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“You did miss him three times,” Eric reminded him.
“Fourth time’s the charm is therefore my new motto.”
“Right,” Max said, chuckling. “Put it on a T-shirt. Now, let’s get our people back before we run out of maneuvering room in the actual typhoon.”
• • •
HIDALGO’S COURSE was taking the eye over Panay Island, so Gomez had to get the helicopter back inside the Oregon as soon as possible. As they hovered over the ship, he told Juan and the others that the landing might be a little dicey.
They had to wait until the pitching deck came to them. As the skids touched the Oregon, Gomez shut down the engine, and the helicopter dived into the next trough along with the ship. Eddie and Linc jumped out and lashed the chopper to the tie-downs as the helicopter was lowered on the elevator platform.
“That was some gutsy flying,” Juan said to Gomez.
“All in a day’s work,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“Thanks for keeping me from dying,” Raven said as she hopped off Juan’s lap.
He nearly replied, “My pleasure,” but thought that wouldn’t come out right. “Happy to” was almost as bad. He just said, “Of course.” A soft snicker came from his right, and Beth put a hand to her mouth.
Juan got out and was met by Max and Julia Huxley as the deck closed above them.
“You look like you need a thorough checkup,” Julia said to Juan.
“I’ll be okay,” he said and nodded to Beth. “There’s your patient.”
When Julia saw the bloody bullet wound in Beth’s side, she called for the waiting stretcher. Juan helped Beth out and onto the gurney.
“Take care of the paintings,” she said with a beatific smile. She didn’t seem to be feeling any pain. But when she saw Maurice suddenly appear next to Juan to deliver his traditional celebratory cigar, she barked, “Absolutely no smoking around the paintings!”
Juan handed it back and said, “Please leave it in my cabin, Maurice.”
“Along with a full breakfast and a Bloody Mary,” Maurice said and glided away.
“Satisfied?” Juan asked Beth, who relaxed again. “I promise you will get as much time as you want with them once you’ve recovered.”
Beth clapped her hands in glee, ignoring the injury. “I can’t wait.” Then she took Raven’s hand. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
/> For the first time that Juan had seen, Raven’s lips turned up in a tiny smirk. “Wait until you see my fee.”
“Believe me,” Beth said, “with the reward we’re going to get from those paintings, I can afford it.”
Raven turned to Juan and got so close to his ear that he could feel her breath on his neck. “I’ll go with her. From what I understand about the effects of Typhoon, she’s going to have a rough few days as she goes through withdrawal.” She didn’t add that Beth might die if she had become fully addicted to the stuff.
Juan nodded, and Raven kept hold of Beth’s hand as Julia and the med techs wheeled her to the medical bay.
He looked at Max and grinned. “I’m glad you got Tagaan. I wasn’t looking forward to another mission to find him. I think I need about twelve hours of shut-eye.”
“We all do,” Max said. “Eric has the Oregon headed to a harbor on Panay, where we can ride out the rest of the storm. The ship will rock you to sleep.”
Juan handed a couple of the tubes of paintings to Max and took the rest himself.
“Before I turn in, I want to see what we’ve got here.”
They went to the boardroom, where Juan opened the tube marked Picasso. He carefully pulled the paintings out and unrolled them on the conference table.
“Wow,” Max said when he saw the masterpieces lying there. “I can’t wait to hear what the reward is for returning these.” The top one was a Rembrandt that Juan recalled from the Gardner Museum heist. The one below it was signed by Gauguin.
“I know how we’re going pay for repairs to the Oregon,” Juan said.
