Dark Fraud: A Ryan Weller Thriller: Book 10 by Evan Graver

Author:Evan Graver [Graver, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Third Reef Publishing, LLC
Published: 2021-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

As Greg motored Dark Water out of the Veracruz marina where they had gotten fuel and spent the night Ryan flipped on the cameras mounted on the bridge roof and tuna tower. They were entering an area of congested traffic surrounding the city’s port. Not only was Veracruz one of the busiest ports in Mexico, but it was also the oldest. Protecting the harbor from the natural elements was a large coral reef system that the Mexican government had designated as a national park. Small pangas and pleasure boats zipped across the water, taking tourists on adventure tours, or delivering them to scuba diving sites. Outside the protected reefs, freighters and tankers had dropped anchor, awaiting their turn for entry to the port.

“You got eyes on the Mount Rainier?” Ryan asked Scott through the walkie-talkie.

Scott, standing at the top of the tuna tower, replied, “Negative.”

“Keep looking,” Ryan replied tersely. He wouldn’t be happy until they had Jinks and his team aboard Dark Water and were racing for Texas.

They had passed the Mount Rainier last night on their reverse course out of Holbox that had included a stop in Progreso for fuel, then straight across the Bay of Campeche to Veracruz, an eleven-hour run at full power that had bled off almost all their fuel. Ryan had called Jinks and told him to be ready to vacate the ship as soon as she dropped anchor. Jinks had said that they were going straight to a berth in the old port near San Juan de Ulúa, the four-hundred-fifty-year-old fort built to protect Spanish treasure galleons.

Ryan fiddled with the main camera, zooming in and out on anchored ships. The cameras were great for reconnaissance and capturing incidents on the water.

“I got her,” Scott called over the radio. “She’s just coming around the Isla Pajaros.”

“Copy that,” Ryan replied.

The plan was to come alongside the freighter while the tugs were escorting her in. At that slow speed, Jinks’ team could easily climb down the freighter’s pilot ladder and board Dark Water.

Greg spun the wheel and angled the Hatteras away from the bigger freighter, intending to approach it from behind. By the time he had them lined up the way he wanted, the tugs were already alongside the Mount Rainier and they were less than a half mile from the port’s breakwaters.

Ryan finished tying the rubber fenders to Dark Water’s rail and climbed back up to the bridge. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and used them to spot Jinks and the team standing at the stern rail.

“Hey, guys,” Scott called over the radio. “There’s a panga headed for the Mount Rainier at high speed.”

Zooming in with the camera allowed Ryan to see an open panga with a single outboard engine racing across the water. A lone figure was hunched in the stern, his hand on the tiller, steering, as Scott had said, straight for the freighter. Instantly, Ryan’s senses came to full alert. A fisherman usually puttered on the same course, avoiding big ships at all costs.

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