Dyed In the Green by George Mercer

Author:George Mercer [Mercer, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: George Mercer
Published: 2014-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35

The Bulgarian freighter loomed out of the darkness, its size exaggerated in the fog enshrouding the massive ship. As the seiner Le Magique approached, a single spotlight exploded from the freighter’s upper deck, lighting the way for the smaller craft to pull alongside.

As Gerald Moores positioned the orange fenders along the seiner’s starboard side a voice called out in French, falling from the freighter’s top deck. Gerald looked around for someone to answer.

“Jean-Guy, Brian,” he called out. “What the fuck is that guy saying?”

But the two Magdalen Island fishermen were busy in the hold and didn’t respond.

The voice from the freighter called out again.

Cursing as he emerged from the seiner’s wheelhouse, Maurice Chiasson shouted up to the lone figure leaning over the freighter’s railing.

Immediately, a rope ladder came hurtling through the inky blackness, the end landing in a pile on the seiner’s deck within a hair’s breadth of Gerald Moores.

Maurice grabbed the ladder and pulled himself up the side of the rusting hulk. Climbing over the railing, he stood face to face with a bearded brute of a man. He looked to be of Arab descent, but spoke fluently in French, confirming Maurice’s identity through a series of passwords that Maurice recited from memory.

Maurice was led to the rear deck, where a crane was lifting huge bales from the bowels of the ship. Several men were breaking them down into smaller, tightly wrapped bales and tossing them onto a cargo net that lay outstretched on the deck. Once loaded, the net was lowered over the side of the freighter onto the rear deck of the waiting seiner. Gerald Moores and the other two men hastily unhooked the net and stowed the bales into the fish hold while a second cargo net was loaded on the freighter.

Le Magique lay low in the water as the last load of bales was brought aboard. Packing them tightly into the hold, Gerald pulled the hatch over and tightened it down, waving up to Maurice, who was monitoring the process from the freighter.

Pulling a huge envelope from inside his jacket, Maurice passed it to the Arab. The man slowly opened it and thumbed through the stack of American money inside. Satisfied, he nodded to one of the crew, who led Maurice back to the ladder.

Clambering over the side, Maurice inched his way back down the ladder. Holding on with one hand, he readied himself and timed his jump with the rising swell that pushed the seiner up against the freighter’s rusting hulk. Quickly, he made his way back to the wheelhouse as Gerald pulled the fenders over the gunwales and stored them in a sea locker.

As the powerful engines of the seiner roared to life, Maurice pulled the gearshift into reverse and slowly backed the boat away from the freighter. With less than a foot of freeboard in the back, the weight of the cargo caused the fishing boat to handle awkwardly, sending water churned up from the spinning propeller over the rear deck.

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