Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

“I saw her giving orders to the crew of a trimaran.”

“A trimaran?” Juan took out his phone and showed Parsons a screenshot of the two sketches that Kevin Nixon had drawn from Sylvia Chang’s descriptions of the man and woman she saw during the attack on her ships.

“Is this the couple?”

Parsons’ face darkened when he saw them. “One hundred percent. Who are they?”

“The sister of our injured crewman had an encounter with them that was even worse than yours. It took a while to run them through every photographic database we could find, but we finally spotted them in the records of the Australian prison system. Their names are Angus Polk and April Jin.”

“They’re convicts?”

Juan nodded. “Married to each other and released over a year ago. Polk is a former police detective, and Jin is a former Royal Australian Navy officer. They were convicted of embezzlement and fraud. They were also investigated for the murder of two people who discovered their scheme, but there wasn’t enough evidence to make those charges stick.”

“So why are they operating a factory way out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“We don’t know for sure, but we think it’s related to the incident in Port Cook. It’s looking more like it was an attack than an accident.”

Parsons nodded. “I heard that six hundred–plus people were paralyzed. You mean, I might have been a party to that?”

“Yes. Unwittingly.”

Raven pulled the RHIB into the boat garage, where Julia was waiting with a medical kit.

“I’m Doctor Huxley, Chief Parsons,” she said as he stepped onto the loading platform. “Let me take a look at that hand.”

“I appreciate it,” he said mechanically, still frowning over his innocent role in Polk and Jin’s plans.

While everyone else exited the RHIB and the hull plate closed behind them, Julia removed the blood-soaked bandage and examined the wound.

“It looks like a through and through,” she said. “It hit the fleshy part of his hand and missed the tendons. We’ll get you to the sick bay and patch you up.”

“Wait,” Parsons said to her and turned to Juan. “If you’re going after them, I want in. I know a lot of people in Australia who might be helpful, and you’ve seen that I’ve got some skills of my own. Just tell me what I can do.”

“I may take you up on that,” Juan said. “The most important thing is finding the last ship they were loading. You said it was called the Shepparton?”

Parsons nodded. “It took them two days to load it. Dozens of truckloads of cargo.”

“Do you know its destination?”

“I have no idea. I wish I did.”

“All right. We’ll find her.”

“What do you think this is all about?”

Juan shook his head. “Now I’m the one with no idea. But rest assured that we won’t stop until we find out.”

Julia escorted Parsons to the infirmary, and Juan called Max as he left the boat garage.

“I’m going to my cabin to shower and change,” Juan said, “then I’ll join you in the op center. Have you found the Shepparton?”

“She’s listed on the Vesseltracker website as heading toward Jakarta, though her port of origin is listed as Brisbane, not Nhulunbuy. Right now her transponder has her due north of Darwin.”

“They must have tampered with her records. I’m guessing Polk and Jin will try to divert the ship now that they know someone is onto them. The best way to stop them is to intercept the Shepparton and seize her cargo. How far away is she?”

“If she keeps loafing along, we can catch her in twelve hours.”

“That puts us there in the middle of the night,” Juan said. “Perfect. Set a course at maximum speed. I’ll tell Eddie to let the team know they should get some food and sleep before we suit up again. Looks like we’ve got another mission tonight.”