Chapter 13


If he did not know any better, Tony would have sworn that he was looking down at a scene from another reality. The glowing caps of the swells formed a kind of dance of light with an eerie, pale, greenish glow that was so much more noticeable than when the regular surf came in on the beach. Tony now understood why it was that a lot of the original colonists, who came out to fish these waters, reported seeing monsters and mermaids and even, sometimes, ghosts.

It was beautiful and deadly all at the same time. Tony found that he was forced to do instrument only flight in this weather. He could no longer trust his eyes. The seas, the darkness, the swirling lights below, all could easily form a deadly illusion that would send his little bird flying right into the side of an abnormally high swell.

The grand mystery of nature seemed to be completely beneath Kent. He had been totally ignoring it since they left the beach. He was busy with the night vision and probably couldn’t see the lights anyway. Tony just figured it was for the best. He knew it was when Kent called, “I’ve got her! She’s less than a mile to our starboard.”

When Tony got his confirmation, which required him to fly closer to the steamer than he would have preferred, he called in, “Ops, Surface, I have a mark one eyeball on the Roby Celeste. Say again, we have positive confirmation. Mark my coordinates as…”

Amy came back on the radio with, “we’re not two miles from your position, altering course.” She finished her transmission off with, “and you are so going to get it mister, over.”

Kent looked back at Tony and pushed the goggles up so he could see the pilots face. Tony just shrugged at the guy and told him, “I have no idea what I did.”

“Tis always a peril with women, Mister Tippet,” Kent told him as he went back to scanning the sea with his night vision. Then he called out, “take us five hundred meters to starboard and get me as low as you can.”

“Hey wait a minute,” Tony told the guy. It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out what Kent was about to do. “You can’t jump in this weather Doc. Those caps out there are breaking at over thirty feet.”

“Then mister Tippet,” Kent told him as he put away his goggles and grabbed for his swimming gear, “I suppose you had best hope my high diving skills are not too rusty. We have men overboard and I’m going to get them.” When Tony did not alter course the doctor opened his door slightly and asked, “or shall I jump here?”

Tony grunted in frustration and put the guy right over the spot he wanted. Kent Gold was all smiles as he said into his headset, “all units, this is Medivac. I’m going in. Activating pinger now. All units mark my position.” He tossed aside the headset, put on his swimming goggles, fitted his snorkel, and then jumped with his equipment bag.

Tony pulled back on the stick and got some altitude before one of those waves took him down. He then made a slow and lazy circle so he could look for the die marker in the water. There was one little problem. His “ghosts” were making it nearly impossible to see the grenade residue that should have marked Gold’s spot.

Tony called on the radio, “Ops, surface, this if flight. I can’t see him. Do you have his pinger?”

Amy came back first. Her frantic panic was clear even over the electronically muffled sound of the speakers, “he’s in? Tony I’m not showing a pinger at all!”

Shannon broke in on the radio next. She was far more subdued, “don’t get your panties in a wad, surface. I got him, signal strength is clear, coordinates are marked, and I’m am transferring data now.”

Shannon was snickering as she sent Amy the coordinates to where Kent had gone down in the water. Personally, Shannon thought the guy was stupid but, if something happened to him it would be nobodies fault but his own. The guy always had thought he knew everything and he was bound to get himself into trouble, sooner or later.

What Shannon was starting to like about this job was that, a guy like Kent, mister medical school, mountain climbing, deep sea diving, adventure junkie was now totally at her mercy. The guy needed her and nobody could deny that. Sure they had his coordinates now but, in a few minutes, with the sea chopping like it was tonight, the guy was going to move. The only way anybody would ever know where he was at, was if Shannon kept updating them.

The great and intoxicating condition known as triumph, completely evaporated when Shannon looked over to the stairs. She saw Danni’s head, just barely sticking up above the floor line. Danni’s eyes were intensely fixed on the teenager. Shannon sneered in return and said, “what do you want?”

Danni just turned and walked back down the stairs. Her parting comment was, “nothing.” Shannon did not bother to reply or, if she did, Danni had completely tuned it out. Danni walked down the long dark hall that led back to the barracks. She stopped for a moment at the inner commissary door. Even from across the room Danni could hear the rain falling outside. Nobody ever closed the door to the porch and the screen door just did not keep out the sound.

It was fine by Danni. She had always liked the sound of falling water. Even the thunder was music to her ears and, right now, standing in the dark and listening to it felt good for her soul. Only her sniffles and the occasional tear disturbed the peace. Then she heard a noise that was definitely out of place.

It was true that when you got used to a building being full of people, all of the time, it was mighty lonely and just a tad bit scary when you suddenly found it empty. The station was most definitely one of those places tonight. Danni could never even remember it being this empty before. Maybe that was why her imagination was playing tricks on her? Had she really heard that noise or, was it just the building reacting to the howling wind outside?

Danni finally decided it was neither of those. What she heard was the back door that they never used. It didn’t lead to anywhere but to some bushes with sharp pointed leaves, that grew like weeds, over on the forest side. It was the main reason they never used it and why it had practically rusted shut now. Danni was pretty sure she had just heard someone trying to close it, slowly. It made a scraping noise that would stop as it got too loud. Then it would start right back up.

Her first thought was to get a weapon. Danni looked down the hall to the very back of the building where all their rooms were located. There were guns down there but, in order for her to reach them she would have to cross the T Junction that was right next to that door! Whoever was trying to close it was obviously already in the building and they would see her, dark or not.

Her chest began to fall and rise very harshly and Danni started feeling the pain in her chest coming back. She did not hear any footsteps but, she could swear she heard someone whisper. Now she had that feeling of a presence. She could not explain why but, she knew somebody was down that hallway and they were about to come around the corner.

If Danni could not fight, then her only other option was retreat. She thought about running back up to Ops but, those stairs squeaked way too bad. She had to warn Shannon somehow. If she called out they would hear her too. That meant running was no longer an option. Danni was not about to leave Shannon alone. There was also the added problem of, if the intruder got into the hallway then Shannon would have no way to get out. Now Danni knew she had to fight but, how?