Danny Huang signaled for silence. He checked no one was outside their dormitory, closed the door and returned to the group.
“We will be working undercover, and closely with our expert on the ground, William Ying.”
The men’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Yes, William has been missing for twelve months, but we know exactly where he is and what he is doing.”
Murmurs of laughter bubbled around the room.
Danny Huang continued, “William has been working between Washington and Cape Hatteras now for the past few months. He will be second-in-charge for this mission. In my absence, everything is to go through him. Understood?”
The men agreed. Danny moved to the window to make a call.
“Hello old friend,” he said. “I am putting you on speaker phone.”
Danny put the phone on the table and pressed the speaker.
“Present are our extraction divers Hai and Froggy and Ru on communications.”
William welcomed the men to the United States.
“How did the first trial go off shore on Thursday?” Danny asked.
“Not good,” William replied. “I waited on the shore for two hours longer than the planned liaison time …”
“A mistake, William,” Danny broke in. “You might have been seen by someone or looked suspicious.”
“I was bird watching; that’s my cover,” William explained. “Fooled a few including an elderly couple,” he continued. “But the sub did not give the required signal. I understand the coordinates were wrong, but we have fixed that situation.”
“Not good,” Danny said.
“It is worse than that. The two men got trapped; I don’t know what happened but there was an accident,” William said.
“And?” Danny pushed.
“Two dead,” William withheld that the bodies were left behind.
“This is bad,” Danny paced. “How did they die?”
“Problems with the air tanks and line extraction. Let’s hope the next drill goes better.”
“Were they seen?” Danny persisted.
“To the best of our knowledge the sub wasn’t, but the men’s bodies … they might have been seen by divers in the area, it’s unclear,” William said.
“We may have to move the mission forward,” Danny said.
There was a delayed silence. Eventually William spoke.
“Your men are coming here?” William asked.
“Yes, Hai and Froggy will be there. And the premises?” Danny asked.
“The premises are secured for the overnight storage of the VIP on the last day of the month,” William continued, “and the pickup will be at 0400 hours.”
“I want to visit the premises later this week,” Danny advised.
“We’ll be expecting you,” William agreed. “But I will see you before then, with the VIP on Wednesday?”
“Of course. Until then…” Danny cut off the call. He looked around at the group. “Questions?”
No one spoke.
“Let’s formulate an extraction plan in case we need to move faster,” Danny Huang ordered.
“It’s really nice here … about sixty-eight degrees. The sun is out, and Norfolk is such a pretty place,” Samantha informed Mitch.
“Lovely; what a shame you haven’t got time to stop and enjoy it,” he said, speaking with his two agents through their car’s speakerphone.
“We’re almost at Cape Hatteras,” Nick said.
“So what’s your plan?” Mitch asked.
“When we get there, we are going to swing by the Visitors’ Centre if it is still open and see if they have tidal charts, and then we’ll go straight to the beach and check it out,” Nick said.
“A sunset walk on the beach,” Mitch sighed, “how nice. Ellie and I are still door-knocking in suburbia. Stay in touch.”
Mitch disconnected as Ellen rejoined him in the warmth of the car.
“You disappeared quickly.” She shivered.
“I figured an elderly lady would feel safer talking to another woman.”
“Mm, rather than a tall, dark, handsome man? You might have made her day.”
“Think we might have got a cup of tea and a cookie?” Mitch teased.
“Who would knock that back? Or apple tea cake, don’t old ladies always make that? Instead, all I got was a forwarding address in Boston,” Ellen said.
“Boston! Great.” Mitch sighed. “Why couldn’t they move across town? Any phone number?”
“No, just an address, but I’ll hunt a phone number down.”
Mitch started the engine and turned the car back to headquarters.
“OK, let’s call it a day while we can. You might get some painting done.”
“Ha, I don’t like to paint unless I have at least three guaranteed, uninterrupted hours … the clean-up is such a pain in the butt.”
“I can’t say I’ve ever done it.”
“Really? Haven’t you ever wanted to buy and renovate?” asked Ellen.
“I’ve thought about it and once I actually did a calculation of the number of days I spent at home in my own bed. It worked out to about three months in a year. So I bought an investment property instead, rented that out and now I just rent a room somewhere.”
“Why didn’t you move into your own property and rent out its rooms?” Ellen asked.
“Because the last thing I need if I’m away on a job is a housemate calling because the plumbing has packed it in and I’m supposed to do something about it. Nah, this way, the realtor manages it and I’m just a tenant.”
“Way too sensible,” Ellen said. “You’ll never be able to own a cat if you think like that.”
Mitch laughed. “Yeah, feeling that loss. Tomorrow, I’ll leave you to follow up on the surveillance footage. I’m going to make a start on the fingerprints and their history, and we’ll pay a visit to Mrs. Ying.”
“So what are we going to do about sleeping arrangements?” Samantha asked as she entered the room of their B&B and closed the door.
Nick sat in a white cane chair near the door and pulled off his boots. “I’m going to put my head on a pillow and sleep. What do you mean?”
“I am not sure if you have noticed, but there is only one bed.” Samantha stared at the large four poster bed.
“No couch either,” Nick noted. He dumped his bag on a small timber table under the window and fished for a pair of sport socks in his black-issued knapsack.
“Why don’t we take it in turns?” she suggested. “I’ll take the bed tonight, and then tomorrow night, I’ll take the floor.”
“It’s no big deal; why don’t we both share the bed. I’ll wear clothes. It is work after all.”
Samantha shrugged. “Suit yourself, but if you snore or sleep with your mouth open, I’m telling your next girlfriend that and all other secrets that I gather.”
“I don’t date, so that’s just fine.”
“Come on, everyone dates eventually.” She opened her bag and began to stuff her socks and underwear into the chest of three drawers on one side of the bed.
“Not me. I’m on the wagon, practicing abstinence, so not interested … ”
“Why?” Samantha looked at him.
Nick shrugged. “I just want to focus on work and fitness for a while.”
“You know, Nick, no matter how bad your last break up was, you’re going to have to get back on the horse eventually.” She watched him as he pulled on his runners.
Nick rose. “We didn’t break up, she died. I’m going for a run to check out the lay of the land. I’ll be back in an hour. Then we can find something to eat if you like.”
He closed the door behind him.
As he ran, Nick thought about the mission, Mitch, life, work, Samantha, Ellen—trying to stay in the present. To slip back would mean revisiting the death of his fiancée. A car accident; he had been the driver. He had that filed away, so it only returned when he let his mind wander.
He looked around; the area was pretty much deserted now. Bet the locals like the downtime, he thought. He turned to run along the empty beachfront and looked out to the farthest point.
I could tip off the edge of the world out there.
Tempting. So what’s out there, and what are these guys expecting to come over the horizon?
Or what might be coming on the seabed?
When Nick returned, Samantha was on her iPad going through emails.
“Anything new?” he asked.
“Mitch rang again,” she answered. “I’ll give you an update over dinner. Go shower, you’re sweaty.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mom.”