Death Echo

wasted when two words would do it: We’re trying.
    Very trying.
    Mac wedged more fresh vegetables into the small fridge and folded the paper bag for reuse. Between the check from Blue Water Marine Group and St. Kilda’s “petty cash” advance, he wasn’t worried about paying for his next meal.
    He made a point of not noticing that Emma was back to wearing one of her eye-candy outfits. Her short shorts and tight crop top told him what he already knew—playing her lover was going to be hard on him. Literally.
    Get your mind out of your pants and into the game.
    Good advice. He was trying hard to take it.
    Hard. Really hard.
    Sex was easy to ignore only when you were getting some regularly. Having Emma close by reminded Mac that he’d been on short rations recently. He shut the fridge door.
    Hard.
    Warily, Emma watched him from the corner of her eye. The waves of testosterone were thick enough to float on. Problem was, she was tempted to dive right in.
    Hey, at least I don’t have to worry about the temperature of the water, she thought wryly. It would be hot.
    She took a bite out of her ham sandwich, chewed, and wished she was sipping on him rather than on iced tea.
    Mac settled onto the bench seat opposite her, unwrapped his sandwich, and said, “Anything new?”
    Emma opened her bag of chips. “Not in the last half hour.”
    â€œTell me more about Black Swan . Damn little was on your computer.”
    â€œBlue Water Marine Group franchises yacht dealerships,” she said, “mainly on the West Coast. The hulls are laid in Malaysia and the fancy teak work is done there. The boats are mostly finished by the time they go on a container ship.”
    Mac took a big bite from his meatball sub.
    â€œSeveral other high-end boat names also have the major work done in Malaysia,” she said. “Costs less and the craftsmanship is better than good.”
    He nodded. “I’ve picked up more than one overseas boat in Seattle for Blue Water.”
    â€œThere’s one you didn’t pick up. About a year ago, there was a yacht called Black Swan .”
    He waited, chewing an oversize chunk of meatball sub.
    â€œWe don’t know where it was hijacked off the container ship,” Emma said. “Irkutsk or Vladivostok are most likely.”
    â€œWas Swan really identical to Blackbird ?”
    â€œIn every way we’ve been able to confirm.”
    Mac chewed on that for a while. Then he opened his tea. “St. Kilda has been working this for a year?”
    â€œInvestigating yacht thefts? Yes.”
    â€œAre the thefts tied together?”
    â€œNo pattern has been found beyond the fact of the luxury yachts themselves. Every major American shipbuilder in Malaysia has been hit. If one of the Russian mafiyas is running the scam, we can’t find names. Black Swan was the loss that pulled the pin on the patience grenade of the insurance arm of IYBC—that’s International Yacht Builders Consortium to non-native speakers.”
    â€œWere all the missing boats about the same size?” he asked.
    â€œSo far, nothing smaller than forty-one feet or bigger than seventy-three has been hijacked. The smaller boats are the really high-end ones.”
    Mac nodded.
    â€œWithin that size range, the estimates are that at least two yachts a year have been lost in the last decade from container ships departing Malaysia. It adds up to a lot of millions, and that’s just from the boats covered by the Consortium’s insurance program. Other insurers have losses as big or bigger. They’re all tired of paying without really playing.”
    Mac ate and turned over pieces of the puzzle in his mind. “Unless you dupe in a bunch of undercover agents along various water-fronts, the insurers have a hard slog ahead. All a hijacker needs is one crooked shift on harbor duty and a big-ass hammerhead crane.”
    â€œThat pretty much describes any of the big ports along Malaysia and the Pacific coastline of the FSU. Excuse me, Russian Federation. Wonder what they’ll be called a year from now?” She shrugged.
    â€œBut I’d lay good money on hijacked yachts being used to shuttle mafiya brass around the Caspian Sea. When it comes to bare-assed naked thievery, I’ll put the mafiyas against anything the globe can offer.”
    â€œHow did the insurance claims explain the losses?”
    â€œRogue waves. Each and every one of