Loe raamatut: «Thread Of Revenge»

ONE

Her head throbbed and grogginess gripped her. She rocked as if on giant waves. A deep, aching chill touched her feet. The coldness licked at her toes until she slowly realized the sensation felt more than cold—it felt wet.

Salty water.

Giant, rolling waves.

Blinking, Sadie Strand pushed through the debilitating fuzziness and stirred completely awake. She drew in a breath. A small silver dolphin pendant pressed into the gray marine carpet near her cheek. Confusion racked her thoughts. She released the pendant from its snare and pushed up on her elbows, nausea washing over her again. What? Where am I? By the listing of her quarters, she realized she was on a boat and waves caused the swaying motion, the violent rocking. Oh, no!

She glanced down to her feet.

Water flooded the vessel.

Panic swept over her with the force of a tidal wave. And then the boat pitched with the next wave and cold water rushed over her. She gasped and choked until she caught her breath again.

What is going on? She didn’t know how she’d ended up on this boat, but that didn’t matter so much as how she was going to get off. She rolled to her knees to stand and get her sea legs to walk with the lurching, rolling of a boat in a storm. A sinking boat, no less.

Sadie made her way to the helm in search of the radio, aware that with each second that passed, the boat took on more water. Maybe she only needed to find the pump and expel the water from the storm, except it was already too late. The pump, if there was one, would be beneath the water that clearly rushed in from not only belowdecks, but above as waves crashed over the sinking vessel.

A drowning death was her worst nightmare. Oh, God, please help me! But it looked like that was exactly what was about to happen. Sadie was going to die in a watery grave.

Just like Karon.

That is, if she didn’t find a way to survive, or if someone didn’t come to her aid. At the helm, she found the radio and turned to the channel the Coast Guard, marine patrol or any other authorities might monitor.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! I’m sinking. Is anyone out there? Mayday. Mayday!” Sadie repeated her calls. She glanced at the dash to relay her coordinates but nothing worked so she couldn’t know her exact location. The cold water assured her she must be somewhere in the North Pacific off the Washington coast where she’d been before waking up on the boat.

How could this happen? She continued calling for help, then realization slowly dawned. In her panic she hadn’t noticed the red light wasn’t flickering. There wasn’t the telltale squawk. Nothing. It was dead. The radio was unresponsive. Broken. Just like everything else.

That news hit her like an anchor, heavy and bone jarring. Someone had obviously sabotaged the vessel. They’d deliberately set her up to die.

Tears burned her eyes. “Oh, Karon,” she whispered. “I wanted to know what happened... I wanted to know, and now I think I do. But I don’t know why someone killed you. Or who!”

Memories rushed back at her. She’d been going through Karon’s things, looking for a clue as to why her best friend’s body had washed up on the beach. Then Sadie had woken up here. She had the sense that someone had been there in the house with her, but the image, the memory, was too vague. She couldn’t be sure. Nor could she worry about that now. Her life was in imminent jeopardy. How could she find Karon’s killer if she died too? And that gave her even more incentive to live. To survive. She had to find out who was behind this. She wouldn’t let them get away with it.

She searched for a life jacket or flotation device or smaller skiff attached to this boat before it plunged, submerging completely. Anything to which she could cling that would keep her above the surface of a blustering North Pacific Ocean.

But her search left her empty-handed. “Nothing!” Are you kidding me?

Of course, why would she expect there to be a flotation device if the radio had been sabotaged?

Her teeth chattered. Even if she found something to help her float, hypothermia would soon set in. And panic—the absolute worst thing she could do right now—washed over her again, flooding her soul with terror.

What do I do? What do I do?

“Okay, so I’m not going to save this boat, but I can hang on until the very last minute in case someone comes to help.” She said the words out loud, hoping to boost her confidence. But she fought against the reality of her dire predicament.

This wasn’t a princess story with a knight in shining armor to come to her rescue and guarantee a happy ending. And even if it were, she’d prefer to save herself.

Sadie went outside onto the deck to face the raging storm, and maybe even to face God. She stared up into the daunting black clouds as rain lashed her. “Why, God? Why?”

She felt so cliché in that moment, as if there had never been another person or literary character to stand in the rain to face the Creator of the universe—the calmer of storms, even—and ask that question. She searched for the horizon, but it was lost somewhere between the ocean and sky, both dark shades of gray.

How far was she from shore?

Could she swim?

In this weather, even if she didn’t exhaust herself fighting the storm as she swam and actually made it to the coastline, the ocean waves could dash her against the rocks. Same with the boat if it had power so she could run the engine and steer it toward shore.

Okay. No radio. No flotation device. And in a few minutes—less than half an hour or less, she’d say—no boat. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to kill her in a way that would look like an accident and there wouldn’t be much evidence left behind to say otherwise. She was staying in Coldwater Bay with her aunt—a boating and fishing community. Boating accidents happened. But there would be no one to question her death like she questioned Karon’s.

Why had someone killed her friend? Why were they trying to kill her? Some secret that was too important to expose?

The killer had to have made a mistake along the way. Sadie would be the one to find it. She wasn’t about to give up. Except she hung on to the boat in water up to her chest. Frosty, biting water, and her limbs grew numb. Giving up might not be within her control.

Her teeth chattered as she tried to force out the words. “I’m sorry, Aunt Debby.” And to her siblings, “Cora, Quinn and Jonna. I’m really sorry.”

With their parents’ tragic deaths more than a decade ago, they’d already lost so much, and losing Sadie would be so hard for them. Her death in this watery grave would leave them with questions instead of closure. She’d never felt so heartsick than in this moment when she realized there was nothing she could do—no grand scheme to win the day. No brilliant ideas that would save her from inescapable drowning.

* * *

Soaked and chilled to the bone despite his protective garb, CGIS—Coast Guard Investigative Service—special agent Gage Sessions stood at the helm of the USCGC Kraken with Lieutenant Johns, who had steered the eighty-seven-foot cutter straight into the storm. The twenty-foot swells had only just begun subsiding along with the fifty-knot winds as the storm slowly passed over them.

He’d joined the Kraken’s crew as part of a counter-drug smuggling operation, but one particular group eluded him. In the Pacific Northwest, the drug cartels were usually Russian or Asian. The last few months, intel had him chasing the Chang brothers, and he was getting close, but they always evaded him. He might have to work undercover if he was ever going to catch the brothers in the act.

In the interim, they’d received a distress call. Someone spotted a sinking boat and had shared the coordinates but were unable to assist.

Their counter-drug-smuggling operation had suddenly changed to a rescue mission.

Finding the sinking boat in the Pacific during a storm—well, it could already be too late. The boat had likely been tossed miles from the original location where it had been spotted. And in this storm, he didn’t hold out much hope. But he wouldn’t give up yet either.

God, please guide us. Show us where to find the boat, or PIW—person in water, as it might turn out. In that case, the PIW hopefully had on a life jacket or clung to a flotation device. That person would be hoping and praying that the Coast Guard would find and save them. Every minute, every second, counted.

If they had already lost the boat, they would be more easily missed. The vastness of the ocean was cruel in that way.

He was grateful they had been out here, as it was, on the eighty-seven-footer WPB-class Coast Guard patrol cutter—equipped to handle rescues on the high seas. Except, regardless of the equipment, there weren’t enough Coast Guard vessels to adequately protect the ninety-five thousand miles of coastline. That was roughly four and a half million square miles of United States maritime territory. And that made Gage even more concerned they wouldn’t find the sinking boat in time to rescue the person or people involved.

“I see something,” Johns said.

His pulse jumped.

Gage caught sight of something in the water too, just before it disappeared behind another swell. Rain and waves beat the cutter and the small crew of the Kraken. Unlike the Chang brothers, who eluded them because of the storm, whoever was on that sinking boat out there was at the storm’s mercy.

Gage gripped the rail, willing the Kraken to fight the waves, to move faster as it clashed with the treacherous Pacific.

“Come on. If we lose sight of the object in the water now, we probably won’t get another chance,” Gage yelled over the spray of salt water that came with each gust.

He thought his words might have been lost to the wind even though he stood right next to the guy.

“You’re not a crew member, Sessions,” Johns shouted. “You could go back down where it’s warm and dry and let us deal with it.”

“There.” Gage spotted the boat and his stomach plummeted with the crest of the wave. He could see only the top of the vessel. It was about to go under and someone held on to the bow. “Hurry or we’ll be too late!”

Johns urged the Kraken closer.

“Throw the line, we’ll drag him in!” Baines called.

Throw, row and go. That was the usual CG adage to rescue a sinking boat or someone who was about to drown.

A crew member tossed the line over the side, but the rough seas wouldn’t cooperate. The boat dipped completely under.

“Throw it again.”

Gage peered through binoculars, a challenge with the high seas and constant rain. He caught a glimpse of someone...a woman.

He knew her.

Gage’s heart squeezed.

No. It couldn’t be. He swiped an arm over his eyes and blinked the rain and ocean away, frustrated with the wrath of nature. He trained his binoculars again. Where are you? Where are you...

There. In an instant, he got a good, close look at the panic-stricken face. The relief that the Coast Guard had arrived and the hope they would rescue her. The fact that he knew this woman sunk into his marrow.

That changed everything.

“Captain, we can’t get the line to her. The storm is making that impossible.”

“Let’s take the inflatable out to her then.” While crew members prepared the boat, Gage watched the swells overwhelm her. She appeared so small by comparison.

His gut tensed. “She’s not going to make it if we don’t get someone in the water now!”

“Get belowdecks now, Agent Sessions,” Johns said. “This isn’t part of your operation.”

“I know that woman!” I cared about her once. And he still did.

Johns nodded to crew members behind Gage and they grabbed his arms, presumably to escort him belowdecks. Gage shrugged free. He lifted his hands in mock surrender. “I’m going, I’m going.”

I’m going in to get her myself.

This time, Gage wasn’t willing to wait around for them to cross every t and dot every i. For them to follow their rules and processes. Images of a failed rescue attempt during a storm like this accosted him.

And this was Sadie. He’d rather risk his life than sit by and watch this unfold before him. Gage prepared his own tender line and hooked himself up. He could act now and ask forgiveness later. The smaller boat wasn’t even in the water yet. The tension in his gut twisted into a tight knot.

It was taking them far too long. The woman had minutes. Seconds even.

His actions were against all procedure.

“Hey, what are you doing?” someone shouted.

Uh-oh. Time was up. It was now or never.

The thick-necked Baines came running toward him, his intention to tackle Gage more than clear. He turned to confront the sea. A wave engulfed him as he stood ready to face off with the beast. Gage snatched a rescue buoy and dragged in a long, deep breath, then he launched himself into the shockingly cold water of the Pacific. He would trust Baines to handle the tender line appropriately.

Gage was in the water, and he was going after the woman. End of discussion.

Shouts and whistles from the shocked crew joined the roar of the storm. He swam furiously against the invincible force of nature, the huge swells and rough water preventing him from catching his breath. Time wasn’t on his side, but he swam forward with only one goal in mind.

Find her. Save her.

With Baines managing the tender line, Gage trusted he wouldn’t be lost at sea, and kicked harder, fighting against this monster ocean railing in the storm. How much more difficult this would be if they weren’t on the waning side of it.

Sadie was definitely the PIW—he saw her clearly now—and she waved at him, then dropped out of sight beneath the surface. In that glimpse of her, he realized she wore no life jacket. Treading water, she fought the sea on her own strength, which must be weakening. With his effort to reach her, his heart banged against his rib cage. Coast Guard protocol would dictate his objective was to establish communication with her, encourage and instruct her. Right. No time for that.

Please, God, let me save her!

Gage swam to where he last saw her. She hadn’t resurfaced. She could be anywhere beneath the water. A current could have swept her far away from him.

“No!” He dove beneath the surface but the too-violent, dark water offered zero visibility.

The crew members of the Kraken shouted at him. Blew their whistles. He glanced back and saw them pointing. They must have spotted Sadie. They’d released the smaller boat into the water, as well. Good. Gage started swimming in the direction they pointed. He couldn’t see her, but hoped he would connect.

Then she bobbed above the water, riding high on a rising swell. Gage had to get to her—he could see in her eyes that if he didn’t reach her this time, she was done. Her lips were blue already. She had to be a good swimmer to have survived this long, but even his limbs would begin to fail him soon. He was pushing the limits.

Gage forced himself to swim harder and faster against one of the strongest forces of nature, and likewise Sadie swam toward him, her strength fading, her desperation warring against her biology. The swell crested and buried her again, sucking her down and under.

Gage dove beneath it, a calculated risk on his part, and gave one last thrusting lunge for her. He felt the tug of his tender line—the Kraken crew members trying to tow him back to safety.

“No, no!” He yanked the line, hoping someone would get his message, give him the slack he needed.

He tried again...

And touched something. A hand? He grabbed it, lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her body as he held on to the rescue buoy. Rescuing a drowning person was a dangerous task—that person was reduced to their basest survival instincts and would often drown their rescuers in the process.

Sadie had already turned into that drowning person.

And she fought him. Dragged him under. Instinctually. Nothing she could control. Her survival instincts had taken over. The right thing to do, and what protocol demanded, was that he hit her hard enough to knock her out and save them both. But since when had he gone with protocol? He grabbed her arms and willed her to be still, to trust him, and she relaxed.

Now. It was now or they would both be lost.

He felt the tug of his tender line, and he held on to her. His pulse shot up even higher, if that were possible. They breached the surface. When he looked in her face he saw why she’d relaxed. She was unconscious. Unresponsive. Drowned already?

Oh, no! No, God, please, let her live.

Suddenly, she coughed up water, even as a wave crashed over them, but he held tight. The Kraken crew wouldn’t let him down.

“We’re going to make it. You’re going to be okay.” He stared into the familiar crystal-blue eyes, which widened with recognition, while the tender line tugged them back and the smaller Coast Guard inflatable made its way toward them in the dangerous waters. “I’ve got you and I won’t let go. You’re safe now.”

She shook her head. Her teeth chattered as she struggled to speak. “Not. Safe. Someone. Tried...to kill me.”