Orchid Blues

HOLLY LEFT HER HOUSE WITH DAISY AT SUNSET, ran through the dunes with her for a while, then went next door to Harry’s rental. To her surprise, she smelled cooking.

“You guys get tired of Chinese and pizza?” she asked, letting herself in through the beach door.

“I got a steak here for you,” Harry replied. “How do you like it?”

“I bought a mixed case,” Harry said, nodding toward the carton. “I figured we’d be here long enough, and I was getting tired of beer.” Harry flipped a steak over.

“Zip,” Eddie said. “I don’t even know whether it’s working.”

“I’ll call my contact at home after we eat,” Harry replied. “I’m not too exercised about this. It’s early days in this surveillance.”

“I don’t want to miss a thing,” Holly said. “You know, I thought Ham would be here by now.”

“Maybe he went home to change or something,” Doug said.

“Maybe, but he’s been here by sunset just about every night.”

They dug into their steaks and baked potatoes. “The wine’s nice,” Holly said.

“I’ll try to remember that.” She suddenly remembered that she hadn’t opened a bottle of wine since Jackson’s death.

“The scrambler phones came,” Harry said. “I got one for you, too, so we can talk between the houses without having to worry about ears.”

“Good,” Holly said. She looked at her watch again. “I’d like to call Ham. He shouldn’t be this late.”

They were scraping the plates when Holly stood up. “I’m going out to Ham’s,” she said. “Something’s wrong.”

“Doug, go with her,” Harry said. “Meantime I’ll make that call.”

Holly and Doug walked next door with Daisy to pick up Holly’s car, and shortly, they were driving north on A1A.

“I’ve never seen Ham’s place,” Doug said. “I hear it’s nice.”

“It sure is. My former boss left it to him.” She took a left and drove over the North Bridge, then turned left onto the little dirt road that led to Ham’s island.

“Don’t park too close to the house,” Doug said. “That bug’s still in place, and I don’t want them to hear car doors slamming.”

Holly parked well away, then led Doug to the house, opening the door with her key. She used a flashlight instead of turning on the lights, walking softly around the place. Everything seemed to be in order, except that Ham was not there. She motioned Doug outside.

“You think he hasn’t been back here tonight?” Doug asked.

“Maybe they asked him to stay for dinner, and he couldn’t say no.”

“I hope that’s what happened,” Holly said. “Come on, let’s get back to your place. Maybe he’s turned up.”

They arrived back at the house to find Harry and Eddie sitting beside the radio.

“NSA has just downloaded today’s transmissions,” Harry said.

“Pretty dull stuff—a Bible class, kind of twisted, and a discussion group about race.”

The men on the recording were making wrapping-up sounds, moving away from the bug. There was a moment’s silence, then, suddenly, Ham’s voice came through.

“Holy shit,” Harry said. “We could have missed it. I’m going to get word to NSA that we want everything in real time from now on.”

“No, Doug will do it,” Harry replied. “I don’t want you at risk.”

“Fuck the risk,” Holly said. “Ham needs a way to communicate, and I’m taking him the phone. Now, do you have a large-scale map of the place?”

Eddie came back with some surprisingly detailed photographs.

“Okay, there’s a dock on the lakeshore here, about what, two or three miles from the compound.”

“Looks like that. Where are we going to get a boat this time of night?”

“Ham’s got an aluminum dinghy,” Holly said, “and one of those little trolling motors that runs on a car battery.”

Doug spoke up. “It’s lying next to Ham’s house,” he said. “I saw it when we were out there.”

“You’ve got a pickup, Doug,” Harry said. “Go get it and bring it back here, and don’t forget the motor and some oars.”

“Ham’s battery will be on a trickle charger, but I want a spare, just in case,” Holly said. “We’ll cannibalize one of your cars.”

Holly looked at the sat shots again. “This must be the barracks,” she said. “It’s the only thing that fits the description. Eddie, show me the phone.”

Eddie left and came back with half a dozen tiny phones in a cardboard box. “They’re Motorola V-phones,” he said, “that have been modified to scramble.” He showed her how the phone worked, while Holly began composing a note to Ham.

“He’s going to need some extra batteries,” she said.

“I’ve got some in the charger. They’re small, but they’re good for eighty minutes of talk time each, and about twenty-four hours of standby.”

“It has a vibrate mode. You can’t hear it, but you can feel it if it’s clipped to your belt or in your pocket.”

“Do we know whether there’s even cell phone service out there?” Holly asked.

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “We’ll try it when we get out there, and if there’s no service, I can have a portable cell transmitter and antenna in here by tomorrow morning that has a range of about five miles. It’ll be on a van, and we can park it as close as possible.”

“Good,” Holly said. She looked at the sat shot. “This looks like a grass landing strip,” she said.

“I agree,” Harry replied. “Might come in useful before this is over.”

Doug came back with the boat, and they loaded it into the pickup.

“Eddie,” Harry said, “you stay here and monitor the bug in the compound. Call us on the scrambled phone if anything important happens.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Holly said, and got into the truck.