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The 3rd Sister would still be around somewhere. Hawk and Holly were indifferent to comfort. Only a clear and present danger kept them out of the water. When clients paid the 3rd Sister for an adventure it was not unlike making a contract with the devil. There was almost no way out.
The Lorelei glided up parallel with the dock, and Ralph, green from head to foot in foul-weather gear, came out on deck. Lucas didn’t shut down the engines.
“How time flies when you’d rather be in bed,” A
Ralph gave her a life vest and she fumbled at the side lacings. ISRO had purchased all Large and Extra Large in the expectation of a future filled with nothing but brawny, strapping rangers. Even having cinched it as tightly as it would go, A
Lucas motored slowly away from the dock, scrupulous as ever not to create a wake where it could damage another vessel. A crew cut and long brown hair were about all A
His kindness irritated because it reminded her of her fear. “Never better,” she retorted.
Ralph laughed. “A
“Oh pshaw!” A
Ralph just laughed.
A
Besides, she hoped the cold would drive Ralph inside. The last thing she wanted was someone to call her bluff. Two terrors battled for dominance in A
He leaned against the cabin next to her, the bulk of his body cutting the wind that curled around the side. Boyish brown curls escaped his hood, contrasting oddly with the broken nose and unsettlingly old eyes. Ralph Pilcher wasn’t a handsome man, but A
“A few things,” Ralph said as the Lorelei motored out of Amygdaloid Cha
A
Ralph relaxed back against the cabin wall and for a moment they stood in companionable silence watching the wake fold in on itself and disappear.
“Ever do a body recovery?” Ralph asked after a while.
“A few. Always on dry ground.”
“In Superior they’re not too bad. No smell. Usually we’d take the mask off. If they were diving-breathing compressed air-the change in pressure makes fluids froth out the nose and mouth. The family doesn’t need to see that.”
De
The tenor of the engines changed as Lucas throttled down. They were nearing the Kamloops‘ marker buoy. A
The Lorelei glided gently up to the buoy and stopped. A
The first man out of the cabin was Frederick Stanton. The crew cut had been an optical illusion. His hair was cut close only in the back and over the ears. He wore the top long. When A
Warmed by the possibility that she’d been wrong, that Frederick the Fed might have some redeeming social attributes after all, A
“Fred Stanton.” Scotty, only his head poking out of the cabin, introduced the man from behind. Stanton shook, a sudden convulsion of the shoulders as if freeing himself from any proprietary claims Butkus was trying to stake.
“Frederick,” he said clearly and pulled off his glove to shake hands.
“This is A
“Better you than me,” Stanton said. His voice was light and gentle for a man. Pleasant and probably misleading, A
“Excuse me.” Lucas was making his way past Scotty, who still hung in the narrow doorway. Butkus, muttering cowboy apologies, clomped to the stern. Vega’s eye followed his steps with a sour look, watching for black heel marks on the white deck.
Jim bumped out from the cabin and the Chief Ranger’s attention snapped back to the dive. “Ralph?” Raising a dark wing-shaped eyebrow, he officially turned the dive over to the District Ranger.
Quietly, efficiently, Ralph began directing traffic on the crowded deck, lending a hand where buckles needed buckling, rubber hoods straightening. He managed to suit up himself, keep Scotty’s great booted feet off the damageable goods, and exchange a few sentences with Jo.
With fingers that tingled, A
Still, she pulled and jerked and buckled and finally, without mishap, she was encased in gear. Humpbacked, orange-ski
“Okay,” Pilcher said. “Tasmanian cluster fuck.” From the corner of her eye, A
A