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A SWIRL OF dark sines stained the blue of the afternoon sky The men on the trawlers&039; decks called back and forth to each other as they yanked at thick hawsers and cables, securing theht, co droplets of water flying Someone called out, "Pull! Break her ass, there!"
Timbers creaked; the noise of diesels uts of the blacks orked there Sweat rolled off their backs beneath the hot sun "Give &039;er more," the captain of the Hellie shouted out, the stub of a Brazilian cigar clenched firmly in his teeth "Come on, mon!" Water boiled at the stern The captain looked across to the other trawler, the Lucy J Leen, stretched tight on its spiderweb of hawsers The Lucy&039;s diesels were s to have to drop his main lines
The Hellie&039;s e cloud of blue s bitch had her nose stuck tight in sand; she wasn&039;t going to ines One of the starboard lines was fraying fast; he saw it and pointed, "Hey! You men watch your fuckin&039; heads when that baby comes flyin&039; back, you hear me?"
Another trawler, a rickety old boat with a smaller draft, had secured lines onto the hulk&039;s bow, pulling its nose out of the sand while the other bigger boats hauled at its length The thing was heavy - heavier than she looked The Hellie&039;s master didn&039;t want his diesels wrecked, and he was almost ready to tell his first mate to shut them down But he&039;d told Steve Kip he&039;d do his best, and by God that&039;s what he was going to do "We&039;re heatin&039;!" someone cried out, and the captain yelled back, "Let &039;er heat!"
The props were foa ater at the sterns of the trawlers; now sand was co in there Shit! The captain grunted and chewed the butt Fuckin&039; thing won&039;tsound and the Hellie lurched forward "Ease up!" the captain called out sharply "Drop her down a few notches!" The diesels ian to rumblethe bow lines waved his arms
"Okay," the captain called out toward the squat wheelhouse "Full ahead"
"Full ahead!" The order went back, by way of two or three crewan tobadly, and the sliding noise intensified Then, abruptly, it ceased The sub free, and the beat-up trawler tightened its hawsers to keep control over the thing Holding the U-boat secured within their circle, the trawler armada moved at a crawl past the wharfs where the crew of a Bahahter watched fro wharfs, bobbing the sainst their tire-brows and bu into the beach in athe see toward the boatyard beyond Past a couple of old, sub froe trawler at anchor, past the boatyard wharfs theythe port deck and could see the aluest one, the one used as a teht on the lip of the sea It had been built on a concrete bedding with a large door that could be raised or lowered and a da; now the captain could see the open shelter doorway It was set a piers the navy had built and then abandoned It was going to be dath in there, dale of the swells as they flowed around Kiss Bottoh this afternoon, and that was going to cause more problems The Hellie&039;s e tug, and that was the primary reason Kip had asked him to oversee the operation He&039;d towed for the British navy in the latter years of the war and had brought inships to the Navy facilities here in this very harbor He twisted around to check the lines Nu badly, nuood rope in the islands these days! The Lucy J Leen was cutting back so to catch hell about letting those engines get in such a shit-awful shape
Dark-green water roiled inside the abandoned naval shelter He could see the work with their sturdy hawsers to secure the hulk The trawlers passed the shelter; the smaller craft with the bow lines turned in front of the submarine and made for the open doorway Diesels shrilled, but in anotherbow-first toward the shelter Siines; noas up to the small boat to line up the sub steadily and slowly, the bolerits own nose into the darkness of the shelter The other boats swung around, using their combined power to haul the U-boat forward At the lastsharply to starboard; the U-boat was cutting a boake, ines to slow it
The U-boat h its speed had been reduced, it still sent water crashing into the concrete sides of the shelter basin Its bow crunched against concrete even as ht lines to tie the boat to iron cleats The trawlers dropped their lines then and swung off, and for a moment the heavy swells thrown up by the action of the boats sent foa inside the drydock basin The dock workers fought to lash the hulk down, but as the swells subsided the water shtly pulled fore and aft hawsers
Kip stood and looked at the thing God, what a arette and tossed it into the brackish water; the butt hissed and went up underneath the hull He was standing on a wide concrete platform level with the hull which ran around the entire shelter Ladders leading off the platforone down to a dry pit were aled Behind Kip was an abandoned work area now jaotten machinery, a carpentry area where a stack of timber lay, an electrician&039;s cubicle now cluttered with pieces of iron and thick coils of all-purpose wiring The concrete flooring was coated with a filed oil The entire shelter s the odors was the fetid sht in front of his eyes
"She&039;s in tight," said a tall, barrel-chested black with a gold tooth glea in his mouth "Sure hope you knohat you&039;re doin&039;"
"I do, Lenny," Kip said
"Mr Langstree, he be back from his trip to Steele Cay toot in here well, I don&039; think he goin&039; to like it too stree&039;s fore with this because Kip was the constable and ato come down hard on him
"He&039;s never had need to use this basin," Kip re the man&039;s unease "It&039;s just full of junk the British navy left behind - just a dae warehouse If he jumps, you tell hioat over to see stree that way"
There was a rattle of chains and the sound of a winch in operation; the far bulkhead slid down into the water, just ed propellers of the subht in the shelter streaed holes in the roof alled noisily around the U-boat&039;s hull vents; its conning-tower and periscope shafts looh Shadows played across the shelter&039;s opposite wall as several of thethe boat at a respectful distance
"She ain&039;t in such bad shape," Lenny said softly He looked down the boat&039;s length and whistled "Mon, she must&039;ve been hell in her day, you know?"
"I&039;m sure of it" The deck was fully out of water now, and the sea streae whispering noises that echoed within the shelter Kip looked past the tower bridge toward the stern, then soht his eye and he jerked his head back Jesus! he thought, stunned What was that!
He was al there, hands on the iron coa down at theht, locking together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, through one of the roof holes Christ, that had given him a shock! Jumbies, he told hio thinking voodoo, Kip; there are no such things as haunts
"What&039;s the matter, Kip?" Lenny asked him a second ti" He blinked his eyes and looked back to the bridge again A shadow, that was all
And then he was certain so at hie of tilowed As Kip watched, the dot flared and a streah a splotch of light A blackfaded jeans and a sweat-stained T-shirt, eed from the shadows He had no expression on his hard face; there was a cold, rather cunning set to the line of his lips, but he race