Chapter 2

There was a noise in the room. I couldn't place it right away, but I finally realized it was my cell phone that was still in my pants pocket. I moved over Tiani and Lena and hopped to my pants. I pulled the phone from the pocket, flipped it open, and said, "Johnson."

The voice was very dry, very curt, "We have a job for you. You need to be in DC in four hours."

I said, "Who are you?"

The voice once again with a very curt response, "We have a job for you. Get in your plane and get here. You have four hours to do it."

While I was listening to this, I slipped on my leg and went to the kitchen. I responded to the caller, "I don't know who you are or why you are even calling me. I'm on vacation, leave of absence, possibly not working for you any longer, that is if you are one of my employers. Who are you?"

The same voice said, "This is an order. You must comply."

Now I was pissed, "When you find someone who knows who they work for and has a name, call me."

I pushed the end button and closed the phone. I needed to pee so I was standing over the commode when my phone rang again, the caller ID showed 'Restricted.' I answered again, "Johnson."

The same voice began all over again, "This is an order. You are to be at Andrews within four hours and the clock has been ticking."

I said into the phone, "Hang on a second."

From the bathroom I went down the hall and into my office. I found my tiny recorder and plugged it into my cell phone. As I pushed the power button on my PC, I spoke to the voice on the phone.

I told the voice, "You know what; I don't work for anyone any longer. You can't order me to do anything. I've given you a choice and I will repeat it so you can write it down or push the button for your recorder. If you want to talk to me, you will identify yourself, who you work for, and who you are calling for. I don't recognize your voice and for all I know, no one knows I'm even back in the states yet."

Continuing, I said, "I'm going to hang up now and probably go back to bed. Have a nice day."

"Wait, wait, you don't understand, I cannot talk over an unsecured line. You must do as you're ordered. I'm in charge now, John Scott is no longer here and I am in charge of missions. You are the appropriate person for what is needed. Now get your ass in gear and get here in about three hours and forty minutes."

Now I was really pissed, "Or what? You're going to dock my pay? You're going to take my office away from me? If you've taken John Scott's place, you have a long way to go to fill his shoes."

The voice was now pissy. "I'll have you know I have almost fifteen years in federal law enforcement. I have been an FBI agent and head of offices for over five years. I know my job and will probably exceed anything your John Scott ever did because I was FBI. Now I'm ordering you, get in one your airplanes and get here."

I said, "I didn't want to do this, but it looks like it is necessary. Don't call me, I'll call you. I'll make arrangements with the local station chief to turn in any equipment that is checked out to me. Goodbye whoever you are, I am no longer a deputy."

"You can't quit, you are sworn to uphold the law and sworn to follow the commands of this office."

"You know, you'd better talk to my Marshal. I know he is only head of my area and not necessarily over all of the areas I used to oversee, but he can help you understand my position."

The guy wasn't going to quit, "Your position has already been slated to be eliminated. I should have authorization to close your office and transfer you to DC within the week."

"You don't listen, do you? I don't work for you any longer. As of a few minutes ago I am no longer a U.S. Deputy Marshal. I will go to my local PC and send you my resignation right now. I'll send it to you and the Marshal over my specific area. That should just about cover it. Now goodbye and go take a Dale Carnegie course. You need it."

The voice was still sputtering as I closed my phone. It rang again, but still showed 'Restricted' so I just pushed the button for the call to go to voicemail.

Just to be sure, I played what I had recorded back before hooking up the USB cable to the PC, transferred, and saved the call as an MP3 file.

It only took a minute to compose my resignation letter and to send it off. Oh yeah, I didn't get his e-mail address. That's okay; I'll send one to John's address, the general office mailbox, and a copy to the Marshal.

I included the MP3 file in the e-mail so anyone who saw the message would be curious enough to listen to it. On the cc: of the e-mail to the Marshal, I included the note, "Listen to this and be sure to send the man to Dale Carnegie." I figured he would get a laugh out of that.

The time on the PC said six thirty. Oh boy, less than three hours sleep. I can see this is going to be a tough day. I went back to my closet to put on some shorts and my sport leg. I was going to get back into the habit of exercising.

I had just begun to walk before running, when my cell rang again. The caller ID said, 'Jeff Davis."

Flipping the phone open I said "This is Johnson, how are you, Marshal?"

"Not worth a shit, you asshole. That sanctimonious prick that was hired in John's position just called me to tell me you refused a direct order. He wants to prosecute you."

"Marshal, take it easy. He can't prosecute me for anything. First, even if I was still a Deputy Marshal, you can't prosecute someone for refusing a mission that could have dangerous risks beyond what the deputy is willing to take. Since the man wouldn't tell me what he wanted, I have to assume it is dangerous. Second, if you will turn on your PC and check your e-mail, my letter of resignation is there. He can't prosecute a civilian. There is no federal law that says a citizen has to do something for the feds except pay taxes. I do that, I do that a lot."

The Marshal said, "Wait a minute while my PC boots up. Didn't he tell you what was up?"

"No Sir, he called and gave me four hours to be in DC. He didn't even tell me his name, and in the beginning, would not tell me what agency he worked for or any details about what he wanted of me."

"Okay, here it is. What's this MP3 file?" The Marshal asked, not knowing what it was.

"Click on it and make sure your speakers are on. You'll hear the second call he made to me. Listen to his tone of voice and his manner. It definitely isn't very likeable."

I could hear the Marshal listening to the recording. When it was over he asked, "Did you tell him you were recording him?"

"No Sir, the man was threatening me, and I had a need to protect myself, so I recorded the offending conversation."

"Oh, Johnson, why didn't you take the job instead of letting the DOJ hire someone? I did like your suggestion for him to take a Dale Carnegie course. He sure could use it. That's not the whole problem, though. He is lobbying Justice to get rid of a few Marshals, me included. He thinks that we should be put out of the service as we are too old and not up to his standards. I'm not sure, but he may have his head up someone's rear end. Oh, you're not recording this, are you?"

"No Sir, you talk straight, I know who you are, and your name came up on my caller ID."

The Marshal said, "Oh yes, another big deal with him. He has all of our calls being listed as restricted because he doesn't want anyone to caller ID him or us. I like to let people know I'm calling. I get a lot more respect that way."

"So when was anyone going to tell me the man is closing the office here. What about Wanda and the girls?"

Marshal Davis said, "He did say that, didn't he? He can't close your office without the consent of all of the Marshals, and I only know of one who might side with him. That's the northern Midwest Marshal whose regional you put in jail. He might not be over that yet. He knows it was necessary, but he feels he should have been the one to catch him."

I said, "You guys are the politicians. It's your job to get us funding, equipment, and give us some support and guidance when we need it, or at least when I used to need it."

He said, "Don't go off half-cocked. Our nemesis may have overstepped his authority. You're still on leave of absence, right?"

"Yes Sir, I have at least another thirty days of injury leave I haven't used. Do they pay me for that?"

Jeff Davis said, "You get that, your vacation that you haven't taken, and any other expenses that we might still owe you. Your Wanda keeps a tight reign on your expense vouchers. She splits them between agencies very well. That's another thing Ronald was bitching about. He doesn't think you should work for two separate agencies, even though you are paid only one check. He hasn't been told what agency, only that you are a covert agent when needed."

"So the man's name is Ronald, huh? What's Ronnie's last name?"

The Marshal chuckled, "Oh yeah, he didn't ever give you his name, did he? His name is Ronald Evans and you may be right, he could be a Ronnie but that's no excuse for his actions ... I think the DOJ person that put him in place may also be a flamer. Just what we need, you guys will have to learn to give good blowjobs for promotions."

"That is still no excuse to talk to me the way he did. As far as anything else, don't include me, Marshal, I'm no longer a deputy. I still have my Secret Service card, but I can get rid of that too, if necessary."

"Don't do that, Chuck. You already have them nervous about you and Lisa dancing over staying in or not. They need you, both of you, and I'm going to make sure you receive no more CIA backed missions so you don't have to work with them."

There was a pause before he said, "Let me get this voice file around to the other Marshals and we will confront DOJ about the guy you're calling Ronnie."

As soon as I closed my phone, it rang again. It was the voice. "I am going to prosecute you for taping my call to you earlier. I've already applied for a warrant for your arrest. I'm also blocking the Marshal from any e-mail transmissions from his residence. I'll show you, you homophobic asshole. I'm going to bury you."

I answered him, "Hey, I even defended what may or may not be your life style. You're out of line Evans.

I heard him exclaim, "Fuck you," as he hung up on me. Now he was acting like John Scott.

I pushed the off button to my recorder and transferred the file to my PC. I put both of the files on two separate memory sticks then recorded three DVDs of the two conversations.

The man was obviously monitoring my cell phone, so I went up to Wanda's apartment and knocked on the door. John answered it and said, "Need some coffee? I have some made but you're going to have to put up with Wanda in her nighty."

I followed John into his kitchen, and found Wanda sitting at the counter that divides the kitchen from their living room. John poured me some coffee, and I was going to ask Wanda to use her cell phone, but I had a better idea. "John, can I borrow your cell phone for a minute?"

He shrugged his shoulders and picked it up from the countertop by a wall outlet. He unplugged the charger and handed it me. I handed Wanda a memory stick and said, "Hang on to this, it could become important."

I dialed the Marshal's home number instead of his cell phone. He answered, "Davis."

"Marshal, this call is probably being monitored and recorded by Ronald Evans. He monitored our last conversation and said he has applied for an arrest warrant for the unauthorized recording of a federal conversation. I think the threat thing still applies, so I'm not that worried other than the harassment. I have a few important things happening right now. The man said he has cut off your e-mail access so you can't advise any of the other Marshals. I do think you should find a pay phone somewhere and make a few telephone calls. If Evans is listening, he may try to stop you, so be careful. I'm going to be very careful of my actions until this is resolved. You are or were my reporting official and I have notified you of my resignation. I am not recording this call so be careful, Sir, and find a phone."

Wanda was setting there with her hand over her mouth. She asked, "What in the world started this?"

I told her, "Go listen to the recordings and you'll have an idea. Don't get too pissed, just listen. We both need to go into the office real quick to get a few things and our telephone directory. Before you turn on your computer at the office, unplug your data cable so it doesn't show on the server tracking. Go listen to the recording and get dressed; we need to get going."

It took me fifteen minutes to SS&S. While I was dressing, Lisa came in, "What's going on? I heard you talking on the phone and you didn't sound very happy."

"There are some CDs and a memory stick on my desk. Listen to the two files so you have an idea of what's going on. You might even want to make several more copies to be on the safe side. Scatter them so they can't take them all. Wanda and I have to get to the office right away to handle some stuff. You can call our Secret Service contact and advise him of what's happening and see what they can do. Meanwhile, I gotta go."

Lisa asked, "Shouldn't I go with you?"

"No, you probably should get dressed and be ready, but don't come into the station right now. Go listen to the phone conversations and get dressed." I gave her a kiss and met Wanda as we were going out to the cars. Instead of using Wanda's or my car, I used the girl's Expedition and left the area by going out the trailer park entrance. I was watching to make sure I wasn't followed, but I did see a car watching the business park drive.

Wanda asked, "Do you think they have my phone tapped too?"

"They might, Wanda, so let's do ourselves a favor." I pulled into a big gas station and bought four cell phones with the minimum minutes each along with a regular charger and a car charger. I was almost laughing as I used one of my American Express debit cards to pay for it. Totally untraceable and the card would not trigger anything anywhere.

I plugged in one of the phones into the car charger and handed Wanda the phone, the regular charger and told her, "Put this on a charger as soon as you can and don't call John as they have his number now, and if they have a court order, they can listen to his phone now too."

It didn't take long to get to the office on a Saturday morning. Before pulling into the parking area, I drove past and looked for any out of place occupied vehicles that could be watching the lot. We let ourselves in the back door, opened the seldom used private elevator, and rode up to our floor. We were in our office in seconds and went to work. We both pulled our data cords to disconnect our PCs from the server. Both of us downloaded our phone books to DVDs, I printed a copy, then began gathering personal stuff.

I had my gym bag in the office, so I loaded it with the stuff from the safe, along with a couple of personal things I definitely wanted to keep. When I looked up, Wanda was standing at my office door, ready to leave. We retraced our steps going down the private elevator and out the back door. We were driving out of the back lot quickly and I said, "Let's go home now. It might be best to make our calls before we get there though. Oh yeah, let's go to the library so we can send these files to the other Marshals, and I want to send one to the Secret Service."

Wanda said, "Good idea, those guys don't put up with any shit from anyone."

We were at the local library in a couple of minutes where I set up all of the Marshals e-mail addresses. I was hoping good ole' Ronnie had not killed their e-mail as well. I hit send and began calling the Marshals. Wanda called the Eastern and Central time zone Marshals and I called the Mountain and Pacific as those guys would still be asleep, or at least should have been. They were awake because my Marshal had already called them. Each of them advised me to be available if a deputy came to exercise a warrant. They were all trying to get through to the DOJ in order to stop this. When I asked if they had received my e-mail, the first Marshal said, "My e-mail isn't working for some reason."

I asked, "Do you have another e-mail address like Yahoo or Gmail?"'

The man said, "MSN, the same as my regular, just MSN.com. I sent the e-mail and he was watching for it to come through. He said, "I got it. I have everyone else's private e-mail and will send it now."

When I told him that his phone and probably the other Marshal's phones were probably tapped, there could be problems sending the e-mail. He said, "Don't worry, I'll get through and whoever authorized these actions had better have the ear of the AG (Attorney General). This is beyond anything I've ever heard of, and I am not aware of any current or hot national security threat."

I tossed the brand new, or at least reconditioned, once used, cell phone into a trash can before we left for home with another phone on the car charger.

As we passed by the location where the car had been parked when we left the park, the original car was gone, but two more were sitting there. I stopped at the turn around by the trailer park office and used another of the temporary cell phones. When the old sounding voice came on the line I said, "Good morning, Judge; this is Deputy Johnson. Once again, I think something is going on and I'm being tracked by my own agency. I want to ask you to find me an attorney to help me. If I'm right, I will probably be in the federal lockup in an hour or less."

The judge said, "Does this have anything to do with the new head of the deputies? The man had the local station chief try to apply for taps on a bunch of phones. The problem was he didn't have probable cause, so I denied them."

I told the judge, "That's the man and he was able to get someone to sign an order and is getting a warrant out for my arrest right now. He threatened me over the phone, so I had him hold until I was able to plug in my recorder. He threatened me again and I have it recorded. I resigned as a deputy, but he is still going to attempt to prosecute me for disobeying a direct order. I called my Marshal to advise him of the problem and as soon as I hung up, Mr. Evans, the new head of deputies called me and again told me he was getting an additional arrest warrant for illegally recording the conversation. That's how I found out my phone was tapped. He also has put a block on all of the Marshals' e-mails. So, Judge, I don't want you to get involved in this, but please find a good attorney and have him call, ah, hang on a second." I picked up another of the cell phones. "Have the attorney call 813-485-3235. That is a temporary cell phone my office assistant will have. I think her personal cell phone is tapped too. Oh, another thing, the cell phone I have been using is not an agency phone. I had my own phone and have kept it, instead using one provided by the Marshal Service."

"Darn, Johnson, you get yourself in a lot of hot water. When are you going to settle down and lead a normal life? I thought you were on an extended rehabilitation leave right now. I know you took a sailing trip, but I didn't know you were home."

"Judge, I just got home yesterday. The call demanding I report to DC for an unspecified duty came at six thirty this morning. I have to get back to my house before these bozos come to arrest me. Thank you for helping."

The judge said, "It's my pleasure. You've always been a straight shooter with me and have helped the local station be one of the best. I know who you need and I'll call right now."

I gave Wanda the judge's telephone number so she could report anything that might happen. I told her, "When we get home, there may be deputies there with a warrant. If I'm arrested, call the judge to let him know." I dug through my wallet for another of the debit cards from the Riviera and thought I was getting the one with less money on it and handed it to Wanda. "There is more than enough money for you to pay my attorney, as well as take care of you in the event you are terminated. Take care of the two girls too, as they will probably be let go as well. Use the card to buy more cell phones and remember, use them once then give them away or better yet, turn them off and throw them into the trash. Go buy another dozen and charge them up just to make sure."

When we drove around the corner of the street where the house was, there were three cars in front of the house and another in the driveway, blocking entry or exit. I leaned down so it would be difficult to recognize me. "Wanda, get down so they don't see you."

I drove past and straight to Steve's patio. The place was full of people and they all wanted to know about the new babies. Steve recognized my troubled attitude and we stepped outside. I gave him a quick rundown on what was happening, handed him a DVD copy of the conversation, and he helped me unload the Expedition into Sue's SUV. I told him Wanda would keep in touch and asked him if he would see that the girls in the hospital were taken care of.

"Damn, Chuck, you're serious, aren't you? Do you really think you can be arrested?"

I told Steve, "It's easy to have someone arrested, but more difficult to make a charge stick. When whatever judge arraigns me, I should easily get bail, but it is Saturday, so I'll probably be locked up until Monday."

Steve said, "No way. I'm not letting you go to jail. Wait a second while I talk to Tiny and get my keys, we're going to take a ride."

I asked Wanda, "Call the house to see what's going on. I know Lisa can handle anything there, but some of the others may be panicked. See if you can find Jan too. This may fall under her jurisdiction."

When Steve came out, he told Wanda while she was still on the phone, "You should probably stay here to help the girls. Chuck is going to be gone for a couple of days."

Wanda had an angry look on her face when she hung up. "There are a bunch of out of town, Chicago deputies searching the house and have carted off every computer there. Not just yours downstairs, but everyone's. Even Jan's, she is radically pissed and already on the phone to DC. She says she's having difficulty dialing long distance though."

I told Wanda, "They are blocking circuit access of any phone they might believe is associated with me. When you get home, have the girls go out and buy some more cheap pay as go cell phones. Give them the rundown so they will know what's going on. Stay in touch with Sue if you need help getting the girls home. Sue and Mercy will help. I'll call you on this last cell phone as it hasn't been used yet."

After writing down the number, we left in Steve's S&S truck going who knows where. Steve said, "I'd tell you to fly to Costa Rica, but they probably have someone watching the airpark. I have a better idea and it should be a place where no one knows about yet."

We drove away from the park and stopped at a nearby Wal-Mart where I bought a couple of dozen pay as you go cell phones. I separated a dozen for Steve, telling him to give them to the girls. I know this was going to be overkill, but a knowledgeable fed can get access to lot of phone calls fast. We drove across the causeway to Clearwater, and across the bridge to the intercostal beach area. Steve turned north and went to what I figured must almost be the end of that intercostal island area, turning into an parking lot with construction equipment everywhere. There was a group of very nice docks with a couple of boats, including a big forty-five foot catamaran fishing cruiser. Steve said, "Want to take a little cruise? Tiny has the catamaran stocked for two couples for two weeks, so there has to be enough food for just you to last at least a month. It seems you know how to hide out in the Gulf and have done it before, so get near land every once in a while and call me."

I asked, "Won't people know this boat is missing and know what to look for?"

Steve answered, "This is a boat Tiny just picked up at auction from Magellan before we got back from our sailing trip, and he was going to use it for a fun fishing trip for him, Henry, and their wives. I'll tell him to use one of the other boats. He just had this boat gone over from bow to stern to make sure it was in as good a condition as it looks. He understands."

"What is this place, what's all of the construction?" I asked, looking around, waving at all of the construction in progress.

Steve said, "This is going to be our new yacht club. The other one has been successful enough that they want us to move most of our boats because of their size. We'll keep a couple of fishing boats and day sailors up there, but this will be the place where all of our big charters will go out from and where we will dock all of our big boats. This should be done next month and we'll move almost all of our boats over here. We already have about fifty yacht owners that want to dock here and join our club. It should be fun." Steve was leading the way to the catamaran and said, "There are coveralls in the main cabin that should fit and there are always a bunch of swim suits. Use the washer and dryer to get the clothes you have on now clean so you will look fresh when you come back. You know you could hail me on our club frequency. That would bypass anyone monitoring what you're doing. I have a handheld here in the truck. We'll test it; now let me show you this beast."

When I went onto the big boat, I couldn't help but think about the big boat in Costa Rica. This wasn't as big, but it was even more plush, and a lot better arranged. I wonder what kind of auction had a boat with this much class. Steve had keys and we entered the main salon through a heavy sliding glass or plexiglass door that had a bridge cockpit on a raised area in the front. There was great visibility all around, so whoever was handling the boat would be able to safely navigate around other boats."

Steve began showing me all of the features on the boat, while turning on various items. He told me, "Since this is a motor cruiser only, you don't need the standalone generator unless the engines are off and you will be using a lot of electricity. For most times at night, you can just use the batteries. The tanks are about half full so you have enough fuel to get you halfway to Costa Rica if you wanted to do that, so you can go anywhere on the Gulf without fear of running out of fuel. Here are all the charts for the Gulf, as well as the upper Caribbean. Let's get the engines running so you can see how everything turns on and off."

Steve had me throw switches, turning on the engine compartment fans, while he turned on the two radars and the weather monitor. When he had me start the engines individually, you could feel how powerful the engines were, even though they were well muffled and quiet. Steve said, "After your big sailboat, this should be a no-brainer. This is better than a sailboat for you right now because you can move faster. This thing will do almost thirty knots at seventy percent power. But if you're going all out, you will cut your range in half. This has a second big tank, but it doesn't have anything in it. If you fill it, you'll have over a thousand mile range at near full throttle, more than triple that at sixty to seventy percent. You'll like this thing."

"You know Magellan was having trouble staying in business. They started to build more commercial boats such as this one but that didn't even help. When Tiny found this at an auction, he investigated Magellan and we are working something out to keep them in business. You'll hear more about it later."

Steve showed me the locker on deck where the emergency supplies were. There was a couple of blowup rafts with sun covers, first aid kits, emergency rations, flare guns, and life jackets. He showed me the anchor set up and shore connection facilities. "That should do it, Chuck. Go out a ways and stay there. I'll call you on the club frequency listed on the radio. It has the dual band receiver so you can monitor multiple channels at the same time. Ready? Let me help you with the lines. Oh yeah, all of the fishing equipment is in this rear locker. The whole side of the bulkhead let's down to get at it."

Steve tested his handheld with the onboard radio and the reception was a little fuzzy as we were right next to each other. Steve untied the three lines holding the boat and watched me coil them real quick. He waved as I stepped into the cockpit. I really didn't want to run, but I really didn't want to spend a weekend in jail either.

It took me a few minutes to become accustomed to handling the boat, but I was motoring due west in short order. As soon as I was about five miles out, I began checking the GPS to get an idea of where I might go. I thought, 'Might as well go to Key West. I'll bet John will have a fit over what is going on.'

After turning to head south, I angled back toward the coast so I could pick up better cell reception. Hopefully these cheap cell phones would work. Most of what I bought were older model reconditioned Motorola flip phones. Those always seem to work well. While just cruising at about twenty knots, I was looking through all of the manuals in the compartment next to the wheel controls.

I found out the boat had an upper flying bridge so it could be controlled from up there while trolling or even just for fun. There were two sets of radios, one main set and an emergency backup. There also was a distance antenna for cell phones. It was supposed to help reception up to thirty miles from a cell tower. There was a depth sounder, as well as a fish finder. I turned on the phone I had given Steve the number for and saw a full set of bars, but I was only about five miles off shore. To test the phone, I headed out farther and when I was almost ten miles out, I still had a full set of bars.

From the equipment we bought at Wal-Mart, I found the cigarette lighter chargers and plugged in two phones I wanted to use.

As I became more used to the feeling of the catamaran, I increased the speed until, according the GPS, the boat was doing almost thirty knots at only sixty five percent power. There was a full set of gauges to advise fuel and water tank levels. There was even an indicator for grey water. Everything looked good, so after checking the radar to make sure there was a collision avoidance sounder, I set up the sophisticated autopilot. This Magellan boat was really nice. No wonder Tiny wanted to take a two week trip on it.

I was about an hour and a half out of Clearwater when my phone rang. It was Steve, "All of the people that were at your house have gone now. Sue and Mercy are over there trying to keep Lisa under control. Apparently they were trying to take both of your special weapons cases, but she had them call your other agency and whoever it was scared them enough for all of them to clear out fast. Lisa asked that you call your other agency contact for some instructions."

I asked, "Have you heard anything from the hospital?"

Steve said, "Most of the other women have gone to the hospital to be with the three girls and to see if they can be brought home. The Asian sisters are still home and were scared they might be suspected as illegal immigrants. They don't want to be away from Lisa. They will be alright, I'm sure."

"This is a nice boat, Steve. You have to thank Tiny and tell him I'll take care of it for him. Hopefully, I'll have the boat back soon."

Steve said, "I have some stuff to do, but I wanted to tell you to call your contact."

Before I called my Secret Service contact, I called the judge. "Sorry Sir for having put you through the effort of finding an attorney. I'm not going to need him or her right away as a friend has taken me away so I don't have to spend the weekend in jail. If you would sir, advise the attorney that I may need him later but not right now."

The nice old gentleman said, "Good thinking young man. I wouldn't want to spend the weekend in jail either. You be careful wherever you are and stay out of sight. Call me when you can."

When I called my agency contact number, I identified myself and was immediately put through to a familiar voice. As soon as I said this is C. Johnson, the man began laughing. "What in the hell have you done now Eyes? You have half the world looking for you right now. The Marshal Service has a warrant for you and the FBI has been brought in to attempt to help track you down. You're not using your agency cell phone, are you?"

"I don't have an agency cell phone. I've always used my own phone and never did take one of the others."

The man said, "Lisa called in a panic as some Deputy Marshals were going to take your special weapons cases that we provided. I had to get tough with them and that seemed to take care of the problem. I had the director call the AG's office to see if they can intervene with this. But it's Saturday and you know how bureaucrats are. You have stirred up some shit, that's for sure."

I asked the man, "Since I may still be a part of your agency, and am still on rehab leave, what do you think I should do?"

The man said, "Nothing. Continue to do whatever you're doing, wherever that may be. Call me later today and I'll give you an update. You know you're going to owe me for screwing up my weekend. I'll probably have to have a service cut my grass. You'll owe for that too." The guy was laughing as we hung up.

That's when it hit me, how did some out of town deputies show up so fast at the park and my house. This was a set up of some kind. Evans must have known I would so something that would give him some kind of superficial cause. I wonder how he found out my only opposition around the Marshal service was the Chicago Regional.

As I approached the area where I could turn toward Naples, I thought I might anchor and have something to eat. I didn't get breakfast and it was now close to noon.

Instead of anchoring, I throttled down and disengaged the props to let the boat drift while I searched for some food. I had not really looked around the galley area and was surprised how nice it was. The two sides of the catamaran housed four very nice cabins with a private head on each side. In the main salon, an office area with more radio and other communication equipment was built into the bulkhead where the table was. The galley was really fancy. It wasn't as narrow as you would think, and had a nice stove that operated on either gas or alcohol. There was a microwave, a decent size refrigerator, and a really good sized freezer. Everything was full of food.

I found some lunch meat in the refrigerator, some bread in an over the counter locker, and made a couple of bologna and cheese sandwiches. There was a variety of sodas in the fridge, so I had a Coke with my meal. I took everything, along with a small bag of chips to the cockpit to sit and just look out at everything. That's when I noticed cool air coming from a vent near the captain's chair. I looked at the instrument panel to find a gauge that looked similar to a thermostat. It had a temperature setting of seventy-three, which I though was pretty low so I punched it up to seventy-five. There was another really large monitor that I didn't know what it was for, so I pushed the power button on it, son of a gun, a TV. I didn't see the satellite antenna outside, so it must be well concealed. That's when it hit me; there was a small TV in the galley area, one in the office area, and a big flat screen in the main seating area that was viewable from the table. I'd bet there were TVs in all four cabins too. Someone really liked their TV.

I didn't know what to do. Go to shore, keep going south, go into one of the river areas, or just set out in the gulf. That's when I thought of the office area in the main salon. It had a built in PC screen, so this thing must have satellite internet. I was going to screw up the works; I would transmit my voice file from the memory stick in my pocket to the AG's office, along with a note defending my position that I was being threatened by someone considering themselves as being my superior.

I had kept the DVD that had all of the addresses and phone numbers, so after turning on the PC, I looked up the AG's office e-mail address, wrote a note, and transmitted it and the voice files to them. The more people that had the file would mean the more people who would be reacting and possibly be on my side on a Saturday.

To be on the safe side, as soon as the file was sent, I shut down the PC and satellite transceiver in case someone was trying to locate me. I decided to continue heading south. When I had the boat up to speed, I checked the GPS to see I was about four hours out of Key West. I pushed the throttles up a little to make sure I was getting near thirty knots.

This boat was awesome. Not only was it smooth riding in a moderate chop, but the boat was fast. I'll bet a lot of people who ride in one of these, find out how great they are and want one.

It was almost five when I rounded the southern side of Key West to see if I could identify the beach club near the house where John lived. He should be living down here by now, as anxious as he was to get out of the DC area.

I used a cell phone to call his old cell phone. Hopefully he kept his old number. "Scott."

"Hey, John, this is your friend from up north. Have you been having any trouble with your e-mail or phone conversations?"

"Not me, Buddy, I'm free of all that bullshit. What are you up to? I didn't know you were back from sailing to Europe."

Realizing how fast all this has happened I said, "Actually, I just got back yesterday but the world became messy this morning. I don't want to talk right now, but perhaps we could take a swim together soon and talk about it."

John said, "Sounds like a plan to me. We'll get together real soon, okay?"

I told him, "I think I might go to the swim club right now. I love their pool."

"Yeah, me too, but I love the beach."

I told him, "See you, Buddy," and hung up.

The beach club had some docks where you could pull your boat up and eat in their fancy restaurant. I was tying the boat up when John appeared at my side, "Figured this was what you were saying. Where were you, just off the coast?"

"John, are you sure you haven't had anything abnormal with your phone or internet?"

"Nothing, Chuck. If a phone is tapped, you usually hear something. Something like a real high frequency squeal that you can barely hear, but I've heard nothing and the ladies haven't said anything about it either."

"How about the internet or your e-mail?"

John grinned, "Hey, I don't deal with hundreds of e-mails a day anymore. I just e-mailed the real estate broker for my house up there. They have a potential buyer and I was agreeing to the offer. That will be another thing putting me farther from that mess."

I asked him, "So you haven't talked to the guy who took your place yet?"

"Nope, don't need to and don't want to. I still talk to Jeff all the time. Now that I'm out of there, he's Jeff, not the Marshal, and I'm, John, not deputy. So what's up?"

We walked up to the beach club restaurant and got a couple of cups of coffee to drink outside on their patio. We enjoyed the breeze off the water as I filled John in. His comment was, "They can't prosecute you for turning down a mission, and they can't prosecute you for recording a threatening phone call. They might have a case that you ran when you found out there was warrant out for you, but since you were never told directly there was a warrant, you should be clear."

John thought for a second, "Man, if that guy is tapping the phones of a bunch of Marshals and blocking their e-mail access, he could be prosecuted for subversive activities. I can't imagine a federal judge authorizing taps on the Marshals. I'll bet whoever the judge is wasn't told the people or suspects were Marshals and was told they were all terrorist suspects. That's going to cause some real grief in that joint up there. Glad I'm here."

I told John, "On a lighter note, my three pregnant ladies all hatched yesterday and last night. I have four new daughters. I saw them before I left the hospital last night, but I can't be around them until this settles down. I have no desire to sit in a federal holding cell until Monday."

"No shit, Chuck. I wouldn't want to sit in a holding cell all weekend either. That's great about the babies though. I'm happy for you. I know you have been fretting over becoming a dad, so I hope you're finding it to be less threatening now that they are here, or born, or something. Congrats, where's my cigars." John was laughing as we finished our coffee.

"Come on, Chuck, let me take you home for supper so you can see the disaster around the house with all of the construction."

"I really shouldn't, John. I think I should get back out into the gulf and be scarce. As soon as this Evans guy figures out we're friends, he'll have someone out here watching your place. Make sure you pay attention to any anomalies with your phone or internet."

We shook hands and he helped me cast off to slowly motor away from the dock. I figured on getting a decent supper so I went back the way I came, just off the western Key West beach until I found the Crabby House restaurant. They had a big dock too that didn't have many boats tied up. I was able to dock and get tied up easily. The tide was going out so I left enough line for the boat to drop at least eighteen inches while I was eating. It shouldn't drop that fast, but you never know when it's a full moon.

I had a big salad followed by a surf and turf. I drank iced tea as I felt I needed to be aware of my surroundings without any impairment. Back out into open water, I began traveling north again. I was four hours from Naples and another four to Clearwater. I think I'm going to find a river along the way and anchor for the night. Sleep was going to be welcome.

My cell phone rang. It was Steve, "Hey, Chuck, I wanted to check in with you. Lisa told me to tell you not to call her or Wanda right now. They think the feds have some kind of listening devices at the house. I need to tell you, your four little girls are darling. My entire household is over there trying to get in the way. It's really sweet to see some new moms again. I miss that time when mine were tiny."

"I'm glad they are home and healthy. At least they are too busy to worry about whatever it is I'm involved in."

Steve said, "I spoke with a federal judge earlier and he said to tell you that he has submitted a brief on your behalf, as well as retained an attorney for you whether you need him or not. He told me you had called him to advice him of what you are up to. He also said that the Secret Service has opened an investigation, and has the Director of the FBI looking into the matter as well. Who knows what kind of internal wars are going on up there? He just told me to keep in touch and for you to enjoy fishing."

"Did you tell him I took off in a boat?"

"No, Chuck, he figured that out for himself. He told me that you did this before when you were hiding those prisoners. He figured that you would either fly out of here or head for the open water. Have you caught anything yet?"

"Naw, not yet, Steve. As a matter of fact, I think I will put out a trout line tonight for some early morning fish breakfast. Perhaps I'll make Dewey's favorite. I think there are plenty of flour, eggs, and cheese on board."

Steve groaned, "Ah, the life of being out on the water enjoying the gentle slap of the waves. Anyway, I'll talk to you tomorrow. I'll tell all your women you said hi. Then again, maybe not. If they have your place bugged, then they will know I talked to you. I'll talk to you in the morning, but keep that phone on in case something comes up."

I had been told to call my Secret Service contact again, so I called. The man told me he was now home, but the battle of big shots was still going full blast. He told me to just hang tough and he would call me.

That clinched it, I was going to go farther north and find a place in the Manatee River. The river was broad enough with plenty of trees on shore for cover to enjoy a good night's sleep.

It was a little after eleven when I found what I considered a perfect place to anchor. It was near shore, under a canopy of big trees, next to a bunch of mangroves. I shut the engines down, but cranked up the little generator to keep the batteries up and to keep the air going as it was really hot and humid.

I took a quick shower in the tiny head. Each side of the catamaran had a private head shared by the two cabins down there. There were plenty of towels, so it didn't take me long to be ready for bed. I decided to wash the clothes I had on and put them into the washing machine. I found a set of the white, short-sleeved, coveralls in my size that Steve had told me about, and put a pair out for the morning. I couldn't figure out if I should wear my leg to sleep and finally thought I would be fine without it. I did pull my little back up Glock to check it and put it by the bed.

I woke about three to take a leak. I put the fresh washed clothes into the dryer, checked the salon door, and went back to bed.

I woke about seven, stretched, and thought about shaving. The hell with it, maybe I needed a beard. I brushed my teeth and put on a pair of the light cotton white coveralls. I found the built in coffee maker up in the galley and started a pot. I went to the bridge area and turned on the monitors and equipment. I was primarily interested in the weather, so I would have a guess at what to expect today. I started the engines and shut the generator down. Checking the fuel, I found I was only down a little more than half of a tank, must be a big tank considering I had traveled over three hundred miles yesterday.

I had some coffee and considered making some breakfast. I could smell someone cooking and that was making me hungry. I tried to see through the trees on shore but couldn't see through the dense underbrush. The smell seemed to be coming from upstream so I pulled the anchor and began to go up river slowly.

I found the source of the bacon smell when I rounded a bend in the river, Bill's Bait shop, Fuel, and Diner. Pulling up to the dock, I quickly tied up and went inside for some breakfast. They served one hell of a big breakfast for cheap. I had eggs with home fries, gravy, and biscuits at a big family style table. I could have had some grits too, but I didn't think I was that hungry.

I was listening to a couple of fishermen that were eating. They were discussing fishing licenses and how the fish and wildlife people were being so strict lately. When I finished eating, I went into the bait shop and purchased both the fresh and salt water licenses. That would take care of a surprise inspection. I bought some bait shrimp and shad so I could really do some fishing. While there I decided to fill up both tanks, just to be sure.

The hungry little boat took over three hundred gallons to fill the one tank being used and a little over five hundred gallons to fill the second tank. This could get expensive if I were to keep going at near full throttle. Those good ole' debit cards were coming in handy. I pulled out into the river and went back to about where I had anchored overnight. I got out some fishing gear, and using my limited knowledge of fishing, tied on a lure with a shrimp on it and cast out. I put the rod into a holder and went for a fresh cup of coffee.

When I came back outside, the fishing pole was bent over and the line was going out rapidly. I flipped the drag on and the line still went out, but not quite as fast. Figuring on a big meal, I began trying to get what was on the line back to the boat. Whatever it was, it was big. I had been cranking the reel for quite a while when something flopped and rolled around on the surface. Alligator, oh yeah, they do have those things all over Florida. This must have been a hungry one to take my lure and a shrimp. I had always thought you needed a full size chicken to entice one of those big reptiles.

So, now what do I do? If I cut the line, it would probably be cast off and eventually end up strangling a bird or wrapped around a turtle's leg or something. Perhaps if I just let the alligator have the line for a few minutes, he will spit it out or figure a way to get it loose.

I was sitting on the deck watching the alligator come to the surface when an open boat about twenty-five feet long floated toward me. Two men in the boat were staring, not at me, but the alligator. One of the men looked up and was surprised to see me. He put his fingers to his lips and motioned toward the gator. While one poled in the shallow water, the other picked up a rifle that looked like it could be anything from a .223 to a .308. The guy had the rifle leveled at the gator as they drifted closer and closer.

Bang, he shot the gator right in the head. I was a little freaked and had pulled up the pant leg of the coverall to have my pistol available. No need though, as the man put the gun down and the other poled right up to the now dead gator.

The man that had been poling said to me, "You can reel him in now if you want. How about we get him out of the water for you?"

I was amazed at the two and told them, "If you guys hunt alligators, you can have that one. I do need to make sure I'm not dropping a bunch of that monofilament line in the water."

The two men struggled to get the big gator into their boat, but they did by pulling the head over the side then pulling the gator into their boat a little at a time. The two men were standing in the boat admiring the gator when they gave each other a high five. They turned to me at the same time, "We're obliged you let us keep your gator. We kinda thought you weren't really hunting it. Let's see if we can get the lure out of its mouth and get rid of all this line."

One guy propped the gator's mouth open, while the other went after the lure with a pair of pliers. He stood up with the lure, holding it. After untangling all of the fishing line, he said, "Reel it in, you're probably gonna want to swap out that line. It's all stretched out now. We'll tell you, it's better fishin' closer to the gulf. There are just a lot of turtles and gators up here in the brush."

When I had the line and lure in the boat, I watched as the two men started their outboard motor and sped back up the river. That was a strange incident, but it worked out.

I pulled up the anchor and began letting the river flow push me downstream. I had started the engines and was soon steering the boat with the help of the engines, moving right along. I saw a lot of boats near the mouth of the river, so those two guys knew what they were talking about. Instead of joining the throng of boats that were fishing, I made my way slowly past them going out to the Gulf without making a big wake.

Once I was a couple of miles out in the Gulf, there were still a lot of boats fishing in various clusters. From what Tiny had told me, everyone had longitude and latitude numbers where there was supposed to be good fishing. I knew Tiny kept his spots secret so all of these people had the same numbers.

When I was about three miles off shore, I called Steve's cell. He answered with, "Steve Sharp."

"Hey, Steve, this is your favorite fugitive, anything new happening?"

Steve said, "The place has been crawling with feds. I guess most are from the Chicago office of the Marshal Service, but Jan was out here with some people as well. She got me off to the side and told me the local Marshal office and her local agency were not trying very hard to find you. She said she was convinced this was some kind of grudge thing. Your new mothers are here at the patio with the new babies right now, getting more attention than you can imagine. Great looking kids, Buddy."

I didn't say anything right away, so he said, "Look, I can't give the phone to any of your women as there are two guys on the patio interviewing people. Tiny told me to tell you to look in the computer under the fishing file for all of his secret numbers. He figured you might want some fresh fish."

"Thanks, Steve, be sure to tell Tiny thanks, too. I'm sorry if he's disappointed that he didn't get to use this boat. It is really nice."

Steve told me, "Yeah, it is. That's about as nice as it gets for a motor cruiser like that. I'm told that boat can even go across the Atlantic without a problem. It has a hell of a range. Tiny said the fuel wasn't all the way full as he didn't want to pay the current price for diesel and the second tank is the same as empty. He said the fuel prices should be coming down again soon, so don't put more fuel in it than you need."

I laughed, "Too late, I topped off the tanks this morning. It didn't hold that much for a boat that can go across the Atlantic."

"Tiny said the fuel gauge reads wrong, that we will have to get it fixed, and for you to watch it."

"Well, Steve, when you have a chance, have Wanda or Lisa call me. Be sure to give my ladies a hug for me."

He answered, "No sweat, I'll give 'em all a hug for you. Lisa was talking to me about something. Ah, we'll call you on the radio about it after a while. If you're around up this way, you might go a little north of the inlet for the other yacht club and lay around up there. I think Lisa is going to try to get to you."

"Copy that, Steve. I'll head up that way now, but will stay well off the coast."

"I'll talk to you later, Chuck, stay busy so you don't fret over this."

After hanging up, I headed north, getting a little farther offshore. A Coast Guard boat was sort of in my way, but I didn't want to act suspicious, so I kept going in the same direction that would be only a little distance from them. As I neared them, I saw they were busy with a capsized boat. I slowed down and when I was near hollered, "Need any help?"

One of the Coast Guard guys shook his head and waved me off, "We got it."

I opened up the throttles again and headed northwest. When I was about five miles north of the inlet for the yacht club and a little over five miles out, I shut down and watched the depth finder. The bottom was only about thirty-five feet and the fish finder showed a lot of activity below the boat over what looked like a sunken boat of some kind. There are a lot of boats at the bottom of the Gulf, especially boats between twenty-five to thirty feet long. Every time the waves get up to about six to eight feet, you always hear of another boat capsizing and the rescue of inexperienced boaters.

I dropped the anchor so I would drift near the underwater structure as that is where the fish seem to hang out. If I was lucky, I might catch a grouper that were now in season. This time, I used only a hook and sinker on a heavy duty leader and picked out one of the larger shrimp. I dropped the line as near the junk below as I could, put the rod in the holder, and sat back on a deck chair.

Less than five minutes later, the rod bobbed on the end so I picked it up and when I felt the pull again, I raised the tip as fast as I could. Rats, I missed whatever was feeding on the shrimp. When I checked the bait, it was gone. The thieving fish ate the bait without taking the hook.

Repeating the action was fun, as I now thought I might have primed the proverbial "fish well" down there and more fish might be curious about the free handouts I was giving them. This time I kept hold of the rod waiting for the telltale tug. The tug on the line came quickly and I pulled up to hook the fish. When I brought the hook up to see if I still had bait, the hook was once again bare.

I remembered what Tiny had told me. He said using a lure with bait was often better because the bait moved and the lure hooked a fish easier because of the treble hooks on it. I figured that all I was doing was feeding shrimp to the fish so I put on a lure with one of the bigger shad. If the shrimp stealing fish were small, they wouldn't attack a lure with a shad as bait, so I could possibly expect a bigger fish to hit the lure.

That did it. A couple of minutes after I had dropped the baited lure, I got a big tug with line being pulled out of the reel. I don't think I really had to set the hook, as whatever it was had done the job for me. I cranked the line and was rewarded with a good sized grouper, just what I wanted. The problem was, the inexperienced fisherman that I am forgot something. I had forgotten to have a net close at hand and I knew that if I tried to pull the fish up by the line, the fish may break loose or the line could snap.

I stuck the rod into a holder with a clamp and went to the fishing equipment locker. I used the medium sized net among the three in there and soon had my catch on the deck. It didn't take me long to get the fish free of the hook and with the help of a very sharp filleting knife, I had lunch and dinner for a few days in the refrigerator.

I knew to wash the reels and lines off with fresh water, so I cleaned up the deck and everything the salt water had sprayed on. While I was at it, I stripped the line from the reel I had used to snare the alligator and put fresh line on it. I only put twenty-five pound line on that one, as I think that was what was on it before. The grouper was caught with fifty pound line with what was probably a two hundred pound steel leader. After stowing all of the equipment to retain a neat deck, I used a lot of soap and water to wash the fish smell from me. I took a two minute shower and put on a fresh pair of white coveralls.

Being pretty proud of myself, I cracked open a beer and sat out on the deck enjoying the setting sun. The radio was making some noise, so I went to the bridge/helm cockpit to hear someone calling the name of the catamaran. "Paddle Boat, Paddle Boat, come in. Paddle Boat, Paddle Boat, your mother is calling."

Since the call was on the private frequency, even though I didn't recognize the voice, the mother comment made me answered, "This is Paddle boat, come back?"

Lisa's voice came from the speaker, "Paddle boat, we have a package for you. Give us the numbers and we'll drop it to you."

I wanted to ask for some more clothes, but didn't want the conversation to become too explicit. I read off the numbers on the GPS and they responded, "Paddleboat, we are about twenty minutes out, if you will be ready to assist with the package."

"Roger, Mother, I'll be waiting."

I cleared off the deck in case whoever was coming wanted to try to drop something on the deck. Within about fifteen minutes, I could see and hear a helicopter flying low coming toward me from the east. As it neared, I could see that it was the Bell utility, or converted Huey, with S&S painted on the side.

The helicopter hovered over the boat and a large basket full of items wrapped in plastic bags began lowering. Whoever was piloting the helicopter was good, as the big plastic or composite material basket hit the deck, dead center. I pulled everything from the basket and it went back up quickly to reappear with another load of plastic bags. This time when the basket went up, a person appeared at the door of the helicopter. The radio announced, "We have one more package. If we can't set it down gently we'll drop it in the water where you can pick it up. Here it comes."

A figure dressed in a wet suit was being lowered. From the form, I could tell it was female, but not who it was yet, as the figure had snorkel gear on her head. I figured it was Lisa, but who knows. When the human was within grabbing distance, I grabbed her as the rope went slack, letting her stand on the deck in her wet suit, flippers, face mask, and snorkel. I released the catch of the harness and pulled it off her. The rope and harness went up and I watched as Tank, the mechanic, leaned out the door and waved as the helicopter headed north, angling a little east toward land.

My attention was on the person who I knew was Lisa. The rubber clad new passenger was Lisa's size and when she pulled the snorkel and head gear off, it was the lady, or at least who I considered the main lady, of my life.

She hugged and kissed me before saying, "Do you know this is the first time we've been apart for any length of time for months? I don't like that. Help me out of this thing and we can unpack what I brought."

I took her below to the cabin I had used and helped her get out of the tight rubber suit. She only had panties on under the suit, so I asked, "Want one of these coveralls?"

Lisa answered, "Nah, when we unpack, I'll put on some shorts and a top. I need to get some deck shoes on too if I'm going out there."

She paused before saying, "Bring the bags down here and we'll stow them real quick. I brought you some clothes too."

By the time I had all of the big black bags down in the cabin, Lisa had unpacked both of our equipment cases, and a laptop computer with a satchel full of CDs. She unpacked a lot of clothes, along with more canned goods. As she unpacked the last of the bags, she said, "Get this tub moving. We should probably move in case one of the assholes was monitoring all of the frequencies."

I pulled the anchor and dumped the bucket of fish offal for any of the sea creatures who might want a nasty snack. As soon as I had the engines started, I began going south again, staying out about eight to ten miles from shore.

Lisa came up to the cockpit area in shorts and tank top. She said, "That coverall looks good on you. It's probably comfortable too. I might try one on."

She began filling me in on what was happening. The first thing she said was, "Mother called me and had me use my secure phone to call back. I had to plug it in to charge, as I haven't used it for so long. When I called, I was told to advise you that they had their people working on your problem and for you not to worry as they felt you were in the right for recording the conversation. They also said you shouldn't have been called since you were still on rehab leave. They will call on the secure satellite phone to keep us up to date."

"Wanda, Marie, and Jan have been keeping me posted on what the other two agencies are doing. Both say their superiors are apprehensive about the charges from the guy in DC. Your Marshal was trying to get in touch with you, but relayed that you should just go somewhere to enjoy your rehab leave while he and the other Marshals take care of the problem. They did say this wouldn't be cleared up easily by Monday. They felt it could be as much as a week."

She handed me a stack of inkjet printed pictures, "These are of your kids. I have a couple of CDs full of pictures and of course everyone back there is fawning over them. You should see Sophia and Gio with them. They are totally in love with all four of the babies. I don't think the girls need any additional nanny help right now, since everyone from the park is waiting on the moms hand and foot to get a chance to hold the babies."

The pictures were typical newborn baby pictures, red faced little critters whose features were not distinct yet. Lisa said, "None of them are big criers. Of course, all they do right now is eat and sleep. Last night, all of them did stay awake about an hour before having another snack and falling asleep again. They don't sleep all night, but you wouldn't expect them to. They get hungry every three to four hours. Frieda's kids have already had a bowel movement, so they are really healthy. It's amazing though, her two are almost as big as the other two. Usually twins are smaller at birth. No wonder Frieda was so big. Were you ever told their birth size?"

"No, I really didn't think about it but how much did they weigh?"

Lisa held up a picture of the four babies together, "Nancy's Nitika is the smallest at under five and half pounds. Frieda's Sarah and Farah are also just a couple of ounces under five pounds and Judy's Julie was six pounds three ounces. Their size may have contributed to the fast births. Oh yeah, all four were twenty to twenty-one inches long. Actually that's probably pretty average.

Lisa had her arm around me the whole time I manned the boat and looked at the pictures. I told Lisa, "How about a beer or even a drink. There's a little fridge over there and a bunch of bottles of stuff in the locker next to it. You'll have to look for glasses and such."

Lisa said, "First, let me explore this thing. It is really nice and all I've seen is the one cabin and walked by what looked like an office or something at the salon table."

She went below on the side where the cabin I used was. In a couple of minutes, she came up, held a finger up in the air in the gesture of 'just a minute, ' and went down into the other side of the catamaran.

When she came up, she went to the galley, found some plastic glasses and filled them with ice and some of my favorite clear liquid that Tiny had been so kind to include on board. She said, "This thing even has desalination. I see you've caught our supper and possibly all of our meals for a couple of days. When did you catch that and what is it?"

I told her, "It's a gag grouper and will make some great grouper sandwiches and we'll bake some too."

Lisa asked, "Where are we going?"

"I'm heading down to the Manatee River. I stayed down there last night up near a bunch of mangroves. It was a decent place to stay and when I tried to fish, I caught an alligator."

"Alligator? Really? What did you do with it?"

I told Lisa the story of the two locals who were obviously hunting gators. They were the ones who told me that fishing was much better near the mouth of the river than upstream. I also told her about the neat little Bill's Bait Shop, fuel dock, and restaurant we would eat breakfast at.

By the time we made it to the same bunch of brush and trees I had anchored under the night before, it was nearing eleven. I shut everything down and started the little generator for the air conditioner.

As soon as we were in bed, Lisa demonstrated how much she had missed me. I showed her how much I had missed her with kisses over every inch of her body. It took a long time for us to tell and show each other how we felt.

As we settled down on the wet spots, Lisa said, "This boat is surprisingly big. I can't believe you have queen size or bigger beds down here. There is enough storage space in these lockers for a lot of clothes and equipment. You know what? If we wanted, I'll bet this thing could get us down to Costa Rica pretty fast."

I told her, "It could and we could ... I've already charted it on the GPS. We could be down there in less than two days if we didn't stop overnight or have to refuel. That might be pushing it though as we would have to man the helm all the time and there is only the two of us. Do you think we should get that far away? I want to get back to the family as soon as I can. If we're down in Costa Rica and we're given the all clear, it will take us a couple to three days to get back up here."

Lisa said, "If we get down there and the all clear comes, we'll leave this down there for the folks to use and have someone fly down to pick us up. You're talking about two and half hours each way in your Citation. We'll talk about it when we get up in the morning."

Lisa snuggled into me a little more and we both drifted off to sleep.

Primary Editing by Pepere
Proofing and Continuity by Sagacious
European tours, by Rotorhead
Another set of eyes – Knight6
Last one through - Deenara2000