Gus shook his head after Nick removed the bandage. “It still looks nasty to me. At least you have the dry-suit. I doubt last night’s fooling around helped the healing much.”
“I’ll douse it with peroxide again, and leave it open to the air while we’re working. It’ll form a scab quicker. With the media off our backs, maybe we can kick back for a few days after the pirate cruise tonight.”
“We’ll have to take another voyage after you get done with Fahid. The freezer at the crypt will be getting crowded.”
“One blasphemy at a time, partner. We’ll need a carafe of coffee, my special laptop, and you can work your iPad.”
“At least we’ll have a nice view.”
Nick pointed at the coffee maker. “You get the coffee. I have to check my downstairs safe-room where I have the knockout gas I want to use on the Shalimar.”
“Well, there goes my happy thoughts.”
“Without the gas, there wouldn’t be any survivors,” Nick pointed out. “This voyage is actually a rescue mission.”
“Only in Nick-land.”
Chapter Twelve
The Shalimar
Gus steered the Lucky Lady II out of the marina with easy expertise. Although prepared to move out in a fog bank, the skies remained clear with no hint of fog. Only a sliver of moon hid amongst the star clusters with the ocean an unusually calm pathway ahead. Nick did final checks on his gear. A long night and early morning lie ahead if the Shalimar anchored for an evening of debauchery as Nick hoped it would. They had completed another zombie hoodie pickup of Jean after school ended, complete with a black caped Deke, so Nick had his home crew safely behind locked doors and alarms.
The Shalamar left Pier 39 only minutes after Nick opened his satellite laptop. He and Gus sipped coffee while watching its progress. The news Gus found on the Internet explained a baffling Pier 39 incident in which three men were killed in a gun battle at close range by each other. Detectives were at a loss to explain what appeared to be an argument turned deadly, involving foreign nationals with silenced automatics. Homeland Security agents were called in by the SFPD.
Gus glanced over at his partner. “Did you ever call Sergeant Dickerson about the missing Kader and Kassis?”
“It was frightening, Gus.” Nick tightened the last strap on his black submersible equipment carryall. “The Sergeant said those dangerous men had not been found yet, but they were doing everything they could to locate them. He was pleased to hear we had a wonderful time in San Francisco. Dickerson did not elaborate on news concerning the Al Mady posse. All that aside, I did tell Rachel and Jean to sleep with Deke in the safe-room upstairs until I returned. It will be morning anyway by the time I finish with Fahid.”
“I heard part of the phone call you had with Carol. It seemed like she wanted to teleport right into the house, and confiscate the ‘Hacker Chip’. Is that the reason for the safe-room idea?”
Nick smiled at Gus’s intuitive grasp on why he had ordered Rachel and Jean into the safe-room. “I think you have a clear picture of it. I hoped Carol wouldn’t mention the chip to her boy Brody, but if she did, he might get ambitious. Carol would never send Ty after me, especially since I planned to give it to her. Ty though might develop new ideas, and visit in the night while I’m away, in which case the crypt freezer is going to have an overfill problem.”
“I’m beginning to wonder why the hell I ever nagged you about retirement. You were writing, torturing Rachel, and trying to keep up with Jean and Deke. We had nice mornings down on the Point, sometimes laced with a bit of Irish coffee. What was I thinking?”
“Get over it, Guster. Maybe it was you that was bored, and now your life is filled with excitement. No use whining about it now. We have to play out the string. In this business, we can always go on sabbatical if we don’t leave any witnesses behind.”
Gus nodded, returning his attention to the ocean ahead. “From now on, I follow your lead. You may be right. That jaunt with Rachel, Jean, and the Tanus mess may have been too much of an abrupt ending. We went from zero to sixty in days, and then sixty to zero in a moment. I guess you were used to the sudden downtime, but I got carried away thinking we could dip our toes into the life without consequences. My bad.”
“It’s good you understand Nick-land now, pal. I’ll make sure we’re more careful after the road trip. One step at a time, or as I’ve already stated, one blasphemy at a time. They won’t anchor unless the water’s calm. I know you’ll do the approach in stealth mode. I figure to be on the safe side I’ll have to make my approach from a quarter mile away. I’ll let you figure that in nautical distance Ahab.”