Free Smugglers 3 Accidental Kingpin by Gerald McCallum Page B

inches more draft than the old one and was about the same top speed wise and fuel consumption.
    It took five days to get to the Keys. When we pulled into the Hilton Marina, we took the first slip that would fit our boat. We went to the outside bar for lunch and looked for Bob and Karen. They were nowhere in sight.
    I went to the dock master and found out what slip they had taken. When I got back to the table, Bob and Karen were there and we all laughed about missing one another.
    When lunch was over, we took them to see our new yacht. Karen wanted to see everything, so Ana give her a tour, while Bob and I settled in for a drink and the Cuban cigars we both loved so much. I had to fill Bob in on our new identities, which was no problem to him, and apparently Ana did the same with Karen, so they had no trouble remembering all our new names.
    We made plans for dinner that night at a place where we could take the kids . Bob and Karen were good with them, speaking to Ria and Ted as if they were adults, which they loved, being teenagers now.
    We got back to our boat just after midnight and made plans for the next day. I was still in the mode to get a sitter for the kids, but they protested, saying they were old enough to stay by themselves. I finally relented, telling them this was a trial and that they would have to stay by the pool or on the boat.
    We four adults went bar hopping, trying out different appetizers between drinks. About two the next day at our third bar something happened that turned my hair white. A man walked up to me and said, “Do you know who I am”?
    All of a sudden it got silent. “No,” I said, but I knew.
    “My name is Carlos and I work for your competitor, and he will be surprised to hear you’re in Florida. He will want to find you right away.” Then he turned while dialing a number on his phone and walked into the crowded street.
    Bob and Karen looked confused but not my wife. She knew.
    I threw a hundred on the bar and said to the bartender, “Keep the change.”
    Bob and Karen followed us out the door. “Hey, what’s going on?” Bob asked.
    “Can’t tell you. We have to get back to the boat.”
    We hailed two bike rickshaws and left for the hotel. We found the kids at the pool and told them they had to get back to the boat, pronto. They protested, but a quick word from their mother, and they hurried to obey.
    I told the captain to make ready to cast off. “We’re leaving as soon as possible.”
    To my surprise the captain asked, “Is it something dangerous that involves gun play? I didn’t sign up for none of that.”
    “It’s not dangerous but the people I ran into are bad people, and my family is in danger now,” I said.
    “I guess here’s where we part company, and I might as well tell you before I leave. I found by accident the new guns and thousands of rounds of ammo you have hidden on this boat. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t care to. But I’m quitting for violation of my contract.”
    He and his wife were off the boat in less than an hour. Before they left I gave them twenty thousand dollars and told them to keep their mouths shut.
    Now I was in a pickle and had to find a capable captain who could run a one-hundred footer. Just as I was calling the hotel, Bob and Karen come in. I told them the story about the captain walking off the job.
    “I can run this boat,” Bob said, surprising the hell out of me.
    I gave him a hard look. “We have to leave now and get out to sea. And Bob, I have lots of guns and ammo on board.” When he didn’t blink an eye, I added, “If you run the boat for six months and leave your boat here I will give you five hundred thousand dollars plus pay for the upkeep for the boats. plus I will pay you and Karen double the going rate per month But we must leave in the next hour.”
    Bob looked at Karen and back at me and again at his wife, then turned to me and stuck out his hand.
    I shook his hand and said, “Let’s go.”
    We