Wood's Wreck by Steven Becker

Author:Steven Becker [Becker, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Goodreads: 24334202
Publisher: The White Marlin Press
Published: 2015-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The man watched the lights from shore with trepidation as the boat closed on the coast. It certainly wasn’t America, he thought, as he waited for the boat to deliver him. The US coast was lit up like a Christmas tree, while here the lights were sparse and intermittent—a sure sign of the difference in economies and culture.

“You’re coming back in two days, yes?” he asked the driver.

“I do what they tell me to do,” Jay responded.

Both men scanned the horizon for the boat they were to meet. The GPS beeped, signaling that they had reached the waypoint assigned for the exchange.

“They better show soon, or you’ll be swimming. This moon is too bright to be sitting here.”

The man looked around. The driver was right—even without running lights, they were too visible. “Give them a few minutes.”

“You must be picking up something special for them to order me out on a full moon,” Jay said.

The man ignored him and kept scanning the water. Mariel was just west of Havana, and was a smaller town made famous for the stream of criminals Castro had sent North in 1980. In all, 125,000 Cubans, many from jails and mental health institutions, had been released here to find their way to America. Most on overcrowded rafts. He had been one of those men, and despite the thirty-plus years, could still recall the ordeal. His anxiety increased as he waited and he thought about the man he was to bring to freedom … and the riches. Baseball was huge in Cuba, and the small island produced many major league prospects.

But the regime refused to allow them to leave the country except for international competitions, where they were closely watched.

For several years now, he had been smuggling players to the United States to play. It was fairly easy to find the players. With the right equipment, which his cousin had access to, he could hear and see Cuban radio and television in the Southern states. And with the proliferation of the internet, there was plenty of information.

But each mission was getting more dangerous. Norm tried to focus on the lesser known up and coming players to attract less attention when they went missing, but it was not a big country, and he suspected the government had taken note. Even with the extractions spaced months apart, he felt it was only a matter of time before he was caught.

The regime, more worried about saving face than saving their country, took the loss of the half-dozen players now playing in America as a major blow, and were sure to devote resources to stop it.

“There.” He pointed. The wake of a boat was visible in the moonlight as it ran fast toward them.

Jay grabbed a pair of binoculars sitting on the dashboard and focused on the boat. “Lucky bastard. It’s them,” he said as a light flashed twice from the bow. “I was liking the idea of watching you swim.”

The man ignored him and went to the cargo.

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