Ghost Ship Page 14

  His phone chimed.

  “Jake, is that you?”

  “I failed, Ash. I didn’t get the confession. I’m coming home.”

  “Good! Last night someone threw a brick through one of the Wolverine’s windows. I’m scared.”

  “Where’s Wan-Si? I told him to keep an eye on you.”

  “I sent him home.”

  “Why’d you do that? Never mind…I’ll take the next flight out of Concepcion. I’ll be home soon.”

  As the motor home continued to barrel down the highway, Jake slid the contents of the briefcase he’d picked up in the ostrich pasture onto the table. The first thing he saw was a black and white photo of a man from a different era. The well-dressed man was standing in front of a luxury age steamship holding a briefcase in one hand and the hand of a young boy with the other. Jake stared at that face for a moment, and then realized who it was and where it was taken. He spilled the rest of the items on the table. They appeared to be a lot of worthless papers, but as Jake read more carefully he realized that the communications were drawn up in haste by a man on the run after the fall of Berlin.

  One letter in particular caught Jake’s attention.

  The message discussed the critical nature of a scientific research facility and the importance of keeping its activities secret. Was this the lost science facility that Anton told him about?

  He unfolded a map attached to one of the letters and found himself staring at a remote area in Southern Chile where a little cove named Seig Harbor was circled.

  Jake noticed a date scribbled next to it—January 15th, 2013.

  That was tomorrow.

  Looking back at the map his eyes followed a thick black line drawn in with permanent ink. It started in Seig Harbor and wound through the islands of Tierra Del Feugo and then out to the Pacific Ocean. He also saw dates carefully noted on the bottom left corner of the map showing how long it would take to sail from Tierra del Fuego to the Channel Islands off the coast of California. He saw another date circled and written in even larger letters than the first. The date was January 30, 2013. Jake felt his adrenaline pump. Was that the date Richter planned on sinking the Queen Mary? Why had Koch taken the time to grab the briefcase in the middle of a fight? And what did a cove at the end of the earth have to do with Richter’s plans to sink the Queen Mary almost five-thousand nautical miles away?

  Then Jake remembered…January 30th…that was the date he’d seen on the Queen Mary. It had been on the sticky note he saw on the blueprints of the Wilhelm Gustloff. Jake rummaged around the briefcase some more and found a picture of the same man he’d just seen in the photo in front of the luxury liner. Only this time the man looked gaunt and was dressed in a work jumpsuit with the words Camp Blanding and a large PW stenciled on the front of the well-worn clothes. Jake turned the picture over and saw the name Heinrich Richter written in perfect cursive with the number 345 noted below the man’s name. What was Richter up to? None of this made sense. Well, whatever it was, Jake was going to put a stop to it.

  As the motor home cruised west on the Ruta de Itata towards the city of Concepcion, Jake watched Edgar captain the oversized motor home. The jockey was slouching in the driver’s seat, but his eyes were lit up and he was smiling. He caught Jake’s eyes in the rear view mirror.

  “Did you see the race?” Edgar said.

  “It was great,” Jake responded.

  “It was like a dream, a dream that I’ve had my whole life, a dream that was always just a dream. But I rode that dream. Isa’s Fire beat two champion horses.”

  “You weren’t supposed to win that race. You were supposed to come in second.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” Edgar said breaking out in a laugh.

  “I say you run some legitimate races and work your way up through the ranks again.”

  “My dreams really are coming true.” Edgar beamed. “You going to be my manager?”

  Jake remembered what his mentor Stuart had said to him. ‘I didn’t train you for nothing, did I?’ he had said.

  “No, Edgar, I haven’t finished what I set out to do.”

  “Let it go, man. We can take the racing world by storm. With Isa’s and Lorena’s help I can do it. This is it. This is the time.”

  “No, I’ve got to finish what I started. I can’t let the man who killed my father kill more people. I’m not going to rest until Koch and Richter are stopped.” That’s right; he would do what needed to be done. He wasn’t going to let some megalomaniac destroy more lives. He would go to Tierra Del Fuego to find out what Richter had planned.

  Edgar’s smiled faded. “Then I’ll help you.”

  “I appreciate that, Edgar, but your race is over. You did what I asked you to do, and I’ll pay you your share like I promised. It’ll help you get started back in the racing game. Just keep winning, okay?”

  “Not so fast.” Edgar gripped the steering wheel more tightly. “I won the race yesterday, but I also won something more than that. I won self respect.” He loosened his grip on the wheel a little and met Jake’s eyes in the mirror. “All my life, all I cared about was myself. I thought winning was all about me.” He focused back on the road. “But it isn’t. I want to help. I can’t just walk away now. I want to finish what we started together.”

  “Edgar, I appreciate that. I really do. But this is my problem.”

  “You’ve got it all wrong. It’s not just your problem.”

  “You’ve got a gift with horses. That’s your world. I’m afraid this is too dangerous.”

  “Who do you think you’re talking to? Today, I stuck my neck out for you and for others.”

  “That’s right, but you’re a just a jockey.”

  “Just a jockey? Last I heard you were just a maritime professor. You try to go up against those killers alone, you’re likely to die alone.”

  “Then, I’ll die alone. Look, you can help me by calling Wan-Si and telling him to get to the Wolverine and take her out to sea with Ashley. Tell him to head to Astoria, Oregon and dock there. Got that? That’s how you can help me. Make sure Ashley is safe, okay?”

  “Hey, don’t forget I spent time in prison. I learned a few things there that you can’t learn nowhere else.”

  “You’ve got a good point there.”

  “I can help you more by coming with you and let me tell you something else. I couldn’t have won that race today without you and Lorena and Isa. You can’t win your race alone either. I’m your friend—and I’m sticking with you.”

  Jake was quiet for a few moments. “Okay. You can come.”

  CHAPTER 39

  The Wessienburger

  Middle of the Pacific

  Koch rolled over in bed, turned on the light, and answered the phone. He heard Charles Richter rambling, not all of it coherent, but some of it was. He said, “Even as the Wilhelm Gustloff dropped beneath the surface, passengers were still clinging to her rails, screaming screams that turned to gurgles as their lungs filled with salt water. They could not let go because there was nothing else to hang onto. Those who swam and made it to lifeboats were not allowed to climb in. Imagine swimming to a lifeboat and being told to stay in the water where the life expectancy was just a matter of minutes.” Then Richter hung up. After that, Koch could not get back to sleep.

  CHAPTER 40

  Friday Harbor, Washington

  8:00 a.m.

  Ashley knew that daylight had smiled upon the marina, but the interior of Jake’s boat was dim. The curtains covered the windows, shutting out the sun, and the door was still barricaded. Ashley lay on the floor on a foam mattress, the gun next to her pillow in the same place she’d kept her doll when she was a little girl.

  She felt a shock jump through her body when the boat rocked. She swept up the gun and aimed it at the door, ready to shoot the minute the thug broke in.

  “Ashley.”

  She lowered the gun slightly. She knew that voice.

  “It’s Wan-Si. Open up.”

  She got up and
pulled back the curtain to verify the story. It was Wan-Si, and he looked terrible. He was unshaven. His hair was disheveled, and black bags hung under his eyes. Ashley remodeled the interior in order to get at the door. She piled the supplies in Jake’s cabin.

  When Wan-Si entered, he brought the foul smell of stale booze with him. “Coffee,” he said.

  “You look awful. Where have you been?”

  “Never mind that. I’m here now, and everything will be fine.”

  Ashley shook her head. She was in no mood for babysitting.

  CHAPTER 41

  Jake drove the motor home northwest to Valparaiso while Edgar snored in the back. Thanks to Stuart’s contact, a private plane awaited them at a dirt runway. The pilot was a young woman with chestnut hair tied up in a bun. She had a friction-lock gun holster attached to her belt. She never smiled or spoke, and she avoided eye contact.

  When the plane landed in Punta Arenas, it taxied to a stop in front of a hanger. The woman pointed toward a helicopter on the tarmac. “They’re waiting,” she said.

  ***

  As Wan-Si navigated Jake’s fishing boat out of Friday Harbor, Ashley sat at her computer in the galley. She would keep track of the Queen Mary during their trip to Oregon. She still couldn’t believe that Jake insisted that Wan-Si take her to Astoria. She didn’t know where she felt safer, with Wan-Si at the helm of the Wolverine or docked in Friday Harbor with thugs stalking her. At least Wan-Si had been laying off the bottle. Even better, for the last five days Ashley had visited the Maritime Traffic website, and for five days the Queen Mary had been faithfully reporting her position. Each location marked was on course for Taiwan. Ashley began to wonder if Charles had actually sold the ship to the Taiwanese as he had claimed and was really going to deliver her as promised.

  CHAPTER 42

  Fifteen-miles north of Seig Harbor, Tierra del Fuego

  January 15

  The helicopter dropped and hovered a few feet above the ground. Jake and Edgar jumped out at the same time, landing a few feet apart in the glacial mud. As they hurried away from the cold air wash of the helicopter, Edgar’s cap flew off and he chased after it. While the bird soared away, Jake looked at his GPS device for a moment, shoved it in his pocket next to a spare magazine of ammo, and slung his new grenade launcher over his shoulder. After Edgar caught his hat and forcefully pulled it over his ears, Jake looked at him and motioned toward the line of foliage that marked the beginning of what would be their fifteen-mile hike to Seig Harbor. Several hours later, they kneeled down behind a stand of bent trees on a wind-raked bluff above the tongue of a choppy bay. Jake set down his RPG launcher, and got out his binoculars, spotting signs of activity below.

  Several sections of a floating dock were anchored to fresh creosote pilings. A landing craft utility boat floated alongside the dock, tugging on its ropes. An anchored floatplane bobbed in the waves. Various ruins littered a shallow canyon at the far end of the beach where Jake spotted bulldozers, cranes, pallets, and several forklifts. He also saw a few unusual shipping containers whose sides had two rows of what looked like drawers, and they appeared to be refrigerated containers.

  Then he noticed a huge rusted cylinder near the entrance to the cave. Jake identified it as a tunnel-boring machine. Its cylinder was at least ten or twelve feet high and matched exactly the round shape of the tunnel that he saw at the base of the hill, directly up from the dock.

  Two armed men heaved pallets into stacks like they were toothpicks.

  Jake set his backpack down and removed his pistol.

  Edgar did the same. “Let’s go check it out.”

  “Hold on a minute.” Jake threw his hand up in front of Edgar’s chest. “This could be dangerous.”

  Edgar knocked Jake’s arm out of the way. “I know what danger is. I learned about it every damn day in prison. I learned that the weak need protection because I was one of them. Now, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson will level the playing field.”

  Jake narrowed his eyes at Edgar before he scanned the beach with his binoculars.

  “What are you waiting for?” Edgar adjusted his cap. “I’m on a roll. I want to kick ass now.”

  “You talk a lot.”

  “I didn’t come along to meditate. Bring it up again and I’ll go in alone.”

  Jake panned across the facility. “They’re definitely well-armed.”

  “There’s only two of them. The place looks abandoned.” Edgar shook his head and started to stand, but Jake reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder.

  “Wait a minute.”

  “Alright, alright,” Edgar said.

  “Check that out.” He pointed to the floatplane on the bay. “Let’s observe for a while. See if the pilot shows up.”

  “Why are you suddenly so cautious? You weren’t when you hired me.”

  “There may be a lesson there.”

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from you, pal, it’s that decisive action breaks things loose.” Edgar paused. “And thanks to you, I made history the other day. Where’s your decisiveness? You’re starting to make me nervous.”

  “Something’s making me nervous, too.”

  “Coast is clear,” Edgar said. “Now’s the time.”

  Jake nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

  ***

  Wan-Si motored the Wolverine fifteen miles up the Columbia River to the East Basin Marina in the Port of Astoria. After pulling into a side slip moorage next to a commercial vessel, they settled in for the evening. Ashley got out her laptop to mark the Queen Mary’s latest position. She looked for the east-pointing blue arrow which had been indicating the Queen Mary’s route on the marine traffic website, but it was no longer there. She had just checked the site an hour ago and the ship had been tracking straight for Taiwan. She closed the laptop, knowing that the website updated every hour. Maybe the site was just experiencing a glitch.

  Now that they were near land, she realized that she needed to stretch her legs, so she decided to take a walk across the bridge that spanned the river. The sun was setting and casting beautiful colors across the sky. As Ashley looked at the wonderful mix of magenta and orange that was spread across the blue palette above her, she thought of Jake and hoped he was okay. She couldn’t believe that he was going to the tip of South America in pursuit of Koch. She couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just let it go. He was really getting in over his head. None of this was going to bring his dad back after all. Then she remembered the crew. Jake could be saving hundreds of lives. They were probably unaware of Richter’s plan, just as Jake’s dad had been. Thinking about all of this made her realize that like Jake, she couldn’t just sit around and not do anything either.

  After an hour, Ashley headed back to the boat to check the tracking website for the location of the Queen Mary. Once again the boat was not being reported. Thousands of other boats were being tracked, but there was no sign of the Queen Mary. Ashley knew that the boats on the site reported voluntarily and Richter could’ve simply decided to stop reporting. But why would he stop now?

  She listened to the marine sideband radio for hours, hoping to hear some news about the Queen Mary. She didn’t hear one comment about the old ship. It didn’t seem that anyone even knew or cared that the grand dame of sea voyages was heading off to oblivion. After midnight and frustrated by the lack of information on the Queen Mary, she asked Wan-Si if they could sail south in the morning to try and pick up something on the Queen Mary’s location.

  ***

  The Tunnel at Seig Harbor

  Tierra del Fuego

  As Jake entered the tunnel, he noticed that the passageway formed from dull black volcanic rock was round, mirroring the shape of the boring machine he’d seen earlier. Edgar followed Jake down the shaft and straight into the mountain for fifty yards until, it made a ninety degree turn. After another fifty yards, the tunnel spilled into a large chamber. Jake stopped, puzzled by a foul smell. It was unlike anything he had ever smelled before. Looking around he rea
lized that they were at an intersection. Each branch of the passage led into the dark unknown. Jake chose one of the off-shoots and said, “Come on. Let’s go this way.”

  They did so for fifty more yards until the tunnel made another ninety-degree turn to the left. As they moved on the stench became stronger. After going a little further, Jake stopped again because now the tunnel had numerous sections of glass walls on both sides. Behind the glass, large, bored-out rock-walled rooms showed like holding cells at a zoo. Jake counted four mammoth windows on each side of the tunnel. Each glass pane sealed off a room as big as a three-car garage. The floors of the rooms were covered with heaps of what appeared to be bird guano. They moved on, but at the next window, Jake froze at the glass. Even Edgar was speechless for a few seconds.

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  “Quiet,” Jake whispered.

  He continued walking and came to two sets of double-doors on opposite sides of the tunnel. These doors were labeled with the words Lab 1 and Lab 2. Jake quietly pushed open the door to Lab 1 and pierced the darkness with his flashlight beam. Edgar followed him inside.

  “It stinks,” Edgar said.

  Jake knew little of such places, and looking around he scarcely knew what to make of it all. In the center of the room stood three long operation tables, each forty-feet long. They were a gruesome sight because their surfaces were covered with white plastic, and the plastic was stained with blood.