Chapter 27

 

Everything began happening fast when Edna crawled on Tony’s shoulders. Thinking it was part of the dance, several couples emulated them. The conga line continued, women in gowns and scanty costumes straddled over their partner’s shoulders. Edna and Tony didn’t notice.

The lighter was almost out of fuel and Edna was about to throw it across the room when a spark ignited the paper piñata. Filled with something flammable, it exploded, belching dark smoke across the ceiling. It didn’t end there, other ornaments catching fire and filling the large room with billowing smoke. Edna winced and grabbed her thigh when she jumped down from Tony’s shoulders.

“You did it, girl. Now let’s get the hell out of here before we get trampled.”

Trampled indeed. Sounds of laughter and frivolity quickly changed to ear-piercing screams and frightened shouts. That’s when the sprinkler system began spraying water from the ceiling.

Frantic masqueraders jammed up at the main exits, trying to get out. Good for Tony and Edna as they hurried to the obscure door exiting to the marina.

“Hope I didn’t kill anybody,” Edna said. “Except for maybe Slink and his goons.”

A misty wind blew in their faces as they hurried down the metal walkway, trying to find Frankie’s getaway boat. They weren’t prepared for what they saw.

Dozens of boats lay moored at the marina, some of the super yachts as big as ships complete with landing pads for helicopters. They felt the waves lapping against the boats as they hurried down the walkway in muted darkness lighted only by fluorescent pole lamps. Tony glanced behind them as smoke billowed out of the exit from where they had just come.

“We’re in trouble. Slink’s goons are following us,” he said.

“What now?”

“Hope like hell we find our boat before they catch us.”

Chaos had ensued in the smoky ballroom, firefighters and curious onlookers moving toward the scene. Fortunately, the sprinkler system had quickly doused the flames. Frankie’s insurance company would have a claim for smoke and water damage. Tony and Edna had other things about which to worry. The cloying mist had suddenly turned to heavy rain, making the steel walkways slippery between the boats. Worse, pistol shots whistled over their heads. Tony bent over to catch his breath.

“I’m gassed,” he said. “Go on without me.”

“Shut the hell up and come on!” she said, kicking off her high heels and grabbing his wrist.

The docks were a maze of walkways. Edna changed directions, hurrying down a short flight of stairs and then ducking onto a narrow catwalk.

“This way,” she said.

“How do you know?”

“Don’t, but it’s dark. If we can’t find the boat, we need a place to hide.”

“What about that skiff?” he said.

“Won’t give us much cover.”

“No, but it has a motor. Let’s get out in the water with it.”

“You know how to drive a boat?”

“Never driven one that big, but how different can it be?”

“No time to ask,” she said, jumping down into the open boat. “Can you start this thing?”

“No key, just a starter button,” he said, fumbling with the controls.

Heavy rain continued, their clothes drenched as the engine cranked and Tony maneuvered the boat through the narrow canal leading to open water.

“Waves are tossing out there. Hope this tub can take it,” he said.

Edna’s fancy hairdo had come undone, and she wiped her face to get it out of her eyes.

“Too late to worry about that.”

Once out of the canal, the boat began to rock and yaw.

“I think we’re screwed,” Tony said as a bullet hit the side of the boat.

“Crank it, Tony. I’d rather drown than die from a Cuban bullet wound.”

“You picked your poison,” Tony said, cranking the engine and accelerating toward open water.

Conditions continued to deteriorate as he guided the boat in a large circle around the resort. Vision was nil as he slowed to a near stall. They were both trying to cover their heads when a bright spotlight powered through the fog toward them.

“Shit!” Tony said, gunning the engine to avoid almost certain contact with the large boat bearing down on then.

A percussive explosion followed by a large splash off the starboard bow quickly informed them it was a Cuban gunboat. It turned before hitting them, its light disappearing in the fog. Not for long. Piercing the wall of rain, it again pointed in their direction. Another cannon blast landed close enough to rock them in the already swirling water.

“They’re tracking us,” Edna yelled.

Tony did a one-eighty, heading straight toward the light before making an abrupt right turn. It slid Edna across the floor of the open boat. When she grabbed for a wooden support, she found where the life vests were stored. She quickly strapped one on.

Walking was impossible, so she worked her way on hands and knees to the lone seat behind the helm. Grabbing Tony’s arm, she looped a life vest under it, and then wrestled it around his chest. He let go of the wheel long enough to cinch the jacket. When the boat yawed, they saw the light of the Cuban gunboat again. Edna barely had time to yell.

“They’re going to hit us!”

Tony grabbed her hand and tugged. “Time to abandon ship!”

With locked hands, they jumped overboard, mere seconds before the collision with the Cuban gunboat. Just in time as the boat burst into a thousand flying pieces.

Saltwater burned Tony’s eyes and nostrils as he struggled to reach the surface. Somehow, he managed to retain his grip on Edna’s hand. They burst from the roiling water at the same instant, both gasping for breath and coughing up saltwater. Edna was the first to recover.

“You okay?” she said, shouting in his ear.

“Alive,” he said. “Now what?”

“Stay that way until the storm passes and hope some friendly fishermen rescue us.”

“And hope like hell that sharks don’t get us before it happens.”

“You could have gone all night without bringing that up,” she said.

The storm continued for another hour and then disappeared as abruptly as it had started. Full moonlight shined through the clouds. Best of all, the Cuban gunboat was nowhere in sight. Exhausted, they’d both nodded off when a splash in the water awoke them. It was Sasha.

Beside them, Frankie’s cigarette boat danced on gentle waves. Sasha handed them a line and someone began pulling them toward it. Tamela and a man they didn’t recognize helped them into the boat.

“We’ve been worried sick,” Tamela said.

“How did you find us?” Edna asked.

“Tracking device sewn into your clothes. We have no armaments to fight the gunboat, so we had to wait until they gave up their search.”

“I’m Captain Sweeny,” the muscular man with a bronze tan, blond hair and a colorful anchor tattooed on the back of his arm said. “Here’s a couple of dry towels.”

Tony took one and began drying his face and hair. “They think we drowned?”

“Maybe,” Tamela said. “Or else waiting until someone like us starts nosing around. We need to go before they return. There’s a cabin below. No shower but you’ll find dry clothes.”

When Edna and Tony returned from the cabin, the boat was moving at a high rate of speed. Captain Sweeny was at the open helm, Sasha beside him. They joined Tamela on a bench seat near the rear of the boat. A wall and Plexiglas windscreen shielded them from the wind and they could communicate without shouting.

“Never gone this fast in a boat,” Edna said.

“Probably doing sixty,” Tamela said. “Barring more bad weather, we should make it to the mouth of the Mississippi in a few hours.”

“Lil’s gonna kill me,” Tony said.

“You are covered,” Sasha said. “She’s at the safe house.”

“What about . . . ?”

Tamela didn’t let him finish. “Your pets are fine. She has them with her.”

“No one to worry about me,” Edna said.

Tamela touched her hand. “I was. I’m so happy you are both safe.”

“So are we.”

“Mr. Castalano asked me to implore you to end your investigation,” Tamela said.

Tony glanced at Edna. “I can go it alone if this has gotten too much for you.”

Her cynical smile could have answered for her. “Before Slink stabbed me I was merely curious. Now, I’m pissed off, and nothing’s going to stop me short of a bullet.”

“What about Sasha?” Tony said. “What interest does Dr. Mary’s murder have to do with the Russians?”

“I know little more than you do,” she said.

“Come on,” Edna said. “You’re Frankie Castalano’s trusted assistant. Surely he’s confided with you many times.”

Tamela hesitated a moment before saying, “Mister Castalano wouldn’t confide with his own mother.”

“Brutal,” Tony said.

“But true. Everything I know I’ve picked up by keeping my ears open.”

“Then at least give us that much,” Tony said. “We’re on your side here.”

The sky was again turning dark, and Tamela glanced up at it. When it began to rain, she reached into a storage bin and handed each of them a hooded slicker. Heavy rain was soon blowing in their faces. Wave action had increased, and Captain Sweeny slowed the boat.

“Well?” Edna said, not letting Tamela off the hook.

“I can’t violate Mr. Castalano’s trust.”

Tony was having none of it. “We wouldn’t want you to. We already know the C.I.A., Cuba, the U.S. Public Health Service, the mob, and Russian Special Forces are involved in a cover up of some sort,” he said. “Hell, we even know the Krewe of Rex and some obscure satanic sect is somehow connected. We just need to put it all together. Throw us a bone here.”

“Please, baby,” Edna said. “You know something you can tell us, don’t you?”

Tamela cleared her throat. “A while back, I audited some courses at Tulane.”

“And?” Edna prompted.

“I did it for a reason. I’m not a complete idiot about who I’m working for. I knew what I was getting into before I took the job.”

“The resort seems perfectly legal to me,” Tony said.

“It is, but you can’t work as closely to Mr. Castalano as I do without hearing what I probably shouldn’t hear.”

“Like the mobs involvement in the Kennedy assassination?”

Tamela nodded. “It happened long before I was born. I became curious about it as my work with the company evolved.”

“And Frankie never told you nothing?” Tony said.

“References to Tulane kept popping up, so I enrolled and took a few history courses. You know, just to nose around.”

“And?”

One of my professors seemed to know more than what’s written in the books.”

“Tell us about him,” Tony said.

“A woman, not a man. We became friends, of sorts. She liked to drink. When she did, she’d tell me things.”

“Drunk talk?” Edna said.

“Yes, but with a ring of truth, some of it so crazy and disjointed, I never really put it together.”

“What’s her name?” Edna asked.

“Sinthia Burnwitch.”

“You gotta be kidding,” Tony said.

Tamela shook her head slowly. “She’s as weird as anyone I’ve ever met.”

“What did you learn from her?” Edna asked.

“That there was a complicated conspiracy no sane person would ever believe.”

“Does she still teach at Tulane?” Edna asked.

“That’s as much as I know,” Tamela said with a perfunctory wave of her hand.

The sky had darkened, rain falling increasingly harder. Tamela had pulled her slicker tightly around her head and grown silent. The boat was barely moving in the choppy water lathered with whitecaps. It stopped completely after a metallic thump. Sasha left the helm and joined them.

“Mechanical problems. The boat can go no further and the captain is reporting movement about fifteen clicks south of us. Two boats, probably Cuban.”

“Oh, shit!” Tamela said.

“Our boat is without power,” he said, shaking his head.

“What then?”

“The captain has an M-60 machine gun and two thousand rounds of ammunition. We fight.”

“I know you’re a soldier, brother,” Tony said. “But they have cannons that’ll shoot lots farther than the Captain’s popgun.”

“You were in military?”

“Army reserve. I trained with the M-60.”

“Then you can feed the rounds for me,” Sasha said.

“They’re gonna blow us out of the water before they get close enough for you to use that peashooter.”

“We must fight,” Sasha said.

“Hell, man! Didn’t they teach you in the Russian army you don’t take a pocket knife to a gunfight?”

“I will never surrender.”

“No one’s surrendering, but we can’t just fire blindly into the darkness until our bullets are gone.”

“What else can we do?”

“If you don’t have a plan to win a war, then you don’t fight it.”

“What plan?” Sasha asked.

Tony didn’t answer, turning to Tamela instead. “See if the captain has some empty jars. Edna, find us some gasoline.”

“Molotov Cocktail,” Sasha said with a smile.

Tony slapped his shoulder. “Go help Tamela and Edna, and hurry. We don’t have much time.”

Captain Sweeny was less than cooperative. An ex-marine, he wanted to take control of the situation. Sasha tried to change his mind.

“We have a plan.”

“I’m the captain. I’ll call the shots,” Captain Sweeny said.

“You work for Mr. Castalano,” Tamela said. “This is his boat.”

“I’m in charge until Mr. Castalano relieves me.”

“In his absence, I have the authority to do just that. Consider yourself fired.”

Captain Sweeny raised the machine gun and pointed it at them. “This says I’m still captain. When the Cubans arrive, I’m turning you over to them.”

“You sabotaged the boat and sold us out,” Tamela said.

“Shut the hell up,” he said, waving the gun.

His movement was all the distraction Sasha needed. Launching himself into a fast-spinning pirouette, he kicked the gun out of Captain Sweeny’s hands. When it skidded across the deck, Sweeny dived for it.

The ex-marine was fast, Sasha faster. They wrestled no longer than a moment before the Russian got his arms around the larger man’s throat. When it broke with a sickening pop, Sasha released his grip, letting the dead captain slump to the deck. Two Cuban gunboats appeared from the mist before anyone could react to Sweeny’s abrupt demise. The explosion from the cannon round over the bow sent salt water splashing into their faces. Tony grabbed a bullhorn.

“Don’t shoot. We surrender,” he said.

Tony’s pronouncement caught the Cubans by surprise. There was a pause before they responded on their bullhorn.

“Where is your captain?” someone asked.

“Dead,” Tony said.

“You killed him?”

“Accident. He slipped on deck and broke his neck.”

“You have weapons?”

“Just this machinegun,” Tony said. It splashed in the water when he tossed it over the side. “We’re unarmed. We surrender.”

“Use your raft and come to our boat.”

“Can’t,” Tony said. “Some of your shrapnel deflated it.

“Then prepare to be boarded,” the Spanish man said.

The storm had abated, only a fine mist falling on their faces. One of the gunboats began moving slowly toward them.

“We can only destroy one of the boats,” Sasha said. “The other will surely sink us.”

Tony ignored his warning. “Light and launch when the boat touches us. When it catches fire, we abandon ship into the dinghy.” Instead of the machine gun, he’d thrown two oars and an anchor overboard. The big gun was still at his feet.” Hope you’re as good as you think you are with old trusty here.”

The Cuban gunboat appeared through the mist, several armed men on its bow. Sasha was the first to toss his Molotov cocktail, the others quickly following. Nothing prepared them for the explosion that ensued. Sasha swept the deck with the machine gun before joining the others in the rubber dinghy.

Tony cranked the engine, guiding the tiny craft through the smoke and away from the burning gunboat. Instead of powering in the opposite direction, he moved in a wide arc toward the other Cuban vessel.

“Hold on to your hats,” he said. “Wait until I get close before throwing your cocktails. When it catches fire, I’m going to turn and run. Sasha, you empty that thing on them when I do.”

They were within a hundred feet of the second gunboat when something unexpected happened. Out of nowhere, a torpedo came whistling through the water. It slammed into the gunboat, the blast from the ensuing explosion knocking them across the dinghy. The boat lit the sky as it exploded into a thousand fiery fragments.