The Scorpion's Chase: A Chase Fulton Novel by Cap Daniels

Author:Cap Daniels [Daniels, Cap]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anchor Watch Publishing, L.L.C.
Published: 2024-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Home to Mother

Disco flew a search grid for half an hour, but there was no sign of another boat fitting the description of the power cat.

“I’m calling it,” I said. “Let’s get back to Bonaventure and check on Hunter.”

Shawn brought us about, and seconds later, we were on plane at sixty knots, headed for the North River.

He pulled his headset mic close to his lips. “Maybe it’s none of my business, but how’d you score a Mark-Five?”

I said, “It was a gift from the guys up at the submarine base.”

“Kings Bay?”

“Yeah. It was grounded on the hard when we got it, and both engines were garbage. It had apparently been sunken, so it wasn’t much more than scrap.”

“Who rebuilt it?”

“We’ve got one of the best diesel mechanics and metal fabricators you’ve ever seen, but you probably won’t meet her.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Her?”

“Yep. But don’t get too excited. From a distance, it’s tough to tell that she’s a woman, and it’s even tougher up close. To top it off, she’s married to an insane Cajun who kills people for fun and buries them a hundred feet deep.”

“Sounds like my kind of guy,” he said.

“I don’t know what language he speaks, but it’s nothing resembling English.”

“We had a guy like that on the Teams. He carried a knife that looked like a sword, and he could cook anything out of nothing. Those Cajuns are something else.”

“Kenny’s the only one I’ve ever met, but if they’re all like him, I think one might be enough.”

Shawn backed the vessel into the boathouse as if he’d done it a thousand times, and I ran him through the fueling procedure.

I said, “We’ve got two fifteen-hundred-gallon tanks buried near the house. They feed this pump and the one out by the maintenance building. If you guys need diesel, help yourselves. I told your team leader about the gas pumps at the airport. If you use those, make sure you don’t put avgas or JP-6 in your Suburbans.”

“That could be interesting. Hey, listen. I’m sorry about what’s going on, and I’m even more sorry I didn’t pick up that sniper. One of us should’ve seen him.”

“Listen to me. Mongo and I were fifty feet away from the antenna base you found in the marsh, and neither of us saw it. What happened to Hunter isn’t your fault, nor is it the fault of anybody on your team. Don’t carry that one around. It’s not yours.”

He grimaced. “Still . . .”

I squared up with him. “If it were your fault, I would’ve come down on your team leader so hard he’d still be digging himself out of the ground. This is my team and my responsibility. I appreciate and respect your attitude, but don’t let it shape what you do in the coming days. Clark likes to say ‘Embrace the suck and soldier on.’”

Mongo and I picked up Disco at the airport and found Clark and Anya in the surgical waiting room. They stood when we walked in, and I shook my head.

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