Page 40 (1/2)

“Sounds like I’d like him”

“He’s a piece of work, my Mr Hanley In truth, I’ve never met a more loyal man or had a better friend”

Sloane finished her coffee and handed the lid back to Juan He screwed the c

ap back onto the therht

“I was thinking,” he said, “rather than tie up in Swakopmund at oh dark thirty and possibly arouse suspicion, why don’t we head south to where youin theDo you think you could find his caain?”

“No problem Sandwich Bay is about twenty-five miles south of Swakopmund”

Juan checked their GPS, estimated the new coordinates, and punched theator Servos rees to port

A little over forty ed froht and occasionally the brighter white of waves curling onto the beach The long peninsula that protected Sandwich Bay was a quarter mile to their south

“Nice bit of navigating,” Sloane said

Juan tapped the GPS receiver with a knuckle “Gladys here gets the credit GPS has ators of us all I don’t think I could compute my position with a sextant and watch if my life depended on it”

“Somehow I doubt that”

Juan backed off the throttle to reduce their wake as they entered the fragile ecosyste the southerne of the bay Sloane panned the dense wall of reeds with a flashlight as they tracked along the shore looking for the cut in the grass that led to Papa Heinrick’s private little lagoon

“There,” she said, pointing

Juan slowed the boat to a crawl and edged its bow into the reeds He kept a sharp eye on the depth gauge and constantly checked that floating chunks of vegetation didn’t foul the props The lifeboat cut through the tall grass and the bladessound as they scraped the hull and sides of the cabin

They had covered seventy yards when Juan caught the scent of s but couldn’t detect it again Then it carabbed Sloane’s wrist so he could cover the lens of her flashlight with his hand