It’s
All Relative
Note: I did the best I could with descriptions by using Google Earth, and several websites I found. Any deviation from the actual truth is either entirely my fault, or what I needed for the story J RLK
“Admiral Jones on line three for you, sir,” the voice of Admiral Harriman Nelson’s PA, Angie, broke into his contemplation of the designs for modifications to Seaview’s propeller shafts. While he didn’t so much mind the interruption – he was going a little bug-eyed trying to figure out what component was messing up what should have been a more efficient system but was so far only causing multiple maintenance issues – he did mildly object to the caller. Every time ONI’s Director called, trouble followed.
He
frowned at the phone but answered fairly amiably. “What can I do for you, Robert?”
“I
can’t reach Crane’s cell phone.” Jones
wasn’t known for wasting time with small talk.
“I
had Chip program it to not accept calls from you.” Nelson could be just as blunt.
“I
need Crane. NOW,” came the instant
order.
“No,”
Nelson told him, and leaned back in his chair with a smile on his face. He’d wanted to do that for a long time and
this was his chance! His smile increased
as there was a sputter at the other end of the line. That obviously wasn’t the answer Jones was
expecting.
“What?”
the other admiral practically yelled.
“But I need him,” came marginally more under control.
“And so do I,” Nelson answered calmly. “But that’s not why I’m denying the request,” and he emphasized the last word. Jones had a habit of making everything he said an order that he expected instant and complete compliance to. “Lee had a training incident yesterday. He’s fine but my CMO has him on a short leash for a few days.” *
“But
he has to go…” came out in a tone that Nelson didn’t think he’d ever
heard in Jones’ voice – half whine, half pleading – and he took pity on his old
friend.
“What’s
the problem, Robert?” he asked softly.
There
was a sigh at the other end of the line, as if Jones was getting himself back
under control from the momentary lapse.
“His mother is about to explode an ongoing, very important,
investigation,” came out in a growl that was much closer to his normal speech
pattern.
“What?”
it was Nelson’s turn to say, although he wasn’t nearly as upset as Jones. He’d learned not that long ago that Lee’s
mother, a free-lance writer better known to the world as the Pulitzer
Prize-winning Helen Graham Lee, was perfectly capable of handling herself in
pretty much whatever situation that she ended up in. ** But he also had heard a few stories from Chip
over the years that made him perk up his ears now. “Didn’t we have this discussion already and
you assured me that her being in Australia writing about the opal mining
industry was of no concern to you?” ***
There
was ‘something’ over the line that Nelson didn’t even try to translate. “That was before… Oh hell, Harriman. Is there any way Crane can just get her to
back off what she’s digging into?” Once
more there was a pleading note to Jones’ voice.
“That’s as far as I want to go over the phone,” came out more normal
sounding.
Nelson
chuckled. There was a grumbled something
back, but nothing else. “I’ll see what
can be arranged,” he told Jones.
Obviously there were issues that needed attending to – or so Jones
felt. No harm in a little
cooperation. Jones wouldn’t have called
if he didn’t think that it was important.
Although, what Jones thought of as important wasn’t always what Nelson
considered the same. Once they both
disconnected, Nelson punched in an internal NIMR number.
“Jamison,”
came shortly after the first ring.
“How’s
Lee?” Nelson asked, the smile still in his voice from memories of NIMR’s
encounter with Helen Crane.
“It
took you until nearly noon to ask?”
Will’s voice also held a smile, but Nelson knew that it was for an
entirely different reason.
“Been
busy,” Nelson admitted. “And I figured
that the entire Institute would have heard the explosion if you hadn’t released
him this morning.”
It
was Will’s turn to chuckle softly. “Chip
was parked in the lobby before I even got here.
The pair was last seen headed for Seaview after they devoured the
muffins and scrambled eggs and ham wraps that Lu-Tsi sent over with me.”
“She
made enough for Chip?” Nelson’s voice
held a note of incredulity.
“Nobody
can make enough for Chip,” Will muttered back, before both men chuckled
again. “I suspect that they made a quick
stop in the cafeteria. Something
specific you need Lee for?” Will got back to business.
“Just
had a call from Admiral Jones,” Nelson told him, and held the phone slightly
away from his ear in anticipation of the expected blast. He wasn’t disappointed.
“NO,”
Will roared. “I will not release
him to ONI.” His voice mellowed somewhat
as he continued and Nelson returned the phone to his ear. “While he might be safe with his own personal
blond watchdog in tow, he won’t be ready for active duty for a couple of days
yet. He took a pretty good whack to his
head and I’m still not convinced that he didn’t inhale at least a little water
– although I so far can’t prove that,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Actually,
Robert just wants him to go down to Australia and remove his mother from the
middle of an ongoing ONI investigation she apparently doesn’t know that she is
in the middle of,” Nelson told him blandly.
“Oh,
no,” Will breathed. He’d heard the
stories as well.
Nelson
chuckled, but asked a little more seriously, “You don’t think that he’s safe to
travel that far just yet?”
There
was a short pause before Will answered.
“He’s probably fine,” he admitted.
“While I’d prefer to keep tabs on him it sounds like this is more
important.”
“Robert
seems to think so,” Nelson grumbled, which caused Will to send him a short
snicker. “I could have Sharkey run Lee
there with FS1 to save him the long commercial flight.” He paused, and when he continued there was a
decidedly smug note to his voice. “I can
charge the fuel to the Navy tab since it’s their mission.
At that
Will laughed outright. Pretty much no
one at NIMR liked the fact that Lee continued to take ONI assignments –
something that he’d been doing long before taking over command of Seaview. Will wouldn’t mind so much but it seemed like
Lee never came back unscathed in some manner and therefore ended up in
Will’s care. Chip, especially, had
complained until he was blue in the face but Lee wouldn’t give up what he
considered to be his duty to his country.
Nelson didn’t especially like it but, with his own ties to ONI earlier
in his career, he understood Lee’s commitment.
“Might
I make a small suggestion, Admiral?” Will now asked.
“Could
I stop you?” Nelson’s good humor had
quickly returned.
Will
snorted but it ended in a small chuckle.
“Send Kowalski instead? And maybe
give him an excuse to hang around until Lee is ready to come back?”
Nelson
immediately understood Will’s ploy.
While Lee got along just fine with Seaview’s COB, Chief Sharkey, he’d be
happier having Kowalski to talk to on the long trip. Not only that but, if Lee was still suffering
a bit from the dunking he’d taken yesterday along with the knocks to his head,
Kowalski had enough first aid training – and Lee was comfortable enough around
him – that Seaview’s Senior Rating might, actually, stand a chance of being
allowed to help his Skipper if the need arose.
“Kowalski, it is,” Nelson was happy to agree. “Ah, you might have a quiet little talk with
him before I alert Lee?”
“My
thoughts, exactly,” Will happily went along with the conspiracy. “When are you going to tell Lee?”
“Thought
that I’d wander through the cafeteria in a few minutes. If Chip hasn’t dragged Lee there yet for
lunch I’ll walk down to the boat.”
“Then
I’ll make a quick call and have ‘Ski directed here for a short chat post
haste.”
“Sounds
good.” Both men hung up and headed to
take care of their parts of the project.
Nelson
did wonder, as he headed downstairs, what Mrs. Crane could have stumbled
into. There was the ongoing smuggling of
wildlife, of course, that Australia was dealing with, but that wouldn’t be of
any concern to ONI. At least, Nelson
didn’t think so. On the other hand,
Nelson had seen reports of people-smuggling involving Australia – ONI might
have a finger in that pie since some of the places people were being smuggled
from were predominantly Muslim, with possible connections to al-Quaida. But what that could have to do with opal
mining Nelson had no idea. Despite the fact
that it was a big export industry for Australia, a lot of the mines themselves
were small operations, not in need of a large amount of manpower. On the other hand Nelson vaguely recalled
that more areas had recently been opened up to larger mining operations – he’d
done a few minutes’ research when it had come up that Mrs. Crane was interested
in doing a story about the industry.
Nelson could admit to a bit of curiosity on what the very talented
writer would use as a basis for her article.
Lee hadn’t acquired his eclectic interests accidentally – his mother
made a habit of coming at topics from very unusual angles.
A
glance into NIMR’s cafeteria – more like an upscale restaurant than the usual
variety because Nelson wanted it that way – didn’t produce his two senior
officers so Nelson walked down to Seaview, enjoying the sunshine and fresh
air. He kept telling himself that he
needed to get out of his office – or his lab, or Seaview – more often. But somehow…
He chuckled at himself as he entered Seaview’s boarding hatch and made
his way to the Conn. He might harass Lee
and Chip for being workaholics but he was just as bad – if not worse!
The
boat’s XO was the only person Nelson saw as he entered the Conn. Not surprising as Seaview wasn’t scheduled
out for almost two weeks and most of the crew was either working ashore or on
Leave. Chip had spread an anti-static
cloth over the chart table and had computer parts scattered across the
expanse. Nelson wasn’t about to ask what
Chip was in the middle of. Chip always
felt that he needed to give his boss complete answers, but for all Nelson’s
brilliance in other areas he always ended up being able to understand about one
word in ten when Chip tried to explain the inner workings of computers.
“Sir?”
the blond stopped whatever it was he was doing and looked expectantly at
Nelson.
His
boss gave him a smile. “Just looking for
Lee,” Nelson told his XO.
“Last
known location was Engineering,” Chip told him seriously, and then gave Nelson
a quick grin. “But that was at least
half an hour ago.” Nelson returned the
grin – they both knew that, with Lee, he could be all over the boat faster than
most crewmen could keep up with him.
“Ah,” Chip started, and then stopped.
At a raised eyebrow from Nelson he continued. “Would this have anything to do with Kowalski
getting a sudden request to report to Med Bay?”
Nelson
openly chuckled. “Actually, it would,”
he admitted. “Admiral Jones
called…” His grin broadened at the hard
frown that hit Chip’s face at the mention of the ONI Director. “Down, Chip,” Nelson told him, still
smiling. “There seems to be a minor
problem with Mrs. Crane having stumbled into an ongoing investigation…”
“Oh,
help,” Chip’s mumble momentarily interrupted Nelson.
“…and
Robert wants Lee to go sidetrack her before anything gets too out of hand,”
Nelson finished.
Chip
shook his head. “I love Mother Crane,”
he told his boss. “Honestly. But I swear…”
“What
are you bad-mouthing my mother about now?” came from behind them, and Lee
walked into the Conn from the aft hatch.
“You
come by your knack for getting into trouble all too naturally,” Chip told him
firmly, although he smiled as Nelson had to get quick control of himself or
he’d have burst out laughing. The two
friends were known for yanking each other’s chains on a regular basis –
especially off-duty. It never interfered
with the chain of command – that remained firmly in place by both men. But the pair could torment each other to the
point where outsiders might wonder if they really were friends.
Lee
opened his mouth, took a quick glance at Nelson, and decided to ignore his XO
for the moment. “Did you need something,
Admiral?”
It
still took Nelson an extra second to control his snickers. “Not me, actually. But I do have an errand for you,” he told
Lee. The brunet sent a glance between
Nelson and Chip but remained silent. “Or
rather, Admiral Jones, actually,” Nelson continued. He struggled to keep his face under control
as Lee glanced at his cell phone, as usual while in port it was attached to his
belt. “He couldn’t reach your cell,”
Nelson answered the unvoiced question.
Chip decided that this might be a really good time to go back to
tinkering with his collection of computer innards. “Or didn’t try,” Nelson told Lee, purposely
not looking at Chip. He was afraid that they’d both crack up. “Whatever, it’s about time that he remembered
to ask me first.” Lee started to open
his mouth but Nelson spoke first. “I’ve
instructed the Institute switchboard to direct all calls from him to me, no
matter who he asks for.”
Lee
gave another glance at his cell phone, sent a quick glance at Chip who had his
back firmly planted towards his CO, and then looked at Nelson again. “Yes, sir,” came out in not quite Lee’s
usually so authoritative voice. He knew
‘something’ was going on, but there had been too many discussions in the past
about Lee disappearing on ONI missions for him to want to start any kind of
argument now. “I’m to assume,” he send
another glance at Chip’s back, “that this has something to do with Mom?”
“Have
you talked to her recently?” Nelson wanted to know.
“Not
since before she left for Australia,” Lee confessed. While mother and son loved each other dearly,
they both led busy lives and didn’t always stay in touch as much as either
would like.
Nelson
nodded at the comment. It confirmed that
Lee did know about the trip. “And I seem
to recall that she was going to work on a story involving the opal mining
industry?”
Lee
smiled softly – Nelson, it seemed, never forgot anything. “Yes, sir.
Not totally sure what angle she was going to take. Mostly, she picks a subject and figures out
what she’s going to say once she’s in the middle of her research.”
“I
sort of got that impression,” Nelson agreed.
“However…” He wasn’t sure just
how to say the next part.
Lee
beat him to it. His expression turned
pained. “What did she step in the middle
of?” he asked softly. He frowned and
sent a glare at Chip’s back when there was a strangled off snort from that
direction.
Nelson
struggled with his own expression.
“Robert didn’t say, actually. He
just wanted you to go down and sort of sidetrack her, if at all possible.”
Lee
momentarily hung his head before finally looking at Nelson nearly through his
eyelashes. “Now, sir?” he barely managed
to get out. “Not just, maybe, call her?”
“Now,”
Nelson confirmed. “Kowalski will be down
shortly to pre-flight FS1. He’ll be
ready to go by the time you get back from a trip home to change and pack a
bag.”
Lee
had momentarily frowned at the mention of a co-pilot. “It’s that important that I can’t take a
commercial flight?”
“I
have no idea,” Nelson told him matter-of-factly. “I just want you there and back as fast as
possible. Ski will hang out, keeping
track of FS1, until you’ve gotten everything sorted out.”
“Oh.” Lee seemed somewhat deflated that he couldn’t
argue with that bit of logic from his boss.
“I’d better call Admiral Jones and see if I can get more information out
of him.” He shook his head. “Can’t for the life of me figure out what Mom
could have stumbled across.”
“Don’t
know why – you’re just like her,” was muttered very low from Chip’s
direction. Lee was opening his mouth to
flatten his insolent XO but Nelson spoke first.
“You
leave Robert to me,” he ordered, although he could barely get it out around the
snickers he was desperately trying to control.
“You have any idea where your mother actually is?”
Lee
shook his head. “She mentioned several
places,” he told his boss, still sending sideways glances at Chip’s back. “I’ll call and find out where to meet up with
her.”
“Good. Let me know and I’ll call ahead for clearance
for Ski and FS1 as close as I can. And
maybe by then I’ll have been able to drag a little more information out of
Robert.”
“Yes,
sir,” Lee reluctantly gave in to the inevitable. With one last glance at Chip’s back, he left
to pack.
As
the echoes of Lee’s footsteps died away, indicating that he was now out of
earshot, Chip collapsed against the tabletop.
“I’m dead,” he muttered softly.
Nelson
chuckled, but said firmly as he laid a hand on Chip’s shoulder, “You were following
orders.”
At
that Chip stood up. With a glance up the
spiral stairs, where Lee had disappeared, he told his boss, “Which will last
until the next time he catches me off base.”
Nelson
still sent him a fond grin – how he appreciated and enjoyed the friendship
between his two senior officers. It made
it a little ‘interesting’ to be around them on occasion. But it had also forged a bond that helped
make them the best command team it had ever been Nelson’s privilege to be
around. He did, however, get a bit
contemplative. “Can Lee undo your
tampering?”
Chip
nodded. “I password protected it but if
he works at it long enough he can override it.”
“Sounds
like I’d better get to Robert before he does.”
Nelson started to follow Lee but hesitated. “Do I want to know what all that is?” he
indicated the computer parts scattered across the chart table.
“Ah…”
Chip started.
“Never
mind,” Nelson cut him off. This appeared
to be one of those times when it was better not to know what Chip was up
to.
* * *
Lee gave serious thought, as he drove home to change clothes, to ignoring Nelson’s order and talking to Admiral Jones himself. Two things stopped him: the respect that he had for Admiral Nelson, and the respect that he had for Admiral Nelson’s temper should his boss find out! For whatever reason, and Lee had a feeling that it was merely Nelson’s irritation that Jones so often went straight to Lee with issues, ignoring the obvious chain of command, Nelson had given him a direct order to not talk to Jones. Lee had suspicions about why Jones hadn’t called Lee’s cell phone – Chip had borrowed the phone the last time they were home, supposedly to make a small upgrade. Lee was pretty sure now what that ‘upgrade’ had been. But he also knew that Chip wouldn’t have done it on his own initiative, no matter how much he objected to Lee’s continued involvement with ONI. Lee decided that for now he’d play the game according to Nelson’s new set of rules. Time would tell if it stayed that way.
A smile – half sheepish, half smug – crossed his face as he grabbed the travel bag that he always kept partially packed and added extra clothes as well as a few other things he thought that he might have use for. There was absolutely no telling what his mother had gotten herself involved with. Lee was perfectly aware from whom he’d inherited his intense curiosity. Chip, for all his grousing, was dead on when he said that Lee was just like his mother – at least in that respect.
Ready
to head back to NIMR, he sat down on the edge of his bed and dialed a number
that not a whole lot of people in the world had – his mother’s cell phone. As well traveled as she was and as many
friends around the world as she’d made, she simply did not give out that number
without a really good reason. She always
insisted that her cell phone was for her convenience, not everyone
else’s. For the longest time all he
heard was the phone ringing. Not even
the message center was answering. He was
about to hang up when a sleepy far-away-sounding voice finally said in his ear,
“Lee? What’s wrong?”
Lee
chuckled softly. “Oops” he told his
mother. “Forgot the time
difference. And does something have to
be wrong for me to call?”
“Humm,”
came back a little more firmly; a little more awake.
But
still sounding… “Mom, where are
you? You sound like you’re talking from
a cave.”
It
was her turn to chuckle. “Well, if you
want to get technical, I sort of am.”
There was a pause, and Lee envisioned his mother sitting up and making
herself a little more comfortable now that she was apparently going to have an
actual conversation instead of going back to sleep. “I’m in White Cliffs, New South Wales. It’s sort of out in the booneys but actually
quite a neat place. Because of the high
temps during most of the year a great lot of the actual town, including the
hotel I’m staying at, is underground.
Quite pleasant, actually. Now,”
she got serious, “why are you calling me?”
Lee
smiled at the order in her voice. In
some ways she sounded a whole lot like Admiral Nelson. “Just checking to see if the invitation to
join you was still open.” He tried to
sound casual. He had a feeling she
wasn’t buying it when there was a slight pause before she answered.
“Of
course,” came back. Lee could hear the
puzzlement in her voice but there was also the usual warmth that she always
used when speaking to him.
It
made Lee smile, but he also knew that he was going to have to come up with some
excuse to placate her. “Seaview isn’t
headed out for a couple of weeks and Jamie is bugging me that I haven’t taken
much of my vacation time.” He tried to
put a grumble in his voice at mention of NIMR’s CMO. Thankfully it had the desired effect on his
mother – she was well aware of the spiteful relationship the two men presented
to the outside world, but the mutual respect that sustained their strong
friendship – and she chuckled again.
“Happy
to have you join me,” and Lee could hear the genuine warmth still in his
mother’s voice. “Need directions?”
“I’m
pretty good with maps,” he told her with a smile in his voice.
“Even
on dry land?” she teased him.
“Despite
what you may have heard from a certain blond supposed friend of mine,” Lee
groused back. He’d been the brunt of a
joke between Chip and Helen several years ago when Lee had taken a detour
driving Chip to his mom’s house. There
was construction on the main highway and Lee was sure that he knew the best way
around it. The detour had
turned….interesting.
Helen
chuckled. She was all too familiar with
the gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, harassment that was so much a part of
Lee and Chip’s brother-like friendship.
“Any idea when you’ll arrive?” she now asked.
“Ah…” Lee wasn’t sure how to explain his expedited
travel. Helen hadn’t ever seen FS1.
“When
I get up in the morning I’ll reserve a room for you,” Helen settled that small
detail. “Whenever you get here it will
be ready, and we’ll make connections at that point.”
“Sounds
perfect,” Lee told her. “Ah…”
“Yes
dear?” There was amusement in his
mother’s voice and it caused Lee to smile as well.
“Just
wondering how your research was going.”
Lee tried to keep his voice casual.
But
Helen had always had the ability to be one step ahead of her son – not an easy
task for sure. Now there was an ever so
slight pause before she asked, “What’s really behind you suddenly deciding to
show up?”
Lee
smiled and shook his head. You’d
think that I’d have learned by now, he muttered to himself. Out loud there was still a bit of chagrin in
his voice, he knew, when all he said was, “Tell you when I see you.”
“Humm,”
came back once more. But they both
chuckled softly, said their good-byes, and hung up.
Lee
grabbed his bag as well as a smaller flight bag with a few more specialized
items that, since he wouldn’t be going through airport security, he could take
along without threat of being questioned about.
He was fairly sure that Nelson would point Kowalski toward Sydney –
Helen had said she was in New South Wales.
Nelson was well-enough known by Australia’s naval hierarchy that finding
a safe spot for FS1 should be fairly easy.
Protocol would require Lee to go through a form of Customs but, as
military personnel and with Nelson’s connections, Lee didn’t expect anything
much beyond a minimal glance at his ID and passport. He did give one more glance at his house
phone, but quickly dismissed trying to call Admiral Jones and headed back to
NIMR.
Rather
than return to his office Nelson, once he’d exited Seaview, went to NIMR’s
secure communications center and called Admiral Jones from there. But even after he explained where he was
calling from Jones wasn’t overly helpful.
He continued to insist that Mrs. Crane be sidetracked away from what she
was currently investigating. He seemed
extremely relieved to hear that Lee was, indeed, headed that direction, but
that was about all Nelson could get out of ONI’s director. Muttering threats at overly paranoid officers
– admirals in particular – Nelson meandered back to Seaview. Chip had been busy – there wasn’t a single
indication that the chart table had so recently been turned into a
workbench. The open hatch, and
occasional small sound, indicated that someone was inside FS1. Nelson assumed Kowalski but didn’t verify,
instead pulling out several maps and spreading them out on top of the now clean
chart table. Footsteps pulled his
attention toward the aft hatch and he sent a smile at his XO as Chip appeared
from wherever he’d been. The smile
turned to chuckles as more footsteps, this time coming down the spiral stairs,
turned out to belong to a returning Lee.
Chip took one look for confirmation, did an abrupt about face, and
headed back the direction he’d just come from.
But a firm “Mr. Morton,” from Lee stopped the blond and both men met at
the chart table, Nelson’s continuing chuckles causing both younger men to
finally smile sheepishly. Not trusting
his voice just yet, Nelson pointed an eyebrow at his captain.
“Some
place called White Cliffs, in New South Wales,” Lee correctly read the question
and confirmed that he’d talked to his mother.
Nelson pulled out the right map, but it took all three men to finally
spot the town close to NSW’s northwest corner.
Another eyebrow only got a shrug.
“She didn’t say and I didn’t push,” Lee told his boss.
Nelson
also shrugged. “About what I got out of
Robert,” he admitted. “I’m afraid that
you’re on your own.”
“As
usual,” was muttered darkly by Chip.
“You
want to come along and help?” Lee asked him all too innocently.
Nelson
snorted as Chip sent his CO a completely politically incorrect glare. “Somebody has to be prepared to run the boat
when you come back in fourteen pieces,” the blond defended himself.
“Gentlemen,”
Nelson got out before his two officers could descend into what had all the
makings of a spitting match between ten-year-olds, although his inability to
totally control his snickers somewhat spoiled the effect.
“Yes,
sir,” came back in stereo as Lee and Chip sent him instantly innocent looks.
Nelson
was saved from totally cracking up when Kowalski’s head popped out of FS1’s
upper hatch. “Ready to go when you are,
Skipper,” he said, perfectly under control.
Nelson had a feeling that he’d heard the previous conversation – Nelson
noticed an ever so slight twitch at the corners of his mouth. A glance at Lee showed that the brunet was
also catching ‘something’ in the senior rating’s expression.
Nelson
took advantage of the interruption in Lee and Chip’s sniping match. “You take off, then,” he told Lee. “I’ll see what arrangements I can put
together and give FS1 a call when I have it confirmed.”
“Yes,
sir.” Lee still sent a small sneer
Chip’s way, but turned his back and headed for the Nose and FS1’s upper hatch
before Chip could retaliate.
Once
the hatch was closed Nelson turned to his XO.
“You two even now?” Chip waggled
a hand from side to side but he sent Nelson a broad grin. Nelson just shook his head and went back to
studying the map.
* *
*
Even
with Nelson pulling strings in the background it was still a tired Lee who
arrived in White Cliffs. Kowalski had
carefully suggested that Lee might like to catch a few Z’s on the way down, but
wasn’t at all surprised when his Skipper merely shook his head and went back to
studying the couple of maps that he’d brought from home.
It
was a habit that he’d developed after starting to work for ONI since he
frequently wouldn’t know quite where he was going to be from one day to the
next, and he’d continued to keep up-to-date information at hand. Chip had found his collection one day and
teased him – at least it was mostly teasing, although Lee had seen the quickly
buried frown and heard the carefully controlled grumble in the blond’s voice –
that a quick search on his computer would call up the same information. Lee had, also carefully, reminded Chip that
he wasn’t always in a position to use a computer and the subject was quickly
dropped. Neither friend wanted to
antagonize the other on what was a very touchy subject.
Kowalski
had also sent Lee a raised eyebrow when, about halfway through the trip, Lee
had a bit of a coughing attack.
“Smoker’s hack,” Lee had teased the rating, and they’d both grinned
since Lee didn’t smoke.
Nelson
had indeed arranged for FS1 to dock – quietly – in Sydney Harbor. Kowalski stayed airborne most of the way, and
he and Lee kibitzed about how many radar installations along the route would
post UFO readings. Once they were
getting closer, however, they dove the little craft and made a much slower,
less public, entrance into the continent/country.
Their
boss had made other arrangements as well.
There were accommodations awaiting Kowalski at a nearby hotel – nothing
fancy but more than merely serviceable.
Lee teased him about making good use of his paid vacation time when he
ducked in for a few minutes before he was scheduled to fly by light plane out
to White Cliffs – the place had a small airstrip with once-a-day flight
service. Kowalski was amazed but Lee
reminded him that, because of the distances involved in Australia, a lot of
places had at least a place that planes could land if they were careful.
The
rest of Nelson’s call hadn’t been nearly as helpful. Admiral Jones wasn’t available – quote,
unquote – the next time Nelson had tried to talk to him. Lee and Kowalski both shivered slightly and
shared a quick nervous glance at the tone in Nelson’s voice when he related
that bit of news. Lee tried to answer
calmly, telling Nelson that he was sure that he could get whatever was screwed
up straightened out; that he found it hard to believe that his mom could mess
up that badly no matter what Admiral Jones was saying. There was a grunt on the other end of the
line and once more Lee and Kowalski shared a glance, this one with a small
smile. There had been a pause, another
grunt, and Nelson had said that he’d try again later to pin Jones down. Lee had said, with what he hoped was a smile
in his voice to help calm down his obviously ticked off boss, that his money
was on Nelson. In actual fact Lee wasn’t
holding his breath. If Jones was being
this much of a pain there was little hope of even Nelson getting anything
further without a trip to DC and physically rattling Jones’ bones. Lee was just as happy now that he hadn’t
tried to call Jones himself. He did give
a few seconds’ thought to what Jones would have told him had the admiral been
able to reach him directly. Which led to
reminding himself that he needed to have a little talk with Chip when he got
home. On the other hand, he
admitted to himself, the fact that Jones can’t reach me directly isn’t all
that bad. He smiled to himself – he
thought. Kowalski raised a quick
eyebrow, causing Lee’s smile to broaden.
“Just a thought that letting admirals deal with admirals isn’t such a
bad idea.”
“Gotcha
there, Skip,” the senior rating agreed wholeheartedly.
What
with travel time and time zone changes, it was nearly 6 pm when the small plane
landed at White Cliffs. Besides Lee
there were four other passengers. Two
were businessmen, buyers for different jewelry stores in Sydney. They obviously knew each other, and the pilot
as well, and they kept the others semi-entertained with their good-natured
bickering over who was going to have the more profitable trip until the plane
took off and the engine noise got too bad to easily carry on a
conversation. The other two were a young
married couple, both teachers in Melbourne on a small vacation. Lee got the feeling that, when they talked
about why they as teachers were taking off during what wasn’t a school holiday,
that there was far more to the story than that they simply needed a break and
the school where they both taught had given them the time off. But it wasn’t in Lee’s nature to pry into
strangers’ private lives, and no one else aboard seemed to care.
Even
as evening was approaching, the heat slammed Lee in the face as he stepped off
the plane. And it isn’t even the
hottest part of the year, he muttered to himself. The landscape, except for the small area that
was the above ground part of town, was almost moonscape-like, with rocks and
sand and small mounds of apparently discarded materials from the opal
mining. Chip had been busy and awaiting
Lee when FS1 docked was a fat folder of information about White Cliffs, which
Lee had glanced through while waiting for the flight.
While
New South Wales had re-written legislation to allow full-scale, large company,
mining operations, White Cliffs was one of the older areas that still only
permitted small, individual digs. The
area had about two hundred permanent residents, most of whom lived underground
in what were called dugouts. The area
was primarily limestone so the dugouts were entirely safe, and stayed pretty
much a constant comfortable temperature all year ‘round. There were businesses and at least one church
above ground, but even the hotel was mostly underground. There were a couple small vehicles awaiting
the passengers, who were all going to the same hotel. Lee’s driver, who also took the young couple,
drove the ‘scenic route,’ pointing out the small town’s highlights, including
the solar station. Everyone smiled at
the small band, or mob as they were called, of kangaroos hanging around the
church as if they were awaiting evening services.
Lee
smiled again when they got to the hotel; the above ground part included a small
swimming pool, enclosed by glass panels, as well as a couple of guest rooms –
apparently for the claustrophobic. Lee
felt right at home descending down into what was actually quite a spacious
network of underground passageways and rooms.
He glanced around as the desk clerk checked in the couple. The two buyers, being familiar with
everything, had been driven straight here, and Lee nodded to them as he saw
them come from what must be the lodging area and head for the bar. With a couple minutes to wait, Lee walked that
way as well and poked his nose into the area, looking around. He knew that his expression blanched as he
spotted his mother sitting at a small table with a man maybe a few years older
than Lee, and he instantly ducked back out into the foyer and headed for the
restroom he thankfully spotted around a corner.
A quick glance told him the room was empty and he finally allowed
himself to breathe. He grabbed his cell
phone with a muttered, Mom, of all the times to ignore your phone, please
don’t do it now, and was almost giddy with relief when she picked up.
“Hello,
dear,” she said brightly as her phone identified her caller.
“Mother,
please don’t ask questions. And please
be extremely careful how you answer me.”
“Of
course, dear,” came instantly back, and Lee allowed himself a quick smile. Unwanted was also the thought that he hoped
nobody was monitoring cell phone calls.
A long shot, out here. But he’d
had missions screwed up before by longer ones.
“Your
son is going to have to cancel his plans to join you.”
“Oh,
rats,” came through the line. “I suppose
that workaholic boss of yours suddenly decided to go chase fish.”
Lee
almost laughed out loud. “Something like
that,” he told her. “You are, however,
about to run into a man named Travis Meeker.
You aren’t going to like him a whole lot.”
“How
disappointing.” Lee could hear immense
curiosity hidden in those two words. He
was just extremely pleased that his mother was so adept at reading situations –
and people – that pretty much nothing threw her totally off.
“Love
you,” he told her with feeling.
“You’re
sure you can’t make it down,” she said, disappointment now very evident in her
voice. Lee wasn’t sure what to say, but
she saved him by continuing. “Well,
okay. I’ll cancel the room I had
reserved for you. Perhaps I’ll make a stop
in California on my way home.”
“I
love you,” he told her again, and listened to her soft chuckle before they both
disconnected.
Lee
walked back to the reception desk, blessing his lucky stars that he’d spotted
who his mother was talking to before checking in. He smiled at the desk clerk,
a mid-twenties woman, and apologized for not calling ahead for reservations and
hoped that the hotel might have a vacancy as it wasn’t high-tourist
season. She smiled back, assuring him
that they did indeed have several rooms available, and Lee reached into the bag
he always kept partially packed for a small leather pouch, from one section of
which came a passport, driver’s license, and credit card, all looking extremely
authentic and all identifying Lee as one Michael Travis Meeker from Seattle,
WA, USA. Lee was careful not to show
that the pouch had several other sections, and quickly tucked the pouch back
into the bag.
Once
into the room assigned to him he stashed his real ID cards and passport into
the pouch, and the whole pouch went into a different, cleverly concealed
section of the other bag. Even if the
bag was searched it was unlikely that the pouch would be found. With a shake of his head that once again
whatever guardian angel that sat on his shoulder had protected him from what
could have been an extremely unpleasant experience, Lee headed once more for
the bar. Lee had run into Helen’s
companion before, and it hadn’t been as Lee B. Crane!
The
man’s name was Barnabas Tyler. Suspected
of everything from drug smuggling to arms dealing, nothing had ever been
proven. He was, to all intents and
purposes, just a wealthy playboy living wherever he happened to find himself –
although he carried a US passport. Lee
had run into him as a periphery character in an investigation years ago. ONI suspected that impressionable young
sailors with high security clearances were being suckered into rigged poker
games in Honolulu, Hawaii, while their ships were docked at Pearl Harbor. They were then blackmailed to pay off their
debts with stolen naval intel documents.
Lee had gone in undercover as Petty Officer M. Travis Meeker, been able
to identify enough of the main players to bring in a full-scale investigation,
and clear the young seamen of everything except extreme stupidity. Tyler had been one of the men involved in the
poker games but the investigators, which did not include a carefully extricated
Lee, couldn’t prove that he was actually a part of the plan and not merely an innocent
bystander to the real motives. As Lee’s
cover hadn’t been blown he kept the fake ID, now private citizen instead of
navy personnel, to use another day. Now,
having gotten himself – or rather M. Travis Meeker – squared away, he headed
back to the bar.
His
glance around the room was casual as he entered but his trained eyes took in
everything. Helen and Tyler were still
sitting at the small table where they’d been, on the side of the room near a
wooden bar counter you might see in any upscale tavern. The two opal buyers Lee had flown in with
were on the other side of the room, and Lee again thanked his lucky stars that
he hadn’t actually told anyone his name.
The pilot knew that his last name was Crane but that shouldn’t be a
problem. The men he might now have to
deal with, depending on what was actually going on, would easily accept an
explanation of merely another alias as they no doubt did the same thing all too
often. Helen, Lee knew, traveled under
‘Helen Graham Lee’ as opposed to Mrs. Helen Crane. Lee knew that it wasn’t anything to do with
trying to forget her marriage to Lee’s father.
She’d always been Mrs. Crane to all her friends, Lee’s schoolteachers,
etc. But it had been a little help in
distancing herself from the pain she’d suffered when he passed away at such an
early age, when Lee was five years old.
And now, as a successful freelance writer, her maiden name was the one
most familiar to the outside world, and what her passport read.
Over
half of the other tables were occupied, some with people who were, from their
dress, locals. Lee took a route toward
the bar that placed him behind his mother’s chair. He carefully didn’t acknowledge the look
Tyler sent him as he started across the room.
When he ‘accidentally’ bumped the back of Helen’s chair, and stopped
ever so briefly to apologize, his surprised recognition of Tyler was perfectly
portrayed.
The
two men stared at each other ever so briefly, as if trying to remember why they
knew the other’s face. Lee had decided
to not waste time. “Ah, Tyler, isn’t
it?” There was an ever so slight bit of
carefully cultivated distrust in Lee’s voice.
Tyler
nodded, his eyes scanning Lee. “Hawaii?”
was all he said.
“Travis
Meeker,” Lee supplied the name.
Again
Tyler nodded. Not friendly, but also not
totally antagonistic. Helen had turned
slightly to acknowledge Lee’s apology and Tyler apparently decided that he’d
better watch his manners, even though his eyes held an easily read element of
distrust. “Helen Lee,” he said, almost
reluctantly.
“Ma’am,”
Lee said easily, with a small nod. But
his eyes went right back to Tyler’s, expressing nothing more than casual
indifference.
“Still
in the Navy?” Tyler now asked.
Lee
shook his head. “Too many
restrictions. Cramped my style,” he
said, still with careful caution. As Tyler
seemed unsure of what else to say, Lee nodded at Helen with another soft
“Ma’am, pleasure to meet you,” and purposely turned his back and continued on
to the bar. He ordered a drink and took
it to the other side of the room, finding a table where he could sit with his
back to the wall and keep the rest of the room in sight. He very carefully didn’t focus on any table
in particular – merely made it apparent to anyone watching him that he was
casually observant of everything around him.
He had to work hard at keeping a smile covered as Helen studiously
ignored him and continued whatever conversation she was having with Tyler. The bit he’d heard before bumping into her
chair, Tyler seemed to be describing a specific mine – Lee wasn’t sure if it
was here or somewhere else. But that was
precisely what he would have expected – his mother gathering all sorts of
information from everyone she met, and eventually coming up with a special
story for an ordinary topic.
Lee
did let himself consider what Tyler might be doing here. On first glance White Cliffs seemed too small
and out of the way to be of any interest to someone so internationally involved
in nasty things as Tyler was suspected of being. And yet, Lee had to admit, it might just be
someplace this far out in the booneys, but with it’s own small airstrip, that
would appeal to someone involved in nefarious dealings. Whatever was going on, Helen was apparently
enjoying herself ‘mining’ him for information and, from his expression, he was
enjoying himself in her company. Lee
wasn’t surprised – Helen was an extremely gregarious and interesting person to
be around when she chose to be. Lee knew
it to be a bit of an act on her part, one she’d cultivated over the years to
get people to talk. But he did know that
she honestly enjoyed people simply for who they were.
As
Tyler and Helen were nearly finished with the drinks in front of them, Lee
quickly downed the last of his and stood up to leave. He suspected that the pair was about to head
for the dining room and he didn’t want to give the appearance of following
them. He was waiting for the hostess to seat him, as there were several other
couples ahead of him, when Helen and Tyler came out of the bar and headed for
the reception desk. Lee buried another
smile as Helen, in the clear voice she used when she meant it to carry,
cancelled the reservation she’d made for her son because “his boss cancelled
his vacation last minute.” Apparently
she’d not said a great deal to anyone about him – something else Lee was
grateful for – as he heard Helen say, apparently in response to a question from
Tyler, “he works for one of those ocean conservation places in Southern
California,” and promptly changed the subject.
They ended up behind him in line for dinner, but Lee was saved from
having to ignore them as the hostess took him to his table just as they were
walking up. However, as luck would have
it, the hostess then seated them only two tables away. From a very brief look of annoyance on
Tyler’s face that he instantly covered, Tyler wasn’t overjoyed at having to sit
so close to Lee, either. But Lee
carefully pretended not to notice and spent the meal ignoring them, once again
casually keeping watch over the rest of the room and giving the impression of
being guardedly suspicious. Helen and
Tyler spent the meal talking about all sorts of things, but mostly places they
both had been and what they’d enjoyed – or not enjoyed – about each. Another smile had to be buried when the topic
of Hawaii came up. Tyler was circumspect
and Helen didn’t prod. They both
chuckled when Helen admitted having wanted to visit the site on Oahu which had
been used for the ‘Robin Masters Estate’ for the filming of the ‘Magnum, PI’
television series in the 1980’s. She’d
been told originally that it was part of a public park but discovered to her
dismay that it was, indeed, a private estate and did not give tours. She’d tried to use her name and profession to
gain entrance but by then the show was no longer in production and the owners were
far too sated by looky-loo’s to be bothered by who they considered to be one
more. And with a grin, Helen had
admitted that they would have been right.
Lee
was annoyed when, just as he was finishing the last of his coffee after a
perfectly delicious meal, his carefully constructed image of not even being
there was screwed up when another round of coughs, like the one he’d suffered
on the way down in FS1, threw attention on him.
He waved off the waitress’ worried look, merely indicated that he’d like
a bit more coffee, and muttered darkly to himself that the last thing he wanted
now was to be drawing unwanted attention.
Thankfully, a few swallows of the freshly delivered coffee and he had
himself back under control.
He
was just getting up, thinking about going back to the bar for a bit while he
pondered his options, when a man walked into the dining room. He ignored the hostess and glanced around,
his gaze settling on Tyler ever so briefly before he turned on his heel and
left. Lee didn’t recognize him, but
‘something’ about him set off Lee’s scumbag meter. However, he pretended to barely notice, paid
his bill, and meandered once more to the bar.
The man, now labeled ‘Scumbag-1’ by Lee, was already sitting at a back
table with another man who Lee labeled ‘Scumbag-2’. Lee would have preferred sitting close enough
to eavesdrop on their conversation but two things stopped him. First, there was no way he wanted to be that
obvious. And second, he suddenly
realized that he knew Scumbag-2. Heaven
only knew what name he was using down here but Lee knew him as Colin Fisher,
one of ONI’s best undercover agents. Curiouser
and curiouser, he grinned to himself behind the drink he carried to a table
across the room, where he could once more put his back to the wall and keep the
whole room casually in view.
Lee
had never worked with Fisher but the two had bumped into each other a time or
two at training sessions. Fisher was a
couple years older than Lee and Lee appreciated his acting skills, his
attention to details when creating an alias, and just his overall attitude
toward the job. Lee had learned quite a
lot from him.
Fisher’s
presence explained how Admiral Jones discovered that Helen was here. A bunch of agents were sitting around one
evening after a particularly grueling day of training and a couple of the women
started kibitzing about an article they’d recently read. Lee didn’t think that he’d reacted when the
author was identified but Fisher had pulled him aside later and flat asked, and
Lee shyly came clean. Fisher hadn’t said
anything more on that subject, but he did give Lee a few pointers on how not
to react should the circumstances happen again.
Lee
hid another grin, admitting that Fisher’s subtle little lesson quite probably
contributed to Lee being able to handle what happened earlier that evening, and
his quick thinking to get himself out of it.
That’s another one I owe you, Lee told his fellow agent silently,
and wondered even more just what the heck was going on.
* *
*
Helen
Crane, traveling under her maiden name of Helen Graham Lee, the Pulitzer
prize-winning freelance writer as she always did, was having a wonderful
time. Having spent a couple of months
off and on while working on other things doing research on Australia’s opal
mining industry, she finally was free to do her fieldwork. Doing it a bit backwards, actually, because
sometimes she found that technique to work better for her.
She’d
started in the jewelry stores in Melbourne and Sydney, her name and reputation
– plus some preliminary phone calls – gaining her access to the work rooms
where rough stones were turned into exquisite pieces of art, garnering smiles
when she called them that instead of simply pieces of jewelry. She didn’t bother much with the export side
of the business – that wasn’t what she wanted to focus on.
Instead
she preferred the human side of the story – the people who actually did the
work. A couple of store owners tried to
monopolize her time with how wonderfully they’d managed their marketing skills,
and how successful and far flung their enterprises were. She’d listened politely, jotted down a few
notes to be polite, and promptly tossed that part of the interviews into the
trash at her first opportunity.
She
had spent a fair amount of time deciding where she wanted to do what she was
referring to as her ‘outback research.’
She knew that she wanted to stay away from the bigger operations. Originally all mining had been done by
individuals on small claims, but recent changes in Australia’s laws had allowed
for large industrial-sized operations in a lot of areas. That still left her several options, among
them Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs where the law was still small, usually 50
x 50 meters or roughly 54 x 54 yards, claim sites, with no more than two sites
held by any one person at one time.
Lightning Ridge being the more known of the sites, producing most of the
country’s, and world’s for that matter, black opal – so named for its deep
coloration – she decided to head for White Cliffs. It was one of the older mining sites, opals
having been discovered there in 1889.
Four kangaroo hunters were hired to rid the drought-stricken Momba
Pastoral Company Station, ‘station’ being Australia’s term for ranch, of an
overpopulation of the beasts. They’d
instead discovered opals, and that was pretty much the end of their
kangaroo-hunting days. The place had
grown steadily once word got out, and by 1897 the population was nearly 1000
residents.
But
the oppressive heat and scarcity of building materials started driving everyone
underground as miners began living in their own mine shafts and tunnels, to the
point now where most of the town was underground. It was still an extremely productive area for
opals, and during the cooler months the population could still swell to nearly
500. Because so much of the actual
mining was done ‘the old way’, with only a few modern innovations, Helen was
anxious to see it for herself as well as for her story.
Helen
could also smile about what had been, at least partially, the kicker in
choosing to visit White Cliffs. In
Sydney she’d seen, on display, the opalized remains of a plesiosaur found at
White Cliffs in 1976. At nearly six feet
long and approximately 100 million years old, Helen thought that it would be
fun to take Lee pictures of where the ancient sea creature had been found.
Then,
it seemed like she might be able to show him in person. She’d been extremely surprised by his phone
call. And curious. It wasn’t like him at all to simply drop in
on her, especially when she was on an assignment. True, she had invited him to join her, a
couple of times when the subject of the trip came up in conversation. If she hadn’t been quite so tired she might
have questioned him further but she’d had a long, busy day. She’d met a man on the flight out; he didn’t
live at White Cliffs but seemed to make frequent trips there, and he’d
graciously offered to ‘show her the sights’ as it were. Helen much preferred to do her own research
but Barney, as he insisted she call him, was charmingly persistent and she’d
actually quite enjoyed the day.
Once
she’d checked into the White Cliffs Underground Motel, which she’d instantly
found charming for its uniqueness, the pair headed out. Barney was a pleasant host, not ‘hitting’ on
her, as she’d had to deal with over the years.
Helen was an extremely attractive woman, a quality she worked on for the
one reason that it often worked to her advantage – a lot of people seemed to
think that attractive women were idiots, and Helen had taken great pleasure
over the years in proving them wrong!
Barney simply seemed to like showing her around, which she did
enjoy. They stopped at St. Mary’s
Anglican Church as well as the Solar Power Station, just because they were the
‘old’ and the ‘new’ of the town, yet still so much an integral part of the
ambiance. The Pioneer Children’s
Cemetery spoke of the severe typhoid epidemic that ravaged the community
between 1890 and 1892. No markers were
still standing but it was thought that four of the graves belonged to the
children of Alfred Richardson, one of the original four hunters who found the
first opals here.
They
visited several of the historical dugouts, preserved to show how the early
miners lived. This, as well as the
cemetery and church, spoke more to what Helen wanted to learn and she took
copious notes and photographs. She
wasn’t as thrilled with the numerous opal galleries Barney insisted she needed
to see as it was more of the same that she’d seen in Melbourne and Sydney. But one place also had exhibits of
photographs and Aboriginal art of the Barkindji tribe, the original inhabitants
of the area, and that helped bring everything back into focus for her.
Happily
for her, Barney had already claimed business meetings for the following day so
she didn’t have to be rude to him. With
the help of the desk clerk she made contact with a couple of the local miners
who were willing to let her follow them around for the day as they worked. She had a feeling that they both thought that
she’d bag the whole project once she realized they were going to take her down
into the actual mines, grubbing around in the dirt, rock, and shale. She had to suppress grins as she held her
own, helping as she could and observing when quarters were too tight to allow
more than one to work. The two men
worked this particular claim together, one at a time in the drives, as the
tunnels branching out from the down shaft were called. Using jackhammers run by generators topside,
the drives were slowly extended as the miners looked for opal-bearing
layers. The other miner worked
mechanical buckets to bring up the excavated materials and dump it into what
looked like a small cement mixer, which broke down the larger shale and helped
them extract any opals they might find.
On that day nothing of value presented itself and Helen commiserated
with them. But they were philosophical
about it – sometimes they went for days, or even weeks, without finding a
single opal. That was just how it was
for the miners. Helen thanked them profusely
for allowing her the opportunity to work alongside them; that they’d given her
insight into the ‘real’ world of opal mining.
They paid her the compliment of inviting her back another day, and she’d
laughed and said that she just might do that; that she’d had such a good time.
Grubby,
dirty – and thoroughly happy with her day’s outing – she’d arrived back at the
hotel just as Barney did as well from however he’d spent the day. They’d shared a laugh at her appearance, and
agreed to meet for a drink and dinner as soon as Helen had cleaned up. They’d barely sat down when her phone went
off. She’d ever so briefly considered
ignoring it but glanced at the screen just in case and smiled when Lee’s name
popped up. She was totally unprepared
for his opening lines, but his tone of voice broached no argument and she went
along with the charade knowing that Lee wouldn’t be doing whatever he was doing
without a very good reason. She knew
that he occasionally still did work for the Office of Naval Intelligence. It was not something that they talked about,
but she accepted it because she knew that it was important to Lee. Whatever was going on would be explained at a
later date, or however much of it Lee was free to tell, and that was fine with
her. She had raised an eyebrow toward
Barney once ‘Mr. Meeker’ had left their table, but Barney had shrugged it off
and Helen knew better than to push, even without Lee’s warning. She did have to bury a grin – this, whatever
‘this’ was – might be more interesting than grubbing for opals. But she would bide her time and not
intentionally mess up anything for her son.
For now she was nothing more than a freelance writer on the hunt for a
story about opal mining. But that didn’t
mean that she couldn’t keep her eyes and ears open!
As
she and Barney headed from the bar to the dining room she made a quick stop at
the reception desk to cancel the reservation she’d made for Lee that
morning. She noticed Barney’s interest
in the fact that her and Lee’s last names weren’t the same, but she didn’t
offer the explanation and he didn’t ask.
She very carefully kept herself from glancing over at Mr. Meeker all
through dinner but did notice that Barney kept sending him covert glances, and
started to get a feeling that Barney might not be such an inconsequential
person as she had originally pegged him.
She was perfectly aware that he was the target of Lee’s interest, for
whatever reason, and that alone made it worth keeping a careful watch on what
she said and did around him. All through
dinner they chatted about her day, what a great time she’d had and how much
she’d learned from the two miners, both about their own activities and the
stories they’d related about other miners they either knew personally or had
heard about. They’d both lamented about
the fact that the plesiosaur had originally been displayed here at White Cliffs
before being moved, and hoped some day that it would be brought back. Barney seemed not to have heard that story, which
surprised Helen a bit seeing as how he was supposedly so familiar with the area
and the opal industry. Such local
knowledge would seem widespread. But she
held her tongue and didn’t pursue it further.
She did ask how he’d spent his day, in a totally off-hand manner; they’d
spent so much time talking about her day that the sharing of information seemed
only natural. Barney, however, shrugged
it off with a mutter about business meetings, and went back to questions of
what she thought she might write about next, after the opal story. Helen told him quite honestly that she had no
idea. Sometimes she had as many as three
or four ideas she was puttering with, or things that she thought might make an
interesting story, and sometimes she’d be stuck for a while without a
direction. She lamented that even when
she did have what sounded like a really good story, sometimes the further she
got into it the more she realized that it just wasn’t going to work – at least
the way she wanted or expected it to.
She
was momentarily distracted as Mr. Meeker was suddenly hit with a heavy
cough. Since pretty much the whole room
looked his direction, her glance over shouldn’t be a problem. But she quickly got herself back under control
and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. “Such are the vagaries of writing,” she told
him with a shrug.
“You
seem to have done pretty well,” he told her with a smile.
Helen
was beginning to distrust that smile and it wasn’t totally because of Lee’s
warning. But she smiled easily back
none-the-less. “I’ve been very
fortunate, all things considered,” she admitted. “It wasn’t always easy, after my husband
passed away. But I had a young son to
support, as well as myself, and I wasn’t about to fail either of us,” she told
him firmly.
“Good
for you,” Barney said, somewhat offhandedly Helen thought, as Mr. Meeker was at
that point standing up to leave. Then
Helen noticed another man standing just inside the doorway to the dining
room. Barney obviously noticed him as
well, although he turned and left almost as quickly as he came in. It seemed to Helen that Barney was instantly
no longer so interested in visiting with her.
Far from rude, he simply seemed in a hurry to be done with dinner – and
her. And Helen, truth be told, was just
as happy to say goodnight to him as well.
Having to feign politeness was starting to be hard work and she was
already tired from her long day. As they
left the dining room, Barney excused himself and headed back to the bar. A glance showed Lee already sitting at a
table. Helen hesitated, but headed for
her room. She was hoping that Lee would
find a way to communicate with her, but if he was on an assignment she didn’t
want him to do anything that would jeopardize his success. She could wait. Impatiently, perhaps, and she smiled to
herself. But she still had her story to
concentrate on. For now. Unless an even better one happened to come
along.
* *
*
Lee
wished he knew what he’d stepped in the middle of. He nursed his drink, watching but not
watching as Tyler came in, alone, and headed straight for the table where
Scumbag-1 and Scumbag-2 – or rather, undercover agent Fisher – were
sitting. Lee contemplated heading for
his mom’s room – this seemed like a good time, with Tyler otherwise
occupied. But he decided against it,
preferring to keep an eye on things here for a bit. In the back of his mind he also knew that he
needed to get some rest – he’d been up way too many hours. On the other hand, he knew just how hard that
he could push himself. And with Jamie’s
enforced rest after the training accident Lee figured that he was good for at
least another 8-12 hours at least, if necessary.
Whatever
was being said at the other table, Lee got the distinct impression that someone
wasn’t happy with his presence. Even
though Lee was feigning indifference he noticed that Scumbag-1 kept sending him
short glares and even Fisher frowned his direction a time or two, although that
could just be a part of whatever character he was playing at the moment.
Lee
was considering his options when the two men who had shared his flight to White
Cliffs entered the bar and sat down at a table next to Tyler and company. They seemed engaged in a rather heated
discussion, although they kept their voices so low that Lee wasn’t able to
discern what was causing the row. But it
was obvious enough that all eyes in the bar were drawn at least partially in
their direction. Then Lee disgusted
himself by causing his own bit of commotion as another fit of coughing hit so
suddenly it caught him totally off guard.
When he once more looked up after getting himself back under control
Tyler and Scumbag – Lee decided that he could drop the numeral designate unless
and until there ended up being more players coming to the party – were both
gone. Fisher was still sitting at the
table, casually keeping watch over the room.
The two salesmen seemed to have solved their miff – or at least put it
to rest momentarily as they were now visiting calmly. Lee was totally torqued that he’d not seen
Tyler and Scumbag leave and wondered what, if anything, Fisher would do now
that they seemed to be minus the bad guys.
But when Fisher made absolutely no attempt to catch his eye, instead
watching the entire room, Lee started to wonder if maybe he didn’t yet know all
the players after all.
He
knew for sure just a few minutes later.
About to head for his room, thinking Fisher might try to contact him
there later, the two salesmen once more distracted him. Without warning the two loudly pushed back
their chairs, glared at each other a moment, then one of them left. The second one grunted, grabbed up his
briefcase, and slowly left as well. Something’s
not right with that scene, Lee muttered to himself, but didn’t put the
pieces together until Fisher also stood up unhurriedly, picked up a briefcase
from under his table, and casually walked out.
Lee didn’t remember seeing a briefcase there earlier. But both salesmen had been carrying one, and
now Lee realized that the first one to leave hadn’t picked one up. He momentarily went stiff, trying to remember
if either of them had heard Lee give the pilot his name. But neither had been anywhere near, he was
sure, when he’d spoken to the pilot. And
there had been so much noise in the small plane that conversation was very
limited. Deciding that he’d pushed his
luck entirely too much for one day, especially as he still had absolutely no
idea what was going on, he headed for his room.
And
just in time, as it turned out. He’d no
more than shut his door when his cell phone vibrated. ‘Nelson’, the screen read, and Lee hesitated
ever so slightly. He didn’t dare not
answer. But still conscious of the
hazards of cell phone communication, as well as his somewhat precarious
situation, he answered cautiously.
“Hello?” He purposely phrased the
word as a drawled question, hoping that his boss would catch the unusual way
Lee answered instead of his normal, brisk, ‘yes, sir’ when he recognized who
was calling.
Apparently
he did. “Ah… I think perhaps I dialed a wrong number.”
Lee
allowed himself to smile, but responded in the same cautious drawl. “Unless you’re calling Travis Meeker, you
did.”
“Ah,
yes,” came back softly. Nelson knew
about that particular alias. “My
apologies.”
“No
problem,” Lee told him easily, and they both hung up. Lee sat down on the edge of what seemed to be
a very comfortable bed, pondering even more options than before. Somehow he needed to make secure contact with
his boss but here, in what was for all practical purposes Australia’s Outback,
that might not be easy. He could have
his mother call, but even contact with her at the moment could create disaster
if he were found out by the wrong people.
Sometimes I really, REALLY, hate ONI, he muttered, then chuckled,
thinking that he’d better never let Chip hear him say that or the blond would
definitely renew the not so gentle harassment about quitting the Navy’s
intelligence gathering agency. Mostly he
didn’t bother anymore – Lee had ignored him long enough that Chip only took the
occasional potshot. If he got even an
inkling that Lee might actually be considering the change he would never
turn loose!
Lee
thought that he should probably just lie down and get some of the sleep he knew
that he needed. But a bit of
restlessness hit and, instead, he headed outside to take a walk in the somewhat
cooler night air. First, however, he set
up a little trap to give him a heads up if anyone entered his room while he was
gone. It was a simple matter of a bit of
thread stuck in the door at a specific point.
All but invisible, it would take someone with extremely good skills at
covert operations to detect it, enter the room, and replace it exactly as it
had been when they left. The thought did
cross Lee’s mind that Fisher would be one who could do it. But since Fisher was on his side, Lee
wasn’t worried. He quickly set his
little ‘trigger’ and ambled out into the night.
Thankfully
the southern hemisphere’s summer wasn’t yet in full swing – when it was, it
would become very evident why the early miners had started the trend of living
underground. The daytime sun was still
bearable, although Lee had felt it more than he thought he should have when
he’d landed. Now that the sun was down
the night was almost pleasant. There
were others out and about, mostly locals, Lee suspected. But he did see some, like the young couple
who had also flown in with him, that had the look of tourists. The couple, especially the woman, still
didn’t look happy. Lee wondered briefly
why they’d bothered taking a vacation if neither wanted to be here. But the thought left his mind as rapidly as
it entered since it really wasn’t any of his business.
He
wasn’t paying much attention to which direction he’d taken, although too many
years with ONI had taught him to never be totally unaware of his surroundings. He realized that he’d headed toward the end
of town closest to the airstrip when the sound of an engine started drawing
near and four small lights suddenly flicked on – two, he assumed from his
position, at each end to mark the corners of the runway. Decidedly unsafe, but out here Lee figured
that people sort of did whatever they pleased.
Suddenly
there was a poke in his back and a gruff, rough, voice growled, “Tell me what
you’re doing here or I’ll drop your body down the nearest abandoned mine
shaft.”
Almost
before the sentence was finished Lee ducked, spun, and slammed the man behind
him, knocking him down, pinning one arm tightly behind the guy’s back, landing
a knee hard between the man’s shoulder blades and gripping the other hand – the
one holding a handgun – pinning it to the ground. “Tell me why it’s any of your business,” Lee
growled even more firmly, “before I simply kill you and leave you to the
buzzards.”
A
chuckle in the shadows behind Lee froze both combatants. “I always did suspect that you weren’t a
total innocent, Meeker.”
Lee
recognized the voice as belonging to Barnabas Tyler but he didn’t let go of the
man who’d attacked him. “One of yours?”
he muttered instead.
“Unfortunately,”
Tyler told him, with an almost reluctant sigh in his voice. Lee carefully got up, grabbing the gun as he
did. He turned to face Tyler, both men
in his line of sight, the gun carried easily but not exactly pointed toward
either. Lee and Tyler spent several
seconds merely watching each other, neither willing to be the first to
speak. The attacker, who turned out to
the man Lee had earlier designated as Scumbag, got slowly to his feet, rubbing
his shoulder and glaring at Lee. Tyler
broke first. “Easy, Davis. You lost that round fair and square.” Davis – and Lee wasn’t sure if that was a
first or last name – held out a hand toward Lee, apparently for the gun. Lee ignored him and it caused Tyler to
chuckle again. “Strange place to take a
vacation,” was Tyler’s next attempt at conversation. Lee merely shrugged. He had no intention of giving Tyler even a
sliver of information, lies or otherwise, if he could help it. Silence always made everyone else around you
nervous – Lee had learned that lesson very early on in his training, and over the
years it had served him well. “Looking
for work?” Tyler tried once more to get information. “I could always use someone like you.”
“No,”
Lee told him bluntly, but still didn’t move; didn’t offer any other
explanation.
It
was Tyler’s turn to shrug. “Come along,
Davis,” he told his minion and started to take a step away, in the direction of
the airstrip.
“He’s
still got my gun,” Davis complained in a half-growl, half-whine.
“And
I suspect that he’s going to keep it,” Tyler told him, with that almost-smile
back in his voice. When Lee still didn’t
react, Tyler tugged on Davis’ arm and the pair walked into the darkness, Davis
with decided reluctance.
Once
they were out of sight Lee finally took a deep breath, and a better look at the
gun. It had felt comfortable in his hand
and he now discovered a nice, serviceable 9mm.
He popped out the clip, discovered that it was full, and popped it back
in before tucking the weapon in his waistband at the small of his back, pulling
the bottom of his polo shirt down over it.
Giving
the pair a two-minute head start Lee casually, but extremely carefully, headed
in the same direction. There wasn’t a
lot of cover as he reached the last building – he couldn’t see very far ahead
of him and decided that, discretion being the better part of staying alive, he
wouldn’t follow any further. He was a
bit upset with himself that he’d been so easily grabbed, but pleased that he
hadn’t gotten a bullet in the back when he’d spun on his attacker. He stood for a few minutes where he’d stopped
before hearing the sound of the plane engine revving up, taking off, and the
airstrip lights went out. What sounded
like maybe a jeep of some sort, or maybe just an ATV, headed from the airstrip
to slightly north of town. After that
all was quiet and Lee headed – even more carefully – back to the underground
hotel. This time when he got back to his
room he was ready to sleep, his little ‘trigger’ telling him that no one had
entered his room while he was gone and the 9-mil feeling very comfortable under
his pillow.
* *
*
Knowing
that Lee was an early riser who, when he could, headed out for a run to start
his mornings, Helen was a bit surprised to find Mr. Meeker in the hotel
restaurant when she entered the next morning.
The hotel had arranged for another day out and about with a different
miner, one who worked a site by himself but, the hotel Asst. Manager, Alain
Warren, assured her was a perfectly safe man to be around. She’d chuckled and said that her research
prior to coming had presented some interesting tales of the opal miners’
sometimes rugged lifestyles. Mr. Warren
assured her that yes, there were definite ‘characters’ in the Outback. But the hotel was regularly asked for
information about the mining operations and knew who of the locals were willing
to cooperate and who would prefer to be left alone.
Helen
was dying to know what Lee was up to.
But she knew better than to go anywhere near him if he was ‘working,’
even without his warning phone call.
She’d been a bit surprised when Barney, who up until the moment he laid
eyes on Lee had seemed like a perfectly wonderful gentleman to enjoy passing a
bit of time with – someone she’d totally not expected finding out in this
somewhat desolate place – had so quickly turned watchful and almost blunt. Helen had easily ignored the change, and
herself sent Mr. Meeker a few scornful glances.
For some reason that seemed to amuse Barney. But he all too quickly wanted to end the
evening and Helen had been ready, with this new bit of information, to be rid
of him as well.
Unfortunately
it wasn’t going to be quite that easy, she discovered, as he walked into the
restaurant right behind her and seemed to just assume that he could join her
for breakfast. Helen was polite – she
had no reason not to be – merely telling him that she was going to eat a quick
bite before heading out for another day of research. The hotel was supplying her with a driver to
take her to the mine site; one who would drop her off and come back for her
late that afternoon. They were also
supplying a lunch for two – Helen didn’t ask but supposed that that was one way
of assuring the miner’s continued cooperation with the tourist trade – a free
meal.
Barney
smiled. “Good,” he said smoothly. “I, too, have work to do today and will be
unavailable to play host. I’m glad that
the hotel is being so accommodating.”
“Having
them already planning some visits has been extremely helpful,” Helen
agreed. “Oh, I still want to do a bit of
exploring on my own.” She sent him one
of her ‘sweet’ smiles. Those who didn’t
know her always assumed that it was an indication of just how mellow and
non-threatening a woman she was. Lee saw
it from his table across the room and had to physically keep himself from
cringing. He knew all too well what that
look meant – his mother was about to get stubborn about something.
Helen
was not a person you told ‘No’ to if she had her mind set on ‘Yes.’ She didn’t pout, whine, threaten, or
yell. She simply planted her feet,
looked you straight in the eye with that ‘sweet’ look on her face, and held her
ground until she got what she wanted.
And she chose her battles wisely, always with logic and forethought so
that she knew she was right and whomever she was battling with would eventually
be forced to back down.
Lee
had to suppress a chuckle as the thought passed through his brain when he saw
that look now, wondering who would come out on top if Helen ever tangled with
Admiral Nelson. All things considered,
Lee’s money was on his mom!
Helen
kept the half-smile on her face as the waitress came to take their orders. She had to or she’d have frowned as she
glanced over at Lee and noticed for the first time how tired he looked and how
he was barely picking at his meal, doing more pushing it around on his plate
than actually eating. But she had to
pull herself back as Barney continued talking, telling her that he hoped she’d
keep him company again that evening for dinner.
She sent him another of her ‘sweet’ smiles and said, “We’ll have to see
how my day goes. As well as yours,” she
added with a bit of a raised eyebrow, inviting him to explain his plans. Unfortunately he didn’t take the hint, merely
asking if she knew which mine she was headed for today, and also if she had any
ideas for exploring on her own. When she
admitted that she’d play that part by ear as she became more familiar with the
area, he gave her several suggestions of what he called safe sites – miners who
didn’t mind the occasional visitor. He
warned her about a bunch of others, telling her that there were places it
simply wasn’t safe for a woman to go alone.
Helen sent him more of her ‘sweet’ smile, making note of his suggestions
and putting his unsafe areas on the top of her mental list of places she wanted
to go. Helen wasn’t stupid – she knew
perfectly well that not all of the miners were friendly towards tourists. And two days ago she might have believed
Barney’s warnings. But that was before
Lee showed up. Now, she pretty much
didn’t believe a word the man said. She
was careful not to let him see her change of attitude toward him. She’d spent far too many years dealing with
people all over the world not to have developed her own style of handling
whatever kind of situations she found herself in with calm confidence. She let a genuine smile appear as she thought
back over the years, and realized that her ability to handle whatever life
threw at her no doubt had led to her son’s ability to do the same. She was so proud of how he’d turned out and
thought perhaps she’d not told him that often enough. It was Barney’s turn to raise an eyebrow when
he noticed her expression, and her smile spread. “I sometimes forget just what a good life I
have, and how fortunate I’ve been over the years,” was all she said.
“I
admit that I looked you up once I found out who you were,” he told her. Helen was used to the comment and sent him
one of her ‘sweet’ smiles. She wasn’t
overly concerned that he’d make the connection with Lee – she kept her
professional life very separate from her private one, and he obviously knew Lee
by a different name. But it did remind
her that she needed to be careful what she said around him.
“As
I said,” she told him somewhat off-handedly, “I’ve been fortunate.” She was saved from much else as the waitress
returned with their meals. Giving the
reason as needing to hurry because of having a full day ahead of her she ate
quickly. Barney continued to be pleasant
and tried to get her involved in conversation, but didn’t seem all that
disappointed when she didn’t reciprocate.
As it was, she was barely finished when Mr. Warren came to the doorway
of the restaurant, obviously looking for her, and she was glad to leave. She purposely avoided looking toward Lee. Maybe
tonight, she told herself, he’ll have the opportunity to let me know
what’s going on. But she wasn’t
holding her breath.
Lee
kept his thoughts to himself as his mother left, although he did let his eyes
follow her out. She was an attractive
woman and to have not appreciated that would have been more obvious than
allowing the small smile he showed as he looked from her, as she left his
sight, back to Tyler, sending him an ever so slight nod as if acknowledging
Tyler’s taste in women. He was a bit
surprised at Tyler’s instant frown, as if he’d be just as happy if Meeker
hadn’t noticed, and decided to egg it on by smiling even broader as he picked
up his coffee mug. Occasionally, little
needles led to little mistakes. And
little mistakes led to Lee’s job being made easier. He wasn’t afraid that Tyler would connect him
to Helen. There was always that slight
chance, but both Helen and Lee led such different lives that it would take a
fluke. Lee had confidence that whatever
guardian angel that had so far been working in his favor would continue to do
so.
Lee
would have liked to follow Tyler to whatever the man had planned for the day
but when Tyler seemed reluctant to leave his table Lee, with another enigmatic
little smile to himself, left first.
Deciding to explore a bit on his own he headed out for a walk around the
above ground portion of town. More
watchful this time, he smiled broadly when he easily spotted Davis – AKA
Scumbag – trying to surreptitiously follow him.
Lee would have loved to once more flatten the thug; grab him as he’d
tried to grab Lee the night before. But
Lee hadn’t slept well, and acknowledged that for some reason he wasn’t totally
up to par. The cough that had plagued
him still caught him off-guard every so often, and he’d been too keyed up with
how events were unfolding to totally relax.
Despite the hotel advertising how comfortable the underground
temperatures stayed his room had still been too warm, which he blamed for the
continuing cough. And especially as it
hit him hard a couple of times on his walk as the day started to heat up. Lee was about to head back to the hotel to
get out of it when the sound of an aircraft engine caught his attention. He’d walked toward the other end of town that
morning and now meandered unhurriedly back.
He was fairly sure that this was nothing more than the daily flight he
had come in on, even though it was at a different time of day – out here,
schedules were a little…..unpredictable.
What the one last night had been he was extremely curious about. No way would a regular flight be coming in
after dark. He planned on being in the
vicinity tonight in case it happened again.
He was still trying to figure out a way to contact Admiral Nelson but so
far he’d not come up with a plan.
Apparently
Nelson had. Lee wasn’t close enough to
see today’s passengers arrive. He did
see his transport from yesterday head for the airstrip carrying the two
supposed opal businessmen. And Lee was
perfectly happy in assuming that’s what they were – along with a side job of
whatever was going on the night before with the quazi-argument and shuffleboard
with the one briefcase. What Lee wasn’t
totally prepared for – but smiled at Nelson’s handling of the matter – was
spotting Kowalski’s face in the vehicle as it made it’s way back from the
airstrip to the hotel. Welcome to the
party he said to himself with a smile, and ambled back in the direction of
the hotel. He assumed that ‘Ski had
orders of some sort from their boss.
He’d simply act as he had been until the rating gave him some indication
of how the ‘game’ was to be played.
Because
Nelson was aware that Lee was using an alias – one that had slightly shady
undertones – Lee was not at all surprised to find Kowalski waiting for him in
the hotel lobby looking slightly shady himself.
Lee allowed an ever so slight smile to show as Ski rose at his entrance,
making Lee aware that he was supposed to know him. The bar wasn’t open yet so Lee nodded his
head back outside and the pair made their way silently back out into the growing
but still bearable heat. A little more
familiar with his surroundings after his morning stroll, Lee led the way. Neither man said a word until they were
around a couple of corners and into a somewhat open area with a few scrubby
trees that would allow them a little privacy as well as a bit of respite from
the sun. The area wasn’t totally free of
people – there were several women riding herd on a collection of children, as
well as a couple of older men, probably miners at one point in their lives and
still calling White Cliffs home. Lee’s
smile broadened as he spotted Davis lurking about. Lee purposely pointed him out to Kowalski and
had the pleasure of watching Davis frown and disappear. Lee was sure that he wouldn’t go far and was
probably still watching. He said as much
to Ski, and winked.
Kowalski
had never been slow on the uptake. “He’s
mine now, s…ah…”
Lee
chuckled softly as Ski choked off the ‘sir’ or ‘Skipper,’ whichever had been
about to come out. “Trav will do
nicely,” he told the rating, who nodded.
“What’s up?”
“Somehow,
opals identified as coming from this area are tied into the purchase of arms in
Indonesia, but no one is quite sure how.
ONI has a man undercover but so far he’s not been able to get enough
information out to target the players and get it stopped.”
Lee
frowned. “But that doesn’t make a whole
lot of sense. Raw opals aren’t usually
worth enough to make something like that worth the effort.”
“One
reason diamonds are used so often?” Ski asked.
“Exactly,”
Lee agreed. “Although, I can almost see
one reason. Uncut opals aren’t nearly as
regulated.”
“But
you’d need so many more, and if that kind of theft was going on this place
should be crawling with fuzz – whatever Australia’s version is, anyway.” Ski shared a quick grin with his CO.
“While
there’s some cutting and polishing done locally, mostly it’s done in the larger
cities.”
“Where
security would be even more tight.”
Lee
nodded. “Which is why I think that
there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
I know the undercover agent and he knows me, but he obviously doesn’t
want to risk blowing his cover by contacting me. What does Admiral Nelson want me to do?”
“Get
your Mom – and you – outta here,” Kowalski told him adamantly.
It
caused Lee to chuckle softly again, but he also nodded. “Fisher – the agent, although I still don’t
know what name he’s using here – is in with the main player here, a man named
Barnabas Tyler. Tyler has a thug,
Davis.”
“The
one you just pointed out,” Kowalski confirmed, and Lee nodded.
“There
are at least two others, supposedly opal buyers. I haven’t wanted to draw attention so I
haven’t identified them by name. I
suspect Fisher knows.” Kowalski nodded
again. “And there was a late night
flight last night that barely landed before it took off again. I have no idea what that was all about.” He looked at the rating. “I’d rather not leave right now.”
Kowalski
gave him a slightly sheepish look. “The
Admiral sorta thought that might be your answer.”
“I
gather from your comment that you’re supposed to stay and help, if you couldn’t
get me to leave?” referring to Kowalski’s earlier statement about Davis now
being his responsibility.
“Yes,
s…” Ski shut up with a sheepish look.
“Humm,”
Lee muttered, but finally sent Ski a quick grin. “Then we’ll just have to make good use of
your time.”
“Yes…Trav.” This time Ski got it out with only a minor
hesitation. Lee’s answering smile was
short-circuited by a hard bunch of coughs.
“Ah, Trav?” Ski asked worriedly.
Lee
held up a hand, cutting off anything further Ski might have said until he could
get himself back under control. “Damn
heat coupled with the dust has me a bit screwed up. Ignore it.”
That last came out a definite order.
Kowalski had other ideas, thanks to Doc Jamison’s lecture right before
they left NIMR. But no way was he going
to bring that up – at least not right now.
While the CMO wasn’t a man you ever wanted to tick off, he was an ocean
away. For now his CO had Kowalski in his
sights!
The
two made their way back to the hotel, keeping a lookout for anyone paying them
any special attention. Lee stopped at
the desk and arranged for Kowalski – who had only his own ID – to share his
room. The bar was now open and they headed
that direction, Lee asking softly if Kowalski carried anything on him that connected
him to NIMR.
The
rating grinned, somewhat evilly Lee thought.
“Something you-know-who made very sure I left in Sydney,” he said
smugly, causing Lee to chuckle once more.
This
time of day the bar was fairly empty, but somehow Lee wasn’t surprised to see
Tyler and Fisher with their heads together at a back table. Lee very purposely sat down at a table as far
away as possible. Kowalski had given him
a strange look when he’d ordered a scotch neat at the bar. Ski ordered a beer, and Lee sent him an easy
grin as they carried the drinks to his chosen table. He knew that the smile would be interpreted
totally differently by the two people he wanted to see it – Ski and Tyler. Seaview’s senior rating would recognize Lee’s
amusement at the unusual occurrence.
Tyler would be unsure if the stranger Meeker was with was friend or mark
of some sort. And Lee liked the thought
of having Tyler even that little bit unsure.
Lee didn’t expect it to last long – he was sure that Davis would report
back that the stranger – Ski – had seemed quite chummy with Meeker. But still…
Lee would use whatever was at hand to as much advantage as possible.
Neither
Lee nor Kowalski said much as they nursed their drinks. Lee did give the rating a couple of quick
nods at how well Ski was handling the impromptu undercover assignment, keeping
himself controlled and watchful but not going overboard with either. Lee grinned again at that unintentional pun
before concentrating on the new intel Ski had delivered.
Apparently
Tyler was acting as middleman for an extended operation of some magnitude. How Fisher had been able to gain access to
the scheme Lee had no idea. Although, if
Tyler was to be believed, Lee could have gained access fairly easily to at
least part of the organization had he chosen to do so. It was entirely possible that Fisher, like
Lee, had bumped into Tyler previously.
But that wasn’t something that Lee really needed to worry about – at
least at this point.
What
bothered Lee somewhat was the idea that Fisher, as close as he seemed to be to
Tyler, had not yet gathered enough intel to close down the operation. Nelson’s message had intimated that Fisher
just hadn’t had the opportunity to get the intel out safely, but something
wasn’t ringing quite true for Lee. Sure,
out here in the boonies much more caution would have to be taken since there
were fewer people to use to mask a transfer.
That was part of the problem Lee was having – he didn’t dare make direct
contact with Helen because he had no idea where it would be safe to do so. Large cities were so much more useful for
hiding yourself, and your actions. And
yet, Fisher was able to get out the intel that Lee’s mother was here. Something was hinky.
Lee
refused to even think that Fisher may have turned traitor and become totally
involved with Tyler. Or even that he’d
become something of a double agent, working each side to his own
advantage. That went so against
everything that Lee knew about the man.
Lee had to admit that he’d been wrong before. But… No,
Lee wouldn’t – or couldn’t – allow himself to go in that direction.
What
he could believe was Tyler, while seeming to totally trust Fisher, being
cautious enough that Fisher simply hadn’t yet felt safe enough to get what
intel he’d so far gathered into appropriate hands. And again the thought passed through his mind
as to how Fisher had gotten out the information about Helen being here and
requesting her extraction. Lee wondered
briefly if he should just do what Jones wanted – get his mother out of the line
of fire. And yet, that didn’t make any
sense either when Lee really thought about it.
Helen was merely gathering information for an article – what was it that
Fisher was afraid that she might stumble into that he risked discovery to get that
intel out. Something was screwy, that
much was clear. And Lee had no
intentions of leaving until he figured out what.
Davis
walking into the bar momentarily distracted Lee’s thoughts as Kowalski
stiffened. “Down, Ski,” he said quietly,
with a smile on his face as well as in his voice. The rating sent him a quick glance, but then
casually picked up his beer and took a small sip. Lee turned totally toward Kowalski so that no
one could read his lips as he continued.
“The more casual we appear, the more nervous it makes them because they
have no idea what we’re up to.” A slow
smile hit Ski’s face, Lee winked, and they both took another sip of their
drinks.
The
soft smile stayed on Lee’s face, partially because he knew that it would bug
Tyler and partly at the thought of how his mom could possibly be screwing up
Fisher’s investigation. It would have
made things so much easier if Tyler hadn’t known Lee. And yet, if there was a way Lee could help
out Fisher, the trade-off would be worth the frustration. Lee continued to ponder the puzzle as he sat
nursing his drink.
* *
* *
Helen
was having another wonderful day, made even more exciting by the discovery of
several opals. They were small but the
miner she was working with this day, Jasper Teague, had opened a new vein just
after she arrived that included the stones, and was excited because the vein
held promise of continuing further into the drive he was working. He enthusiastically explained that,
sometimes, the discovery of small stones led to bigger ones closer to the
center of a vein. Not always, he was
quick to point out, but… They both got
excited and hurried on to dig as quickly as they could manage safely.
The
day ended without further discovery but Helen had the opportunity she’d not had
previously to ask how Jasper now handled his ‘find.’ Momentarily reluctant for some reason, the
miner hesitated and Helen instantly backed off.
But Jasper, apparently appeased when she wasn’t going to push,
relented. He said that once a week, when
he went into town for supplies, he’d take with him whatever stones he’d found
and go to one of the dealer’s stores. He
didn’t name which specific one he used, nor did he indicate where he would keep
the stones during the intervening days.
But that wasn’t anything Helen really needed specifically to know and
that helped the miner to be a bit more forthcoming as well. He did say that the dealer was one that he
trusted to give him a fair price for his stones, and a draft would be paid to
the miner’s account at the local bank.
The miner would draw enough funds from the account to cover what
supplies he needed, and he’d head back to his claim.
“Do
you ever just take a day off?” Helen asked.
Jasper
shrugged. “Time is money,” he told her,
then smiled. “I’ve got family just
outside Melbourne. I take a week or two
every so often for a visit and a rest.”
“You
don’t worry about someone coming in while you’re gone?”
“Nope. Know the fellows all around me. We watch each other’s back.”
“Terrific.”
Helen told him, and meant it. “You work
with the same dealer in town every time?”
“Yep. Like I said, I trust him. A couple of them…” He didn’t finish the comment.
Helen
came at her next question a bit sideways so as not to put the miner on the
spot. “So, what would be the ways a
dealer might not be fair? Perhaps tell
you a stone isn’t as good quality as you think it is?”
Jasper
hesitated, but eventually nodded. “Maybe
tell you that a stone has a flaw that will make it hard to cut. Or it’s an off-color. We miners know that quality is sometimes
subjective. But, you do this for awhile,
you get an eye yourself for what’s good and what’s maybe not so good.” Helen nodded.
“You learn quick,” he continued, “who’s trying to screw you over. Ah, sorry,” he tried to apologize for the
comment.
“Hey,
call a spade a spade,” Helen told him honestly.
“I have no problem with that.
Definitely heard worse,” and she sent him a quick grin.
He
returned it. “Mostly, people in the
business are honest. Oh, they try to
make a buck where they can, for sure.”
Again Helen nodded. “But they try
to keep it fair for everyone. The
dishonest ones…well, word gets out and they don’t get much business so they
mostly leave pretty quick.”
“But
some hang around?”
“Don’t
want to name names,” Jasper told her bluntly.
“And
I wouldn’t think of asking you to,” she assured him. “Just trying to learn as much about your end
of the business as I can. Without miners
willing to do the labor there would be no industry.”
“The
big companies would come in,” Jasper almost spat out. “It’s happening elsewhere.”
“But
not here,” Helen said firmly. “This is
the real industry.” She didn’t
want to push too hard for fear of closing the miner’s mouth. But she sensed that he had more to tell her
if only she could make him comfortable enough to say it.
“Just…seems
like a dealer will have stones, but none of us miners know who sold them to
him,” Jasper continued softly, and almost hesitantly, like he was afraid to say
it too loud for fear of being overheard.
“You
mentioned that you and your neighbors watch each other’s claims.” Jasper nodded. “Is there a theft problem?” He looked nervous, and she hurried on before
he could clam up totally. “I mean, I
guess I’m used to stories at home, in the United States, of the early days of
gold and silver mining, where claim jumpers would come in, or robbers,
whatever. I’m sure that it’s much
different in this day and age.” She
smiled – a genuine smile because she really liked Jasper. “But compared to home you still seem a little
‘wild’ out here.”
Jasper
grinned back. “Well, yeah,” he
agreed. “Not so much like your
history. But it pays to know who your
neighbors are, for sure.”
“I’ll
bet!”
“The
government inspectors pretty much keep people to their own claims – not stray
into someone else’s, either accidentally or on purpose,” Jasper told her. “Won’t say that there’s no theft – human
nature to be good and bad.”
“Agreed,”
Helen told him. “But it sounds like you
miners watch your own – keep a handle on it for the most part.”
“Do
what we can,” Jasper nodded. “It’s not
often a miner will report a theft. Hard
to prove, for one thing, unless you catch a guy red-handed.”
“Hadn’t
thought of that,” Helen said, although actually she had. “Hard to tell one raw opal from another when
they’re mined in the same general area.”
“Exactly,”
Jasper agreed. “Some of us have our own
scales, so maybe we know the exact weight of a stone. But other than that…” He flipped a hand. “There’s no real way to prove you had five
opals yesterday but only four today.”
“Understood.” Helen would have loved to dig further but had
a feeling that Jasper, in his own way, had told her everything that he was
going to on that subject. They continued
to chat about what a miner looked for when trying to pick a claim site, what
was the determining factor in deciding to abandon a claim for another one, and
what happened to a claim if a miner could no longer work because of health or
injury, or passed away, when it was just a one-man operation like Jasper’s
instead of two people like the first claim she’d visited. Jasper told her that pretty much most of the
miners, when they filed for their claims, named someone that the claim passed
to in such cases. When they didn’t, the
claim went back to the government and could be re-claimed by someone else.
“Does
that happen often?” Helen asked, as off-handedly as she could.
Jasper
shrugged. “What’s your Yank expression –
accidents happen.” He shrugged
again. “Not very often,” he added.
“Thankfully,”
Helen told him, and gave a little shiver for effect. That was apparently the end to what Jasper
was willing to say and they chatted about odds and ends until the jeep from the
hotel came to pick Helen up. She thanked
the miner profusely for allowing her to spend the day. He just nodded, seeming to be almost
embarrassed by her praise, and she sent him another very genuine smile as she
left.
But
he’d given her a lot to think about, with the addition of Lee’s presence under
an alias, and she was silent for most of the trip back to the hotel. She did ask about renting a jeep to explore
on her own. Her driver was quick to
offer his services any time she wanted, and she sent him her ‘sweet’ smile. She told him that she’d have to decide how
she wanted to continue her research and she’d for sure let Mr. Warren at the
hotel know if she needed his help and left it at that – much to her driver’s
apparent disappointment.
She
really wanted to talk to Lee, and looked around casually for him as she
came into the lobby of the hotel. Who
she spotted instead was one of Lee’s crewmen.
Kowalski, she thought his name was.
The instant he spotted her he turned away, and she made no attempt to
catch his eye. Obviously he knew what
Lee was up to – as she casually searched her small shoulder bag for her room
key the sailor entered the dining room and sat down across from Lee at one of
the tables. She saw a smile hit Lee’s
face ever so briefly but he didn’t look her way, and she headed for her room to
clean up from her day grubbing for opals.
* *
* *
“That
was close,” Kowalski breathed as he slipped into a chair. “I mean, I knew that she was here but I just
about messed up big time.”
Lee
sent his senior rating an open grin.
He’d seen the quick almost-meeting through the doorway and all but held
his breath to see how Ski would handle it.
He knew that his mom wouldn’t screw up.
At the moment none of Tyler’s minions – at least any that Lee was aware
of – were in the dining room. It was
still a bit early but Ski had expressed an interest in food. Lee had had no
objections to an early meal, although he did tease the rating about perhaps
hanging around his XO a little too much, referring to Chip’s love of food. Lee now continued his teasing, but was still
careful with his choice of words.
“Attractive lady, yes?” he said off-hand, and his grin spread as he
watched Ski try to figure out how to answer.
“Very,”
came out almost in a squeak. Ski
swallowed, finally caught the amusement on Lee’s face, and repeated much more
under control, “Very!” Since Lee was
being a bit silly he risked adding, “A little old for me, however.” Once Lee got done choking on the swallow of
coffee he’d unfortunately just taken he laughed out loud.
But
both got themselves quickly under control as Tyler and Fisher walked in and
were, happily, seated at a table across the room. Neither Lee nor Kowalski seemed to pay them
any attention, merely gave the impression of having a quiet conversation with
each other while they pondered what looked good on the menu. But Lee was quick to note that Ski was also
extremely aware of everything that was going on around him, and especially in
Tyler’s direction. Lee continued to keep
a small smile on his face, merely from the fact that it appeared to tick Tyler
off. Or at least made him worried about
what Lee – and now company – was up to.
Lee rather liked the thought that he was unnerving Tyler, although he
didn’t want to go too far with it and run the risk of Tyler pulling up stakes
and clearing out before they could nail him for whatever he was up to down
here.
Lee’s
face morphed briefly into a frown before he got himself back under
control. It was extremely frustrating
not knowing what Tyler was doing. No
matter the available intel Lee was positive that there was more involved than
opals – what he knew of Tyler’s M.O. did not lend itself to something so low
key, and especially where there was every indication of multiple hands wanting
a share of the cookie jar.
“Trav?”
softly penetrated Lee’s contemplation.
Lee glanced up from the menu to see Kowalski giving him a curious look
and realized that the rating, never slow on the uptake, had seen the frown.
“Thinking,”
Lee admitted. He sent Ski a quirky
grin. “Some days it’s harder than
others.” The waitress coming over to
take their orders stopped the rating from having to come up with a comment to
that one, and both men gave the woman a bright smile.
Lee
teased Kowalski about trying the kangaroo steak – he’d had it on a previous
trip to the continent country and had found it quite tasty. The rating looked skeptical but ordered it
anyway, and smiled again as the waitress assured him that it was very
good. Lee chose the lamb stew; he was
finally having to admit that he wasn’t feeling the best. Nowhere near actually sick, he told
himself firmly. Just… He grinned again as he thought about his
normal reactions to anything that might possibly even slow him down, let alone
have him headed for Sick Bay. But he
knew that he needed food, and in particular protein, and figured that the stew
was a good option because it would go down more smoothly and easily than some
other things on the menu. And the
vitamins from the veggies wouldn’t hurt, either.
Once
the waitress left he decided that he’d better explain himself a little better. Quietly, and carefully so that neither Tyler
nor Fisher – or any other ‘players’ that Lee might not yet have identified –
would realize that they were being talked about, he told the rating what he’d
been pondering; that the operation had too many people who seemed to be
involved in some way and needed their own piece of the pie for it to be as
small profit as raw opals sounded to him.
“We
need to get a look into one of those briefcases,” was Ski’s instant evaluation.
Lee
nodded. “However, easier said than
done.”
“And
also find out anything we can about that late night flight.” Again Lee nodded. “I didn’t really pay attention when I came
in. Any good hiding places close to the
airstrip?”
Lee
shook his head, then clarified verbally.
“Unfortunately, no.” He thought
for a second. “At least at this
end. The other end, I’m not sure. The problem would be to get out there without
being spotted.” It was Ski’s turn to
nod. “And that’s assuming that there was
some place to hide once you got out there.”
They
were both silent for a few seconds. “Got
wheels?” the rating asked, with an innocent expression on his face.
Lee
pointed an eyebrow at him. “No, but I
rather suspect that small problem could be fairly easily corrected. Have something in mind?”
Ski
shrugged. “Never been here before,” he
said offhandedly. “Might not ever get
the chance to come back.” He gave Lee a
bit of a mischievous grin. “Thought I
might take a look around; see what there is to see.”
Lee
returned the grin. “Probably should have
arranged something as soon as I got here,” he admitted. “Just hadn’t come up, actually.”
“No
problem, S… ah, Trav.” Lee’s grin spread
at the almost slip. “I’ll take care of
it.” The mischievous grin came back. “You’ve had other things to occupy your
mind.”
Lee’s
grin turned slightly sheepish. “The
front desk should be able to help you with that,” he said before sending Ski
another bright smile. “You do remember
that they have left-hand drive here – backward from us.” His grin spread as it was Ski’s turn to get a
sheepish expression on his face. Lee
spotted the waitress headed their way.
“You can take care of it right after dinner,” and his smile brightened
considerably as he watched Ski eyeing the plate the waitress set down in front
of him.
* *
* *
It
was that smile – bright, happy, and slightly mischievous – that Helen saw as
she came to the door of the dining room after cleaning up from her day out and
about. Her own expression – one of calm
confidence – didn’t change so much as an eyelash. It was a craft she’d practiced for so many
years that she didn’t even have to think about it anymore. Those who didn’t know her well often
considered her to be cold, calculating, and uncaring. Her friends knew better.
The
expression also didn’t change as she glanced around, waiting to be seated, and
saw Barney sitting across the room from Lee with one of his cronies, a man
introduced to her as Carter Collins.
Helen carefully controlled a sigh of relief – with Barney having company
she had the perfect excuse not to sit with him.
As the hostess came over, Helen sent Barney a polite nod and asked
quietly to be seated on the far side of the room. That still placed her several tables away
from Lee. And while she could then
pretend to ignore him as well, she sat so that she could keep Lee and his
crewman in her casual line of sight, as well as Barney.
She
wondered if her choice of tables amused her son or he merely reacted to
something that… oh, what is it that Lee calls him, she asked herself. ‘Ski finally came to her, and she used
the waitress’ appearance to cover her smile.
She accepted coffee and the menu, and unwittingly mimicked her son as
she used pondering the selections to reminisce a bit.
The
loss of her husband when Lee was barely five years old had hit Helen hard. She and Ben had been very much in love. It had been difficult to have him gone for
months at a time as he was a pilot on active duty with the US Navy. But she understood and accepted his
dedication to his country, and cherished the time they could spend together
that much more. She filled her days with
bits of freelance work for the local newspaper, and more and more time was
required to keep up with her more and more active son.
She
could admit now, after all these years, that she hadn’t taken Ben’s death well
at all, and probably could have handled things better. She had all but shut
down those first few days. Her father
was still alive and he’d been a blessing, dealing with everything – including
Lee – that Helen just couldn’t bring herself to manage right then.
A
soft chuckle emanating from Lee’s direction caught Helen’s attention. Her gaze never left the menu but the action
sent her back to those terrible first weeks following Ben’s death. Thankfully it had only taken her a few days
to realize that she needed to pull herself together enough to at least start to
think clearly. She was now solely
responsible for both herself and her son, and the survivor’s benefits she would
receive from the Navy could only be stretched so far. She needed to be able to function, and that
meant setting aside the strong emotions hammering her from every direction when
she thought about Ben’s loss. The days
were a bit easier – she could concentrate on her house, her son, and expanding
her freelance writing to keep the memories at bay. It was hard, especially at first. But slowly she taught herself to control the
nagging emotions that constantly threatened to undermine her determination.
The
nights were a whole different ballgame. The house was filled with reminders of her
life with Ben. Despite the disapproval
of her father and friends she stripped the house of every picture of Ben, moved
furniture around until the whole house had a different ‘feel’ to it, and worked
hard learning to suppress those ever-present memories threatening to undo all
of her good intentions. She could,
actually, understand why those closest to her were uncomfortable with how she
chose to cope. But it was what she
needed.
What
did bother her was Lee’s reaction. When
she realized that he was following her lead, starting to seemingly shut down as
well, she managed a long weekend away and took him to what was a favorite spot
– the beach. It wasn’t easy, trying to
talk to a five-year-old about the horrible changes that had just taken place in
their lives. But Lee had always been a
perceptive child – it was why he’d so quickly picked up on his mother’s change
of attitude. Those three days had bonded
the two even stronger than they had been already. Helen wasn’t sure how well she’d gotten
through to him. And once back home Lee
remained more serious, more within himself, then he’d been before. But she also saw him start to come back to
his former self as well. Quieter, for
sure, in a lot of ways. But those eyes –
his father’s eyes – held a level of understanding that Helen learned to
recognize as Lee finding his own way in this time of change.
As
the waitress came to take her order and refill her coffee cup Helen looked up
and caught an absolutely brilliant smile on Lee’s face, apparently from
something that Ski had said. Outwardly
Helen calmly gave her order, and then pulled a small notebook from her purse
and pretended to flip through the pages so she’d have an excuse not to look
around the room and possibly do something to screw up her air of indifference
to everyone else. As she’d been
pondering the menu – and old memories – the dining room had almost filled up,
both with locals and tourists. It
actually made it easier to avoid looking at any one person and she went back
into the past.
Helen
had gradually come to accept Ben’s loss and get on with her life. She made as much time for Lee as she could
but being the breadwinner meant more and more time away. Once Lee started school the days were easier,
and her father continued to be a major help.
It was actually a couple years later that Helen stopped one day and was
looking around the house thinking that, perhaps for Lee’s sake, she’d pull out
at least a few of the pictures she’d hidden away. Lee had bombed through the door about that
same time, excited to share with her what he’d learned in school that day with
so much utter delight written all over his face that it had Helen realizing she
had no need to bring out pictures of Ben – she simply needed to look at her
son. Lee was becoming the spitting image
of his father, and from that point on Helen made a point of putting up pictures
of Lee. She had to admit that she wasn’t
overly thrilled when Lee’s interests became more and more involved with anything
to do with water and the seas, including joining the Sea Scouts program at the
local marina. But it was so ‘Ben’, and
she supported him totally because she understood that it was of great
importance to her son.
Helen
was aware that outsiders, after seeing her and Lee around each other, often
came away with the wrong impression.
They saw Helen as distant and almost unfeeling, and Lee as carefully
correct around her. And she could admit
that, in some respects, they were partially right. Helen, now by habit more than anything, was
always cautious with expressing innermost thoughts. And Lee had grown into an intense young man,
also cautious about expressing his emotions around people he didn’t know well. But between Helen and her son there was so strong
a bond of love and respect, born of a common loss, that nothing had even come
close to dividing them. Oh, Lee was
perfectly aware that Helen hadn’t been overjoyed when he’d chosen to follow his
father to Annapolis and into the Navy.
And he’d understood her hesitation.
But she knew that he also understood that, because of the strong bonds
of love and devotion to one another, she would never try to interfere with the
choices he made for himself.
* *
* *
If
she’d only known, Lee was spending his meal – in between teasing Kowalski who,
it turned out, actually liked the kangaroo steak – also letting old memories
flit through his mind. Not as much as
Helen, and not going so much into the ‘dark’ times. But remembering how, despite her need to be
gone more often, her always finding time to nurture him, support him – even
though he knew that she wasn’t overly thrilled with his choice to follow his
father into the Navy as a career – and be there for him on those fortunately
few occasions growing up when he had his own moments of doubt. He was aware that there were a lot of people
who knew them that didn’t totally understand the relationship he and Helen
shared – couldn’t see past the public correctness to see the deep caring they
felt for each other. Even Chip, as close
as he was, sometimes misread Lee and Helen’s relationship. But Lee smiled as he thought back to Chip’s
upbringing, the oldest of four children, the others all girls, with scads of
assorted relatives close by as well. The
first time Chip had invited Lee home for vacation that first year at Annapolis,
Lee had likened it to a case of shell shock and it now caused a grin as he
ate. Kowalski saw it and raised an
eyebrow, and Lee’s grin spread. “Totally
off topic,” he told the rating, “but I was just remembering the first time I
went home with Chip. Oh,” he explained,
although he figured that Ski already knew a lot of the story, “I’d met his
immediate family on Visitor’s Day at the end of Plebe Summer. But…” he shook his head, “talk about culture
shock.”
Ski
grinned. It was extremely unusual for
the Skipper to talk much about himself.
He was always interested in everyone around him – always kept up with
what was new in the crew’s lives, loved to talk about their likes, and career
plans. Ski chalked this moment up to the
fact that the Skipper’s mom was a few tables over, and that because of the
current circumstances he was trying to keep the conversations on everything but
‘business as usual.’ Because of that,
Ski felt that he could probably get away with saying a few things he’d never
have had the guts to do at NIMR. “It’s
been speculated a few times,” he told Lee now, “about how two such different
people could have survived each other at Annapolis, at least that first year.”
Lee
choked trying to bury an almost giggle, and took a second to get himself back
under control. “You don’t know the half
of it,” he finally got out. “Mind you,
we didn’t have much of a choice. You get
stuck with who they say you do.” Lee
smiled again. “It was…interesting.” He pointed his fork at the rating. “And if you repeat that…” He didn’t finish the threat, but smiled again
as Ski swallowed.
“No…Trav,”
Ski told him firmly. “This is actually
really good,” he changed the subject back to the meal.
Lee
chuckled again and went back for another bite of stew. “Not quite up to Cookie’s version,” he
indicated his own plate, “but perfectly edible.” His attention was distracted for a moment by
the young couple he’d flown in with arriving at the doorway. The other times Lee had seen them they seemed
to him to be almost sad. This time they
appeared angry, although he wasn’t sure if it was at each other, or something –
or someone – else. They ended up sitting
at a table next to Tyler and Fisher, and Lee immediately ignored them. As he continued to visit with Ski he glanced
over – just seeming to peruse the room.
He wondered if they could be part of Tyler’s ‘game’ – whatever that was. But neither Tyler nor Fisher seemed to give
them even the hint of a second look, beyond glancing up when they were seated
so close. Lee was really getting
annoyed at his lack of intel!
He
decided later that it was having Kowalski to kibitz with that led to his
actually eating almost all of his meal.
He’d not been all that hungry, but as Ski polished off the last of his
kangaroo steak and the waitress appeared to refill their coffee cups and ask if
they would like dessert, Lee glanced down and his own plate was nearly
empty. He passed on dessert but
encouraged Ski to enjoy himself, and sat quietly sipping his coffee as the
rating did just that, thoroughly happy with his choice of a lamington – a
traditional Australian sponge cake covered in chocolate and flaked coconut.
While
Lee paid the bill he sent Ski over to the hotel counter to check on where he
might rent a vehicle of some sort. It
turned out that the hotel took care of that as well, and they ended up with a
nice, serviceable Land Rover, older but well-maintained. Letting Ski drive they headed out while it
was still light, not seeming to be doing anything but checking out the
surrounding area, following the map that the hotel also supplied. Lee had Ski stop once they were a ways out
and he went through the rig checking for anything that wasn’t standard
equipment – such as hidden bugging devices.
Once Ski picked up on what Lee was looking for, he helped. As Lee explained, he had no idea how far
Tyler’s ‘fingers’ extended. But the rig
appeared to be clean and they continued their seemingly meandering drive.
They
casually checked out the airstrip – as Lee suspected, there were no handy
hiding places. But as Ski pointed out,
if the plane came in after dark there were several places where a man could
hunker down and not be spotted, yet still be close enough to at least get some
idea of what was going on. “Especially
if he remembered to bring night vision binoculars.” He gave Lee a slightly sneaky little grin.
Lee
chuckled. “I gather a certain someone
mentioned that I no doubt brought along a few toys?” Ski nodded and his grin grew. “Have a few stashed,” he admitted.
“Then
how about we get me outfitted for the night.”
Lee frowned, and the rating hurried on.
“The bad guys will be watching you a whole lot closer than me, don’t you
think?” His voice carried just the right
level of innocence, but Lee wasn’t fooled.
However, he also accepted Ski’s logic with good humor. He knew that the rating was trying to save
Lee from what could easily be a totally wasted night of lying in the bush
outside the immediate area of the airstrip, subject to all sorts of
creepy-crawlies and not getting any rest.
Another time Lee might have blown him off and done the surveillance
himself. But Ski did make sense.
They
meandered back to the hotel, in no hurry in case anyone was watching them. Ski stayed in the jeep while Lee casually
went to his room. The small ‘trigger’
he’d left to tell him if anyone besides himself had entered the room was still
in place. Lee was actually a little
surprised that Tyler hadn’t tried to have the room searched – or more likely
Davis, if for no other reason than to get his gun back.
Avoiding
being seen taking anything with him, he hid Davis’ gun in the small of his
back, under his shirt, and further covered by the jacket he grabbed. The binoculars he normally carried with him
were small, and easily fit into a pocket.
Bug repellant went into another pocket.
Then, to make it look like the jacket was all that he came after, he
grabbed up Ski’s jacket and two bottles of water that the hotel supplied for
its guests, reset his ‘trigger,’ ambled back outside, and the pair once more
took off, this time headed out of town on the side away from the airstrip.
Once
out of sight from town Ski partially backtracked. They didn’t go near the airstrip, but close
enough that Ski wouldn’t have a terribly long hike. He grinned at the bug spray, accepted the
binoculars, and nodded as Lee handed over the gun. Lee explained that because of where it came
from it couldn’t be traced to NIMR, but reminded Ski that preferably he’d rather
Ski not be required to use it.
They
tossed out several ideas about how best to not give away the fact that Ski
didn’t come back to the hotel. Lee would
have preferred to leave the Land Rover someplace where Ski would have easy
access to it and walk back to the hotel, leaving the impression that Ski had
maybe taken off for one of the closer towns around – not that any were all that
close. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t
any place to hide it. Ski held his
tongue but there was no way he was letting Lee walk that far. While Lee hadn’t had anymore really hard
coughing spells there had been a few minor episodes, and Ski just didn’t think
that Lee looked all that great. There
was still no way he was going to challenge his CO directly. But he was nonetheless pleased when they
settled on Lee driving back to town by an alternate route, waiting for a couple
hours before getting back to the hotel, and hoping that when he got there Tyler
and Company would be left with the impression that Lee had taken Ski “somewhere
else.” They’d just have to hope that the
bad guys wouldn’t get overly nervous about Ski’s appearance and then sudden
disappearance.
As
they drove around somewhat aimlessly, just checking out the area, they watched
carefully to see if they were being followed.
Detecting no signs of anyone paying them any undo attention, as it
started to get dark Lee dropped Kowalski close to where the rating wanted to
settle in for the night. Lee continued
on away from town and found a place to ‘hang out’ for well over an hour before
meandering back to the hotel. He made a
point of heading to the bar for a leisurely drink, and then just as leisurely
headed to his room. He half-chuckled as
he admitted that he’d had more alcohol in the last couple of days than he would
normally have had in a month. Some
assignments were like that, when he needed to blend in with whatever was going
on. He didn’t see either Tyler or any of
his so far identified minions. That
didn’t mean that there weren’t any around, so Lee continued to play the part
he’d given himself and then casually headed for bed. He seriously doubted that he’d sleep. He and Ski had not really made a plan of
action. Ski would proceed however he saw
fit, with whatever happened that night – assuming anything did – and they’d
meet up at some point. Lee still wanted
to avoid cell phone contact as it could too easily be intercepted. But they did agree on a couple of short
emergency messages should the need arise.
Lee reminded Ski that the plane hadn’t been all that late the last time
so Ski needn’t spend all night out unless he felt there was a reason. If things were obviously dull, Ski should
make his way back to the hotel and get some sleep. Ski shrugged, but finally grinned and nodded.
* *
* *
As
it turned out, Kowalski almost took his CO up on the offer to return to the
hotel, and then nearly kicked himself in the six for the thought. Midnight came and went, as did 0100, and he
was just considering easing himself out from under the bush of some sort that
he’d found when the distant sound of airplane propellers was followed by the
four airstrip corner lights Lee had described to him clicking on, freezing Ski
in position. And whatever was going on,
it happened as quickly as Lee had said.
The plane barely came to a stop when a small jeep-like vehicle came out
from just north of town. Ski wasn’t able
to identify the man – if it was a man, but he thought it was – who was
driving. The person zoomed up to the
plane and jumped out. The pilot’s door
opened and a box of some sort was handed out.
The door closed, the jeep driver jumped back in his rig and took off,
the plane turned and took off, and the four lights went back out. Ski timed it – the whole operation took less
than eight minutes. Without wheels he
had no way to follow the jeep, and wasn’t sure he’d have wanted to anyway. But he did follow its direction with the
binoculars as far as he could, as well as write down both the tail numbers from
the plane and the license number of the jeep.
He
waited another fifteen minutes or so, just to be sure the ‘fun’ seemed to be
over for the night, and was just about to leave his hiding place when he
decided to take one more look around with the night vision binoculars. And was extremely glad that he did. On the far side of the airstrip from him, and
further away from the strip than he was, a lone figure was walking somewhat
furtively – at least Ski thought so – back toward town. He – and again Ski wasn’t sure but thought
that it was a man – seemed to be taking a somewhat circuitous route, but since
there wasn’t a whole lot of places he could be going Ski assumed that he was
headed back to town. He could have been
a local just out for a walk, Ski supposed, but he didn’t remember seeing any
active digs in that general direction when he and Lee took their drive. All he remembered there were old, inactive
ones. On the other hand, it was possible
that one or more of what looked like abandoned mines could still be housing a
retired miner – he’d seen several of what he assumed to be old miners around
town and in the bar. But not wanting to
take any chances he once more stayed still, watching until the person was out
of sight. And just to be on the safe
side he waited another forty-five minutes, constantly scanning his
surroundings, before he once more contemplated moving. By then he was stiff, both from inactivity as
well as nervous tension, and he muttered a few unkind thoughts to himself as he
slowly stood up. It passed through his
mind that he totally didn’t understand why the Skipper continued to do covert
work for ONI. Ski was quite happy
staying at NIMR, and on Seaview!
Carefully, and even more cautiously than he had originally planned, he
started to make his own circuitous way back to the hotel.
* *
* *
Helen
hit the hotel dining room just as it opened.
She had a full day planned and she wanted to get an early start. While Mr. Warren clearly preferred to provide
her with a rig and driver she’d smiled her ‘sweet’ smile and requested just a
vehicle and a map, and planned on doing her own touring around. She greatly appreciated his previous help and
told him so, but she told him that she just wanted to putter around on her
own. He still wasn’t overly happy, and
marked several areas on the map that she might want to avoid. Not that any of the local miners were bad
people, he assured her. Just, some
weren’t as friendly as others toward strangers.
One area in particular interested Helen as it was also one of the places
Barney had warned her against. She said
nothing to Warren, merely thanked him for the advice and accepted the keys to
the same Toyota Landcruiser she’d been in before but now without a
chauffeur. Warren again offered a
driver, apologetically explaining that the rig was a stick shift, not automatic
transmission, and reminding Helen that it was left-hand drive. Helen cringed inwardly at his condescending
attitude, gave him an especially ‘sweet’ smile, and told him as politely as she
could get out that she’d driven all over the world and in all sorts of
vehicles; she could manage just fine, thank you. Apparently the man realized his mistake and
withdrew post-haste. Helen picked up the
lunch basket she’d previously arranged for in the dining room, filled with not
only supplies for her but also enough extras to cover any little bribes she
might find need of through the day, and headed out. She was disappointed not to catch sight of
Lee that morning but didn’t worry about it.
She was, however, happy that Barney didn’t seem to be around. She was finding it increasingly hard to be
pleasant to him.
* *
* *
A
light tap on his hotel room door momentarily startled Lee – he hadn’t realized
that he’d fallen asleep. Shaking his
head, he grabbed the small handgun he’d brought with him from under his pillow
and walked quietly to the door. A soft
“who” got a response of “me”, and Lee relaxed and opened the door, admitting
Ski. He glanced at his watch and
discovered that it was just past 0400, and a raised eyebrow invited Ski to
explain his night.
Which
he did, both men speaking quietly as Lee asked a few questions along the
way. At the end of the recitation Lee
pondered the new information. “How big
was the box?” he asked.
“Maybe
twelve, fourteen inches square, and about six to eight high,” Ski told him.
“Heavy?
Light?”
Ski
thought a second. “Not really heavy, but
fairly substantial from the way it was handled.”
“Humm,”
Lee muttered nearly to himself. “And
coming in, not going out, so…”
“Not
likely opals,” Ski seemed to read Lee’s mind.
“Exactly,”
Lee agreed.
“Now
what?”
Lee
sent him a smile. “You get a couple
hours of shut-eye and then we take another casual drive and try to spot that
rig you saw.”
“Why
don’t we leave right now? I’m not
tired.”
Lee
smiled again. “We’re tourists, remember? Tourists don’t go sightseeing at 0430.”
“Oh. Right,” and Ski sent him a sheepish
grin. “Not to mention, I could use a
shower.” Lee chuckled softly.
They
ended up hitting the dining room just after 0800. Lee had no problem with not seeing Tyler,
although he was a little surprised that Helen wasn’t around. But he wasn’t worried – he knew only too well
how capable his mother was of taking care of herself. Not to mention how persistent she could be on
the trail of a good story. He did give
half a thought to just what that story actually was, now that she knew Lee was
here on ‘business.’ But he was
comfortable that – Admiral Jones’ warning notwithstanding – she’d stick to her
chosen research and not risk interfering with anything that could disrupt
whatever Lee was mixed up in.
As
he and Ski were passing the front desk on their way out, Lee caught the tail
end of a comment to the desk clerk made by a man who worked there – Lee wasn’t
quite sure who he was; hadn’t ever been close enough to catch what was on the
name tag. “…silly Yank…”
Lee
couldn’t help himself. He stopped
walking and looked at them. “Yes?” he
asked, a slight smile on his face. The
woman turned beet red and the man almost the same shade.
“Oh,
forgive me,” the man said, nearly stammering trying to get his foot out of his
mouth. “No, please, not you. Please forgive me. I meant no disrespect. Please…”
Lee
couldn’t take it any longer and laughed.
“Not a problem,” he assured the man who, by his nametag, was a Mr.
Warren, the Asst. Manager. “We Americans
are a diverse and varied species, for sure, some more civilized than
others.” He chuckled as Ski snorted
softly next to him.
The
man shook his head. “I should learn to
keep my thoughts to myself,” his voice totally apologetic. “I don’t know why I said what I did.” Lee realized that he obviously thought that
Lee heard more of his comment than just two words. “I should know better – I mean, I’m used to
liberated women. I guess I just wasn’t
expecting a more mature woman like Ms. Lee to want to drive herself around the
outback.” He frowned. “I do wish that she’d have accepted a driver
like the other days. It’s really no
trouble at all.”
Lee
felt Kowalski stiffen next to him when the identity of the ‘Yank’ in question
was revealed. He had to force himself to
remain calm and relaxed. “It’s my
understanding, from what I’ve read about her, that Ms. Lee is quite used to
taking care of herself. I doubt you need
to worry about her.”
“Oh. You know of her. Oh.
That makes me feel better. I
wasn’t sure…”
Lee
forced another chuckle. He wasn’t
overjoyed to know that his mom was off exploring on her own. But he was, actually, very aware of her
ability to manage her own life. “From
some of the stories she’s written she’s apparently been in wilder places than
this,” Lee told him.
“Oh. Well.
Thank you. That does make me feel
better.”
“Glad
I could be of help,” and he and Ski walked out.
He caught the sideways glances the rating was giving him and smiled
again. “Never a dull moment around my
mother,” he said quietly. Ski finally
smiled as well and they headed for their rig.
Once in the vehicle but before starting it, Ski sent Lee a puzzled look. Lee belatedly realized that he was
frowning. “I’d have liked to ask what kind
of rig Mom was driving but I didn’t dare.”
Kowalski
nodded as he started the Land Rover.
“So, we keep an eye out for her?”
“I
get the distinct feeling that it’s gonna be one of ‘those’ days,” and he sighed
heavily. Ski nodded again in agreement
and they took off.
They
made no attempt to hide themselves – not that they could anyway. What they did do was their best to play the
nosey tourist, traveling the back roads in and through the active mining area
slowly, gawking and taking the occasional picture. They were pretty much ignored by the miners
they saw. Mostly there wasn’t anyone
topside, the miners no doubt working below.
They saw a few other vehicles coming and going but not many, and none
carrying Lee’s mom.
They
had better luck with the smallish jeep Kowalski had seen the night before. It was parked partially out of sight behind a
small shelter – Lee hesitated to call it a cabin although it did have a door -
sitting in front, and slightly to the side, of what looked like a mine entrance
shaft. The ‘cabin’ was made out of
mismatched pieces of corrugated metal roofing, held together with the
occasional length of wood, also mismatched as to size. The door was wood and looked, as did the
sections of metal, like it had been salvaged from some other building. Or buildings, most likely. The actual cabin was probably only big enough
for a cot, a chair, and a cooking fire, the latter evidenced by an actual brick
chimney. But the metal roofing extended
out far enough to shade a sitting area complete with bench, making the ‘cabin’
look bigger. The roof itself wasn’t very
tall – it barely cleared the head of the man sitting on the bench outside. Apparently a very unfriendly man as he
reached to pick up the rifle laying on the bench next to him as Ski slowed ever
so slightly. Lee clicked a quick
picture, smiled and waved, and he and Ski drove on.
“That
was fun,” Lee heard Ski mutter, and chuckled.
“You
expected him to invite us in?” he teased the rating, and then had to smother a
heavy cough. Ski gave him a quick
look. He merely frowned, and waved a
hand. “Just keep driving. That definitely needs further investigation. But tonight, after dark. For now we keep doing what we’re doing so we
don’t let on that we have more interest in that mine than we do any of the
others.”
“Aye,
aye, S…ah, Trav,” Ski was having a major problem addressing his CO as anything
other than what was correct for the boat.
“Tired?”
Lee asked softly.
“I’m
fine,” Ski told him promptly.
Lee
chuckled. “Remember, you’re talking to
someone who knows perfectly well how easily those two words can slip out, no
matter how untruthful they might be at the time.” Ski turned red and Lee backhanded his
shoulder lightly. “We drive around, just
like we’ve been doing, for another couple hours, head back to the hotel for
lunch, and then our room for a nap.” He
chuckled again as Ski frowned at that term.
“We have a casual drink, dinner, maybe another casual drink. Pretend like nothing special has caught our
attention.” He paused. “And wait for dark.”
Ski
finally grinned and nodded. “Got it.”
“All
plans, of course, subject to adjustment by changing circumstances,” Lee added.
Ski
didn’t say anything for a bit. “How do
you do it?” he finally asked softly.
Lee
looked at him honestly. He knew that,
under normal conditions, the rating would never have asked such a
question. Difference in rank wouldn’t
allow it, not to mention that Ski simply would never presume to impose on Lee’s
privacy. Lee actually liked that Ski
felt comfortable enough now to ask the simple question. Unfortunately it didn’t have a simple
answer. “I do what I have to do,” he
finally settled on. It wasn’t much.
But
Kowalski nodded nonetheless, seeming to understand. “Can’t always be easy.”
Lee
thought back on a few moments in his life.
“Makes it easier, the more good people you have around you.” The pair shared a quick grin and continued
their meandering drive. They never did
spot Helen but Lee wasn’t overly concerned.
As he’d told Mr. Warren, she was perfectly able to take care of
herself.
* *
* *
While
Lee hadn’t seen Helen she’d briefly spotted him. She, like they, had just started driving, not
seeming to pay much attention to where she was going, but all the time keeping
the area of mines that Barney had specifically warned her away from in the back
of her mind. She, too, had slowed down
when she’d seen the man sitting outside his small shelter. But, also like Lee, when he’d reached for the
rifle sitting next to him she’d given an apologetic wave and driven on. She saw no one at the next couple of
mines. One looked like it might still be
in production. Or recently abandoned. The other was definitely no longer being
worked. There were two men at the next
mine, sitting close to the shaft having a smoke, and once more Helen slowed
down. Neither paid her much attention so
she stopped.
That
got their attention. “Whadya want?” one
growled.
Helen
smiled. “I’m a writer, just trying to
get a feel for how you miners operate; how things work around here. Would you be willing to talk to me for a few
minutes?”
The
two looked at each other. One shrugged,
the other looked back at her. “Jasper
said there was some woman around asking question.”
“That
would be me,” Helen told him with another open smile.
“Said
she brought lunch with her.”
Helen
grinned, grateful that she’d had the restaurant make up a big
basket. “And I did again today,” she
told the man. Taking that for an
invitation she got out of the Toyota, grabbed the basket off the back seat, and
walked to where they were sitting on a couple of small rock mounds. Placing the basket within easy reach of them
both, she chose another mound a few feet away.
“So,” she asked, the smile carefully maintained, “you two work this mine
together?” They both eyed her, then the
basket, then back to her. “Oh, please,
help yourself. I’m not actually sure
what the restaurant fixed this morning.
I’m still full from breakfast and haven’t taken a look.”
They
still hesitated, but finally the one who’d yet to speak opened the basket and
started poking through the contents.
Helen saw a bunch of sandwiches, several kinds of salads and fruit all
packed in cooler packs against the heat, and some small cakes. There were also paper plates and plastic
utensils – much as had been supplied previously, just more of everything. “This be Albin’s place,” the talker of the
two finally answered. “Got me a claim
back there,” he waved a hand west.
“Ah,”
Helen encouraged. They were a bunch of
years younger then Jasper. “And you’ve
been here your whole life, like Jasper?”
Evoking the other miner’s name appeared to appease some of their
hesitancy.
“Born
here,” the talker told her, although if he meant just he, or both of them,
Helen wasn’t sure. “Worked up at Coober
Pedy for awhile,” he mentioned one of the bigger opal mining areas in
Australia. “Met Albin,” he flicked his
head at the other man, “there. We both
decided, gettin’ too crowded. Came
here.” The man Albin, and Helen had no
idea if that was a first or last name, pulled out a thick lamb sandwich and
container of macaroni salad, both of which he attacked with gusto. ‘Talker’ licked his lips.
“Please,”
Helen encouraged, “help yourself.” She
waited until he, too, had both hands full of food, his choices roast beef – or
it could have been kangaroo, Helen admitted – and more macaroni salad. Helen
had a feeling that was a bit of a delicacy out here. “You still have family here? How long have you been back?”
It
took ‘Talker’ a few minutes to answer, engrossed as he was in his meal. He also, finally, waved at the basket with a
look toward her. Sensing that it might
be for the best, she chose half a tuna salad sandwich and a bottle of water. “Nobody here anymore,” Talker seemed more
satisfied and relaxed. “Why I left in
the first place.” Helen tried to figure
out a way to ask his name, although just referring to him in her mind as Talker
wasn’t all that bad, and she half-smiled.
“Been back about a year.” He took
a couple bites again. “Been thinkin’ we
might go somewhere else.”
“Oh?”
Helen kept her voice and expression casual so as not to disrupt the bit of
rapport she’d managed. “Not having much
luck in this area of the digs? I noticed
several abandoned ones in this area?”
Talker
took his time answering. “Doin’ okay,”
he finally told her. Helen thought that
might be all he was going to say as he went back to eating. And she knew better than to push. But Albin said something, mumbled around a
mouthful of food, and Talker nodded.
“Used to be, the miners kinda stuck together.” Once more he concentrated on his food.
Helen
nodded encouragement, and once more used Jasper as a focal point. “Jasper told me how a lot of the miners watch
each other’s backs. I think that’s
great.”
There
was a grunt from Albin, and Talker nodded.
“Not so friendly anymore. At
least, in some directions,” and he half-nodded in the direction where Helen had
seen the man with the gun.
Helen
wondered how much she dare ask and decided, to be safe, she wouldn’t get
specific. She shrugged. “Perhaps they’re just going through a rough
patch.” She tried a smile. “I know I can
get grumpy when work isn’t going smoothly.”
There
was another grunt from Albin, and again Talker seemed to understand what it
meant. “New people movin’ in. Stakin’ claims to old mines that have already
been worked out.” Again Albin
grunted. “Don’t trust ‘em.”
“Oh.” This was getting decidedly interesting but
Helen dare not show too much interest.
“You’re right. Definitely
unusual.”
“Best
to watch who you try to talk to.” Helen
almost jumped when Albin actually chose to speak.
Instead,
she smiled. “I’ve gotten to be a pretty
good judge of people over the years,” she told him. “Not that I haven’t been fooled at times,”
she admitted, thinking of several occasions, but mostly her first days here
with Barney.
“Happens,”
Albin said. He finished both the
sandwich and salad, and dove back into the basket for cake. “Clete,” he nodded toward Talker (Hallelujah,
thought Helen, finally a name) “tried being neighborly. Nearly got his head blowed off.”
“Oh,”
Helen acted shocked. “That does sound
most unusual.”
“Pure
mean,” Clete told her, rejoining the conversation.
“I
understand that it pays to be cautious.
But that sounds a little…” The
word ‘overboard’ came to mind; she thought back on a few times Lee and Chip had
teased each other that it was a horrible pun for a sailor, and buried a
snicker. “Excessive,” she finally
settled on.
“Don’t
like leavin’ Albin here by himself.” For
his part, Albin just shrugged and reached for more cake. “My place is further away,” Clete finished
his sandwich and went into the basket for another.
“I
ain’t helpless,” Albin defended himself.
“And they don’t seem to bother anyone, lest you bother them first.”
“Still
don’t trust ‘em,” it was Clete’s turn to mumble through a mouthful of
food.
Helen
was extremely grateful now that she’d thought to bring so much. “Jasper sure didn’t make it sound that
bad. Just…a need to be watchful.”
Albin
grunted again. “Safer over his side,”
Clete once more translated.
Helen
had a feeling that she’d gotten pretty much all that she was going to get on
that topic. She asked a few more very
general questions, giving both men a chance to make a further dive into the
basket. She thought about offering to
leave the rest of the food with them, had a feeling that, as long as it was a
trade they had no problem but would refuse anything that even remotely
resembled charity, and kept her mouth shut.
Both were clean – for out here – and appeared well enough dressed that
they were actually making a decent living.
They might not eat this well usually but neither was malnourished. She found herself thinking that she wished
Lee had as much heft to his body as these two men, and then was ashamed. Lee was perfectly healthy, just naturally
slender. Ben had been much the
same. He said that, as a pilot, he
needed to fit inside his cockpit.
As
she thanked the men for their time and put the basket back in the Landcruiser,
she really wanted to know more about the mine down the road. She admitted that, if Barney hadn’t warned
her against the area she probably would have chalked the whole thing up to just
the Australian outback, and opal miners in particular, being protective of
their own. But now there were just too
many inconsistencies for her to pass up – the kicker being Lee showing up under
an alias.
As
if to accent that point Helen saw a vehicle approaching with two men inside and
purposely bent down as if to adjust her shoe so that they wouldn’t see her –
although she took a quick peek and wasn’t at all surprised when it turned out
to be Lee and his crewman. Yep,
she told herself, I definitely need to be careful. No way do I want to mess up his plans –
whatever they are. There was,
however, a decided sparkle to her eyes as she added silently, but that
doesn’t mean I have to go hide in a corner.
She straightened up, squared her shoulders and, with a quick wave to
the two miners, got back into her rig.
She carefully let Lee get out of sight before continuing her drive.
* *
* *
Lee
and Kowalski timed their trip to get back just after noon, grabbed a quick
bite, and went to their room. Lee had
pointed out to the rating, before they left that morning, his little intruder
warning, and nodded his approval when Ski took a quick look around to make sure
they were alone in the corridor before giving it a quick check. Once inside, Ski quickly fell asleep. Lee stayed awake even though he did lie down
just to appease Ski, and continued to puzzle through all the bits of intel he’d
so far stumbled across. And also, how he
was going to go about investigating the area around where they’d seen the rig
from the previous night. Lee had a few
‘tricks’ in his kit – one of which was a dart gun that might be able to take
out the guard with a minimum of fuss.
But Lee had his suspicions about the small cabin. He seriously doubted that he’d find much of
interest there – more likely he’d have to enter the mine itself and that posed
any number of problems. Lee was fundamentally
opposed to killing anyone unless he absolutely had no other options – it was
why he so liked the dart gun with its anesthetic loads. Unfortunately it had limitations – namely
that, unlike what happened on TV shows, the drugs did not immediately take
effect; there was a time lag. And a lot
of things could potentially go wrong during that lag if not planned for and
neutralized.
He
gave himself a mental shrug along with a wry smile. Like so many times before he’d just have to
wing it – take issues as they presented themselves and try for the best outcome
possible. It was one of the things Chip
hated so much about Lee’s ONI missions.
Chip was a planner; he wanted to know the cruise parameters far enough
in advance to have good ideas of what he was going to have to deal with. Oh, he was extremely adept at ‘thinking on
his feet and rolling with the flow,’ as it were. But he’d prefer to never have to. Lee liked advance planning as well – he’d
just, over the years, gotten philosophical about how often ‘Murphy’ took over;
as in “if something can get screwy it will, and I need to be prepared to
adjust!’
So,
tonight’s investigation would have to be strictly reactionary. Lee was comforted to have Kowalski backing
him up – the man wasn’t Seaview’s Senior Rating simply because he was one of
the original crew. He was quick-witted,
reacted purposely to whatever situation he found himself in, and loyal to a
fault. Lee did need to make sure that he
watched Ski’s back as well. Chip was bad
enough when Lee came back from an ONI mission injured. If Lee got Kowalski hurt… Well, he’d just have to make sure that didn’t
happen!
* *
* *
As
Helen continued her drive, with no particular destination in mind, she pondered
the comment that Clete and Albin had posed – that people were coming into the
area and staking claims to supposedly worked out mines. She wondered how she could ask at the local
mining office about it without raising anyone’s suspicions as to why she was interested,
and ultimately decided that that might not be overly wise given Lee’s
undercover appearance. She sensed that
the two were, quite possibly, connected, and knew that Lee would be less than
pleased if she in any way interfered with whatever he was in the middle of.
What
she did do was to drive past Jasper’s holdings thinking that, as he’d already
spoken to her fairly openly, he might shed a bit of light on this new
information. However, she didn’t see him
topside, and didn’t want to disturb him while he was working so she continued
to meander around the area. Not far from
Jasper’s claim she found another where a man was topside looking to be taking a
cigarette break, and again using Jasper’s name as a starting point was able to
ask a few general questions, to which she got pretty general answers. This man, Carl Levins, was just enough leary
of Helen that she didn’t dare get too specific.
He was friendly enough that she did get a bit more information for the article
she was here for. And while that was
helpful it didn’t help the itch she was getting over what had brought Lee here.
A
brief smile did hit her face at one point.
From Lee’s original call he’d had no issue showing up as himself. Then, suddenly, once he arrived he needed to
be someone else. He’d obviously not
known until he arrived that Barney was here and quickly had to improvise, which
led to her wondering why he’d come here in the first place. She’d known immediately that it wasn’t what
he’d claimed – that Dr. Jamison had ordered R&R. While it was true that she’d invited him to
join her it wasn’t a ‘Lee’ thing to do, to interrupt her while she was
working. Her smile broadened. Not that Lee’s company could in the least
bother me, or interrupt any plans I might have in the works, she told
herself with a soft chuckle. So,
she continued to ponder, he came for one reason and, finding Barney here,
he’d quickly had to switch gears.
She shook her head. He and I
are definitely going to have a long talk. And hopefully soon!
* *
* *
Lee
never actually slept. He did lay quietly
so that he didn’t disturb Kowalski, who apparently needed it because once he
laid down he didn’t move until shortly after 1800 hours. On the other hand Lee acknowledged that it
could just be an issue of the time change from California to here. Either way, he merely grinned when the rating
started sharply after finally awakening and glancing at his watch. Lee waved off the rating’s apology, reminding
him that they had absolutely nothing planned until after dark anyway and it
might work out for the best considering that it could be a long night.
There
were a couple of new faces in the dining room when they got there – Lee took
that to mean that the daily plane had arrived.
Who he didn’t see were the young couple he’d flown in with and thought
that, perhaps, they’d left on the outbound flight. He also didn’t see Tyler, Fisher, or anyone
else he suspected was in cahoots with whatever was going on around here. He did see Helen, tucked into a corner table
ostensibly glancing at her notebook while eating dinner. Lee saw her casually glance around, spot him,
and just as casually go back to her notes, and had to very carefully keep his
own expression neutral. Now was
decidedly not the time to let himself get careless. As he and Ski were seated closer to the other
side of the room he did smile broadly, covering it by nodding as the waitress
smiled at him. Ski raised an eyebrow
briefly, then seemed to realize whom he was raising it at and immediately
feigned indifference. It caused Lee’s grin to reappear and he explained
softly. “Just realizing that when this
whole mess is over, Mom’s going to demand a debriefing that would put Admiral
Jones’ best effort to shame.” He sent
the rating another grin as Ski choked trying to bury a snort of laughter and
they both ended up chuckling.
“What
looks good, S…” Ski gave his head a shake.
“Trav,” finally came out.
“Sorry
this alias didn’t start with an ‘S’,” Lee said with a grin.
“Working
on it,” the rating apologized.
Lee
nodded. Ski was actually doing a great job
with his impromptu undercover assignment.
It could cause issues if he screwed up at the wrong time but Lee would
cross that bridge only if he had to. “I
was actually thinking that the chicken parmigiana sounded good,” he answered.
Ski
immediately brightened. “Me, too. Ah, not that the kangaroo last night wasn’t
good,” he added quickly. “Got nothing
against local dishes but I’ve always been partial to Italian.”
Lee
grinned broadly. “Australia is noted for
its variety of cuisines, actually,” he told the rating. “Some of the best seafood I’ve ever had was
in Sydney.” He shrugged. “Probably too big a hassle to have it on the
menu very often this far inland.”
“Maybe
before we head for home,” Ski risked.
“Then you can tease Mr. Morton.”
Lee
laughed out loud – mostly that the rating was feeling comfortable enough to
come out with that comment – and happily went along with it. “Definitely sounds like a plan,” he agreed.
The
waitress coming over to take their orders saved him from figuring out how to
ignore Tyler’s entrance, or more to the point, his pointing the hostess toward
Helen’s table. And then he nearly lost
it as Helen, by now finished eating, politely excused herself. She chose to speak softly enough that Lee
didn’t hear her reason. And the whole
time she kept her ‘sweet’ smile firmly in place. Tyler was left flat-footed, and looked
positively torqued when he realized that Lee had witnessed the little
vignette. Lee decided that egging it on
by laughing might not be the best way to handle the moment so he purposely
looked at Ski. The rating had,
apparently, seen what happened as well, and the pair shared a grin but didn’t
look in Tyler’s direction. Lee was actually
a bit surprised that Tyler didn’t walk back out. On the other hand there weren’t all that many
places in town where you could get a meal that you didn’t have to fix yourself,
so Lee supposed that if he wanted dinner it was going to have to be here. He and Kowalski spent the meal visiting
amiably about half a dozen different things – mostly places they’d been to and
meals that they’d eaten – safe topics for conversation so they didn’t care if
they were overheard, thoroughly enjoying both the meal and the
companionship. Lee saw Ski grin quietly
to himself a couple of times and figured that he knew the reason. The whole trip wouldn’t be anything that
would to talked about once they returned home.
But Lee was actually enjoying the chance to spend a little extra time
with the rating and figured that Ski was feeling much the same way.
Once
they’d finished their leisurely meal they headed for the bar. Lee wasn’t at all surprised to see that
Fisher and Davis were already there, or that Tyler joined them once he was done
eating. Knowing the possibility of an
‘interesting’ night ahead of them, Lee stretched his one drink out as long as
possible before feigning a wide yawn.
Ski was nursing his beer as well and was only about halfway
through. By previous agreement Ski
stayed in the bar while Lee headed for their room. But he only stayed long enough to fill his
and Ski’s jacket pockets with an assortment of things he suspected would come
in handy over the next several hours and then made his way as quickly and
quietly as he could out into the darkening evening. He couldn’t be positive, of course, but tried
to make sure as few people as possible saw him as he went to the Land Rover and
drove to a quiet place semi-behind the church and waited for Ski, who was
giving the appearance of nothing more than an evening stroll, to join him.
* *
* *
Helen
tried very hard not to be rude to Barney when he had the hostess take him to
her table. But since she was already
done eating it was a simple matter to tell him that she had notes to make on
her day exploring and she needed to get to them before she forgot. She did go back to her room for an hour or
so, before deciding that a walk might be just the ticket to ease a bit of
restlessness that had settled in. She puzzled
over that a bit before realizing that, other days, she’d either been doing a
lot of walking as Barney showed her here and there, or actively involved with
actual mining activities. Today she’d
done nothing more than drive and visit.
She hadn’t expected to find a hotel in mining country with an actual
swimming pool so she hadn’t brought a swimsuit with her or she’d have
considered doing enough laps to wear off her nervous energy. Instead, she settled for a long, leisurely
walk around the town.
She
was standing close to one of the buildings, trying not to startle away the small
mob of kangaroos puttering about in front of the church, when she saw Kowalski
in seemingly a casual walk as well disappear behind the church, and then what
she thought was the rig he and Lee had been in earlier that day take off away
from town toward the east. From her
wandering around she knew that there wasn’t that much close by in that
direction, but since her own rig was back at the hotel there wasn’t any way she
could follow him – and she assumed Lee, as well. And she wasn’t sure that she’d have, anyway,
in case she’d somehow mess up their plans – whatever those were. She continued to watch the ‘roos, and was
just about to head back to the hotel when another vehicle headed out the same
way as Ski. Helen wasn’t sure but
thought that the two people inside were the couple that had arrived on today’s
flight – they’d been behind her as she went in to dinner and, as she loved
doing, struck up a short, friendly conversation as they waited to be
seated. Wherever they were headed, they
drove fast enough to disturb the ‘roos so Helen headed back to the hotel.
She
hadn’t quite made it back when another rig passed her, also headed in the
general direction that Ski, and probably Lee, had gone, this time carrying the
young schoolteachers who had arrived the same day Lee did. Okay, she muttered to herself, that’s
just too big a coincidence. But with
no idea of what was going on, she resigned herself to making sure Lee told her everything
the first chance she got to interrogate him and headed into the hotel. And nearly got bowled over as Barney and two
of his ‘business associates’ were just headed out. The one, Collins, muttered a quick apology,
to which she nodded an acknowledgement.
The big one, Davis she thought he’d heard Barney call him, just
continued on as if she wasn’t even there.
Barney hesitated the barest moment but seemed in a hurry as well, so
Helen merely sent him a smile and decided to add that perhaps she’d see him at
breakfast the next morning. She wasn’t
quite sure what the quick look he gave her at that comment meant, and wasn’t
about to ask. They exchanged quick nods
and headed their separate ways.
At
least, Barney did. Helen hesitated a
bit, pondering everything she’d seen and heard the last couple of days.
* *
* *
Lee
drove with no particular destination in mind until he was sure that he wasn’t
being followed, and then headed in a roundabout way toward the cabin and mine
they wanted to check out. He discussed
with Kowalski a number of scenarios for what they might encounter but basically
said that they’d have to take things as they came. He’d have liked to leave Ski with the rig, as
back-up, and gone in on his own. But he
had a pretty good idea how the rating would have reacted to that idea! Oh, he admitted, he could have ordered him to
obey. And despite their easy
relationship since coming here he knew that Ski would follow those orders. Not happily, for sure, but he would have
nonetheless. Still, Lee hesitated. There were too many variables for Lee to
ignore that an extra pair of eyes might be of tremendous value. And, Lee had to consider what giving Kowalski
that order might do to their overall working relationship. Despite an uneasy beginning, when Lee first
came to Seaview, Kowalski had become one of Lee’s most outspoken
supporters. Weighing all of the factors
in a split second, he kept quiet.
Lee
had made note of a small hillock – probably tailings from several old,
abandoned mines - a hundred or so yards to the east of the cabin. With a bit of
off-roading and driving in the gathering darkness without headlights he settled
the Land Rover neatly behind it. He and
Ski went over their inventory of ‘toys’, and crawled to the top of the mound of
sand and small rocks until they could peer down to the cabin. Lee used his night vision binoculars to scope
out the scene. A word he rarely used
slipped out and he sent the rating a quick look. “Company,” he muttered. “There’s a second rig there, and Davis is
standing outside with the guy we saw this morning. Can’t take them both out at the same time
with darts.”
“Maybe,”
Ski offered, “once we get close enough, I can sneak up behind them. You nail Davis with the dart and I can tackle
the other.” He reached down. “Plenty of handy rocks around,” and he
flipped a fist-sized one up, catching it neatly on the way down. He’d worked around Lee long enough to know
his CO hated killing if there was a way around it.
“Thought
you claimed Davis,” Lee reminded Ski of their conversation the day before.
“The
other guy’s smaller,” Ski admitted with a quirky grin.
Lee
grinned back. “Sounds like a plan,” he
agreed, and they started edging their way carefully toward the cabin.
It
should have worked. And could have, if
Lee hadn’t screwed it up. His body,
already having issues he was choosing to ignore, didn’t react well to crawling
around in the dirt and sand. He was
waiting for Ski to work his way around behind Davis and the guard when he was
hit suddenly with an extremely heavy cough.
Before he could recover he had two rifles pointed down at him. Davis whistled, and Tyler came running from
behind the cabin.
“Never
could keep your nose out of other people’s business,” Tyler muttered. “Where’s your buddy?”
Lee
shrugged, finally getting the cough under enough control to speak. “Should be waiting for me at the hotel.” He had no idea at that point exactly where
Ski was. He just hoped that the rating
would use his head to devise a plan of action and not follow his first instant
to protect his Skipper. He spoke loud
enough, although not making it too obvious, hoping that Ski was close enough to
hear his answer and not come screaming into the scene and in all likelihood
just make matters worse. Another heavy
coughing spell hit Lee hard and by the time he’d gotten it under control he’d
been grabbed by Davis and the guard, roughly but thoroughly searched, and the
pair started dragging him behind the cabin toward what Lee assumed was the old
mine entrance.
He
was trying to fend off what felt like an even worse round of coughs when Davis
stumbled and fell down. As the coughs
took over his body Lee went to his knees, and suddenly the other man also fell
forward. Lee hadn’t heard any shots but
Tyler, walking slightly ahead, suddenly had a gun in his hand as he looked
wildly around before settling the gun on Lee’s head. Just as he pulled the trigger there was an
ever so soft ‘phutt’ from somewhere behind Lee.
At the same time Kowalski fired from just above the mine opening. Lee didn’t see Tyler fall – he was busy
trying not to scream from Tyler’s round.
While it missed Lee’s head, thankfully, it dug itself into his right
calf instead.
“Skipper!”
he heard Kowalski yell, and saw the rating scrambling down the small bank of
mine tailings toward him as two more men came tearing out of the opening, guns
drawn. Ski got one of them as Fisher
appeared from between the two vehicles and, a silencer on his revolver, took
out the other.
Lee
didn’t realize that he’d been holding his breath until he tried to breathe
deeply and ended up with another fit of coughing. Kowalski settled on the ground next to him
and immediately started inspecting Lee’s injured leg. Lee frowned, but started to send Fisher a nod
when movement behind the ONI agent caught Lee’s eye. Still trying to control the coughs he wasn’t
able to get off a warning in time, and Helen nailed Fisher from behind with a
length of two-by-four. Luckily she
missed his head and caught his shoulder instead, but it still caused the agent
to drop his gun and fall to his knees.
Helen was just preparing to swing again when Lee finally got out,
“No!” Helen looked at him wearily,
preparing herself like a baseball batter ready to send the incoming ball –
Fisher’s head – over the outfield fence.
“He’s one of the good guys,” Lee barely got out around more coughs.
“You
sure about that?” Helen didn’t move, the
two-by-four still cocked and loaded. Lee
struggled to control his coughing, now complicated by more struggles to control
the laughter the absurdity of the scene in front of him was causing.
“Federal
Police,” suddenly rang out, causing all four people to jump. “Drop your weapons.”
Lee
couldn’t help himself. “The only one
armed at the moment is my mother,” he yelled back. As two people stepped out from behind another
pile of rubble, to the west of where Lee was sitting, Fisher mouthed a silent
‘thank you’ to Lee and, with a glance at Helen to make sure she wasn’t still
taking aim, stood up.
“Colin
Fisher,” he told the pair – a man and a woman that, as they came closer, Lee
recognized as the newcomers in the dining room earlier that evening. “Office of Naval Intelligence, United States
Navy. What the blazes took you so
long?” His voice was firm and demanding.
“Sorry,”
the man said, although he didn’t really sound all that much so. “The message we got didn’t give a lot of
directions.”
“Yeah,”
came a different voice, and the young couple who had flown in with Lee walked
into view. “If it hadn’t been for us
they’d still be wandering around in the bushes.”
“And
who the blazes are you?” Fisher switched gears.
“New
South Wales Drug Enforcement,” the man announced. “You two nearly screwed everything up,” he
continued, ignoring Fisher and glaring at the other two, “blundering around
like you did.”
All
four Australian law enforcement members started talking at once, each accusing
the others of any number of screw-ups – some of them having nothing to do with
this particular case from what Lee could gather. He figured that Australia suffered from the
same lack of interdepartmental cooperation that Washington, D.C. did. But first things first. All the yelling was giving Lee a
headache. “Drugs?” he did a little
yelling of his own. “That’s what this
whole mess is about?”
* *
* *
It
took awhile but eventually everything finally got sorted out. Lee wasn’t involved in much of the immediate
chaos merely from the fact that, once the two law enforcement agencies called
in their teams – who were, apparently, standing by not that far out of town –
one of the people who was brought along was the local doctor. Lee was perfectly happy being tended to by
Kowalski and Helen who, it turned out, found first-aid kits in both of their
rentals. Once the dead and wounded bad
guys were sorted out the doctor was all set to tackle Lee. He and Fisher came over to where Ski had
parked Lee, on the bench in front of the cabin.
Lee sidetracked the doctor at least momentarily by asking Fisher if his
shoulder needed tending to.
Helen
sent the agent a look of apology. “I
truly am sorry,” she started.
But
Fisher waved her off. “My own fault,” he
told the group. “I’d gotten a message
out to the Feds…” He shrugged. “Or rather, thought that I had,” he admitted.
“So
you did have a pipeline out?” Lee asked.
“I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how you’d gotten the intel out
about Mom being here without being able to get anything else out.” He sent Fisher one of his
almost-through-the-lashes looks.
Fisher
grinned. “Thought I’d gone rogue on
you,” he guessed.
“Of
course not,” Helen came to her son’s defense.
“Actually,
Mom, the thought did cross my mind,” Lee admitted.
Helen
huffed but Fisher nodded. “Natural, all
things considered.” He shook his
head. “Things got extremely complicated
extremely fast.”
“Been
there, done that,” Lee muttered. The
doctor made to check Lee’s leg, blood on the ripped pant leg a dead
giveaway. “Don’t bother,” Lee told
him. “A through and through; no major
damage, just hurt like crazy when it happened.
Kowalski cleaned and dressed it.
It’s fine.”
The
doctor, a man about Lee’s age, gave the rating a look of appraisal. “And what medical school did you attend?”
Before
Kowalski could attempt an answer Lee growled.
“The Doc Jamison campus of the Marquis de Sade School of Torture.” Kowalski couldn’t stop the snort of laughter,
and he and Lee shared a quick grin.
Helen
gave her son’s shoulder a smack, assured the doctor that Kowalski was quite
well versed in first aid, but asked that Lee be assessed for the slight fever
and heavy cough that had bothered him since he’d been here. Kowalski started to
open his mouth; a glare from Lee abruptly closed it.
“I’m
fine,” Lee growled, and then sighed at the look Helen sent him. “Or rather, I will be once I get out of all
this dust.”
Fisher
chuckled and told the still frowning doctor, “Crane’s much more used to the
revitalized stuff inside his submarine.”
The
doctor shuddered. “Never could
understand why anyone would willingly choose to serve in a sardine can,” he
muttered, and it was Lee and Kowalski’s turn to chuckle.
They
were joined by the four original police officers, their teams dealing with
everything else, and Fisher was ‘encouraged’ to share what he’d ended up in the
middle of.
As
had been originally reported, raw opals were turning up in places they
shouldn’t have been, and Fisher was sent in to Sydney to snoop casually around
and try to ferret out any possible links there might be to a few other
nefarious projects ONI might be interested in.
Neither the Australian Federal Police people nor the pair from the NSW
Drug Enforcement squad were overly thrilled to know that ONI would just waltz
into a foreign country and start their own underground investigation. Lee could see another full on shouting match
coming and said not so quietly to who seemed to be the lead Fed, Inspector Nick
Burnett, “How about you have your Director contact our Director. We were just following orders.”
That,
at least, stopped the yelling, however briefly.
But Burnett turned on Lee. “So
you’re part of the same investigation.”
Lee
glanced at Fisher sheepishly as he shook his head. “Actually, no,” he told the Inspector. “Fisher got word out that Mom, here doing a
story on the opal industry, was getting in the middle of something that wasn’t
safe…”
“I
was just fine,” Helen interrupted. “If
anything, Barney was getting in my way!”
“Whatever,”
Lee did a little muttering himself.
“Anyway, Admiral Jones…ah…”
“So
that’s why you showed up?” Helen snorted
delicately. “I suppose that he’s still
miffed about that other little incident.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Lee. “I was absolutely not bothering
anyone. That time or this.” ***
Lee
stared at her. “You knew about…” He didn’t finish the thought, about how Helen
had supposedly almost walked into an ONI operation several years ago.
“Of
course, dear,” she admitted with a bit of a smugness. “Oh, not until a couple of months later. But you’re not the only person with friends
in interesting places.”
“Help,”
Lee mumbled, and earned a chuckle from Helen.
Fisher
once more took over the conversation, talking as much to Lee as he was the
Inspector. “In one of the bars in Sydney
I picked up a hint of opals for drugs.”
“Cocaine,”
the woman from NSW Drug Enforcement, now identified as Officer Lacey Handley,
spoke up.
Fisher
nodded. “I couldn’t figure out how there
could be a connection. I mean,” he spoke
directly to the Aussies, “I know that opals are big business…”
“But
not quite that big,” Lee broke in.
“That’s the problem I was having, once I got here and found Tyler. Nothing was making any sense.”
“So
you two didn’t compare notes?” Bennett interrupted. Lee and Fisher shared a quick look before
Fisher continued.
“I
‘let slip’ a few comments and connections here and there, and Tyler showed up
at the bar one night asking if I was looking for work. Long story short, he’d stumbled – and I’m
still not totally sure how, and probably now,” he glanced toward where bodies
were being prepared for transport, “we may never know – into a middle-man
position for getting cocaine into Australia.
Tyler wasn’t a very trusting person.
I’d get told to do this or that, and I played the good minion hoping to
learn as much as I could about the operation.”
Handley
nodded. “Australia, especially the
bigger cities, is having a major problem with drugs in general, but especially
‘coke.’ The young affluent generation
wants it, and is willing to pay. A kilo
in Sydney goes for about $250,000 in American dollars these days.”
Kowalski
whistled, Helen drew in a breath, and Lee shook his head. Fisher merely nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed. “That same kilo goes for about $16,000 in the
states. However it happened, Mexican
cocaine was making its way across the Pacific.
Small planes bring it in to backcountry airports, avoiding security for
the most part, and it makes its way by courier into the cities. White Cliffs was a natural spot – off the
beaten path, but enough tourists and opal couriers that a few extras didn’t
raise anyone’s eyebrows.”
“And
handy abandoned mines to hide the stuff in between trips?” Lee guessed.
“You
got it,” Fisher confirmed. “When Tyler
brought me here I was able to arrange for another person to come the next day,
as a tourist. It was a simple matter to
strike up a friendly conversation with her in the bar. But then the next day Mrs. Crane…” he looked
at Helen, “or do you prefer Ms. Lee?” he asked.
Helen
grinned. “While my passport does read
‘Helen Graham Lee’ I’ve always been perfectly happy being just plain Mrs.
Crane.”
“You’re
that Helen Lee?” the woman Fed, Inspector Marjorie Dempsey, blurted
out. Helen merely smiled her ‘sweet’
smile. Lee cringed and Helen smacked his
shoulder again.
Fisher
chuckled. “Tyler seemed instantly
attracted to Mrs. Crane. Made me nervous
so I told Stacy to get the message out.
Tyler da…ah…almost caught me, and after that I told Stacy to get lost
and I kept my head down.”
“So…”
Bennett looked at Lee.
“So,
I was asked by ONI’s Director to come down and get Mom out of the middle of
things. One complication – when I got
here I discovered Tyler. I’d run into
him before, and it wasn’t as Lee Crane.
Had to do some quick revision to my plans.” He shared a look with Fisher. “Mom didn’t seem to be in any immediate
danger so, once I realized Fisher was here, I stayed around to see if I could
help out in any way.”
“By
getting yourself captured and shot?”
Dempsey’s voice was snide.
Lee
felt Helen stiffen but he merely gave the Inspector a sheepish grin. “Not exactly the plan,” he admitted.
“So,
what was?” That definitely came out as a
demand.
Lee
sent Fisher another look. The agent
shrugged. “Their show now anyway,” he
told Lee, and Lee nodded.
“The
first night I was here I saw a small plane come in after dark. Lights flicked on marking the four corners of
the airstrip, the plane did a quick touchdown and takeoff, and the lights
flicked off again. I heard but didn’t
see a small rig of some sort head from the strip towards north of town. I didn’t dare try to contact Fisher and I had
no idea who in town might be within Tyler’s sphere of influence…”
“We’re
working on that,” the other Drug Squad member, Det. Bradley Beacham,
interjected.
Lee
nodded again. “When my boss tried to
call my cell phone…”
“This
Admiral Jones?” Bennett asked.
Lee
smiled. “No. My full-time boss, Admiral Harriman Nelson. Nelson Institute of Marine Research, Santa
Barbara, California. I only work
part-time for ONI.” Fisher snorted and
Lee sent him a grin. “Anyway, I didn’t
think it safe to talk to him so I managed to casually let him know that I was
here under an alias – one that he knew had a bit of a shady background – and he
sent Kowalski here, one of my crewmen, in to act as backup.”
“So
you basically ignored orders and just decided to investigate on your own?”
“Ah…”
Lee hesitated. “Not totally.” He glanced at Fisher. “I sort of…”
“Crane
has his own ideas about how to manage an assignment,” Fisher told the assembled
local cops. To Lee he said, “Jones is
going to have a coronary.”
“Why? Case closed.”
Fisher raised his eyes skyward but remained silent, so Lee continued to
the Inspector. “Tyler and company
weren’t overly thrilled to have me around, or so it seemed to me…”
“Ticked
him off major league,” Fisher confirmed.
“And
as long as he was concerned with me I was hoping that might give Fisher a
little extra space.”
“Did,
actually,” Fisher admitted softly.
“Ski
volunteered to go hang out by the airstrip last night in case the little plane
came in again…”
Det.
Beacham stared at Ski. “You were out
there, too?” His voice was almost nasty.
Kowalski
by this time had had about all he could handle of the bickering between the two
branches of Australia’s law enforcement.
“Ah, that was you I saw walking back toward town,” he got out
nonchalantly, with a straight face. He
saw Lee’s lips purse but his CO kept his expression under control. Once more Fisher’s eyes went towards the
stars but he stayed quiet. “So you got
the plane numbers and the license on the little jeep over there like I did,”
Ski continued all too innocently.
Beacham
was being glared at by the other three officials. “I was on the wrong side to get a good look
at the jeep,” he admitted, barely loud enough to be heard.
“We
drove casually around this morning,” Lee decided that he’d better retake
control of the narrative, “until we found this place.” But his own sense of humor got the better of
him and his voice turned innocent as he asked Beacham, “So how did you manage
to find it?” Fisher couldn’t hold it in
any longer and ended up coughing loudly to cover his laughter. Lee looked at the doctor, who apparently knew
a good show when he saw one coming and hadn’t moved. “See, I told you. All this dust makes us Yanks cough.” Helen smacked him again and he sent her a
grin. But it did remind him to ask her,
“How come you’re here?”
Helen
very nearly sent him her ‘sweet’ smile, thought better of it, and turned it
into a genuine one as she laid a hand on his shoulder. “When Lee showed up using an alias I knew
that he was working, and wasn’t about to do anything to get in his way.” Lee and Fisher shared a look but stayed
quiet. “It was immediately obvious that
Barney, Mr. Tyler, had something to do with why Lee was here, although I had no
idea what or why. I just kept my eyes
and ears open. When I’d mentioned to
Barney that I wanted to do some exploring on my own he very quickly mentioned a
couple areas that I’d be wise to stay away from.”
“Which,
of course, made them all the more interesting to you,” Lee muttered, his eyes
this time going skyward.
“Humm,”
Helen said quietly before continuing.
“When I drove around this morning there was a man sitting right here and
when I slowed down, thinking I might chat with him for my story, he reached for
a rifle so I kept going.” Lee shook his
head but stayed quiet. “I did stop,”
Helen continued, “a bit further on, and spoke with a couple of miners. During the course of conversation they
mentioned that something didn’t feel right about this place.”
“They
specifically said this mine?” Handley wanted to know.
“Well,”
Helen backtracked, “not really. Just
this general direction. They said that
new people had moved in, very unfriendly, and they didn’t know why because as
far as they knew this mine had already been worked out.”
“So
you decided to investigate on your own.”
Handley’s voice wasn’t derogatory, but there was a tone to it that had
Lee almost holding his breath.
“Of
course not,” Helen bristled. “I followed
you.”
Lee’s
“Help,” was drowned out by Handley’s “What!”
Helen
went back to her ‘sweet’ smile. “I went
for a walk earlier and saw Lee and Kowalski leave town. I was headed back to the hotel when I saw
those two,” she pointed to Bennett and Dempsey, “drive away. I was curious, of course. It was, after all, getting late for just a
simple drive. Then I saw you and your
partner also leaving, and right after that I nearly got run down by Barney and
company.” Her ‘sweet’ smile grew even
bigger before adding, “and I just
couldn’t resist. I, apparently, had a
better idea of where I was going than any of you, so…” she didn’t finish, just shrugged. Lee shook his head – knowing his mother, the
explanation made perfect sense.
Bennett
huffed, and grumbled something too low to be heard. “So, “ he said out loud, “I can assume that
all of you will be leaving on tomorrow’s flight?”
“Of
course not,” Helen answered before anyone else could. “I haven’t finished my story research.”
Lee
chuckled. “And what story would that
be?” he asked softly, hoping that she was the only one who heard him.
Helen
frowned but continued. “Besides that, I
can tell Clete that it’s safe for Albin to mine on his own now that this
viper’s nest has been cleaned out. And I
need to thank Jasper for all of his help.
And…” She was drowned out as Lee
was totally unable to control his laughter.
* see “For Good” by R. L. Keller
** see “Out of the Action” by R. L. Keller
***
see “Jigsaw” by R. L. Keller