| "The Darkness Before Dawn" | ||
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Thursday 17th April 2008 03.30hrs She drove the jeep down to the marina, parked and made her way to slip 28. 'Secret Freedom' lay sleeping in the dark before dawn, no fingers of light would show in the sky for another hour or so, but she had to make her way to the position Gray had specified. For bait, she was using a lure, so no need to go to a bait shop, Gray had said that all the equipment needed would be on the boat, so she had no more excuses. She took down the canopy, shivered in the early morning breeze, opened the combination to the locker, 1701 wondering why that set of numbers, and took out the keys she started the V8 engine. It sung into life, telling all who would listen to it, that it would prefer to be off and running. She cast off the mooring ropes, forward, and then stepped on to the boat with the aft lines, slipping the engine into gear and slowly moving out into free water. Gray had been specific on his instructions; she was to put the sea anchor down a half mile off the east point of where the 'smoking' man had been, and well away from any dredging operations. Using the GPS she would get an accurate position, but she could see in the dim light that dark area of shoreline that she needed to be close to. She released the anchor, and cut the engine, the boat swung around in the current, but that was fine, the camera mounted on the roof housing the 'radar' was trained onto the shoreline, she slipped inside and set the hidden recorder playing, the tapes could be dropped off on a safe drop for gray to pick up when she went to work. Yawning, she filled the kettle with water and set it to boil, getting a mug out of the cupboard, she made herself a strong cup of coffee, and took it back outside where she took out a rod from storage, a Penn 7' Medium power with a powergraph reel attached, and fitted a sea witch lure to the line and hook. She was hoping to get some bites, if she were lucky.. such as sea bass or black fish, but she would be happy to catch ling or porgy, she cast the line out, and sat on the side of the boat, feeling the movement in the line, sipping the strong brew. When the first rays of light came through, she felt a sharp tug on the line, and a short while later, was admiring a 2lb sea bass, shiny and the stripes bright along the sides, lying on the floor. 'Dinner', she thought, 'baked with some new potatoes and stir fried veggies'. She re-cast the line, and watched the sun rise higher on the horizon, it would take her no more than 30 mins to get back, and as it was only 6.15pm she had a little time left. Deliberately, she didn't look over towards the shoreline, instead keeping her gaze out on the water at the trailing line. Anyone watching would see just some idiot fishing early in the morning and not realize they were under surveillance. She caught a couple more fish, and then sighing at the thought of spending the day indoors, at a computer, she pulled up the lines and anchor and returned to the marina. She only had time to throw the fish in a container and into the fridge before changing and heading off to work, but at least she was off tomorrow, and wouldn't have to rush around. She had the tape from the camera in her bag, and she uploaded it to Gray's system before she left for work, flicking her damp hair up into a knot on her head. She consoled herself with the thought that at least tomorrow she wouldn't have to rush back to the marina and then to work. Saturday 19th April 2008 03.05hrs The alarm rose to a crescendo, she wanted to pick it up and throw it, anywhere. To stop the noise, was uppermost in her thoughts; despite the best of intentions and trying to get an early night, she rarely got more than three hours sleep and worse, she was soundly asleep just when the alarm started to ring. When she had spoken to Gray, and enquired how long she needed to do this, he just stared at her and then replied "Until we tell you to stop," she had sworn under her breath, but didn't give anything away to him, she calmly followed his orders, uploading the tapes after each morning excursion, and dropping the fish into the freezer, sick of the sight of yet more fish staring up at her glassy eyed in their icy state. She got up, reluctantly, washed and then dressed, grabbing her jeans and a thick sweater and pulled on a pair of boots, made her way downstairs. She picked up a book, from the selection Jordan had given her and threw it in her duffle bag, then picked up her keys and still yawning, she opened up the garage door and then drove out. 03.55hrs She debated on whether to fish this morning, but decided that as it was her cover it was better to have a line out and then she could relax. The boat was in about the same position as had been the last two days, well away from any dredging, she was just sipping her coffee when another boat drew alongside and she was hailed. She waved in response, and the other boat drew closer, "Caught anything?" she was asked, but she shook her head, "Nah, they ain't eatin' this morning," she smiled, but something about them made her suspicious. They pulled off a way, but she felt she was being watched, she continued to pull the line in, and let it feed out in the current, and then struck as a large fish took the lure. She had to put all her concentration onto the fish on the end of the line, whatever had taken the lure, was heavier and fought better than the sea bass she had been catching. It took her a while, but eventually she managed to get it on board, it was green and grey with vertical stripes with perch like dorsal fins, a blackfish. She estimated its weight to be in the region of 10lbs, a good weight for this time of year. She dispatched it with grace, and put it into the ice box, and cleaning the line, she recast back into the waters. The other boat slowly moved away, she could see the name now, Water Dancer and she was registered out of Atlantic City. Obviously she had convinced them she was simply just another fisher, and hopefully it was the last she would see of them. The rest of her trip was quiet, and she was relieved to return to the marina, tie up and then she compressed the tape onto the laptop and sent it over the wires to Gray, now she could sleep. She stripped down to her t-shirt and briefs and stretched out on the master bed, lulled by the noise of the waves gently hitting the sides of the boat, and was sound asleep in minutes. 14.00hrs A bang on the roof made her wake, her mouth suddenly dry as reached under the pillow for her gun and tried to work out what the noise was, but she was amused to see Paige and Jordan just climbing onto the deck. Paige had a pack of beer in one hand and a pizza box in the other, which smelt like manna from heaven. "Thought you might have crashed out here, any luck?" she asked, looking around. Saf yawned, and stretched, the sun was warm and she pointed to the box. Jordan lifted the lid, and looked down at the large fish, sitting surrounded by ice, and whistled. "It's yours if you want it, I have had enough fish to last a lifetime." she smiled, but it was only surface deep. Saf pulled on a pair of pants, and cracked open the bottles, passing one to each of them and sat out on the deck in the warm spring sunshine; it was good just being with people. The afternoon passed slowly, but full of fun, none of them could be bothered to take the boat out, they were happy to just laze around on the deck and chat. When the cool air started getting cold, they helped her pack the boat up, and secure it, and then walked back their vehicles together, Paige turned to her and muttered "If you want to come over tomorrow night and watch the game and have pizza, it would be fine with me," Saf smiled, a more unflattering invitation she had yet to receive, but it was the first time she had been invited to 'Paige's place' and so she accepted it before it was withdrawn; Jordan apologized, but excused herself on the grounds that she was seeing Tom that evening, but if she was fishing in the morning she would love to come. Saf agreed to meet her at the boat at 3.30am the following morning, Paige shook her head, "no-way Sara, I am not getting up that early in the morning, even to go fishing. I'll see you in the evening." They went off their separate ways, and Saf returned home, to find a message from Gray, 'Water Dancer believed to be target getting suspicious, make sure that tomorrow's surveillance is 'innocent''. She sighed, she had hoped that Gray would have pulled her out of it if it would endanger the mission, but now she had no choice but to go. 18.00hrs She debated what to do, whether to take in a movie and decided to log some time in at the gym, on the machines, and picked up a bag and headed over to the warehouse. Running on the treadmill, she thought it was nice, to be so physical after sitting down most of the day, and not have to think, just be. She finished her session after a couple of hours, with a fight with one of the instructors. Despite her Section training under Master Qin, she had a lot to learn with different opponents. He caught her with a foot to her stomach and she lay winded on the floor, but when she recovered, she bowed to Wei Cui, and then asked him to demonstrate how he had caught her out. She watched carefully as he demonstrated and then tried it herself, the timing had to be perfect, and then the other person couldn't see the move coming. She smiled her satisfaction at learning a new strategy, and bowed to Wei, before leaving the mats and hitting the showers. She couldn't be bothered to cook, but instead got a takeaway from an Italian restaurant on the way home, pasta Neapolitan and together with a glass of valpoliccella classico she munched happily while watching a documentary about the ice princess found on the Russian steppes. Sunday 20th April 2008 03.00hrs She slept well that night, for the first time in a while and even then when the alarm went off, she was already anticipating it, waking up just before it rang. She lay a while in the grayness, before she finally stood up and headed for the shower. There was a fine gray drizzling mist this morning, and when she reached the marina, she saw Jordan's two door Ford waiting for her to arrive. Jordan looked half asleep, but smiled when she saw Saf approaching, "Morning Jordan," she gestured around her, "it can only get better," she joked. It took less time with the two of them to prep and then untie the boat; Saf guided the boat to near her last position and after dropping the anchors, cut the engines. Only the sounds of the gulls, and water cut through the misty morning, but after a hot cup of coffee, Saf and Jordan both had loaded rods over the stern of the boat. Saf smiled to herself, what the camera would pick up this morning, would be grey, grey and more grey unless the sun managed to get through the mist. Still if it kept Gray happy, she would at least not get it in the neck for not doing her job correctly and then tonight, she could chill out on the sofa at Paige's place, finally she began to believe herself when she told herself that she was on the right tracks. Return |
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