Page 31 of Beachcomber Danger

Chapter 9

The next morning Dane and Shana dressed as island vacationers, which wasn’t much different than their usual. But the distinctions were important. They wore sunglasses as always, but these included some extra capabilities including tracking and two-way communications. There was no “off” switch. Dane had asked.

Shana had resorted to using hand signals as if she knew sign language. Maybe she did. But it didn’t matter since Dane had no clue what she was trying to say. Besides, he had to keep his hands on the wheel as he pulled into the far reaches of the parking lot at Martha’s Vineyard Airport.

“Pretty good-size crowd,” Shana said.

He smiled because he knew that would annoy Andrews and Goodley, who would want some kind of official estimate. She smiled back and exited the Jeep. When he met her around her side of the car to walk toward where the crowd waited—he estimated about eight hundred to a thousand people—she brazenly took her sunglasses off and stuffed them into her large handbag. Then she reached up and stole his off his face and made them disappear into the bag as well.

He let her and took a deep breath.

“I needed that. The silence was killing me.” He kept his voice low.

She pressed her mouth to his ear, leaning in, and spoke.

“How are we going to find out from Acer if he’s found a picture of the couple yet?”

“We’ll have to go blind today.”

“Unless we can have him meet us here. I have my throwaway cell. I could call him.”

“Taking a big chance.”

She looked around. They were walking around the corner of the terminal building, joining others on the way to the same crowd to get a look at the President and Air Force One. If he weren’t involved in protection, Dane would have been more interested in the plane.

“I think as soon as we’re lost in the crowd, before we spot any Secret Service, we can get away with a quick call. We need to not be blind about this.”

He nodded. She slipped the phone from the bag as if she were a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat and pressed the numbers with a staccato beat. He took the phone from her just as she was about to press it to her ear. He heard it ringing and kissed her surprised lips.

“If either of us gets in trouble for this, it should be me.” He knew that wouldn’t quell her annoyance, but it was the truth. If he was being overprotective, then so be it. Acer answered on the third ring.

“Almost didn’t hear the phone with the hammering.”

“You haven’t finished the build-out yet?”

“A few finishing touches. Ronnie wants it to look foolproof. I agree. He brought some decor to make it look real. I now have a few pet spiders. I drew the line at the rat—”

“Meet us at the airport for the Air Force One landing. Bring the photos. ”

“How do you know I got the photographs?”

“Did you?”

“They’re grainy and not full face, but yeah. I returned the hacking favor--”

“Don’t tell me how. Bring paper copies. Small ones. We may have to eat them.”

Acer laughed and Dane shut the phone down.

Shana took the phone, but instead of putting it back into her bag, she dropped it on the ground and then stomped on it with the spike heel of her innocent-looking sandals.

“I hope we don’t need to call anyone.”

“Don’t worry. We’re back online.” She reached into her bag and gave him his sunglasses back and slipped hers on.

There was an immediate blip as he put the sunglasses over his eyes. He tapped the right side and, sure enough, Andrews was coming in loud and clear. As he listened to the irate words, he took Shana’s hand and pulled her into the gut of the crowd to make their way toward the front where the ropes and a line of uniforms stopped them.

“Andrews, we’re in place and I’m going to work now, so pipe down or the people around me are going to hear you.” He spoke with a hand over his mouth.