Early next morning, Samantha and Nick waited and watched, peering over the top of the car’s dashboard. When the Asian men were far enough away, Samantha and Nick pulled themselves up in their seats, turned on the car and, leaving the lights off followed the white Toyota Camry at a safe distance.
Nick made a call to Mitch and put it on loudspeaker. He looked at his watch.
“Mitch, sorry about the wake-up call,” Nick said.
“I was awake,” Mitch said.
“Yeah, I figured that. The three of them have been on the beach again. They did the same exercise as yesterday … very interesting. Two of them swam out a distance while the third looked like he was timing them and now they’re in the car again and we’re following.”
Nick kept a safe distance behind; the road was free of traffic except for the two vehicles.
“We weren’t going to let them get away today, so we’ve been in the parking lot, ready to roll before sun up,” Samantha said.
“Which way are they heading?” Mitch asked.
“Out of town,” Samantha said. “Mitch, I think something’s about to happen here given three of them have arrived; I think we might need back up this weekend,” Samantha said.
“I was thinking the same and according to Dylan they were all heading to Cape Hatteras this weekend. They have to be back on Monday for class, then their course is almost done; whatever is happening has to happen soon. I need that bug in now and I need to work out what they are going to do at sea.”
“I’m hoping we’ll get it in today, if we can find out where they are staying,” Samantha said.
“OK. I have to detour via Boston this morning, but I was planning on bringing Ellen and driving down later today. We could do the water surveillance tomorrow.”
“Should we organize a boat hire?” Samantha said.
“Thanks, but John’s done that, he’s hired it for a week under Nick’s name. I was thinking of a spot of diving—you drive the boat Nick, Ellie can dive, it’s her specialty.”
“So when do you think you’ll be here and should we book you both a room?” Nick asked.
“Late tonight so we can hit the ground running this weekend. Don’t worry about the room, John’s covered that too.”
Samantha interrupted, “They’re turning off. We’ll have to stop and wait a bit.”
“Fine, thanks for the update. Be careful, you know all the usual warnings.”
Samantha hung up as Nick pulled over. They watched the car disappear up a road into the forest.
“Perhaps we should go on foot,” Samantha suggested.
Nick leant forward and squinted at the track. “They could be going for miles.”
“We can’t risk going in there in case it only leads to one place, then we’re going to meet them there with no room for escape,” Samantha said.
“I think we have to leave now, and come back later when it is light or when we see all three back at the beach and we know the area is clear. We should turn around before they come out and see us sitting here like stuffed turkeys,” Nick said.
“Speak for yourself, turkey. Speaking of stuffed, let’s eat.”
Professor Henri Spalter hung up the phone when he saw Mitch approaching.
“Hi son,” he greeted him. “Good timing, I was just about to take off to deliver some blood samples upstairs. John told me about … are you OK?”
“Man, if you want something broadcast,” Mitch shook his head.
“He only told Nicholas and me because he knew you wouldn’t reach out to us and he was worried about you. You could do worse for a boss.”
“I know, I know.” Mitch ran his hand over his mouth.
“So are you all right?”
“Yep, it’s over. I don’t want to talk about it. Henri, can we have a coffee? I’ve got to head off to Cape Hatteras later today and I remember you dived there once, didn’t you? Amongst the wrecks?”
“The Graveyard of the Atlantic,” Henri confirmed, “and there’s no shortage of wrecks there. It’s a perilous piece of coast, wonderful to dive though. Walk with me while I make these deliveries and we can have a coffee at the cafeteria for a change. Won’t be as good as mine, but it will make you appreciate mine. Have you eaten?”
“When?” Mitch asked.
Henri shook his head. “Any time in the last twenty-four hours?”
Mitch thought about it. “I must have …”
“I’ll tell you about the tides and diving if you eat something?”
Mitch looked at his watch. “Deal.”
“What the …? There’s four of them now,” Samantha said as the blue RAV4 went past their hotel window. She rose from her window-side chair, grabbed the camera and went out on the veranda. Hiding behind the post she watched as four men alighted from the vehicle. She snapped a few photos as they went into a local diner. She recognized several of the men from the beach, plus the one they knew as William Ying although he wore a hat and glasses.
“Let’s go,” Nick called from the doorway.
She re-entered the room, grabbed the camera and bug kit and, locking the room, ran with Nick to their hire car. Nick drove away from the village at break neck speed, back onto the main road.
“I can’t believe they walk around so blatantly,” Samantha said.
Nick shrugged. “Why wouldn’t they? They are guests of the country here to do training and seriously, who would recognize them anyway? How many tourists from all over the country or overseas come here every year and no one blinks an eye. William Ying might be taking a risk but again, you’d have to know him to know he was missing or to recognize him.”
“Maybe,” Samantha hesitantly agreed.
“Come on, could you tell me what the current Chinese Ambassador looks like or his name?” Nick asked.
“Point taken,” she conceded.
Within minutes they were close to the area where the men turned off at dawn.
“Slow down, you’ll miss it,” Samantha told Nick. “It’s just up here to the right.”
Nick turned down the winding road, through the forest.
“I still think we should have come later, at dusk, or tonight and parked on the road,” Samantha said. “What if someone identifies us as being here?”
“Full light is better,” Nick tried to convince her. “We can play the lost tourists and still see where we are going. Tonight our car headlights and torches would really stand out.”
“So who are we looking for if we are tourists?” Samantha asked.
“How about your aunty?” Nick suggested, “Aunty Carol on your mother’s side. She said her house was about a mile off the main road.”
“Aunty Carol it is,” Samantha agreed. “There’s a road to the right.”
They both glanced down it.
“I don’t think that’s it,” Samantha said. “That looks like a family property … there’s swings and a horse.”
Nick drove on another half a mile.
“Small road to your left coming up,” Samantha said. “I think you’re right. It would have been difficult to find this at night and a hell of a long jog from the main road.”
“What was that?” Nick asked.
“I think you’re …” She hit him on the arm. Nick laughed.
They turned into the small sandy lane and drove another half mile roofed in by large trees on either side. The road came to a dead end; a small dark brick house sat looking deserted.
“Wow, this really is off the beaten track; no one would come here,” Nick said.
“This is it,” Samantha said. “In the carport, look, the white Toyota is in there.”
Nick and Samantha alighted.
“Let’s knock on the door.” Samantha shrugged. “We are lost tourists after all.”
“Why not?” Nick agreed.
Samantha tapped on the timber door and they waited. She tried the door knob and found it locked. They moved around looking through the windows. The rooms were sparsely decorated. Samantha returned to the front door and picked the lock, then called for Nick to follow her.
“You mean all those times I’ve been locking the bathroom door in our hotel room…” He sighed.
“Waste of time,” she agreed. “If you had anything I wanted to see, I’d have been in there by now.”
Samantha checked the kitchen. “There’s fresh supplies and canned goods here. Plenty of them, like they are going to be feeding an army.”
“Mm, it’s a fair way off the beaten track too, so clearly they need space or don’t want to mingle,” Nick said.
Nick made his way around the rest of the house, calling out to Samantha. “Two bedrooms, large bathroom and look at this … a room full of comms equipment.”
Samantha raced in. “Wow. They’re set up.” She flicked on a few monitors; the images were live from different camera locations. “There’s the beach where we were—the view looking out to sea.” She pointed to another screen. “That view is from the lighthouse, they must have a camera there or are tapping into one and on this screen is the perimeter of this building.” She studied the fourth screen. “What is this? A view of … some room, two adjoining rooms?” Samantha left the communications room and toured the house again.
“Am I coming up on the screen?” she called.
“Nope, the camera’s not in any room you’ve entered yet,” Nick answered.
She rejoined Nick. “That room on the screen must be somewhere else. Hang on, I’ll check the garage and yard. Watch the screen,” she ordered.
“Yes ma’am.” Nick saluted.
He watched the screens but she did not appear. Five minutes later, Samantha joined him.
“There’s no storage area or other rooms outside. I didn’t appear on TV?”
“Nope,” Nick said. “I know this is a bit out there, but do you think it is a room in a hotel in the village? They are spending a lot of time on the beach, maybe they’re watching what’s going on there too.”
Samantha shrugged. “I doubt it, there’s no windows … it looks like a classroom.”
Nick shook his head. “Not their classroom at the English Academy though. There’s no screens, no board or posters around the wall or windows, but we’ll check just in case.”
“Most strange,” Samantha said, turning the screens off. “OK, I’ve got a few bugs to place.”
“I’ll snap some pics and then let’s get out of here,” Nick said.
Samantha placed a bug out of sight on the back of the computer monitor and two in the main living area. She returned through the house scoping the area to ensure they had not left anything behind and joined Nick outside. “Ready?”
“We’re out of here,” he said, “thanks for having us, Aunty Carol.”
Driving back through the forest, Samantha pointed to a small lane on the left. “Let’s go down there to see if we could hide the car there if we needed to,” she suggested.
“Good thinking. It’s called Maple Lane.” Nick read the sign, swung the car left and followed the road. They could see the house through the trees and soon the road came to a dead end.
“This would do,” Samantha said. “You can’t see the car from the road and you can easily run through the scrub to the house.” She rang Mitch to fill him in. “He’ll be a happy man now he can listen to his bugs,” she said, and grinned at Nick.