“Nothing out of the ordinary and forward bay is buttoned up,” Wilson murmured as he walked up beside Keegan at the second loading area aft on the ship. “Lawrence and Gars are down checking the hull. Bob saw Godzilla leave the ship when we docked this morning, so he’s following him.”

Day before yesterday, it had almost killed him having to stand on the dock in Tortola and watch the waves crashing into the nearby shore. But he’d done it, and so had Jules to give him cover as they strolled back and forth along the pier. Nothing had been loaded on that ship that day, he knew that for sure.

Today, she and Louise decided to stay in the cabin, and he didn’t blame them.

It had to happen here—the Dominican Republic was their last stop.  Unless they’d missed it in Bermuda and the device was already onboard. Keegan just couldn’t get that out of his mind. One of the jihadists could have managed to smuggle something on the ship. That was a possibility, too. They’d smuggled small automatic rifles, hadn’t they? A dirty bomb could fit in a suitcase—but probably not one that would do the damage they were talking about—and it would’ve had to go through the X-ray.

Keegan looked back at the fork trucks, which were steadily moving crates of food and supplies onto the ship. Any one of those crates could hold enough explosives to take out this vessel, and more. It was like finding a needle in a hundred-ton haystack.

“We’ve got to try to search the ship. We know what cabins the tangos are in, so we should start there. Maybe find some crew uniforms, so we can move around easier,” Keegan said.

“I’ll catch up with the guys and see what we can do,” Lawrence said as he strode toward the gangway. 

Other than entertaining Wilson, the navy officer Greg sent as an interpreter, who met them in Tortola, had been a waste. In her defense, the deal was done by the time she got on the ship and they hadn’t seen the suspects meet again.

She found out what kind of wine Abdel liked with dinner by serving them in the main dining room, but other than that, nothing.  He looked down the dock and saw Wilson and Gars walking toward them, drying off with towels and carrying their snorkeling gear. Gars gave him the all clear sign before they walked up the gangplank to re-board.

Keegan looked at his watch and saw it was almost time for the ship to leave. Bob wasn’t back yet, which worried him. He took out his phone to text him, but remembered Bob’s phone was off because they didn’t have service in port. It was stupid to let his uncle go off alone, following one of the most dangerous men on the planet, but there just wasn’t anyone to spare to go with him. Louise offered to go, but he refused and he was stubborn enough to win that argument.  Her last words, said in anger to him, “Well go ahead and get your stupid ass killed. Your life insurance is paid up,” rang inside of Keegan’s skull.

If those words came to pass, he knew it would crush his aunt. He had never known a married couple who loved each other more than them, even his own parents. Bob and Louise MacDonald argued hard, but they loved harder and were perfect for one another. 

A lot like you and Jules Lawson.

No time to be going there now, MacDonald.

After the last crate was loaded into the hatch, the dock workers closed it and moved their equipment. Keegan looked at the re-boarding line, which was getting longer by the second and headed that way to see if his uncle was there. When he got to the last person in line, his worry notched up to the yellow zone.  When he saw the dock attendant close the gate, it went into full red alert. Keegan took off running toward the gate, but stopped when a taxi came to a screeching, sliding stop at the curb and Bob flew out of the back door.

When he got closer, Keegan saw his bloody face, his bloodier knuckles and the fear on his face.  “Let me in, moron!” he shouted at the guard, grabbing the gate to rattle it.

The guard took a step back and folded his arms. “With that attitude, I think you need to be a guest here for a few days to learn some manners. It looks like some of the locals have started those lessons, eh?”  Keegan hurried to the gate to intervene.

“My uncle is obviously distressed and in need of medical attention,” Keegan said, moving to stand in front of the guard. “I’m sure he’ll apologize, if you give him a second to catch his breath.” He turned to glare at Bob. “Isn’t that right, Uncle Bob?”

Bob huffed a deep breath. “Yes, I’m sorry. Will you please let me in so I don’t miss my ship, mo—ah, sir?” he growled, but the guard didn’t budge, he just stared at Bob.

“Try again, Unk!” Keegan shouted, grinding his teeth.

“Look—I’ve had a really bad day in your beautiful country. If you let me through that gate, I promise I will never be back here to bother you again.”

Keegan knew that was as good as he was going to give, so he worked on Plan B in his mind as the guard just continued to stare at his uncle. The ship’s horn blew, and Keegan knew his time was up. He didn’t want to—but he had no choice.  He turned back toward the ship, moved past the guard then turned and put a blood choke on the guard. The man clawed at his arm, tried to twist out of Keegan’s hold, but he held tight until the man passed out.

When he released him, his shoulder told him that was a terrible idea. It felt like the joint was out of place and shards of searing pain streaked down his arm, until they hit the numb spot on the side of his hand.

“Well, fuck me,” he growled, holding his arm as he fished the key out of the guard’s pocket with his left hand. His hand shook as he opened the gate, tossed the keys down beside the prone man then took off running for the gangway, which they were preparing to lift.  He heard Bob running behind him and sent up thanks.

“Two more—wait!” he shouted, and breathed when the dock worker stopped unwinding the anchor rope from the piling.

Keegan’s shoulder was on fire as he ran up the gangway and handed his on board account card to the crew member who checked him back in. Bob did the same and they went through security. When they got to the elevator and the hatch closed, he turned to glare at Bob.

“What in the ever loving hell have you been doing?!?” he grated.

“Making sure Godzilla didn’t get away,” Bob replied, with a grin. His split lip opened and blood coated his teeth. “There were a few hitches in that plan, but I survived.”

“What did you do?” Keegan asked with a groan.

“I escorted him to the U.S. Embassy,” Bob replied proudly.  “His associate wasn’t too keen on the idea, but he finally saw things my way.”

His uncle was fucking brilliant—that’s all there was to it.

A rush of emotion surged through him as he hugged Bob with his good arm. “Have I told you how much I love you lately, Unk?”

“No, but you better love me plenty. I think I broke my fucking hand on that guy’s face,” he said, rubbing his rapidly swelling right hand.

“You didn’t tuck your thumb, did you? Keegan asked with a laugh, as they walked into the elevator. “Hell, you taught me not to do that when I was ten.”

“Yep, sure did. It’s been too damned long since I was in a good fight so I forgot. But it was worth it. That big bastard fell hard and the other smaller one is where he belongs.”

Keegan just hoped the rest of this operation ended so well, because they had a lot of area to cover, only seven people to do the searching and two days at sea before they reached Baltimore.