JEETER MOTIONED TO HIS EAR AND SHOOK HIS HEAD. “I CAN’T hear you!”
“She said ‘Sandstar,’” Fred bellowed, cupping his hands to his mouth. “Never heard of it,” he added, looking at Mai.
“Be quiet!” Mai said, yanking him backward. “Sandstar is the company that’s dumping their toxic waste in the mines!” she explained.
“Oh, no!” Fred cried.
Vrrrbrubrbrubrub!
There was a low rumble, and a waft of smoke drifted from the back of the yacht.
“Hide!” Mai said frantically, pulling Fred and Grace down behind a boulder.
Grace poked her head back out. “Hide,” she mouthed to Jeeter, pointing to the yacht. Jeeter dove behind a stack of crates just as two men appeared on the yacht’s glistening white deck.
“It’s almost high tide,” the taller one said as he untied the mooring line. “We’ll be able to get the rest of those barrels from the cave soon and that’ll be the end of it.”
“Just in time, too,” his companion said. “That new strip mine will have workers and equipment crawling all over Point Aconi any day now.”
“Yeah, we’ll get this last batch to the old bootleg mine site in Florence that Stanley told us about and then there will be nothing left to find. They can dig ’til the cows come home and it won’t matter.”
The smaller one chuckled. “No one will ever find out that the incinerator can’t handle all the waste. We’ll get the full four hundred million from the contract and retire to some island. Heck, we can buy an island!”
Watching the pair from her hiding place, Grace gasped. Mai squeezed her hand.
The two men laughed.
“We’ll get the barrels and come back here to wait. When it gets dark, we’ll head to Florence.”
“Where’s that lazy bum Stanley, anyways? He was supposed to be here to give us a hand.”
The tall man grunted. “He doesn’t seem too fond of manual labour.”
“I noticed that, too,” the shorter one agreed. “Come on, we’d better get moving.”
The two men disappeared inside the yacht. Moments later, the boat backed smoothly out of its mooring and cruised out of sight.
Grace couldn’t believe it. It was true about Sandstar! And Rick Stanley was involved! She reached up and tugged her dad’s hat down farther on her head.
“Let’s check out those other two boats,” Mai said to Fred. “Maybe there’s a radio on board we can use to call for help.”
“Jeeter,” Grace called out as they walked onto the wharf. “They’re gone. You can come out. Jeeter?” She poked her head behind the crates where he’d been hiding, but he’d disappeared again.
Cautiously, Grace, Mai, and Fred stepped onto the wharf and climbed aboard the boat closest to shore. The deck was faded and worn. The wheelhouse door was closed, its once-white surface covered in rust stains that had bled from the metal frame of its small round window. Green paint was flaked and peeling from the walls of the boat like the shedding skin of a snake. Only there wasn’t anything new and shiny underneath.
“Do you think this bucket of bolts even runs anymore?” Fred asked, kicking a piece of an old life jacket.
“Well, let’s check it quick and then we can try the other boat,” Mai said. “One of them hopefully has a radio.” She entered the wheelhouse, only to reappear almost instantly. “Nothing in there.”
“Hey, this is weird,” Fred said from over by the fish hold in the middle of the deck. He pointed to a thick chain and lock over the hold. It was shiny and new, and looked totally out of place with the rest of the boat.
“Maybe they’ve stored toxic waste in there too,” Mai said, pulling on a lock of hair. “We should leave and see if there’s a radio on the other boat.”
“I’m going to check out what’s down there,” Fred said. He bent over an old toolbox wedged in a corner of the deck. Screwdrivers and pliers flew in all directions as he searched through the box, muttering to himself. “Aha! Right on the bottom!” He waved a rusty crowbar over his head like a trophy. “This should do it.”
He stuck the crowbar between the links in the chain and leaned forward, trying to break it apart. The crowbar was no match for the new metal of the chain. Sweating, Fred flopped down on the deck. “Rats! It’s not going to work.”
“Good.” Mai looked relieved.
“Um,” Grace said, her curiosity getting the better of her, “what about the hinges on the other side? They look older, like the boat.”
“That’s just what I was thinking!” Fred said, leaping back to his feet with gusto.
Mai glanced over at Grace and rolled her eyes.
Fred wedged the crowbar under the first hinge and pulled. Crumbled pieces of rusty metal flew in all directions and the hinge snapped open. “Wow, that was easy,” he said, popping the second one off and opening the hold.
“What’s down there?” Grace asked. All three of them leaned over the gaping hole.
Grace shuddered. It reminded her of the cave they’d just escaped from.
They looked at one another hesitantly. No one seemed to want to be the first one to go in.
“Well, at least there’s a ladder,” Fred joked. The narrow metal rungs of the ladder were bent in spots and covered with the same rust-stained paint as the wheelhouse door.
“You go, Fred,” Mai ordered. “It was your idea. I’ll stand watch and look after Grace.”
“Yeah, I guess it was my idea, huh?” Fred rubbed his hands together and stretched them over his head. He bent his knees as if warming up before a run. “All right, but if it’s filled with gold—or money—I won’t be sharing!” Flashing a toothy smile at them, he scrambled down the ladder and disappeared. “But I’ll invite you over to swim in the pool in my millionaire mansion!” His words echoed up from below.
“Nut bar,” Mai muttered. She kneeled at the edge of the hatch opening, looking down. “Are you all right?” she called.
“Yeah,” Fred replied. “There’s nothing down here.”
“Then get back up here,” Mai ordered.
“Wait, there’s a door over in the corner,” Fred called. “It looks like it’s for a storage room or freezer or something like that.”
“What’s in it?” Mai asked.
“Can’t tell,” said Fred. “It’s locked, too. Toss me down that crowbar and I’ll try the hinges.”
Mai dropped the crowbar into the hole. It clanged loudly on the floor below. All of a sudden light illuminated the hold. “Sweet!” Fred said. “There’s power down here.”
“That’s strange,” Mai said. “Why would there be power if there isn’t even a rad—”
“I hear a voice! Someone’s in there!” Fred hollered suddenly, cutting Mai off. “A prisoner!”