Chapter 231: Barbara

Wednesday, August 4, 1971

“I believe your party has arrived, sir,” said the Marine, sticking his head in the door. Kip immediately pushed himself off the bulkhead and with a look at me to make sure I was okay, headed out the door to take up a watch over my family.

“No kidding,” I replied as the raucous din of my family arriving on the aft deck reached our ears. “Would you ask your Sergeant to get someone to escort these folks out onto the deck to join the rest of their crew? It’s getting kind of stuffy in here.”

“I’ll be glad to do it, sir,” replied the young Marine as he stepped inside the Mess. With a wave of his rifle to indicate that they should go, he waited patiently as the three remaining pirates rose and shuffled towards the door.

I was just turning to Kalani’s three ladies to explain that we would do the rest of the interrogations out on the aft deck when I heard an “Ooomph!” followed by the sound of a body crashing to the floor.

“Get your hands up,” cried a female voice as she waved the now unconscious Marine’s sidearm towards me and the three ladies.

“Take it easy, ma’am,” I said soothingly. “We’re not armed.”

“Get somebody in here with the goddamned key! Now!” she screamed. “And not one of those Marines!”

I looked to the three women and nodded towards the door. “Tell them to send the key,” I told the ladies as calmly as I could. I knew I could stop her anytime, but I wanted to get the ladies out of harm’s way. It was safer for them and fewer witnesses for me, in case I had to use my powers.

“Lose the pig-sticker,” the young woman said as she waved the M1911A1 in my face. I looked closely to see if she had actually slipped the safety off. She had.

“Is there any way we can sit down and discuss this?” I asked her calmly. I still hadn’t moved to undo the belt that held my sheath and sword.

“Shut up! And lose that pocket knife before I put a hole between those pretty blue eyes,” she said menacingly as she waved the M1911A1 even closer to my face.

“Maybe he’s in here?” came a voice from the corridor that I immediately recognized as one of my new mates. Scanning quickly, I saw that Hanna was accompanied by Allie, Shelby, and Ileana.

“We should have known,” said Allie, laughing as they turned into the room, “If you want to find Michael, just look for the pretty gir-l-l-l ... uh ... Uh-Oh!”

It was almost like a Keystone Cops routine as the other three girls ran into a suddenly stopped Allie. The laughter and talk also came to an abrupt halt, as the four girls saw the young pirate holding a pistol in my face.

“Is everything okay, my prince?” Ileana asked softly.

“It was, but I’m afraid you’ve caught me with another beautiful woman,” I replied conversationally.

“Cut the chatter! And get me that key,” she snarled.

“You’re not as beautiful when you snarl,” I told her.

“Then let me show you beauty,” she said as she pulled Ileana in front of her as a human shield and held the M1911 to Ileana’s temple. “Now. Get me that damned key or your pretty little girlfriend gets all messy!”

“Wife!” both Ileana and I said at the same time.

“What?” she asked.

“We said, ‘wife’,” Ileana explained.

“Actually, that would be wives, as in more than one wife,” Hanna volunteered.

The young pirate was becoming confused at the pronouncements and the unexpectedly calm nature of these young kids.

“I warned you! If you don’t get me the key, the ... uh, wifey here gets it. And then the next one will be for the other wifey!” the young pirate snarled.

“Michael, please don’t hurt her,” Ileana said to me.

I looked into the young pirate’s eyes and said, “I’m sorry,” as I emotionally stimulated the nerves surrounding the primary motor cortex where it connects with the basal ganglia. This caused all the young pirate’s voluntary muscles to become paralyzed while not affecting any of her involuntary muscle functions.

As the young pirate’s muscles froze and she began to topple over, there was a sickening crack when she hit first her arm and then her cheek on the edge of the metal mess table.

“That had to hurt!” I thought.

“Barbara!” cried the Captain as he jumped up to go to her. But the shackles slowed him down. The nephew, who had sat quietly through everything else also jumped up, but he was hemmed in by the close confines of the mess table to the wall. Exasperated, he simply stood there clenching and unclenching his fists.

“What did you do to her?” cried the Captain as he cradled her head on his knees. He could see that her eyes were open and that she was breathing, but she could not move. “Barbara! Speak to me.”

“She’ll be alright, sir,” Hanna told him as she pulled at his arm to get him out of the way. Meantime, Ileana had knelt beside her and was examining the cut on her cheek and the swelling knot on her left forearm.

“The cheek is just a small cut, but it looks like the arm is broken. Can you take care of it, or do you need us to send for Anna?” she asked me.

“Let me see,” I told them as I scanned her for any more serious injury.

In the meantime, two more Marines, their weapons drawn, burst through the door.

“Put those guns away and help lift her onto the table. While you’re at it, you can put your buddy on the other table,” I told them.

While one of them helped me with the pirate, the other one hoisted the still unconscious Marine up on the other table. Leaving the pirate for a moment, I scanned the Marine, paying particular attention to where he had hit the back of his head on the bulkhead when the pirate shoved him. I decided that I’d need Anna to look at his head injury.

“Houston, we have a problem,” I said, quoting a line from a movie that would not even be made for another twenty-four years.*

“Michael?”

“Hi Sweetheart. I hope you’re not in the middle of anything”

“What’s wrong, Michael?”

“One of the Marines has a head injury and I wanted you to look at it with me. I’d bring him to you except that I can’t leave right now,” I explained.

“Where are you?”

“We’re on the pirate ship, in the crew mess.”

“Okay, I’m on my way. Try not to move him until I get there.”

“Will do. And Anna ... I love you!”

We were sitting on the large, open aft deck at the table that had been set up for the women taking statements from the crew. We were finishing up the last of the Frenchmen, with Ileana acting as interpreter and interrogator, when Anna came up behind me and put her arms around my neck.

“You did a good job with the woman. Did you do anything to the Marine?” she asked.

“I love you too,” I told her. “And no, I didn’t do anything to the Marine. How is he?”

“He’s awake, and a little groggy. She hit him pretty hard with that sap, but I think he should be okay. I had him transferred to the hospital where they’re keeping him overnight for observation. We’ll check on him again tomorrow, after the swelling goes down,” she said.

“You said she hit him with a sap?” I asked.

“I’m pretty sure. It was lying on the floor next to the door and all the evidence supports it,” Anna said. “We’d need more sophisticated equipment to make sure.”

“How’s the girl?” I asked.

“Confused. She has no clue what happened to her. Or how she was paralyzed and then not paralyzed. How her arm was broken and is now whole. Or how the cut on her face is no longer there. Did you have to do it? The last thing we need are some pirates witnessing what you can do,” Anna said.

“She didn’t leave me much choice. I kept stalling, but I finally ran out of time,” I replied.

“Well, it’s water under the bridge,” Anna sighed. “When are you going to interrogate the three Americans?”

“I guess it will have to be tonight. Right now, I want to take a break and stretch my legs. Maybe after a bite of supper, I’ll feel more like it,” I told her.

“Then walk me back to my room and maybe I can help make you feel better,” Anna said suggestively.

And that’s exactly what I did, and then that’s exactly what she did!

The locals had provided us with a dozen or so tiki lights that ringed the aft deck and, coupled with the lights on the pier, provided us with enough illumination to see each other and talk comfortably.

I sat on one side of the table and the three remaining pirates sat across from me. We were in the middle of the aft deck with the Marines stationed at intervals around the edge of the deck, out of hearing range. There was no court stenographer. There was no family. Just me and them.

“What is going on?” the Captain asked. “Where is everyone else?”

I felt refreshed. I had walked Anna back to her room where she was insatiable. We stopped once when I complained of hunger, in order to call room service. Later, we paused long enough for me to wolf down a sandwich before resuming my attempts at satisfying her pregnancy-driven, hormone-laden, sex-drive. Finally, after a quick shower (alone), I got dressed, kissed her sleeping form on the bed, grabbed her untouched sandwich, and walked back to the pier.

“Have you eaten?” I asked politely.

‘Huh?” the Captain replied, surprised at the question.

“I asked if you have eaten? Were you fed?” I repeated.

“Yes, thank you,” replied a much more composed raven-haired pirate. “We were well provided for, given that we are under arrest for piracy against your country.”

“Yes, well, technically, you’re not under arrest yet,” I told them. “Whether that happens depends on how our discussion goes tonight.”

“But aren’t you going to interrogate us as you did the crew this afternoon?” asked the young man, speaking up for the first time all afternoon.

“I have no need to interrogate any of you. I already know everything about you,” I announced.

“How could you. I haven’t uttered a word to anyone all day,” the young man said.

“Well, let’s see ... your full name is Lawrence Getty Grimes, but you prefer the nickname ‘Dutch’ for some reason,” I told him. “Your dad, Walter, started B&G Salvage with Tab here. Since they were constantly at sea, you saw very little of your dad. You grew up on Mount Helix and attended Grossmont High School with average success with your grades, but very little success with the ladies.”

“Huh? How ... How?” Larry stuttered.

“When Walter died, while you were still in high school, you swore you would never have anything to do with his business or the sea. And you kept that resolve through your first two years at Grossmont College. But finally, you decided you wanted to get out of El Cajon. To see the world. And your dad’s business provided the perfect solution. I’m not sure why it then took you three years to actually leave, but...”

“It was me. He was waiting on me. You see, his mom said he couldn’t go unless he took me. So he waited until I could leave,” the young female pirate explained.

I shifted my glaze from Larry to the young female pirate and said, “True. And it was also you that came up with the idea of using your salvage boat for piracy. It was you who picked the crew. It was you who selected the targets. It was you who...”

“ALRIGHT!” she screamed. “It was me! Arrest me and let the others go. Please! I’ll confess to everything, just let them go. They’re innocent ... they’re ... innocent,” she cried, as she just broke down in a torrent of tears.

I waited. Signaling the other two to remain silent, we all waited.

Finally, she realized that no one was talking and she looked up as she began to wipe the tears from her eyes.

“As I was saying, it was you who picked the targets; it was you who insisted that no damage was done to the yachts. It was you who took only those items that you could use; use to buy fuel and food. And most importantly, it was you who insisted that no one got hurt.”

“I don’t understand,” said Tab. “What are you getting at?”

I fished a piece of paper out of my pocket and looked at it, then I asked, “Will this boat pull a ... TAS?”

All three of them looked at me like I was crazy.

“I asked if this boat would pull a TAS? You know, a Towed Array Sonar?” I repeated.

“It’s a ship. Boats are for the bathtub,” Larry replied automatically.

“It depends on the size of the array, mainly the length of the cable and the number of hydrophones you employ,” Tab explained.

I was really liking this guy at this minute. It seemed that he actually knew what a TAS was, and more importantly, how to go about using one.

“We’ve got an old one in the equipment locker that we haven’t used in years. I’m not even sure that it works anymore,” Tab continued.

“Now Daddy! You know that you always take care of your equipment,” Barbara said proudly.

“Well, I know we need to replace the tow line and several of the hydrophones after getting it caught in that shipwreck off of the Marshalls a few years back.”

I was in love! There was no way they were going to the brig now. I needed them for my new plan.

“Son, do you mind telling us what’s going on? Why do you want to know about towed arrays?” Tab asked. “Are you going after sunken treasure?”

Normally, I hate to be called ‘son’. But I was too happy to get too mad.

“Sir, with all due respect, I detest being called anyone’s ‘son’. I am Michael, or Prince, or even ‘hey you’. But please, don’t ever refer to me as ‘son’ again,” I explained calmly.

“I’m sorry, your highness,” Tab said at once. “Now, don’t you think it’s about time you explained what’s going on?”

The sun had already set, yet the sky wasn’t quite dark. The light from the tiki torches’ danced in the warm breeze off the ocean. As I sat there and looked at the three of them, I knew he was right. It was time to “fish or cut bait” as my Granddaddy Brown used to say.

“Would you excuse me a moment?” I asked them. “You’re welcome to move around, but beware of the Marines stationed out there. It probably wouldn’t be wise to get too close to the side of the boat.”

“Ship,” Barbara and Larry said at the same time.

“It’s called a ship. Not a boat,” Barbara explained patiently.

“I stand corrected,” I told her as I stood and walked toward the fantail. I needed a minute to gather my thoughts and to talk to Kalani.

“Kalani?”

“Michael? What’s going on? Are you in danger? Where are you?” Kalani thought, the alarm growing as she replied.

“I’m fine. I’m on the pirate ship with the three Americans and about a dozen Marines are watching us,” I told her.

“Okay. Then what can I do for you? I’m in the middle of a dinner with the State Department.”

“I’ll be quick. I only have two questions. I want to buy the pirate ship from you. How much?” I asked her.

“Wait! What? You want to what?” she sputtered in surprise.