By edRogers
[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]
Charlie had grabbed the four lifejackets stored at the back of the boat and jumped. The water was warm when he entered it, but it became colder and colder the longer he was there. The boat had been moving south with Cocos to its left, and that was the way he headed.
The life jackets went in every direction when he hit the water. The boat circled a number of times trying to find him with the flood light, but each time the light approached him, he ducked under the water. They did, however, fish out three of the life jackets. He was lucky and came up with the one they had missed. Charlie saw Rufino empty a bucket of fish guts overboard and knew the sharks would be coming. He lay on his back and used his feet and legs to propel himself forward. When his legs became tired he used his arms. He rotated like that all night long.
He had been in the water for at least a couple of hours and hadn’t been attacked by a shark. He wondered how long his luck would hold out. Now that the boat was gone, sharks were his biggest fear. After all, the reason he was there was because the waters were full of sharks.
The moon began to rise and a new fear gripped him. With its light shining down on the water, he would from below be a dark shadow floating on the surface just waiting for some shark to come take a bite. The loneliness of the open sea is almost unbearable. There are shadows everywhere, in the waves, under the water, and mostly in your mind. Some are real, some are not, but his mind could no longer tell the difference.
Charlie paddled on, still lying on his back – there was nothing else he could do; swim or die were his choices. Then, out of nowhere, he felt the water move under him. Nothing touched him, but beneath him a wave moved crossways from the current, and he knew something was passing by him. He came upright and looked into the depths of the ocean searching for the creature who he imagined wanted to take revenge for his killing its family.
Charlie’s heart skipped a beat as he saw a dark shadow pass within a few feet below him. He balled his legs up under his body, and the shadow disappeared into the depths, but he knew it was not gone. He still had his knife on his belt, but he wasn’t so stupid as to think he could kill a shark with it. He just hoped he could hurt it enough that it would go in search of an easier dinner.
Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shadow rushing up toward him. He pulled his life jacket off and ran his left arm through the holes. With the jacket off he could move faster. He had the point of the knife aimed at the shark, which opened its mouth for its final attack. Charlie moved to the left and drove the knife at the shark’s head. It was so close its body hit him and spun him around, but not before he saw the knife enter the shark’s eye socket. The shark’s impact loosened his grip on the knife and the shark swam off with it sticking out of its head.
He had dodged that bullet, but now all he had for defense was his shorts, his T-shirt, and a life jacket. He was shaking so much from the fear and cold, it was hard to put the life jacket back on. He rolled over on his back and began to paddle east. Off to the west, and just beyond the horizon, was a large orange glow like the setting sun, but it was night time, and he wondered what it was. He watched it grow smaller, and when it was gone from sight he missed it – it is very lonely in the ocean.
Edgar turned the boat in ever-widening circles. He played the searchlight across the water but all they had found were the life jackets. The last thing he had expected was Charlie jumping overboard. They had searched for an hour with no luck. He hollered, “Rufino, chop up some fish and throw it in the water. We’ll let the sharks take care of that rat.”
The water was turning red with chopped fish parts. As they pulled away they could see fins cutting through the water. Rufino hollered at Edgar, “He’ll need to be one lucky puta to live through this night.”
Throughout everything that had gone on, Paulo had said nothing. Not speaking English, he wasn’t sure what was happening and he was too afraid to ask. He knew they were trying to kill Charlie, but why?
Suddenly, Edgar shouted, “There’s a boat coming up fast straight at us. It may be the D.E.A! Make sure there are no drugs on the deck. Hose it down fast.”
Rufino and Paulo were finishing cleaning the deck as the Taiwanese boat came alongside. Rufino never heard the shot that hit him. He grabbed at the railing as he went over into the shark-filled water. Paulo threw up his hands but was shot a number of times and lived only long enough to see the gas can hit the deck in front of him and splash across the wood.
Edgar realized too late what was happening, and after the first shot, he had turned the boat away from the Taiwanese –his last gamble. It did no good, two bullets entered his back and he fell over the wheel. A flare was shot from the Taiwanese boat and the deck became an inferno.
The Taiwanese turned into the night and headed back the way they had come. The last they saw of the Santa Renée was the gas can exploding. With Edgar’s weight on the wheel, the boat was turning in circles. The fire put a bright glow across the sky for about forty minutes as it went through its death spiral.
Margot was tracking the Santa Renée on her cell phone as she and Tommy rounded the north end of Cocos Island. Their plan was to use the location of the boat to form a search pattern. Suddenly, the blip stopped. “Tommy, the damn boat just disappeared!”
He eased back on the gas and pointed toward the horizon. “There’s a large glow out to sea. You think that could be your boat?”
“It’s in the right location. I wonder what happened?”
Tommy added the gas again. “It’s only a guess, but I would say Mr. Tai is cutting his losses. He’s not a man who likes loose ends.”
“What would he have to worry about? He has enough power to get the D.E.A. kicked out of the country.”
“Governments change. The next change may bring about an investigation into the removal of those agents. I have no doubt you’ll be right in the middle of that fight also.”
“It will be a battle worth having.”
He laughed. “And one worth watching.”
“Do you feel that? I think the tide is changing.”
Tommy cut the power and put the boat in neutral. “You’re right. We’re being pushed toward the island.”
Margot felt hopeful for the first time since talking to the D.E.A. “That means Charlie will be pushed also. Let’s move to about the middle of the island and drop anchor. We can use the air horn to let Charlie know we’re waiting for him. I don’t want him to think he’s here alone.”
In the distance, Charlie heard a horn. It would go off every few minutes. He didn’t know for sure, but he wanted to believe it was Margot. At first, he tried to swim toward the sound, but the tide was pushing him where it wanted him to go, and all he was doing was wearing himself out. He lay back and looked up at the stars and let fate guide him whichever way it would.
Two, maybe three hours of listening to the horn and it stopped. He opened his eyes and the sun was coming up over the island. He was maybe half a mile out. He could make out the contours of the shore line. He saw two large, long rock formations coming out into the sea and a white sandy beach between them. He was too far to the left of the rocks,so he began to swim toward the sandy beach and away from the jungle landscape on the left. He paddled with both his arms and legs. If he could get to the white beach he would be seen, but in that jungle, they would never find him.
Charlie was giving it everything he had, but his body tank was running on empty. He could hear the waves hitting the rocks, but it didn’t look as though he was going to make it. Then, out of nowhere, a large wave lifted him up and he found himself flying on its crest, but not toward the beach, rather toward the rocks.
He removed the life jacket and swam toward the top of the wave. He slid over the top and raced down the front of the wave away from the rocks. He had made it just inside the formation when the wave slammed him to the bottom and the undertow began to pull him back out to sea. He caught a ragged rock and held on until another wave came and washed him closer to the shore. This time the water was shallow enough for him to dig his toes into the sand and hold himself. The next wave put him on the beach.
Charlie was unable to stand, so he just lay there. His gas tank was empty, there was nothing left. He remembered hearing an airplane and wanting to get up and wave at it, but he had not been able to move either his legs or his arms.
He remembered hearing Margot’s voice but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. Then he was being banged around in a boat. Then he remembered being in a car. And then everything went black.
Margot threw the air horn into the back seat of Tommy’s boat. “It’s out of air. We need to move along the coast anyway. The sun is coming up and he should be close to shore by now.”
Her phone ring. “Howard, how far out are you?”
“I’m coming over the top of the island as we speak. Oh, I see you.”
Howard’s small plane dove across the water and passed over their head.
“It’s good to see you, my dear, dear, Howard.”
“Do you think he made it to shore or do you want me to start at sea and work my way back?”
“There was a strong tide last night. We’re thinking he made it to shore. Work along the shoreline and then move out from there.”
“Will do. I’ll call you if I find him.”
Tommy turned off his engine. “I need to save gas, and Howard can cover much more area than we can.”
Margot’s phone rang less that ten minutes later, and she put it on speaker. “Howard, did you find him?”
“I’ve found somebody, a male, but he isn’t moving. He’s on a white beach about a mile south of you.”
Margot was hitting the dashboard in front of her. “Go, Tommy, go!”
The boat shot across the water like a bullet. Margot was praying, “God, don’t let him be dead, please don’t let him be dead.”
When they got him on board, Charlie was alive but out of it. Margot was going to give him water but Tommy stopped her. “Wet a rag and let him suck on that. Too much water right now could kill him. We need to get him to a hospital where they can give him an IV.”
| Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers |
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