Chapter 20

Karl sat back in the deck chair and couldn’t help sighing as he felt the relief from the pain in his knees. He watched as L-C Greene walked up the steps while moving stiff as a ramrod, but Karl held back his urge to comment and reaching out his arm, he skidded the other deck chair toward the man.

“I need to sit down and I get a kink in my neck if I have to look up at the person I’m talking to. So have a seat,” he offered and in a lower voice he added. “And just this once don’t even look around, just sit back and relax, you’ll think better. You’ve got some good men out there, let them do their job.”

“Is my inexperience and discomfort concerning the handling of this particular situation that obvious?” L-C Greene asked sotto voce.

“To me it is,” Karl sighed softly. “I’ve been there, had a crew of good men and tried too hard to boss them. Once I eased up, let them do their jobs and just guided them when they needed help, instead of ordering them around, things worked far better.”

“That’s probably very good advice, sir.”

“Jeeezuuz Greene, will you guys lay off that fucking ‘sir’ shit with me? Please! I’m not in the military and I’m not going to play military name games with you. I don’t give a damn if you’re an able seaman or an admiral. I’m going as far as I’m willing to go, just calling you by your last name. Now would you call me Karl, please?”

“You’re a cranky old S O B, aren’t you?” Greene actually grinned, yet there was something about the grin that rang false to Karl.

“You’re damn right I am. Right about now, I’m cranky as hell, but I think I have several good reasons,” Karl sighed. “I’ve been under a hell of a lot of stress and quite a few problems. When you toss in a few health problems, then add in family injuries brought on by a cretin who attacked us, I’m dealing with a lot of shit. On top of that I’m supposed to be the caretaker around here, but I can’t even explain half of the crap that’s been going on, so how the hell am I supposed to take care of anything?”

He lifted his hand as L-C Greene was about to speak.

“Just let me explain. First off, when the earthquake hit, it damaged both houses on the island. This place was shook up and had a boulder come through the bathroom window, wiping out the toilet, a sewer connection and the main water feed to the house. George’s house got hit worse though. A bloody tree came down on the roof so the place is unlivable and they all moved in over here. But, all that happened days ago and we were starting to get things back in some kind of order when all this other weird shit hit the fan.

“This crap started yesterday when that the cow and calf that you can see out in the pasture simply showed up, wandering into the yard as if they appeared out of nowhere. Now I know you flew around the island when you came, so I’m sure you could see that there is no place where they could have come ashore, except down in the bay. However, there is no fucking way of getting into that bay easily, especially since the first big earthquake caused a landslide, which fucking near blocked the channel. At least I don’t think there’s a way into the bay, not with a boat big enough to carry that cow and calf, so I haven’t a clue how they got here.

“When the cattle showed up, I was busy, so I just tied them up temporarily. Later that day they disappeared and so did a loaf of fresh bread that was cooling on the window sill behind you. I was able to follow the cow’s tracks a bit and she’d been lead away. I’m sure of that because she went in a straight line and cows wander all over as they walk anywhere. Later my dog came home, barely able to move. He’d been stabbed with a spear or shot with an arrow, injuring him at least twice and his leg was broken. Because of that we kept guard and halfway through the night last night, in a pouring rainstorm, the cow and calf showed up again.

“I was out here just as day was breaking and I saw a stray dog attacking my goats, so I shot at him, twice. I’m sure I missed one time, but I heard him yelp at the second shot. Now I don’t like leaving wounded animals to suffer, so once there was enough light for us to see clearly, Ely and I tracked him. Since you flew up the gorge in the chopper, I imagine you saw the landslip that happened earlier today. His tracks led right to that, so it must have happened either when he was in that area or down below, because there were no tracks leading away. I think he was actually caught in the slide and escaped into the stream. I’m pretty sure of that because a little later in the day, I saw him get caught in the tidal rip that empties out of the bay.

“Now, having looked at the way my dog was injured, we decided that there had to be at least one man on the island, and since he’d attacked my dog, we wanted to defend ourselves. I had this rifle and a single shot shotgun, but there were other guns on the boat and over at George’s house. We were scared that if there was a guy here, he might get them and use them against us. Let’s see, down on my boat in the bay, there was an old muzzle loading rifle, and Keri had a shotgun there for shooting ducks. As well George had an antique revolver over at his house. Since we needed some supplies from George and Trudy’s place anyway, we decided to take the garden tractor and trailer and collect them. That way we could pick up everything in one trip.

“Ely, Keri, Trudy and I all decided to go. We went down to the boat first to get the black powder rifle and the shotgun, then we moved on to George’s house. While Trudy and Keri packed up things to bring over here from their house, Ely and I loaded up the trailer. Since one of the things we had was a toilet we’d salvaged to replace a busted one here, Ely rode in the trailer to hold it, so it wouldn’t get broken as I drove back. Keri and Trudy were following us on foot, but on the way back here they were attacked by a madman. That happened after they paused to rest at a shed that sits at the top of the trail leading down to the bay. Trudy was knocked out and Keri was raped. Luckily, Trudy was carrying a two-way radio and when she came to her senses, she called back here. I grabbed the rifle and ran to help them. As it happened, I got there just as Trudy used Keri’s shotgun to shoot at the bastard who’d attacked them. She missed and I think I missed my first shot too, but I shot several more times, trying to hit him as he ran away but he was in the bushes by then.

“I pretty well collapsed after that, because a few years ago I was the victim of a dose of chlorine gas, so if I exercise too hard, I can’t get enough oxygen. Luckily Ely and Linda had followed me with the little tractor and trailer, they got all three of us loaded on it and hauled us back here. When we got back, I literally collapsed and passed out for a while, but my condition wasn’t as serious as the others, so everyone else was looking after the two injured women. After I woke up, George was telling me about the broadcasts by the military offering assistance, so I got busy trying to fix our transmitter. Once I had it fixed, well, you know the rest.”

L-C Greene had stared at Karl in fascination as he told the story, then he simply shook his head as he looked down at his feet for some strange reason. After a moment’s thought he lifted his eyes to Karl’s.

“I am sorry,” he said quietly. “When we swung around the island in the helicopter, we did notice the other house and saw the damage to both it and the smaller cabin nearby. Was anyone injured during that incident?”

“No, but being in a house that was in an earthquake and had a tree fall on it scared hell out of everyone. I was on the boat, so I hardly noticed it until afterward. Since the only real damage here at my cabin was from a rock coming through the wall and smashing the toilet right through the floor of the downstairs bathroom, everyone moved in here,” Karl sighed. “Which was a damn good thing, because we were all here later on, when all the odd shit started to happen.”

“I believe you mentioned that you’ve collected all the weapons from the other house?”

“Well, the guns. There are lots of knives and axes and such,” Karl looked at him strangely. “Why, is that important?”

L-C Greene took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he stared into Karl’s eyes. “If our guess is correct, there could be several men hiding out here on the island. If they are, that would tie up a lot of loose ends that we’ve been following.”

“Well, don’t leave it like that,” Karl growled. “I’m a big boy. I’d like to have an idea just what the hell we’re facing.”

“All right, I’ll explain as best I can. Remember now, a lot of what I have to say is only supposition, but all the clues seem to point to it being true,” L-C Greene took a deep breath. “Several days before the earthquake we were tracking a tramp steamer on radar; one that we suspected was smuggling some form of contraband into the country. Actually, we only had two visual contacts with the vessel, one from an aircraft and the second from one of our smaller ships. Since the weather on the west coast of the island was vicious, we couldn’t maintain constant contact. However, when we did gain contact again, to our absolute amazement, it appeared to us that they were actually bringing the vessel into the Georgia Strait, which is very unusual. Usually smugglers don’t come into inside waters because of our patrols, but we thought if they were there, we could simply intercept and board them at our convenience to check out their cargo.”

“We were keeping radar contact with them and we deliberately didn’t attempt to intercept them at that time, letting them get closer to a point where we could surround them. That proved to be a major mistake when we lost contact again. However it was a good thing in one way because a lot of our smaller vessels were on patrol instead of in harbour when the earthquake hit. Now I’m not sure if you know exactly what happened, but the earthquake triggered a major tsunami. The majority of our patrols that were at sea survived quite well but the onshore damage was horrendous. Actually because of the direction of the tsunami our main base at Esquimalt came through quite well, but many of the other ports we use suffered far heavier damage,” L-C Greene paused then and sighed heavily.

“By the way, you’re damn lucky, that long narrow channel coming into your bay acted as a choke to the tidal wave. That saved your boat and your harbour from being badly damaged. Almost every other eastern facing port or harbour on Vancouver Island and facing the strait was either badly damaged or wiped out, all the way from Campbell River to Oak Bay.

“Anyway, back to the tramp steamer, it was actually thrown onto a reef and we have since boarded her. As we suspected, she was loaded with some legitimate cargo, but hidden deep in the hold there was a major shipment of contraband. From what we have been able to discover after interviewing the crew, there were six gang members aboard, and they had virtually taken over the vessel. Unfortunately, after it was wrecked, they escaped in a lifeboat with some of the contraband, abandoning the ship and the crew.”

“We found that life boat, but in it we found the body of a man and his wife. We don’t know how it happened, but we do know that the couple had a fairly large boat and they’d been working part time as freighters of perishable goods between some of the smaller islands. The load they were carrying on the day of the earthquake included two cows and a calf. We assume that the six gang members took over their vessel, killed the couple and put their bodies aboard the lifeboat, later abandoning or losing it. We’re also guessing that they killed the man and his wife in a fit of pure viciousness, or perhaps simply to prevent the couple from passing on the news of their actions to anyone else.

“We lost track of the six gang members at that point, but there are several clues that point to the fact that they may well be your attackers. First, the crew aboard the abandoned vessel mentioned a vicious black dog that terrified them. They said it belonged to one of the ringleaders of the gang and it wasn’t aboard the vessel when we took control. The second point, is the cow and calf of course, and the third, is the vicious attack on the women.”

“Now there is a fourth point, but it’s rather tenuous. Just a few days ago, two of our patrol vessels were following a weak radar image early one morning. Due to the weak radar image, our technicians were certain that it was a wooden boat. We were actually attempting to close on it with one vessel, while another swung around an island we were passing, trying to intercept the vessel’s obvious course. As it rounded the island, we temporarily lost radar contact, then just as we should have regained radar contact there was a loud explosion in the vicinity of the position it would have occupied. Our second vessel, which was coming around the island from the opposite direction had radar contact, but lost it completely at that instant of the explosion. We were forced to assume that the vessel had exploded and sunk. However, there was far too little debris to be certain of anything and what debris was there appeared to be so scattered that we had hardly anything left for analysis.

“Another point I should mention is that the island they were circumnavigating at that time, happens to be this one. I’m forced to assume that they left behind a cats-paw of some sort, something designed to explode when radar contact was made with it. In the meantime they managed to escape in their vessel in some manner,” L-C Greene sighed deeply once more.

“You mentioned that the channel which opens into the bay had been partially blocked by a landslide. If a vessel entered it during one of the tide changes, would it wreck a boat?”

“Oh, yeah!” Karl answered enthusiastically. “Hell, even before the rockslide happened, the only way I could bring my boat through was either at dead high or dead low tides. Otherwise there is a tidal rip running through that channel that would tear apart almost any boat by smashing it against the rock walls of the channel. Shit man, that passage twists and turns like a corkscrew, and at full rip the current must be going at least ten or twelve knots. Even at the best of times the water almost looks as if it boils in dozens of places.”

“So, you’re saying that if an inexperienced captain tried to manoeuvre a boat through it at the wrong time, his chances of making it through unscathed would be slim?”

Karl just looked at him and shook his head. “I take it that you didn’t actually fly over that area when you came?”

“Well, we did, but I wasn’t really able to see much, other than that the passage was very narrow and quite crooked.”

“L-C Greene, when I go in or out with the ‘Skolka, ‘ I do it when the current is almost dead, at either full tide or low tide. Even then, I like to have a crew member on the foredeck and another on the afterdeck, both of them ready with push poles, just in case. I am exceptionally well acquainted with how my boat reacts and I know I can control it almost instantaneously. I have made that passage at least a hundred times in the last ten years or so, yet I still only do it at the calmest tides and then with some trepidation. I wouldn’t even try to take a ten-foot inflatable through that passage when the tide is running at any strength, even if it was equipped with a powerful outboard.”

“In other words, the chances would be small for an inexperienced person to come through it at the wrong time, especially with a boat he wasn’t thoroughly accustomed to operating?” Greene asked.

“No, the chances of a person who wasn’t familiar with that passage bring a boat through at almost any time would be zero! He would be wrecked. I have no question of that in any way.”

“And if it were an inbound tide, would the wreck still be carried into the bay?”

“Hell yeah, only it would be spit out like garbage, all chewed to bits.”

“Well, I believe we know how your cow and calf got here and who the attackers are,” L-C Greene said quietly.

“Yeah,” Karl agreed. “I think you just might be right. The bastard that attacked Trudy and Keri sounds like he’d fit in with the crew you talked about.”

While Karl and L-C Greene had been discussing the events that had lead to their current situation, Lieutenant Baker, Naval Surgeon, had been concerned with the victims of that situation. During that time, she’d learned a few secrets, but had also learned to respect the people she’d met. Then, in the manner of most doctors, she’d set aside her personal opinions of right and wrong, treating her patients’ injuries, not their viewpoints, attitudes, or personal beliefs.

She paused agin on the stairway as they were going downstairs, looking Ely in the eye and told her that she had no interest in this family’s sleeping arrangements, just its health. Ely had smiled slightly, but had said nothing. Instead, they’d continued downstairs.

Once they were again on the main floor, Dr. Baker took Trudy through a thorough examination, paying special attention to her bruises, abrasions and other injuries, but doing other tests as well. If anything, her examination took longer than Keri’s had, and after she was done, she insisted that Trudy lie down, then gave her an injection to relax her tense muscles. After that she insisted on examining George. Of course he resented the interruption because it took him away from the radio, complaining bitterly that he was in as good health as he had been in years, and that he was busy right then.

Afterward, Dr. Baker took Ely aside. “Your father seems fine, considering everything, but I’m a bit worried in Trudy’s case. I think there may be some internal bleeding. Her blood pressure is quite low.”

“It always has been low,” Ely said quietly. “It’s still in the same range as it has been for at least five years. That low reading always astounds doctors because of her age and her diet, but we’ve never been able to discover why it remains so low.”

“I see. Do you happen to have medical records of these patients then?”

“Yes, but they aren’t fully updated, I believe the last records I have are from almost six months ago. Unfortunately, they are all in the safe at the other house right now.”

“I’d like to see those, if I can. Would you consider going to get them tomorrow, if we provide an escort to guarantee your safety?”

“Certainly, we could go tonight, if your escort is willing,” Ely said firmly.

“Oh I don’t think that sort of hurry is necessary,” Dr. Baker shook her head. “Tomorrow will be soon enough. It’s just that I’d like some long term comparisons to their present condition.”

“Is there anything else that I should know for tonight?”

“No, but I do have one more patient, I believe.”

“If we can get him to cooperate,” Ely sighed. “Karl thinks he’s invincible.”

“Before I see him, could you describe his long term problems?”

“Sure,” Ely murmured, then explained about Karl’s brush with chlorine gas and his arthritis problems.

“And how old is the patient?”

“Karl is only forty-two, but when his health acts up he seems like he’s eighty-two,” Ely sighed softly. “Of course he tries to work as if he was only twenty-two.”

“Don’t all men do that?” Dr. Baker smiled. “Now let’s go see if we find an old man or a young kid waiting for us outside.”

“Oh, he won’t be waiting for us,” Ely smiled. “He may be there, but I’m willing to bet he’s up to his armpits in whatever is going on. We’ll have to argue with him to get him inside.”

Dr. Baker could read the love and pride in Ely’s voice right along with the concern, so she was smiling as well when they moved toward the door to talk Karl into being examined.

Karl was staring off toward the trees, a frown on his face. “So this gang you were discussing, are most of them oriental or what? The guy I saw didn’t look like he was.”

“Actually no,” L-C Greene said quietly. “The orientals seem to have a different approach. This was something we haven’t seen much of, at least not here on the west coast. Have you ever heard of ‘the Russian Mafia?’ From what we can find out, it looks like this gang might have been an offshoot of that bunch.”

“Oh great!” Karl sighed deeply. “Well, that explains the JTF2 contingent being here.”

L-C Greene snapped his head around and stared at Karl.

“What gave you that idea?” he asked quietly.

“Oh come on Greene, I happened to be talking to CPO Elgin and he mentioned that you were commanding a mixed force. I was raised in the bush country up north and hunted a lot, so I notice things. You’ve got two guys here who are better woodsmen than I am, Springfield and Winchester, and you came here expecting trouble. In fact, you came here so damn fast that I’m willing to bet this group was sitting around waiting for any sign of being needed, ready to take off at a moment’s notice. Hell man, I know the travel time from Esquimalt using a chopper. Even though you used a Cormorant, which is faster than the choppers George uses, it would still take about forty minutes. You were here well inside of an hour and that included loading up in Esquimalt as well as a tour around the island before landing on this end. Since you came so fast, that means the chopper had to be warming up as we called in. I’ll bet all you had to do was grab the closest doctor and jump aboard, because the rest of this crew would have been standing by.

“Now most of this bunch is Navy, which I would expect, since Esquimalt is the closest military base. You say you’ve been chasing these guys for a while, that means you had a chance to get some special help, bringing in some experts at dirty fighting in the field. I’d imagine that the government being as paranoid as it is, they’d immediately think that since the infrastructure was all shook up around here, it would be a perfect time for an invasion of some sort. So they’d make sure someone they felt could depend on to fight dirty would be available if needed. If we were in the States, I suppose they’d send in the Special Forces guys, but from what I’ve read, we have an outfit of specialists who deal with terrorists and such as well. I remember that the group was called JTF2, which explains to me the two guys named after rifles who are in your command.

“Now you’ve told me a bunch, but there’s more to this than what you’ve said. I’d be willing to bet that if I were able to see out toward the strait, I’d see a patrol vessel of some sort heading this way at full steam. Or perhaps it’s already on station, sitting where it can observe the entrance to the cut leading into the bay. It’ll be there just in case the gang you’ve been talking about makes a break for it. What do you think Springfield? Do you think it’s there yet?” Karl leaned back in his chair, then slowly spun around to look over his shoulder.

The tall man, leaning back against the wall behind him, just shook his head slowly.

“Right now, I think you have eyes in the back of your head. I will admit that I might have made some noise coming up onto the porch, but how the hell did you know it was me, you never looked my way once.”

“I have a few advantages. This is my ground and I know it well,” Karl sighed softly. “But like you, I don’t give away all my secrets. Now, since the chopper came in with the lift door open and you came up the gorge, I’m going to ask you a question that you needn’t answer if you don’t want to. However, I’m curious about how many men you dropped off down below?”

“Well, you might not expect an answer, but I’ll give you one. We didn’t know about the rockslide in the channel, so just in case, we dropped off two men to take and hold your boat.”

“I imagine with orders to sink it if need be, huh?” Karl sighed.

“No sir, with orders to disable it, so it couldn’t be stolen.”

“Oh, it already is,” Karl smiled. “The burner is pulled out of the boiler and the fuel pump is removed, so are the fuel and water filters, which are a bitch to replace. As well as that, I’ve disconnected a link in the prop shaft. That boat won’t move until I repair it.”

“Ah, that explains a question or two,” Springfield smiled.

To Karl’s surprise he pulled a tiny radio from his pocket. Lifting it to his ear, he waited a moment before speaking, “Gatling ... Springfield here. Steady down, vessel previously secured. Hold and guard.”

He grinned at Karl. “There, now they won’t do any further damage to your baby.”

“Thank you,” Karl said quietly.

L-C Greene looked at him strangely, then sighed. “Why is it I feel that we’re about as necessary here as tits on a boar?”

“Oh I wouldn’t say that,” Karl chuckled quietly. “First off, you brought a doctor with you and we desperately needed one. Secondly, I can think of all the things I’d like to do, but don’t have the physical capability of doing them. Third, you’re giving me a break and filling in holes in my knowledge that make it easier for me to see the whole picture. Because of your people, I’ll be able to sleep tonight and maybe I’ll even feel safe doing it, safer than I was anyway.”

“Well, thank you for that,” L-C Greene said quietly. “Now since you seem to be one hell of a tactician, as well as an extremely good observer, what would you do if you were me?”

“For tonight, I’d get the tents set up and a meal into the troops. Then I’d do a quick sweep of the plateau on this side of the gorge. It’s mostly open ground, so it won’t take long to do a cursory sweep and it’ll let your men stretch their legs. After that, I’d post a guard nearby and another one at the bridge, which is where I think Elgin went. Either later tonight or tomorrow morning, sometime before daylight, I’d ask for an overflight by a copter with an infrared camera to check out the rest of the island, and with the clout you seem to have, I think you’d get that flight easily. Once I saw the results of that survey, I’d be able to make up my mind what to do tomorrow.”

Springfield chuckled softly, then walked around their chairs and headed toward the tents.

“See you in the morning, sir,” he called over his shoulder.

“I think he has the right idea,” L-C Greene smiled his weird smile at Karl. “You might go inside and relax for tonight. We’ll make sure no one disturbs you. Goodnight, and thank you for your advice.”

“Goodnight,” Karl said rising to his feet and watching him walk away.

Sighing at the fact that he couldn’t feel any trust toward L C Greene, he stood in thought for a moment as he reviewed his impressions of the man. Perhaps his feelings were tainted by his initial dislike for Greene’s attitude, but other than that he couldn’t put his finger on a specific reason for his distrust. Finally, with a dismissive shake of his head, he turned and opened the door to go inside.

Dr. Baker and Ely were just about to open the door from the other side, so Ely actually jumped in surprise when Karl opened it.

“Oops, I didn’t mean to scare you, Ely,” Karl apologised then looked at the doctor. “Let’s see, that was Lieutenant Baker wasn’t it?”

“I prefer Dr. Baker,” she smiled. “We were just on our way to get you. I’d like to do a quick examination please.”

“Well, since I’ve never had a doctor come here on a house call before, I think I should take advantage of that offer,” Karl smiled, then he curled his nose at the odour and looked over at Bruno. “David, do you suppose you could take Bruno out onto the porch. Oh, damn. He might want to check out the people out there and that could be trouble. I guess I should do it, he might need to take a leak before we tie him up for the night.”

“David and I will do it Karl,” Ely said shortly. “You stay here and let the doctor check you out.”

“Yes boss,” he smiled at her, then turned to the doctor. “I’m actually feeling much better, Doc.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said, lifting her stethoscope.

Later that night, after Dr. Baker had signed Karl off as healthy enough to live, at least until she could do a more thorough examination in the morning. Then, after she had checked both of the women a second time, she left the house. When they were alone, all of the family who were still awake sat down to a quick meal. Karl filled them in on what Lieutenant Commander Greene, CPO Elgin, and Lieutenant Springfield had told him, as well as what he had told them.

George chuckled softly when Karl told of L-C Greene’s conclusions about the ‘disappearing’ boat and the masking explosion.

“He damn near had it figured out right,” Karl said quietly. “He just assumed he was talking about a different boat.”

“Well, just as long as his report is officially entered into naval record in a like manner, we should remain free and clear of any suspicion,” George sighed. “What is rather fortuitous in this situation is the fact that your description of events was expressed in such a way that the military mind was automatically led toward assumptions which confirmed his conclusions.”

“Don’t you think Karl knew what he was doing Dad?” Ely smiled. “I wouldn’t have expected any different. Every word Karl said was the truth. He simply left out a few details.”

“That, my dear, is the proof of a great fictional ability, causing another person to reach an incorrect conclusion of your choice, while expressing only a partial truth,” George laughed heartily. “In fact, given enough time, I feel assured that I could educate Karl to become a reasonable successful writer of fiction.”