Chapter 86

86

After I spoke to the captain, I hung up the SAT phone and lifted the binoculars up off the picnic table, pointing them across Lake Montauk.

You almost didn't need the binoculars.

Frank Stone's boat, the Lampas , was easily the largest in the marina.

"How did it go?" Colleen, who was sitting beside me, said.

It was a little after nine in the morning now. After leaving the carnage of Cushing's house, we had double-timed it here to Long Island in my truck. It had taken Colleen and me an hour to get to the ferry in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where we'd just caught the 6 a.m. one to Port Jefferson, New York. After an hour's crossing and another hour-and-a-half drive, we'd made it out here to Montauk.

Now we were sitting at a picnic table at a closed shoreline seafood restaurant near the Montauk Airport staring across Lake Montauk where Frank Stone's massive yacht was docked.

Just out of the water, I was still in my neoprene diving suit. My tanks and gear were already back in the truck bed.

It was all set.

Everything was ready to go.

There was a reason why I had sped here as fast as humanly possible.

I needed to be done by the time I made the call.

"I said, how did it go?" Colleen said again.

I relifted the binocs and looked at the yacht. Then I looked at the tinge of clouds out over the Atlantic to my left. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning.

"The water was darker than I expected but other than that, it went like clockwork as they say. It's all set," I said.

"We're doing this? Really?" Colleen said.

I thought about Jodi dead in that tunnel. I thought about Scotty and Daisy.

Then I thought about Olivia, across the water down in the bowels of that demonically evil billionaire's ship.

"Really," I said.

"You're sure?" Colleen said.

"I'm positive," I said. "It's the only play. And since that's the case, Colleen, this is the part I think you should skedaddle for. You don't need to get involved in this. When I'm done, I'll bring Olivia to you."

"Leave now? With Olivia right there? There is zero chance of me leaving, Mike. Zero."

I smiled at her.

At her fired-up angel eyes.

Who needs coffee , I thought.

"Okay, then. If that's your final say," I said as I stood and headed to the truck for a towel.