The stunning woman in the beach lounger next to him said, “Who was it, Lucas?”
“Someone I hoped to know better.”
“Romantically?”
“Yes. She’s…very special.”
The woman looked around to make sure no one was close, “It’s this job we do. Hard on relationships.” Her head turned to follow a couple walking down the beach, “There they go, regular as clockwork.”
Lucas said, “One more week of watching, to make sure.”
“Oh, I don’t know if I can stand the pressure of lying on the beach at Cancun for another week. It’s torture.” She flashed him a gorgeous smile. “Especially with you playing my husband.”
“You’re not hard to look at either, Sofia. But we are playing.”
“I know, I know. But we could make it more, ah, realistic if you wanted. Just for cover, you know.”
“I think we’re realistic enough.”
Sofia said, “That woman on your phone must be something else.”
Lucas didn’t respond. The two CISEN agents spent the rest of the day watching Samir and Crystal in Cancun.
***
One week later, Samir and Crystal walked the small pier not far from Club Med to a waiting boat strung with bright colored streamers and signs that read Snorkelers do it in the water.
The Captain, a smiling, silver-haired man said, “Welcome aboard again,” and helped them onto the ship. He pointed at two other people on the boat, “This is my cousin Lucas, and his wife Sofia. They’re going out to be on the water.”
Lucas produced two bottles of water and handed one to Samir and the other to Crystal. He said “I understand you do not drink alcohol, but this should help during the day.”
Crystal said, “Anybody tell you that you look like Superman?”
Lucas smiled, “One woman did, not long ago.”
The captain said, “Here we go.” The sea was calm, with small waves lapping the hull as they cut across the turquoise water. Sofia wore a Brazilian cut bikini and Samir could not keep his eyes off her. Crystal was the same with Lucas in his bathing suit, shirtless and hard-muscled.
Crystal noticed several plastic five-gallon buckets bungeed to the gunwales and asked, “What’s in those?”
The Captain said, “Stuff that needs to stay dry, I keep them in the buckets. Works great. No more rusty tools.”
He maintained the ship’s course for an hour, then dropped anchor beside an underwater reef. He said, “This is a secret place. I only take certain clients out here to snorkel.”
Lucas said, “You two must be special. I’ve never seen him bring anyone out here.”
Crystal looked around, “There’s no other boats.”
Sofia said, “You will have the whole ocean to yourselves. How great is that?”
Samir smiled at her, “Pretty great. Are you coming in with us?”
“No, we just like riding in the boats.”
They helped Samir and Crystal don the gear and get into the w
ater, then watched the two snorkelers floating face down on the surface, staying close together. Crystal uprighted in the water and took the snorkel out of her mouth, “This is beautiful! There are fish everywhere.”
The Captain gave her the thumbs up sign, and she returned to looking at the fish. Lucas did a quick check of the horizon for boats, saw nothing, and undid the bungee cords holding the plastic buckets. Sofia popped off the lids to reveal fish chum and fish chunks mixed with cattle blood, all ripe and smelly.