Sam finned for the surface.

CHAPTER 7

ZANZIBAR

TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER WHEN SAM CLIMBED BACK ABOARD the Andreyale, he found Remi sitting in a deck chair casually sipping a bottle of Kenyan Tusker beer. Their guest, Yaotl, lay like a defeated game fish on the deck, back bent, wrists bound to his feet, these in turn knotted to the nearest cleat. He was still unconscious.

"Welcome back," she said, handing him a beer. "How'd the mishap go?"

"They seemed to have bought it. How's he?"

"Bad lump on the side of the head, but he's breathing fine. Aside from an ugly headache that'll last a day or two, he'll survive. He was well armed. She nodded to two objects lying at her feet: one was the knife they knew about, the other a semiautomatic pistol. Sam hefted it.

"Heckler and Koch P30. Nine millimeter, fifteen-round magazine."

"How in the world do you know . . ."

Sam shrugged. "No idea. I store trivia. Can't help it. Unless I'm mistaken, this isn't a civilian gun. They're only sold to law enforcement and military."

"So our guest here is, or was, either a cop or a soldier?"

"Or someone with back-channel influence. Did you find anything else on him?"

"Not so much as pocket lint. No wallet, no identification. And his clothes and shoes are local. I checked the tags."

"Professionals, then."

"Seems so," Remi said. "As for the cookies we left for Santa . . ."

"We saw what they thought of the Adelise coin. Tossed it away like a penny. But the ginned-up notepad was another story."

Before setting the stage for their guests, Sam and Remi had decided there were five possibilities the mystery man, "Hawk Nose," was interested in: one, the Adelise coin; two, the bell; three, the Fargos themselves; four, something he was worried they might find; or five, nothing--the molehill/mountain scenario.

Their ruse had ruled out numbers one and five and seemed to rule in numbers two, three, and four. Sam and Remi had filled the notepad mostly with nonsensical scribbles and numbers, save one area: a sideview diagram of a ship's bell and below it a time (2:00 P.M.), a place (Chukwani Point Road), and a phone number provided by Selma that, when called, would be answered by Mnazi Freight & Haul. If Hawk Nose took this bait, they could be reasonably certain his interest lay with the bell.

This, of course, raised the questions of how Hawk Nose had learned about the bell. Sam and Remi had told no one except Selma. Since Hawk Nose hadn't paid his visit before they'd raised the bell using Sam's raft, could it be attributed to someone having spotted the bell as they moved it to the lagoon? But, then again, they'd seen no one in the area, either onshore or offshore.

"It'll be dawn soon," Sam said. "Let's gather our booty and find a place to lie low until we can find us some different accommodations."