Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(34)

Going now, Rafe informed us after the Mary clone made her way down the gangway to the dock. Nick touched my arm, so I followed him off the boat seconds later.

At first, it appeared that Mary was following the crowd down a boardwalk, passing a few shops, restaurants and bars designed to draw cruise tourists. Eventually, she walked into a bar near the end of the boardwalk.

"I hope she doesn't plan to drink the whole time she's off the boat," Nick muttered beside me. We watched as Rafe and Jeff waited a few seconds before following Mary into the bar.

"I guess we get to sit at the table outside," Nick sighed. "Want anything? I'll go in and get it."

"Just a bottle of water," I said. By that time, Maye and Opal caught up with us and sat at an outside table not far away. Maye waited until Nick went into the bar before following.

"She's in there, sitting at the bar with some of the hard stuff in front of her," Nick reported, plunking a bottle of water on the scarred wooden table in front of me. He had a soda in his hand, so he set it on the table before taking his seat.

She's checking her watch, Rafe informed us.

I relayed that message to Nick.

"She's either waiting for someone or gauging her time before leaving," he shrugged.

What followed was the longest two hours of my life.

At the one-hour mark, Rafe and Jeff traded places with Maye and Opal-who sat at a different table inside the bar while Rafe paid cash for their drinks and left.

The following hour was just as boring, although the weather was nice and the day clear and sunny. We'd already heard (several times) from locals that we'd gotten ideal weather for our visit-apparently that was something unusual.

Clear and sunny in Ketchikan still meant temperatures in the low sixties, but that felt wonderful to me. As long as the sun was shining overhead, I was happy. You're smiling, Rafe informed me.

The sun is shining. Face it-we've had nothing but clouds the last two days.

True. I can't say I like you sleeping on that tiny sofa under a sunlamp. I'd done that for a few hours both nights-after sex. I'd gotten back in bed with him, though, for the last hour or two before sunrise.

I don't like it either, I said. But it's necessary.

Then I'll learn to live with it, he replied.

I love you, I said.

She's moving, Maye informed us.

Rafe and Jeff waited a few seconds before rising and following discreetly. A few seconds later, Nick nodded to me. Dumping our empty cup and bottle in the recycle bin, we followed Rafe and Jeff at a distance.

Nick was incredible at tracking someone-we were lost in a crowd twice, but both times, he grabbed my arm and led me in the proper direction. I could have done my location thing on Rafe, but with Nick beside me, it wasn't necessary.

She's seen us, Rafe sent. It's your turn, cabbage. She's going into a souvenir shop.

She did go into the most touristy souvenir shop she could find, crowded already with people from three tour boats, two of them lined up behind ours at the nearby docks.

"Our turn," I said softly beside Nick. He nodded and picked up the pace, heading unerringly toward the proper shop.

Mary looked at shot glasses. She looked at coffee mugs. She examined T-shirts, visors, maps, visitors' guides and everything in between.

Nick's breath caught first-he knew before we set eyes on the f*cker.

Marcus walked into the shop from a second door down the way-the shop was so large it had two entrances.

Rafe, Maye, Marcus is here, I sent, attempting to avoid the urgency in my voice. Marcus didn't recognize any of us, but there was something different about him. He, like Mary, was now enveloped in a fog. Something prevented me from seeing his intentions.

"Classic," Nick breathed.

We'd watched as Marcus bumped into Mary, making her drop her cell phone. She bent to pick it up while he offered apologies.

The cell phone she tucked in her pocket wasn't the one she dropped. Nick and I knew that immediately. I informed the rest of our team while they waited outside.

This is a way of passing information, Maye said when I let her and Rafe know. Without sending it the traditional way, she continued. There'll be notes or something on the new phone, and possible notes on the one Marcus now has.

Jeff and I will tail Marcus when he leaves, Rafe said.

He's heading for the door now, I said.

I just texted Colonel Hunter, Maye sent. He says detain Marcus for questioning if possible.

On it, Rafe replied. Nick and I watched as Marcus left the shop before turning our attention back to Mary. She gathered two coffee mugs, both with Ketchikan, AK printed on them, and headed for the checkout.

"When does the boat leave tonight?" Nick asked as we walked a discreet distance behind Maye and Opal, who'd taken up tailing Mary after she left the souvenir shop.

"Back on board by three-sailing at four, according to the schedule," I said.

Mary chose that moment to walk into a restaurant, where she ordered (no surprise) another drink and a plate of king crab.

"She'll be looped by the time she gets back to the boat," Nick said as we were led to a table near the back of the restaurant.

"There's something going on with her-I just can't figure out what it is," I said. A waiter set glasses of water in front of us and handed menus out. He took our drink order and promised to be back in a moment.