I assigned Jimmy T. and JP to the man-tracking tasks. Rudy, our team medic, would handle the medical-examiner duties. Better him than me: We would soon have the rush autopsy results and enough pictures of dead people to give us all nightmares for the next few weeks.
“One thing that bothers me is the Russian boat,” Meg declared with a sigh. “At the time, we obviously couldn’t split the force, and I personally didn’t find anything on board that could have tied that ship to anything that happened on the island. But I keep thinking there has to be a connection. Did you guys get that sense too? Or am I completely out to lunch?”
“I’d say we start by having another little chat with that bad boy’s owner,” JP said.
I nodded. “Makes sense to me, JP. Meg, any ideas?”
“Yeah, I’d go with that, but I honestly have no idea where to begin the search.” Meg looked at me. “We lost track of the first yacht as soon as we climbed back aboard the Little Birds. He could be in Greenland, for all I know. Maybe while Stu and Wolf dig into the electronics, Si can help me review the satellite imagery from the night of the attack and see if I can find her.”
“How long would that take?”
“Maybe a day or so. Give me some time to do some coding. It’s not really like fast-forwarding a video. You have to do some reprogramming to guess next locations, then reenter the data. It’s complicated—but not impossible. I’ll get on it ASAP.”
“Okay then, Meg. Let me know what else you need. We’ll get it done.Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast,right?” Her smile quickly turned into a yawn. We’d been at it for a good long while.
I was about to tell everyone to take a break when Si stood up in the back of the room, put his right hand over his heart, and, in a surprisingly booming voice, said, “Excuse me, Nat, but are you going to call in the wolf?”
I gave Si aWTFlook and rubbed my eyes. Then I turned to Oliver, who was flashing aWho, me?expression.
“I’m guessing we have you to thank for this?” I asked him with a half smile. “Come on, man—it’s late.”
“Si, what did I tell you earlier?” Oliver prompted.
Si cleared his throat and said, “Well, you told me that if they couldn’t figure out the Russian yacht, that I was supposed to stand up and shout,Nat, are you going to call in the wolf?And then I was also supposed to say,That’s all you had to say.”
Si’s face turned bright red and he sank back down into his seat. The poor kid had no idea what rite of passage he had just gone through, but we all thought it was funny as hell.
Regaining my composure, I said to Oliver, “Enlighten us, please, Mr. Smith.”
“Thought you’d never ask, boss.” Oliver stood and strode to the front of the conference room, where he grabbed the pointer and positioned himself beside the map of the Eastern Seaboard that we had used for the debrief. He tapped the pointer’s tip somewhere on the southeast coast of Florida.
“Well, Nat, besides being just another pretty face, you all know how much I dig the ocean, right? I love boats, especially the big ones. So when we were clearing the cabins, I noticed that the name of the yacht was embroidered on just about everything, especially in the galley. Didn’t anyone else see this shit?”
Clearly our silence confirmed his suspicion.
“Shocking. Anyhoo, theOryolis the name of this stinkpot. She’s registered to some no-name LLC headquartered in George Town, Bahamas, and it’s docked down in Si’s hometown of Palm Beach. The owner shouldn’t be too difficult to track down. That concludes my presentation, sir!”
Oliver paused for a bit of showboating, going through the first few motions of the Manual of Arms rifle drill as if he was onparade, substituting the pointer for a rifle. After a moment, he dropped the bit and continued.
“I was curious—so sue me,” he said, back on task. “So I looked up the boat online; there’s a website that tracks these big yachts. It took about two seconds. Si asked me what I thought about the boat, so I told him to hang loose and see what we found out during the hotwash. He said you all would figure it out, but I said you wouldn’t, so we made a bet. When I won, Baby Rhino over here had to do his routine. Plus he also owes me fifty bucks, of course. Pay up, Si. I know where you live.”
Meg rolled her eyes and smiled at Si. “Sucker’s bet, Josiah. Don’t worry—we’ve all lost to the mighty Oliver Smith at one time or another. Just don’t do it twice.”
With this settled, we knew where to start: We would send a couple of recon teams to Florida to see what they could find. I needed Oliver to stay with me for a meeting in DC, but Meg, Jimmy T., Si, and Rudy could go get their ninja on.
The thrill of the hunt came roaring back to life. I figured we would need about a week to plan and rehearse the recon mission. Once we knocked the rust off, however, it would be Game On.
“Si, let Al and Connie know you’re going to Palm Beach!”
I had promised the Wilsons I’d get Si “home” soon. Wasn’t Palm Beach their home just as much as Nantucket?
CHAPTER 67
Rowan Anderson’s apartment
Washington, DC
Agent Rowan Anderson had been forced to surrender her passport and was confined to her apartment overlooking the Georgetown campus. Technically, she wasn’t under arrest—yet—but “pending investigation.”
