The door opened. McCall stepped in and closed it behind him. Lou could think of nothing around the sink that would give his presence away. He clutched the laptop to his chest like a life preserver and stared up at the showerhead as the agent did his business two feet away.

McCall flushed the toilet and washed his hands, standing not much farther away than the thickness of the vinyl shower curtain. Lou held his breath. The porcelain tub was feeling like it was made of shirt pins, and the damp clothes were becoming bothersome as well.

Then the bathroom door opened and clicked shut.

“I’m really worried about you, Tim,” McCall said.

“I appreciate that.”

“If you change your mind about staying on the team, call me.”

“Roger that. I’ll see you again soon, Chuck. Don’t worry about me, okay? I’ll be fine.”

The door to the outside corridor opened and closed with the rusty squeal and a soft click. Two endless minutes passed before Vaill called out.

“He just drove away. I don’t think he suspected anything, but we’ve got to think about getting out of here to another place. That was really stupid of me with the damn credit card, especially when I have one with a fake name that I don’t think the agency knows about.”

Lou unfolded to his feet, stepped into the room, and glared at Vaill.

“I can’t believe you let him use the damn bathroom. Why couldn’t you have told him the toilet was plugged or something?”

“I didn’t think of it. Next time,” Vaill said. “Nice going in there. You have the makings of a decent agent.”

“Actually, thanks to your partner’s visit, we might have caught a break.”

“Explain,” Vaill said.

Lou brought the laptop back to the desk.

“Take a look at this. Because I turned the sound off and paused the DVD, I just lay there and stared at this one image. I can’t believe we missed this every time. Top center.”

Vaill looked at the screen for just a few seconds.

“Jesus,” he murmured. “There’s a ship out there.”

“A tanker, I think. And at that distance, I would guess it’s a large one.”

“I’ll be damned. Our analyst must have missed it, too. He never mentioned a word about it.”

Lou ran the disc back and forth a few times. Now the tanker was obvious, cruising from their right to their left, just below the horizon.

“Okay,” Vaill said, “we’ve found something. Now, how is it going to help us?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“On how good your analyst is at enhancing images. If he’s really good, and I mean really good, maybe he can get us a look at the markings on that ship.”

Chapter 47

CHAPTER 47