08:48 (Washington Time)
Saturday, June 15, 1991 ‘C’
Airport shuttle minibus approaching
Miami Beach Marina, Florida
U.S.A.
‘’Why didn’t Nancy’s mother travel with us to Miami?’’ asked to nobody in particular thirteen-years-old Lucy Wong. Nancy, sitting in the seat in front of her in the airport minibus, took on her to answer her friend and school classmate.
‘’Because she is already here in Miami, buying supplies and extra equipment for the boat she rented for our adventure sea trip in the Caribbean.’’
‘’And what kind of boat did she rent, Nancy?’’ asked Thomas Blackburn, a black fourteen-years-old teenage boy who was part of their group of sixteen people, seven of which were parents and the rest teenagers or preteens. Jason Holloway, the father of another of Nancy’s seventh-grade classmates, who was the adult in charge of the group for their trip from Arlington to Miami, spoke up.
‘’She kept that a secret, Thomas. The only thing she told me was that we shouldn’t expect luxury or even modern comfort aboard our boat. I thus gather that it must be some kind of old or well-used boat, maybe even a fishing boat.’’
‘’And why not rent a better boat then?’’ asked his daughter Elizabeth, another classmate of Nancy. ‘’We are supposed to go on this trip to have fun. Why not be comfortable at the same time?’’
Jason Holloway, a United States Navy commander presently chained to a desk at the Pentagon and who was truly looking forward to this sea trip, smiled in response.
‘’Because it wouldn’t be an adventure if you spent it while sunbathing on deck in a long chair and with a cold cocktail in your hands, Elizabeth. Part of learning in life is by going through some rough times. However, I am confident that Ingrid has not rented the equivalent of a slave ship or some fishing trawler stinking of rotten fish. Aah, here is the marina ahead!’’
All eyes went at once to the collection of boats docked to the multiple piers of the Miami Beach marina. Both the eyes and the mouth of Nancy then opened wide in shock at the sight of the largest boat docked in the marina.
‘’OH MY GOD! IT’S MY SHIP!’’
‘’Your ship, Nancy?’’ said Mary Holloway, the mother of Elizabeth, William and Jane Holloway. Nancy was now nearly jumping up and down with joy while staring at the three-masted ship now visible in the harbor.
‘’IT’S A REPLICA OF THE GOLDEN HINDE, MY SHIP WHEN I WAS SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. SIR FRANCIS WAS ONE OF MY PAST INCARNATIONS.’’
‘’Well, I’ll be!’’ said Jason Holloway, who was a history buff on top of being a navy officer. ‘’If this is an exact replica of the 16th Century galleon Sir Francis Drake commanded, then expect really rough living conditions aboard, guys and girls. On the other hand, I can’t wait to get to sail it.’’
That earned him at once a fierce rebuke from Nancy, now eight-years-old but looking like a stunningly beautiful and sexy thirteen-year-old teenager.
‘’Watch it, mister! That’s MY ship!’’
‘’Uh, sorry, Captain!’’ quipped Jason, making the others in the minibus giggle at the exchange.
As soon as the minibus stopped at the foot of Pier ‘E’, Nancy jumped out of it and ran down the pier, past a double row of moored yachts and speed boats of various sizes, to finally stop next to the three-masted galleon. Looking up at the open deck of the ship, she saw her mother, standing beside two men she didn’t know.
‘’Mommy, you should have told me about this.’’
‘’And ruin the best surprise I could give you? No way! Now, are you going to force your classmates to carry aboard your own luggage? We will talk once you are all aboard and ready to leave.’’
‘’Uh, yes Mommy!’’ could only reply Nancy, chastised. She thus returned to the minibus and helped to unload the dozens of suitcases, bags and instrument-carrying cases in it, then carried her own backpack, kit bag and three instrument-carrying cases, which contained her qanun zither, barbat lute, tombak goblet drum, harp and flute, making two trips to carry all that aboard the GOLDEN HINDE. There, one of the nine crewmembers, men ranging in age from nineteen to 35, directed her down to the underdeck, where she nearly had to bend over in order not to hit her head on the massive wooden beams supporting the upper deck. Ingrid was near the bow end of the underdeck, telling to the newly arrived where to put down their things. Ingrid told Nancy to keep her backpack and kit bag with her after dropping off her carrying cases, then pointed at a group of hammocks suspended from the ceiling beams of the underdeck.
‘’This is the section reserved for women and girls. Choose a hammock and drop your two bags next to it, then go back on the upper deck, where I will talk collectively to our group.’’
‘’Understood, Mommy! Uh, those crewmembers mostly seem to be British. How so?’’
‘’Because this replica ship of the GOLDEN HINDE, while registered in Oregon, belongs to a British-based company that makes it tour various ports to attract paying visitors. However, business has not been very good lately for the owners of the ship, so they were more than happy to accept to rent it to me for our Panama treasure hunt. Apart from renting it, I also acquired much extra latest technology equipment to make our trip safer and less rough and also bought ample supplies for our voyage. You must have noticed a few large objects covered by canvas sheets on the deck, right?’’
‘’I did, Mommy. Wasn’t one of them your aircar, folded for storage?’’
‘’Yes! Along with two modern zodiacs motorized inflatable boats also stored on the top deck, it will allow us to easily move between ship and shore.’’
‘’But this ship is way too narrow and obstructed by ropes and cables to allow your aircar to fully deploy and fly off directly from the deck, Mommy.’’ Objected at once Nancy, making Ingrid nod.
‘’True! That’s why you will find solidly hooked to one side of the ship a folded floating pontoon with inflatable airbags, which I have had especially made for this trip. Once off the Panama coast, we will put that floating pontoon on the surface of the sea, unfold it and inflate it, thus giving us a large, ten by twenty meters landing platform directly attached to the ship. We will then hoist down my aircar on that platform, along with our two zodiacs, and will then be in business.’’
‘’Mommy, you’re brilliant! But all this must have cost you a small fortune, no?’’
‘’Maybe, but making you happy by offering you this dream sea voyage is priceless, my sweet Nancy.’’
‘’Oh, Mommy, I love you so much!’’ replied Nancy before kissing her mother. She then went to the nearest hammock not yet taken and tied her kit bag and back pack inside her rolled hammock, the way past sailors had done with their personal kits, before going up on the upper deck.
A crowd of 25 men, women and children made up of both the crewmembers and the passengers was soon assembled on the upper deck, facing the stern-end poop deck, on which Ingrid and a mature man were standing. Ingrid started speaking by presenting the man next to her.
‘’Welcome all for this adventure trip to the Caribbean. I am ex-General Ingrid Dows, for those who haven’t read newspapers or listened to the radio during the last few decades, and I am the one who chartered this ship for this adventure trip. Next to me is the managing director of the GOLDEN HINDE, Mister Roddy Coleman, who commands the present regular crew of nine men. I will first let him tell you a bit about this most unusual ship. Mister Coleman?’’
‘’Thank you, Misses Dows! The GOLDEN HINDE you presently stand on was built in Devon, England, in 1973 and is an exact replica of the original GOLDEN HINDE, the ship used by the famous English corsair and navigator Sir Francis Drake, starting in 1570. The only anachronism you would have found aboard, until that is four days ago, is a small diesel engine powering one screw and which helps us get in and out of harbors and maneuver when the wind is head-on. This ship has been touring various ports around Europe and the Americas, offering visits and day tours to paying visitors in order to finance the operations and maintenance costs of the ship. We were thus happy and thrilled to accept to give your group the chance to live an experience at sea that you will probably never live again.’’
What Coleman didn’t say was that, with the way his business was going, the GOLDEN HINDE was probably going to be docked for good in a few years’ time, unable to afford the costly refit it would need in order to stay a safe ship to operate. The 60,000 dollars paid by Ingrid Dows to rent his ship for this long tour, not counting what she had spent on extra equipment and supplies, was going to go a long way to add a few more years of service to the GOLDEN HINDE. Ingrid then took over from him.
‘’Me and Mister Coleman have come to an amiable understanding about the operation of his ship during this tour. He will stay in overall command of the ship in terms of sailing and navigation, while his usual crew will operate and maintain the ship. As the paying customer, I will liaise with him in deciding where we go and stop, both at sea and on land, and will offer him the services of those among the passengers who are willing and eager to help operate the ship, if those passengers have enough notions about how to operate a sailing ship to help out in a safe manner. We are lucky in having with us U.S. Navy Commander Jason Holloway, presently chained to a desk at the Pentagon, who can assist by functioning as a relief deck officer and pilot. We also have another passenger who is fully qualified to take the helm of this ship. Mister Coleman, I am sorry if I have hidden this from you until now, but I wanted to make sure that no hordes of reporters and TV crews would descend on this ship before its departure. My own daughter Nancy, while only eight-years-old biologically, holds like me a number of superpowers, including the ability to remember in full details her past incarnations. During the 16th Century, Nancy’s soul lived in the body of Sir Francis Drake himself, the commander of the original GOLDEN HINDE. While she doesn’t have a modern sailing license to prove it, my Nancy is thus fully capable of acting as an alternate captain to this ship.’’
Ingrid then paused for a moment as the crewmembers exchanged stunned looks and exclamations. Once relative silence had returned, she continued her speech.
‘’Having my daughter’s memories as Sir Francis Drake will also help us in another way during our treasure hunt adventure. Contrary to what you may have believed up to now, this will be a true treasure hunt, guided to buried treasures in and off Panama by the memories of Sir Francis Drake himself. Now, before you start dreaming about all becoming millionaires, I must warn you that the laws about treasure troves in Panama state that everything found goes to the state of Panama. However, before you have thoughts of shutting your mouths and grab some of the gold and silver before returning to the United States, something that would expose you to legal pursuits from the Panama government, I was able to discuss with Panama government representatives about our adventure quest. Probably thanks to my reputation, I was able to obtain a derogation from the usual rules about found treasures, a derogation signed by no less than the President of Panama himself. Instead of grabbing everything, the government of Panama agreed, as a very special favor, to let us keep two percent of what we will find, with the rest going to the Panama Maritime Historical Foundation.’’
‘’Two percent? That’s not much really, Ingrid.’’ Objected Elizabeth Holloway, making Ingrid smile enigmatically.
‘’Elizabeth, how much does two percent of twenty tons of gold and silver represent?’’
Gasps greeted those words, among the crewmembers and passengers as well as with Roddy Coleman. With now the undivided attention of the whole group, Ingrid continued on.
‘’If we are successful and actually find some or all of that gold and silver, half of that two percent finder’s fee, minus what I already paid him for renting his ship, will go to Mister Coleman’s company, to help put his ship into an extensive refit. The rest will be split between all the passengers and crewmembers, save of course for Mister Coleman, who will already have received a full one percent of our finder’s fee. That is not all, however!’’
With her listeners now hooked to her every word, Ingrid then spoke in a most sober tone.
‘’While off Panama, we will do more than simply search for treasures, ladies and gentlemen: we will also search for the last resting place of Sir Francis Drake, who died of dysentery on his ship on January 27 of 1596. He was then buried at sea off Portobello, Panama, tucked inside a lead coffin and reputedly while wearing his armored breastplate. This is why I also brought aboard complete sets of diving gear, so that we could search for his coffin. If we ever find it, then we have the express permission of the President of Panama to carry his coffin back to England, so that he could be buried there as a national hero.’’
Coleman and the British sailors of his crew greeted that announcement with wild cheers.
Less than one hour later, after a command meeting between Ingrid, Roddy Coleman, Jason Holloway and young Nancy, called in order to discuss their route and the meteorological conditions predicted along the way, the GOLDEN HINDE left the Miami Beach Marina under diesel power, its square sails still unfurled. For that occasion, Roddy Coleman proved a true gentleman and let Nancy take the helm and command the ship while it sailed out of the harbor, with hundreds of spectators along the shore and on surrounding boats taking pictures of her and of the galleon. Ingrid, standing with the other passengers on the main upper deck, nearly felt ready to shed tears on seeing the happy expression on her daughter’s face as she was at the helm of the GOLDEN HINDE. Ingrid then added to the dramatic sense of the moment by firing one of the fully functioning cannons of the galleon, using a blank black powder charge to salute the Miami Coast Guard station as they passed by it.
As their ship started following the coast once out of the harbor, sailing South-southwest along the Florida Keys, Roddy Coleman stayed near Nancy, who was manning the ship’s wheel, ostensibly helping her by reading the local nautical charts and warning her about sandbars and shallow waters. In reality, he was standing near her in order to quickly correct her or take over from her if she did a serious mistake. However, she proved to be in need of no help by showing herself to be at least as good a sailor and ship handler as Coleman, who especially appreciated how expert she proved to be in adjusting the angles and surfaces of the ship’s sails in order to use the available winds with the utmost efficiency. Thoroughly impressed by her level of seamanship, Coleman let her stay at the wheel until nightfall, when they were halfway to Key West, with only short breaks for her for eating and going to the ship’s latrines.
At about seven in the evening, with the Sun getting low on the horizon, Ingrid took a waterproof cover off one of the extra pieces of equipment she had bought in Miami to make life less rough on the replica ship: a propane-burning combined BBQ grill-stove-oven with pivoting protective cover, which had been solidly attached to a protected part of the upper deck rather than inside the underdeck, in order to minimize the danger of causing a fire aboard the wooden ship. While she lit up the grill, Commander Jason Holloway enlisted the help of the two teenage boys of the group, Leonardo Dows-Bocelli and Thomas Blackburn, to go down in the hold, where they took a quantity of meat and cold drinks from a small refrigerator powered by solar panels during sunny days and by battery power at night, with a portable diesel generator providing backup power. The eyes of the ship’s regular crewmembers lit up on seeing the dozens of cold beers brought up to the upper deck for supper. With both passengers and crewmembers able to enjoy a nice sunset and a calm sea while eating, the mood was already high when Thomas Blackburn took out his big radio/tape player and cranked up the volume to play a collection of the latest pop and rock songs, starting a teenage dance party on the upper deck. Since there were only two teenage boys for six teenage girls among the passengers, four of the younger crewmen were invited to dance as well, something they accepted with glee. The older crewmen were not forgotten either, since there were six mothers aboard but only one father. The only crewman that ended not dancing was Roddy Coleman, who stayed at the wheel of the ship while the party went on. He was however not forgotten, as Ingrid came up on the poop deck to bring him a cold beer, which he accepted with a smile.
‘’Thanks, Ingrid! I must say that this voyage is starting on the right foot: moderate seas, good food, cold beer.’’
‘’And lots of pretty girls?’’
‘’Well, those teenagers are nice-looking but really a bit too young for me.’’
‘’And me? I’m 65, after all.’’
Coleman sighed heavily as he contemplated the youthful face and well-curved, sexy body of Ingrid.
‘’It is nearly impossible to believe that you are 65, Ingrid, not with your teenage body and face. But someone must stay at the helm of the ship, so I must pass duty first, although I would love to have a dance with you.’’
‘’Well, we still could do a slow dance, glued to each other, Roddy.’’
Ingrid then slipped under his extended arms, which were holding the ship’s wheel, and rested her back against it before rolling up her T-shirt, exposing her nude breasts and making the man’s eyes pop wide open. Next, she passed her arms around his torso and pulled him against her, sandwiching herself between the wheel and Coleman.
‘’How are you now, Roddy?’’
‘’I’m in heaven!’’ replied the tour manager, all smiles.
‘’You don’t need both of your hands on the wheel, you know. Explore as you wish while I do the same with you.’’ said Ingrid as she unzipped his fly, then inserted both hands inside his shorts, making him suck air in as she started to play with him. It was then Coleman’s turn to become active, first fondling with one hand her right breast, then slipping it inside her bikini bottom’s front to rub her clitoris. Doing his best to at least keep the ship on course while they stimulated each other, Coleman’s breathing became heavy as Ingrid’s fingers expertly worked on him while also pinching the base of his penis, preventing him from ejaculating before she could herself attain orgasm. Only after she climaxed did Ingrid release her hold, making the man’s knees nearly collapse as he groaned with pleasure. They then exchanged a kiss before Coleman smiled to Ingrid.
‘’Helm duty is much more fun this way, I must say, Ingrid.’’
‘’Glad to be of help, Roddy.’’ Replied Ingrid before going back down on the main upper deck, leaving the ship’s manager to his helmsman’s duties.
On Nancy’s part, she also didn’t limit herself to dancing that evening and left the upper deck after the first few dances. Half a minute later, fourteen-year-old Thomas Blackburn, a solid, athletic teenage boy who liked to play football, joined her inside a small storage compartment near the bow. Thomas couldn’t help have an immediate reaction on seeing that Nancy had already removed her bikini and lay naked on top of a pile of folded canvas sheets. She then invited him in a soft voice to come closer.
‘’Come and join me, Tom. Did you ever sleep with a girl before?’’
‘’Uh, no!’’ replied the boy, his eyes glued to her naked body.
‘’Then, let me teach you a few things about girls.’’
10:19 (Washington Time)
Sunday, June 16, 1991 ‘C’
Poop deck of the GOLDEN HINDE
Exiting the Florida Strait, past Key West
Entering the Gulf of Mexico
Commander Jason Holloway was at the wheel of their ship as Key West, the last island of the Florida Keys, was disappearing on the northeast horizon. Roddy Coleman was still sleeping, after being at the helm all night, while young Nancy was on the main upper deck, teaching her classmates on how to operate a sailing ship. That scene made Ingrid, standing with Mary Holloway next to Jason Holloway on the poop deck, smile in amusement.
‘’When I gave birth to Nancy on the PROMETHEUS, I would have never believed that I would see her one day show to other kids how to operate the sails of a galleon.’’
‘’Yeah, it does look quite out of the ordinary.’’ replied Jason. ‘’Can you do me a favor, Ingrid, and check our position with your GPS unit, then mark our position on the chart?’’
‘’No problem, Jason!’’
Going to a large plastic crate fixed to the guardrails separating the poop deck from the main upper deck, which was some 1.5 meter lower than the poop deck, Ingrid opened it and took out a hand-held GPS locator unit. Powering it and waiting for a latitude and longitude position to appear on its small viewing screen, Ingrid then noted that position down, along with the precise time, then marked it with a colored pencil on the nautical chart laid on a small table near the ship’s wheel and covered by a transparent plastic pane meant to protect it from rain and seawater.
‘’Okay, Jason! We are here, some 32 nautical miles southwest of Key West, on course and well within international waters. Keep our present course on 250 magnetic.’’
‘’250 magnetic, aye, Captain!’’ replied Jason, being facetious.
Some four minutes later, as Nancy was still teaching the art of orienting sails to the wind to her classmates, Jennifer Wong, the mother of Lucy Wong, shouted down from the crow’s nest up the main mast, where she had been playing look-out with the help of a pair of binoculars.
‘’SMALL BOAT APPROACHING FROM OUR NINE O’CLOCK! I CAN ALSO SEE ANOTHER BOAT SOME DISTANCE BEHIND IT, ALSO APPROACHING FROM NINE O’CLOCK.’’
‘’That’s bizarre!’’ said Jason as he tried to see the approaching boat in the distance, but without success. ‘’Normally, the ship traffic in the Florida Strait is along an East-West line, not along a North-South line. There is only the Cuban coast to our South and there is no ship traffic between Cuba and the United States, due to our embargo on Cuba.’’
A thought then struck Ingrid’s mind.
‘’What about refugee boats, Jason? Cuban refugees are still accepted automatically inside the United States, no?’’
‘’Those that make it, yes. However, many of those would-be refugees seeking asylum in the United States and coming by boat drown at sea, or are intercepted by Cuban patrol boats and forcefully returned to Cuba.’’
Ingrid then took a decision and gave an order to Jason before running down the deck towards the main mast.
‘’Turn hard port to go meet that first boat, Jason. I am going to go up the main mast to better look from the crow’s nest.’’
Ingrid was already starting to climb the rope ladders leading to the main mast’s crow’s nest when the GOLDEN HINDE started to turn hard to port. Nancy also reacted to that and shouted orders at her classmates and at the crewmen present on deck.
‘’UNFURL ALL SAILS! TACK THEM TO TWO-THIRD PORT WINDS!’’
Somehow, the hard turn woke up Roddy Coleman, who came up on the poop deck as his ship was heading southwards at best speed.
‘’What’s up, Jason? Why did we change course?’’
‘’A small boat is approaching from the direction of Cuba, with another boat behind it in the distance. Ingrid thinks that the nearest boat could be transporting Cuban refugees. She went up the main mast to better see what we are dealing with.’’
Just as he had said that, Ingrid shouted down from the main crow’s nest.
‘’THE NEAREST BOAT LOOKS LIKE SOME OLD FISHING BOAT AND ITS DECK IS POSITIVELY CRAMMED WITH PEOPLE. THE SECOND BOAT IS AN ARMED PATROL BOAT, PROBABLY CUBAN. YOU BETTER PASS THIS BY RADIO TO THE COAST GUARD, JASON.’’
‘’WILL DO RIGHT AWAY, INGRID!’’
Roddy Coleman then patted Jason’s shoulder.
‘’Go make that call, Jason. I will take the wheel.’’
‘’Thanks!’’
As Jason went down into the officer’s wardroom, where their radio set was, Roddy shouted orders to his crewmen on deck.
‘’DEPLOY BOTH OUR PORT AND STARBOARD SIDE ACCESS LADDERS! JACK, BILL, GO GET SOME FRESH WATER, BLANKETS AND OUR FIRST AID KIT AND BRING THEM UP TO THE UPPER DECK. EVERYBODY, BE PREPARED TO RECEIVE POSSIBLE CUBAN REFUGEES.’’
A few minutes later, the GOLDEN HINDE was turning again, this time to hard starboard, while furling its sails in order to stop. The fishing boat, which was filled with people to the point of nearly sinking, soon got side by side with the galleon, with Coleman’s crewmembers immediately throwing mooring ropes down to help the two boats stay together. Nancy then shouted down in Spanish to the people on the fishing boat, which included small children and even babies.
‘’START CLIMBING ABOARD, QUICKLY! WE WILL LOWER BASKETS FOR THE BABIES AND SMALL CHILDREN.’’
The muffled roar of the auxiliary diesel engine starting up was then heard, telling Nancy that Coleman was standing ready to speed away at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, she could see already that the Cuban patrol boat, coming at full speed, would be here well before all the refugees aboard the fishing boat could climb aboard the GOLDEN HINDE. She thus looked up to shout at Ingrid.
‘’MOTHER, THAT PATROL BOAT WILL BE HERE SOON. WHAT SHOULD WE DO!’’
‘’WAIT, I’M COMING DOWN!’’
Instead of climbing down via the rope ladders of the ship, Ingrid simply jumped out of the crow’s nest platform and used her power of levitation to break her fall at the last moment, making quite a few refugees shout with horror, having expected her to break her legs on landing. As she was running to join Nancy at the port side bulwark, she shouted an order to Coleman.
‘’TELL THE COAST GUARD THAT WE ARE RESCUING CUBAN REFUGEES BUT THAT A CUBAN PATROL BOAT IS NOW APPROACHING US IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS. GIVE THE COAST GUARD OUR LATEST POSITION AT THE SAME TIME.’’
Next, she looked down at the crowded deck of the fishing boat, where some of the adult refugees, near panic, where pushing away the mothers with babies and small children in order to climb first aboard the ship. That actually didn’t surprise her one bit: fear and panic often made the worst of a person come out in the open. Something had to be done to accelerate the boarding. She thus looked at her daughter.
‘’Nancy, use your power of telekinesis and lift those children and babies directly to our main deck. I will do the same.’’
‘’Got it!’’
However, Ingrid shouted a warning in Spanish at the refugees before starting to use her powers.
‘’DO NOT PANIC IF YOU SEE YOUR CHILDREN FLY UP AND LET THEM GO UP: WE ARE PULLING THEM UP.’’
Ingrid then concentrated on a small baby held by a woman on the fishing boat and made it fly up towards her, attracting exclamations from the stunned refugees. The moment that the baby was in her arms, she passed it to Sung Park, the mother of Kimi Park.
‘’Hold that baby for the moment, Sung!’’
Ingrid then concentrated on another baby, bringing it up aboard while Nancy did the same with a small toddler girl. In the meantime, Roddy Coleman had grabbed a signal lamp and was flashing a message to the approaching Cuban patrol boat.
TO CUBAN PATROL BOAT: YOU ARE IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS. TURN AROUND IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT TRY TO INTERFERE. THE U.S. COAST GUARD HAS BEEN ALERTED.
A few seconds later, he got a response, also by signal lamp, from the patrol boat, which was now less than 600 meters away.
STOP TAKING CRIMINALS ABOARD YOUR SHIP OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE.’’
‘’The bastards!’’ muttered Coleman to himself. ‘’They know that they are in the wrong but are trying to scare us into abandoning those people and running away.’’
He thus sent a second message by signal lamp.
‘’TURN AWAY NOW, OR THE U.S. COAST GUARD WILL BE FORCED TO SINK YOU. RETURN TO CUBAN WATERS AT ONCE.’’
This time he didn’t get a response message. However, the patrol boat continued to approach at top speed. Coleman calculated that they still had maybe two minutes at most before the patrol boat came alongside the fishing boat. That wouldn’t be long enough to complete the transfer of refugees, by a far shot. Ingrid understood that as well and decided to change tactics. Stopping to pull up babies and children for a moment, she concentrated her power of telekinesis on the approaching patrol boat, making an invisible hand push against one side on the bow of the motor boat. To the dismay of the Cuban helmsman, he suddenly felt his boat escape his control, veering to starboard by itself as if it was some kind of haunted ship with a will of its own. The invectives from his furious cap
