Without remorse - Tom Clancy [13]
'What are those things?' Pam asked, pointing to the floats decorating the water to port.
'Floats for crab pots. They're really more like cages. Crabs get in and can't get out. You leave floats so you know where they are.' Kelly handed Pam his glasses and pointed to a Bay-build workboat about three miles to the east.
'They trap the poor things?' Kelly laughed.
'Pam, the bacon you had for breakfast? The hog didn't commit suicide, did he?'
She gave him an impish took. 'Well, no.'
'Don't get too excited. A crab is just a big aquatic spider, even though it tastes good.'
Kelly altered course to starboard to clear a red nun-buoy.
'Seems kinda cruel, though.'
'Life can be that way.'Kelly said too quickly and then regretted it.
Pam's response was as heartfelt as Kelly's. 'Yeah, I know.'
Kelly didn't turn to took at her, only because he stopped himself. There'd been emotional content in her reply, something to remind him that she, too, had demons. The moment passed quickly, however. She leaned back into the capacious conning chair, leaning against him and making things right again. One last time Kelly's senses warned him that something was not right at all. But there were no demons out here, were there?
'You'd better go below.'
'Why?'
'Sun's going to be hot today. There's some lotion in the medicine cabinet, main head.'
'Head?'
'Bathroom!'
'Why is everything different on a boat?'
Kelly laughed. 'That's so sailors can be the boss out here. Now, shoo! Go get that stuff and put a lot on or you'll look like a french fry before lunch.'
Pam made a face. 'I need a shower, too. Is that okay?'
'Good idea,' Kelly answered without looking. 'No sense scaring the fish away.'
'You!' She swatted him on the arm and headed below.
'Vanished, just plain vanished,' Oreza growled. He was hunched over a chart table at the Thomas Point Coast Guard Station.
'We shoulda got some air cover, helicopter or something,' the civilian observed.
'Wouldn't have mattered, not last night. Hell, the gulls rode that blow out.'
'But where'd he go?'
'Beats me, maybe the storm sank his ass.' Oreza glowered at the chart. 'You said he was northbound. We covered all these ports and Max took the western shore. You sure the description of the boat was correct?'
'Sure? Hell, we did everything but buy the goddamned boat for 'em!' The civilian was as short-tempered as twenty-eight hours of caffeine-induced wakefulness could explain, even worse for having been ill on the patrol boat, much to the amusement of the enlisted crew. His stomach felt like it was coated with steel wool. 'Maybe it did sink,' he concluded gruffly, not believing it for a moment.
'Wouldn't that solve your problem?' His attempt at levity earned him a growl, and Quartermaster First Class Manuel Oreza caught a warning look from the station commander, a gray-haired warrant officer named Paul English.
'You know,' the man said in a state of exhaustion, 'I don't think anything is going to solve this problem, but it's my job to try.'
'Sir, we've all had a long night. My crew is racked out, and unless you have a really good reason to stay up, I suggest you find a bunk and get a few Zs, sir.'
The civilian looked up with a tired smile to mute his earlier words. 'Petty Officer Oreza, smart as you are, you ought to be an officer.'
'If I'm so smart, how come we missed our friend last night?'
That guy we saw around dawn?'
'Kelly? Ex-Navy chief, solid guy.'
'Kinda young for a chief, isn't he?' English asked, looking at a not very good photo the spotlight had made possible He was new at the station.
'It came along with a Navy Cross,' Oreza explained.
The civilian looked up. 'So, you wouldn't think -'
'Not a chance in hell.'
The civilian shook his head. He paused for a moment, then headed off to the bunk