Up on the bridge, Dar navigated carefully through the storm, edging closer and closer to the meeting point. It was so dark she could barely see past the bow, and she was relying only on her radar and her depth finder to keep her out of trouble. The rain lashed hard against them, moving almost sideways in its intensity.

Charlie was huddled in the seat next to her, also staring out into the darkness. "Nasty," Dar murmured.

"Yeah," the ex-sailor replied softly. "Listen, Dar-I'm sorry about that mix up before."

Dar glanced at him. "It's all right. It's too much stress for all of us right now. I know you're worried about Bud. So am I." She watched the radar, then pointed at the screen. "Looks like our friend abandoned us. One less complication."

Charlie nodded. "Saw that," he said. "I feel a d.a.m.n sight better about the whole thing now that you found that paperwork," he added. "Ain't that I didn't trust you to do the right thing, Dar, but-"

"But it's a h.e.l.l of a lot easier when you've got something to bargain with," Dar finished for him. "I wasn't feeling any too comfortable, either. There's just so much bulls.h.i.t I can dish out before I run out of cards." She made a slight adjustment to their course. "I'll be glad to give him that d.a.m.n paper, get Bud, and get the h.e.l.l out of this G.o.d d.a.m.ned storm."

"Doesn't bother you that the bad guys win?" Charlie asked, watching her face.

"Bad guy's a relative term in this viper's nest," Dar muttered, turning as she heard someone coming up the ladder. "Ah." A smile crossed her face as she recognized the st.u.r.dy form in its rain slicker. Kerry, a Thermos jug hanging around her neck by a lanyard, was using both hands to pull herself up the ladder. "Told you I'd come and get you!" Dar called out.

Kerry steadied her balance and made her way across the pitching bridge. "Let's just say there's only so much petulant whininess I can take in one sitting, okay?" She thumped down into the third seat, on the other side of Dar. "Stupid little wuss bag. I*295 almost put him through a porthole." Her voice sounded exasperated. "We almost there?"

Dar nodded. "Almost."

A crack of thunder made them jump and the entire sky lit with lightning, brushing the heaving waves with silver incandescence for a brief instant.

"Wow." Kerry exhaled. "This is getting pretty bad. What if he doesn't show?"

No one answered or looked at one another.

"He'd better," Dar finally said. "If he doesn't, we'll go find him."

Lightning flashed again and Kerry started, grabbing Dar's arm.

"Dar!" She pointed off the bow. "There's something out there!" she shouted. "Someone! I saw a person!"

"What?" Dar barked, incredulous. Immediately, she cut the throttles and slowed the big boat into a wallowing idle. "Where?"

Charlie half stood and peered. "Can't be, Kerry. Not in these waters."

Kerry strained her eyes. "There was," she said with utter certainty. "I swear it."

Dar checked the time, then looked at Kerry's face. "Get the spotlight," she said. "I'll circle."

Kerry jumped up and started for the ladder, then froze as a light from the darkness of the waves seemed to ignite, pinning them with its brilliance. "Oh!"

Dar felt the world going out of balance. "What the h.e.l.l? Now what?"

"Dar." Charlie's face had a strange expression. "That there's a Navy underwater lamp."

Naval light? A suddenly realized possibility made Dar's heart jump. As she idled the engines, she heard the faint echo of a much smaller craft nearby. "Kerry, stay up here." She held on to the railing as she edged around her partner. "I think we're okay."

Kerry held onto the rail for dear life as she watched Dar scamper down the ladder to the lower deck. "I hope she's right."

Her only answer was thunder rolling ominously overhead.

So close to the water, Dar could see the outline against the waves. It was a low riding boat with a single occupant. The light swept across her and blinded her for a moment, then went out. She opened her eyes and blinked. "Dad!"

"Hey there, Dardar," Andrew Robert's voice boomed back.

"Toss me one of them lines."

With a feeling of relief so profound it almost made her dizzy, Dar lifted one of their dock lines and tossed it over, aiming accurately at the shadowy figure. She felt it go taut. "Keep it steady, Ker!" she yelled up to her partner. "It's Dad!"

296*

"Yes!" Kerry hopped up and down a few times. "Something goes right at last!"

Dar smiled as she caught the words. She leaned over the railing and watched as her father lashed the black rubber boat to the rope.

"Want me to let the ladder down?"

"Yes, ma'am, I would like that," Andrew shouted back, tying off a second line to his waist, then making a neat dive over the side of the craft into the water.

Dar scrambled across the deck and got to the back ladder, hanging on as the boat pitched wildly in the worsening seas. She unlatched the diving hatch and booted it open, then unhooked the diving ladder and let it down into the sea.

It was only there, it seemed, for a brief moment before its sheen was engulfed by a large, dark figure that rose dripping up out of the water and invaded the deck. Despite the boat's rocking, Andrew easily held his balance as he removed his neoprene headgear. "'Lo, there."

"Hi, Daddy." Dar felt the words emerge before she could censor them. Andrew's grizzled eyebrows lifted in mild surprise, but he acknowledged them by stepping forward and clasping Dar in a brief hug. "What's a nice guy like you doing out in a storm like this?"

Andrew chuckled. "Don't you go there, Paladar," he warned, releasing her just in time to be a.s.saulted by a smaller figure bolting across the rolling deck. "You prob'ly don't know it, but a storm like this here one's the reason you're standing out in it."

Without a moment's hesitation, Kerry threw her arms around her father-in-law. "Whoo!" she gurgled. "Hi, Dad!"

Andy's voice gentled perceptibly. "Hey there, Kerry," he said.

"Ah do thank you for keeping them letters coming."

Dar's ears p.r.i.c.ked. "Letters?"

Kerry peeked at her. "After that initial outline we sent when he called on your birthday, I've been emailing him about all the stuff that's been happening," she told her lover with a touch of apology in her tone.

"You knew he was coming out here?" Dar asked.

"Naw." Andrew put a big arm around his daughter. "Just decided that this here morning. Let's go topside and have us a chat, and get out of these here d.a.m.n swells." He looked up. "That Charlie up there?"

"Yeah," Dar said.

"Got us a regular boatload of trouble, don't we?" Andy commented.

"Where's Mom?" Kerry asked as they started towards the ladder.

"Painting that there dog of yours," Andrew replied, pausing as*297 the cabin door opened and Bob looked out at him. "This here that feller that ran out on Bud and Chuck?"

Bob's eyes widened at the growl, and he hastily closed the door again.

"Yes," Kerry answered, distracted. "Dad, she's painting a picture of Chino, right?"

Andrew peered at her, then chuckled. "Yeap."

"Phew. Just checking." Kerry started up the ladder first. "I like her current cream color."

That even got Dar to smile. Andrew turned to her as they waited for Kerry to ascend. "Your momma knows them people up in Boston," he said in a serious tone. "And Ah will tell you, she does not have good words to tell about the lot of 'em."

"Gee, what a surprise." Dar gestured upward. "G'wan. I just want to get this d.a.m.n thing over with."

As Andrew started up the ladder, the door to the cabin opened and Bob peeked out again. "Who is that?" he hissed at Dar. "Where did he come from?" he added. "What's he doing here?"

Dar rested her elbow on the step. "That's my father. Do yourself a favor and just stay in there and out of our way."

A flash of anger crossed Bob's face, but he retreated and closed the door. Dar let her hands rest on the ladder for a moment, then started her climb to the top.

Andrew emerged onto the flying deck, which now seemed very cramped. He greeted the deck's other occupant casually as he followed Kerry over to the controls. "'Lo, Charles."

"Hey, Andy," Charlie murmured. "Nice surprise." His eyes stayed on the console, unaware of Kerry's attention on him. "Glad they got the paperwork wrong on you."

"Yeap," Andrew replied easily, settling into one of the seats.

"All right now, you got us a plan, k.u.mquat?"

"Dar does." Kerry waited as her partner joined them. Dar took the center seat and revved up the engines, starting them forward.

The boat's motion slowly counteracted the swells, and Kerry relaxed as her stomach settled down somewhat. It was hardly the time to ask Dar for another dose of her ear medicine. "I didn't get a chance to tell you, Dad, we found something concrete, finally."

"Did you now?" Andrew studied the controls.

"Yes." Kerry fished inside Dar's back pocket and removed the folded sheet, leaning past Dar's shoulder to hand it to him. "It's all kinds of legal stuff."

Andrew studied it, c.o.c.king his grizzled head to one side.

"Well, lookit that," he murmured. "You fixing to give this up as part of your trade off?"

"For Bud," Charlie blurted suddenly. "Yeah."

Andrew rested his jaw on his fist. "Mah wife says that feller 298*

Wharton is one right sc.u.mboat," he said. "He's using all them dollars to fix up folks the same kind as your papa was, Kerry."

Kerry stiffened, then frowned. "He's a conservative, you mean," she said. "There's no law against that, is there?" Her hands were resting on Dar's shoulders for balance, and she leaned in a little against her.

"No, ma'am, there surely is not," Andy agreed. "But seems they've taken a right dislike to folks who ain't just like them." He hesitated uncharacteristically.

Dar spoke up finally. "You mean he's funding hate groups?"

she asked. "I know there's a couple up there that think people like Kerry and me..." her eyes went to Charlie, "and Bud and Charlie should be euthanized," she added bluntly. "Is that what you mean, Dad?"

Andrew released a breath. "Your momma does think that, Dar," he acknowledged quietly. "And Ah do believe she's right."

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h," Charlie whispered.

They all looked at the sheet resting in Andrew's big hand. The rain drove harder against the console Plexiglas, making a sound like rapid gunfire.

The situation had changed, Kerry realized. Andrew's arrival and the information he brought threw a whole new facet into the mix, and now there was a question of what they should do, and she wasn't sure who exactly was going to make that decision. Dar had once told her there could only be one captain of the boat.

"Well," Dar broke the silence after a long period, "regardless, we have to get Bud out of there." She focused on the problem at hand. "There's always going to be a.s.sholes out there who want to take over the world. We have to deal with the critical issue first, and that issue's a friend in trouble."

It was a quietly strange moment, and Kerry felt the oddness.

Dar had, she realized, simply moved forward and taken on the leadership of the situation, making the decision and accepting its consequences in a completely natural way. Both Andrew and Charlie were watching her intently, and Kerry held her breath as she waited to see what their reactions would be.

"So, we're going to continue with our plan the way it is," Dar went on. "If something develops that lets us come back around and nail Wharton or DeSalliers, or both of them, great. But we get Bud out first." Her voice was quiet and steady.

Andrew nodded in acceptance. "Right. Ah figured Ah could get up there on that boat and see if Ah could rock it while you had them there people distracted."

Dar thought about it. "I'm sure they have him below decks,"

she said. "I'm going to try and force them to bring him up before I start dealing, but I don't know how far I can push." She edged the*299 throttles forward a bit. "It would make me feel a lot better to know you were there. Just in case."

A tiny smile appeared on her father's face. "Ah jest bet it would," he drawled. "Though it seems like you done got most of your bases covered already." His eyes watched his daughter with silent pride.

Dar accepted the compliment with a slight nod. "We tried. But I like having a card up my sleeve. Makes the game a lot easier."

"You can say that again." Kerry held on as the boat cut through what appeared to her to be twenty-foot waves. "Now let's just hope they show." She felt the muscles in Dar's neck relax under her hands and felt her own follow suit, glad that her partner was comfortable in taking the lead and that the two ex-sailors were willing to accept that.

It had been a tough moment for Dar, she knew. Her lover was a natural born leader, but just as naturally, she loved and worshipped her father who was also, Kerry knew, a natural born leader. Dar could have deferred to Andrew, and yet she'd chosen to trust her instincts, and do otherwise. Time would have to prove whether or not those instincts were true.

THEY FOUND THEIR spot in the ocean. The wind had risen, driving the waves against the boat, but Dar had anch.o.r.ed them into it, and the bow rose and fell with steady regularity instead of rocking side to side. Andrew had tethered his boat to the back of the Dixie, and now they were simply waiting.

"Kerry was worried about trusting DeSalliers to carry us over there. I think she's right," Dar commented to her father. "Better if you drop us off." They were standing side by side in the stern, protected from most of the wind by the craft's cabin.

"h.e.l.l, yes," Andrew agreed. "Ah'll park that thing 'tween us, then go off. Won't even realize it."

Dar eyed him curiously. "It's a pretty high bow," she said.

"You planning on roping up it?"

Andrew gave her a mildly smug look and fished in one of the belt packs he was wearing over his black neoprene dive suit.

"Nope." He held out something that had a cup-like surface of what seemed to be soft rubber, and a st.u.r.dy hard rubber handle of some kind. "Put that there up on that fibergla.s.s and twist this piece.

Makes you a handle."

Dar took it and fit her hand in it, then activated the suction.