Chapter 6

There was no important news when Sarah and the team checked in the next morning, so they cleared out of the suite and headed towards the airport. There was no reason to be at Paulers' house and they didn't want to waste any time if they needed to leave after the phone call. On the way, Sarah called Paulers and let him know that there was nothing new currently, but everything was ready for the call.

They arrived at the airport and Hock went off to do pilot things with the people at the airport. The rest of the team climbed into the jet and got set up for monitoring the situation. After completing the security procedures, Sarah was greeted by Minerva's warm contralto voice. "Boy are you looking well fucked this morning, Sarah."

"Thank you Minerva and a good morning to you as well."

"Oh come on, give me a few juicy details. You know how much I love naughty stories."

"Maybe later, but let's make sure everything is ready for the call."

"Give me a break, you know I've got it all covered. As soon as they call, we'll be ready to spring into action."

"Okay, I trust you. What's your take on this whole thing Minerva?"

"It certainly appears that Cindy and her boyfriend planned it all and it's just a more elaborate run away situation than normal. However, something just doesn't seem right. Particularly, how little we've been able to find on Felix Vander. We should have everything from his grades since preschool to the name of his childhood imaginary friends by now, but we've got almost nothing. When people don't have backgrounds it generally means they've got something to hide."

Sophia spoke up, "Hey, we've got some new info. It looks like Cindy and the boyfriend traveled by chartered jet from one of the small airports here to Marathon Key in Florida. We've got people following up now to see where they went from there."

"The Keys? Why would they go there," Sarah wondered out loud. "Thanks Sophia," she said as she reached for her pink phone. "Get me Paulers," she ordered as soon as she got a response on it.

In a very short time she was talking with Roger Paulers. "It looks like they went to the Florida Keys — Cindy and the boyfriend. Can you think of any idea why Cindy would want to go there?"

Paulers was quiet for a moment and then said, "Not really. We've never really spent much time there. We've stopped off there on our way to my island a few times, but really it's a little too crowded and touristy for my tastes."

"That's what I figured. Your island, that would be the one in... ah... oh those islands south of St. Vincent... the Grenadines, right?"

"Yeah, it's just a few dozen acres of jungle and beaches on the Atlantic side of the chain."

"Okay. We've got people in the Keys looking into this and we'll check up on the island as well. Thanks. I'll get back to you if I have anything new."

Hock entered the plane and buttoned up the door behind him as Sarah closed her phone and looked at the team. "How long to Marathon Key, Hock?"

"In Florida?"

"Yeah."

"Probably four hours. Are we leaving right away?"

"I think so. Minerva, you'll be able to keep us connected throughout the flight? We don't want to miss the call."

"Of course, Sarah. Are you doubting my competency? I'll get somebody to spank you if you're mean to me."

"Minerva, I wasn't being mean; I was just verifying what I assumed was true. Okay, we're going to Florida immediately."

Hock hurried out of the cabin and into the cockpit. He rapidly confirmed that nothing important had changed since he did his preflight check a half hour ago and radioed control to let them know that they were leaving. Arrangements had already been made for them to leave whenever they wanted and the little jet was rejoining the birds and bees in a very short time.

Before Hock had even gotten his butt into his pilot's seat, Sarah was giving Sophia further instructions, "Sophia, get us all the information we have on this island of Paulers. Its exact location, who and what's on it, how we can contact it, how people can get to it, everything."

"Will do, Boss. Give me a couple minutes."

"Minerva, you help her."

"As if I'd trust one of you to something correctly without my help."

"Mike, I doubt they did more than switch conveyances there, but look into Marathon and the rest of the Keys. See if you can find anything that might draw them there. Tracy you work on the Keys too."

As Sarah sat down at her own console she felt the plane begin to move from its parking spot on the tarmac. She hoped that she had made the right decision to head south before the call came in, but it felt right to her and sometimes you just had to go with your gut she thought.

For a long while the sound of the jet engines overwhelmed the few key clicks and body movements in the cabin. Everybody on the team was hard at work and none of them except Hock noticed the miles passing by.

Eventually, Sophia looked up and announced, "Minerva and I have got a rough overview of the island ready. If you're ready, I'll put it up on the center screen."

Sarah pulled back from her own monitor and said, "Do it."

The large screen that unrolled from the ceiling and covered most of the back wall of the cabin suddenly lit up with a picture that looked straight out of a travel agency brochure. It showed a lush tropical island, covered in jungle with bright sand beaches connecting the jungle to the clear, turquoise water. The jungle rose from one side of the island to the other and there appeared to be a small hill in the most distant corner of the island.

"This is Paulers' island, looking at it from the north. It has a name, but so far, I haven't been able to find a pronunciation for it. We'll just call it Paulers' island. As you can see it's a travel agent's wet dream. It's a little over fifty acres of land. It's got a house nestled on that hill. On the west side there is a small deep water bay with low cliffs ringing it," explained Sophia while a series of views of the island, the house and bay filled the screen.

"You can't really see if from the photos of the island taken from the ocean, but there is also a helipad and small hangar a little bit in from the bay heading up towards the house." The screen switched to an aerial photo that showed the location of the helipad and then switched to a shot of the yacht moored to its dock in the little bay.

Sophia continued her lecture, "Paulers keeps a hundred foot yacht in the bay for use when he's here. This whole place is designed to be a sanctuary for Paulers. There is no permanent staff on the island and everything from the desalinization plant to the boat is designed to need a minimum of maintenance and be operable by only one person.

"He only spends a two maybe three or four weeks a year here, but he refuses to rent it out and hasn't even been known to lend it out to friends or business associates. He pretty much foots the whole bill for this place in order to have someplace completely private to go. He has brought Cindy here a number of times and a very few others, but often he spends time on the island all by himself.

"There is no airstrip, so the only way to get there is by boat or helicopter. The nearest runways big enough to handle a small jet are on Bequia and Canouan. Either of which are less than twenty minutes away by helicopter. It also appears that Paulers has a bit of the survivalist mentality going with this island. He hid things pretty well, but Research and Analysis think he probably has a large underground bunker on the island and some rather large stockpiles of all kinds of supplies. They predict that he and a small group of others, they say ten or fewer total, could live there for years, possibly decades without any contact from the outside.

"That's about it. As you would expect everything is high end luxury living. It sounds a little bit like a modern Garden of Eden."

"Well, isn't that interesting. I wonder why Paulers feels the need for a long term hideout. Regardless, it certainly looks like an appealing destination for a couple of kids looking to run away and hide for a while. For now, let's consider this the most likely candidate for Cindy's location. Let's keep researching other options, but if nothing happens before we hit Marathon, we'll continue on to Pauler's island. So how are we com..."

Minerva interrupted Sarah with, "Call incoming to Paulers' estate. We're tracking it and patching you in here for reception only."

"It's about time," muttered Mike under his breath.

"While, I'd like to stay here and play with you, we have things we must get done this morning," Felix growled at Cindy. He gave her a couple of good hard swats on her ass with his hand and then dragged her to her feet by her bound hands.

She whimpered a little and went where she was directed in a daze. Where she was directed turned out to be the helipad. As they approached a helicopter approached from the south, circled a few times and then touched down on the pad.

Two men with very dark, almost ebony colored skin jumped out as soon as the runners touched the ground and ran over to Felix and Cindy. "Felix, how are things going," shouted the elder of the pair.

"Right on schedule. The house and the boat are prepared and Ms. Paulers has been informed of her change in status."

"I see. Good." He turned to the helicopter and made a shut it down gesture to the pilot. The two other men in the helicopter who had been holding guns aimed at Felix and Cindy, visibly relaxed and lowered their guns to point at the ground.