Page 13 of Wired Courage

Day Eleven

Sophie went down every graveled road on the fourteen-mile island, looking for a way off of it.

She found the little farm compound where Nam and his family, seemingly the only other occupants of Phi Ni, lived. Nam’s wife, a kind-faced older woman, came to the door, wringing her hands in distress as Sophie roared up to the dwelling.

Sophie raised her hand in a wave, smiling to reassure the woman, and hurried on.

She eventually arrived at the familiar airstrip with its large metal hangar, mechanical maintenance area, and fueling station, and strip of asphalt ending at a beach.

The plane and chopper were both gone.“Damn those men to an eternity of hungry mosquitoes!”

Sophie turned the ATV down a bumpy, badly maintained side road leading away from the airstrip, following the sandy dirt track through acres of overgrown palms planted in rows—some sort of coconut plantation from the past. Beyond that, a jungle of trees entangled with vines gave way to a small, deep bay where the road dead-ended. A dock built of heavy wooden pilings topped by a large boathouse projected out into crystalline water.

Sophie’s heart speeded up.At last, a way off the island!

Sophie drove the ATV out onto the dock and dismounted to investigate. The heavy metal boathouse was locked, the hasp of the door corroded with rust, but the lock on it huge and shiny-new.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Terrible saying, but it had captured her imagination. Already overheated in the tropical heat, with not a soul to see her for miles, Sophie stripped down to her underwear and dove into the water off the end of the pier.

The water, clear as glass, felt like a bracing slap to Sophie’s face, dispelling the fog of obsessive anger that had driven her. Her aches and pain were forgotten as she swam, weightless and powerful, underwater. She came up and blew out a breath. Her hair, grown long and wild during pregnancy, dripped water into her eyes. Sophie made a mental note to cut it when she returned to the house.

The sting of the salt water on her ravaged tissues was a strange kind of balm, and the buoyancy of floating felt amazing. Sophie reached the end of the boathouse and circled around to the opening that faced outward toward the ocean.

The exterior door was down there, too, but the tide must have been low because there was a foot or two of clearance between where the door ended and the restless surface of the water began. Sophie ducked beneath the segmented gate and swam inside the big shelter.

The boathouse’s shadow glowed around her, lit by sunlight bouncing off the sand fifteen feet or so below. Sophie navigated around a sleek speedboat tied to the interior dock, and scanned for a ladder. Sure enough, one led down into the water, and she grasped the metal rungs.

Her body was already trembling with the exertion of the ATV journey from the house on the top of the hill to this point. Her arms trembled as she hoisted her body up out of the water and climbed the ladder. She had done yoga daily until the birth, but had neglected heavier workouts in lieu of relaxation and stretching as her pregnancy progressed.

She had imagined reclaiming her fitness level with the baby beside her, sleeping.A stab of grief and longing filled her, remembering the brightly patterned sling she had planned to use to keep the baby close while she did weights or walking.

“We will get her back,” Sophie said aloud. Her voice bounced and echoed in the vast space, punctuated by the slapping of the water against the boat and the pier. “Or die trying.”

Not an empty statement. She had no intention of giving up on finding her daughter—ever.

Sophie padded along the wooden pier to the speedboat and jumped aboard a twenty-seven-foot Chris-Craft Corsair. Low-slung, heavy and luxurious, with a powerful inboard engine, a forward berth, and shiny wood and brass fittings, everything about the launch was beautiful. Sophie ran her hands over the glossy burled steering wheel.Just like Connor to have a boat that would look right at home on the Riviera parked in his boathouse in the middle of nowhere.

This was how she was going to leave Phi Ni and get to the mainland to find her daughter.

Sophie shook with cold and exertion even in the tropical heat as she explored the boat. She made her way below deck and found a white, waffle-weave robe to don in the berth. She searched everywhere but couldn’t find a key, on the boat or around the dock, and the Chris-Craft’s sealed navigation area was theft-resistant.

Connor and Jake shouldn’t have left her marooned here on Phi Ni.They could have given her surveillance, light duty, something appropriate to do on the mission.

But as Sophie walked back down the interior dock, looking for an exit that didn’t involve swimming back out of the boathouse, she was ready to reconsider the situation.

She was stuck on Phi Ni for the moment. Even if she could find keys to the Chris-Craft and get it out of the boathouse, her physical state was unacceptable. Just riding an ATV and swimming a few hundred yards should not have exhausted her this much. She wasn’t ready for a jungle combat situation, painful as it was to admit it.

She’d just had a baby. Growing a child and giving birth to it was a huge physical feat that took a toll, whether she was willing to admit it or not.

Sophie found a small side exit door with an interior lock, and opened it. She blinked in the overly bright sunlight, bedazzled for a moment—then her eyes focused on a man standing beside a pickup truck, parked at the end of the dock. Her heart pounded until she recognized Nam, standing backlit, waiting with his typical quiet dignity.

Sophie locked the boathouse door. She picked up her clothing and headed for the houseman, glad she’d covered herself with the boat’s handy robe.

“Would you like a ride back to the house?” Nam asked.

“I would.” Sophie pointed to the ATV. “What about that?”

Nam walked to the rear of the truck, lowered the tailgate, and pulled out a couple of steel runners. A few moments later, the ATV was stowed in back and they were driving up the mountain.

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