As soon as the storm abated, Nick and Ellen secured Dylan so he could not move.
“Sam, stay on watch. Once we check on the other boat, I’ll come back and swap with you so can get John on the satellite phone,” Ellen ordered.
“Will do,” Sam said.
Ellen raced to the top deck with Nick close behind. He dropped down into their dinghy, steadied himself, and turned to help her in.
“Let’s go.” She turned on the small motor as Nick undid the tie. Ellen turned the boat towards the research vessel. As they sidled up to it, Nick saw it—the lifeboat tied to the other side of the vessel. He indicated to Ellen, who nodded. They drew their guns and boarded.
It was eerily quiet and dark. Ellen and Nick quickly moved around the deck. Ellen shook her head, lowered herself to the deck floor and glanced down the iron ladder. No one was in sight and she quickly stepped on the ladder and dropped herself to the floor below, squatting, gun at the ready. She indicated to Nick it was safe to follow.
The two split up. Ellen moved down towards the cabin, Nick towards the galley. She saw a streak of blood along a wall … Mitch’s blood? As she sidled up to the first room, she saw Mitch sitting on the floor, blood on his neck. He looked up at her and she froze, scanning the room.
“Hey Ellie, it’s all clear, come on in. I found Ru,” he said and pointed opposite. Ellen peered around the corner and saw the young Asian man secured to the bunk’s iron bed frame. She holstered her gun and called to Nick who bounded down the hall.
“We can’t leave you alone for one minute.” Nick shook his head.
Mitch grinned. He stretched out his legs and groaned, taking Nick’s extended hand to pull himself up off the floor. He looked at his two agents. “I’m getting off the water now and I don’t care if I have to swim to shore.”
Mitch paced in the parking lot while he spoke to John.
Ellen stood outside the car and leant in to talk to Nick and Samantha.
“Do you think he’ll ever get in the car?” she asked. “Or is he just enjoying walking on land?”
“We could force him in. Nick you put a bag over his head, I’ll take arms, Ellie, you’re on legs,” Samantha suggested.
“I’ve wanted to bag his head for years, but I’m going for a smoke.” Nick got out, walked to the back of the car and lit up just as Mitch hung up. He continued to pace, his hands on his hips, thinking before turning and walking towards Nick.
“Ready?” Mitch asked.
“No,” Nick said. “Two minutes.”
Samantha joined the others and alighted from the car.
“What’s going to happen to Dylan?” Ellen asked.
“He’ll go by ambulance back to a secure unit. John’s going to oversee it and get him some help. Then we’ll see if he can tell us anything,” Mitch said.
“It’s awful.” Samantha leaned against the car.
“I just hope he’s drugged and not having a breakdown, might just be something in his system,” Mitch said.
He opened the car door. “Come on Nick, give it up, it’ll cut your life short and then who’ll give me a hard time?”
“Fair point,” Nick said as he stubbed out his cigarette and returned to the car. He lowered himself into the front passenger seat. They pulled out to begin the drive back to D.C. again, each lost in their own thoughts. After some time, Samantha spoke.
“What did Ru say to you?” she asked.
“He said it all went to plan.” Mitch ran through their conversation. “I don’t know what our government will do with him now.”
“I want to know how two people onboard a boat go missing?” Ellen said.
“For chrissake, I didn’t ask him where they were,” Mitch shook his head angry at himself.
“You had a bit going on,” Nick defended him. “Besides people go missing off boats more often than you would believe.”
“Really?” Samantha said.
“Sure,” Ellen agreed. “The Mary Celeste is one of the most famous. It was just found floating, abandoned, no crew.”
“Where?” Sam asked.
“Somewhere near Portugal I think,” Ellen answered. “And there was half a dozen similar ships found over the past couple of decades drifting crewless.”
“Pirates probably murdered everyone on board and the sharks cleaned up the evidence,” Nick said.
“There was one in Australia not that long ago which was found with a laptop turned on and a meal on the table but the crew was missing,” Mitch added.
Samantha shivered. “That’s creepy.”
Ellen matched Mitch with another story. “There was a Taiwanese one too, about ten years ago. It was found drifting but a few of the life rafts were missing. But there was no mayday call made and no one was ever found.”
“How many were on board?” Samantha asked.
“About twenty from memory,” Ellen said.
“And there was the film Pirates of the Caribbean,” Nick teased, “do you think that was real?”
Mitch grinned. “Yeah I think so.”
They drove in silence again. Mitch ran through all the loose ends in his head. After a few hours they stopped for a gas and coffee break.
Mitch filled up, paid with his company credit card and rejoined Nick.
“Is Ellie pissed off at me?” Mitch asked Nick as he watched Ellen and Samantha paying for coffee at the gas station counter.
“She hasn’t said anything,” Nick said. “Why?”
Mitch shrugged. “Nothing, just something she said.”
“What?” Nick pushed.
“She had a go at me and said I couldn’t take sympathy, and she’s been cool with me ever since. Gave me a band-aid for the cut on my neck, when normally she’d be all over it.”
“Yeah, well you can’t,” Nick agreed.
Mitch turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“You can’t take sympathy. She was trying to console you when you were throwing up your intestines and you fobbed her off.”
Mitch thought about it and said nothing.
“Chicks need to do that,” Nick said. “Like Ann feeding and homing you. You know, they’re nurturers by nature, we’re hunters. I’d be lapping it up.”
Mitch continued to think about it.
Nick looked at him. “Don’t over-think it. I’m not saying get feely-touchy, you’ll be up for sexual harassment. Just let them help sometimes, let them give something back to you.”
Mitch frowned and looked away.
Ellen and Samantha walked towards them. Samantha handed Mitch a coffee and he thanked her as he watched Ellen ignore him and get back into the car.
Mitch shook his head and sighed.
Nick laughed and stubbed out his cigarette. “I’ll drive for a while if you like?” he said taking the Audi keys from Mitch before he had time to protest.
Mitch moved around to the passenger side, lowered himself in and slid down in the seat. Nick took charge of the car, comfortable behind the wheel, while Samantha and Ellen talked in the backseat. Mitch tapped his foot and stared out the window.
Fifteen minutes later, Nick grabbed Mitch’s leg.
“Enough with the tapping, you’re driving me nuts!” he said. “It’s over isn’t it? Chill out!”
Mitch leaned forward and put his head in his hands. “No. This case is just not right—it’s doing my head in. We’ve got a dead VIP, four dead policemen from Beijing on our soil, four imposter cops, two who are dead—Hai and Froggy—Danny won’t talk and Ru thinks everything went to plan even though he’s with the secret service and we don’t know what intelligence he has. There’s the former ambassador, William Ying, who was supposed to be dead and a trail of people who died around the time of his first death to ensure he remained dead, but then he’s alive as discovered by Gunston, only to be dead again. We’ve got Dylan who’s now not quite here, in fact I don’t know where he is at in his head, and an empty boat at sea that had up to four people on it the day before and two are missing. What I’d give for a nice clean heist.”
Mitch’s phone rang and he looked at the screen. Charlotte! It continued to ring.
“Going to answer that?” Nick asked.
“No.” He let it go to message bank out and started tapping his foot again.
Nick rolled his eyes.
“I’m starving,” Ellen said.
“I offered to get you some chips back at the gas station,” Samantha said.
“I know, but I want a real meal.”
“I’m with you, Ellie,” Mitch agreed. “Now that the world’s stopped rocking, I’m getting my appetite back. Nick, next town we go through, find a Subway or something will you?”
“If you stop tapping,” Nick said.
Mitch put the window down.
“Seriously?” Nick looked at him. “The air’s on. Why didn’t you get a convertible if you wanted to stick your head out? Now I see why it is best that you drive.”
Mitch grimaced and put the window up again. He sat still for a moment then straightened.
“We’re reacting; everything we’ve done has just been reactionary,” Mitch said, tapping his leg again. “We need to go right back to the start … let me think,” he mumbled and grabbed his iPad.
“Think out loud,” Nick suggested, “so we can all add some perspective and so you don’t implode.”
Mitch frowned at him. “Ellie, let’s revisit the people who went missing after William Ying did,” he said.
Ellen reached down to her bag at her feet and grabbed her iPad.
Mitch scanned his files on the iPad. “While you find that, let me get Dylan’s report on the VIP,” he said wading through files online. “Here it is, the VIP made a number of associates as an exchange student in Beijing.” Mitch read aloud a list of ten names. “Mean anything to anyone?”
Nick shook his head.
“Not me,” Samantha answered.
“Hmm.” Mitch looked at the road ahead and frowned. Ellen interrupted his train of thought.
“So we know that three people mysteriously met their end after the cocktail party they were at when William Ying disappeared,” Ellen said. “They were Rodney Lam, Jessica Wu and Joseph Kinaird.”
Mitch mulled over the names. “Lam lived at what is now the vacant block of land, Jessica was dead from a hit-and-run, and Kinaird died at the wheel and his family moved away, right?”
“Correct,” Ellen confirmed.
“Ellie, see what you can pull on Jessica Wu,” Mitch said. “Try every known associate from her best friend to the coroner who signed off on her body. Sam, grab your iPad and start on Joseph Kinaird and I’ll work on Rodney Lam. Nick, slow down and mind my car.”
“You drive it faster than I do!” Nick protested.
“And that’s how it should be,” Mitch retorted.