The sailor blinked, but a moment later he rose and sprang to life. “Jack! Martin! Glenn!” he disappeared on board the ship before Laura and Nate could react, calling out more names as he went. Another man appeared from a little farther down the docks, running for the ship, and Nate only just managed to walk up the gangway ahead of him. Laura followed close behind, and they emerged onto a deck that was suddenly full of activity. A number of sailors rushed around them, so rapidly that Nate couldn’t even keep track of how many there were.
Up here, things looked different. He could see out over the masts of the ships that crowded around them and out over the open water. There was a horizon out there where the sea met the sky, and it was a wide one. It filled him with a little dread—being this high up, and knowing that out there, there was so much further beneath you—but also the excitement of the beginning of a journey.
Were they actually commandeering a ship to go out and track someone in open waters?
“This is…” Nate muttered, leaning his hands on the railing. This ship wasn’t as old-fashioned as the others, with a sleek, white-painted rail instead of wood everywhere, but it was still a ship, and ships were still vulnerable to sinking.
“Wild?” Laura supplied. She sounded like she was having a hard time catching her breath.
“Yeah,” Nate replied. “It is.”
The ship was a hive of activity as the sailors made various changes and the whole vessel began to move out of the harbor, at first going straight backwards away from the other docking points and then turning to move out into the sea. It was a strange sensation: the whole vessel seemed stable enough in itself, and yet it moved up and down on the water, pitching and rolling, making Nate feel like his legs were going to fail him. He clutched hard onto the railings and that made him feel a little better.
“You’re not getting seasick, are you?” Laura asked.
“I don’t know,” Nate said through gritted teeth, trying to get used to it all. “I’ve never had cause to find out.”
Laura laughed, a loud and high sound that made him grin in spite of himself, looking over at her. Her hair was whipping even more in the wind up here, but she looked alive. Like the sea air and the salt spray agreed with her. Like in another life, she would have been some sort of pirate maiden, leading a band of likely types to enact justice on the high seas. The image made him grin even more.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head and giving him an odd look. He must have been looking at her in a funny way without realizing it.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. He looked around and found the sailor that they’d first spoken to, waving a hand to get his attention. “How long?”
The man shrugged. “Depends on where he is,” he said. “Twenty minutes, give or take, I suppose.”
Nate nodded and turned back.
“Twenty minutes,” he said again, for Laura’s benefit. “And then we’ll have him.”
“Do you think he has a victim out there?” Laura asked. She was biting her lip.
“It wouldn’t fit his normal pattern,” Nate pointed out.
“I know, but he might get desperate now,” Laura said. “His last attack was a flop, and to top it off, the victim survived. He might not realize that she isn’t able to identify him. He might feel the need to act quickly.”
“He’s probably just following his normal pattern,” Nate said reassuringly. “I didn’t catch what kind of ship he operates, but it’s either a fishing vessel or a tour, right? Either way, he probably goes out at set times every day.”
Laura nodded, but he could feel her anxiety gnawing at her. He pointed out toward the front of the ship, where the figurehead would have been on the ships their killer had chosen. This vessel didn’t have one, but it still had a—what was it called? A bow?—that cut through the waves. “Let’s go stand up that end,” he said, having to raise his voice a little now over the sound of the sea as the ship sped forward.
Laura nodded and they both turned, walking along the rolling and moving deck. Both of them nearly stumbled at first, leaving Laura in cascades of laughter and Nate feeling himself turn slightly green as he clutched for the railing at his side. But they made it as close to the front as the railings would let them get, and there was plentiful spray in the air as they faced forward.
Laura shaded her eyes. “There!” she shouted with excitement.
Nate shaded his eyes, too, searching the horizon, and another moment later he saw it: a ship. The distinctive outline included a mast like in the old-fashioned ships, with a draped sail currently furled against it. It had to be him. It had to be Schafer.
“Ship ahead!” someone shouted behind them. Nate turned to see the crew scrambling again, adjusting things, changing things. From here he could see into the cabin where the sailor they had spoken to before was standing, his hand against a wheel. With the little Nate knew about ships, he knew that must be where the navigation was happening. He turned back to face forward and saw that they were still what seemed like the same distance away, even though the ship was moving at a fair clip.
“How long do you think it will take?” he asked Laura. Even a private conversation right here needed to be held at full volume. He had little doubt that no one else could hear them over the noise of the water and the engine churning under it.
“He said twenty minutes,” Laura replied almost placidly. Nate stared at her for a second before looking back out to sea. She was different on the water, somehow. He wished for a moment that he could bottle this environment and give it to her when she needed it on those difficult cases. Keep her on the wagon for sure. God knew she needed a break sometimes.
Nate faced ahead again, with nothing to do but wait.
Twenty minutes felt like it would be a torturously long time. Instead, it went by in a rush. They stood together and watched the ship come closer, planning their strategy and method of attack. Every time Nate looked away and then back, he could swear that the ship had jumped closer.
And then it was right in front of them, and it felt like they hadn’t had enough time to prepare.
“Right,” he said, feeling himself panic slightly. He’d underestimated the fact that, of course, the other ship was huge, as was this one. It wasn’t something as simple as stepping from one barge to another in a gentle river. This was the sea, and the distance between the two ships needed for them to safely navigate alongside one another was huge.