Sailing To Survive

He then told me that Tom had discovered that there were probably two teams of two actively looking for us. One team was the one who beat up Jefferson and the other was the one that visited Marquet. They seemed to be coordinating their efforts with someone in Washington. Tom had turned on some of his agents to find out more information. He asked about my interest in United Logistics and I told him about their river monitor. And what I heard. He nodded. So as to not give the watcher too many things to worry about, we walked back up the dock and out of the gate.

As we walked by the watcher, Ray asked about how much fuel the boat held. I told him about half of what it actually held and said that I needed to get the engine looked at because we were burning more than I expected and seemed to need to stop every hundred miles or so. As we came back to the ship's store, Sylvia and Emily came out of the store carrying a bag of whatever they bought. They were smiling and laughing easily. I guessed that they got along well. I went inside and paid for the fuel and went back outside. Ray said quietly, "I think you guys better get going. We will wait around here for a while to see if any one follows you."

I replied, "If someone does follow, it might be one of the two boats from United." He nodded and we shook hands.

Sylvia whispered in my ear as she gave me a hug, "She is exactly what you need and deserve. If we couldn't get together, I would have chosen her for you."

"Thanks; take care of Ray."

"I fully intend to do just that." Emily had given Ray a light hug and they had obviously shared some words also. Then I took her hand and we walked back down to the boat and shoved off.

Once back on the river, I sped up faster than we had gone before. I had been going slower to conserve fuel because the actual fuel limit was a little farther than the distance from St. Louis to Memphis. Our next leg was less than half that. I wanted to get there before any chase boat from Memphis could catch us.

As we rode, I updated Emily on what her dad had told me. She responded that her dad had only told Sylvia a few basics and she understood why and didn't want to know anymore at this time in case she was questioned again. They had spent their time together getting to know each other and, as I had surmised, they got along very well. I told her that she was going to Columbia during week to visit. She grinned and said that she doubted that they would even go out the whole time she was there.

"Hey, you are supposed to think higher thoughts about you father."

"I know my father. They will stop for dinner on the way home from the airport and then when they get to the house, they will be down for the count. He's just as bad as you are."

"I thought that he was as good as I am."

"Whatever."

I ran at twenty knots for an hour and then slowed down again. If a boat left Memphis when we arrived in Helena, he would have to go a lot faster than either of the United boats could go to make up the distance between us before dark. We would be at the cutoff in another hour and once we were off the river, I doubted that they would be able to track us. We would be in a series of winding bayous and swamps that only locals could get around in. The only way I could get to where we were going was because I had a detailed map with GPS coordinates for every turn. The brother of one of my SEAL teammates had given them to me and two others at his brother's funeral in case I ever wanted to get lost for a few days. It was a family place deep in the swamp and the only people who went there were he and his brother. With his brother dead, it sat mostly empty. I had told him that I might need it early in the summer and he had just smiled and said to come on down and stay as long as I wanted.

As we neared the turn off, I called Emily up and told her that we were going to leave the river shortly and she should shut the GPS and mapping software down. The sonar might be helpful although. She didn't ask any questions but did as I asked. I loved her more every minute. I slowed further as I neared the point on the GPS. I was using the handheld unit I had bought because I had stored the way points in the memory. The paper the brother had written them on had been napkins and they deteriorated pretty quickly. The cut off appeared to be an overgrown wall of hanging vines but I could see the bank receding behind the wall so I carefully nosed through the vines. Sure enough, there was a channel behind the wall of vines.

It was darker here than on the river but visibility wasn't the biggest problem because you basically couldn't see more than a hundred feet in front of you. There were walls of vines and stumps that you had to move carefully to avoid. The water seemed deep enough and wide enough; there was just a lot of mines in the field. The first turn came about a half mile after we entered the bayou. I carefully turned the boat and discovered that if I was just a couple of feet longer, I probably couldn't have made the turn.

The next several turns were easier and there was a long straight run before one last turn and we would be there. The last turn was basically invisible even to an idling boat ten feet away from it. The GPS said that it was right there but all I saw was what looked like was solid brush. I sucked in my breath and nosed the boat right up to the wall and felt it begin to swing away. The damn thing was a steel gate that seemed to be spring operated. The gate scraped along the side of the boat as I entered what was a lagoon of sorts with a dock on the far side. It was obvious that I needed to make a tight turn and dock on the starboard side. When we tied up, I looked straight ahead and saw that the exit must have been another gate that opened from the inside out. Literally, if you didn't know about it, you would never guess that one or two boats would be inside twenty feet away. I helped Emily out of the boat and we walked down the wood plank path towards the elevated house fifty feet away. The stairs led up to the house which was about twelve feet above the ground. I opened the door and found a clean and neat kitchen and eating area and then a living room with radio and television and behind that a bedroom. It was a very nice and simple get-a-way cabin.

On the way back I saw an envelope taped to the back of the door with my name on it. I pulled out the note and read, "I saw that you are missing. I suspect that you might be finding your way here. If you get this, you already know one of the secrets that will help protect you. The others are that this was a smuggler's island during prohibition. The gated lagoon kept the boats hidden. This is an island and there is one foot bridge to the left of living room and it can be retracted onto this side. The water between here and the road is deep and frequently has alligators in it. No one in their right mind would try to swim over. The road dead ends right here but you can walk a mile or so back down the road to a little village for supplies and stuff. No one will ask who you are or where you are from but they will treat you right if you come from this direction. There is wi-fi at the café if you need it. There is a satellite dish on the roof so there is television here. Other than that, enjoy and stay as long as you want."

Emily read the note along with me and simply said, "Wow; what an interesting place and area. Do you want to go to town tonight?"

"Let's wait for morning. I think we have had enough excitement for the day. Let's eat on the boat and not mess up the kitchen here. We can come up here and stretch out and watch television."

"That's a good idea." We walked back to the boat and I heard the thump of a helicopter again but this one was going faster and higher but I looked up anyways and all I saw was trees. That would be all they saw unless they had infrared scanners. While on the boat, I looked at the map on Emily's laptop and smiled. When we left, we could retrace our steps back to the big river or we could go west through some more swamps and get to the Red River. From there we would bypass all of the major stops on the Mississippi and the boat traffic that got worse as we went south. It would also take us to the Intercoastal Waterway and we would basically disappear even further than we already were. Having a second option made me feel a lot better if things got bad.

We made dinner on the boat and ate it quietly. Emily finally admitted that she found this place interesting but also spooky. She asked if we could sleep on the boat instead of in the house. I agreed. After dinner, we walked back up to the house and turned on a light in the kitchen and snuggled onto the couch. The television listed a dozen movies to watch and we settled for a comedy. I think that the stress of the past couple of days made us want to laugh a little. And that was what we did, laugh a little. It wasn't very funny and the storyline was stupid. We walked back to the boat by lantern light and closed up the boat for the night and went to bed.

During the night, I heard the scurry of little feet on the boat and assumed they were raccoons or nutria or some other rodent. We had left no food to be found, so they left disappointed. I found out in the morning that they hadn't truly been disappointed; they had gnawed on the cable to the radar and it was now useless. I would have cussed them or shot at them but they were by now safely in their burrows. Emily laughed when I told her and said that she had a spare. The store had recommended that she have one on hand. That was when I found out that she had bought all of this equipment and not borrowed it from the college. She corrected that by saying that she had bought it through the college and had gotten a good volume discount. That made it perfectly all right from her point of view.

We decided to walk into town and have breakfast and for Emily to take her phone and check for any messages. The walk into town took twenty minutes and was a nice peaceful walk in the woods. The breakfast place was open and after we ordered, Emily took out her phone and logged in and then gasped. I looked at her and she held the phone up for me to see. The text message said, "Urgent. Call Tom ASAP." It was eight o'clock in the morning so he was probably in his office. I took her phone and punched his number. He answered on the third ring.

"Hey Tom; I just got the message to call you."

He was all business. "Do you know a guy name Charley Carson?"

"Yes; he was one of my SEAL teammates. Why?"

"He is the Chief of Security for United Logistics and is the guy running this hunt for you. We got the team that beat up Jefferson and a couple of other people while they were tracking you down. They said that he gave the orders but once he found that you were on a boat heading downriver, he knew where you would go. Does that mean anything?"

"Yes. The brother of another teammate gave me directions to this place in the swamp if I needed a place to go. He gave the same information to Charley and another guy. They only got land directions; I got the boat information."

"I have a team going to bust his ass this morning but I don't know if he has already dispatched people to find you. If you can, you might move somewhere else safer."

"Will do. I'll contact you later for an update."

"Good. Take care." He hung up.

Our breakfast was on the table when I handed the phone back to Emily. I told her to eat quickly and that we needed to go quickly. We ate in record time and I left twenty dollars on the table and we left. As we walked quickly, I briefly told her what I had learned. When we got to the boat, I got out the 30-30 and gave her the shotgun and 9mm and told her to wait on the boat. If she heard shooting, she was to start the engine and wait for me and if anyone tried to come through either of the gates, to shoot first. I would come running if I heard that. Then I went to the stern and opened the other new hatch and took out the big boy and the armor piercing and explosive shells. I hopped off the boat and went back towards the house but stayed on the ground level and off to the side behind a rock wall. I had estimated that if a team left at six, they would be here anytime. I only intended to wait for thirty minutes or so and then we were going to leave one way or another.

I only had to wait five minutes when I heard the roar of a big engine and tires coming down the gravel road. A big, high wheeled Ford 350 roared up to a stop and four guys jumped out. The leader didn't waste any time but called my name and told me to come out and no one would get hurt. He waited ten seconds and nodded to the other three who pulled out AR-15s and started putting holes all over the house. That pissed me off and I decided that the leader needed to spend some time in bed. I aimed the 30-30 and fired at his right knee. The others firing never even realized that someone had shot back because of their racket. They figured it out and stopped firing when he slumped to the ground and cried out in pain. The next shots they heard were the armor piercing and explosive slugs that I put into the idling engine and the truck cab. Both of them worked exactly as designed. I only heard the results as I was running back to the boat that Emily had running and ready when I jumped on board.

On a whim, I told Emily to drive the boat out of the gate slowly and then turn right and speed up. For some reason, I felt that there might be a boat waiting outside for us and I had another armor piercing slug waiting for them if they were. Emily did as I asked and pushed the gate open and turned right. By then an automatic was being fired at us from the left. I hoped that their aim was lousy because of the 500 yards that separated us. I didn't care because I was comfortable with the big boy at 1000 yards. The boat made a sweeping turn to come towards us which gave me a perfect shot at his engine. A moment later, their firing stopped and the back end of the boat disintegrated.

I put the big boy and 30-30 down and went up to check on Emily. "Are you ok?"

She broke into tears and threw her arms around me. "I was so scared that you were hurt. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. They never even knew where I was."

"What were those explosions I heard?"

"They were the ammunition that I told you wasn't legal so don't tell Tom about them."

"How the hell am I going to tell him about something that I don't even know what they are? Asshole!"

"I love you too, Emily. With luck these are the last of them but let's don't take chances. Go bring the laptop up here and see how this maze of channels will work for us."

She went below and I heard a loud, "Son of a Bitch! Those bastards shot up the laptop."

Firing an automatic weapon at 500 yards means that the bullets are going to go somewhere and hit something. At least it wasn't either of us. The paper map wasn't as helpful as the computer one but I got the general idea and we followed the major channels. As it turned out, they might as well have put road signs up because every turn was obvious and sweeping. A lot of people in good sized boats used this route to get to the Red River. As we went through the maze of channels I heard several distant helicopters and a siren or two that echoed through the forest and swamps.

When we finally got to the new river, I turned south and we went for five miles to the nearest town of any size and docked at their municipal facility. It was well after lunch time and we had finally wound down enough to think about food again. We walked into town and found a café that was still serving. We each ordered a plate lunch with meat loaf and I had Emily call Tom.

"Hi there favorite uncle." "I know that you are my only uncle but you are still my favorite one." "Hell, how do I know what he used? He had me stay in the boat; he was afraid I might get hurt. I wanted to shoot someone." "Ok, here talk to that prick. He wants details and I don't know any."

"Hi, Tom."

"Ok, we have a blown up truck, three guys scared shitless, a guy with not much of a knee cap left and a blown up boat with two guys swimming for their lives from alligators. Oh and the house over there is shot full of holes. Would you like to tell me a story that I will believe?"

"Well, after I talked to you this morning, we went back to the house; I mean to the boat. I figured the house was just a target. I gave the shotgun and 9mm to Emily and told her to fire up the engines if shooting started. I took a couple of things and went back up near the house to see what might happen. The truck drove up and the four guys got out. The guy with the bad knee yelled for me to come out and no one would get hurt. He gave me about ten seconds to respond and then nodded to the others and they had target practice with the sides of the house. That pissed me off so I gave the leader a leg problem with the 30-30."

"How many shots?"

"Tom, I'm out of the service but not out of practice. One shot from about seventy five yards."

"Uh huh, and if you tell me that you did the engine and cab of the truck with the 30-30, I'll be really disappointed in you."

"Of course not; I use the fifty caliber for that."

"That's what I thought and from the look of it, those must have been depleted uranium, armor piercing explosive shells you used."

"Aren't those illegal in this country?"

"Yes, they are as a matter of fact. What about the boat?"

"I figured that the three guys in front were no longer a problem so I went back to the boat. Emily had the engine running so I told her to pull out and turn right. As soon as we cleared the gate, the dumb ass started shooting his automatic plinking gun at us. That pissed me off because he was shooting at Emily. So I aimed at his engine and well, I guess I hit him."

"You must have hit it or the transom because you blew the whole back end of the boat off. I assume you used the .50 again, how many shots?"

"One but since it was about 500 yards; I was ready to give him seconds if I missed."

Emily leaned over and yelled into the phone, "The bastard shot up my new laptop."

Tom said, "Really?"

I replied, "He must have fired off a hundred rounds or so; he was bound to hit something."

"So they fired five or six hundred rounds and your fired four times, right?"

"Yes; I don't like to waste ammunition. I never did even when the government was buying it by the truck load."

"Speaking for the government and as a taxpayer, I appreciate the hell out of that. Now I am going to need a formal statement from you on this."

"I don't know what else I can tell you. I never saw any of these guys before; I don't know who they work for or why they came after me; and as far as I know, all they wanted was me dead. But it pisses me off that they were also targeting Emily. Now, if you will tell me the who and where, I'll go find out the why. This whole mess is getting on my nerves. I just want to go down the river and enjoy my fiancé. They are making it very difficult to do that."

For the first time, Tom laughed out loud. "You know Stuart, I have taped this whole conversation and Carla is going to get a real chuckle out of this. By the way, she is our office's local legal advisor. I'll let her decide what blanks need to be filled in for an official report. Charley Carson is talking to some of the big boys today and maybe we find out the who and the why. So are you going to come back to St. Louis now?"

Emily was listening and replied, "We aren't coming back until he fucks me on the ocean."

"I guess that means we are going to the Gulf for a few days before we head back."

"That works out real good. Plan on going to Galveston. Something came up for Ray and he is going down there for a couple of days next week. I'll have him call or send you the details. But keep in touch in case I need more information."