Chapter 19
Mac followed Barry to his car and hopped in the passenger seat as he set the phone on the car stand and followed the red dot on the map.
“What exactly is on the north side?”
“A bit of everything. Like I said, it’s a big port for the fishermen. A lot of shops. Down on this end, you can find everything local, but the imports come in on that side.”
“Why is that?”
“Waters are calmer, and that side of the island has a long flat stretch of land. It’s easier to get larger boats in and out of it.”
“Is that the big thing up there though, boats?”
Yeah.”
Driving these roads at night was much different than during the day.
There were no street lamps to guide them, just the headlights.
Everything around them was pitch black. He could see the glow of lights from the town in the rearview mirror as they left it until the darkness completely swallowed it.
“Careful with the curves at this time of night. Wildlife likes to come out.”
“I see sharks aren’t the only animals you’re trying to save.”
“Yeah, well, between this car and a goat or cow, there won’t be much left of us. So, I tend to preserve all life.”
Fair enough.
“So, what are you going to do once you see Miles?”
He kept forgetting Mac knew nothing about surveillance and following people.
He was going to have to give her a crash course.
“I’ll—we’ll,” he quickly corrected himself.
By the smirk on Mac’s face, she would have pointed it out if he hadn’t caught himself.
“Follow him but not too closely. See who he meets.”
“Will you take pictures or something?”
“If we see him meeting with someone. That way I can run facial recognition when we get back.”
“Any idea where he’s going on the north shore?”
“No.”
“Too bad he’s not a shark, I could just put a tracker on him.”
“Tracking him isn’t the problem. The man always has bodyguards and drives a flashy car. It’s getting close to him that’s the trick. It’s too bad he isn’t a tiger who travels solo.” Way easier to sneak up on.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re hard to corner though.”
“Nor would I want to.”
“How did we get off topic?”
“Not sure. You were saying if he were a shark, and it spiraled from there. To answer your question, we’ll look for his car and bodyguards.”
“Can’t you track his car?”
He couldn’t. He hadn’t thought of that. “I could. As soon as we reach the north coast, I’ll look it up.”
“Barry,” Mac said softly after a few moments of silence. “I know you said you do secret mission stuff, but how do you have access to so much information?”
“In my line of work, we investigate some pretty bad people. Looking into histories, bank records, and phone records is pretty standard.”
“I never knew so much information was so easily accessible.”
“It’s not. Most of my work has a skill level. I’ve always been good with computers.”
“Have you...” Mac took a hesitant breath. “Have you ever looked up my information?”
“No, I would never invade your privacy like that.”
“But you do it to others?”
It did make him sound hypocritical when she put it like that. “I look into that information for my job, nothing more.”
“Wasn’t I a job?” she asked, sounding sad.
Barry shook his head and reached across the middle console to take her hand in his. At first, her hand was still before she interlaced their fingers. “Finding you and making sure you were safe was the job. The rest was helping you for my own selfish reasons.”
“Selfish how?” she inquired, rolling her head back on the head rest, a coy smile on her lips. “To keep me out of trouble?”
“To spend time with you,” he corrected. Barry caught Mac smiling out of the corner of his eye.
“To be honest, I’m glad you’re here.”
“Oh yeah.” He smiled, liking that he was wanted.
“Yeah, because I wouldn’t have a clue on how to follow these people or any of that technology stuff.”
Barry’s smile fell. Mac only liked him hanging around because he was handy and not because of him personally? Ouch.
“And,” she added, “I enjoy your company.”
That went a long way in easing his bruised pride. “Even though I don’t know the first thing about sharks?”
“I don’t know the first thing about technology. We’ll both learn from each other.”
“Deal, partner.”
They drove to the north coast and parked in the middle of town in a public parking lot. It was definitely more touristy than the south coastal area. Many of the palm trees had been cut down to make way for two to three-story buildings. Dozens of people walked the streets with shopping bags.
Vendor stands lined the roads with various fares from fish to produce and even palm leave weavers, offering their wares to everyone passing by.
“It’s vastly different from the other side of the island,” Mac pointed out, looking around.
“It is.” It was Vegas-style busy with hundreds of thousands of people walking down the streets and filling the casinos. Not that he spent much time of the strip. He preferred to avoid it when he could, but even outside of sin city, there were still thousands of people.
For as busy as this port was, it was still a fraction of the people he was used to.
Though he was starting to appreciate the south side more with only a few people at a time.
It was quieter. A different pace of life.
No one was in a hurry to get anywhere. It was like life slowed down and took its time.
“So where might Miles go to meet someone?”
Mac gave him a dubious look. “You’re asking me?
“You said you know this part of the island.”
“I do know the island; I don’t know Miles.”
“Alright, let’s start walking around and see if anything stands out.”
“The docks and bars are that way.” Mac pointed down the street to the west.
Then that was where they would head first. Barry took her hand in his and started walking down the sidewalk, looking like a tourist couple.
“Have you always worked on this island?” Barry asked before stopping at a vendor to look at the weaved fish made of leaves to keep up the pretense of a couple milling around and not looking for something in particular.
It took Mac a moment to realize what he was doing before she joined him to point out another one that had been shaped into a round plate.
“Since I finished my training. I was at Nassau where a majority of research is done, but there are so many islands to the Caribbean and unexplored areas. I met a boat captain who told me about this island. Once I came here, I never left.”
“Even after the season ends, you stay?”
Mac tugged on his hand to keep walking down the sidewalk. Her eyes scanned the street and cars. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was more trained in this scouting than she’d first let on. “I love it here. Travel to the States isn’t easy. I have to charter a boat to the bigger islands.”
“That sounds like an excuse.”
Mac’s lips tightened into a grimace. “It is. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family,” she rushed out to say.
“I just don’t always get along with them.
No one understands my passion down here, so every time I visit, it becomes an argument.
Eventually, I just stopped leaving the island and send cards or have the occasional phone call. ”
Barry’s heart went out to Mac. He’d had a similar experience with his family. His family had been supportive of his decision to join the military, but not everyone agreed with his choice. When he lost his arm, more than one person had an ‘I told you so’ look.
It was a good thing none of them knew what he did now. His mother’s hair would turn white for sure.
“You think I’m a bad person,” Mac commented, looking worried. He must have been quiet for too long, and she’d misinterpreted his silence.
“No, I was just thinking I’ve had similar experience.”
“Your family doesn’t support you doing…this sort of thing.” She waved her hand in front her, being respectful not to say special ops.
“They don’t know.”
“Oh.” Her lips formed a perfect ‘O’ before her eyebrows puckered in confusion. “How do you have a similar experience then?”
“When I joined the service. Not everyone liked me going into dangerous areas to protect people I didn’t know against a tyrant I’ve never met. They didn’t feel it was my fight.”
“Stopping a bully is everyone’s fight.”
Barry agreed. He could never stand idle while someone was being beaten down just because it wasn’t his fight. “Well, when I lost my arm, there were a few ‘I told you so’ looks.”
“That’s horrible,” Mac responded, looking affronted on his behalf. “Even when I got bit by a shark, my family never blamed me for it said that’s what you get for swimming with them.”
Barry chuckled at how fierce Mac was becoming on his behalf.
His team was the same way, but not many women of his acquaintance ever got defensive for him.
Most of his teammates had girlfriends, and none had ever asked about his arm before.
They just accepted what it was, but none had ever asked how any of them got their injuries.
He didn’t think it wasn’t because they didn’t care; it was just accepted it for what it was and moved on from. Even the dates he’d went on, women avoided bringing up his arm as if it were taboo or would bring up painful memories.
Some soldiers were sensitive about their scars, but he had long ago accepted them. Emma’s ingenuity vastly helped, virtually giving him his arm back.
“And yet you avoid them.”
“Because they don’t understand my passion for my career. They think I should be in the States working some boring desk job. That sharks should just be a passion and not a career.”
“Aren’t there a lot of shark researchers?” Barry didn’t have a clue about that, but he knew Mac wasn’t the only one.
“Not a lot, but quite a few. Not all biologists specialize in sharks.”
“You mean they prefer to swim with things not trying to eat them? Kidding,” Barry added with a chuckle when Mac scowled at him before she rolled her eyes and shook her head.