Caribbean's Keeper (37 page)

With that, he hung up the phone, partly in disbelief. Looking at Tony, Cole could see that Tony was also bewildered. The van turned another sharp corner and the man seated in the passenger seat yelled, “One minute out.”

Tony asked, “Are you shitting me? That was Mickey on the other end?”

Cole nodded, saying, “Yeah, even I couldn’t make this stuff up.”

Tony took out his phone again and held it up to his right ear. With his other hand covering his left ear, he yelled into the phone, “Go find Mickey. Now. Get every guy you’ve got on it and go find that little bastard.”

As the van pulled up to an unlit soccer field, the men all hopped out and helped Cole over towards some bleachers, sitting him down on the lowest seat. Cole pressed his hand against his torso and felt warm blood, his own blood, running down his hand. He tried to hide it, but Cole felt unmistakable panic setting in. As he sat on a bleacher in a soccer field in Panama, his time to die was fast approaching. He turned his thoughts to Isabella and smiled for a second before an immense sadness overtook him. Cole wished that he’d been able to say goodbye to her, or to tell her that he loved her, or to have apologized at least for everything he’d put her through.

Moments later, and from the far side of the field, a helicopter came into view, its rotors whining loudly as it came into a hover over the field, flinging weeds and trash into the air before settling down on the grass. Tony and the men hurried over, now carrying Cole, and they all climbed in. Within seconds, the helicopter was up and airborne. Cole, dizzy and weak, asked to no one in particular, “Where are we going?” Before anyone could answer, Cole slipped out of consciousness.

Chapter 18 – The Pacific

HE WOKE IN A BED, but was unsure where he was. He’d been cleaned up. He was in a hospital gown and looked around at his hands then wiggled his feet under the sheet to assure himself that he was still in one piece. He then took a few labored breaths, and it felt far better than it had in the van. After some time, a Navy corpsman walked in, and Cole pieced things together.

He asked, “Where am I?”

The corpsman just looked at him and replied matter-of-factly, “You’re on a cruiser, Sir. I’ll go get your partner.”

The corpsman disappeared, and a few minutes later Tony walked in and pulled up a chair beside Cole. “How are you feeling, Cole?”

Cole tilted his head to one side and sighed. “I’ve been better, but I’m alive. So where the hell are we?”

Tony smiled. “We had the Navy standing by in case we had to get out quick. I figured you stood a good chance to do something unexpected, so we developed a few contingencies.”

Cole laughed and replied, “I’ve never been so happy to be underway in my life.”

“Good thing we did, seeing as how you went a bit nuts back there.”

Surprised, Cole said, “Pretty sure I’m alive because of it.”

“Yeah, there may be some truth to that.” Tony nodded, “So how the hell did you get your hands on a gun anyway? That wasn’t in the plan.”

Cole laughed even more forcefully and grimaced from the pain in his chest before replying, “It’s Panama, Tony. What did you expect?”

“I told you we had you covered.”

“Yeah, well, I had myself covered, too.” The two of them paused for a moment before Cole asked, “So, what about Mickey?”

Tony leaned back in his chair. “We got him. They caught the little piece of shit passing the sea buoy on a jet ski headed south with a backpack full of cash. The Coast Guard ended up pepper-spraying him after he started waving a knife. My guess is that he was trying for Cuba.”

“So he was running things the whole time?”

Tony nodded, “Yeah, it’s looking that way. Right under our damn noses, he was running things for years. He had every one of us fooled, but that’s how this business is sometimes.”

Cole thought for a second and said, “Yeah, he had me fooled, too.”

Tony stood up and patted Cole on the shoulder again, then turned and started walking out. “You did good, Cole. Sit tight for a few days and we’re gonna get you back to the states, get you stitched up, and then off to recover and get your strength back.”

Cole asked, “Where to?”

Tony was already at the doorway. Stopping and turning to face Cole, he smiled and said, “I hear France is nice this time of year. You know anyone over there?”

About the Author

Brian Boland is a 2003 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and holds a Master of Arts in Military History from Norwich University. After an initial assignment at sea, he completed Naval Flight Training and was designated a Coast Guard aviator in 2008. With more than a decade of operational experience, he has deployed extensively throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and the eastern Pacific, supporting search and rescue, migrant interdiction, and counter-narcotics missions.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not to be construed as official views or reflecting the views of the Commandant or of the U. S. Coast Guard.

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