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I followed Laughlin towards my cabana, feeling a bit flustered. "Um, we should probably look at the boating map we had for the area, to see what the best way to approach the island is," I noted, stalling, although what I was trying to avoid I wasn't quite sure.
"I'm just teasing about the swimsuit thing, Agent Roman," he said, still heading toward the cabana. "And the map's inside, with your gear."
I relaxed a bit. "Pity the gear isn't all that useful. Actually, it would work fine with a new regulator. Maybe we can 'borrow' one or two from the dive shop, in exchange for our defective merchandise."
Once we reached the cabana, I checked the windows and doors to see if anyone appeared to have been there, but it appeared there had been no visitors. Once inside, the two of us suited up and Laughlin made no jokes about my swimsuit, though I noticed that he noticed. Businesslike, he had the chart out by the time I was finished changing. "I'm thinking that our previous approach route might still be the best," he said. "I doubt they know how we did it."
I nodded. "I was thinking the same. It's possible that they may not even know that cave exists...although I don't think we should count on it. I do hope there aren't many more of those large sharks lurking about, though. Tangling with one during the day was bad enough."
"Well, we know they know about the temple. We can't assume that they don't know about the cave, but it's better than coming ashore at the beach. Now. How are we going to get there?"
"That is the tricky part. If we rent a boat, they'll know we're going out and they'll be on the alert." I smiled slightly. "We may wind up having to take a page from Stroeker's book."
He grinned. "Now you're talking. The water's fine here on the Dark Side," he joked. "I saw a very nice zodiac down by the marina that would be perfect. Say, right after dark?"
I frowned slightly at the Dark Side comment, but chose to ignore it. "As soon as it's dark enough for cover. We'll need to make an unofficial stop at the dive shop too. That leaves us five hours to figure out our plan for once we get to the island. And maybe come up with a way to mislead the locals into thinking we're doing something else tonight."
We spent some time coming up with a basic plan. Nothing too specific - there were too many unknowns to lock us into anything detailed. We would try to sneak in via the cave, and come in the back way. If we were lucky and no one was assembled in the altar room yet, and the preacher was being held in the cells again, we'd try to break the guy out. If there was a ceremony going on, then it was going to be harder. We'd have to hope that Stroeker would make a move to grab the statues, and thereby create a distraction. Otherwise, we'd have to create one of our own...somehow. I wished I had a better idea, but I was stumped. I just knew I couldn't let the guy be sacrificed.
Next, we checked over all of our gear, and made sure there wasn't anything else we were going to need for this trip. There was also the matter of how to bring the gun along. Three hours later, our gear was checked, our supplies were ready, and I had the pistol double-bagged in a ziplock baggy. That left us with two hours until dark.
Pondering what to do next, it occurred to me that we hadn't needed to change into our swimsuits so early. It hadn't really been a problem while we were getting ready, but now.... Seeing Laughlin in his suit was making it harder to focus on business. Pity this wasn't a real vacation.
With some effort, I refocused on the task at hand. Given what we were about to do, I decided it would be prudent for me to write up a report for my partner regarding what had happened to me since I arrived at the conference. At least this way, if I was killed tonight, what I learned would not be lost. The report mainly covered what I had discovered about Stroeker, the statues, the ship, the island, and the fact that someone had tried to kill me at least twice. Nothing about Laughlin's supernatural suspicions, of course, nor did I include my intention to go back to the island tonight, in case the letter was intercepted.
Half an hour later, the report was as complete as I cared to make it. I put on tennis shoes and pulled a sarong on over my bathing suit, since I had to go to the front desk to mail it. Not that wearing just my bathing suit would have been unusual, but most guests wore shirts or some other form of pull-over when wearing their swim suits in the hotel. Laughlin added a golf shirt and sandals to his attire.
I took the report to the front desk and faxed a copy to my machine at work, before mailing it to David. I figured that if the letter was intercepted by the locals, and I disappeared, the fax would be found when they went through my office. Of course, I could have faxed the report directly to David, but I didn't want him reading it unless I died. If I made it home, he wouldn't need it anyway.
Once the report was on its way, I turned to Laughlin. "So, do you have any suggestions on what we should do to convince the locals that we're not going anywhere tonight?" I asked quietly, not wanting to be overheard.
"Be seen drinking in the bar?"
"How is that going to help? We will have to leave, eventually."
"Right. A couple. Drinking. Laughing. Then they leave. What would you assume, Agent?"
"Oh. Right. Good point. Sounds like a plan. Um, I guess we may as well get started on that, then." God, I sounded like an idiot. What was wrong with me?
In the bar, Laughlin ordered us two drinks, and sat close, his hand on mine. He smiled a lot, and it occurred to me that he could be a good actor. "Alcohol has never had much affect on me," he noted quietly. "How about you?"
I grinned. "Not usually. Although Brian's Kiwi Hangover did leave me kind of warm and fuzzy, which usually takes more than one drink for me. Alcohol and diving don't tend to mix well, though. I suggest we nurse these."
Laughlin nodded. "So," he said casually. "Is there anybody special back home?"
I raised an eyebrow. Was this part of the act? I decided to play along. "As a matter of fact, no. Work keeps me pretty busy, and they strongly discourage getting involved with people you work with." I sipped at my drink. "What about you?"
He shrugged. "I haven't been home in two years. Last month I was in Peru. Six months ago I was in Alaska. There was somebody, but...we said things we probably shouldn't have. That was a year ago. So what do you do with your time when you're not chasing bad guys, then?"
I shrugged. "Jog. Swim. Hike. Read. Sometimes I go out sailing with friends. It depends on where I'm assigned. I currently play baseball on our section's team. To be honest, I don't tend to have a lot of free time. This is the first vacation I've taken in years, other than visiting my family." I had to admit, my life outside of work sounded pretty dull when I explained it. No wonder David accused me of having no real life. Not that this had really bothered me all that much. I took another sip from my drink. "What makes you travel so much? Business or exploration?"
"A little of each. And restlessness. There is so much to see. What else is money for, really? Have you ever been to Peru? It is beautiful. The altiplano, the high desert, is one of the most desolate places you could ever find, but there is life even there. And mystery. Like I said earlier, we have that in common. I also like to hunt down mysteries."
I shook my head. "I've rarely even been out of the country, much less to Peru." I held back the comment that most people couldn't afford to travel as much as he apparently did. I didn't think he was trying to rub it in - he probably just never really thought about it. "So what brought you here?" I asked, voicing a question I'd been wondering about since I'd met him. "Were you following a mystery, or just looking for one?"
"I really just came for the convention. And to relax a bit, I suppose. Now maybe I wonder if it wasn't something more."
"Something more? How could it have been anything else? Or are you always drawn to strange happenings?"
"Once or twice, I have been. Haven't you ever felt drawn to certain places, Agent Roman?"
Hmm, that wasn't going to do under the circumstances. I shook my head. "Not that I can think of," I answered, then looked around to be sure no one was within earshot. "If we're supposed to be involved with each other, you probably shouldn't call me that, you know."
He smiled. "All right, Jillian. So you've never felt the call of Fate. Are you religious?"
"I was raised Catholic. I'm not what you'd probably consider especially devout, though. I'm not one of those who think that God has a specific plan for everyone that we're fated to follow. We make our own destiny."
"Of course, you were fated to say that," he said, smiling through his drink.
"You would say that." I smiled back, starting to enjoy this conversation. "I suppose you do believe in fate."
"Not really. I believe that there are some things we can't avoid. Maybe that's Fate. But the general shape of our lives is our own to create, and in the end, we choose who and what we are.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."
"That sums it up very nicely," I observed, wondering what poem that was from. "So you think coming to this island was one of those things you couldn't avoid?"
"I think that those statues are somehow bound up with my fate, yes."
I frowned slightly, reminded of why we were really here. "I don't like those statues. I don't think I'd like to think my fate was bound up with them, if I believed in fate."
"I didn't say that I liked it."
Just then, there was a series of short, sharp reports, very distant, very faint. I instantly recognized them as gunfire.
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Last modified on January 25, 2016 by Kris Fazzari.