Chapter 19

On our return, we had been in radio communication with the ship as we approached within a few miles of Corpus Christi. There had been no new developments. Three of our party -- miles away from the harbor on a food-pickup expedition -- were missing, and had been, now, for nearly 24 hours.

"You think, maybe, they just went off on their own? Maybe decided they wanted to start their own little society?" Raymond asked.

"I can't see it," I said. "You know Elbert. He wouldn't just leave Geneva behind without a word. And Diego? He can barely communicate in English. Why would he up and leave the people he came up here with from Mexico?"

"No," Dr. Montoya said. "Something very bad has happened."

After we had re-stored the RV in its warehouse hiding place, we were trying to call the ship on our walkie-talkie, to let them know we were about to board the motor launch we used to access the big ship. There was no immediate response, and it was then that we found out "something bad" was still happening. While we were out in the open at dockside, we suddenly found ourselves under fire from at least two directions.

Automatic rifles.

The only place we could go for immediate cover was into the water -- and under the pier. The water was shallow and, farther back under the heavy beams of the dock, we were able to move up out of the water altogether. It would require a cannon to fire at us from this location.

As always, we were ourselves armed, although our rifles had only the clips that were in them. If whoever was doing the shooting were to came down here to finish us off, we could at least defend ourselves for awhile. But we also were loaded down with cameras, communications gear, and medical supplies that Dr. Montoya had brought back from San Antonio. Despite our panic-dive into the waters of the bay, none of us had dropped our equipment.

Our ship was in the middle of the wide inner harbor, at least 200 yards from our position.

"Call the ship with the walkie-talkie," I said. "Let them know we're pinned down."

"No," Dr. Montoya said. "If they've got our people, they've got their equipment, too. They could listen in on our communications. This dock curves halfway around the shoreline. We can stay under here, and put some distance between us and them, on foot."

That's what we did. We stayed under the heavy structure, walking bent over on the dry ground to avoid having to wade in the murky water under the dock. Soon we had moved at least a quarter mile away from the point of the initial attack. We were just as far from our ship as we had been before, but it was reasonably certain that the people who'd been firing at us couldn't know our exact position.

Then again, we didn't know theirs, either.

"If we stayed under here and kept going, farther around the harbor, we could get to a point where our ship was between them and us," I said.

"That's assuming they don't change positions," Dr. Montoya said, "or have people over covering this side."

"They can't see us under here," Raymond said. "We could have moved in either direction, or stayed where we were. Unless there's a whole bunch of them, how're they gonna see us, or follow us?"

"They know we need to get back to the ship," Dr. Montoya said. "All they have to do is cover the inner harbor area. With enough rifles, they could have a field of fire on every side of our ship -- except maybe for the open water on the way out of the harbor."

"It didn't sound like there was more than two, maybe three rifles, firing at us," Raymond said.

"How about we wait, and move to the ship after dark?" I suggested.

"Yes. And from the far side of the harbor. We'll have to assume that they aren't able to cover it from all sides. I mean, they probably don't have a whole army at their disposal."

"Need to find a rowboat. Something quiet," Dr. Montoya said. "Wait until late, then move to the ship from the far side. Let's keep walking. We'll find a good spot, and look for the right boat while it's daylight. Then, we'll just have to wait."

Finding a rowboat was no problem, but we had to wait a long time to use it. We had arrived back in Corpus Christi before noon. It was still only early fall, and darkness didn't come until after 7:30 p.m. We were uncomfortable, our clothes still soaked from the leap into the harbor water earlier. We had some basic rations, and water, but the hours seemed to be dragging by. The urge to communicate with the ship was intense. There was even some risk that we could be fired upon by our own people, as we tried to sneak aboard in the dark.