paul wasn’t
Lee.
Paul pulled in the Crane’s
garage, turned off the car, opened the hatch and was removing the gear when
Janet grabbed her bag and walked into the house leaving Paul out there. She turned on the lights, went into the
kitchen and looked down at Chip’s house.
Sighing when she didn’t see any lights on meant he wasn’t home. Paul had come in the house and notice it was
very nicely decorated. I could get
used to living here, he thought. He
put the cooler on the counter and saw Janet staring at the house below.
“Who lives there?” he
inquired.
“Chip Morton,” Janet
responded.
“How convenient. I know Lee and Chip went to the academy so if
there’s anything I need to know you had better tell me or you know what will
happen,” he said threateningly. “Give me
your cell phone. I don‘t need you
calling and telling Chip or anyone else that I’m not Lee.”
She ignored Paul’s request to
give him her phone. He walked over to
her and started to search her pockets when she grabbed his hand and twisted
it. “Ouch,” he yelled as he slapped her
across the face. “Don’t you ever do
anything like that again. I’m not
bluffing when I told you Lee will pay.”
He removed his phone from his shirt pocket and showed Janet video of Lee
being kicked in the ribs. Her face went
pale as she saw her husband being beaten.
She removed the phone from her pocket and gave it to him.
She took her bag and went
upstairs to her bedroom. Paul followed
her but she slammed and locked the door in his face. Chuckling, he wasn’t
surprised. He was really looking forward to the cabin on Seaview where
they would have to spend the night together.
He decided not to make any moves on Janet just yet. He made his way down the hall where he found
the guest room and put his things in there noticing it was also very nice.
((()))
After Janet locked the door,
she stood there, tears running down her face.
She quickly wiped them away. Crying
isn’t going to help save Lee, she thought.
She was tired, hungry, and needed a shower. She turned on the water in the shower and got
in. It was cold but after being out in
the sun all day, the cool water felt good.
As she stood there she was trying to find away to alert the admiral or
Chip that Paul was impersonating Lee. Maybe
they will see through Paul and know it’s not Lee, Janet thought. This way he couldn’t hurt Lee if she
didn’t tell them. If they don’t see the
difference, she would have to find away to be alone with someone. She didn’t care who. She finished her shower and was looking for
one of Lee’s shirts but she had done the laundry before she left. Damn, no shirt. She saw the bag on the floor and rummaged
through it and found the white one he wore to dinner. She quickly put it on. I’ll find a way to save you, Lee. She laid down on the bed but didn’t fall
asleep.
((()))
Paul was hungry so after
putting his things in the guest room he returned to the kitchen to look for
something to eat. All he found was
bread, cheese and a couple of beers. He very
rarely had to cook for himself but could make a grilled cheese sandwich. He searched the cabinets for a pan and when
he found one he made two sandwiches hoping Janet would eat one. He grabbed the two beers out of the fridge
and opened them up. He had no idea if
she drank beer. He knew he had a lot to
learn about her. He went upstairs and
knocked on the door to the bedroom.
“Janet, I made you a
sandwich. Would you like one,” he asked
politely.
“No, go away. I’m not hungry,” she responded sharply.
“Suit yourself,” he said as
he went downstairs and ate both sandwiches and drank both beers. She’s going to be a little harder to
control than I realized, he thought.
He cleaned up his mess and went back upstairs to his room where he took
a shower. He turned on the TV and
watched the news before crashing for the night.
((()))
Janet woke up early the next
morning and was contemplating calling in sick.
She knew if she did, Jamie would be at her door as soon as he found
out. She picked up the telephone in
their room but didn’t get any dial tone.
Paul must have cut the lines. She
was pacing the room trying to figure out a plan when there was a knock on the
door.
“Janet, you better be up and
ready to get to work on time. Don’t say
your sick or not feeling well as I know Dr. Jamieson will be at your door. Don’t forget, my dear, that I worked on
Seaview and know how close you are to him.
If you’re not downstairs in the next thirty minutes, I will kick down
the door.”
Sighing deeply, she knew she
would have to go to work. She didn’t
want to see Lee being beat up again. She
opened the door exactly thirty minutes after Paul threatened to kick it down. She had put pants on for work. She never wore pants when they were at the
institute unless she was going to be on Seaview. Just maybe someone would take note and say
something so they would know something was wrong.
Paul was just coming up the
stairs dressed in a t-shirt and shorts when she walked out. “Good morning, Janet,” he said pleasantly. “I
found a couple of bagels in the freezer and made some coffee.”
He walked into the bedroom.
“Where are Lee’s uniforms?” he asked taking in the view as he walked over to
the window and saw Seaview bobbing in her pen. He then went over to a closet and opened the
doors. He saw Lee’s uniforms hanging
there. “Where are the ties?” He started going through the drawers in Lee’s
chest when Janet slammed the drawer on him almost smashing his fingers. She
returned to the closet wear the ties were hanging and handed him one.
“Please don’t touch anything
of Lee’s. Ask and I will give it to
you,” Janet told him defiantly.
“Does he have uniforms on Seaview
or will I have to pack some?” he asked taking off his t-shirt and removed a
shirt from the hangar, put it on and started buttoning it up.
“He has uniforms on board,”
Janet replied as Paul started to take off his shorts. Janet left the room and went down stairs.
She went into the kitchen grabbed a bagel and
coffee and went outside on the patio.
She was hoping Chip would see her there and realize something was wrong
as they never ate breakfast on the patio during the week. She sat there eating her bagel looking for
Chip but he never came out the door so he was either already at work or never
came home.
Paul went outside dressed in
Lee’s uniform and saw Janet looking at Chip’s house. “He left for work already,” he told her
smugly. “He had his jacket and cover on. By the way, what time do we get to work?”
Janet turned around and
looked at him dressed in Lee’s uniform but had to look away as she just wanted
to punch Paul right in the face. “0730,”
Janet answered.
Paul looked at his watch and
said, “You better finish up as it’s already 0720 and I don’t want to be late.”
“I’ll be ready in a few
minutes,” she replied going back into the house and put her dishes in the
dishwasher.
She went upstairs and got her
jacket. When she came back down, Paul
was standing at the door wearing Lee’s jacket and cover. She went into the closet, got her purse and
walked into the garage without acknowledging him. He does look an awful lot like Lee,
she thought. It’s going to be very
hard for someone to tell the difference by looking at him. Hopefully he’ll mess up and someone will take
notice.
((()))
Lee woke up stiff from
sleeping in the upright position. He
assessed his physical condition, his jaw wasn’t as sore as before...his eye was
still swollen but he could see out of it...his ribs were still painful. He took the bottle of water out from under
the mattress and took a big gulp. It
wasn’t as warm in there as before but still stuffy and he could smell the
diesel fuel from the engine room. He stood
and carefully stretched as he heard the door being unlocked. Arnie had a tray of breakfast items for
him. “What’s with all the food,” Lee
asked trying to divert his attention so he could escape.
“Mr. Gallagher insisted you
be taken care of. He doesn’t want you too
incapacitated when he turns you over to his supervisor unless you decide to try
and escape, and well then you might just arrive in bad condition.”
As Lee went to take the tray
from Arnie, he put his hands underneath and pushed it up into his face. He quickly ran out the door and up the
stairs. Just as he found a way off the
boat, Howie came up from behind and grabbed his arm, spinning him around and
punched him in the stomach. Lee fell to
the deck trying to catch his breath.
Howie picked him up, dragged him back down the stairs and shoved him
into the room.
“One more stunt like that and
you’re going to pay the consequences along with your wife,” Arnie said to Lee
giving him a kick in the ribs again and left locking the door. Lee doubled over in pain and was still
trying to catch his breath. He heard
Arnie say Janet would pay for his actions.
He crawled over to the mattress and sat up against the toilet
paper. He knew if he laid down it would
be harder to breath and he was already having a hard time catching his breath.
((()))
Paul followed Janet out to
the garage and got into the car. “Tell
me how to get to the institute offices.”
Janet gave him directions and
told him where to park. She got out of
the car but Paul sat there a little longer. He took a deep breath and finally
got out of the car following Janet to the front door. She greeted Howard, and Paul followed her
lead. They went over to the elevators
and up to the second floor. As Janet
went to leave the elevator, Paul grabbed her hand which she quickly shook off.
“What are the names of the
other two assistants in the office?” he asked softly.
“Wanda is the receptionist
and sits at the desk right as you get off the elevator. Angie is Admiral Nelson’s personal assistant
and is in his outer office.”
“Does Lee call the admiral
Harry, or Admiral…what does he call Chip…does Chip has a girlfriend?”
“He doesn’t call the admiral
Harry, just Admiral or sir. He uses
Chip’s first name unless there’s a crew member present and then it’s Mr.
Morton. Her name is Julie.’
“Thank you for the
information,” he grinned.
“You do know I only gave you
that information so you won’t hurt Lee,” Janet replied angrily as she left the
elevator and walked to her office.
Paul had been in the
institute offices only once when he worked on Seaview so he knew where
Lee’s office was located. He went in,
turned on the lights and hung up his jacket in the closet and put his cover on
the shelf. He no sooner sat down at the
desk when Chip walked in.
“Did you and Janet have a
nice trip to Catalina?” he asked as he sat down in front of Lee’s desk with a
cup of coffee.
Paul had no idea that Chip
knew they went to Catalina. I better
make sure I get everything Lee has done or said within the last few days from
Janet, he thought figuring out that Lee had probably called Chip to let him
know they were going to Catalina. “Yes,
we had a great time. The weather was
perfect for sailing. How was your
weekend with Julie?” Paul asked calmly.
“Just fine. I really like her. She just may be the one,” Chip confided to
Lee as he stood up and started to walk out of Lee’s office.
“That’s good news. We’ll have to get together and go out soon,”
Paul responded as he also rose and went out for some coffee. He knew that Lee liked to drink a lot of
coffee from his mess specialist position.
He was constantly bringing fresh pots up to the observation nose or to
his cabin. It was something he would
have to get used to as he really didn’t like coffee and one cup per day was
fine with him. He filled his cup and
went back into his office while Chip returned to his.
Paul called Janet on the
phone. “Get in here now,” he said
quietly but crossly.
Janet quickly left her desk
and went into Lee’s office. He was
waiting for her at the door and once she entered the room he shut the
door. “You better tell me everything Lee
did or said within the last few days. I
didn’t know Chip knew ‘we’ went to Catalina.
Luckily for you I figured Lee called him. What else took place?”
Janet told him everything she
could remember. When she was finished,
he was satisfied she had told him everything. “Bring whatever work you have to
do in here. I don’t want you talking to
anyone.”
“I can’t do my work in
here. I’ve never done that before and it
will look suspicious,” Janet replied.
“I’ll make up a cover that I
need you to help with a new filing system or something. Just do it,” he ordered as Janet heard a ping
on his phone and knew he had gotten a message.
“Yes sir,” she answered. Just as she was opening the door the admiral
walked by and stuck his head in the door.
“Have a good weekend Lee?”
“Yes sir. How was yours?”
“Just fine,” the admiral
replied and continued on to his office.
He looked at the paperwork on
his desk and made like his was working on it.
He had left the door open so he could see and hear what was going on
outside his office. Janet came in a few
minutes later with her work. Janet was
using Lee’s computer while Paul stood behind her watching what she was
doing. Chip was looking for her and saw
her in Lee’s office.
“Everything okay?” he asked
thinking it was strange she was sitting at Lee’s computer. “Janet, I need to see you for a few
minutes. I want to go over the supplies
for the mission tomorrow and make sure they were all ordered. Lee, can you spare her for a few minutes?”
“Yes Chip, no problem,” Paul
replied looking at Janet as she followed Chip into his office. Paul sat down at the desk and was able to see
Chip and Janet working on the lists. She
didn’t say or write anything down. When
she was finished with Chip, she returned to Lee’s office and the computer.
Angie entered Lee’s office at
lunch time, “Janet, Wanda and I are going to the cafeteria for lunch would you
like to join us?” Before Janet could
answer Paul replied, “No, she’s going to lunch with me.”
“Okay,” Angie responded
quietly. She noticed that Janet was very
quiet and was dressed in pants. She
never wore pants when she worked at the office.
She sensed something was wrong but she didn’t know what. She walked out of the office, met Wanda at
the elevator and they went to lunch.
“Where do you eat lunch if
you don’t go with the other women?” Paul asked softly.
“Normally to the cafeteria
but I’m not hungry so we can stay here,” Janet replied sullenly.
After she answered Paul, Chip
walked out of office and stood by Lee’s door.
“How about we go to lunch at the cafeteria,” he suggested noticing Janet
was still there and didn’t go with Angie and Wanda.
“I think I’ll pass. Janet isn’t feeling good and I don’t want to
leave her alone,” Paul replied putting his hands on Janet’s shoulder.
“Should I call Jamie?”
“No” Janet answered a little
too loudly. “Just a headache, I think I
got too much sun over the weekend. I’ll
be fine. If it doesn’t go away, I’ll
contact Jamie.”
“I can bring you both a salad
when I return,” Chip offered.
“Thanks Chip.” Paul responded
as Chip left the office and headed for the elevator. He wasn’t sure what was going on with Lee and
Janet today.
As soon as Chip left, Janet
quickly removed Paul’s hands from her shoulders. “Don’t you ever touch me again,” she said hatefully.
Taken aback at her tone of
voice, Paul said, “You better get use to it, my dear, remember what could
happen to Lee if you don’t. In fact,
let’s see how he is doing.”
Paul looked at his phone and
there was another video of Lee being beaten this time by Howie. He showed it to Janet who could hardly hold
back her tears. She quickly looked away
and ran out of Lee’s office. Paul followed
her out and watched her as she went into the restroom. Janet stood at the sink, tears running down
her face. I have to let someone know
about Lee before he kills him, she thought.
There was a knock on the
restroom door, “Are you okay?” Paul asked annoyed.
“I’m fine. I’ll be right out,” Janet replied softly
taking a paper towel which she ran under the cold water and wiped off her
face. She opened the restroom door a few
minutes later and Paul was waiting for her.
“Let’s go back to the
office,” he demanded. “I don’t want
anyone to see you that you’re upset.”
Janet led the way back to
Lee’s office. They were just sitting
down when Chip returned with their salads.
“Thanks, Chip,” Janet said as
she took them from him and set them on the desk.
“You’re welcome,” he answered
back as he returned to his office.
The rest of the afternoon
went pretty quickly and it was time for everyone to leave for the day. The admiral had been in one of the
laboratories for most the day helping them with some experiments they were
working on and wouldn’t be returning to the office. Chip was going out with Julie. Wanda and Angie walked out after telling them
to have a safe mission. Paul and Janet
were the only two left. Janet went to
her office to get her purse and coat.
Paul took Lee’s jacket and cover out of the closet and put them on. Janet saw him wearing Lee’s clothes and
wanted to slug him but knew that would only hurt Lee so she kept her feelings
in check for now.
Paul decided he wanted to go
out for dinner as he knew there was nothing in the refrigerator at the Crane’s
house. When he worked on Seaview,
he would sometimes sit at the entrance to NIMR and wait for them to leave. He would follow them around noting the places
where they would eat and like to go so when they got in the car, Paul drove
towards the exit at the institute.
“Where are we going...I don’t
want to go out...let’s just go home,” she replied tensely.
“No. You have nothing to eat there. We’re going to Giovanni’s for dinner,” he
said meanly as he stopped at the security check and Jeremy waved them through.
((()))
Once they were back at the
Crane’s house, Janet went upstairs to her room, shut and locked the door. She removed her duffle bag from the closet
and was packing her gear when there was a knock on the door.
“Janet, open the door,” Paul
said curtly.
“No.”
“I need to talk to you about
tomorrow,” he told her.
“Figure it out for
yourself. You’ve watched Lee so you
should know what to do,” she replied tersely.
After she told him that she heard ping on his phone. Shit, she thought, what have they
done to Lee now? She quickly opened the door to the smug look on Paul’s
face.
“Shall we see what is taking
place on the yacht?” he asked nastily.
He typed the password into his phone and looked at his messages. “Oh good, there is one from them.” He read the message and grinned.
((()))
Lee sat on the mattress for
awhile before he was finally able to catch his breath. His ribs and stomach hurt along with his eyes
and lips being swollen. He would have to figure out another way off the boat as
he wasn’t going to get by Howie. Arnie
and Howie brought Lee his dinner. Howie
stood at the door while Arnie put Lee’s food tray on the floor. “Enjoy,” Howie said grinning, slamming and
the door and locking it. Lee looked at
the tray of food which was a sandwich, chips and water. He wasn’t hungry but knew he better eat as he
needed to keep up his strength. He ate
the food and gulped down the water. Even
though he had moved the supplies away from the small air vent, it was still
very warm in the room. He laid down on
the mattress and fell asleep.
((()))
Janet looked at Paul as he
read the message on the phone. She was
afraid to ask what the message was as she couldn’t look at Lee being beaten up
again.
Paul looked her square in the
eyes, “Your husband decided to be good, so there’s nothing to show you,” he
told her with an evil grin. “But I’m
sure he’ll try something. We’ll leave at
0500 tomorrow morning so you better be ready.
Good night.” Before he left the
room, he went to Lee’s closet and took out another uniform. He smiled at Janet as he closed the
door. He stood by the door and heard her
lock it. Soon you’ll have to sleep
with me, he thought with a huge grin on his face. He went to his room, pulled out the duffle
bag that looked just like Lee’s and packed it with what he would need for the
mission.
((()))
Paul was up by 0400. He
quickly showered, dressed and went down stairs and made a pot of coffee. When the coffee was finished, he poured a cup
and stood at the kitchen window looking at the ocean. He realized he was a bit nervous. He knew he could pilot Seaview but was
worried about taking her out of her pen and into the channel before getting
into the ocean. He studied the map on
the wall in Lee’s office showing that the channel was a little shallow for a
submarine as huge as Seaview. He
knew about the bets Lee and Chip had about scratching her paint so he would
have to be very careful. He finished his
coffee and looked at his watch. It was
almost 0430 and Janet hadn’t come downstairs.
He went upstairs to look for her and get his duffle when he heard to the
door unlock. She had her bag over her
shoulder and saw him at the top of the stairs.
“I was just coming to get
you,” he said reaching for the duffle bag but she held on to it tightly.
“You never have to worry
about me being late,” she replied as she walked past him and went
downstairs. She took her bag and put it
in the back of the SUV. She headed into
the kitchen where she poured herself a cup of coffee and looked out over the
ocean.
Paul came down a few minutes
later with his duffle bag and looked for Janet’s. She saw him looking for it.
“I already put it in the
car. I don’t want you touching my
things,” she told him sharply.
Shaking his head, he went out
to the car and put his bag in the back.
After Janet cleaned up the kitchen she returned upstairs to get her
jacket and finish getting ready. She
looked at her watch and noticed it was 0445.
She couldn’t stall any longer.
Paul was waiting by the door for her with Lee’s jacket, cover and
briefcase. He had the keys in his hand
and waited for her to leave before he locked the door. She got in the car and was staring out the
window. Paul got in started the car and
drove to the dock area where he found Lee’s parking place. Janet jumped out of the car and went to the
back to get her duffle bag but Paul managed to beat her there.
“I know Lee does not let you
carry your bag. I’ve seen him carry both
of them and you carry the briefcase. So
take this,” he said shoving the briefcase into her hand while he took both bags
and began walking to the dock.
((()))
Lee awoke the next morning to
a throbbing pain in his ribs and figured he had a few more cracked ribs. His eyes weren’t as swollen but his lips were
still split. He needed to use the head
so he gingerly stood up and was going to knock on the door when he heard it
unlock.
He stepped away from the
door. He wasn’t ready to take on anyone
right now. Arnie and Danny were at the
door with his breakfast of cereal and coffee.
He couldn’t wait to drink the coffee.
“Can I use the head and take
a shower,” Lee asked as Danny set the tray down on the floor.
Arnie looked at Lee and he
was beginning to smell a little ripe.
“Sure but don’t try anything,” Arnie threatened as he pulled out a gun
and cut the zip ties off his wrists. He
walked Lee to the bathroom and waited while he took a shower and used the
facilities. It felt good to let the warm
water run over his bruised body and breathed in the fresh air. He dried off with a nice thick towel. He didn’t have another set of clothes so he
tried to clean up the ones he was wearing.
He opened the door to find Arnie standing there with the gun on him and
walked him back to the stuffy room.
Danny was waiting there for
him to return with another set of zip ties.
He zip tied Lee’s wrist in front of him again. They left the tray there, shut the door and
locked it. Wonder where Howie is?
he thought. Lee ate the cereal and
savored the cup of coffee. He knew it
would be hard to escape with his hands tied but he had to do something. He sat back down on the mattress and was
thinking of a way to escape. He wondered
what was in the other two doors across from the bathroom. He was pretty sure the one was the door to
the engine room as it was made of metal similar to a hatch. If he could get in there, maybe there was
some place to hide. His only problem was
he didn’t know where they were headed and assumed they were in the middle of
the ocean so if he did escape where would he go? He looked around the room to see if there
was anything he could use as a floatation device. He did find a small cooler and knew that type
would float. He just had to find the
right time.
((()))
When Paul and Janet arrived
at the dock, Chip and Bobby O’Brien were already there. Bobby was checking in the crew as they
boarded the boat. Paul and Janet walked
over to the two men.
“Good morning, Chip, Bobby,”
Paul said putting down the bags while Janet stood a little behind him. “Has all the crew checked in?” Marco and Phil were just coming into the dock
area. Paul knew the admiral was already
aboard as he noticed his car in his parking place.
“Almost everyone; just a
couple haven’t checked in yet,” Bobby told Paul. “We have just one small issue.
Paul motioned to Marco and
Phil to pick up their bags and when Janet heard that Adam was going to be near
their cabin and her office, when she went to hand the briefcase to Marco, she
dropped it.
“I’m sorry Mrs. Crane,” Marco
said as he picked up the briefcase.
“No Marco, it was my fault, I
let go of it before you had it,” Janet replied as Paul gave the crewman a dirty
look. Chip and Bobby both looked at Paul
strangely surprised that ‘Lee’ would do that.
Chip responded to Bobby,
“That’ll be fine.” He was still looking at ‘Lee’.
Marco took the briefcase and
one of the duffle bags and went down the gangplank into the sub where he and
Phil would put them in the captain’s quarters.
“Let’s get aboard Chip,” Paul
said as he and Chip saluted the colors before they walked down the gangplank.
Janet had a smirk on her face
as she followed them down the gangplank into the service hatch. That had to be hard for him to salute the
US flag, she thought happily.
Paul went down the ladder
first and helped Janet down just like Lee would do. She shook his hand off not caring if anyone
saw her. Unfortunately, no one in the
control room crew, along with Chief Sharkey, saw her as they were busy at their
stations getting ready to shove off.
Chip didn’t notice it either. By
the time they reached the bottom two more crewmen and Bobby were coming down
the ladder.
“Everyone has reported in,”
Bobby told Paul and Chip.
“Thank you, Mr. O’Brien,”
Paul said as he turned to Chip. “Prepare
to shove off, Mr. Morton.” He removed
his jacket and put it on the table in the observation nose along with his
cover. Chip also put his there. Janet would take them to their cabins when
she left for her office.
“Aye, aye sir,” Chip
responded taking the mic out of its holder.
“Secure the deck detail, castoff all lines,” he said shipping the mic.
The dock detail pulled up the
gangplank and removed the lines holding Seaview to the dock and threw
them to the men on her deck. They stowed
the lines and went below.
“All secure,” Chief Sharkey
reported.
“Thanks Chief,” Paul
said. “Mr. Morton how about you take her
out this trip?”
Chip looked at Paul, “Afraid
you’ll scratch her paint today,” he grinned as they made their way up the
ladder to the sail bridge where Paul would watch Chip take her out. He looked at Janet who was standing at the
plot table. He tapped the pocket where
his phone was. She walked into the
Observation Nose where she always stood when they left the dock. She let out a deep breath, so far no one had
noticed it wasn’t ‘Lee’ who was captain.
As she waited in the observation nose for Chip to take out Seaview,
Adam entered the nose with the ever present pot of coffee. A mess specialist always brought it to the
nose before the sub left the dock. He
saw Janet standing there as he put the pot on the table and walked over to
her.
“If you need anything, please
let me know,” he told her with wry grin.
“Thank you but I won’t be
needing your help,” she replied not looking at him.
“I’ll take the Skipper’s
jacket and cover along with Mr. Morton’s and put them in their cabins.”
“Whatever,” Janet replied
unhappily knowing he would be watching her every move. There’s only one skipper on Seaview and its
Lee, she thought as Adam picked up the jackets and covers and made his way
up the spiral staircase. It made her
shiver to know he would be in her cabin.
She watched as Chip easily
directed Seaview out of her berth and down the channel into the
ocean. As she stood in the observation
nose, she heard footsteps on the spiral staircase and recognized them as the
admiral’s.
“Good morning, Janet,” he
said pleasantly. “How are you today?”
“Good morning, Admiral,”
Janet replied quietly. “I’m fine, how
about you?”
“Just great,” he answered
looking at her curiously. She felt him
staring at her so she added.
“I just love watching Seaview
leave her berth and make her way to the ocean.
The view is still breathtaking.”
Smiling at her, “I agree with
you,” he commented patting her arm and walked into the control room.
As Janet was talking to the
admiral, Chip entered the control room from the bridge.
“Where’s Lee?” the admiral
asked when only Chip came down the ladder.
“Lee mentioned one of the
missile covers didn’t look right so he wanted to watch it for a little while to
see if it would be okay when we submerged.
He’ll be right down,” Chip replied.
“Is there a problem?” the
admiral asked with concern.
“I didn’t think so but you
know Lee he knows every square inch of his grey lady and wants to make sure
everything is in order.”
He doesn’t know anything about Seaview, he
must be up to something, Janet thought as she stood in the observation nose
where the admiral re-joined her.
((()))
Paul told Chip he thought
something was wrong with a missile cover just to get him off the bridge. He wanted to call the yacht using his SAT
phone. He quickly dialed up the yacht
and got Arnie.
“We’ll be at the island in
just over four days. Make sure our men
are there to ‘welcome’ Seaview.
How’s Crane?” Paul asked quickly.
“He tried to escape
again. We managed to stop him but he’s
not going to give up trying.”
“Do whatever you need to do
letting him know he can’t escape. I’m
having a hard time with his wife too.
She’s harder to handle than I anticipated.”
“Maybe Crane needs a
suntan. After all he’s been locked up in
that small room for a long time,” Arnie said with an evil grin.
Paul snickered at the
suggestion knowing what Arnie had in mind.
“I’ll try and contact you before we get to the island. I’ll think of something to get the boat to
the surface.”
Paul ended the call as Chip
started up the ladder looking for him.
“Lee is everything okay?”
“I’m coming down now,” Paul
said as he climbed down the ladder skipping the last three rungs. When he
turned around he saw Janet talking to the admiral and wanted to join them but
needed to give Chip the order to dive.
Chip was waiting at the periscope island for him. “I thought one of the covers looked a little
loose but it’s fine so we should have no problems submerging.”
Paul and Chip walked over to
the plotting table, “Take her down to two hundred feet and run at standard,” he
told Chip.
“Aye, aye sir,” Chip
responded giving the orders to the engine room and maneuvering as Paul made his
way to the observation nose.
After exchanging
pleasantries, the admiral said, “Good job of taking out Seaview.”
“I didn’t take her out, I let
Chip handle that duty today. I still
haven’t been able to collect on our bet,” Paul laughed.
Grinning at Paul knowing both
of his men were very good at taking the sub out of her berth and were having a
hard time collecting on their bet. “How
soon until we get to Cole?” the admiral asked.
“Running at standard speed we
should be there in just over four days,” Paul replied. “If we need to get there sooner we can take
her up to full.”
“No hurry, just leave her at
standard,” the admiral answered. “If you
need me, I’ll be in the lab working on some experiments.”
“Yes, sir,” Paul
replied.
((()))
Paul discreetly grabbed
Janet’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
“What were you and the admiral talking about?”
“I didn’t give away your
secret if that’s what your wondering,” she replied tersely.
She wanted to pull her hand
out from his but didn’t want to cause a scene.
He squeezed her hand a little harder and she let out a low cry. Chip looked up from the plotting table but
wasn’t sure if it came from her. He
stared at the couple for a few minutes and wondered what was going on. He could tell they weren’t fighting but
something just didn’t seem right with them.
He returned to plotting the course to the island.
“Don’t ever cry out again or
you’ll be sorry,” he said harshly.
“What do you do once we get underway?”
“I go to the cabin, unpack
our bags and then head to my office to post the inventory tickets, Chip will
give me the duty rosters and work on any reports or other jobs I didn’t finish
at the office. You can unpack your own
bag. Do not touch any of Lee’s clothes
but his uniforms, which I will burn when this mission’s over,” she spat. She walked away leaving him standing in the
observation nose and went up the spiral staircase.
Paul watched as she went up
the stairs. He was worried about her and
what she would do. He hadn’t planned on
her being so uncooperative. He returned
to the control room and stood at the plotting table next to Chip. He picked up a pencil and tapped it on the
table just like Lee would do when he was worried.
“Everything okay?” Chip asked
with concerned seeing Paul tapping the pencil.
“Oh yeah, just fine. Janet’s still not feeling well. Just a slight headache,” he lied.
“Maybe she should go and see
Jamie.”
“No she doesn’t want to do
that just yet,” Paul replied as he left Chip at the plotting table and made the
rounds stopping at each station in the control room checking on the
equipment. He stopped to talk to each
man at the station just like Lee would do.
((()))
As soon as Janet got to their
cabin she unpacked her clothes. She was
going to look for Lee’s 45. She didn’t
know if she would need it but didn’t want Paul to get his hands on it. She hoped it wasn’t in the safe as she didn’t
know the combination. Lee didn’t want
her to know what it was for some reason so she never asked. She searched his desk and found it in the
bottom drawer under some folders. She
took it out and was looking for a place to hide it. She knew Paul would search every nook and
cranny in the cabin. She decided to hide
it in an obvious place. She went to the
closet where Lee’s jackets were hung and put it in the pocket of the one
furthest from the door. Janet made sure
that if Paul needed a jacket he would take the first one as she put it right in
front of the door. She would move the
gun later on after he was done looking for it.
She finished up in the cabin and made her way to her office.
((()))
Lee woke up the next morning
and wasn’t as sore as he had been. He
would try again to escape using the cooler he found as a floatation device. He
had made note of where the door was leading to the deck. He knew it was a long way down to the water
but he had to take that chance if he wanted to get away. He could only hope they were near a shipping
lane and someone would spot him in the water. He would make his move when they brought him
his breakfast.
He didn’t have to wait too
long before Howie and Danny unlocked the door.
Howie had the tray in his hands while Danny waited outside the
door. Lee stood up, grabbed the cooler and
hit the tray knocking it into Howie’s face causing him to lose his
balance. He ran at Danny and hit him in
the face with the cooler and headed towards the stairs. He had almost made it to the door leading to
the deck when a bullet whizzed past his head.
“Stop or I’ll shoot again and
not miss,” Arnie threatened. “Drop the
cooler and step away from the door.”
Lee thought about running out
the door but decided Arnie wouldn’t have a problem carrying out his threat to
shoot him. He dropped the cooler, turned
around and faced Arnie. “Commander, you
just made a big mistake.”
By this time Howie and Danny
both had recovered and were standing behind Arnie. Both of them were pissed that Lee had made
fools of them yet again. “Let’s show the
commander here what happens when someone tries to escape,” Arnie said still
glaring at Lee. “Remove your t-shirt and
shorts,” he ordered. Lee made no attempt
to do what he told. Arnie motioned to
Howie to ‘help’ him removed them which Howie did with no problem even with Lee
fighting him. Danny and Howie led him
out the door and onto to the top deck of the yacht. Howie pushed him down on
the teak deck. He then tied his hands
and feet to the clevises on the deck.
The deck was hot from the sun beating down on it and burned his back.
“Let’s see how he likes
getting a suntan,” Arnie hissed. As the three men walked away Danny videoed Lee
laying the hot sun on the deck.
Damn, Lee thought as he struggled to get free, They’re
going to leave me out here to fry.
The three men returned to the
cool cabin and watched Lee struggle against the ropes. “He’s going to be burned to a crisp,” Danny
laughed as Howie got each one of them a cool drink from the fridge.
((()))
Seaview had been at sea for a few hours when Chip left the
control room to give Janet the duty rosters for the next three days. It wasn’t unusual for him to leave for a few
hours to do some paperwork. Paul wasn’t
worried that Janet would report to Chip that he wasn’t Lee as Adam would be
making his rounds delivering coffee, water and towels to the officer’s
cabins.
“Lee, I’ll be back in a
couple of hours. I have some paperwork
to catch up on and give Janet the duty rosters I’ve prepared,” he told Paul as
he took some papers with him from the shelf on the plotting table.
“No problem,” Paul replied
looking at his watch. “How about we meet
for lunch at 1300 hours. Tell Janet to
meet us there.”
“No problem,” Chip answered
and went the spiral staircase heels clicking on the metal stairs.
Once in officer’s country, he
went down the passageway to Janet’s office.
Normally they would meet in his cabin to go over the duty rosters but he
had them done and just needed to stop and pick up some reports he needed her to
do before he would return and complete some more paperwork. He quickly stopped
in his office, picked up the folder and walked to Janet’s office. Before he rounded the corner to her office
Adam came out of the admiral’s cabin and saw him. He quickly picked up a pitcher of water from
his cart and followed him stopping at the corner so he could hear what they
were talking about.
Janet looked up from her
computer when Chip walked in. She was
disappointed that he came to her office instead of meeting in his. They would have been alone and she hoped to
tell him about Paul. Adam knew they
would leave the door open. Lee had
implemented that order when Janet was being harassed by a visitor during a
previous mission.
“I’ve got the duty rosters
for you,” Chip said to Janet handing her the folder, “and quite a few reports
to type up that I finished before we left work yesterday.”
“No problem,” Janet replied
taking the folder and quickly looking over the reports. It was nothing she hadn’t done before. Chip noticed she was a little quieter than
usual.
“Everything alright? Lee said you had a headache again. Maybe you should have Jamie look you over,”
Chip said with concern.
Janet didn’t know Paul had
told Chip she had a headache so she was a little surprised and caught off
guard.
“It’s nothing. You know P...Lee makes a big deal out of
nothing.”
“If it gets too bad, go see
Jamie and that’s an order,” Chip smiled.
“Yes sir,” Janet replied
grinning back. “Chip, can I talk to
you?” she asked.
“Sure, is there a
problem…everything okay between you and Lee…you both seem out of sorts,” Chip
commented.
Janet pushed her chair back
and went over to the door to shut it.
Before she got it closed, Adam showed up with her pitcher of water. The steward assigned to their cabins would
always bring the admiral, Chip and Lee fresh pots of coffee and her a pitcher
of water.
“Pardon me, Mr. Morton, Mrs.
Crane, I didn’t realize you were having a meeting. I just wanted to drop off Mrs. Crane’s
pitcher of water,” Adam said sheepishly while glaring at Janet. Chip had his back to Adam looking at some
papers on the desk and couldn’t see the look on his face.
“Thank you,” Janet stammered.
She didn’t know if he heard her tell Chip she wanted to talk to him but thought
quickly and said, “Chip, I was wondering if you had any ideas on what to buy
the admiral for his birthday next month?”
Adam walked over to the table, left the pitcher on the table and left
the cabin still glaring at Janet.
Chip turned around to face
her, “No, I hadn’t given it a thought since it’s still a few weeks away.”
“You know he’s very hard to
buy for.”
Rubbing his forehead, he
replied, “Yes he is. I’ll give it some
thought. Do you need me to go over any
of these reports before you work on them?
And before I forget, Lee said he would meet you in the wardroom at 1300
hours for lunch.”
“No Chip, I’ll figure it
out. If I have any questions, I’ll let
you know. Thanks for letting me know
about lunch. “I’ll see you then.”
Chip walked out of her cabin
and down the hall to his while Adam was coming out of Lee’s cabin. “I just put a fresh pot of coffee in your
cabin, Mr. Morton.”
“Thanks, Adam,” Chip replied
as he went down the passageway to his cabin.
Maybe Adam will work out after all, he thought as he opened the
door and went in shutting the door after him.
Adam quickly ran down the
hall back to Janet’s cabin. “What were
you really going to tell him…I’m going to let Paul know you almost spilled the
beans…your husband will pay,” Adam threatened.
Sighing, “I wasn’t going to
tell him about Paul. I don’t want Lee to
get hurt so why would I tell him,” she answered in a huff.
“We’ll just see about that,”
Adam replied walking back down the passageway and down the stairway to the
wardroom.
((()))
Lee had been splayed on the
deck of the yacht for several hours. He
could feel his skin starting to burn as the hot sun beat down on him. He was
thankful they let him keep his underwear on.
He closed his eyes as the glare of the sun off the water was blinding
him. He knew it would only get worse as the day grew hotter. He was starting to get a headache from the
sun and lack of liquids. Even though he
throat was parched, he managed to croak out, “Please give me some water. I won’t do you any good dead.”
Howie, Arnie and Danny came
up on the deck. They could see Lee’s
skin turning a bright red as the sun beat down on him. “Get him some water,” Arnie told Danny who
went to the hose and filled a bucket with cold water and handed it to Arnie.
“Here’s your water,
Commander,” he said as he tossed the bucket over Lee.
He passed out as the cold
water hit his hot burned skin. Laughing
the three men returned to the cool confines of the salon on the main deck.
((()))
Janet had been working in her
office and noticed it was almost 1300 hours.
She really wasn’t hungry but knew she had better meet Paul before he got
suspicious as to why she wasn’t there.
She made her way down to the wardroom where Chip and Paul were just
walking in. Paul waited for her to join
them giving her hand a gentle squeeze just like Lee would do when he saw
her. Janet left her hand limp as a dead
fish not returning his squeeze. The
three of them sat down at the table with Janet in between Lee and Chip. Before long the admiral and Jamie joined them
as Cookie brought over steaming bowls of stew and salad. He placed a bowl of stew in front of Janet
who shook her head no. “Only salad
please,” she told Cookie.
Paul put his hand under the
table and tapped her leg quite hard. She
didn’t cry out but looked at Paul, “I’m not that hungry.”
Cookie put the salad in front
of her and served the rest of the men their stew. Jamie, the admiral and Chip looked at her but
didn’t say anything as she sometimes only had a salad for lunch.
As Chip dunked his bread in
his stew he asked, “Janet, how’s your headache? Has it gotten any worse?”
“Headache?” Jamie asked with
concern.
Paul spoke up, “She had a
headache yesterday and again this morning.”
Jamie looked at Janet, “No
it’s gone,” she replied abruptly.
Jamie continued to stare at
her looking for more information.
“I had one yesterday because
I was out in the sun too long during our trip to Catalina. This morning’s went away a few hours ago.”
“If it comes back, come and
see me,” Jamie ordered her.
“Yes sir,” she replied taking
a bite of her salad.
When they finished up lunch,
Paul and Chip would head back to the control room, while the admiral returned
to his cabin, Jamie to sick bay and Janet to her office.
((()))
It was late afternoon when
Janet finished up all the reports Chip had given her. She went to his cabin and put them on his
desk. She stopped in her cabin to get
the work she needed to finish from yesterday.
When she entered the cabin, she found Paul sitting at Lee’s desk. She quickly turned tail to leave but he got
up and grabbed her arm before she could get out the door.
“What the hell was that at
lunch,” he demanded.
“I don’t always eat a big
lunch. I guess you should know that
seeing that you’ve supposedly watched everything we did,” she answered
sharply. “Now let go of me so I can
finish up my work.” She pulled her arm away from his hand, slammed the door to
the cabin shut and returned to her office.
She knew he couldn’t make or get any phones calls because they were
submerged and the SAT phones only worked on the surface so she knew he couldn’t
show her what they were doing to Lee.
She had to find a way to let Chip know Paul wasn’t ‘Lee’.
It was 1700 hours when Paul
and Chip left the control room for dinner.
Mr. O’Brien would take over until Taper would relieve him. The two men made their way up the spiral
staircase and to their cabins.
“I’ll see you in the wardroom
at 1800 hours,” Chip told Paul as he went into his cabin.
“Okay,” Paul replied. He walked down to Janet’s office only to find
it empty. He quickly returned to his
cabin where he found her drying her hair.
She had already taken a shower.
“Damn, I was hoping to watch
you take a shower,” Paul said disappointedly.
“Never in a million years,” Janet
hissed as she finished getting ready for dinner. She left the cabin with Paul following her to
the wardroom.
They ate dinner with Chip and
Jamie. The admiral had eaten earlier as
he needed to make a few calls. They all retired to their quarters except Paul
who would do ‘Lee’s’ walk-around the boat.
When he returned to the cabin, he found Janet asleep in the chair
wrapped in a blanket. He snickered as he
got undressed and climbed into the bunk.
You’re no fun, he thought, but don’t worry you’ll have to
sleep with me eventually.
((()))
Lee came to on the deck of
the yacht shivering. He was hot and cold
at the same time. It was starting to get
dark and he was wondering if they would leave him up there all night. He didn’t have to wonder long when he heard
the three men walking up the stairs to the upper deck.
“I see you’re awake,” Arnie
said when he kicked Lee’s foot and he moved it.
“Untie him and take him back to the storage room. Give him some dinner. Make sure he doesn’t try and escape or the
two of you are going over the side.”
Arnie was video taping Lee as he laid on the deck and when he tried to
stand up. Mr. Gallagher would have some
very interesting video to show Mrs. Crane.
Danny and Howie untied Lee
who could hardly stand after being tied up. They zip tied his hands in front of
him again. He had a hard time walking so the two men were dragging him down the
stairs. They opened the door to the
storage room and pushed him in. There
was a tray of food and water already on the floor for him. He made his way over to the bottle of water and
guzzled it down. He lay on the cool
floor in the warm storage room. Even though the room was warm it was still
better than being outside. He tried to
stand but was dizzy so he sat down and crawled over to the mattress. He laid there for awhile before checking out
the damage to his body. The tops of his
feet, his legs, and chest area were already starting to blister. His arms were very red but weren’t
blistering. His face was smarting but he
didn’t think it would blister. He slowly
sat up and waited for the room to stop spinning. He pulled the tray of food over to him and
ate it. He took the other bottle of
water and slowly drank it leaving a little for later on. He laid back down on the mattress and fell
asleep.
((()))
Janet woke up the next morning
very stiff. Paul was already up and
showered. He was staring at her as she
worked the kinks out of her body.
“You could have slept in the
bunk. I wouldn’t have tried anything,”
Paul smirked.
“Not on your life,” Janet
snapped. “Please leave, I’ll meet you in
the wardroom in a few minutes.”
“Janet, my dear, you better
get use to me being your husband as Lee is never coming back. I’m now your husband,” he said
matter-of-factly.
“I’ll never accept you as my
husband. I’ll divorce you,” Janet replied
quickly.
Paul walked over to Janet,
grabbed both her arms tightly and sneered, “No way in hell will I let you leave
me to spoil my life as Lee Crane. I’ll
kill you first.” He let go of her arms
and pushed her away.
Rubbing her arms, Janet
looked into Paul’s face and knew he meant every word he said.
“Now get ready for
breakfast,” he told her sharply. “You
better be in the wardroom in fifteen minutes. If I have to come and get you,
Lee will pay dearly.” Paul walked out of
the cabin and waited by the door.
Shaking Janet went over to
the door, opened it and saw him waiting for her. He gave her an evil grin and pointed to his
watch. She quickly shut the door. I
have to find a way to let someone know what’s going on, she thought
desperately as she quickly got ready for the day. She was ready to go ten minutes after Paul
and they walked to the wardroom together.
((()))
Janet spent the rest of the
day in her office. When she did leave,
Adam or Paul was always nearby. It was
late afternoon when she decided to take a break so she went to her cabin to
grab her book. As she approached the
door she saw is wasn’t closed all the way and could hear voices talking and
recognized them as Paul’s and Adam’s.
“Good work keeping an eye on
Janet,” Paul said.
“No problem sir,” Adam
replied. “I think you’ve got her
spooked. She’s afraid to talk to
anyone.”
“Well she should be. Now here’s the plan. I’ve already alerted Arnie to have our men in
position on the island when Seaview docks in two days. Our men will be the ‘welcoming’
committee. They will take all of the
crew and put them in the living quarters and take Seaview along with
Crane to the PR. This way I will clear
my name with the superior and give him a bonus of the Seaview. Once we have left the island, we’ll let
the crew of the Seaview go after we destroy the radios and any other
communication devices they may have.
“How are you going to get
hundred and twenty-five men off the boat without one of them attempting to stop
us?”
“I’ve got that covered. I’m going to hold the admiral, Chip and Janet
hostage threatening to shoot each one of them if the crew doesn’t leave the
boat in an orderly manner,” Paul said smugly.
“The crew is very loyal to them and wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize
their lives.”
Adam shook his head agreeing
with him and then asked, “Are you going back to the PR with Seaview?”
“Yes, once the crew and
officers are locked up, I’ll pilot the submarine back. I’ll present it and Crane to my superior. When I’ve finished, Mrs. Crane and I will
return to the island so we can be rescued with the rest of the men. One more item, if for some reason, I don’t
return to the island after two days, kill all of them.”
“Yes sir. What would you like
me to do until we get to the island?”
“I’ll need you to keep Mrs.
Crane in check. She’s proving to be as
wily as her husband.”
“Yes sir. I better get back to the laundry before I’m
missed,” Adam replied as made his way to the door. He noticed the door was not closed. “Sir, the door wasn’t closed all the
way. Do you think anyone heard us?”
“How could you be so stupid
not to close the door,” Paul said angrily.
He walked over to the door and looked in the passageway and didn’t see
anyone. “I know Chip would be in the
control room and the admiral was in his lab so I don’t think we were heard and
Janet should be in her office but next time make sure you shut the door.”
“Yes sir,” Adam answered
seeing the anger in Paul’s eyes. After
working with both the real Lee and Paul the only difference he noticed was
Paul’s temper. He could get mad at the
drop of a hat.
Janet heard the conversation
wrapping up and quickly returned to her office.
She was entering the inventory when Paul walked in to check on her.
“I see you’re still here working.”
“Where else would I be,”
Janet answered sarcastically. “I can’t
go anywhere without you or Adam on my tail.”
“We’ll have dinner at 1800
hours. I’ll come and get you so be
ready.”
“I’ll be ready,” Janet
replied rolling her eyes and returned to work.
Paul had all he could do to
keep from slapping her. She was really
starting to try his patience. He left
her alone and returned to the control room.
((()))
Janet got up from her desk as
soon as Paul left and watched him walk down the passageway to the
staircase. She knew he was going to the
control room. She went into her cabin
and removed the gun from the jacket pocket and put it under the mattress. She was going to have to take drastic action
to prevent Seaview and Lee from being taken away. She would wait until Paul returned from his
walk-around the boat to implement her plan.
((()))
Paul came for her at 1800
hours and they left for dinner. The
admiral decided to have dinner in the nose that night. He let her go down the spiral staircase
first. Chip, Jamie and the admiral were
already enjoying a glass of wine before dinner when they showed up. Chip poured each of them a glass. Jamie walked over to Janet who was just
sipping her wine and noticed her hand was shaking slightly.
“Are you feeling okay?” he
asked as she stood there staring out the windows in the admiral’s ‘front
porch’.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she replied
turning to look at Jamie. But as she
turned to face him, Paul walked over to them.
“Problem Jamie,” he asked as
he stood next to Janet and took her hand.
She had no choice but to let him hold on to it.
“No just making sure, Janet
was feeling all right.”
“Sweetheart, you’re okay,
right,” Paul said with obvious concern just like Lee would.
“Yes,” Janet answered
softly. He sure has Lee down pat, she
thought. No wonder no one can tell
it’s not really him.
Cookie announced dinner was
ready so they made their way over to the table.
Paul waited for Janet to sit down before he took his seat not sure where
Lee would sit but assumed he would sit next to her. They enjoyed Cookie’s delicious dinner and
sat there drinking coffee and eating brownies talking about
It was getting late, so Jamie
and the admiral excused themselves and made their way to their quarters. Chip and Paul would check out the control
room before retiring. Once Paul checked
on the control room, he would do his walk-around so Janet would return to their
cabin. She waited in the observation
nose for Paul to leave before she made her way up the staircase. Chip followed
her up and said good night when he arrived at his cabin door. Before Janet could say anything to him, Adam
appeared from the opposite end of the passageway.
“Mr. Morton do you need
anything before you retire?” Adam asked cheerfully.
“No, I’m fine. Thanks for asking,” Chip responded as Adam
turned to Janet.
“Mrs. Crane do you need
anything?”
“No thank you,” Janet
answered softly and continued on to the cabin.
Adam watched as she entered
the cabin and shut the door. He would
wait across the passageway out of sight from the rest of the cabins except the
captain’s as the door to his cabin was around the corner. Once Paul returned he could retire for the
night.
((()))
Janet paced up and down in
the cabin. She didn’t want to shoot Paul
but that was the only way she knew how to stop him. She heard him at the door saying goodnight to
Adam. She reached under the mattress and
took the gun out hiding it behind her back.
Paul entered the cabin, undid his tie, the top button of his shirt and
unbuttoned his sleeves. He noticed Janet was dressed in sweatpants and shirt
just like the night before.
“Sleeping in the chair again
tonight?” he asked chuckling as he sat down and removed his shoes. He placed them under the chair just like Lee
did.
“How did you know Lee put his
shoes under that chair,” Janet questioned afraid of what his answer would be.
“I placed cameras all around
the boat so I could watch what and how Lee acted. I even put one in here so I could watch the
two of you,” he said maliciously.
“You’re both very passionate.”
Janet paled at what he just
told her as she realized he watched them make love. She took the gun from behind her back and
pointed at Paul.
“Give me the gun,” Paul said
calmly. “You don’t want to hurt
me because if I don’t make it to the island Lee will be killed.”
Janet squeezed the trigger as
Paul lunged at her and sent the shot into the door. He grabbed the gun out of her hand and went
over to the mic. “Master-at-Arms, report
to the captain’s quarters immediately.”
“Aye, aye sir,” the MAA
responded as soon as Paul shipped the mic.
Hearing the gunshot, the
admiral and Chip ran down the passageway to the Crane’s cabin. Paul stood there with the gun in his hand as
Janet sat on the bunk sobbing.
“What’s going on here?” the
admiral asked seeing the gun.
“Janet tried to shoot me,”
Paul answered running his hand through his hair. “I don’t know what came over her. She just
snapped.”
The MAA arrived at the cabin
door just as Paul was telling the admiral and Chip what happened. “Take Mrs. Crane to the brig and lock her
up. I don’t want anyone to come
in contact with her except me. Is that
understood,” he ordered. “Wait there
until I come down.”
“Yes sir,” the MAA replied as
he gently reached for Janet’s arm but Chip stopped him from taking her.
“Lee, you can’t be serious,”
Chip exclaimed horrified. “She’s your
wife...take her to sick bay...let Jamie look her over.”
“She may try again to shoot
someone and I don’t want to take that chance,” Paul responded vehemently.
“Lee,” the admiral said
quietly, “maybe you should reconsider and let her go to sick bay.”
“No, take her away,” Paul
told the MAA.
The MAA took Janet’s arm and
led her to the brig. “I’m sorry Mrs.
Crane,” he told her as he unlocked the door and walked her in. He locked the
door and stood outside waiting for Paul to come down.
“Its okay, Terry,” Janet said
softly tears running down her face. “I
know you’re only following orders.” She
had failed to stop Paul and now was afraid of what he would do to Lee.
Chip and the admiral were
returning to their cabins when Paul grabbed Chip’s arm, “I know you’re both
concerned about Janet but I just want to make sure she doesn’t try it
again. Let her cool off and then I’ll
let Jamie look at her.”
“Okay, Lee,” Chip answered
still stunned that Janet would try and shoot him. Something isn’t right with them but I
can’t figure it out, he thought as he walked back to his cabin.
Paul sat down and put his
shoes back on. Damn, he
thought. She’s going to blow this
whole operation.
((()))
Janet sat down on the bunk
and waited for Paul to come to the brig.
She didn’t have to wait too long before he showed up and sent the MAA
away.
“That was sure a stupid
stunt,” Paul said as he stood outside the entrance to the brig. “But you did make my job easier because now I
don’t have to worry about you talking to anyone. I’ve convinced them you’re a danger to
everyone on board. Now as far as Lee is concerned, he’ll pay dearly for your
stunt.”
“Please don’t hurt him,”
Janet begged. “Please.”
Paul turned around and walked
away with a grin on his face. He ran
into Jamie on his way back to his cabin. The admiral called him when he got
back to his cabin and asked him to talk to Lee.
“Lee, let me talk to
her. There must be something wrong, let
me check her out.”
“No, she’ll be fine in there
and Jamie I’m ordering you not to come in contact with her. There’s no medical issue so you can’t
countermand my orders. Just a disagreement between a married couple.”
“Lee,” Jamie pleaded but Paul
walked away and left Jamie standing in the middle of the passageway wondering
what was wrong with him.
((()))
Paul returned to the cabin,
got undressed and slid into the bunk. He
needed to find out how far from the yacht was from the island, make sure the
men were in place and get an update on Crane.
He needed a reason to surface the boat.
As he laid there he thought, I’ll have Adam start a fire in the
galley, they would have to surface so they could scrub the boat of smoke. He fell asleep with a smile on his face.
Janet laid down on the bunk
and noticed the lights dim in the passageway to simulate nighttime. At least
I don’t have to sleep in the chair, she thought. But she was worried about Lee and what Paul
would do to him. She fell asleep her
eyes wet with tears.
((()))
Lee woke the next morning and
could feel the heat radiating off his burnt body. He still had a headache, was nauseated and
when he tried to stand up he almost passed out.
He slowly sat back down on the mattress waiting for the dizziness to
subside. He reached under the mattress
for the bottle of water but it was empty.
As he sat there, he heard the lock disengage on the door. Arnie and Howie were there with his breakfast
of oatmeal, coffee and water.
“You sure are burnt,” Arnie
said to Lee as he looked him over.
“Too bad it’s cloudy today or
you could’ve gotten burnt on the back.
It looks like a storm is brewing,” Howie grinned.
“Can I please take a shower?”
Lee asked knowing the cool water would feel good on his skin.
“Sure, why not,” Arnie said
as Lee slowly stood up and gathered his clothes as he never bothered to put
them on the night before. He hid the
extra water bottle in his shirt so he could fill it with water. The two men walked Lee to the small
bathroom. He let the cool water from
the shower cascade down his body. He had
been in there a while when he heard pounding on the door.
“What the hell is taking you
so long,” Arnie yelled.
“I’ll be right out,” Lee
replied as he slowly eased his dirty clothes over his burnt skin. He filled the bottle with water and hid it
under his shirt. He walked back to the
room and heard the door lock. Lee didn’t
eat the oatmeal but drank the coffee and water.
He put the extra bottle under the mattress again. As he sat on the mattress, he could feel the
boat starting to rock more than before.
The storm Howie mentioned must be upon them. Lee laid down on the mattress and wondered
how Janet was fairing with Paul. If
he tries anything with her, he will be sorry, Lee thought. He was glad he was in the bottom of the yacht
and not on top during the storm.
((()))
Paul awoke the next morning
and looked at the door with the bullet hole.
He was surprised at how calm Janet was handling the gun. If he hadn’t lunged at her, she would have
shot him. He showered, dressed and went
down to the brig to check on her. She
was curled up next to the bulkhead covered by the blanket and looked pretty
harmless but he didn’t trust her at all.
She opened her eyes and saw him staring at her.
“What do you want?” she asked
quietly as she sat up.
“Just checking to see how you
are. After all you’re a danger to
everyone,” he smirked. “I’ll have Adam
bring you some breakfast.”
“Whatever you want,” she
replied. “Can I get out to take a
shower?”
“Maybe later when I can
escort you to the cabin. Don’t worry sweetie you’re not going to do
anything to get sweaty so if you don’t get a shower today, you can take one
tomorrow,” he quipped and walked away heading for the wardroom for
breakfast. He knew he was going to have
to face the admiral, Chip and Jamie regarding Janet.
Janet rested her back against
the front of the bunk. Damn, she
thought, there goes my escape plan.
((()))
When Paul arrived in the
wardroom the only person in there was Adam who was putting out the coffee urn
and cups. “Meet me at the brig in
fifteen minutes and have a breakfast tray for Janet. I’ll let you in and I need to talk to you.”
“Yes sir,” he replied loudly
when Cookie came into the wardroom from the crew’s mess.
“Sir would you like breakfast
now or wait for the admiral and Chip and dine with them,” Cookie asked briskly.
The whole boat had heard what took place in
the captain’s cabin last night and wondered why he locked Janet up in the brig
instead of letting her go to sick bay.
None of the crew would question what he had done but they sure didn’t
like it.
“Yes, I’ll eat now. Please have a tray made up for Janet and have
Adam take it down to her,” he told Cookie.
“Yes sir, I’ll take care of
it right away,” Cookie replied as he handed Paul a plate of french toast and sausages.
Paul took the plate and set
it down on the table and returned to the coffee urn and poured a cup of
coffee. He had just sat down to eat when
Chip came in. He went to the sideboard
and put some French toast and sausages on his plate along with a cup of coffee
and sat down next to Lee.
“How is Janet this morning?”
he asked as he took a sip of coffee.
“She seemed fine but still
looked a little agitated when I saw her a few minutes ago.”
“Lee, please let Jamie check
her out. There has to be a reason why
she ‘snapped’ as you said.”
Rubbing his hand on his
forehead Paul said, “Chip please let me handle this my way. You know Jamie can’t give her anything as she
has a bad reaction to drugs. I’m afraid
she’ll hurt someone else and I couldn’t live with myself if she did. But thanks
for your concern.”
Discouraged, Chip replied,
“Okay Lee, have it your way.”
Paul finished his breakfast
and saw Adam was waiting with Janet’s tray.
“I’ll be in the control room shortly,” he said to Chip, “I just want to
make sure Janet gets her breakfast.”
Chip nodded and continued to eat his breakfast which suddenly didn’t
taste very good. He took his plate,
scraped what he didn’t eat into the garbage, and put the dishes in the bin and
left the wardroom for the control room.
Just as he was leaving the admiral and Jamie walked in.
“Where’s Lee?” the admiral
asked not seeing him.
“Bringing Janet her
breakfast,” Chip answered. “Don’t ask
him about it, he won’t let her out.”
The admiral and Jamie looked
at Chip, shook their heads and got some breakfast.
((()))
Paul and Adam made their way
down to the brig. Paul unlocked the door
and Adam set the tray down on the small table next to the bunk. “I’ll be back to take the tray,” Adam said to
Janet as he left.
“I’ll stop by later to check
on you,” Paul told Janet as he locked the door.
She just looked at him and didn’t say a word. As they walked away Janet heard Paul tell
Adam he needed his help.
“I need to contact the yacht
and make sure the men are on
“No problem,” Adam said
grinning. “Cookie was going to let me
make the rolls for dinner but guess we’ll have to do without them. I won’t be able to take care of this until
early this afternoon. I still have to
straighten up the cabins and put fresh coffee in the cabins as well as help out
in the laundry.”
“This afternoon will be
fine. Here’s the key to the brig so you
can bring her lunch and dinner. Also
don’t leave or give her anything. She’ll
find some way to use whatever you leave to bust open this operation. I can’t believe she almost shot me,” Paul
lamented.
“You were lucky. I heard the captain’s been taking her
shooting so she knows how to handle a gun.”
“She’s really starting to bug
me. I just may have to do something
about it as she’s actually getting in the way.
I better get up to the control room before Chip sends out a search
party. I can’t wait for this to be
over,” Paul said seriously.
((()))
Adam returned to the wardroom
to clean it up after the breakfast crowd and Paul went to the control
room. The morning passed quickly. Adam returned to pick up Janet’s tray and
noticed none of the food had been eaten.
He knew Paul would be mad but
would wait to say something until after lunch.
When Adam returned to the wardroom with Janet’s tray, Cookie looked it
over and saw none of the food had been touched.
He had orders from Jamie to let him know anytime she didn’t eat her
meals. He would wait to see if she ate
lunch before reporting it to Jamie.
“Adam,” Cookie said, “Get a move
on, we need to bake the rolls for dinner.”
“Yes sir,” he replied and
quickly finished setting up the wardroom for lunch. Cookie prepared a lunch tray for Janet. It had her favorite soup and a sandwich with
a cup of tea. When Adam arrived at the
brig, he noticed she was sitting on the bunk staring at the door. He unlocked
the door and put the tray on the table.
“Please let me out,” Janet
begged.
“Not a chance,” Adam replied
as he locked the door and walked back to the wardroom.
Janet looked at the tray of
food. She was hungry but knew if she
didn’t eat again, Cookie would come down to find out why. He would then report to Jamie that she wasn’t
eating. Hopefully Jamie would make Paul release her to sick bay, she
thought.
((()))
The lunch crowd had cleared
out of the crew’s mess and wardroom.
Cookie and Adam were in the galley getting the rolls ready to be
baked. Cookie had turned on the oven and
placed in the first sheet of rolls. The
two men continued placing the rolls on the rest of the baking sheets. The timer rang for the first batch of rolls
so Adam put in another set of sheets.
“I need to go to stores to
get flour, sugar and check out what we have on hand for the picnic. I’ll be back by the time the rolls are
finished baking,” Cookie told Adam. When
Cookie left the galley, Adam went over to the oven and turned it up to 500
degrees. He knew the rolls would start
to burn and fill the galley and crew’s mess with smoke. He purposely left the galley and went to the
wardroom to starting setting up for dinner.
Paul had just left the
control room on his way to the reactor room when he saw the smoke billowing out
of the crew’s mess. He quickly ran in to
make sure no one was in there. When he
didn’t find anyone, he ran over to the nearest mic while pressing the button
sounding the klaxon.
“Mr. Morton, surface the
boat,” he said. “There smoke in the
crew’s mess and it’s filling the passageways.”
“Yes sir,” Chip responded
telling maneuvering to surface. “Turn up
the blowers up to full power so we can scrub the boat of smoke.”
“Aye, aye sir,” they
responded as Seaview quickly made her way to the surface.
Paul went back into the mess
and turned off the oven. He was coughing
from inhaling the smoke as he left the mess. He stopped to catch his breath
before he returned to the control room. As soon as Seaview broached the
surface, they cracked the hatch and Paul went up the ladder followed by Chip.
Taking a few deep breaths of
fresh air, Paul finally stopped coughing.
“Lee, you better have Jamie
check you out,” Chip insisted.
“No I’m fine,” he answered
his breathing returning to normal.
“Check with damage control and see if you can find out what happened in
there. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
Chip went back down the
ladder just as the admiral was coming down the spiral staircase.
“What’s going on?” he asked
quickly.
“Something was burning in the
crew’s mess. Lee saw smoke and ordered us to surface. We’re scrubbing the boat now. I’m going to check and see just what happened
in there. Lee’s up in the sail. He took in quite a bit of smoke but insists
he’s fine,” Chip reported as he left the control room and headed for the mess.
The admiral climbed up the
ladder just as Paul was going to make his phone call but he quickly put the
phone away before the admiral saw it.
“You okay, Lee,” he asked
with concern when he saw Paul leaning against the combing on the sail.
“Yes sir. I’m fine,” he replied with a slight
grin. “Just inhaled a little too much
smoke but I’m okay now.”
“What the hell happened?”
“I was walking to the reactor
room when I saw the smoke coming from the mess hall. I’ve got Chip checking it out. As soon as I find out I’ll let you know.”
The admiral turned to go down
the ladder, “You coming down?”
“In a minute, admiral, just
need a few more minutes of air.”
“Okay son,” the admiral
answered, went down the ladder and back to his cabin.
Paul looked down the hatch to
see if anyone was coming up. He quickly
dialed up the yacht and Arnie answered the phone.
“Yes Mr. Gallagher.”
“Everything on schedule?” he
asked. “We should be arriving the day
after tomorrow.”
“Yes sir. The boat will be there with the men
tomorrow. They will take over the island
as soon as they go ashore. We should be
there late tomorrow afternoon. We’re in
a pretty bad storm right now, so we have to slow down.”
“What about Crane? Has he given you anymore trouble?”
“Yes, he tried to escape but
we stopped him and tied him to the deck for the day. He’s got a real nice suntan, if you know what
I mean. I’ll send you a video of what he
look’s like.”
Paul waited a few minutes for
the video to arrive and smiled when he saw it.
“Thanks, this might help keep his wife in line. She’s turning out to be a pain in the ass.”
Laughing Arnie replied, “I
know what you mean. Everything will be
ready when you arrive.”
Paul heard someone coming up
the ladder, “End transmission,” he said quickly disconnecting the call and
putting the phone in his pocket. He
turned to look out over the ocean pretending to be in deep thought.
Chip joined Paul on the
bridge and reported, “Adam accidentally turned up the oven temperature when he
was cleaning up. He left to set up the
wardroom and didn’t realize it until he heard you on the mic.”
“How’s Cookie taking it,”
Paul asked cautiously.
“Not to good as you’d
expect. He’s really pissed at Adam’s
carelessness that could have turned into a disaster. Plus we won’t have rolls
with dinner tonight.”
Giving Chip a slight grin, “I
can just imagine the earful Cookie gave to Adam. I’ll have a talk with him later too.”
“Lee, you sure you’re okay?”
Chip wondered noticing Paul never turned to look at him when he was talking.
“Just worried about Janet and
what I should do about her,” he lied, “Does she seem okay to you...out of
sorts...not herself? She’s been acting a
little strange the last few days even before we left on the mission.”
“She seems fine to me but I
haven’t been around much lately,” Chip confessed.
“I think the job maybe
getting to her. Too much work at the
institute...on Seaview...my ONI missions. I don’t know,” Paul said as he ran his hand
through his hair a sure sign he was worried as he continued to look out over
the ocean.
“You know her better than
anyone, maybe she needs to get away from it all.”
“Maybe,” Paul said softly
with an evil smile. His plan was working
making Janet seem like she was losing it.
“Have Jamie talk to her and
look her over,” Chip suggested. “He’ll
find out if something’s wrong.”
“When we finish this mission,
I’ll have him check her out but right now I think its best she stays where she
is,” Paul replied cold heartedly. “I
know you don’t like it but I’m afraid she’ll try to hurt me again or someone
else.”
“I guess you know what’s best
for her.”
“Let’s get below. Dive the boat and resume course and speed,”
Paul told Chip as he went down the ladder followed by Chip who ordered
maneuvering to dive the boat as soon as he reached the bottom of the ladder.
Paul stood at the plotting
table tapping his pencil just like Lee did when he was worried. I sure have them fooled, he
thought. Paul decided to go visit Janet
and show her the video of her very sunburned husband.
“Chip, take over the conn,”
Paul said to Chip throwing the pencil on the table. “I’m going to see how Janet is doing.”
“Sure Lee,” Chip replied and
watched him leave the control room. He
returned to the plotting table looking at where they were and the progress they
were making.
((()))
Janet heard the klaxon and
knew something was very wrong. She could feel Seaview surfacing very
quickly and that usually meant there was a fire on board. She was worried that someone may have been
hurt too. Adam came by to take her tray
and noticed she hadn’t eaten anything again.
“Why did the klaxon sound?”
she asked Adam worriedly.
“Paul will tell you if he
wants you to know. I see you didn’t eat
again. Paul’s not going to like it.”
“I don’t really care,” Janet
snapped.
Paul met Adam just as he left
the brig and was heading back to the mess.
“Good job burning the rolls. I
told Morton I would talk to you so consider this our talk if you’re asked. I was able to contact the yacht and
everything will be in place by the time we get to the island,” Paul told Adam
as he noticed the full tray of food.
“She didn’t eat lunch?”
“No and no breakfast
either. She wanted to know why the
klaxon went off but I didn’t tell her.”
“Don’t worry I’ll tell her
and find out what she’s up too,” Paul said unhappily.
Adam returned to the galley
with Janet’s tray of uneaten food.
Cookie noticed nothing had been eaten.
She didn’t eat breakfast and now lunch. Look’s like I’m going to have to pay her a
visit, captain’s orders or no orders. I
have my orders too,” Cookie thought.
((()))
Janet was sitting on the bunk
when Paul came over to her. He opened
the door to the brig and stood just inside the door.
“Adam tells me you want to
know why the klaxon sounded. There was
an accident in the galley. The rolls
were burning and there was a lot of smoke.”
Janet could smell the smoke
on his clothes. “I suppose you went in
to turn off the oven that you probably told Adam to turn up,” she said shaking
her head. “Somebody could have been hurt
by that stunt.”
Paul had to smile at her
perception. “Yes you’re right. I needed to make a phone call and that was
the only way I could do it. And I really
don’t care if anyone gets hurt, my dear.
Speaking of phone calls, maybe you would like to see some pictures of
Lee?” he asked as he showed her the video of him being tied to the deck, laying
out there all day and then passing out when they dumped the cold water on
him. Paul looked at the horror on
Janet’s face seeing her sunburned husband.
“He looks a little overdone, don’t you think,” Paul said smugly. Janet went to slap his face but he grabbed her
arm and twisted it behind her back causing her to cry out. “Don’t you ever try and hit me again or I’ll
smack you across the room,” he told her hatefully letting her arm go.
“You’re an evil man,” Janet
hissed holding back her tears.
Smirking, “Adam tells me you
haven’t eaten any breakfast or lunch.”
“Not hungry,” she replied but
changed the subject quickly. “While
you're holding me prisoner, can I do some work?”
“No, you might have to talk
to Chip or the admiral and we can’t have that.
Besides, Chip thinks you’re losing your mind thanks to my talk with him
so don’t worry about work.”
“Chip won’t believe a word
you say,” Janet insisted.
“Don’t be so sure of that, sweetheart. You better eat dinner or you’ll be sorry or
should I say Lee will be sorry.”
Paul shut the door on the
brig and walked down the passageway to the wardroom smiling all the way.
“Damn,” Janet said out
loud. I’ve got to find someway to get
help, she thought as the tears she was holding back ran down her face. She went back and sat down on the bunk
placing her face in her hands as she rested her elbows on her knees.
((()))
Before the dinner crowd
arrived in the wardroom and crew’s mess, Cookie made up Janet’s dinner tray
with a cup of hot tea. When Adam took it
down to her, he was going to accompany him and find out why she wasn’t
eating. As Adam left the galley, he saw
Cookie waiting by the door.
“Let’s go,” Cookie told Adam
as he held the tray.
Adam looked at Cookie
surprised that he was going with him to see Janet. “The Captain’s ordered no one to see her but
him or me.”
Right now Cookie was not too
happy with Adam after what took place in the galley earlier, looked at Adam who
had the nerve to question what he was doing and said sharply, “Well I have
orders too and mine will countermand the Captain’s.”
“Yes sir,” Adam replied
softly and headed down to the brig with Cookie following him.
When Cookie and Adam arrived
at the brig, Janet was sitting on the bunk with her knees bent and rested her
chin on them. She was happy to Cookie as
she realized he was going to help her but also knew she was going to get yelled
at for not eating.
“I noticed you didn’t
breakfast or lunch,” Cookie said sternly.
”Sorry Cookie, I’m just not hungry,” she answered back.
“You know I have my orders
and I’m going to follow them if you don’t eat dinner.”
“Yes sir,” Janet replied with
a sigh.
Adam opened the brig door and
just as he went to put the food down on the table, Janet ‘accidentally’ knocked
into him when she got up from the bunk and hit the tray sending the food all
over the floor.
“I’m sorry, Adam,” Janet said
with a wry grin.
“Adam, get this mess cleaned
up,” Cookie told Adam.
Adam hesitated for a few
seconds before leaving. “And what are
you waiting for?” Cookie shouted.
“Yes, sir,” Adam said as he
went to a storage closet a couple of doors down from the brig. He stood there and listened to see if Janet
talked to Cookie. Unless they were
whispering he didn’t hear her say anything.
Janet pointed to the marker
in Cookie’s pocket. Cookie never went
anywhere with out a marker. Looking
confused he handed it to her. She took
the napkin that was on the table leftover from lunch and wrote on it. Tell only Chip that Lee is a
fake...double....Adam working with him.
She quickly gave him the napkin but kept the marker hiding it under the
pillow on the bunk as Adam returned with a mop and bucket. Cookie put the napkin in his pocket and waited
while Adam cleaned up the mess.
“Sorry Janet,” Cookie said,
“I’ll have Adam bring you another tray and you’d better eat it.”
“Yes Cookie,” she replied as
Adam locked the door on the brig and the two men returned to the wardroom.
Smiling as they walked away,
she knew Cookie would read the napkin and give it to Chip. Adam returned a few
minutes later with a new tray of food.
He opened the door and put it on the table with no problems this
time.
“What did Cookie mean when he
said he has his orders?”
“Talk to Cookie if you want
to know,” Janet replied snidely as she took her fork and dug into her dinner.
Adam answered her back, “I’ll
just tell Paul and Cookie will have to tell him.”
“Be my guest,” she said
taking a sip of her tea. She really was
too nervous to eat. She knew Chip
couldn’t come down to talk her so she would have to write another note and send
it through Cookie. She took the marker
from under the pillow and clipped to the inside of her sweatpants. They were only a day away from docking on
((()))
Lee could feel the yacht
rocking and knew they must be in a bad storm.
His sunburn was still radiating heat and his arms felt the skin was
being pulled off of them. He still had a
headache but wasn’t as nauseated as before.
He finished all of his water and knew he wouldn’t get any more until
lunch so he choked down the oatmeal. When he was finished he laid down on the
mattress trying to get comfortable. He
fell asleep but was awakened when he heard the door being unlocked and noticed
the yacht had stopped rocking.
Howie stood there with Danny
and Arnie grinning, “Crane, today is your lucky day. The storm’s over and you get to finish your
tan. We wouldn’t want you to have any
tan lines,” Danny said sarcastically as he grabbed Lee by the arm and dragged
him up stairs to the upper deck where he removed his t-shirt and shorts. Howie pushed him down on his stomach
spreading his arms and legs as he tied them down. As they stood there, Danny was taking a video
of Lee laying in the hot sun and said to Howie, “Mr. Gallagher is going to have
another great home movie to show Mrs. Crane.”
Lee could hardly control his temper but was in no position to do
anything about it. The three men
returned to the salon and checked out the refrigerator. They found what they wanted, nice cold bottles
of beer.
The ocean was still rough
from the storm as Lee laid on the hot deck and with every rock of the boat his
chest rubbed on the wooden slats causing the blisters that had formed on his
chest and thighs to break open oozing out their liquid. He turned his head sideways trying to get
comfortable.
((()))
The admiral, Jamie, Paul and
Chip were just finishing up dinner when Cookie returned to the wardroom to
check on the officers. They noticed
Cookie was not there when they arrived and wondered where he was as he was
always in the wardroom when they ate.
Chip spoke up, “Everything
okay Cookie? We were worried when we
didn’t see you in here.”
“Yes sir. I just had to check
on Mrs. Crane as she didn’t eat breakfast or lunch.”
Jamie looked up from his
dinner. “She’s not eating...I’m going
down there when I’m finished.”
“No need Dr. Jamieson, I told
her she had better eat or else,” Cookie smiled.
Paul frowned when he heard
the conversation between Cookie and Jamie.
He was about to say something but thought he better not when Jamie spoke
up about going down see her. He was
curious as to what the doctor had to do with her and eating. He still wasn’t happy that Cookie had gone to
see her and would find out about it later.
Cookie saw they had their
dessert and coffee so he went back to the crew’s mess and the galley to read
what Janet wrote on the napkin. He
stared at it after he read it and speculated on what it meant but would give it
to Mr. Morton like she asked. Adam also
returned to the wardroom after bringing Janet her dinner. He needed to talk to Paul about Cookie’s
‘orders’. He wondered if Paul knew what
they were. He would wait to talk to Paul
when he made his final check of the officer’s cabins for the night.
Cookie was still in the
galley when Chip stuck his head in the crew’s mess looking for him. He wanted to ask Cookie about Janet. He also noticed that Lee wasn’t too pleased
when Cookie went to see Janet.
“Great dinner,” Chip said to
Cookie who looked up quickly not realizing Chip was there. “How was Janet...why is she not eating...does
she need anything?” he asked with concern.
“No, she doesn’t need
anything except to be let out and she said she wasn’t hungry,” he replied looking
at the napkin. “Mr. Morton, she gave me
this to give to you,” Cookie said giving Chip the napkin. “Do you know what it means?”
Chip read what was written on
the name and looked at Cookie dumfounded.
“No, I’m not sure but I’ll look into it.
Don’t say anything to anybody about this. Make an excuse to get back down again but
don’t make it too obvious. Something’s
going on and I don’t want to put her in danger.”
“Yes sir. Her dinner tray is still down there so I’ll
go later and bring it back up.”
Chip walked away and stopped
at the door before leaving. “Thanks
Cookie and bring some extra napkins.”
“No problem, Mr. Morton,”
Cookie replied as Chip continued out the door and up to his cabin. He was off duty for the night and was going
to catch up on the paperwork that Janet couldn’t do while she was in the
brig. As he arrived at his cabin he saw
Adam leaving the admiral’s with the dirty towels. Adam saw Chip enter his cabin and knocked on
the door. “Do you need anything before
retiring Mr. Morton?”
“No Adam, I’m fine,” Chip
replied as Adam took his dirty towels and left some clean ones.
“Good night sir,” he said
closing the door behind him.
Adam had one more cabin to
check on that was Paul’s. He went around
the corner stopping to make sure no one was following him as he knew Chip and
Lee would talk about the boat before retiring.
Paul was just getting ready to do his walk-around when Adam knocked on
the door.
“Come in,” Paul said waiting
at the door to see who was there. Adam
entered the cabin and could tell Paul was pissed. “Why did you let that cook go with you...what
happen down there...did she talk to him?” he questioned as he sat down at the
desk.
“He said he had ‘orders’ and
his orders countermanded yours. I had to
leave them alone for a few minutes to clean up the mess she made when she
knocked over her tray. I waited at the
door and I didn’t hear them talking. I
asked her what Cookie’s ‘orders’ were when I brought her a new tray of food but
she told me to ask him. I know no one
was supposed to see her, but I couldn’t tell him no, he couldn’t go. Besides that, he’s not real happy with me
right now and I don’t want to get on his bad side if you know what I mean,”
Adam explained.
“Damn. You’re sure they didn’t talk?” Paul asked
again and Adam shook his head yes. “I’ll
find out what ‘orders’ he’s talking about.
We’re almost done only another twenty-four hours until we’re free of
this.” Paul got up from the desk and
would take his walk-around the boat making the galley his first stop of the
night.
((()))
Chip opened his door slightly
and watched Adam head for Lee’s cabin.
Once he saw him round the corner he went to the admiral’s cabin and
knocked on the door. “Come in,” the admiral
replied quickly not expecting anyone and was surprised to see Chip enter the
cabin.
“Hi Chip what can I do for
you?”
Chip took the napkin out of
his pocket and laid it on the admiral’s desk.
He read what it said and looked up at Chip. “Where did you get this...what does it mean?”
Chip explained to the admiral
how he came about the napkin and what Cookie had told him. Taking a deep breath the admiral said, “If
this is true, we have to get more information from her but ‘Lee’ is very
adamant about no one talking to her and now we know why. We could just call Lee or whoever he is out.”
“No I’m afraid he’ll take it
out on Janet. He seems to have something
over her and he’s trying to make her look like she’s crazy. Cookie’s going to
see if he can’t get some more information.
Let’s wait and see what he finds out first.”
“You’re right Chip,” the
admiral admitted as he ran his hand through his hair. “We’ll just have to be careful as to what we
say and do from now on.”
“I agree,” Chip concurred as
he stood up and went to the door. “Good
night sir.”
“Good night Chip,” the
admiral replied. When Chip left the
cabin, the admiral opened the bottom drawer of his desk and took out a bottle
of his favorite scotch and poured himself two fingers worth and swallowed it down
in one gulp.
Chip returned to his cabin
but was too worried about what was on the napkin. Hopefully Cookie can get more information,
he thought. He looked at the stack of
paperwork on his desk and decided to tackle it to keep his mind busy.
((()))
Paul made his way to the
galley hoping Cookie was still there but caught him as he was leaving. “Where are you going?” Paul asked, “I need to
talk to you.”
“I was just going down to the
brig to get Janet’s tray so I could clean it up and close the galley for the
night. I forgot she still had it down
there. Sorry sir,” Cookie replied.
“I’ll walk with you,” Paul
said as he went down the stairway with Cookie following him. “Dinner was exceptional good tonight,” Paul
commented as they walked down the passageway to the brig.
“Thank you, sir.”
When they arrived at the brig
Janet was sitting with her back against the bulkhead. She had eaten most of her dinner so Cookie
smiled at her. She returned the smile
but was upset that Paul was with him.
Paul opened the door of the brig and Cookie removed the tray.
“Thank you,” Janet said,
“Dinner was good.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied
as Paul shut and locked the door. “Good
night, Skipper, Mrs. C.”
“Good night,” they both
replied and watched as Cookie walked down the passageway to the stairs. Paul followed him making sure he went up the
stairs.
Paul returned to the brig and
opened up the door. Janet had gotten up
off the bunk and was facing him. “Whose
‘orders’ countermand mine?” he asked crossly.
“And why didn’t you tell me about them.”
“I can’t remember
everything,” she answered back tersely.
“Ask Cookie if you want to know.”
With that remark, Paul
backhanded her across the face leaving a large red welt and scratch from Lee’s
ring. “I’ve just about had enough of
you,” he said as she rubbed her check.
“Okay Paul, you win,” Janet
replied contritely, “I’ve had enough too.
What do you want me to do?”
Stunned at her about face,
“Now that’s more like it. I promise I’ll make it up to you,” he told Janet as
he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the lips his hand brushing against
her breast. Janet cringed at his touch
but didn’t let him see it.
“Can I please take a shower?”
Janet asked softly. “I need to change my
clothes too.”
“Okay, I’ll let you shower
and change while I do my walk-around. I
still don’t trust you so I’m going to lock you in the cabin.”
The two of them went up the
ladders and passageways to their cabin.
Paul opened the door for Janet and let her go in first. He followed her in. “I’ll do my walk around and when I come back
we’ll talk about what I want you to do,” he told her squeezing her hand.
“Don’t hurry on my account,”
she retorted.
“I’ll be back soon,” Paul
replied as he rubbed her check where there was a large welt and scratch from
where he hit her. “I hate this
walk-around,” he muttered under his breath as he left the cabin. Janet could hear him lock the door.
When Paul left Janet had all
she could do to keep from throwing up.
The thought of pretending to sleep with him was revolting but she would
have to do it to carry out her plan and save not only Lee but Seaview. Before she took her shower, she checked out
Lee’s desk to see if the gun was still there.
After going through all the drawers, she couldn’t find it. She practically turned the cabin upside down
trying to find the gun but couldn’t find it.
Damn, she thought. Going
back to the desk drawer, the only thing she found was a twelve inch by three-inch-wide
solid glass nameplate with Lee’s name engraved on it. It also had a picture of him and Liddy taped on
it. It was stashed in the back of the
drawer so Lee probably forgot he put it there.
Oh well, it will have to do, she thought as she put it under the
pillow.
((()))
Janet figured Paul would cut
short his walk-around the boat. Lee
normally took a couple of hours but Paul would only be gone an hour to make it
look good. She quickly took a shower and
had just toweled off and was putting on a pair of sweats when she heard Paul
unlock the door. She quickly finished dressing before he walked in. He had only been gone about thirty minutes.
He walked into the cabin
surprised to see her in the sweats. “Is
that what you wear for Lee?” he asked frowning.
“I thought you might slip into this,” he told her as he went to the
drawer under the bunk and pulled out a sexy nightgown.
She was horrified that he
pulled that out of the drawer and expected her to wear it but didn’t show
it. She grabbed it out of his hand. “Maybe
when we get to know each other better,” she told him as he stood facing her and
his back to the bunk. He took her by the
waist, drew her close and kissed her softly on the lips. As much as she wanted to bite him, she
returned his kiss, moving him closer to the bunk so she could grab the
nameplate and knock him over the head.
He kissed her again a little harder this time. Janet looked into his face and noticed his
eyes were closed. She felt underneath
the pillow, found the nameplate and hit him as hard as she could. He opened his eyes before falling to the
floor. There was blood coming from the
back of his head where she hit him. He
looked at her and tried to get up but she hit him again. Janet didn’t waste anytime running out of the
cabin. She ran to Chip’s cabin and
quickly opened the door without knocking.
Shaking, “I’m sorry...I hit
him...I knocked him out,” she said quickly to a surprised Chip who was just
getting ready for bed. “You’ve got to
stop him before he hurts Lee anymore,” she begged.
“Okay, okay,” he replied
quickly as he put on his pants, grabbed his shirt and put it on buttoning it as
he went to their cabin.
Chip found Paul laying on the
floor just coming to. He noticed quite a
bit of blood on the floor where he laid.
He took the mic off the wall, “Master-at-arms report to the captain’s cabin
on the double. He doubled clicked the
mic again, “Doc, report to the captain’s cabin.” Chip replaced the mic in its holder
“Aye, aye sir,” the MAA
reported.
“I’ll be right there,” Jamie
answered, grabbing his bag and ran up the ladder to Lee’s cabin.
The admiral hearing the
commotion and Chip’s call, left his cabin and hurried down the passageway to
Lee’s cabin.
Paul had gotten up and put
his hand to the back of his head. His
hand was covered in blood. “You bitch,”
he yelled at Janet and lunged at her but Chip pushed him back away from her.
“Don’t you touch her,” he
ordered. “I know you’re not Lee Crane.”
Stunned Paul looked at Chip
and then Janet. “How did you find
out...she never talked to anyone...your husband will die if I don’t show up at
the island,” he sneered.
“I wrote a note on a napkin
and Cookie gave it to Chip,” Janet told Paul.
She looked at Chip and the admiral who had entered the cabin and
continued, “His name is Paul Gallagher.
You better get Adam too. He’s
working with Paul.”
As Janet was telling Paul how
she let Chip know about him, Jamie and Ron, the MAA on duty, appeared in the
doorway. Jamie went over to Paul and
looked at the back of his head. He saw
the nameplate on the bunk and looked over at Janet, “You hit him with this?” he
asked picking it up and putting it on the desk not knowing that Paul wasn’t
Lee.
“Yes sir,” Janet replied
softly. “Jamie, the man you’re looking
at is not Lee. He’s pretending to be
Lee. His name is Paul Gallagher and he’s
holding Lee hostage on a yacht,” she explained. “I had to stop him...he was
going to...” she couldn’t finish telling them as tears welled up in her eyes.
“What do you mean he’s not
Lee?” Jamie said with a confused look on his face. But then he looked at Janet
closely and noticed the red welt and scratch on her face that would only be
caused by a ring when someone was slapped.
“Where did you get the welt
on your face,” Jamie asked as he sat Paul down in the chair and wrapped a
temporary bandage around his head until he could get him to sick bay.
“Paul hit me earlier this
evening when I wouldn’t tell him your orders countermanded his orders so that’s
why Cookie came to see me when I didn’t eat.”
After Janet told Jamie who
hit her, he looked again at Paul and knew it wasn’t Lee as he would never hit a
woman let alone his wife.
Paul stared her with hatred
in his eyes as he had been outsmarted by her.
He was pissed and started to go for her when the MAA shoved him back
down in the chair and drew his gun.
“Jamie, will he be alright?”
the admiral asked letting out a deep sigh.
“Yes, just a few stitches and
he can be sent to the brig,” Jamie replied.
“Give me thirty minutes. I need to do a neuro on him but I don’t think
he has a concussion.”
Chip turned to the MAA, “Ron,
get another man, round up Adam and put him in the brig. Have a guard posted outside at all
times. You will go with Dr. Jamieson and
Gallagher and stay with him at all times.
If he so much as attempts to escape, shoot him,” he ordered.
“Aye, aye sir,” Ron replied
going to the nearest mic in the passageway.
He told Marco to find Adam and lock him up.
Jamie helped up Gallagher
from the chair and with Ron’s help escorted him to sick bay where he put in ten
stitches in the back of his head, did a neurological check and found nothing
wrong. When he was finished Ron took him
to the brig where Adam had already been locked in. Before Ron left he took another look at Gallagher
and shook his head not believing he wasn’t the Skipper.
((()))
The admiral, Chip and Janet
went to the admiral’s cabin. The admiral
sat down behind his desk while Chip and Janet sat in front. “I’ve got a lot to tell you,” she said her
voice shaking.
“Just start at the
beginning,” the admiral told her softly.
Taking a deep breath Janet
began, “We were on our way home from
“How did you know it wasn’t
the real Lee?” Chip asked. “He not only
is a dead ringer for him but acted like him and knew how to pilot a sub.”
“I knew the minute Paul came
aboard it wasn’t Lee. His eyes gave him
away. They may look like Lee’s but they
had no warmth. As far as knowing how to
act, he had worked aboard Seaview as a steward under the name of Sal
Silver for a year. He also placed
cameras in the ducts so he could study him.
He even placed one in our cabin.
After he left here, he had surgery done to look like Lee and while he
recovered he watched the videos he made so he could adopt his mannerisms.”
“Why did he do this?” the
admiral questioned.
“Vengeance. He had captured Lee while he was on a
mission. Lee escaped and embarrassed him
with his superior, so he plotted to get even.”
The admiral looked Janet in
the eyes and asked tersely, “Why didn’t you tell us this before when he first
came aboard or even at the institute.”
Janet looked at the admiral
and wiped away the tears forming in her eyes.
“I couldn’t. Lee is still on that
yacht with those men. Paul had them take
videos of him. He would show me videos
of Lee being beaten or tortured. If I
told anyone he would order more beatings.
The last one he showed me they had him tied down on the top of the yacht
in the sun. He’s burned all over and
then they threw cold water on him and he passed out. I was afraid they would kill him.”
“I’m sorry I was cross. I didn’t realize that they were using Lee to
keep you in line. Is he okay?”
“The last time I saw a video
was him in the sun and he didn’t look very good at all. There’s more I need to tell you,” Janet
stressed. “It concerns Seaview.”
“Go on,” Chip said now
sitting on the edge of his seat.
“I was in my office and went
to my cabin and heard Paul and Adam talking.
They didn’t shut the door all the way so I stood there and
listened. They are going to take over Seaview
and bring her along with Lee to the PR.
Paul is sending men to the island to seize it. When Seaview arrives they’re going to
take her over, lockup the crew and officers with the people on the island. To keep the crew in line, he’s going to hold
the three of us hostage threatening to kill each of us if the crew tries
anything. They’re going to destroy all
communication devices too. Paul will
pilot Seaview back to the PR with Lee and me. He will turn them over and then return to the
island to make it look like he was captured too. Admiral, Chip, Paul thinks he’s going to
assume Lee’s life forever. We have to do something…I can’t stay with him…I’ll
kill him,” Janet admitted.
“When are Gallagher’s men
scheduled to be at the island?” Chip asked somberly.
“They should be there already. He had Adam purposely burn the rolls knowing
that you would surface the boat to scrub it of smoke. Paul ‘saved the day’ inhaling the smoke so he
could make a phone call using his SAT phone to tell the Arnie to make sure the
men were in place by the time the yacht and Seaview got there.”
“Any idea how soon the yacht
is going to be there,” the admiral inquired.
“No sir. I’m not sure where
they are. I know they stopped in
Catalina to pick up Arnie and Danny and then they were going to continue on to
the island.”
Rubbing his hand through his
hair, the admiral said, “We have our work cut out for us. I need to get in
contact with Jiggs at
“No sir. He didn’t know I was listening at the door
and I didn’t say anything to him.”
“Good, that will give us an
element of surprise. Chip, make sure
Janet gets to her cabin and then come back here so we can plan our ‘surprise’
attack. Just one more item,” the admiral
said to Janet, “Do you know how many men we’re talking about?”
“No sir, I know there are two
men on the yacht but judging by the size of it, it probably has a crew of at
least two or three more people,” Janet replied. “I can walk myself to the
cabin.”
“No, let Chip walk you back
while I make my phone calls.” As the
admiral rose from his chair, Chip and Janet stood too. He came around the desk and gently took her
hands. “You did a good job,” he told her patting her hand. “We’ll get Lee back safe and sound.”
“I know you will,” she said
giving him a weak grin.
Chip opened the door for her
while the admiral sat back down at his desk, picked up the phone and told
Thompson in the radio shack to get him Admiral Johnson at ONI and Admiral
Starke at COMSUBPAC.
Chip walked Janet to her
cabin. “Sorry I barged in on you but I was afraid Paul would come after
me. I didn’t know if I knocked him out
or just stunned him,” Janet said remembering that Chip looked a little
embarrassed when she caught him in his underwear.
Smiling, “That’s okay. I’m glad you did. I’m really sorry but Gallagher actually had
me believing you were losing your mind.”
“No problem. I just might have if I had to pretend he was
Lee much longer. Please let me know what
you and the admiral come up with. I want
to help but could you do me one favor?”
“Sure, what is it?” Chip
answered with a concerned look on his face.
“Check the air vent to make
sure he didn’t put another camera in there.
I don’t want anyone to see what’s going on in there,” Janet asked
softly.
“I’ll check it now but I’ll
make sure someone checks the whole cabin tomorrow just to make sure there’s
nothing in there. I’ll have them go over
the whole boat too,” Chip reassured her. “Do you want to stay in my cabin for
tonight? I can stay in yours,” he offered.
“No, I would rather be in
mine. But thanks for offering.”
Chip opened the door and
quickly looked around the cabin and then the air vent. He didn’t see any cameras or listening
devices. “I think it’s all clean.”
“Thanks Chip.”
Chip closed the door and
stood there for a few minutes. He was
upset that he didn’t realize that Gallagher wasn’t Lee. After all they were best friends, roommates
and had worked together for years; he should have known something wasn’t
right. Shaking his head, he continued on
to the admiral’s cabin and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” the admiral said
just as he was getting off the phone.
Chip sat down in the chair next to the admiral’s desk. The admiral
sensed something was wrong.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No sir. I’m just upset that I didn’t recognize that Gallagher
wasn’t Lee. I should have known,” he
said angrily.
“That makes two of us,” the
admiral responded. “I should have known
also.” The admiral continued, “I talked
to Johnson and he’s going to check out this Paul Gallagher. His name doesn’t
ring a bell but he’s going to look into some of Lee’s old missions and get back
to me. There’s a destroyer on patrol not
to far from the island so Jiggs’ is going to send it to the island to take Gallagher
and his men off our hands. They will
make sure the men get to
Thompson rang the admiral’s
phone while Chip sat thinking how they could capture Gallagher’s men and making
sure none of Seaview’s crew was hurt.
“Thanks Gerald,” the admiral said finishing his call with Admiral
Johnson. “Johnson found Gallagher’s name
in a file. Lee had been captured,
tortured and Gallagher was bringing him back to the PR when Lee managed to
escape. Johnson did find out though that
at one time he was a submarine captain.
I must admit he’s handled Seaview pretty well but now that makes
sense he let you take her out of her berth.
He knew he would be discovered if he did it and scraped the paint. You know Lee could take her out blindfolded
if needed.”
“You’re right. He wasn’t checking on the missile hatch when
he took his time getting down to the control room after we cleared the
breakwater, he was making a phone call and probably made one when he went up on
deck after he inhaled the smoke. How
could we be so blind?” Chip lamented.
“It could have gotten Lee and Janet killed.”
“We can’t worry about that
now. What did you come up with? I saw that look on your face, you have a
plan,” the admiral answered with a wry grin.
“What if we let them think
they’re taking over Seaview? We dock as normal, and wait for the deck
detail to secure the boat. We know they
will take those men right away. We can
have a couple of men with me in the sail bridge with automatic weapons ready to
shoot if necessary. They’ll be expecting
Gallagher to be in the control room ready to sail to the PR so they will send
men down to round up the crew only Gallagher won’t be in the control room but
our men will. Armed and waiting for them, that is.”
“That might work,” the
admiral replied, “it’s too bad we don’t know how many of Gallagher’s men are on
the island.”
“Do you think Gallagher will
tell us with a little coaxing,” Chip smirked as he desperately wanted to get
his hands on him.
Smirking back the admiral
said, “We all could try to coax it out of him but let’s see what happens when
we get there. We’ll have the men armed
and ready for the ‘greeting committee’ when they come aboard. He can’t have that many men on the island.”
“Yes sir,” Chip replied as he
stood up ready to the admiral’s cabin when he heard
((()))
It was getting dark and Lee
had been tied to the deck from almost eight hours. His back, legs and bottoms of his feet were
burnt from the hot sun. His chest was
rubbed raw from the movement of the yacht on the rough sea. He was thirsty,
hungry and tired. He had tried to work
loose the ropes tying him to the deck but made no progress. He stopped struggling hearing the sliding
door open from the main salon where heard the voices of Arnie and Howie talking
as they walked out. He waited for them to come up and untie him. Lee figured the yacht was at least sixty feet
long and had four decks. He was locked up on the bottom deck with the engines. When they initially brought him up, he noticed
the deck he was on had the bridge, galley and a stateroom. He also knew the main salon was where the
owner’s quarters were and where Arnie and Howie had just come from. He could hear them as they stood outside.
“When we get to the island
tomorrow, Mr. Gallagher’s men will have taken over the island and put the
people located there in one of the buildings in the compound. Once Seaview docks, they’ll take the
deck crew and put them in with the others until we get the rest of the crew off
the boat,” Arnie slurred.
“How many men does he have on
that island? Seaview must have
over hundred men on her,” Howie said slurring his words too.
“I think he said there were
at least twenty. I’m sure Mr. Gallagher
will have taken steps to make sure we can get the crew off. Once the crew has been locked up, we’ll board
her and takeover operations. The men on
the island are all sailors so we shouldn’t have too much trouble getting Seaview
back home. After all Mr. Gallagher is a
submarine captain.”
Lee smiled as he listened to
the men talking realizing they were drunk.
He wondered where Danny was as he recognized the voices of the Howie and
Arnie. If he was going to save Seaview
he would have to make his move now. Lee
heard to the men come up the ladder and pretended to be asleep. Arnie kicked the bottom of his foot. Lee stirred and let out a cry of pain.
“Wake up Crane. Your sun tanning days are over,” Arnie said
as he untied his ankles and then untied his wrists. Lee slowly pushed himself
up. His back was on fire along with the
back of his legs and the bottom of his feet.
He tried to stand but the pain in the bottom of his feet kept him from
standing so Arnie jerked him up by his arm.
Lee took his other hand and punched Arnie right in the jaw sending him
into the bench on the deck knocking him out cold. Howie quickly saw what was taking place and
ran over to Lee catching him in the jaw with his fist. Lee staggered backward almost tripping over
Arnie but managed to avoid another of Howie’s punches before connecting with
one of his own sending him overboard into the ocean. Lee looked over the rail but there was
nothing he could do. He watched as the
man slowly sank under the waves.
He quickly put on his t-shirt
and shorts. Lee took the zip ties Arnie
had on him and tied his hands together to the railing and then tied his ankles
together. He took the gun that Arnie had and put it in the waist band of his
shorts. He took Howie’s gun and threw it
overboard. Grabbing the rest of the ties he gently and cautiously walked down
the stairs to the main salon. Now not
only were his feet sore but his jaw too. He had to find Danny. He also needed to find out how many more
people were on the yacht. He knew about
the three men, and figured there would be someone at the helm but wasn’t sure
if anyone else was aboard. He found
Danny on the couch in the main salon passed out as he too was drunk. He put him over his shoulder and made his way
down to the room where he had been locked up.
He zip tied his hands together then secured him to a rail that was in
the cabin to keep the loads from shifting.
He then zip tied his feet. He
grabbed his shoes and put them on before he left the cabin. It hurt to walk but the shoes did help
somewhat.
He made his way to the deck
where the bridge was located and saw a man and woman in there. He cautiously
opened the door. The woman noticed him
first and tapped the man on the shoulder.
Lee took the gun out of his shorts and pointed it at them.
“Mr. Gallagher, I thought you
left the boat,” the woman said as she stared at Lee.
“I’m not Paul Gallagher. I’m Lee Crane.”
“So you must be the man
they’re holding below,” the man said warily.
“Yes, I am.”
“How did you escape the
clutches of the other men,” he continued.
“They got drunk and I managed
to overtake them. Unfortunately, Howie fell
overboard,” Lee stated.
“No big loss,” the woman
smirked. “I’m Jenny Crosby and this is
my husband Jacob.”
“I sense that you aren’t
exactly here of your own free will either?”
Jenny continued, “No
sir. Paul Gallagher is my cousin. Let’s just say he’s the black sheep of the
family. Born and raised here in the
Running his hand through his
hair Lee replied, “Let’s just say he wasn’t happy with something that took
place a few years ago and decided to take revenge on me by changing his looks
and taking over my life. Would you be willing to help me see that he is stopped
from hurting your family and taking me back to the PR?” Lee asked hopefully.
“What can we do?’ Jacob
responded without hesitation.
“First of all do you have any
water. They had me out there all day and
I’m really thirsty.”
Jenny went over to a small
refrigerator and took a bottle of water and handed it to Lee who quickly opened
up the bottle and guzzled down the whole thing.
Jenny handed him another one which he drank a little slower.
“When was the last time you
ate or changed?”
“Ate this morning and no
clothes,” Lee grinned looking at his dirty shirt and shorts. “I guess I don’t smell or look very good.”
Smiling back Jenny said, “No
you don’t smell very good and you sure are sunburned. I tried to help you the other day when they
put you out there but Arnie almost threw me overboard. I’ll get some clothes for you while you take
a shower. Maybe I can also find
something for your sunburn in the stateroom and I’ll make you something to
eat. I was just going to get us some
dinner anyway.”
“Thanks Jenny but first I
need to contact my submarine and warn them that they’re in danger.”
Surprised, Jacob looked away
from the water at Lee, “You have a submarine?”
“Yes, I’m the captain of the Seaview
and work for the Nelson Institute of Marine Research. They’re heading to
“I’ve heard of your submarine
and the Nelson Institute. I would love
to see her. I was in the Navy but now I
pilot one of the charter boats that go to
Smiling Lee answered, “I’ll
make sure you get a tour now where’s your radio?”
Paul pointed to a cabinet on
his left. Lee opened it up and found a
state of the art radio system.
Lee dialed in Seaview’s
frequency. “Seaview this Crane,
come in Seaview.”
Lee called Seaview
again more urgently, “Crane to Seaview, come in Seaview,
Chip was still in the
Admiral’s office when he heard the call.
The admiral pressed the intercom button on his desk. “What is it Sparks? Mr. Morton is with me.”
“Sir, I’m getting a call from
a boat and the caller is identifying himself as the Skipper. I thought he was
on board. Did he leave the boat?”
The admiral quickly
responded, “We’ll be right there. Answer
the call and relay that message.”
“Aye, aye sir,”
“Thanks
Janet heard to the boat wide
call for Chip and ran down to the radio shack just as the admiral was answering
Lee’s call. She stood next to Chip and
gave his hand a quick squeeze.
“Lee,” was all the admiral
got out before Lee starting talking, “Admiral, why did you take the call...do
you know the man on board is not me...how did you find out...Seaview’s
in danger...is Janet alright?” he rattled off before the admiral could respond
to any of the questions.
“Slow down Lee. Yes, I know Paul Gallagher’s posing as
you. I won’t go into details right now
and we know Seaview is going to be taken over by Gallagher’s men that
are on the island.”
Catching his breath, “How did
you find out?”
“Janet told us everything
after she managed to get note to Cookie and knock Gallagher out. He’s in the brig along with Adam Spade who
was helping him.”
Rubbing his forehead “Janet,”
Lee responded gratefully. “What are we
going to do about the men taking over Seaview?”
“Do you know how many men
there are on the island?” Chip asked.
“About twenty. I overheard the men who were holding me here
talking but I managed to disarm and tie them up. I don’t know what plan you’ve come up with
but I think we should meet before we get to the island.”
“I agree,” the admiral
said. “You need to be on the bridge when
we pull up to that island or Gallagher’s men will know something is up. We should be there by 1200 hours
tomorrow.” Chip nodded his head in
agreement.
“I haven’t checked to see
where we are. Let me ask the captain of
the yacht.” Lee looked at Jacob who
looked at his chart and replied, “We should be there about 1400 hours.”
Lee took a look at the chart
Jacob had and figured out a rendezvous point.
“We’ll meet at the following coordinates at 1300 hours,” Lee replied
giving them the information. Chip nodded
his head knowing they would be there with no problem.
“Okay Lee,” the admiral
replied. Janet touched the admiral’s
sleeve before he severed the connection.
He smiled and handed her the mic.
“Lee, are you okay?” she
asked softly not wanting the whole control room to hear their
conversation. The control room was just
as confused as
“Sweetie, I’m fine just a little
sunburned,” he answered with a grin.
She handed the mic back to
the admiral. “Okay Lee we’ll see you in
a few hours. Seaview out.”
“Crane out,” he replied
back. “Thanks for you help,” Lee said
to Jacob.
“No problem. I’m going to increase our speed a little so
we can make the rendezvous. Jenny can
pilot the boat for a little while tonight while I catch some shut eye. She’s gotten pretty good at it.”
Lee broke out in a big
smile. “Maybe someday my wife will be
able to pilot a boat too.”
Jenny had come up from the
deck below with a plate of sandwiches, fruit and drinks. “I’ve laid out some clothes on the bed in Gallagher’s
stateroom. There’s also some ointment
for you sunburn. I found a can of spray
to take the burn out of the sunburn. I’ll
spray it on your back if you’d like.”
“Thanks, Jenny. I’ll be back in about ten minutes but go
ahead and eat if you want.”
“We’ll wait. I want to hear more about your submarine,”
Jacob said.
“Thanks for your help,” Lee
answered as he gingerly went down the stairs and into the Gallagher’s stateroom
where he took a nice long leisurely shower and changed his clothes. He wasn’t thrilled with wearing Gallagher’s
clothes but they were a lot better than his.
Before he put his shirt on he spread the ointment on the open sores on
his legs and chest. He made his way back
to the bridge where Jenny sprayed the burn relief over his back and legs. He sprayed his feet and the rest of his body. He felt a lot better as he joined the
((()))
Seaview was at the rendezvous point holding at ninety
feet. The admiral, Chip, Bobby and Janet
were in the control room at the plotting table waiting for the yacht to make
contact. They had been sitting there for
over an hour when Kowalski piped up, “Mr. Morton, a large vessel two thousand
yards a stern on the port side.”
Chip went over to the sonar
station and looked at the image on the screen.
“Looks like a pretty big boat,” he commented. “Up periscope,” he said as O’Brien pressed
the button and the scope lifted out of the well.
Chip lowered down the handles
and made a ninety degree turn when he stopped.
“Wow, that’s a large yacht,” he said with a whistle. “Prepare to surface.” He pushed the button on the periscope and
waited until it was in the well.
“Surface, surface,” O’Brien
ordered maneuvering. “Blow main ballast.” Seaview slowly broached the surface.
Once on the surface, O’Brien
ordered the deck detail to crack the hatch.
They would wait for Lee to contact them before going to the conning
tower. They didn’t have to wait too long
before they received a radio call from the yacht.
Lee was on the top deck with
binoculars looking for Seaview and watched her surface. He broke out into a large grin when he saw
her rise out of the water. He went down
to the bridge.
“Jacob, stop her here and
drop the anchors. I don’t want to get too
close to Seaview,” Lee instructed.
“I’ll have them send over a zodiac to pick us up.”
“Crane to Seaview,”
Lee said over the radio.
“Seaview here,”
“
“Lee,” Chip said when he
picked up the mic. “That’s some yacht
you’re cruising on.”
“Yes, it’s not too bad of a
ride,” Lee replied with chuckle. “But
not as good as Seaview. I need
you to send over some men to stay on the yacht while we work out our plan with
the captain and crew of the boat. Also,
I have two men that need to go to the brig.”
“Okay, Lee. I’ll send over O’Brien, Patterson, Marco,
Phil, and Ron. We’ll launch the zodiac
as soon as the men can get aboard.”
“Thanks Chip. I’ll be looking for them. Crane out.”
Chip double clicked the
button on the mic and ordered the men to the control room. When they had assembled they went up the
ladder and onto the deck where the zodiac was waiting for them. They made their way over to the yacht where
Lee was on the platform at the back to help them aboard. Once on board he brought them up to the
bridge and introduced them to the
They all noticed how
sunburned their skipper was. Lee saw
them staring. “I’m just a bit overdone,”
he told them with a wry grin.
“Mr. O’Brien, I would like
you to stay here with Patterson and Marco.
Phil, Ron, you will take me and the
“Aye, aye, sir,” the men
replied. O’Brien looked around the
bridge of the yacht and was impressed with its equipment.
“Jenny, Jacob, let’s go,” Lee
said as they went to the back of the boat and boarded the zodiac.
Chip was in the sail bridge
watching as the zodiac returned to Seaview; he could see Lee was very
sunburned.
As soon as the zodiac reached
the side of the boat, the deck detail helped them aboard. Chip made his way down to the control room to
wait for Lee and the two other people to come aboard.
Lee looked down the hatch and
asked, “Permission to come aboard?”
Chip smiled and replied
“Permission granted.”
Lee gingerly climbed down the
ladder not jumping off the bottom three rungs as his feet were still pretty
sore. He helped Jenny down, followed by
Jacob. Both of them stood at the bottom
of the ladder and just stared at the windows.
The admiral, Chip and Janet
walked over to them and looked at Lee.
His eye was turning a nice shade of purple and yellow. He had a large
bruise on his jaw and his lips were cracked, split and swollen. They could see his arms, legs, and face were
very sunburned. He also moved very
slowly so they knew he had more injuries than they could see.
“I’m not as bad as I look,”
Lee said noticing them staring at him especially Janet. “Jenny and Jacob Crosby I would like you to
meet Admiral Nelson, Commander Morton and my wife Janet. They’re going to help us take back the
island.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jacob
replied as he and Jenny shook hands with them.
“Welcome aboard,” the admiral
said warmly, “Lee you need to report to sick bay before we do anything. I’m sure you’re hiding more than we can see.”
“Admiral, we have a lot to
discuss, I’ll do it later. Right now I
want to shower and get into a uniform.”
Before he could say anything
more, Jamie walked into the control room after hearing that they had
rendezvoused with the yacht and looked at Lee.
“Captain, you’ll report to sick bay right now or you won’t be doing
anything but laying in a bunk in sick bay.”
Exhaling deeply, “Okay Jamie,
let’s go and get it over with. Chip, I
promised Jacob and Jenny a tour of Seaview; could you please take care
of that? How about we meet in the
wardroom in an hour? We’ll work out the
details then.”
“Yes sir,” Chip responded
with a grin as he led Jacob and Jenny to the observation nose.
Jamie, Lee and Janet left out
the aft hatch and went to sick bay. Lee
grabbed Janet’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
She smiled at him but was very worried about him. He looked tired...in pain...and just plain
awful.
((()))
Once in sick bay, Jamie
helped Lee remove his shirt and shorts before he made him sit on the
gurney. His chest and sides had bruises
from being kicked, and blisters that were oozing and starting to show signs of
infection. The back of his arms, legs,
and back was very sunburned but didn’t have any blisters. The front of his legs had a few blisters as
well as his arms. When he took off his shoes, they all saw the tops and bottoms
of his feet were starting to blister. They
could feel the heat radiating off his body.
“At least I don’t have any
tan lines,” Lee smiled trying to lighten up the mood as both Jamie and Janet
looked at him. “I’m fine,” he continued
even though he had a headache and was nauseated.
“Lee, how long were you out
in the sun?” Jamie asked as he probed his ribs. Lee let out a low moan when he
pressed on a tender spot. Jamie already
knew he had sun poisoning. He could see
he had been beaten as well from the signs on his torso and face.
“On my front, probably twelve
hours, on my back maybe
Jamie shook his head at his
favorite patient and knew he was feeling worse than he let on. “Lee, I want you to shower here so I can take
care of you and your sunburn. Janet can
get you a uniform.”
“Jamie, I don’t have time for
this,” Lee insisted. “We have to set up
a plan of attack.”
“You’ll have to make the time
or I’ll put you in sick bay for the rest of this mission,” Jamie replied
angrily. “I bet you have a fever, your
blisters are showing signs of infection and you also have a couple of cracked
ribs.”
“Jamie, can I please go to my
cabin and take a shower?” Lee asked, “I promise I’ll come back.”
Jamie looked at him and then
at Janet, “Alright you can take your shower there but make it a cool shower. Pat yourself dry, don’t rub. Put a t-shirt on under your uniform shirt.”
“Yes sir,” Lee responded as
he slid off the gurney. He put the shirt
and shorts back on and left for their cabin walking very slowly.
((()))
Lee and Janet made it their
cabin but before going in, Lee stared at the door and knew it was a new
one. Janet noticed when Lee opened the
door he wasn’t very discreet about looking around the cabin especially looking
at the air vent.
“I know about the camera Paul
put in here,” Janet said softly. “He
told me about it.”
Lee looked took Janet’s hand,
“I’m sorry he was privy to our intimate moments,” he apologized.
“Lee, I’m not blaming you for
anything. I’m sure if you knew what he
was doing you would have stopped him.”
Lee took Janet by the waist
and pulled her close to him. As much as
she wanted to give him a long hard hug, she was afraid she would hurt him so
she gently gave him a small hug and gingerly kissed his cheek. His lips were so swollen and cracked she just
couldn’t kiss him there knowing she would hurt him.
Lee smiled at her
acknowledging her concern. “I missed you...did Gallagher hurt you?” Lee asked
rubbing his hand over the red welt on her face. “And where did this come from?” he asked as
he picked up the glass nameplate from his desk.”
“I missed you too and was
worried about you. He hit me when I
wouldn’t tell him about Cookie’s order.
Lee, please take a shower so you can get back to sick bay. As far as the door and nameplate, I’ll
explain what happened later.”
She helped Lee removed his
clothes and he got in the shower letting the cool water cascade over him. As he
patted himself dry, Janet saw him start to sway and caught him before he hit
the floor. She helped him over to the chair at his desk and poured him a glass
of water. He slowly drank the cool water
and pressed the glass to his forehead.
Janet went to the head and ran a towel under the cold water and put it
on the back of his neck.
“Honey, please stay in sick
bay for a few hours,” she pleaded, “We’ll figure something out and let you know
what we came up with but there is only one problem. You have to be in the conning tower when we
dock on
“I’ll be okay,” Lee told her
as he put his uniform shirt on and noticed how much it hurt to wear it. He
started to put on his tie but decided against it as it would rub against his
neck. He put on his pants on and they
rubbed against his sunburned legs.
“Let’s go back to sick bay but please don’t tell Jamie I almost passed
out. Once we get the island back and
everything is under our control, I promise you I’ll report back to sick
bay.”
“Against my better judgment,
I’ll go along with you for now but if you....”
“Thanks sweetie,” Lee replied
giving her a kiss. As they left the
cabin, Janet grabbed a t-shirt.
((()))
When Lee returned to sick
bay, Jamie helped remove his clothes again.
He put an antibiotic ointment on the blisters on his chest and put gauze
pads over them. He sprayed the rest of
him with an aloe gel.
“Put your t-shirt on,” Jamie
told Lee as Janet helped him get it over his head. “I’m going to wrap your torso with some ace
bandages but not too tightly as to hurt the blisters. It will help you move a little easier without
too much pain.” He also put antibiotic
ointment on his legs and wrapped them in gauze.
Before Lee finished getting dressed Jamie gave him a shot of antibiotics
and a couple of acetaminophen tablets.
Lee put his uniform shirt on
and buttoned it up. With the gauze pads
and t-shirt his uniform shirt didn’t rub against his chest. When he put on his pants they didn’t rub
against his legs because of the gauze.
“Thanks, Jamie,” Lee said as
he buttoned his sleeves. “That does feel
better.” His shoes still hurt the bottom
of his feet but he would have to deal with it for now.
“You’re welcome,” Jamie
answered looking at his watch. “You have five minutes to get to the
wardroom. Please try not to drink coffee
for the rest of the day only water as you are dehydrated.”
“Okay, just for today,” Lee
smirked as he and Janet left sick bay for the wardroom.
When they arrived, the rest
of the group was there getting their dinner.
((()))
Lee and Janet grabbed a bowl
of chicken soup and a sandwich and sat down next to Chip. Janet got them each a glass of water before
sitting down. Chip looked at the water
and then Lee. “Jamie’s orders, no coffee
today,” Janet told him.
“Did you enjoy your tour of Seaview?”
Lee asked Jenny and Jacob trying to spoon some soup into his mouth.
“Yes, she’s quite a boat,”
Jacob replied smiling
“That she is,” Lee answered
with a huge smile too and looked over at the admiral.
“We better work out a plan,”
the admiral said taking a drink of coffee.
“We know that Lee needs to be in the control room when we dock at the
island. Chip thought that we would have
the deck detail tie down the boat as normal.
We know the men on the island will take them away. Hopefully they won’t hurt them as they’ll be
unarmed. We’ll have men stationed out of
sight in the conning tower with automatic weapons in case things don’t go as
planned.”
“According to what I
overheard from Arnie, there should be about twenty men waiting for us,” Lee
stated. “How were they planning on
taking over Seaview?”
Janet spoke up, “Paul and
Adam were in our cabin and they didn’t shut the door so I heard them
talking. They would hold the admiral,
Chip and me as hostages threatening to shoot us if they men didn’t cooperate.”
“Our men will be waiting for
them when they board. Admiral Starke is
sending a destroyer to take Gallagher and the rest of the men to
Lee looked at Jacob and
Jenny. “Do you have any instructions
that you are to follow?”
“All we were supposed to do
was bring the yacht to the island with you aboard. Once they removed you from the yacht, we were
to follow Seaview to the PR and bring Paul and Janet back to the
island. We don’t know what was supposed
to take place after that as he gave Howie the instructions.”
“Lee,” Chip piped up, “We
only brought Arnie and Danny back from the yacht. Where’s the other one?”’
“He tried to knock me out but
I got one good punch in and he fell overboard.”
Janet answered Lee’s
question. “When he returned from the PR, he was going to ‘pretend’ he needed to
be rescued with the rest of the people on the island,” Janet told them. “I’m not sure how he was going to contact
anyone as they were going to destroy all the communication devices on the
island.”
Chip looked at Lee and could
see he was working out the details. “Do
we know the names of any of the men on the island? If I don’t call someone by name, they’re
going to get suspicious.”
“Sorry Lee,” Janet answered,
“I didn’t get any names of the men on the island and I highly doubt Paul and
any of his friends will help us.”
Jenny quietly spoke up,
“Barry is the name of one of the men. I
heard Paul talking to someone on the phone before we picked up Lee.”
“Thanks, Jenny,” Lee replied
grateful for the information. “When were
you scheduled to arrive at the island?”
“Actually we were scheduled
to be there this afternoon but Arnie told them about the storm we ran into so
I’m hoping they will figure out the storm slowed us down,” Jacob responded to
Lee’s question.
“Okay. I think Seaview should arrive at the
island before the yacht. Hopefully we’ll
have everything under control by the time you arrive so you don’t get hurt,”
Lee told them.
“We want to help,” Jacob
volunteered.
Lee sat there quietly for a
moment. “Seaview’s men will stay
on the yacht when you get to the island.
If our plan doesn’t work, they’ll be there as back up. We’ll make sure they’re armed in case we need
to use them.”
As they finished up their
dinner Lee asked Jenny and Jacob, “Would you like to stay aboard Seaview
tonight?”
“I hope you won’t be offended
but we would rather go back to the yacht,” Jacob said with a smile.
Laughing Lee commented, “I
don’t blame you. Seaview’s cabins
are bigger than most but that owner’s suite and main salon on the yacht is very
comfortable. I’m sure Mr. O’Brien won’t
mind sailing her overnight so we can reach the island in the morning.”
“Thanks, Lee,” Jenny
answered.
Lee called Chief Sharkey on
the mic and told him to ready the zodiac and take four automatic weapons over
to the yacht. They finished dinner and made their way to the control room so
the
Before Jenny and Jacob
climbed up the ladder Lee had a question for them, “What’s the name of the
yacht? I never looked for the name when
I was back there.”
“Double Vengeance,”
Jacob answered as he continued up the ladder and out to the quarterdeck where
the deck detail was waiting to help them board the zodiac and return them to
the yacht.
“How appropriate,” Lee
chuckled softly as he walked over to the radio shack and had
((()))
The admiral, Lee, Chip and
Janet stayed in the control room where Chip checked out where they were and how
long it would take them to get to the island.
Once he was satisfied with the course, he looked at Lee.
“Lee, go to sick bay for the
night. I’ve got everything under control
here. You look like hell.”
“I feel like hell,” Lee
admitted. “Maybe I’ll stay there
overnight so I’m better in the morning,”
Janet gently took his hand as
they walked out the aft hatch to sick bay.
The admiral looked at Chip as they left the control room. “He really must not feel well to admit he
wants to go to sick bay. He does look
like hell,” the admiral said. Chip shook
his head in agreement. “I’ll check on
him later when I go off duty.”
“I’ll be in my cabin if you
should need me. I’ll look in on him
later too,” the admiral told Chip as he went up the staircase.
Chip walked around the
control room checking out all the stations making sure all the instruments were
functioning properly. Taper would
relieve him later on since O’Brien was on the yacht. I wonder how he got the cushy job of
piloting the yacht, Chip thought.
From what he saw of it from the conning tower it looked pretty ritzy.
((()))
Before Lee reported to sick
bay he went down to the brig to confront Paul Gallagher. “Lee, please don’t go,” Janet begged. “You don’t need to talk to him.”
“Go and wait for me in sick
bay. I’ll be there shortly,” Lee ordered
but knew by the look on Janet’s face she had no intention of following that
order.
There were two guards on duty
at the brig. The four men were laying on
the bunks when Lee walked over to the doors.
Paul got up from the bunk and
walked over to the wall of bars, “You look a little overdone, Commander,” he
said snidely.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,”
Lee answered calmly noticing the bandage on his head. “You’re the one with the problem now. You’re not going to get me or Seaview
back to the PR so I guess you lose again.”
“We’ll see about that,” Paul
replied smugly.
“Oh Mr. Gallagher, I’m sure
you’ll never get back to there again along with your cohorts here,” Lee stated
and walked back to the door of the brig.
“Make sure there are guards on duty twenty fours hours.”
“Yes sir,” the MAA replied
and stood on guard at the door.
Danny looked over at Paul,
“Mr. Gallagher, he seems pretty positive that he’s not going back.”
“He doesn’t know what is
waiting for them on that island,” Paul declared and sat back down on the bunk.
((()))
Lee and Janet walked up the
ladder into the passageway that would take them to sick bay. Lee was tired, his sunburn was really bothering
him and no matter how much water he drank he was still thirsty and cold. Jamie was sitting at his desk catching up on
some paperwork when Lee and Janet walked in.
“Everything okay, Skipper?”
Jamie asked seeing that Lee was in obvious pain.
“No Jamie,” Lee replied,
“this sunburn is killing me and I’m so thirsty.
Could you spray some more aloe gel on it?”
Jamie motioned for Lee to sit
down on the gurney as he looked like he was going to fall over. “Yes, Lee I can do that but I really think
you need to spend the night here with an IV.
You’re very dehydrated and need to sleep. I’ll put a mild sedative in your IV. Just strong enough for you to be able to
sleep but wake up with a clear head in the morning,” Jamie promised. “I’ll change your bandages and put some
antibiotic ointment on your burns too before I apply more gel.”
“Okay Jamie,” Lee
conceded. “I’ll take your advice but
don’t get any ideas that I’m going to follow your orders all the time,” he
grinned.
Lee removed his uniform and
Jamie took care of his blisters. Once
Jamie was finished, Janet took a pair of scrubs and helped Lee put them on
while Jamie retrieved an IV kit and sedative. She helped him get settled in a
bunk and could see he was shivering even though the room was a comfortable
temperature. Jamie pulled up a stool
and prepared Lee’s arm. He inserted the
IV, adjusted the flow and injected the sedative into the tube. Janet covered him with a blanket and sat down
on the stool Jamie had vacated to dispose of the IV packaging. Jamie turned down the lights in sick bay when
he returned.
“Sweetheart, please go back
to the cabin and get some rest. I’m not
going anywhere and I’ll be asleep in a few minutes,” Lee told her his eyes
already getting heavy.
“I want to stay for little
while and then I’ll go to the cabin,” Janet replied as she gently held his
hand.
He was sleeping by the time
Jamie returned to check on him. “Janet,
I owe you an apology,” Jamie said quietly as she sat by his bunk.
“What do you mean? Janet
asked puzzled.
“I really thought you clobbered
Lee with that nameplate...I didn’t know that wasn’t Lee...I honestly thought
you were going over the deep end after you tried to shoot him,” Jamie answered.
“First, you had no way of
know that wasn’t Lee and I couldn’t say anything because they would beat or
torture him,” Janet responded as she looked at him sleeping. “Secondly when you
list what I’ve done it is so out of character for me I guess it does sound like
I’ve snapped,” Janet remarked softly.
“Jamie, there’s a lot more to this story that you don’t know. I promise I’ll fill you in but please not
just yet.”
“No problem,” he replied
patting her hand. “I think you need to
go and get some sleep.”
Just as she got up from the
stool, Chip entered sick bay. “I’ll take
over,” he told Janet noticing she looked very tired.
“Thanks Chip,” Janet said and
walked out of sick bay taking one last look before she left for their cabin.
“How’s he doing Jamie?” Chip
asked as he stood by Lee’s bunk.
“He’s going to be in a lot of pain for a few
days and then I can hardly wait until he starts to peel,” Jamie smirked.
Chip pulled up a chair and
sat there for thirty minutes before the admiral came in. He entered sick bay and saw Chip with his
legs stretched out in front of him, arms folded across his chest and his chin
resting on his chest.
Smiling at his XO he said,
“I’ll sit with him for awhile. You look
pretty done in, go hit the rack.”
Jamie was sitting at his desk
and saw the admiral come in sick bay. He
sat there looking at the three men as Chip and the admiral stood there once
again watching over Lee Crane. He
sighed deeply and returned to his paperwork.
“Thank you sir,” Chip replied
as he got up from the chair and the admiral sat down. “Goodnight.”
“Night Chip,” the admiral
said and got comfortable in the chair looking at the man he considered the son
he never had.
The admiral had been sitting
there for thirty minutes when Jamie put his paperwork away and turned off the
light on his desk and walked over to his boss and friend.
“He actually let you give him
a sedative,” the admiral grinned as Jamie stood next to him.
Jamie returned the grin. “I think Lee Crane knows his limits and knew
he would need all his wits about him tomorrow to be fully functional. We all are going to need to be on our toes,
so I think you better get some sleep too,” Jamie told him.
Running his hand through his
hair, the admiral replied, “You’re right and I think we’re getting to old for
this.”
Jamie shook his head in
agreement as he checked Lee once more before Frank came in and would stay with
Lee for the rest of the night.
((()))
Janet woke up early and
quickly got ready so she could bring Lee a clean uniform and t-shirt. She ran down to sick bay and almost knocked
Jamie over. “Sorry,” she said quickly.
“Is Lee awake?”
“It’s okay, and yes he’s been
up for thirty minutes and was just going to call you to bring him a uniform.”
“I slept later than I
wanted,” she replied as she went over to Lee’s bunk but he wasn’t there. “Where is he?”
“Right here,” Lee answered
coming out of the head drying his hair.
He gave her a kiss and took the uniform out of her hands.
“Sorry I’m late,” she
apologized. “How do you feel?” She
noticed he looked at lot better this morning than he did last night.
“Relax, Jamie’s going to
change the bandages after I showered so you’re not late.”
Jamie walked over to him and
he laid down on the gurney. Janet stood
next to Lee and watched as Jamie changed the bandages and put some more
ointment on the blisters which looked a little better than before. When Jamie was finished, he sat up and took
the t-shirt from Janet and put it on.
Jamie wrapped an ace bandage around his torso. Lee put on his shirt, buttoned it up and then
put his pants on after Jamie also bandaged his legs.
“Lee, please take it easy,”
Jamie asked.
“Sure Jamie,” Lee grinned as
he put on his shoes. He decided to forego his tie once again and put it in his
pocket before leaving for the wardroom for breakfast. He was hungry this morning.
((()))
Lee and Janet arrived in the
wardroom just as the admiral and Chip had started eating. Janet sat down at the table as Lee went to
the coffee urn and poured them a mug of coffee.
He couldn’t wait to have some after going all day yesterday without
it. The mess specialists brought over
their breakfast.
“Good morning, Admiral,
Chip,” Lee said as he sat down next to Chip.
“How soon before we get to the island?”
“We should be there in two
hours,” Chip reported noticing Lee looked a lot better today. “The yacht is thirty minutes behind us. O’Brien reports everything is okay aboard the
yacht.”
Lee took a big gulp of coffee
savoring the taste. “I’m worried that
the men on the island might get suspicious that Gallagher hasn’t contacted them. Do we have Gallagher’s phone?”
“Yes, I have it in my cabin,”
the admiral answered.
“I’m going to call as soon as
we’re done here and let them know how soon we’re going to be there. If they question why I haven’t contacted them
sooner, I’ll say we’ve been running submerged.
Hopefully that answer will satisfy them as they are all submariners
according to Arnie.”
“We’ll get it when we’re
finished,” the admiral replied taking his last bite of breakfast.
“Chip, I want to have a
meeting with the deck crew, Chief Sharkey, Kowalski and Riley before we get to
the island. Let’s meet in the
observation nose in thirty minutes,” Lee stated as he stabbed a piece of
pancake.
“Okay Lee, I’ll see that the
men are there,” Chip answered waiting for Lee to continue.
“I want to review with them
what we hope will take place on the dock when we get there.”
They finished up their
breakfast and Lee and the admiral left for his cabin as Chip and Janet headed
for the control room. The admiral
retrieved the phone from his desk and handed it to Lee. He looked it over and it was very similar to
the one he carried. The two men left the
cabin for the control room.
“Chip, surface the boat,” Lee
ordered as soon as he was in the control room.
“Aye, aye sir,” Chip replied
as he pressed the klaxon three times and took the mic out of the holder. “Surface, surface,” he said stowing the mic
when he was finished.
Once on the surface, Lee and
Chip went up the ladder to the conning tower.
Lee took the phone out of his pocket, turned it on and pressed the
number one button hoping it would connect him to the men on the island.
“Everything okay Mr.
Gallagher...we were expecting you here yesterday,” a man said when he answered
the phone.
Taking a chance that it was
Barry he was talking too, Lee replied, “Sorry Barry we ran into some bad
weather and had to stay submerged longer than I expected. We had to slow down so we wouldn’t get too
far ahead of the yacht. We should be
docking in two hours.”
“We’ll be ready and waiting
for you,” Barry answered eagerly.
“Everything’s in place.”
“Good,” Lee said, “everything
is ready here too.” Lee disconnected the
phone before Barry could ask him any more questions.
“Do you think he knew it
wasn’t Gallagher?” Chip asked seriously.
“No, I don’t think so,” Lee
said rubbing his forehead. “Let’s get
below so we can meet with the men.”
The two men left the conning
tower and went down the ladder. Lee
still didn’t jump off skipping the last three rungs. The admiral and Janet were waiting in the observation
nose with the six men from the deck detail, Chief Sharkey, Kowalski and Riley.
((()))
Lee and Chip made their way
to the nose and stood in front of the men. “We should be docking in about two
hours. Once we’re at the pier, the deck
detail will tie Seaview up just like normal. I’m going to assume we’ll be met by some men
who will be armed. As soon as you’re
done securing the boat, I’m afraid you’re going to be taken away by some of
those men. Please don’t resist, just go
with them. You’ll be covered just in
case things get a little sticky. They’re
probably going to take you to one of the buildings and lock you up with the
rest of the people on the island. Sorry
men but I need you to follow these orders so we can stop them from taking over Seaview.”
Lee explained.
“Yes, sir,” the men replied
without hesitation.
“Kowalski and Riley, I want
you armed with automatic weapons hiding in the conning tower with me. You’re the back up in case things don’t go as
planned on the dock.”
“Aye, aye sir,” they replied.
Lee continued, “Before we get
to the island, we’re going to be at battle stations. I don’t want to make a boat wide announcement
or sound the klaxon so we don’t alert the men in the brig that we know they
have men waiting for us. Chief I want
you to spread the word and make sure the crew is armed.”
“How will we know when we
should be at our stations?” Sharkey inquired.
Smiling Lee answered, “When I
call your name to come to the control room that will be the signal to be
ready.”
“Yes sir,” Sharkey replied
enthusiastically.
“Okay men, dismissed and
thanks for your help.”
The men left the observation
nose and returned to their stations.
The admiral, Lee, Chip and Janet remained in the nose. “Admiral how soon did Admiral Starke say he
could get that destroyer here to remove the men from the island?” Lee asked seriously.
“I’m going to call him as
soon as we’re done here. I believe the
destroyer is not too far away.”
“Let me know what he says as
we don’t have room to accommodate our new prisoners,” Lee said worriedly.
“How about we put them on the
beach? It’s nice out and they can all be
together,” Janet suggested.
Lee grinned at Janet, “That
would work. We’ll have the men guard
them until the destroyer arrives. Good
thinking.”
Chip spoke up when Lee was
finished, “Are you just going to let them board Seaview with no
resistance?”
“Yes. While some of the men take away the deck
detail, I’m assuming the rest of them will come aboard using the forward escape
hatch. Janet said that the four of us
need to be in the control room, so Barry will send down his men to cover us
while the rest of his men round up the crew and remove them from the boat.”
“Lee that’s a big
assumption,” Chip voiced his concern.
“I know. They have no idea that I’m not Gallagher and
I will have to make like I’m going along with them until we get all of them
aboard. When they board the boat,
they’re going to find an empty control room.”
“The control room will be
empty?” the admiral asked curiously.
“Yes, the control room crew
will be in the passageway near the aft hatch waiting for the men to come down
the ladder. We’ll have the element of
surprise by the time they realize they’ve been set up and take control of the
situation. Besides I’m not thrilled
about having you, Chip and Janet waiting here unarmed,” Lee said running his
hand through his hair. “But I don’t have
any other ideas on how to capture Gallagher’s men without someone getting
hurt.”
“Okay Lee,” Chip conceded, “I
don’t have any ideas either.”
“Let’s check our position see
how soon we’ll be at the island,” Lee replied and returned to the control room
with Chip following him.
The admiral went to the radio
shack, “
“Yes, sir,”
The admiral walked past Lee
and Chip in the control room and went up the staircase to his office to wait
for his call. Janet stayed in the
observation nose and stared out the window hoping everything would go as planned.
((()))
“Slow down, Jiggs,” Harry
replied. “We should be on the island in
about ninety minutes. How soon can you
have the destroyer there?”
“I’ve already have her on the
way. She should rendezvous with you in
about three to four hours. I hope that’s
soon enough.”
Sighing, “See if you can
speed them up a bit. We don’t want to
have to hold those prisoners any longer than we have too,” the admiral replied.
“I’ll see what I can do,”
Jiggs answered. “Just let me know when
it’s over.”
“I’ll be in touch,” Harry
said as he turned off the video phone.
He left his cabin and went to the control room to let Lee know the time
frame.
Lee and Chip were huddled
over the plotting table making sure they were still on course and schedule when
the admiral came down the stairs. Lee
looked up as he approached.
“Jiggs’ says the destroyer
should be at the island about three to four hours from now. I asked him to have her speed it up a
little.”
Rubbing his forehead, Lee
replied, “Thanks Admiral. We don’t want
to deal with Gallagher and his gang longer than necessary.”
The three men stood at the
plotting table waiting for the right time to call the men to battle stations.
((()))
When Seaview was thirty
minutes from the island, Lee picked up the mic, “Chief Sharkey report to the
control room.” The men in the control
room quickly assumed their battle stations as did the rest of the boat. The only men that didn’t move were the two
men on guard at the brig.
Chief Sharkey reported to the
control room as ordered. “The crew has
been armed and all battle stations are manned and ready,” Sharkey reported,
then passed two automatic weapons to Kowalski and Riley.
“Thanks Chief,” Lee replied. He went to the radio shack. “
“Yes, sir,”
“Thanks,” Lee said as he
picked up the mic, “Bobby, everything okay?”
“Yes sir. We’re on schedule and should pull into the
dock area about fifteen minutes after you.
We picked up the speed a little so we’ll be there sooner.”
“Thanks Bobby that will
help. I would like you on the top deck
of the yacht watching what is taking place on the dock. I’m not sure how many men will be there so
I’m going to need you and our crewmen to cover the men that don’t board Seaview,”
Lee ordered.
“Yes sir. We’ll be ready,”
O’Brien responded. “Good luck, sir,” he said as Lee broke the
connection.
Patterson, Marco and Phil
would be ready to leave the yacht as soon as they docked along with him and
Jacob. Jenny would stay on board and man
the radio.
((()))
Seaview was five minutes away from the island when Lee
ordered Chip to surface the boat.
“Surface, surface,” Chip
ordered maneuvering. Once on the surface
he told the deck detail to crack the hatch and prepare to dock.
Lee, Kowalski, and Riley went
up the ladder to the conning tower. Ski
and Riley crouched down in the tower while Lee took a pair of binoculars and
looked at the dock. He could see there
were fifteen men there waiting for Seaview. He took the mic out of the holder and radioed
the control room, “There are fifteen men on the dock waiting for us,” he
reported.
“Yes sir,” Chip
answered. “Deck detail is ready to go as
soon as she docked.”
“Thanks Chip,” Lee replied
double clicking the mic. “Engine room dead
slow.”
“Aye, aye sir,” they
reported.
Lee skillfully maneuvered the
huge submarine into the dock. He clicked
the mic, “Engine room, stop all engines.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” they
replied.
As soon as the boat stopped
the deck detail went out the sail hatch to tie her up and layout the gangplank
while the control room crew went out the aft hatch. A man on the dock looked up at Lee and
nodded his head. Lee nodded back assuming
that was the signal for them to start the operation. Lee stood on the bridge as his men secured
the boat. When they were finished, three
of the men pulled out guns and pointed them at the deck detail motioning them
to follow them. Lee watched clenching
and unclenching his fists as the men took away his deck detail.
Exhaling deeply, he watched
as eight men made there way onto the quarterdeck of the boat and moved to the
sail hatch. Lee motioned for Ski and
Riley to go down the ladder back into the control room and hide with the rest
of the crew. He quickly scrambled down
the ladder after them. “There are eight
men coming into the sail hatch,” Lee said as soon as he was in the control
room.”
Lee stood at the bottom of
the ladder waiting for the men to come down while the admiral, Chip and Janet
waited in front of the plotting table facing the periscope island.
The first man stepped off the
ladder, looked at Lee and the empty control room. Lee hoped that the man as Barry. “Welcome aboard Barry,” Lee said as Barry
stared at Lee and knew that he wasn’t Paul Gallagher. Gallagher wouldn’t be sunburned if he was on
a submerged submarine. He moved to the
front of the periscope island away from the ladder so the rest of his men could
come down into the control room. Once in
the control room they pulled out their guns.
Lee moved the plotting table
next to Janet where he noticed that there were two guns on the shelf under the
top of the table.
Once the rest of his men were
in the control room, Barry addressed Lee, “Commander Crane, I don’t know what
kind of stunt your pulling but you’ll be sorry.” He moved to the same side of the plotting
table and took Janet’s arm. “Maybe you
had better get you crew in here if you don’t want something to happen to this
lovely lady.”
Lee started to call the men
into the control room but before he could, Janet elbowed Barry in the ribs and
stepped on his foot. It created enough
of a distraction that Lee and the admiral could grab the guns for under the
table but as Janet elbowed Barry his gun went off hitting Chip in the
shoulder. By the time Barry and his men
realized what was taking place, the crew ran into the control room with guns
drawn and subdued Barry and his men.
Janet immediately went over
to Chip who was bleeding pretty badly.
“I’m okay,” he told her as she helped him up from the floor holding his
arm.
Lee went over to the mic,
“Doc, report to the control room. Mr.
Morton has been shot.”
“On my way,” Jamie answered
grabbing his bag with Frank following close behind.
“Kowalski, Riley, tie them up
so they can’t try anything and hold them in the observation nose. Before we remove them from the boat I want to
see what the other four men are doing.” Lee ordered as he stood by Janet and
Chip.
“Aye, aye sir,” they replied
as they zipped tied the men and put them in the observation nose. The control room crew stood guard with their
guns drawn.
“Nice work,” Lee said to
Janet with a wink.
“Thanks,” she replied winking
back.
Jamie entered the control
room and looked at Chip’s shoulder. “It
doesn’t look too bad but I’m going to take an x-ray and bandage it up,” Jamie
replied after a quick examination.
Frank took Chip by his good arm and escorted him out of the control room
to sick bay. Jamie looked at Lee and
just shook his head.
((()))
Once the men were tied up,
Lee went up the ladder to the conning tower.
He saw the yacht had already docked and had taken the men on the dock,
tied them up and had them sitting on the beach. Lee picked up the mic, “
“Yes, sir,”
Jacob answered the radio
call, “Nice work,” Lee said gratefully not having to worry about them. “Could you get Bobby and have him call me on
the radio?”
“Sure Lee,” Jacob answered
and left to get Bobby.
A few minutes later, Bobby
was on the radio. “Yes Skipper you
wanted to talk to me?”
“Good work Bobby. Leave the men on the beach and have
Patterson, Marco and Phil guard them until we get the rest of the men off Seaview. We’ll have more men out there shortly. You’re in charge there until further
orders. If there’s a problem with the
men, deal with it as you see fit.”
“Aye, Aye, sir,” Bobby
replied.
Lee returned to the control
room and reported to the admiral that the other men were already tied up and on
the beach. “Chief, take six of the
control room crew and escort the rest of the men out and have them sit with the
others, leave Kowalski and Riley here. I
want O’Brien, Marco, Phil and the rest of the men to guard Gallagher’s group
until the destroyer arrives. I want you to return to the boat with Patterson,”
Lee ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Chief replied
sharply as he picked six men and they removed the eight men from the boat with
no incidents and put them on the beach with the others.
Lee took a deep breath as he
only had four more men to remove from Seaview. When Sharkey and Patterson returned to the
boat Lee gave them further orders. “I
want you, Patterson, Ski and Riley to report to the brig and bring up the other
four men. Chief, tell the guards to come
with too. Make sure you zip tie them up
as I don’t want any problems.”
“Aye, aye sir,” Sharkey
replied as they left out the aft hatch and went down to the brig.
The admiral, Lee and Janet
were anxious to check on Chip and see how he was doing but Lee wanted to make
sure the other men were off the boat before he left the control room.
((()))
Paul and the other men heard
the footsteps on the ladder. “We’ll be
out of here in no time,” Paul assured the men smugly.
The guards heard his
statement and pulled their guns out of the holster ready to shoot if
necessary. They relaxed when they saw
Sharkey and the rest of the men walking down the passageway.
Paul stood by the door of the
brig ready to be released and was shocked to see Seaview’s men there
instead of his. “What the hell is going
on?” he bellowed.
“You’ll have to ask the real
Skipper,” Sharkey replied curtly as he instructed Kowalski to zip tie up each man.
When he got to Gallagher, he
zip tied him a little tighter than the others.
Gallagher just looked at him and sneered. “You’ll be sorry.”
The crew escorted the four
men back to the control room where the admiral, Lee and Janet were waiting in
front of the plotting table.
“Chief, take Arnie, Danny and
Spade off the boat and put them with the others,” Lee ordered. “Leave Mr. Gallagher here. Kowalski and Patterson remain here please.”
“Yes sir,” they replied and
stood next to Paul while the rest of Seaview’s men removed the other
three from the boat.
“Kowalski cut the zip ties on
Mr. Gallagher,” Lee said staring at Paul.
“Sir?” he said.
“Yes, Ski untie him,” Lee
repeated.
“Aye, aye sir,” Kowalski
responded and cut the zip ties off of his wrists and stood a little closer to
him ready to shoot if necessary.
“How did you know my men were
waiting for you?” he sneered as he rubbed his wrists.
Lee looked at Janet who
replied, “I told them. I heard you and
Adam talking when you left the door open to the cabin. I heard all your plans but I made sure I was
back at my desk working when you checked on me.”
“You bitch,” he hissed and
lunged at her, “I should have dumped you overboard when I first boarded that
sailboat. You’ve been a pain in the ass
the whole time.”
Lee went to punch him but
Janet quickly grabbed his hand and squeezed it as hard as she could. He stopped before he hit him. Kowalski and Patterson grabbed his arms and
held Gallagher back.
Lee took a deep breath and looked
at the man in his uniform, “Please remove my dolphins and star from your
collar,” Lee ordered. “You can keep the
uniform. Also give me my ring and
watch.”
Gallagher hesitated for a
second before Patterson gently pressed his gun to his side. He removed the items and placed them in Lee’s
hand. “Tie him up and take him away,”
Lee told Kowalski and Patterson. “Stay
with the men until I come ashore.”
“Yes sir,” they replied and
shoved Gallagher up the ladder and off the boat.
Lee put the dolphins and star
in his pocket but put his ring and watch on immediately. “Thanks for stopping me,” he whispered to
Janet. “I would have killed him.”
“Admiral, I have the captain
of the USS Hopper on the radio.
He would like to speak to you,”
Nelson took the call at the
plotting table where the captain of the destroyer reported they were thirty
minutes away from the island and would send out two RHIB’s (rigid hull
inflatable boats) to transport back the prisoners back to the destroyer.
“Admiral, we need to check
and find out where the people in the compound are being held prisoner. I don’t know if there are any more men there
guarding them. I want to make sure we
have rounded them all up. According to
the information we have there should be five more men,” Lee said worriedly.
“Okay Lee we better check out
the compound and see what’s going on there before the destroyer arrives.”
“I’ll check on Chip,” Janet
said as she walked out the hatch and made her way to sick bay glad to have Paul
Gallagher out of her life.
The two men put on their side
arms and went up the ladder to the quarterdeck and out on the dock. Lee went over to Sharkey, Kowalski, Patterson
and Riley. “You men come with us. We might have five more men that need to be
rounded up,” Lee told them as they walked to the living quarters of the two
building compound.
((()))
“Kowalski, Riley, come with
me,” Lee told the men. “Patterson,
Chief, you go with the admiral and take the back door. We’ll check out the front door. If our information is correct, there should
be five more men left to guard the people at the compound. They made their way to the building, when Lee
motioned the men to stay behind him as they crept up to the door. There were two guards outside the front
door. They were standing there talking
not paying any attention to what was going on behind them. Kowalski snuck up behind the one closest to
him while Lee took on the other one.
They knocked them out with a quick blow to the head with the butts of
their guns. Riley zip tied their hands
and stood over them while Lee and Kowalski tried to enter the building.
Nelson, Sharkey and Patterson
walked cautiously to the back door of the living quarters. There was only one guard on duty standing
with his back to them smoking a cigarette.
Patterson walked up behind him and hit him over the head. Sharkey caught him before he hit the
ground. Patterson quickly zip tied his
hands and dragging the guard, they made their way to the front of the building.
Lee tried the door and found it
locked. He reached in his pocket and
took out a lock pick. He opened the door
on the first try to the grins of Ski and Riley.
He and Ski entered a small hallway that led into a larger room. They could hear the people talking so Lee
looked around the corner and saw two men sitting at the counter eating
lunch. One of his deck hands spotted Lee
and discreetly pointed to the two men eating.
Kowalski and Lee moved swiftly to the back of the men and knocked them
out. Lee quickly zip tied their wrists.
Nelson, Sharkey and Patterson
made their way to the front of the building, saw Riley with two men and dropped
the man they found in back alongside them.
They entered the building and saw that Lee and Kowalski had everything
under control.
“Chief, take these men and
put them with the rest of them,” Lee ordered.
“Let’s go men,” Sharkey said
as they gathered up the still unconscious men and dragged them to the beach and
dropped them next to Gallagher. The deck
detail stood on guard with the rest of the crew.
“Damn,” he said softly
realizing he had been beaten by Lee Crane again.
((()))
The men in the building being
held hostage were happy to see Nelson and Lee.
“Thanks, Harriman,” Dr. Jonas
Worth, head scientist, said as he shook Nelson’s hand. “Nice work Commander.”
“Are you alright?” Nelson
asked Dr. Eli Geiger, the other scientist stationed at the lab and the six
technicians.
“We’re fine,” Dr. Geiger
replied with a smile. “They didn’t hurt
us just kept us locked up.”
“Admiral, I’m going back to
the dock to see if the destroyer has arrived yet,” Lee told Nelson. “I’ll check back with you later.”
“Okay, Lee,” Nelson answered
as Lee walked out of the building and back down to the dock. He could see the outline of the destroyer
just over the horizon. “Chief let me
know when the RHIB’s arrive.”
“Yes sir,” Sharkey answered.
Lee walked down the dock and
into the sail hatch returning to the control room. “
“Yes sir. They should be ready to launch the
inflatables in about twenty minutes.
They’ll have to make two trips.”
“Thanks
“Well,” Lee asked looking at
his best friend.
“Not too bad. Needed a few stitches and didn’t hit anything
important. Were there any men at the
compound?”
“Yes, the other five
men. We managed to knock them out and
put them with the rest of them. The
destroyer should be here in twenty minutes.”
As Lee, Chip, and Janet
waited for Sharkey to let them know the men from the destroyer had arrived,
Cookie entered the control room.
“Skipper are we still going
to have the picnic?” he asked. “And we
still need to unload the supplies we brought to the island too.”
Lee looked at Cookie and
smiled, “We promised them a picnic so we’ll give them one. Take a couple of men from the missile room to
help unload the supplies we brought for the island and then make preparations
for the picnic.”
“Aye, aye sir,” Cookie
answered eagerly and left the control room.
Lee looked at Chip, “We
better make out a shore leave schedule so all the men can get off the boat for
awhile. We’ll have to check the sensors
tomorrow so we won’t be leaving for
“Okay Lee, Chip and I will
work out a schedule,” Janet replied as Lee scratched his arm.
“What schedule?” Jamie asked
as he entered the control room.
“Diving and shore leave,” Lee
answered.
“Well, I don’t know who you
have scheduled to dive but it won’t be you or Chip.”
“Jamie, I need to check those
sensors out,” Lee protested.
“You still have some pretty
bad blisters on your chest and I don’t want the dirty sea water anywhere near
them. As for Chip it’s quite obvious he
can’t. Find someone else, you have a
whole boat of divers,” Jamie quipped as he watched Lee scratch. “I bet you’re starting to peel.”
“Yes, I’m peeling and the
itch is driving me crazy,” Lee admitted.
“Stop at sick bay later and
I’ll give you some lotion,” Jamie told him and returned to sick bay.
((()))
Twenty minutes later, Sharkey
radioed the control room that the men from the destroyer had arrived. Lee, Chip and Janet made their way out of Seaview
and onto the dock where they met Lieutenant Garner and six heavily armed men.
After he saluted Lee and
Chip, he said, “Commander, Lt. Commander, we’re ready to start loading the
prisoners.”
“Thank you Lt.,” Lee replied
and directed Sharkey and Seaview’s crew to help load the boats.
After the men were loaded,
they returned to the destroyer. Twenty
minutes later they were back for the rest.
Gallagher and Barry were in the last group to leave. The men on the boat did a double take when Gallagher
was brought aboard. They looked at Lee
and then at Gallagher. Lee caught their
looks. “He’s very dangerous so keep a
close watch on him. He’s no relation
just a mad man who assumed my identity.
Thanks for taking the prisoners to
“No problem sir,” the Lt. replied
saluting and motored the boat away from the dock.
Lee returned to the control
room and radioed the captain of the USS Hopper thanking him for
relieving them of the prisoners. He told
them Admiral Starke would contact them when they docked.
((()))
As soon as the prisoners were
removed, Jacob and Jenny left the yacht and boarded Seaview as Lee didn’t
want them in harm’s way when they rounded up Gallagher’s men.
“I see the men have been
taken away,” Jacob said to Lee.
“Yes, they’re on their way to
“We would like to leave as
soon as we can. We want to get back to
LA and see our daughters,” Jenny told them.
“We’re going to have a picnic
later this afternoon and you’re welcome to stay,” Lee informed them. “And I know you both can pilot the yacht but
I’m very uncomfortable with only the two of you on board sailing that far.”
“Thanks for your concern but
we have no choice. We’ll stay for the
picnic but will leave as soon as it’s over.
I’ve already checked the weather and there are no storms in our path,”
Jacob said.
Lee rubbed his forehead, “I
have an idea. Two of the technicians are
scheduled to return to
Jacob looked at Jenny who
nodded her head in agreement and answered, “Lee I have no problem with that if
they want to sail back with us.”
“Let me check with them,” Lee
replied as he headed up the ladder to the compound.
Lee found the admiral with
the two scientists in the laboratory checking on the sensors.
“Oh hi Lee,” the admiral said
when he saw Lee. “Looks like we have our
work cut out for us.”
“About that sir, Jamie won’t
let me dive because of my blisters and Chip’s arm is in a sling. Looks like you and Sharkey will have to do
it. I’ll assign Kowalski and Patterson to
assist you.”
“No problem,” the admiral
grinned. “I’ll look forward to swimming
in the nice clear warm water,” he teased his captain who he knew was looking
forward to doing the dive.
“Just one other issue,” Lee
continued. “The Crosby’s would like to
leave for the States later this afternoon but I don’t feel comfortable letting
them leave with only the two of them on that yacht.” He looked over at Drs.
Worth and Geiger. “Do you think the two
technicians scheduled to return home would mind sailing with them? Its a lot
more luxurious than Seaview.”
Just as Lee was asking the
two scientists, four of the technicians walked into the laboratory to check on
some experiments they were doing on the coral.
The two tech’s scheduled to leave were part of them.
“Why don’t you ask them,” Dr.
Worth said as he introduced Sean and Ian.
Lee explained the situation
to them and they were very eager to leave on the yacht. They both also had sailing experience and
would have no problem helping them out.
Lee thanked them and breathed a sigh of relief that the
“Thanks,” Lee said as he
returned to Seaview he saw Jenny and Jacob on the beach and told them
they would have company.
“We really do appreciate your
concern and thanks Lee,” Jenny said with a smile. “Is there anything you need...I can help with
the picnic.”
“You’ll have to talk to
Cookie, he’s in charge,” Lee explained as he saw Cookie unloading the items
needed for the picnic. After a quick introduction
he put them immediately to work.
Lee returned to the control
room where Chip and Janet had worked out the shore leave schedule.
“The techs are going to sail
back with the
((()))
Cookie had everything ready
for the picnic by 1500 hours. He had two
barbeques ready for the hamburgers and hot dogs. Cookie and the mess specialists had made
potato salad, cole slaw, and baked beans.
Jenny pitched in helped them set up the tables. The first group of men on shore leave from Seaview
had just come off the boat. Lee, Chip
and Janet were in the first group. It
was very warm and humid so they changed into shorts and t-shirts. The men were having a good time fishing,
eating, and hiking around the island.
The
After they had finished
eating and cleaned up, the
“Thank you for taking care of
Lee,” Janet said to Jenny giving her a hug.
“You’re welcome,” Jenny
answered returning her hug.
Chip joined the
“Will you excuse us,
Admiral,” Lee said to him as he was talking with Drs. Worth and Geiger.
“No problem Lee,” he replied,
“I’ll check in with you later.”
Lee and Janet returned to Seaview. They weren’t scheduled to be back for another
ninety minutes but Lee wanted to return to the cool comfort of the boat. He also knew that O’Brien, Taper and
“Hi Skipper,” O’Brien said
when Lee and Janet came down the ladder.
“You’re back early, everything okay?”
“Too hot out there for me,”
Lee answered with a grin. “Why don’t
you, Taper and
“But Skipper, if Mr. Morton
sees us, he’s going to be mad,” Taper replied.
Laughing, “I’ll take care of
Mr. Morton,” Lee said.
“Thank you, sir,”
The three men grabbed their
gear they had stowed in the radio shack ready to leave when it was their
turn. They were making their way up the
ladder out of the control room when Chip started to come down and saw the three
of them starting to go up.
“Where are you going...you’re
still on duty?” Chip said a little harsher than he wanted but he was tired and
his arm was starting to throb.
“I let them go,” Lee answered
as he walked over to the ladder. “It’s
too hot out there for me, I’m sweating which is making me itch.”
“Sorry men,” Chip
responded. “Have a good time.”
“Thank you sirs,” the three
men replied and quickly made their way up the ladder before Chip changed his
mind.
“Chip, you’re looking a
little ragged,” Lee commented. “Give me
ten minutes to change and then you better hit the rack.”
“Okay, sounds good. I’m really tired and my arm is starting to
hurt.”
Lee quickly made his way up
the spiral staircase while Chip and Janet sat down at the table in the
observation nose. Janet sat on the side
looking out the windows.
“Janet,” Chip said, “I’m
sorry.”
Janet looked at Chip with a
puzzled look on her face. “Sorry for
what?”
“I should have known Gallagher
wasn’t Lee. We’ve been friends too long
for me not to have known but damn he was good at being him. There were a couple of times he did things
Lee wouldn’t have done or said but I just overlooked it thinking he was having
a bad day or something. Had I been more
observant, it wouldn’t have gotten to the point where you had to knock him
out.”
“Chip, if his eyes hadn’t
given him away I might have believed he was Lee too so please don’t beat
yourself up over it.”
Chip patted Janet’s hand,
“Thank you.”
Lee came down the staircase
and saw the two of them and wondered what they had been talking about. He would ask Janet later.
“I’ll take over Chip. Go and get some rest,” Lee said with a smile,
“And that’s an order.”
“I’ll see you in the morning,
Night Lee, Janet,” Chip replied undoing his tie as he went up the staircase.
((()))
Lee wanted to talk to Janet
in private but knew the men would be coming and going on shore leave so he
closed the crash doors between the observation nose and control room leaving
them open a crack in case he was needed.
He sat down in the seat Chip just vacated and took his wife’s hands in
his. “What were you and Chip talking
about...it looked serious.”
“He apologized to me for not
recognizing that Paul wasn’t you.”
Sighing deeply Lee replied,
“From what I’ve heard, he did a damn good job of being me.”
“He did,” Janet answered
quietly. “I knew he wasn’t you, his eyes
gave him away...they were cold and empty.
“Janet there’s a few things I
need to talk to you about. I noticed the
new door on our cabin...the welt on your face...the nameplate on the desk. Could you please tell me what happened
between you and Gallagher?”
“Lee, nothing happened
between us. I slept in the chair when we were first got on board. After I tried to shoot him and he put me in
the brig....” Janet started to explain but Lee cut her off before she could
finish.
Lee just stared at Janet,
“What’s this about a shooting...the brig,” he asked stunned at what she just
told him.
She squeezed his hand and
said, “Maybe I better start at the beginning.
He sailed the boat back to the dock where Adam meet us. That’s how they knew where we were, he
planted a tracker on it. If we didn’t
have to leave for this mission, he would have been found out right away. He didn’t put any cameras in the office and
had no idea how to act when we were there.
But on Seaview he had your every move down pat. He let Chip take out the boat which wasn’t
unusual either.”
“Why didn’t you tell the
admiral, Chip, Jamie or anybody that he was an imposter,” Lee asked.
“He had videos of them
beating or torturing you. He would show
them to me threatening to kill you if I told anyone who he really was. Lee, I couldn’t take that chance on him
carrying out his threat. Besides everywhere I went Adam or Paul were there
watching me. I was only alone with Chip
one time and I tried to tell him but Adam came in and I had to make up a story
about a gift for the Admiral’s birthday.”
Janet stopped to take a drink
of water from the pitcher on the table. “When I first got on the boat, I took
your gun and hid it in one of your jacket pockets. I figured he would search the cabin looking
for a gun so I hid it in plain sight.”
Lee smiled at her and patted
her hand. “You’re starting to think more
like spy than I think I like,” Lee told her “but how come you shot him?”
“I got ready for bed while
Paul did your walk around. I was alone
so I put the gun under the pillow just in case I needed it. He returned from the walk and put his shoes
under the chair just like you did and that’s when he told me he put a camera in
the air vent in our cabin and watched us.
I just couldn’t stand that he knew our private moments so I took the gun
out and tried to shoot him but he lunged at me and I missed and the bullet went
into the door.”
Lee ran his hand through his
hair and asked, “Why were you in the brig?”
“He put me there telling
everyone I snapped...I was losing my mind and I needed to be there for his and
everyone’s safety. He wouldn’t let
anyone talk to me but him and Adam. I
knew if I didn’t eat, Cookie would come down and yell at me. When Adam brought my tray of food, I
purposely knocked it over so he would have to clean up the mess. While he went to get the mop and bucket, I
wrote a note on a napkin and gave it to Cookie to give to Chip.”
“Good idea,” Lee said giving
her wry grin. “The welt and scratch on
your face...he hit you.”
“When I wouldn’t tell him
that Cookie had to report to Jamie when I don’t eat, he got mad and slapped
me. I could tell I was getting to
him...I didn’t make things easy for him.
I think he thought I was just going to do what he said and not fight him
but I just couldn’t do that.”
Rubbing her check, Lee
smiled, “I wouldn’t expect you to do anything else. How did he get injured?”
“I knew Cookie would read the
note and give it Chip. I told Paul I was
tired of fighting him and would do what he wanted so he let me go back to the
cabin to shower and change. He left on
another walk around and I looked for the gun but I couldn’t find it. The only thing I found was the glass
nameplate...I figured it was better than nothing.”
“Where did you find that?”
Lee wondered scratching his leg.
“Buried in the back of your
bottom drawer and it still had a picture of you and Liddy attached,” Janet
replied with a grin.
“Sorry, I totally forgot it
was there,” Lee answered guiltily.
“No need to feel bad...it
came in handy...I just removed the picture and threw it in the garbage,” Janet
laughed and also got a chuckle out of Lee.
Janet stopped for a minute
before she spoke again. “I put it under the pillow because I knew Paul thought
he was going to get me to sleep with him.
I was standing next to the bunk and I let him kiss me. When he did, his eyes were closed so grabbed
the nameplate and hit him as hard as I could.
He fell down but when he started to get up I hit him again and ran out
of the cabin to Chip’s. There’s a slight issue there, as I didn’t knock on his
door and when I ran in he was in his underwear.” Lee could barely stifle his grin at the
thought of Janet seeing Chip in his underwear knowing his friend was probably
very embarrassed.
Lee sat there for awhile not
saying anything. Janet looked at
him. “I’m sorry I let him kiss me but I
didn’t know what else to do.”
“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” Lee
replied softly, “I know you didn’t have much choice if you wanted to stop him
from taking over Seaview and sending me back to the PR.”
“Lee, there’s just one more
thing,” Janet said worriedly. “He still
looks like you...what if he escapes...he could pretend to be you again.”
“Please don’t worry about
that. I’m sure he’ll be put away where
he can’t escape,” Lee assured her.
He went around to Janet’s
side of the table, grabbed her hand and helped her up. He gave her a gentle kiss and hug. “I’m sorry,” he said as he held her close.
((()))
Lee opened the crash doors
when they were done talking. The admiral
had just come down the ladder and entered the control room where he saw Lee and
Janet. “It’s very warm out there,” he
said as he wiped his brow.
“Did you and Drs. Worth and
Geiger work out the details for the dive tomorrow?” Lee asked.
“Yes, we’re all set. We’ll dive tomorrow at 1000. Hopefully if everything goes according to
plan we’ll be ready to shove off by 1400 hours.”
“Sorry Admiral that I can’t
go out but Jamie was pretty adamant about not letting me dive,” Lee replied
scratching his arm.
Patting Lee on the shoulder,
he said, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of it.”
Jamie was just coming down
the ladder into the control room and caught Lee scratching his arm. “Lee when you’re off duty, come to sick
bay. I have some lotion that will help the
itching.”
“Thanks, Jamie,” Lee replied
as he scratched his stomach.
“Where’s Chip,” the admiral
inquired noticing he wasn’t around.
“Hopefully sound asleep. He came back aboard looking pretty tired and
said his arm was hurting so I sent him to bed.
I’ll check on him after I go to sick bay.”
“If he’s got any problems,
please call me,” Jamie told Lee.
“Okay Jamie.”
((()))
Once everyone had eaten,
Cookie and the mess specialists along with help from the men on the island
cleaned up and put things away. There
weren’t many leftovers so he would leave them with the men on the island.
O’Brien, Taper and
“Yes sir,” they replied and
ran out the aft hatch to their quarters to shower and change.
The admiral, Lee and Janet
returned to the observation nose and sat down.
“Everything okay, Lee,” the admiral asked seeing the serious looks on
Lee’s and Janet’s faces.
“Just fine,” Lee answered,
“Janet was just filling me in on what took place on the boat while I was gone.”
“You should be proud of her,”
the admiral said patting Janet on the hand.
“She’s the one who found out all the information.”
“Thank you sir,” Janet
replied. “I’m just glad I was able to
help.”
“I’m going to shower and go over a few more
reports before I turn in for the night.
Good night, Lee, Janet.”
“Goodnight sir,” they replied
as O’Brien and Taper came back into the control room ready for duty.
“Thanks again sir for letting
us leave early. We probably walked about
ten miles. This island sure has some
beautiful waterfalls.”
Smiling Lee responded, “No
problem.” He went over the duties he
wanted them to take care of while they were on watch.
((()))
Lee and Janet went to sick
bay to get the lotion from Jamie but before he would give it to him, he wanted
to look at his blisters and sunburn. Lee
unbuttoned his shirt and took off the t-shirt he was wearing underneath his
uniform shirt.
“Your blisters are looking a
lot better,” Jamie remarked. “Continue
to use the ointment and gauze and they should be healed by the time we get
home. The blisters on your legs are healed as well as your feet. Here’s the lotion for your itching and peeling. You look like a snake shedding his skin,” he
teased.
“Thanks Jamie,” Lee
deadpanned taking the lotion from him.
“See you in the morning.”
((()))
Lee and Janet made their way
to they cabin. When they arrived, Janet
took the lotion from Lee and went into the cabin while Lee walked down to
Chip’s. He knocked softly on the door
but didn’t get any response. He knew if
Chip were awake he would hear the knock.
He tried the door, found it unlocked so he went in to check on him. He was sound asleep so he quietly closed the
door and left for his cabin.
((()))
Lee entered the cabin and
found Janet had already gotten ready for bed.
He removed his shoes, shirt and pants.
He was going to apply the ointment and gauze to his blisters and put the
lotion on but Janet took the ointment and smeared it on his blisters and
applied the gauze. She then took the
bottle of lotion and gently rubbed it on his arms, legs, back and stomach. When she finished, Lee gathered Janet into
his arms and gave her a passionate kiss.
He led her over to the bunk where he removed Janet’s nightgown and they
climbed in.
((()))
It was 1000 hours and the
admiral, Sharkey, Kowalski and Patterson were suited up to go out and adjust
the sensors as well as installing a few more as the bleaching of the coral was
getting worse.
Lee, Chip and Janet were in
the laboratory with Drs. Worth and Geiger watching the instruments as they made
the adjustments. After being in the
water for an hour, everything was calibrated to perfection and the men returned
to Seaview.
The two scientists along with
the technicians, Lee, Chip and Janet returned to Seaview also. They would have lunch with the men from the
compound before preparing to leave for
“Thanks for your help,
Harry,” Jonas said. “Everything is
perfect.”
“Good,” Nelson replied. “I hope we can help with the compound being
built in the
“I’ll recommend that you be
contacted when the times comes,” Jonas said shaking his hand as well as the
rest of them. Sharkey escorted them off
the boat as the deck detail prepared to untie Seaview from the dock.
Lee and Chip were in the
conning tower as the deck detail stowed the lines the technicians threw
them.
“All back dead slow,” Lee
radioed to the engine room. Seaview
slowly left the dock area and headed out to sea from the small inlet. Once clear of the inlet, Lee and Chip
returned to the control room with Lee jumping down missing the last three rungs
as his feet no longer bothered him.
“Take her down to two hundred
feet, all ahead standard,” Lee told Chip who relayed the information to
maneuvering.
The admiral and Janet were in
the observation nose watching as she went under the water. Lee joined them in the nose. “We should be home in three days,” Lee
reported to the admiral.
“Sounds good Lee,” he
answered. “I’ve got some work to catch
up on, so I’ll see you for dinner at 1900 hours.”
“Yes sir,” Lee replied as the
admiral went up the staircase. Janet
stayed in the nose just watching as Seaview plow her way through the
water. Lee gave Janet’s hand a squeeze
and returned to the control room. She
smiled knowing all was right with her world.
((()))
Paul Gallagher laid on his
bunk in the brig on the destroyer. They
would be docking at
The End.