Death Echo

41

DAY FOUR

STRAIT OF GEORGIA

1:45 P.M.

Lina Fredric, who wanted very much to forget that she had started life as Galina Federova, watched Taras Demidov from the corner of her eye. Though the water was choppy, headed toward outright rough, the motion didn’t appear to bother his stomach.

But of course, Lina thought. Nothing short of a nuclear blast would upset that man.

At least he is paying me well. Quite well.

It could have been much worse. Whether in the “free world” or the FSU, money and violence talked very clearly. She preferred money. So far, Demidov seemed to share her preference. If that changed…

Mentally Lina shrugged. Even though she had learned that he carried a knife rather than a gun, she didn’t fancy her chances against Demidov in physical combat. She’d grown soft over the years. He hadn’t.

The static and snatches of words from the VHF radio made a familiar background for her thoughts.

“…Sun Raider.”

“Sun Raider to XTSea 4EVR, switch to channel…”

The only good news about the shifting weather was that the clouds were being blown out by the northwest wind. Clear skies were nice but the price was wind, which meant rougher water, especially when the tide changed and the wind pushed against the flooding water.

A gust of wind, a small trough, and the Redhead II lurched beneath Demidov. Though he was sitting down, the sudden motion jerked him like a puppet. He muttered a Russian curse, lowered the binoculars, and rubbed his eyes. With barely veiled impatience, he switched his attention from binoculars to his special cell phone. Relieved not to be viewing a world that jumped about like water drops in a hot skillet, he keyed in a number.

After a few moments, two sets of latitude and longitude numbers appeared on the small screen. A cold, thin smile stretched his lips as he checked, then checked the lower numbers again.

Blackbird was out of Canadian customs and working her way north from Nanaimo.

North, where Demidov lay in wait.