Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

“Tell me, Juan, why have you been after us?”

“What makes you think we’re after you?”

“Then why do we keep running into each other?”

“You have something we want.”

“The Enervum?” Jin said.

“As well as the antidote. Obviously, we failed to get either.”

“MacD claims you can make a market for our products.”

“They would fetch a high price on the black market,” Cabrillo said. “Of course, they’d be tricky to unload without drawing unwanted attention.”

“That’s an intriguing thought. Listen, we’ve got a busy couple of days ahead of us. Why don’t we circle back in the new year and talk a deal.”

“And my man?”

“We’ll keep him with us. I don’t know how fond you are of him, but it can’t hurt to have a hostage to make sure we’re getting our money’s worth. If you get in our way again, we’ll kill him. Bye-bye.”

She hung up.

“Told you,” MacD said with a smile.

“Don’t get too happy yet,” Polk said. “Captain Cabrillo needs to come through for you to ever get off this island.” He waved for the guards to take MacD back to his cell.

“He’ll come through, all right,” MacD said over his shoulder as he left. “Ah guarantee it.”

FIFTY-EIGHT

Eight hours after Juan got off the phone with Jin, the Oregon approached Marwood Island from the north, MacD’s tracker leading them there. Juan was concerned that the signal would start moving quickly again, indicating he was back on a plane. But it hadn’t left the island. In fact, they were no longer getting a signal at all, which meant he was probably underground or in a shielded room in the group of buildings they’d observed on the satellite image of the old World War II base.

They couldn’t recon the layout of the buildings, and no blueprints existed from that time period, so they needed real time info. From his chair in the op center, Juan watched the main video screen showing the feed from a drone that Gomez was flying low over the trees to avoid detection. It had an oblique view of the harbor.

“There’s the Marauder at the dock,” Sylvia said from the weapons station. During the past few days, Murph had been training her on the Oregon’s weapons systems to take his place while they were shorthanded, and to no one’s surprise, she had already mastered the basics of operating the rail gun and laser.

“No Gulfstream, though,” Murph said from his chair next to Sylvia.

Eric, who was at the helm, said, “Does that mean Polk is gone? He’s the one who’s been flying around on it.”

“We only need one of them,” Juan said. “Gomez, switch to the infrared camera and see if the Marauder is hot.”

The screen changed to black and white. Heat bloomed on two sections of the trimaran.

“The midship hot spot has to be the charged plasma cannon,” Sylvia said.

“And the stern section is the engine,” Eric said. “Looks like they’re not staying long.”

“Then we still have an opportunity to capture April Jin,” Juan said. “We have to assume she’s commanding the Marauder.”

As soon as they’d known that Marwood Island was their destination, they’d developed a two-pronged plan. The first part was a rescue of MacD. Max had already taken the Gator to the west side of the island to a tiny beach between the Mickey Mouse ears. From there Eddie would lead a team of Raven, Linda, and Linc to come at the base from the direction of the setting sun. They would sneak into the building where MacD was being held, free him, and exfiltrate back the way they’d come before anyone knew they were there.

In the second phase of the operation, Juan would lure Jin and the Marauder out of the tight confines of the harbor, where the Oregon would have little room to maneuver. Once the trimaran had left the safety of the port, Sylvia would use the rail gun to disable the Marauder, and they would force Jin to surrender for questioning with the use of their tranquilizer. She would tell them everything they wanted to know about the upcoming operation with the Enervum gas.

They were holding steady at the east end of Marwood’s runway so that low hills blocked the view of the Oregon from the buildings and harbor.

“Stoney,” Juan said, “prepare to swing around to the harbor entrance.”