“Good thinking, Doug. Let’s do that,” Eric agreed.
Eric went back up to the house to find Ironside and bring him down to the tree; Taki went with him to direct it from the lab. The girls went too, no doubt in the hope of getting another ride. So much for feminine loyalty and attachment, Kevin thought to himself. He stayed to take the boat out with Doug and Ray.
Corfe untied from the dock, and Ray took the oars to row them the short distance along the water’s edge. Kevin began unfolding a tarp to provide a soft landing if needed.
“Did I hear you say this is the boys’ boat?” Ray asked Corfe as he pulled.
“That’s right. Eric picked it up a while ago, somewhere along the Sound. We only fitted the outboard last week. It runs just fine.”
“So I’ll be running into you out on the water, then, eh?” Ray said to Kevin.
“Not for a while yet, I’d say,” Kevin answered.
“Hah! More interested in those sleek young hulls up in the house there. I was watchin’. Can’t say I blame you much, either.” Kevin just grinned. Eric came back out of the house, carrying Ironside and accompanied by Janna—Avril had evidently won the battle for riding with Taki. They started on their way back down to the water.
“A few feet more,” Corfe told Ray, looking up at the tree. “That’s it. . . . Right about here.”
Ray gauged the distance to the shore and rested easy, dipping a blade occasionally to hold them steady. Kevin spread out the tarp and bundled it into a cushion.
“Do you remember the guy, used to run a sloop up at that yard we worked at?” Ray said to Corfe. “Had a funny, foreign-sounding name. Ellipse? Epileptic? . . . Something like that.”
Corfe thought for a moment. “Mike Ellipulos.”
“Yeah, that’s him. Had a big black mustache.”
“I think his name was really Michaelis or something,” Corfe said. “Greek, wasn’t he?”
“I thought it was Cypriot.”
“Somewhere around that part of the world, anyhow.”
“What happened to him? I still see his face from time to time—you know, places here and there, so I know he’s still around. But he disappeared from the old circuit.”
Eric and Janna drew up at the base of the tree opposite. “Okay, Avril’s riding shotgun again,” Eric called across the few yards of water separating them. “Taki should be on line now.”
Corfe used the phone to check. “Yes, they’re waiting,” he confirmed. Eric placed Ironside as high as he could reach, in a secure-looking niche on the trunk. The mec was roughly Coke-bottle size, with an inverted conical head, and a pinch-waisted body that swiveled along the center joint. It gripped the bark and began ascending in short, smooth movements, apparently with little effort. Corfe said something into the phone. “Taki says it’s a piece of cake,” he told the others.
“Is that your boat, Kevin?” Janna called across.
“Right. We’ll take you and Avril out in it later if you like.”
“Great.”
They watched the mec progress higher up the trunk, then slow as it searched for a route out from under the projecting limb. Corfe looked back at Ray. “It’s funny you should ask about Mike. What made you think of him?”
“Hell, I dunno. Talking to you again, I guess. Why’s it funny?”
“He ended up at the same place I did.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Well, not exactly at the same place. But working for the same people. He took the skipper’s job on the boat that belongs to the president of the company that Kevin’s dad and I used to be with—a guy called Martin Payne.”
“Well, you don’t say! What outfit was that?”
“Over toward Redmond—it’s called Microbotics Inc.”
Above them, Ironside had made it to the top of the limb and was starting to crawl outward. “Here he comes now,” Kevin said.
“Okay, I’ve got him.” Ray checked to the shore and looked up over his shoulder. “So what kind of a tub is Epileptic running?” he asked Corfe.
“Oh . . .” Corfe shook his head. “Some tub. I worked on it a couple of times when Mike needed help with the electronics. Payne’s a multimillionaire already, not yet turned forty. It’s a Delta Marine hundred-thirty footer.” Ray whistled. “Twin twelve-hundred-horse diesels, satellite communications, computerized nav and weather system. The works, Ray.”