Chapter 69 - The Gathering Storm
The *North Star* cut through the choppy gray swells of Massachusetts Bay, her heavy diesel engines thrumming with a deep, rhythmic vibration that vibrated through the steel deck plates.
Behind them, the Boston skyline was shrinking into a hazy smudge of stone and glass.
Adeline stood in the wheelhouse, leaning against the chart table, watching Elias steer the vessel out toward the open ocean. He had cleaned the cut beneath his eye with antiseptic from the first-aid kit; a white butterfly bandage covered the wound, making his rugged face look even more formidable against the glare of the navigational radar.
The radio crackled on Channel 16. Coast Guard weather bulletins were already warning of a low-pressure front sweeping up from Cape Hatteras, promising thirty-knot winds and eight-foot seas by nightfall.
"We can cut inside the shipping lanes past Nantucket," Elias said, adjusting the throttle lever. "Once we clear the shoals, we run straight south. We'll be off the Carolinas by tomorrow afternoon."
Adeline picked up the laminated photograph of Nathan Vance, looking at it under the soft green glow of the radar screen.
"Elias," she said, break the silence that had settled between them for the last hour. "What if he doesn't want to be found?"
Elias kept his hands on the wheel, his eyes fixed on the horizon where the dark ocean met the gray sky.
"Then he shouldn't have left a key in Box 404," Elias replied.
"He left that key for you," she pointed out. "The note said: *Julian has made his move. Come alone.* Nathan knew Julian was going to strike eventually. Nathan knew the game Julian was playing."
"Which means Nathan sat down there in the Caribbean for twenty years, drinking rum and watching Julian destroy people's lives from a safe distance," Elias snapped, the bitterness boiling up again. "Julian broke you, Adeline. He spent five years beating you down, isolating you, threatening your family. And my father knew exactly who Julian was. He knew what the Sterlings were capable of, and he stayed on his boat."
Adeline walked over to the helm, standing close beside him. The smell of diesel, salt spray, and Elias’s worn wool jacket filled the small cabin.
"Nathan was terrified, Elias. When a man believes that stepping onto a plane will get his son murdered, fear can make twenty years feel like twenty days. I know what that feels like. I spent five years calculating every word, every smile, every breath I took in Julian’s house because I believed that if I stepped out of line, he would destroy my sister’s career and put my father in prison on fabricated fraud charges."
She laid her hand over Elias’s knuckles on the wooden wheel. His hand was tense, but under her touch, the iron grip slowly relaxed.
"You can't judge a hostage by the rules of free men, Elias," she said softly.
He turned his head to look at her. The green light of the instrument panel cast long shadows across the planes of his face.
"You're not a hostage anymore, Adeline."
"Neither are you," she answered. "You spent twenty years living in Julian Sterling's shadow, letting his family dictate your anger, your business, your whole life. We're going to St. Thomas to finish this. Not just for the piers on Salem Street. For you."
A sudden high-pitched beep chimed from the marine VHF transceiver mounted above the windshield.
A digital selective calling (DSC) alert flashed on the screen:
*URGENT MARITIME MESSAGE — VESSEL NORTH STAR — CALLSIGN WDF-4402.*
Elias reached up and clicked the receiver off the hook. "North Star, Vance speaking."
A voice crackled through the speaker, crisp, refined, and chillingly familiar.
*"Good afternoon, Elias. Or should I say, nephew?"*
Adeline gasped, stepping closer to the radio.
*"This is Donald Sterling,"* the voice purred through the static. *"It appears you had an unfortunate altercation with one of our port safety inspectors on Salem Street. A terrible misunderstanding, really. But taking the North Star out past the three-mile limit with Arthur Sterling's former daughter-in-law on board... that looks remarkably like flight to avoid federal deposition."*
Elias’s voice was ice. "Turn your boat around, Donald."
A dry chuckle came through the speaker. *"My boat? Elias, I'm sitting in the harbor master's office on Commonwealth Pier. But I believe you should check your starboard radar quadrant. Ten miles off your stern. A fifty-foot patrol cutter from the Massachusetts Maritime Enforcement Division is currently closing on your position at twenty-four knots."*
Adeline’s heart leaped into her throat. She spun around to look at the radar screen.
A bright green blip was moving fast, cutting through the chop behind them, accelerating on an intercept vector.
May you like
*"Donald,"* Elias said through gritted teeth. *"You don't have jurisdiction outside state waters."*
*"I don't need jurisdiction to report a vessel suspected of carrying stolen municipal property and an abducted witness,"* Donald replied smoothly. *"Cut your engines, Elias. Let the boarding party inspect your hold. Or spend the rest of your life in a federal penitentiary for grand larceny. The choice is yours."*
