Page 254 of Hidden Tide
“Who was he?”
Robert looks toward the damaged ship.
“Captain David Marquez.”
Agent Marquez drops the radio.
Her face empties of all emotion.
“David Marquez is my father.”
Simon isn’t holding a stranger aboard the Argent Star.
He is holding the retired Coast Guard captain who tried to save Dad.
Marquez retrieves the radio from the floor.
“My father disappeared four days ago. His boat was found drifting outside Sausalito.”
She believed he had fallen overboard.
Simon took him because the investigation was beginning.
Because David Marquez knew what happened the night Dad died.
Marquez lifts her head.
The federal agent disappears.
A daughter takes her place.
“We’re boarding that ship.”
Ben sits upright on the Coast Guard boat.
“That’s what Simon wants.”
“He has my father.”
“And now he knows you’ll stop thinking like an agent.”
Her eyes harden.
“I’m still in command.”
“Then command.”
Ben points toward the Argent Star.
“Make Simon believe I’m dead. Make him believe Calle is bringing the real compass. Give him exactly what he expects.”
“And while he watches the dock?” Marquez asks.
Ben reaches for Scott’s shoulder and pulls himself to his feet.
His injured leg almost folds beneath him.
Piers catches his arm.
