Chapter 21

I woke up before the alarm went off. Subconsciously, I must have been worried about the incoming storm. I reached over and grabbed my phone to get an update using my marine weather app. No change. Even if the winds picked a bit earlier, we still had plenty of time to get over there and back. I gently roused Trisha. No need to wake up Jake. We got showered, ate breakfast and were out of the cottage around 8 and over to the boathouse by 8:15. After systematically going through my check list to make sure we didn’t forget anything, I started up the outboard motor in the Zodiac and we headed out.

The wind was light from the southeast and there was only a slight ripple on the water. The sky was overcast but the ceiling was quite high, the sun clearly visible and bright. There was a faint halo, foretelling the arrival of the approaching storm. I had a sudden thought. I got close to Trisha so she could hear me.

“I’m going to head over to the marina project. It will only take about ten extra minutes.”

“Okay, fine with me,” Trisha answered, with a smile. “It’s great to be out here today.”

The company had been working on it for a couple of weeks and I wanted to check on their progress. Hopefully they were following the agreed upon rules and there was no environmental impact. I backed off on the throttle and cruised slowly alongside the new pilings that had been driven in, extending the marina out into the bay. All looked good, and I was about to continue our trip when I noticed it. There was a huge oil slick closer to shore adjacent to the moored boats. One of the conditions of the marina expansion permit was to clean up the existing pollution caused by leaky fishing boats and pleasure craft motors. Obviously they hadn’t done anything to address this problem. I made a note to bring this up at the next Marine Environment Association meeting.

“Look at that bitch, Kevin. She doesn’t scare easy. That letter we sent to her about not taking her job so seriously didn’t do any good. We need to do something to convince her to stop butting into other people’s business.”

“What did you have in mind, Earl? Hey, it looks like there’s two in the boat.”

“Yup. For starters, let’s power up the boat and follow them. Maybe a few close passes to rattle them. That should do the trick.”

“Okay, but not too close. We don’t want them to get swamped and drown, right?”

“No, of course we don’t want that. But they have to learn that some things are best left alone.”

Kevin and Earl were employed as security guards for the company. Their intimidation tactics went beyond what they were hired for. Management had no idea what they were up to. At a meeting a few weeks ago, Earl took the bosses’ statement literally that they had to do something to stop Amy’s interference. Hence the letter and now stepping it up to a higher level.

In a few minutes they powered up the cabin cruiser and began the pursuit.

I rotated the throttle handle to the highest setting, and we skipped over the light chop as I turned into the channel heading towards the sea lions. The wind had increased a bit, but I wasn’t worried about the weather as the full fury of the storm was still hours away. There were very few boats on the water, mainly ferries servicing the islands and the odd fisherman. It was even quieter further down in the channel, away from the main routes. There was one cabin cruiser a mile or so back of us.

I reached into the food bag, pulled out a couple of granola bars and threw one to Trisha.

“We’ll be there in about ten minutes. The snacks should give us some energy for the work ahead.”

“Thanks, Amy. This is so awesome. I really want to make it my career some day, working with marine life and having adventures like this.”

“Why did you slow down, Earl?”

“I’m curious to see what they’re up to. I’ve changed my plan. I think that they’re probably headed to that island with all the sea lions on it. It’s pretty isolated. Maybe we can have some fun with them.”

“What do you mean by fun? Nothing that will get us into any trouble though, right?”

“Nope, just adding a bit to our goal to scare the shit out of them. Then hopefully they’ll stop bugging us at the marina. Whatever happens, we’ll just threaten to make life difficult for them if they ever tell anyone.”

“Well, they are pretty good looking. Makes you wonder what they look like under all that gear. No nasty stuff though. Just have some fun, like you say.”

“Yeah, just party with them in the cabin is what I’m thinking. First get them feeling good. There’s a twenty-sixer of rum in the galley that should do the trick. Maybe get them to strip for us and then you never know where it will go. I’d love to fuck that bitch. You can have the other one.”

Kevin was a bit reluctant, but he was getting turned on with the idea. It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman. Also he was afraid to go against Earl. He could get really pissed off sometimes and that could lead to violence. It had taken him a few weeks to recover after one of his beatings.

We pulled into the little cove on other side of the Island to where the sea lions congregate, gathered up the things we needed: camera, tranquilizer gun, a few cartridges, some wires, probes and my laptop to make some notes about the herd, and then proceeded towards them. I was going to concentrate on a cow this time and possibly a pup.

As per usual, Trisha’s job was to distract the herd, especially the big bull, while I selected a couple of candidates for study. Things went pretty well. I fired my first dart at a cow, and it landed perfectly just below her front flipper. Next I selected a low dose cartridge, and fired at her pup. It took a few minutes to work, and then I approached them. The rest of the herd had moved away. They were focused and bellowing very loudly at Trisha. I took some blood samples to study later, installed satellite transmitters on both of them, took some photos and then made some notes on my laptop. I was all done in about thirty minutes.

I moved away from the herd, towards the trees, and beckoned Trisha to join me. I took out two sandwiches and water bottles from my backpack.

“I’m glad you’re finished. I think the bull was about ready to charge me. He didn’t seem to like me being so close to his girls,” she said, grabbing a sandwich and sitting down on a rock beside me.

“Thanks so much for distracting them. I couldn’t have done my work here without you.”

We sat there for a while, enjoying each other’s company until I noticed that it was getting darker out.

“The wind is coming up. The storm might be coming in a bit sooner. We’d better head for home.”

When we got to the peak of the island, I looked down towards the cove.

“Well that’s interesting. There’s a boat close to shore. Isn’t that the one that was behind us earlier.”

“Yeah, it looks like it. Maybe they’re having engine trouble or something,” Trisha said, as we made our way down the hill. There were a couple of guys standing beside our boat, one of whom was tying a line to a big log.

“Hello ladies,” the taller one said to us as we joined them.

“Do you have a problem with your boat?” Trisha asked him.

“Nope, we just decided to take a break. Also, we’re very curious about what you’re doing here.”

I explained to him about our sea lion study. As I talked, I was starting to get a bit concerned. I was pretty sure that I’d seen them at one of our marina project meetings.

“We should get going. Looks like the storm is coming in earlier than expected,” I said, starting to stow the gear in our boat.

“You aren’t going anywhere. We’re going to have a party in our boat, and then you can leave. Kevin, help me escort these lovely ladies to our cabin.”

I tried to reason with them.

“If we don’t leave right now, we’re all going to be in peril. We’d love to spend some time with you, but maybe some other day.”

“Listen bitch. You don’t get to decide when to leave. We’re on the lee side of the island. Nothing to worry about with the storm, and the four of us are going to have a great time, or else. Get moving.”

There was nothing we could do. They were much bigger and stronger than us. We didn’t have any choice but to take off our shoes, wade to the boat, climb on board and go down into the cabin. Trisha was visibly shaking as we descended the stairs, the men close behind us. It was easy to see that the taller guy was the leader. The other one didn’t seem as willing. Maybe it would be possible to reason with him, but I had my doubts if that would work. I took off my backpack, and placed it on the floor.