one in the cabin. For when it rained, he thought. Or for when there was a storm.
With his luck in this sort of thing, half a mile out in the ocean there would be a hurricane.
The mate signaled to him to untie the ropes. He had to jump up on the wharf to do it. When he was done he quickly jumped back onto the veranda.
The sound of the diesel engines changed, and the nose of the boat moved away from the wharf.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure , Ellis told himself. He took the vial of Dramamine pills from his pocket and popped two of them in his mouth.
Over Draught II moved into the wide part of the harbor, then started out of it, moving between two lines of things bobbing around in the water.
Buoys, Ellis said aloud, pleased that he knew what they were. Like the soap, which should really be pronounced Life boo -wee rather than Life Boy.
When they hit the first swell of the deep water and the whole damned boat went up and down, Tom Ellis was glad that hed taken the Dramamine. Soon the dull murmur of the diesels changed to a dull roar, and the boat began to pick up speed through the water.
Thirty minutes later he was reasonably sure that he was not going to get seasick and make an ass of himself. It was actually pretty nice in the back of the boat, sitting in one of the cushioned chairs bolted to the floor and watching the water boil up alongside the boat and fan out in back.
The mate came back and smiled at him.
You doing all right? he asked.
The Berets / 5
Fine, Ellis said. How fast are we going?
Oh, the mate said, and looked over the side, I guess eighteen, twenty knots.
Ellis did the arithmetic.
About three hours?
About that, the mate said. Theres chow if youre hungry.
Food? Ellis said incredulously. Thank you, no.
Youll change your mind, the mate said. You work up an appetite on a small boat.
Ellis doubted that but said nothing.
Theres a couple of six-packs too, the mate said.
Maybe later, Ellis said.
Two hours later Ellis made himself a ham-on-rye sandwich and washed it down with a Seven-Up. It wasnt as bad as he thought it would be. He reminded himself of the philosophical wisdom that things were seldom as bad as you thought they were going to be.
When he finished his sandwich, he climbed the ladder up to where the captain was driving the boat.
Is it all right if I come up here? he asked.
Sure, the captain said. Glad to have the company.
How much farther?
Thirty minutes, maybe forty-five, the captain said. I suppose youre all set.
Yes, sir, Ellis said.
Thirty minutes later there was a blip on the radar screen. The captain pointed it out to Ellis.
Thats probably them, he said.
How can you tell?
You ever read a dirty book called Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller?
Yeah, when I was in high school.
Were within a few seconds of the Tropic of Cancer, the captain said. And thats where were supposed to meet them.
Two minutes later Ellis began to make out the faint outline of a boat on the horizon and just a little left of straight ahead.
Thats probably them, the captain said. Shes not moving.
As they approached the other boat Ellis could see it more clearly. It was about as big as Over Draught II but narrower and rode lower in the water. The hull was gray and the superstructure a garish blue.
The captain slowed the Over Draught II as they approached, and then slowed it further when they were closer. When they were fifty yards away from the gray and blue boat, he threw the Over Draught II into reverse momentarily. They stopped dead in the water, and the boat began to roll slightly with the swells. Ellis felt a pressure in his temples. He was also a little dizzy and felt a clammy sweat.
Jesus Christ, God! he prayed silently. Not now, please!
There was a small boat tied to the back of the other boat. Three men in khakisCubansclimbed off the gray boat and into the smaller one, and there was the sound of an outboard motor starting.
Ellis went inside the Over Draught II and returned with a plastic attaché case. He handed it to the mate.
Its not locked, he said.
The mate nodded.
When the small boat came to the rear of the Over Draught II , one of the men in it 6 / W. E. B. Griffin
threw a line to the mate. He caught it and tied it to a brass stanchion. Ellis looked down into the boat. There was a black-plasticwrapped object in the boat, around which rope had been wound and formed into a sling. When one of the Cubans in the boat saw Ellis, he tossed the loose end of the rope to Ellis, who failed to catch it. He caught it on the second try.
The Cuban in the boat stepped from it to the teak dive platform on the back of the Over Draught II , then climbed up a built-in ladder.
The mate and Ellis pulled the black-plasticwrapped package onto the Over Draught II .
The captain handed the briefcase to the man who had come aboard. He put it on the wet-bait well and opened it. It contained currency, twenty-dollar bills in packets of fifty bills each. These were bound with a paper strip reading $1000 in $20 . There were fifty packets.