Chapter One
Looking up at the night sky, one couldn’t help but imagine it being a vast sheet of black velvet with a billion tiny diamonds cast across it. Each star sparkled with its own brilliance and hue. To the south, the long cloudy band of faint stars that made up the Milky Way stretched along the horizon, just a few degrees above it, like a great serpent rising out of the water.
Low on the western horizon, the full moon was just beginning to fall into the sea, seeming larger than usual in the refracted light of the atmosphere. The reflection of the tropical moon stretched to the horizon, shimmering on the calm surface of the sea. Closer, the reflection fragmented and broadened, each ripple in the water nearer the boat creating multiple many-faceted reflections.
A light breeze played across the water from the east-northeast, as it did pretty much year-round in these tropical latitudes. The dry wispy palm fronds rustling against one another in the light air sounded like a mouse scurrying through dry autumn leaves.
Slowly, a classic old wooden sailing sloop motored out of the protected waters of tiny Puerto de Abrigo Marina on the west coast of Isla de Cozumel, Mexico. The boat’s lines were simple, yet elegant, its massive wooden mast rising more than forty-four feet above the water, its sails still furled.
In a matter of minutes, the moon would slip into the sea, and soon the sun would take its place. But not before Charity Styles and Wind Dancer were many miles from the tourist diving mecca. And not before Charity could enjoy the night sky once more.
With the flip of a switch mounted inside the wheel pedestal, an electric motor whined, driving a hydraulic system which began winching the mainsail from its boom furler, the ticking of the winch drum and gentle luffing of the rising sail making the only sound. The Dancer knifed quietly through the still water, her tiny diesel engine adding only a faint burbling sound to the still morning. Once the weight of the boom was lifted, Charity turned around at the helm, and lowered the boom crutch to the aft deck.
Close to shore, the water on the west side of Cozumel was deep—more than deep enough for the Dancer, but Charity steered directly away from shore to avoid any chance of colliding with a coral head. Less than a mile out, the bottom dropped precipitously at the edge of the wall, which was the main attraction for thousands of scuba divers. Charity started a slow sweeping turn that would carry the boat further away from shore.
The month before, Charity had spent three days in the little fishing town of Progresso on the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. She’d then come to Cozumel to recuperate from her injuries, swim in the sea, and relax. Yesterday marked four weeks since she’d left the Mexican mainland after the eruption of the San Martin Tuxtla volcano.
She had managed to convince Juan Ignacio to take a few days off from fishing and accompany her to Cozumel. When she’d first arrived back in Progresso, he’d treated and redressed her wounds, not asking any questions. A bullet had grazed the cheek of her ass, and she had a number of scrapes and bruises from a quick descent off the steep mountain peak.
After Juan left, Charity spent the next four days alone on the Dancer. She’d come to grips with her actions that night on the mountain, blaming it on her inner demons. Her boss had reprimanded her for being overzealous. He’d sent her to Mexico to track down and kill just one man, the leader of a terrorist cell planning an attack against innocent civilians.
Charity got carried away.
In the end, probably a dozen men met the fate they deserved when the volcano erupted and lava consumed everything in its path—a taste of the perpetual flames she hoped they were now experiencing in Hell.
Late the night before, she’d been instructed to get underway for the island of Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela. The communication, the first she had received in two weeks, said that more details would come later, but to get underway as soon as possible. She responded in the usual way, giving her approximate date of arrival and saving the email as a draft. Communications from her handler were never sent, just saved in the draft folder of the email server, where only she and her handler had access.
Charity’s handler was none other than the Associate Deputy Director for Homeland Security’s Caribbean Counterterrorism Command, Colonel Travis Stockwell. He’d devised the simple method of communicating, and rarely resorted to encrypted satellite phones or text messages. It was supposed to prevent any paper or electronic trail, to give his bosses plausible deniability—his bosses being the Secretary of Homeland Security and the President of the United States.
The Dancer was equipped with the latest in satellite communication technology, and Charity could access the Internet from just about anywhere in the western hemisphere. Almost immediately, another draft message had been saved, asking if she could speed up the arrival time.
She’d double-checked her calculations at the navigation desk. The distance was about seventeen hundred nautical miles and would have to be made in short hops, island to island, to give her some downtime to rest along the way. The Dancer was fast—at least, she was fast for a seventy-two-year-old sailing vessel. Her hull was gel-coated to an ultra-smooth finish, and she slipped through the water with almost no friction. But her top speed in perfect conditions was less than ten knots, meaning sailing time alone would be at least eight to ten days, even with ideal conditions.
Each of the short hops were over two hundred miles. This meant she’d spend at least a full twenty-four hours at the helm, cat-napping through the night, as she’d done to get from Miami to Mexico. Each leg would require a layover to rest. The longest leg would be from Jamaica to Aruba, six hundred miles of non-stop sailing which would take more than three whole days. She’d need plenty of rest before starting that part of the journey and would be worthless on arrival without another day of rest.
She’d replied that her estimate was probably the fastest route to Trinidad, and reminded the director that they’d both agreed this was the most inconspicuous manner to move around the Caribbean Basin. She even challenged him to come to the marina on Grand Cayman in two days and try to find her, knowing that the places she was planning to stop were full of cruisers.
Stockwell had reluctantly approved the arrival time of seventeen to twenty days, telling her that they were still working out the logistics, but she should expect a delivery somewhere along the route she’d outlined.
Charity then spent an hour checking the weather forecasts for her route, something she should have done before giving the director an ETA. The long range forecast for the whole Caribbean, as she’d be crossing it from northwest to southeast, mentioned nothing more than the occasional storms that popped up and disappeared. It was only a month before the start of hurricane season, but when she checked the local forecast between Cozumel and Grand Cayman, she found conditions ideal for a fast passage. She’d decided to start early and be out of the diving areas before the sun came up.
The light breeze filled the sails as they unfurled and Charity killed the engine. Turning southwest, she toggled the winches again, swinging the boom and foresail out to a broad reach, as she angled away from the coast and into deeper water, nearly running before the wind at five knots. Not exactly the Dancer’s best point of sail.
Sitting in the cockpit, she watched as the last of the moon slipped below the horizon. Its disappearing brilliance allowed the twinkling light from the stars to the west to reach her eye, and soon the whole sky was ablaze with light.
More than an hour later, about two miles off Yucab Reef, Charity turned due south and trimmed the sails once more, to take her past the southern tip of the island. She knew that once she cleared land, the wind would pick up—and when the sun rose and heated the mainland, it would increase even more. She’d be turning east then, and have the wind off her port bow, the Dancer’s fastest point of sail.
Switching the autopilot on, Charity engaged the computer program that would control sail arrangement and was satisfied that not a single whisper came from the hydraulic winches. The computer confirmed that she’d chosen the most efficient arrangement. A quick look at the radar told her she was alone on the sea for the time being.
As the Dancer sailed herself southward, Charity went forward on the port side, checking equipment and rigging all the way to the bow. She double-checked the straps that held her new dinghy in place on the foredeck, thankful that she’d been able to find one while in Progresso.
At the bow, she paused. The sun was only minutes from breaching the horizon, and Charity’s shadow was just visible against the foresail behind her. Ahead, the sea looked tranquil. Long rollers no more than a foot high were spaced out ahead, paralleling her direction of travel. The angle of the light from the eastern sky created a shadow below each roller’s crest. As they moved beneath the hull she barely noticed, but for the subtle change in the sound of the bow wave slicing through them.
Charity found that she enjoyed letting the computer sail the Dancer, and often paused with one foot on the bowsprit. She did so now; gripping the luff of the foresail and leaning forward, she let the wind lift the hair off her shoulders and looked out ahead and all around. Standing there for a moment, she got a rush of freedom unlike anything she’d ever known.
Satisfied that all was well, Charity went down the ladder to the salon to get another bottle of water and slice some fruit to snack on while underway. It would be two long days and two even longer nights, but she’d arrive at Georgetown near sunrise to clear customs in the Caymans.
Back at the helm, Charity left the autopilot on and reclined on the aft port bench, propping a pillow against the wood combing behind her back. Taking a sip from the water bottle, she leaned her head back and looked up again at the stars still visible to the west.
It had been over a month since she’d stolen away before dawn, flying the DHS helicopter to Miami and boarding the Dancer for the first time. The experience had been akin to going back to one’s childhood home; her uncle had once owned a sailboat almost identical to Wind Dancer.
Charity had grown up sailing with her uncle and father nearly every weekend and sometimes all summer long. Uncle Bill had been in the Navy. Her father, Mike Styles, had been a sergeant in the Army. The brothers had served at nearly the same time in Vietnam; both were dead now. Her mother was also dead, for all Charity knew.
Uncle Bill’s boat had been laid out slightly different, though it was the same hull design. His had only a single quarter berth under the starboard bench, but it was a double berth laid out cross-hull, with only a couple feet of room at the foot of the bunk, under the cockpit deck, and room enough to sit up at the head, under the cockpit’s starboard bench seat. As a child, Charity had loved crawling back into the corner, where only she could fit. There, she could imagine herself to be anything she wanted.
“I wonder,” she said aloud, “if I ever imagined myself becoming a government assassin.”
There was not another soul on the ocean within miles to hear her words.
Chapter Two
One by one, the last of the stars winked out as the sun quickly brightened the sky to the east. Glancing over her shoulder, Charity watched as the dome of the sun began to rise out of the water and suddenly it was nearly full daylight. It took a few more minutes for the bright yellow sun to extract itself from the sea’s grasp and begin its daily march across the Caribbean sky.
As the sun climbed higher and the Dancer came out of the lee of the island, the wind increased. Charity entered the GPS coordinates for Grand Cayman and, once set, the computer turned the Dancer to the new heading, trimming the sails as the boat turned.
The Dancer heeled slightly and accelerated, the wind now coming around closer to the bow on the port side. After a moment, Charity checked the knot-meter, smiling to see that they were making an easy nine knots.
The day wore on, uneventful. By mid-morning, the coast of Cozumel had fallen off the radar screen, replaced by a vast empty sea. At noon, Charity went down to the galley to make a sandwich and check the laptop. There was a saved email with an attachment, but no message.
She opened the attachment and saw that it was a short dossier. She skimmed over it quickly, then sent the file to the printer. While it printed, she took the sandwich to her cabin to change into a bathing suit.
Spending an hour each day in the sun was something she’d always tried to do most of her life. For the past month, she’d barely missed a single day. With her hair dyed black, her tan deep and nearly all-over, and her Spanish fluent, she could easily pass for Hispanic. She doubted that even Juan had suspected.
Taking a towel and a pillow, she returned to the cockpit with the printout. She checked the tiny radar display for probably the hundredth time, unsurprised to see an empty screen.
Charity made her way forward and spread the towel on the foredeck next to the mast, propping the pillow against the cabin roof. The wind and hot tropical sun felt good against her skin, as she stretched her legs out and leaned back against the bulkhead. Taking her time, she read through the five-page report twice, enjoying the feel of the boat as the Dancer marched steadily onward.
There wasn’t much in the report. Her target was an unknown man in Venezuela. There were no pictures or description of him. Nothing much really to go on, other than the fact that the local indigenous people were afraid of him.
There was a list of several men, some with poor quality photos, who were known associates of her target. Surprisingly, they were all white—fair-haired white men, most with European names.
After about an hour, Charity went below and dressed in regular sailing attire: long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, boat shoes and a long-billed cap. It would be very easy to get too much sun at these latitudes.
Pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail, she took the ladder up to the cockpit and checked the radar again. This time she saw another boat, ahead of her. Instinctively, Charity stood on her toes and looked in the direction the radar indicated. Seeing nothing on the horizon, she sat down and studied the image on the screen. It definitely wasn’t a ship. The echo was too small. It seemed to be moving in the same direction as the Dancer, but at a slightly slower speed.
Over the next couple of hours, Charity kept watch on the radar screen, looking occasionally in the direction it indicated the other boat to be. She knew she wouldn’t be able to see it until it was within three miles, but she kept looking just the same.
During that two hours, the Dancer closed the distance from eleven miles to seven. Charity estimated the boat was traveling at only five or six knots, and she would likely overtake and pass it just about the time the sun went down.
A man’s voice on the radio startled her. “This is MV Osprey to the easterly sailing vessel approaching our stern.”
His voice had a no-nonsense professional mariner’s tone. She wondered how he could tell the Dancer was a sailboat. Glancing up at her sails, she realized that although the other boat was too far away for her to see, the Dancer’s mast and sails were probably already visible to the other boat, particularly if it was one of those fly bridge motor yachts.
Charity plucked the mic from its holder on the back of the starboard bench. “Osprey, Wind Dancer. Switch and answer seventy-two.”
Replacing the mic, Charity picked up her hand-held secondary radio and switched it on, before turning the little knob to change frequencies. She waited a moment and the man hailed her again. Keying the mic, she replied, “This is Wind Dancer. Go ahead Osprey.”
“Hello, Wind Dancer. Josh Alexander and family here, out of Palm Beach, Florida. We’re on our way to Grand Cayman, and the engine’s running a little hot.”
Charity wondered for a moment what it was the man wanted of her. Cruisers were a social bunch, but if he were to break down, she couldn’t very well tow his boat.
“Hi, Josh. I’m Gabriella Fleming out of Miami,” Charity said, using her alias and a slight Cuban accent. “Also headed to Grand Cayman. I’m not sure how I can help.”
“We thought about turning back, but dropping back to six knots seems to have helped. I figure you’re going to pass us in a couple of hours, but we should still be in radio range of one another until you get close enough to hail Grand Cayman. Would you mind relaying a message, should we break down?”
Charity considered the situation. She didn’t like the idea of just sailing past a boat in distress, even if she was able to stay in radio contact with them.
“I’m in no hurry, Josh,” she finally said into the mic. “Once I catch up with you, I’ll stay with you until we’re both in radio range of help, probably late tomorrow night.”
A woman’s voice came over the radio, relief obvious in her every word. “This is Tonia Alexander, Gabriella. We’d be very grateful for the company.”
“Not a problem, Tonia. Glad to help any way I can.”
The woman stayed on the radio, and they talked occasionally over the next few hours as the Dancer slowly reeled in the slower boat.
When the radar indicated that they were only three miles apart, Charity took her handheld VHF and binoculars with her as she went up the port side, checking the rigging and equipment. At the bow, she paused. Ahead, she could just make out the Alexanders’ boat on the horizon.
Through the binoculars, it appeared to be a trawler with a fly bridge and aft-cabin. It had a dark blue hull, white topsides, and a dark blue Bimini top that covered both the bridge and the sundeck over the aft cabin. Charity could make out three people on the bridge; a man seemed to be at the helm, and two women in seats flanked him.
As Charity watched, a fourth person emerged from the cabin and went up the ladder to the fly bridge—a third woman, it seemed. The woman went to the aft rail and looked back toward Wind Dancer with her own binoculars and waved.
Charity waved back before returning aft, though she wasn’t sure the woman could see her. Back at the helm, she checked the GPS and saw that the Dancer had traveled nearly a hundred miles since departing Cozumel early that morning. If she maintained this speed, she’d make Grand Cayman several hours before sunrise, day after tomorrow. That meant laying off for a few hours, since the customs and immigration office maintained normal business hours. She could pay the special attendance fee and clear in when she arrived, but few cruisers did that—and not being noticed or remembered was important to her mission. So, slowing down a little wasn’t going to hurt her timetable at all.
Less than two hours later, with an hour of daylight left, Charity came abeam on the upwind side of the slower-moving trawler. Switching control of the sail arrangement from automatic to manual, she furled a third of the large foresail, which brought her speed down to match the Osprey.
Tonia’s voice came over the little hand-held radio. “Are you still on seventy-two?”
“Yes, Tonia. I’m on a hand-held, so I can leave the main radio on sixteen.”
“I was about to go below and start dinner. Would you all like to join us?”
Charity had gotten to know the woman a little over the last few hours. She’d learned that the Alexanders were traveling with their two daughters, who had just graduated college and high school. The older daughter was planning a wedding in the fall, and the younger one would be going off to college. The coming summer, Tonia had explained, would likely be the last the four of them could go cruising, something the girls loved.
Though she’d learned quite a bit about the Alexanders, Charity hadn’t even told Tonia she was traveling alone.
“I’m a solo sailor, Tonia. so it’s just me. Do you think it’s wise to shut the engine down?”
“Josh says it’ll be fine. He wants to let it cool down a bit, so he can add some coolant before it gets dark and check the strainers.”
“In that case, sure,” Charity said. “I was just about to make a sandwich and eat at the helm.”
“If you’re solo, how do you sleep?” Tonia asked.
“Short cat-naps at the helm with the auto-pilot engaged.”
There was a short moment of silence before Tonia’s voice came over the radio again. “Dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes. Heave to when you’re ready, and we’ll come alongside to tie off.”
A break would be a good idea, Charity thought, remembering her first attempt at a long-distance sail and how tired she’d become.
Switching off the autopilot, she turned slightly toward the other boat as she keyed the mic. “I’ll be alongside in a minute and drop the sails.”
A moment later, still a hundred feet away from the other boat, Charity toggled the two switches that controlled the furlers, and the sails came down quickly. By the time they were fully furled, she was only fifty feet away and the Osprey had come to a complete stop.
Charity went up the starboard side, dropping fenders over the rail, as Josh maneuvered closer. She could now see that it was a Mainship pilothouse trawler, a very sturdy-looking vessel.
In minutes, the two daughters—both very pretty blondes—had the two boats secured together. Tonia came out of the cabin and met Charity at the rail, extending her hand. “Welcome aboard, Gabriella.”
Charity took the offered hand and said, “Please, my friends call me Gabby.”
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