Chapter 20: Fort Lauderdale

It was close to eleven am when the adults finally convened in my room. Besides Cynthiana and me, the Fourreaus, the Lavignes, the Bouchards, and my folks, along with Samantha, Sarah, Rachel, Isabella, and Reggie, were all there. The big surprise was that Carina was there as well.

“All in good time,” Cynthiana said softly to me when she saw my eyes get big at seeing Carina again unexpectedly. She sat in the back of the group and neither looked at me or said anything.

Cynthiana nodded to Reggie.

“About ten days ago, First Lady Anita Dexter was passing her husband’s personal study, upstairs in the residence, when she overheard someone speaking on the president’s very private line. Later that night, she told her husband what she had seen and heard.

“The President consulted with several colleagues and old friends and then called me. It was decided that a confidential investigation would be opened by the Justice Department, but by the next morning, the White House aide that Anita had overheard had disappeared.

“At the same time, an Admiral who Reggie’s group had been observing from a distance, also did not go in for work that day. Instead, Reggie’s agents tailed him to a farm outside Yellow Spring, West Virginia, where he met with the man that Anita Dexter had overheard. When the White House aide heard that it was Anita who had discovered him, he swore to... “Get that bitch!” and then, after killing the Admiral, he left the farm on foot. Reggie’s agents did not know he had snuck out of the farmhouse and was hiking over back country to escape detection, so they did not follow him.”

“So what does that have to do with us being at a boat show?” Captain Tony asked.

“The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is the largest boat show in the western hemisphere. It draws a lot of very wealthy individuals who have historically made significant contributions to political parties, so it is not unusual for the opening address to be given by an important political figure. Hence, First Lady Anita Dexter will be giving the opening address on Wednesday morning, then will be taken on a private tour of some of the more expensive yachts. Bering has even offered her a short ride to demonstrate some of its finer points,” Cynthiana explained.

“So the First Lady is going for a cruise on the Cécile, Wednesday? I asked.

“President Dexter has asked us to help her disappear while he flushes out this new danger,” Cynthiana continued.

Everyone began talking at once, and Cynthiana just let them. Finally, everyone began calming down and Admiral Craig spoke up.

“The Navy has asked me to represent them at a ceremony in Paris this weekend and I said I would go. Is that going to be affected by these latest developments?” he asked.

Reggie thought a minute before answering.

“I don’t see that it would have a negative effect on our plans. Do you plan to take Maria with you?” he asked.

“It is expected that she would attend, but would not raise too many eyebrows if she didn’t,” he replied. “I was actually going to take her to her parent’s house in Madrid.”

“Then I’ll leave that to you. Either way, you should make arrangements for your own security,” Reggie told him.

“Where will we go and how long will we have to be gone?” Captain Alfred asked.

“We don’t know how long it will take, and where you go will be up to you. Just make sure you keep on the alert for any naval movements against you. Don’t hesitate to have Alex fry them, as he calls it,” Reggie said. “While you protect yourselves and the First Lady, we will be assisting the President, the Department of Justice, the FBI and who knows how many other alphabet agencies in finding this former White House Aide,” Reggie said.

“Is this why Carina is re-joining us?” I asked.

“Carina is a doctor and the First Lady is still not completely cured of her cancer. It was hoped that you might have time to continue her healing while you are sailing,” Cynthiana replied.

“Are you okay with this?” I asked Carina. She just nodded her head. This was not like the Carina I knew. Something was going on there.

“Okay, what are you not telling us?” Captain Tony asked. He was very leery of incomplete intel before a mission. Too many chances of failure when the authority figures played this game.

Reggie looked at Cynthiana who just nodded. Then he took a deep breath and began.

“The White House has identified the missing aide as William Robert Strawbourn. He’s from Pascagoula, Mississippi. About three years ago, his youngest sister was struck and killed by lightning on their farm in Pascagoula. He took her death hard and has since had an acute interest in lightning strikes on humans. By-the-way, almost 100% of all direct lightning strike victims die immediately. Anyway, when he first heard of your surviving, he became interested in your case. After Alex’s parents and doctor pulled the switch, he was furious. But for some reason, he never quite believed it and spent countless agency dollars trying to disprove Alex’s death.”

“How did he learn the truth?” I asked.

“It was either when you chartered the diving boat or when you went to the casino in Cannes. Or possibly both. It seems that by then he had blanketed Interpol and most of Europe with your picture. But before he could swoop in and grab you, you disappeared again from the marina in Monte Carlo,” Reggie explained. “Monte Carlo is loaded with CCTV camera systems and he must have utilized a lot of manpower, authorized by the White House no doubt, to study the film from those cameras.”

“But how did he know that I was on the Serendipity?” I asked.

“It seems he got a bit lucky and figured if you were, you would probably stop in Funchal. And when he lost the sniper he had sent there, he correctly figured that you were heading back to the US. That’s when he sent the USS Freeman Gosden. It seems that he blackmailed an admiral in the Pentagon to get the Gosden sent after you. And the Hornets from the Eisenhower as well.”

“What about the task force?” I asked.

“After losing the Gosden and both the Hornets from the Eisenhower, he realized that he had to change methods. We don’t think he knew what you had done, or the extent of your powers at this time. And with Cynthiana out-flanking him in Nassau, he just changed tactics and had a senior member of the Committee on Armed Services send an unendorsed communique to the Admiral of the task force causing them to add to the parameters of their operation. Then he somehow got a NATO commander in Brussels to pass on a fake warning about a yacht full of terrorists in the Southern Caribbean. You know how that turned out.”

“Oh, yeah,” I sighed.

“We still don’t know all the details of the drone attack, but I’m sure he was somehow connected,” Reggie added.

“But why?” my mom asked.

“Who knows?” Reggie replied. “Interest becomes obsession, obsession becomes fixation. Pentagon psychiatrists think he has an unreasonable something-or-the-other that makes him think that it’s unfair that you lived and his little sister died.”

“Changing the subject, Darrel, do you feel secure enough to stay behind and fly back to Paris with me?” Cynthiana asked my dad. “I’d like to get you checked out on as many of our other planes as possible.”

While Dad and Mom discussed this, I was busy calculating available space on the yacht. Who knew how big of an entourage the First Lady might bring.