Page 6 of Beaches

“I called Washington, and believe me, that was an act in futility. I was transferred nine times before someone finally told me just to mail them to some damn address in Maryland. Most frustrating thing in the world!”

“We understand,” smirked Ghost.

“These balls were created by someone to send a message or ask for help. I don’t know which. I had an older cousin who went to Vietnam and never came home. I’ve looked at every damn dog tag there and don’t see his name, but those names belong to someone. Someone’s son, husband, father, or brother. I want to know where they came from. I can afford to pay you.”

“We’re not worried about the pay, ma’am,” said Nine. “Let us get some information from you, and we’ll see what we can find out.”

An hour later, she shook their hands and headed back to California. The men stared at the ball of dog tags, their guts clenched. Gaspar nodded, then stood and yelled.

“Code! I want to see every logical point where this shit could possibly have come from. Every damn place.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Code? How are we doing?” asked Nine, walking into comms with Ghost.

“Do you guys have any idea how many islands there are that have been charted but are uninhabited that we’re looking for? It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

“Why are you limiting it to islands?” asked Ghost.

“Those things wouldn’t have come from populated areas. It has to be coming from an island or islands, possibly a private yacht, but it’s just too many tags for me to believe that. We also have to be open to the possibility it came from a ship, or worse, from an unnamed, undiscovered land mass.”

“Landmass? An island, you mean,” said Nine.

“No. A landmass formed from volcanic eruptions, changes in weather and water temperature, earthquakes, tsunamis, all of it. A landmass could have been formed and unfound and uncharted. We are literally looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“What is the likelihood of it being closer than Southeast Asia?” asked Ghost. “I mean, is it possible that it’s an island we know of but that’s uninhabited and closer to the continental United States?”

“Sure. That’s definitely possible, but usually, those islands are cared for by local governments, environmental groups, or other interested groups.”

“But there could be one we don’t know of, right?” asked Ghost.

“Yes. That’s the short answer, but if I gave you the long answer, it would be no. I don’t think there’s one close that we have identified. Between the Navy, Coast Guard, commercial fishing vessels, all of it, they would have seen it at some point.

“Take a look at this map,” he said, putting the map on the big screen.

“What I have circled is the area we would be interested in looking at. But it’s massive. Hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean. I just don’t know how to make this any clearer.”

The men stared at the map of the ocean currents. Just as the woman had explained, they were looking at a specific current that would sweep debris from the South Pacific up along Asia’s coast and then potentially across to the northern part of the United States and down her western border.

It was a lot of land and ocean to cover.

“Skull reached out to the Coast Guard, and Ace reached out to the Navy to see if they’d seen anything peculiar or come across any questionable debris,” said Ian. “I think all we can do now is scan the satellite images. Just that will take us a few days to get through. After that, we’ll see what we can find.”

“One more thing,” said Code. “Victoria got into the database that houses the names of all veterans who are MIA or presumed dead. Since some of the tags were as far back as WWII, there are thousands on the list. If I narrow it down to those that disappeared in that region of the world, it’s a little better but still daunting.”

“What the hell is happening?” frowned Ghost. “Someone intentionally put this ball together with all these tags. I can only imagine they did that hoping that someone would see it floating. The odds were astronomical that it would make it to shore.” They heard someone running down the hall and quieted, waiting for whoever it was to appear. Sly’s red face appeared in the doorway as he was gasping for air.

“You have to come! You have to come now!”

“NO!” yelled Calvin again.

It was too late. She dove from the cave entrance into the sea below. They knew it was deep enough for her to survive, but the coral and sharks would kill her. When her head appeared above water, she started swimming out to sea.

“What the hell is that kid thinking?” asked Damon. They stared at the sun, sitting low in the sky, then watched as she continued to swim. Much smaller and thinner than the men, she seemed able to maneuver around the coral. In the distance, they saw what she saw.

“Shit, she’s trying to make it to that lifeboat. How did we not see that?” asked Vic.

“I don’t know, but even if she makes it to it, she won’t make it back here to the beach for us,” said Damon. He looked at the other three, holding their breaths for the young woman. Gripping the edge of the loose boat, she hauled herself over the edge.

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