I hope Dan and his group made it there safely. What did they find when they got there? The way I figure, unless others thought the same way I did, there should only be the Park Rangers, which if I remember correctly is around 16 or 17 and whatever campers had stayed over. This time off year I wouldn’t think there would be many of them out there. The heat would make camping very uncomfortable, and then this is hurricane season too, so that in itself would discourage most people from venturing out there.

  We hadn’t had any named storms yet this year and hurricane season is almost over. With a little luck, we won’t have any either.

  I am hoping there will be room for us to tie at the dock, but if not we can anchor. I think I will hope no other boaters have decided to wait out the worst of the “whatever” on Garden Key. If there are, water will definitely be an issue. I haven’t even considered that the Park Rangers won’t let anyone stay there.

  Besides, what could they do to stop them? Surely they wouldn’t just turn boats away. Would they?

  Chapter Sixteen

  “There it is! I see it and it’s yellow,” Hannah exclaimed. She had been sitting on the bow, dodging the jib for the past three hours. She and Alan had been watching for any of the channel markers, but Hannah was the first to spot one.

  Alan, with the binoculars in hand made his way forward to join her. “Where?” he asked and placed the binoculars to his eyes. He fiddled with the dial, panning the horizon. “Ah ha, got you! It’s the yellow Y, Ellen.”

  “Great, come grab the wheel and we’ll check out the chart book. There is a way through down to Iowa Rock and it will save us some time.”

  “May I try steering? I think I can do it and keep the sail full.” Hannah asked and gave a pointed look at Alan, who had a habit of where ever his eyes went, so did the boat. Which usually left the sail flapping in the wind.

  Ellen made room for Hannah behind the wheel and sat on the bench closest to her with the chart book. Turning to the correct page, Ellen studied the chart. She thought when she was there before with friends, she had seen a way through the shallows. Without the GPS it could be tricky, but there was only the one shallow spot and it had a depth of five feet. The Annie-C only drew four feet three inches so they should be fine. She would just roll in some of the jib to slow them and they would just take their time going in. From Iowa Rock it was all channel guides the rest of the way.

  “I think I see the island, or at least I see the fort…I think.” Alan said. He had gone back to the bow with the binoculars.

  Ellen glanced up to see Hannah standing with both hands on the wheel, head back and her eyes closed as if she was feeling her way with only her senses. She looked at peace. Ellen did notice that her burns had begun to heal nicely and the bruising had faded to a light yellow under her skin. Ellen thought that in time only a couple cigarette burns would even be noticeable. With clean hair and clothes, Hannah looked far different than the girl they had brought aboard three days ago. In many ways, it seemed as if she had always been with them.

  She also couldn’t help but notice how Alan treated her. She suspected that someday there would be romance in the air. She did want to have a little talk with him, because of all that Hannah had been through, she might not return his affection. Ellen did not want either of them to feel uncomfortable if she didn’t. They needed each other and misguided emotions would not make for great harmony in their family.

  “Hey! There it is. I see the fort. It looks like we can just go straight to it.” Alan was still looking through the binoculars.

  Ellen saw the fort too, but she had been thinking about a relationship between Hannah and Alan and hadn’t even noticed they were getting close to Iowa Rock. She could see at least five masts sticking up over the low brush on Brush Key.

  She saw Hannah looking at her with a question on her face. She looked comfortable behind the wheel, but obviously wanted some guidance from Ellen.

  “Nope, you have to follow the channel markers around. One way in and one way out. Otherwise we could end up like the Iowa, stuck on a rock.” She felt rather than saw the questions and explained, “Back in the 1900’s the battleship Iowa was grounded by a rock for a day and a half, so someone named the rock after the Iowa. We need to stay in the channel. I don’t think they would be naming a rock after us if we got stuck!”

  They made way through the shallows and arrived at Iowa Rock two hours later. The wind had dropped considerably adding to their arrival time. They could see several masts sitting in the small harbor and Ellen hoped three of them were from Dan’s group. She had been thinking about Dan and wondered how they had made out. She wondered about Linda and thought maybe the two women, Linda and Hannah could spend some time together, knowing they had had similar circumstances happen to them. It might be therapeutic for both of them.

  Hannah had been acting as if nothing unpleasant had happened at all, and if Ellen had not seen Alan rescue her, she could believe it never had. She hoped this wasn’t Hannah’s way of dealing with it, because it would bring nothing but trauma to the girl later. She could also understand why she didn’t talk about it, but she wondered how you could act like it never happened at all.

  “There’s someone up there,” Hannah hollered and pointed to an opening in the top level.”

  Alan, always with the binoculars, put them to his eyes. “And he is carrying a rifle. OH crap, get down!” he yelled as he dropped to the deck. “He was aiming it right at me. I thought at first it was Dan, but I guess not.”

  Ellen and Hannah both hid as best they could. Ellen couldn’t let go completely of the wheel because of the shallows, but Hannah squeezed herself into the well at Ellen’s feet.

  When Ellen did not hear a shot, she stuck her head up to see what was going on. She needed to navigate in, but not get her head shot off at the same time. Realizing they were heading straight for the channel marker she wheeled the bow to the port side, barely missing the marker. A quick glance at the fort, she found the person Alan had seen. His arm was raised in greeting and no rifle in sight. To her surprise it did look like Dan.

  “Alan you can get up now and see who that is waving at us.”

  Alan’s ears were bright red. Obviously embarrassed to be hiding. With the binoculars, he saw the person was Dan, and then he disappeared. “I guess it’s okay to get up; it was only Dan. I thought he had a rifle but he was only waving, but now he seems to have gone.”

  “I guess that is the new “Welcome to Fort Jefferson,” greeting. I wonder if you have to pay more than five dollars for it,” Ellen said with a nervous laugh.

  Ellen passed around the fort and into the harbor. She was right about the masts she had seen but there were four in all. There was also a gray power boat tied at the resident dock, along with the two smaller white ones that were usually there. She thought these belonged to the Park Rangers. No one was tied to the government anchor ball and she didn’t think it was likely any government boats would be out so she would use it. “Alan get the boat hook and grab that pennant. We’re going to use the buoy.”

  Alan, binoculars still hanging around his neck did as he was told and hooked it first try. “It says we can’t use this. It’s for government boats only!”

  “Just get that dock line through it! We’ll worry about the docking etiquette later.” She pulled the jib line, rolling it up and went to the bow to help Alan with the mooring ball.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Securely tied to the government ball, Ellen watched as Dan rowed his dinghy from shore. He seemed as if he were in a hurry and hadn’t taken the time to wave or acknowledge them in any way. Only the determined way he seemed to concentrate on his rowing gave any clue that something had to be up.

  As soon as his dinghy was made fast to the transom, Dan climbed aboard. “We have to leave here,” he announced. “I don’t know where we can go that is safe.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” Ellen asked her voice filled with disbelief. “We only just got here.”

  Dan held his hand up to stop her words, “Not my idea. I don’t just mean you guys, I mean all of us. The military is taking the fort over and civilian persons have to go. At least that’s the word from the Park Rangers.”

  “Can they do that? This is a National Park, not a military base.”

  “Actually I think they can. It was originally built to be a military base of sorts. Then it was used as a prison for a while. I think the government is requisitioning it back.”

  Alan stepped in, “If the military has anything to do with this, maybe we don’t want to be here either.”

  Dan agreed, “You are exactly right. Whatever you do, don’t say anything about any medical training. That was one of the first questions they asked when we got here. It would appear they are conscripting anyone they need into service.”

  Hannah walked up behind Alan and linked her arm with his. “And whoever doesn’t fit in with their plans has to leave?”

  “They haven’t come right out and said so, but that’s what we think. We are all standing guard shifts on a rotating basis for right now. Last night, while doing her shift, Millie heard someone talking on a radio.”

  Ellen broke in, “A radio? They have a radio here? What did they say?”

  “She didn’t get all of it, but the gist was the government is bringing some high profile person or persons here for a meeting.”

  “Can’t we just ask them what’s going on?” Alan had expressed exactly what Ellen was thinking.

  Immediately Dan answered, “Actually, no we can’t. Millie had to go pee and was in an area we are forbidden to enter. It was the darkest corner of the fort and she didn’t think anyone would see her there. Basically, I think she was eve’s dropping on a conversation we weren’t meant to hear.”

  “They have electricity then?” Alan asked.

  “They said they don’t, but that boat came in last evening just before sunset,” he pointed at the gray powerboat. A half dozen men came off it and two more were left behind as guards. I know they won’t let you near it.

  What Dan was saying was making less sense the longer she listened.

  “That boat came in last night, so it runs and it’s obviously not a sail boat, so it has a motor that works and they have a working radio. Who are these guys anyway?”

  “I would say they are army or at least a branch of the military. Their uniforms don’t look like any branch I have ever seen. It’s a camo pattern but not one I am familiar with. Right now I am supposed to be bringing you in to the security desk. They want to talk to you.”

  “Good, because I would like to talk to them too.” At the distressed look that flashed on to Dan’s face Ellen added, “Don’t worry, I won’t repeat anything you have said to us.”

  He seemed to relax, obviously worried they may give away Millie eve’s-dropping. Ellen wasn’t above getting information any way they could and if it meant sneaking around to find out what was going on, she would be first in line.

  “We may as well get this over with. Alan, Hannah, let’s find a plausible story and whatever you do, stick to it. I think simple is best. Play dumb. You two are romantically involved, Alan is my brother and we were out sailing and have no idea what is going on. We don’t know Dan or any of these other people.” She looked at Dan and he gave his nod of approval.

  “Okay then. Let’s get this done.” Dan led the way down into his dinghy.

  “What the hell?” Ellen breathed out her words. They were being met at the shore by two armed men. Dan was right, they were wearing a uniform that didn’t quite look right, but it was their unit patch caught her attention. Three hands joined in the middle of the circle. There were no other campaign ribbons on their uniforms to be seen. She could only imagine what it meant.

  “Come with us please!” the tall one said. What caught all of their attention was the accent attached to his words. The rifle slung over his shoulder seemed to give his words authority.

  “You will come this way.” He stated and marched off towards the fort. Ellen, Alan and Hannah fell in to step behind him while the second soldier fell in behind them.

  “Ellen?” Hannah said just above a whisper.

  “Do not talk!” The guard barked.

  Hannah was shoved from behind and fell into Alan. He caught her helping her stay on her feet. Ellen turned to see what had happened as Alan turned to face the last soldier.

  “Hey! What the hell is wrong with you? Keep your hands to yours…” Alan never got to finish his sentence as the soldier hit him with the butt of his rifle, knocking him to the ground.

  The first soldier turned at the ruckus and said something to the soldier. Just the tone he used indicated he was the boss. They all stared at him in disbelief. His words were not spoken in English.

  Ellen helped Alan to his feet, while she glared at the soldier. One hand massaged his jaw as if to rub the pain away. He spat bloody saliva on the ground. He looked like he wanted to hit back but Hannah grabbed his free arm preventing him from doing so.

  The soldier had raised his weapon as if he were going to strike Alan again and dropped it when the first soldier yelled at him.

  “Stop!” Just one word but it was enough. The man lowered the gun to his side.

  “Alan, let’s go. The sooner we get in there the sooner we know what this is all about.” Ellen said, trying to calm him. “Please don’t give him a reason to use that thing.”

  “You will follow me!” He said and marched off fully expecting them to follow along behind.

  Hannah had begun to cry softly and Ellen put her arm around her shoulder leading her to follow the first soldier. She could only hope that Alan would follow along. Over her shoulder she saw that Dan was standing by the dinghy, clenched fists hanging at his side. His jaw was set as if he was having a hard time not coming to the rescue. He caught Ellen’s look and shook his head in a negative manner. This made Ellen wonder if they hadn’t been treated in the same manner.

  Ellen had been in the gift shop on her previous visit, however, someone had removed everything pertaining to the islands history, and there were no t-shirts or hats being displayed for sale. Three chairs were lined up in front of the counter and she was grateful it appeared as if they would not be separated.

  “Sit.” The man standing behind the counter said as he came around the end of the counter. “I am Major Markowsky. You have come to this place, why?”

  His manner of speaking caught Ellen’s attention immediately. Behind her the two soldiers stood at attention one on each side of the doorway as if they expected them to try to leave.

  “We are on vacation.” Ellen said. “You need to give your guys some lessons in etiquette. That guy had no reason to hit my brother. What in hell is going on here?”

  “Your names please?” The Major asked not answering her or acknowledging that she had spoken. “You will sit there.” He pointed at the row of chairs. “Now!”

  “Alan Boone, my sister Ellen and this is my girlfriend Hannah. Now can you please tell us what this is all about? His lip was puffy and his words came out slurred but still understandable. He reluctantly sat on the end chair, pulling Hannah down to the middle one, leaving the vacant chair closest to the Major for Ellen.

  “Ah…vacation. You come to this particular place for a vacation, and you would have me believe that? Why do you American’s go to the middle of nowhere to have a holiday?”

  “Because we can. Why are you here? Where are the Park Rangers?” Ellen asked. She waited for the Major to answer, but he appeared to be thinking.

  “They are no longer in charge. We are.” He finally said, seeming to study the group. His blue eyes fixed on Hannah who was still sniffling. “Stop that!” he demanded.

  “She’s just frightened.” Ellen said. “Look, why don’t you just let us get back on our boat and we will leave. Why all this…” She waved her arm to include him and the two soldiers at the door. “What’s going on? We sure didn’t expect to be interrogated when we planned this vacation.”

  His sharp blue eyes drilled through Ellen stopping her words. Apparently he wasn’t used to other people questioning him. He paced in front of them, hands locked behind his back. His posture was rigid and jaw clenched as if he was having a hard time containing himself. He seemed to strut rather than pace and he reminded Ellen of some of the German officers she saw portrayed in the movie, Schindler’s List.

  “What do you do?” the Major asked pointing at Alan.

  Ellen stared at Alan silently willing him to disclose nothing. She could only hope he remembered what Dan had said. “I go to school part time and work in a small store at our marina.” Alan answered.

  Major Markowsky, pointed his finger in Alan’s face, “What do you study there in this school?”

  Alan didn’t flinch away from the finger, instead he seemed to gain some confidence. “I major in art history with a minor in poetry,”

  “Ahhh…” he slammed his hand flat down on the counter, clearly not liking the direction Alan was going. “What good is this that you study?”

  Alan sat taller and answered, “An actor. When I finish school I will be an actor, or a poet, or teach art. I can be anything I want.”

  “And you?” He said pointing his finger at Hannah. “Are you the actor too?”

  Hannah shrank away from his question and his finger. She looked at Ellen and burst in to tears.

  “She recently lost her mother. That’s why we came on this trip to help her with her grief.” Ellen practically yelled at him answering for Hannah. “She is in school too. A teacher. She is going to be a teacher someday.”

  The Major turned to face Ellen, his hand rested on his holstered pistol. He looked like he wanted to use it on her and Ellen hoped she hadn’t pushed him too far.