Finding Clarissa Read online

  “I’m trying to find out if my daughter and her nanny boarded the transport.”

  John described them.

  “I was here. Weren't many leaving today.” The custodian rubbed his stubbly chin. “Didn’t see no children at all.”

  At least they haven’t left the planet. “When is the next due to leave?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Thanks.”

  The man grunted and went back to his work.

  He had to find Clarissa fast.

  The bus still waited, so he rushed back. As he climbed on, he thought of the marina. A ferry would be the next logical place to look.

  When he arrived, John questioned the dock master and his assistants, coming away with one possibility.

  He boarded the ferry bound for New Monte Carlo Island. An assistant recalled seeing a woman and child get on. Few children ever went there, so they had been noticed.

  After a long ride, he arrived after nightfall. When he asked around about them, they had been seen boarding a private boat.

  John’s heart sank into his stomach.

  How can I track a boat? It could be headed to a hundred different islands.

  Without a boat of his own, he couldn’t even make a start. He might be able to rent one tomorrow, but anything could happen to Clarissa by then.

  John boarded the ferry in a daze, lost in thought about what his next move would be. It wasn’t long before he found himself back on Hishu, and sitting in a seaside bar called Barnacle Bill’s with a stack of empty glasses in front of him. He hadn’t eaten since earlier in the day.

  He flinched when someone put a hand on his shoulder.

  “John Finder,” Victoria Sidewell said with a smile. “Mind if I have a seat?”

  She was the last person he wanted to see just now. It surprised him when he slurred, “be my guest.”

  “What you doing hanging around here?”

  John laughed a little too forcefully.

  “How many drinks have you had?” she asked.

  “Why, you here to arrest me?”

  “Don’t get your fur up. I’m here settling a dispute in the kitchen. I saw you and—”

  John slowly rose to his feet. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He looked from the half-filled drink on the table, to the ghost walking through the crowd outside. A ghost she must be, because his wife was dead.

  “Are you okay?”

  She never got her answer, because John took off staggering for the door, knocking over tables and any people that stood in his way.

  Shouts rose all around him, but he plowed on.

  He stopped at the exit, and looked around.

  He couldn’t find her anywhere. He leaned against the door, struggling to catch his breath.

  Did I really see her?

  Suddenly his vision went black and he crumpled to the ground. He wasn’t sure, but the last words he thought he heard were, “Pick him up.”

  Seven

  The morning sun slanted across John’s face, causing him to stir. He wasn’t sure where he was, but this certainly wasn’t his room at the Asperian. He rubbed the grit from his eyes and realized he was in a cell.

  He lay there a moment, listening. Voices came from the next room, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying. Someone snored in the cell next to him.

  He sat up slowly and slid his feet off the cot. His head was as big as a moon. The reason for it slowly came back to him.

  Note to self, no drinking on an empty stomach… Clarissa!

  He stood, but immediately sat back down on the bed rubbing his temples. Eventually he rose and banged on the door.

  The voices stopped, and Victoria came in looking crisp and cheerful in her blue uniform. “I see you’re yourself again. Come out and have a seat.” She motioned to a chair across from her desk.

  “How did I get here?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  He remembered seeing her at Barnacle Bill’s, but he wasn’t about to mention the vision of his dead wife. He must seem crazy enough as it is. “Not all of it.”

  “Well, you were a little out of it.”

  She walked over to a drawer next to the coffee machine and pulled out a small packet. “Would you like coffee or water?”

  “Coffee, please.”

  The aroma reached him from across the room. She poured a cup and stirred the packet’s contents into it. He accepted it, but paused before drinking. “Was that sugar?”

  “It’s a new hangover cure developed for the military. Don’t ask how I got it. Go ahead, try it.”

  John hesitated.

  “What, don’t trust me?”

  He took a sip and his face crinkled.

  “Tastes like crap, but it works great. Drink up.”

  The hot liquid slid into his belly. Immediately, his headache disappeared, and his energy shot through the roof.

  “Wow,” he said.

  “Perks you right up, doesn’t it?”

  “I’ll say. How long till this wears off?”

  “Couple of hours.”

  “Back to my question. How did I get here?”

  “I was talking, when you jumped up and mowed everything down, trying to leave. You created such a disturbance that I had to stun you. What were you trying to do?”

  John considered for a moment. He wasn’t going to tell her about the vision, but maybe he should tell her about his daughter. He’d tried it his way and came up empty. This wasn’t Earth, and he simply didn’t have the resources. He would have to swallow his pride.

  “I’m going to need some help.”

  She slid into her chair and got comfortable. “What sort of help?”

  “My daughter is missing.”

  Victoria tensed. “Missing since when?”

  “She was taken from the daycare yesterday afternoon.”

  Victoria listened patiently as he went over the details, but by the end he could tell she wanted to spank him and send him to bed without supper. He had seen that same look on his mother’s face more than once. “You should have come to me at once.”

  “I usually handle things like this myself.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  He didn't answer.

  She shook her head and rose.

  “Go get cleaned up. I’ll get the word out. Come back in a couple of hours. Maybe we’ll know more by then. If anything comes up, I’ll contact you with this.” She pulled a communicator from a drawer and practically threw it at him. “I’ll redirect all your calls through it. If you’re contacted with a ransom demand, we can trace it.”

  John stuffed the comm unit into his pocket, hoping that a good breakfast would taste better than his pride.

  His room was quiet without Clarissa. He took a shower and left determined to question Dara again, but arrived at the daycare only to find she hadn’t shown up for work.

  When he arrived back at the security office, Victoria was ending a call.

  “Anything turn up?” John asked.

  “No, but we’re still double-checking what you’ve already been over.”

  “I stopped by the daycare to question that Dara girl again, but she hasn’t show up today. Could you send somebody to look into it?”

  As Victoria was about to respond, John’s comm vibrated in his pocket. He answered, and a voice said in a French accent, “John Finder. Do you remember me?”

  The voice made his blood boil. This was the geneticist John had been investigating on the cloning case.

  John pointed to the device for Victoria to trace the call. “Dominique Graspeau. How could I ever forget.”

  “I’m glad you remember me John. May I call you John? As you’ve probably guessed, I have your precious Clarissa.”

  “What do you want?”

  “You have something of mine. I want it back.”

  Victoria gave him a signal to keep him talking.

  “I don't know what you mean.”

&nbs
p; “Don't play with me.”

  “I’ll trade the device for my daughter, unharmed.”

  “That's better. Expect a call to set up the exchange. Don't cross me, I would hate for your daughter to have an accident.”

  The call terminated, and John kicked a chair against the wall.

  Victoria brought up a map at a computer terminal. “We got him. I’ve transferred the coordinates to my jumper’s computer. It’s waiting on the pad out back.”

  Eight

  John kept his eyes on the floor as they lifted off. “How long until we reach the coordinates?”

  “About fifteen minutes,” Victoria said.

  John clutched the armrests of his seat as Victoria and her assistant Dan worked the controls to lift off. They were soon over the water, headed toward the islands to the south. John forced himself to focus on the viewer. His pulse quickened when a cluster of islands grew larger in the screen. A hundred or more boats were circling.

  “The signal is coming from off that island to the left,” Victoria said. “Dan, can you give me a visual?”

  Dan fiddled with the console to his right. “There.”

  Water filled the screen.

  “I don’t see anything,” Victoria said.

  A tiny black dot grew until it filled the entire screen.

  “What’s that?” John asked.

  “That’s a comm unit,” Dan said.

  Victoria steered the jumper to the marina. “Looks like he stopped here to make his call, then tossed it overboard. I’ll ask the dock master if he saw anything, but there are just too many boats to chase down.”

  John slammed his fist onto the armrest. “Damn!”

  Victoria had Dan make the necessary calls to report their return to base.

  She set the autopilot and turned to John. “Relax. This guy is smart, but they always make a mistake.”

  John was coming unglued and she totally got it. If she had a child being held hostage, she would be too. Only thing is, when you can’t control the situation, all you can do is wait for the moment of action, and be ready. She needed to distract him.

  “Tell me why he wants to make you suffer. Why is he doing this?”

  “Dominique Graspeau was the head geneticist of the cloning facility I was investigating. You know, the kind that supplies farm animals to planets like this one…”

  John’s comm chirped and he answered.

  She started to run a trace, but stopped when it was clear it wasn’t Graspeau.

  John ended the call. “That was a client wanting an update.”

  “Client? Your license hasn’t been approved yet.”

  “I’m helping Director Cornwall with a problem.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  She changed the subject, before the conversation drifted into all the strange political circumstances that separated New Monte Carlo Island from the rest of Viata.

  “Don’t worry. We are going to get Clarissa back,” she said, hoping it was true.

  John paced Victoria’s office. If something didn’t give soon, he would go crazy. Every minute that passed was cruel torture. He needed to do something.

  That bastard killed my wife. Now he has my daughter.

  “You know, now that you mention cloning,” Victoria said, “I recently arrested a smuggler. When I searched his ship, I found a secret compartment with some lab equipment. I had it checked out, and it’s the kind of stuff used in genetic research.”

  John stopped dead in his tracks. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I’ll bet he was delivering that equipment to Graspeau.”

  Victoria grinned. “I have him in a cell. We could ask him.”

  She brought Nash into the office with his hands cuffed in front of him, and sat him in a chair.

  Gabham Nash. I should have known. Nash had worked with Graspeau before. He must be working with him now.

  “Johnny. Good to see you again. I wondered where you had gotten to. Sorry to hear about your wife,” Nash said.

  “Are you smuggling supplies to Dominique Graspeau?” John asked through gritted teeth.

  “All business as usual, huh?”

  “You’ve worked with him before. Tell me where I can find him.”

  “You know I can’t do that. I have a reputation to consider.”

  John lunged at Nash, wrapping his fingers around his throat. Victoria tried to pull him off, but couldn't. He squeezed hard and Nash’s face purpled.

  A sharp pain stabbed John in the small of his back, causing his muscles to slacken. He stumbled, and fell against the desk.

  Nash sat goggle-eyed, trying to catch his breath.

  “I’ll put this away if you promise to behave.” Victoria waved her stun baton at him. He nodded.

  “I’ll ask the questions,” Victoria said.

  “Graspeau has my daughter,” John blurted out.

  Nash looked from John to Victoria. “I don’t know anything about that.”

  “But you know where he is,” John said.

  “Or at least how to get in touch with him,” Victoria added.

  Nash said nothing.

  “If you don’t start talking, I’m going to set John loose on you and go for a swim,” Victoria said.

  John smiled.

  “I’ll tell you what you want to know, if you drop all charges, and release my ship.”

  Victoria squeezed the hilt of her stun baton. “Oh, you’re gonna do a lot more than talk. You’re gonna help.”

  Nine

  Two of Victoria’s men, dressed as bodyguards for Nash, escorted him back to his room to make contact with Graspeau. Before long, they were on their way to the hangar to offload the cargo onto a vehicle capable of hauling it to the harbor, to meet Graspeau. The plan was to hide a tracer among the equipment, and follow it to where he was hiding.

  When they arrived, Graspeau waited on the dock, in front of a beautiful blue-and-white boat. “Who are these men?”

  “I had to hire some muscle,” Nash said. “You didn’t think I was going to move these containers myself, did you? Where’s the money?”

  Graspeau made a hand signal, and a man and woman came off the boat carrying four black bags. They sat them on the ground, opened them, and moved away. “Two hundred thousand in hard currency, as we agreed.”

  Nash motioned to the men. “Well, don’t just stand there. Get that crap on the boat.”

  Nash reached into the bags, and ran his fingers through the credits as the two men loaded the crates onto the boat. Graspeau insisted that he carry one of the smaller boxes himself.

  As the men stepped back onto the dock, Graspeau poked his head out of the hatch and waved. “It’s been a pleasure. Until I need you again.”

  The couple cast off, and in moments, the boat lifted up on plane and was out of sight.

  Nash doubted he would ever see him again. What a pity. Easy money.

  The two men relieved Nash of the bags.

  “Can’t I just hold one until we get back?”

  Victoria handed a badge to John. “Make sure you follow proper procedure.”

  John checked the safety on his weapon, and stuffed it into his pants at the small of his back. “I will.”

  “I’m serious. No more going ballistic on me.”

  “I know, by the book.”

  She smiled. “I'll make a team player out of you yet.”

  They were at her office, where she had just sworn John in as a temporary deputy. She watched a screen that showed them the real-time location of the tracking device, while John paced the floor behind her.

  “Sit down. You’re gonna wear yourself out,” she said.

  John pulled up a chair, sat down and started bouncing his leg nervously. “You sure he didn’t get off when the boat was fueling in New Monte Carlo?”

  “Positive. My contacts said a woman and a middle-aged man with greying hair got off.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound like Graspeau, but the woman could be the one who took Clarissa.”

  Vi
ctoria pointed to the view screen. “He stopped again.”

  They waited until sure the boat wasn’t going anywhere before leaving..

  In the jumper, John focused on the view screen.

  “The signal is getting stronger every minute. Won’t be long now,” Victoria said.

  “We only have one shot at this. We can’t let him get away with Clarissa.”

  “That won’t happen.”

  John’s comm unit chirped with a call from Ancil. He had learned the couple’s real identities, and summarized their activities for the last six months. Learning the woman worked at the same company with Graspeau was interesting. The rest was nothing unusual, except the woman having had surgery on her left eye. He thanked Ancil and ended the call.

  Knowing how impatient Cornwall was for results, he transmitted him the info immediately, adding his suspicions about the eye.

  Victoria pushed the engines hard, and soon they were in visual range. A boat was docked next to two buildings. One was a home and the other was some kind of warehouse.

  “When we get there,” John said, “Let me out in front of the house. You circle around and cover the back.”

  “Okay.”

  They shared a look for a long moment. He was glad that he had swallowed his pride and trusted her. “Thanks.”

  She gently placed her hand on his. “You’re welcome.”

  Victoria leaned over the console to check the sensor array. “I’m reading two life signs in the house.”

  John braced himself as the jumper decelerated.

  No one came out to see what was going on. He couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

  Ten

  Victoria slowed the jumper to a hover a few feet from the ground. John pulled his weapon, lowered the ramp, and jumped to the sandy ground.

  He moved to the cover of a palm trunk to watch the front of the house.

  No movement.

  Victoria swung the jumper around the house, out of view. He heard her land, and cut the engines.

  His comm unit vibrated, making him flinch.