Chapter 5 - BLUE HERON
"Get her aboard!" Captain Jo Park shouted.
Her research vessel rolled into the swell, and two deckhands lowered a recovery sling toward Mara. She grabbed it on the third try. By the time they hauled her over the side, she was too cold to stand.
Willa wrapped her in blankets. "You're safe. You're on the Blue Heron."
"No," Mara said through chattering teeth. "Not yet."
The dark launch followed just outside their wake, too close to be an accident.
"They claim they're Navy security," Willa said. "No call sign. No identification."
"Don't let them board," Mara whispered.
"We don't intend to." Jo turned down the volume on the radio as another demand crackled through: Stop engines. Prepare for inspection.
"How did you find me?" Mara asked.
"Coast Guard relay forwarded a beacon alert. We were nearest."
Mara swallowed. "Then my signal went through."
"Barely. Those two bursts were enough."
Jo raised the radio microphone. "Unidentified launch, this is a civilian research vessel conducting a rescue. We have alerted the Coast Guard. You are interfering with lifesaving operations."
The answer came in a man's voice. "Turn over the passenger and nobody gets hurt."
Willa looked at Mara, frightened now. "What did you do?"
Mara forced herself upright. "I asked a captain why eleven people died while he watched their distress signal."
Jo's jaw tightened. "You're the woman from the Mercy Bell inquiry."
"You know about it?"
"My sister volunteered on that boat." Jo stared through the front window. "Her name was June."
Mara felt the old wound split open again.
May you like
Before she could speak, something struck the Blue Heron's stern with a metallic crack. An alarm sounded beneath the deck.
Willa shouted from the hatch, "Captain! They've put something on our propeller!"
