Unfortunately, Jake had been all too right. Calvin put those helicopters through their paces and his boat through a series of maneuvers and turns that would have left just about any other water craft behind. Calvin also felt pretty confident that he might have even ditched Tony or Barbara in their choppers. The Germans were, apparently, only laughing at him. That made Cal hope that Jake was right about the other thing. He had told Calvin, “if you can see the choppers then you’re probably safe. It’s when you don’t that they’re going to kill you.” Calvin was wondering if the German’s hadn’t brought every helicopter they owned. He could sure see plenty and they were circling with no effort at all.

The giant splash of water in front of Calvin’s boat was a good incentive to stop. He didn’t. The second one, obviously proving that the first was no accident, finally made Calvin cut the engines. He slid down the ladder from the small bridge and then, as he stood on the back deck and watched one of the fat choppers get close, he yelled in the pilothouse door, “we got company!”

Two ropes hit the back deck just in front of the fan tail. The boots of two heavily armed troopers hit right after that. Calvin thought they looked kind of weird in all their army get up, way out here in the bay. He could not imagine how the dark and light green camouflage, with all of the shredded crap hanging from it, made for good cover over water like this. It didn’t really matter in this instance. They had their weapons trained on Calvin for their entire trip down the rope. They didn’t stop pointing guns at him when they hit the deck either.

One of the Germans moved for the pilot house door while the other put the barrel of his assault rifle, right on Calvin’s nose. Then that guy asked in passable, if not somewhat guttural, English, “where is girl?”

Calvin’s eyes drifted to the pilot house and he told the guy over the sound of the retreating helicopter, “I’m sorry! I don’t speak German!”

If this guy had a sense of humor then his laughter was the butt of his rifle. He used it on Cal’s ribs and did it so fast that Calvin never really noticed the time period that the barrel, of said weapon, was not pointed at his head. From all fours, on the deck, as he coughed, Calvin snapped at the German’s, “well where else would she be? You don’t see her up here do you?”

The second German yelled into the pilothouse door, “rouse! Up deck now! Schnell!”

Another chopper moved in close and yet another rope hit the deck. The next German too land was familiar looking to Calvin. Of course, that had a lot to do with the fact that Cal could actually see the guy’s face. He didn’t have all the little gizmo’s hanging off his helmet like the first two. In a way, Cal kind of wished that he did. It was none other than Hochstetter, the guy who had threatened to sick a firing squad on Cal. These days, that was less than an empty threat.

Fortunately, Hochstetter’s first words were not as threatening and not in German. He waited for the chopper to back off and then he nodded to his man covering Calvin, “secure him.”

The first German soldier cuffed Calvin’s arms behind his back and too the bridge ladder. He then joined the second one at the pilothouse door. Hochstetter, still using English, yelled into the door, “come topside Miss O’Rouke. I am not here to harm you. I do not wish to harm anyone. Do not make us come down there and get you. We know you are here. I saw you on video.”

Slow footfalls could be heard coming from the staircase that led to the lower decks. A pair of hands appeared first and it was followed by the sight of very dark hair. Hochstetter sighed in relief as he watched the girl walk up into the pilothouse, and then, out onto the open deck. His smile slowly faded as his brain took in the details. The hair color was right but, everything else was wrong! This girl was at least five to ten years older than the target, not the right size, and that was not Henna O’Rouke’s face!

With a sneer, Hochstetter reached out and snatched at the girl’s hair and it came right off. At first the girl protested but, then, Leslie just shrugged it off and told him, “yeah well, I didn’t like the color anyway. I guess you didn’t ether.”

Hochstetter angrily commanded his men in German, “search the lower deck!” They started by grabbing Leslie and pushing her down next to the ladder where they handcuffed her next to Calvin. Then one of them pulled a grenade off his belt, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the pilot house.

Calvin’s eyes grew wide and he yelled, “are you insane!” Leslie closed her eyes tight and held her breath while Calvin was doing just the opposite. The flash from the grenade nearly blinded him and the concussion almost knocked him out.

As Hochstetter pulled his fingers from his ears and opened his eyes, he saw his two men charge into the pilothouse and then down the stairs. He then looked at Calvin and laughed while saying, “it was a flash bang, Mister Brandt. Do you think I’m stupid enough to blow up a boat I am standing on?”

Calvin was now pouting, “yeah but I’m the one who has to clean that up.”

The two troopers came stomping back up the stairs and the first one reported to Hochstetter in German. While Calvin could not understand what was being said he was certain he knew what it was. Hochstetter was also not pleased and his demeanor spelled it out loud and clear when he demanded, “where are they?! Where is O’Rouke?! Where is Barton?!”

Calvin just looked at Leslie and then they both looked back to Hochstetter, and shrugged. It was Calvin who pointed out, “how the hell should we know? You been out here chasing us around. You know we haven’t seen them.”

Once again, Calvin could not understand the German words that escaped Hochstetter’s lips. He was pretty sure there was some cursing involved, however. The man got back on his radio, another chopper came in close, dropped a single line, and all three German’s departed on it as they were lifted off the deck and then wheeled back in like fish on a line. Calvin watched with fascination and even commented, “I didn’t know they could that.” Then it suddenly occurred to Calvin and he yelled as if the retreating choppers might actually hear him, “wait! You left us handcuffed you ass holes!”

Calvin began to whine as he knocked his head against the ladder, “we’re going to die. Maybe a firing squad would be better. We’re either going to die of exposure, die of dehydration, or maybe, let’s not forget about the bar out by the breakers. If the waves don’t capsize us then the reef is going to rip a hole in us and then we’ll drown.” After considering it for a second, “oh and lets not forget the Canadian enforcers. Then we’ll get shot and then drown.”

Leslie was grunting rather hard as she slowly bent her leg so that her foot could reach the top of her head, “would you stop crying already. I got this covered.”

Calvin suddenly noticed what she was doing and almost went cross eyed while watching her. It made him hurt just looking! Sarcastically, and quite sullenly, he had to ask, “don’t tell me, you have experience with getting handcuffed to ladders?”

Leslie was now concentrating as she used two of her toes to pull a clip from her short blond hair. She was thankful the German hadn’t yanked them all out when he snatched the wig off. She grunted again and with each grunt she huffed out the answer for Calvin, “only… on… dates!” Then her leg came down and she finally relaxed. She proclaimed with a sigh of relief, “got it.”

Calvin was not impressed, “oh great, now you just go down to your little bag of disguises and put another wig on your handcu…”

Leslie stood up and began working at the cuff that was still locked to her other wrist. Calvin’s eyes grew large as she popped it off with almost no trouble at all. He then got excited, “I don’t believe it! Get me loose!”

Suddenly a look developed on her face and Calvin did not like what he was seeing in her eyes. Leslie developed a cute a little smile and a mischievous grin. She looked almost ‘bouncy,’ for lack of a better word. She tossed her cuffs to the deck and then gave the pilothouse an evil eye, “I have always wanted to drive one of these!”

“Leslie!” Calvin yelled and then again, several more times, as she ran into the pilothouse. She couldn’t hear him when she fired up the engines. In the end, all Calvin could say was when he lamented, “this was a lot funnier when it was Amy.”