Page 185
Someone recently arrived.
Or is preparing to leave.
Ben crouches behind a stack of crab traps.
The workshop’s rear door is open by less than an inch.
A thin line of light cuts across the dock.
“Federal team is two minutes out,” Marquez says. “Hold your positions.”
A man’s voice comes from inside the workshop.
We can’t understand the words.
Then Arthur Bell cries out.
Ben moves.
“Ben,” Marquez warns.
A gunshot erupts inside Blue Lantern.
Mom screams.
Ben reaches the rear door and pulls it open.
The camera shows a man standing over Arthur with a handgun.
Ben crosses the room before the gunman can turn.
He catches the man’s wrist and slams it into the wall. The handgun falls, but the gunman drives his shoulder into Ben and sends both of them crashing across a workbench.
Tools scatter across the floor.
The body-camera image twists.
I hear a punch.
A grunt.
Wood breaking.
Then Ben pins the gunman facedown beneath him.
“Clear!” he calls.
Mark enters from the front as Piers comes through the rear door.
John remains outside, covering the boat.
Arthur Bell is tied to a metal chair.
Blood runs from a wound along his temple, but the gunshot missed him. The bullet struck the wall behind his head.
Ben hands the gunman to Mark and goes to Arthur.
“Where’s Simon?”