Richard Johnson - Deadly Cargo - A Chilling Naval Terrorism Thriller

“No doubt. I’m sure life in the San Blas Islands will make a girl grow up and take responsibility a lot faster than girls her age in the cities.”

“Maybe she even knows things about these islands. You’re always telling us how important it is to get local knowledge about the places we’re sailing.”

Dan laid aside the binocular and swung around to face Cadee. “Local knowledge is very important, honey. That’s why I spent so much time with Sven. He knows this part of the Caribbean better than anybody I’ve met. He kept us out of that hurricane we’ve been hearing about on the radio. But he didn’t say anything to me about pirates.”

“Well, maybe he doesn’t know everything.”

Dan laughed. “No, I’m sure he doesn’t know everything.” He saw from the look in her eyes that Cadee was worried. “Okay, I’ll tell you what, if it will make you feel better we’ll skirt this island group and conserve on our water supply until we get farther north. How does that sound?”

Cadee’s eyes brightened, and she threw her arms around his neck. “Thanks, dad. Maria Elena would be very happy about this. She was really concerned, and even made me promise to mention it to you.”

“Well, we don’t want to disappoint Maria Elena, now do we?” He winked. “If you’ll stand watch for me for a few minutes, I’ll go down to the nav station and work out a new set of waypoints that will take us around San Luis Miguel.”

She hopped up into the captain’s chair. “Can I take it off autopilot and bear to starboard a few degrees, so we don’t get any closer?”

“If it will make you feel better.”

With the manual override system, the autopilot released control as soon as she took the wheel and gave it a turn. The wheel turned easily in her hand, and the catamaran responded immediately. On the new course, the wind played over the sails a little differently, so she reset the autopilot to hold the new course, stepped to the traveler to ease the main sheet, and then to the winch to ease the genoa. A smile of pride filled her face as she craned her neck to look up at the sails, now full and taut and the telltales flying straight back.

As Dan ducked into the cabin, a thought struck him, and he called out to Cadee. “I was watching something about thirty-five degrees to starboard and maybe a couple miles off. Keep your eye out so we don’t run into anything, okay?”

“Sure, dad,” she said as she climbed back into the seat. “I turned us only about ten degrees, but I’ll watch for it.” She picked up the binocular and scanned the horizon in an arc to the right of their course, looking for whatever it was her dad had been watching.

A moment later, she poked her head into the cabin. “I see it, dad. The radar picked it up, too. I’m on the eight-mile range right now, and the object is reflecting a strong signal and is only half a mile away.”

Dan came up from the port hull nav station to take a look. Cadee handed the binocular to him and jumped down from the seat as he slid into position behind the wheel. A quick study of the radar screen gave him a relative bearing on the object, and he aimed the seven-power binocular that direction. The commotion brought Jacob out of his aft stateroom. In his hand was the sign language book he was studying.

“What’s up, dad?”

After a quick glance at his son, Dan smiled and nodded at the book. “Great literature, don’t you think?”

Jacob grinned. “Spoken like a true author, dad. But hey, it’s not bad. Even I can understand it.”

“There’s something floating out there.” He handed the binocular to Jacob. “See what you make of it. Where’s your mother?”

Cadee bounded through the cabin door in search of Nicole, and found her in the galley preparing sandwiches. “Found her,” she called back toward the cockpit. “Hey, mom, dad’s found something.”

Nicole wiped her hands on a dishtowel. “What is it?”

“We don’t know.

It took only a few seconds for Nicole and Cadee to join the men in the cockpit. Dan had switched off the autopilot and was closing in on the mysterious object, now only a few hundred yards away.

Jacob lowered the binocular. “Looks like a half-submerged shipping container, to me.”

Nicole took the binocular as Jacob moved to the traveler to adjust the mainsail. “Well, I’m glad you guys spotted it before we ran into it,” she said. “That thing could have sunk us if we hit it at speed.” She looked at Dan, who was steering the boat closer. “What are you doing? Let’s stay away from it in case a swell catches us and we smash into it.”

“We’re okay, honey,” Dan tried to calm her. “I just want to take a closer look. Jake, will you please lower the outdrive and lock it down? Then furl the headsail and I’ll start the engine. We’ll just circle it under power, so we’ve got good directional control and can stay out of harm’s way.” He emphasized the last part for Nicole’s benefit.

He switched on the glow plugs for half a minute, then fired the diesel. It started immediately, and he set the autopilot to steer them away from the container and directly into the wind. “I’m going to drop the main,” he told Nicole, in keeping with their standard safety procedures at all times when someone left the cockpit to go up on deck while underway.

“Be careful, daddy,” Cadee called out.

In a matter of minutes both the headsail and the main were stowed, and the boat was a few hundred yards past the floating cargo container. “All right, gang,” Dan said with a note of adventure in his voice, “let’s go see what we’ve got here.”

“What we’ve got here,” – Nicole didn’t sound amused – “is a huge metal object that can sink our boat. What the heck are you thinking?”

“Well,” Dan said in a soothing voice, “what I was thinking was that maybe we’ve found ourselves a grand treasure. Who knows what might be in that container? It might be a Rolls Royce—”

“Oh sure,” Nicole interrupted. “Well, did you notice that the container is upside down?”

“Or maybe it’s a load of Nike shoes, or computers, or money.”

“Or maybe a bunch of motorbikes,” Jacob interjected with a smile.

“Or clothes,” Cadee chimed in, looking hopeful.

“Or just somebody’s junk.” Nicole shot a warning glance at Dan and planted her hands on her hips.

“Well,” Dan said cheerfully, “we’ll never know until we take a look”

“And just how do you propose to take a look?” Nicole asked. “You can’t open that thing up out here in the middle of the ocean, and we sure can’t tow it ashore.”

“You’ve got a point there,” Dan said. “Any ideas from the crew?”

Silence filled the cockpit, and Dan was almost ready to give up his treasure hunt when a thought entered his mind. His eyes brightened. “I’ve got it.”

“Stand back, kids,” Nicole mocked, throwing her arms wide in front of the children, “I don’t want you catching whatever it is your father has.”

“Now come on,” Dan encouraged them, “a little support from the crew. At least hear me out.”

A look of resignation crossed Nicole’s face. “Okay, what is it?”

“Well,” Dan said, “I admit there’s nothing we can do with that big box by ourselves. But maybe we can hire somebody to salvage it for us. Haul it to shore so we can see what’s inside. What do you say?”

Jacob got a big grin going. “Yeah, just think what we might find inside. Maybe we’ll be rich.”

“I don’t know,” Nicole said. “Where are you going to get a salvage company out here? Besides that, how much do you think it’ll cost to hire it done?”

“Don’t know ’til we try to find out, right?” Dan was almost gleeful.