“She has to go down again,” Bill said. “If you bring Vana’s boat around to the far side of the lift bags we can load onto your dive platform. I’ll talk you through it. Keep your running lights off.”
Hooker cranked the boat over and we raised anchor.
Bill was back on the talkie. “Follow my light beam,” he said. “I’m going to bring you around to the far side of the RIB.”
When we were in position I resumed breathing.
Hooker looked over at me and grinned. “You look like you’re about ready to pass out.”
“I was worried we were going to run them over. Our boat is so big, and the RIB is so small.”
“Barney girl, you need to learn to trust people. Your brother’s a good guy. He’s kind of a horn dog, but he knows what he’s doing when he’s on a boat. It’s like when I’m racing, and I’ve got spotters telling me I can make it through a wall of smoke and fire. You figure out who you can trust and then you go with it.”
“So you weren’t scared just now?”
“Almost messed my pants twice. Don’t tell your brother.”
Maria was sitting on the side of the RIB. She adjusted her mask and mouthpiece. She touched hands with Bill. And she went over, into the black water, and disappeared. I followed Hooker to the dive platform, and we started working with Bill, hauling the gold out of the water, onto the platform, being careful not to damage the bricks.
“This is a lot easier than trying to get the gold into the RIB,” Bill said. “I didn’t want to bring the Happy Hooker out until I was ready to make a run for it. I know the Flex chopper is doing airtime looking for us.”
“You’ve never cared that much for money,” I said to Bill. “I’m surprised you’re risking your life for this.”
“I’m risking my life for Maria,” Bill said. “This is her gold, not mine. She thinks her father might still be alive in prison. She’s hoping she can buy him out with the gold.”
“Oh shit,” Hooker said. “We’re doing this for a good cause. How crappy is that?”
The lift bags bobbed to the surface for the second time. Maria followed them up, and we tugged the bags over to the dive platform. Bill helped Maria come on board and get out of her equipment.
“This is it,” she said. “This is everything that was down there. At least everything I could find.” She slipped back into the water to guide the last bag while Hooker and Bill hauled it onto the boat.
We opened the bag, and we all stood back, looking at the contents. A single metal canister, approximately a foot and a half wide by three feet long. Very heavy. Maybe eighty pounds. Russian writing barely visible running along one side. The end cap had been painted red. And there were two thin green-and-black bands painted onto the rear of the canister.
Hooker toed the canister. “Anyone read Russian?”
Nope. No one read Russian.
“It does sort of look like a bomb,” Bill said.
“Probably we shouldn’t open it,” I said.
Hooker squatted beside it for a better look. “Probably we can’t open it. At least not without an acetylene torch and a crowbar. This baby is sealed.”
If this came off a Russian ship that was stopped by the blockade, I didn’t even want to speculate on its purpose. “I keep going back to what Puke Face said about fear,” I told Hooker. “He said this was about fear and what it can do for you.”
“And maybe this is something to fear? Not a good thought. I don’t want to go there.”
“I brought it up because I was worried it was no longer safe to leave it in the cove. It should be turned over to the authorities,” Maria said. “My father suffered to keep this out of Castro’s hands. I don’t want that suffering to have been in vain.”
We heard the beat of a helicopter coming at us from the north. We scrambled to get the lift bags out of sight and ducked into the cabin. The copter did a flyby, sweeping the water with its light. The beam missed the boat, and the helicopter continued south.
The instant we could no longer hear the chopper, Bill and Maria were off the dive platform, into the inflatable.
“I’ll bring Happy Hooker around, and we can use the hoist to load,” Bill said.
A half hour later the boats were in position to transfer cargo, and Bill was on the talkie to Hooker.
“I’ve got a problem here. I can’t get the boat out of idle.”