“You must be Special Agent Seles?” a man said, stepping out of the crowd and extending a hand.
At six foot one, Denny wasn’t considered small, but the man standing before him had him by a good three inches. He was tall and lanky, but offered a tired smile.
“Yeah, that’s me,” he said. “Special Agent in Charge, Denny Seles.”
“Chief Richard Cline, sir,” he said, and they shook hands. “When the local guys told me your office had jurisdiction, your name and number were what they gave us. So you’ll be taking over this mess?”
“If the local guys are right about jurisdiction, then yeah. Tell me what you got.”
“A local fisherman called us in with a report of a boat run aground. We dispatched both a boat and a ground crew to the coordinates. Our ground crew got to the vessel first and backed out to wait for law enforcement as soon as they’d verified that everyone aboard was dead.”
“You logged the caller’s information?” Seles asked.
Cline nodded. “It will be in my written report, which will be on your desk by 0800.”
“Good,” Seles said. “Tell me what your ground crew found inside the boat.”
“You’ve got three dead—two with bullet wounds to the head, one with a knife wound to the throat. But I think the important information, sir, is that this isn’t an ordinary yacht.”
His tone caught Seles’s attention. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this isn’t a lake cruiser. This ship has been modified to sail the high seas, complete with an extendable mast system and sails. She came from deeper waters than Lake St. Clair.”
“A lot of ships in the Great Lakes are modified or even built to sail on the ocean. How do you know this one actually came from somewhere else?” the agent asked.
Cline chuckled. “I’m not guessing, sir. We ran the numbers on the hull. This boat was logged in the Mediterranean Sea three months ago and docked in Gibraltar around that time. All the permits for a non-commercial ocean crossing were found aboard.”
“Interesting,” he said. “You know anything else?”
“One last thing, sir. Beneath the table in the galley was a hidden, refrigerated compartment. It was empty, and when the local guys gave me the go-ahead on federal jurisdiction, I went ahead and ordered our forensic team to come in and do a full sweep.”
“You suspect something more than drug-smuggling?” Seles asked. “Out here?”
“A refrigerated metal compartment, sir? For drugs?” The chief shook his head. “It doesn’t add up.”
Seles nodded, appreciating the man’s professionalism. He hadn’t dealt with the Coast Guard much, but every time he had, they’d been genuine pros. “Okay. Thanks, Chief. I think I’ll go have a look-see.”
The large yacht had come aground among the jagged rocks of the coast near Grosse Point, and it was canted awkwardly to one side. He was a bit skeptical about climbing up, but his hesitation was overcome as Chief Cline moved easily onto the sloped deck. Seles mimicked his steps and was soon on the slanting deck himself.
Two bodies were pressed against the rail and the polished wood was streaked with blood. The shots had been up close and personal, as the powder burns on their clothing were easily visible in the bright light being supplied to the scene by the Coast Guard. Staring at them, Seles could feel his stomach tightening. All of the anti-profiling training in the world didn’t change his gut reaction after he’d spent two tours fighting in the Persian Gulf.
“I made sure our men didn’t move the bodies,” Cline was saying. “And we haven’t let anyone else do much with the scene. Pissed the coroner off to no end that the locals were called, but I don’t answer to county folks and I wasn’t about to let them contaminate the scene. God knows how much damage our guys already did by accident.”
“That’s good work, Chief. Where’s the third?”
“Down below deck,” he said. “Follow me.”
Seles’s shoes slipped as they worked their way below deck. He made his way down the steps and came up short as the container hidden beneath the galley table came into view. The heavy metal top lay open and the cooling lining looked like something out of a science-fiction movie. Denny immediately agreed with the chief’s assessment and walked carefully into the room.
“How long before that team of yours gets here?”
“They’re here now, sir,” Cline said. “Shall I have them come aboard?”
“Do it,” Seles said, then waited as Cline used his handheld radio to call them up.
A couple of minutes later, two men in hazmat suits walked on board, each carrying different types of detectors. The first team member who made his way into the cabin struggled with the lack of maneuverability of the suit in the confined space, and waved the second man back to the deck. Then he turned and stared at them wide-eyed. “What are your men doing in here without protective gear?”
“Hang on,” Cline said, “before you get hazmat-crazy. We brought you in to look at this container to see if you could get any tracings off it. We weren’t really expecting some major decontamination scene.”
The man’s eyes moved to the open container and then up to Cline’s. “Your call, Chief,” he said. Stepping forward, he ran his detector along the inside of the box, then pulled back and took off his helmet.
“It’s your scene, Chief, but are you in charge of this mess?” he asked.
Cline shook his head and jabbed a thumb in Seles’s direction. “That’s your man,” he said. “Special Agent Denny Seles, FBI.”
“Makes sense.” The man grunted. “Can I talk to you privately, sir?”
Seles could see the chief becoming flustered and getting ready to protest.
“What’s your name?” the agent asked.
“Mike Kaminski, Petty Officer, First Class,” he said.
“Okay, listen, Petty Officer. We’ve all been doing this a long time and your chief here was the one who had the foresight to get you guys en route before I even got here. Why the secrecy?”
The man straightened his spine. “No disrespect intended to the chief, sir. What he doesn’t know, he can’t talk about.”
“Let’s just have it,” Seles said. “I’ve got my suspicions, but I want confirmation and that’s where you come in.”
“All right,” Kaminski said. “That’s a lead-shielded, refrigerated container. Very recently, it held uranium.”
“Can you tell what kind?” Seles asked.
“Weapons-grade variety,” he said. “And from the looks of the container, I’d say you’re dealing with a substantial amount.”
“Give me an estimate,” Seles said.
“Easily twenty-five kilograms or more would fit inside that container, especially in rod or brick form.”
Seles sighed and nodded. “Okay, gentlemen. No one outside this room talks about this or gets this information until I say so. Understood?”
Both men nodded at once. “Chief Cline, I want your ground team to set up a hard perimeter, and no one—that includes local law enforcement—gets through. Tell them...” He paused as he considered and discarded several stories, then settled on one. “Tell them there’s a minor chemical spill of some kind in here and until we get it cleaned up, no one’s allowed aboard.”
“We can handle that,” Cline said.
“Good,” Seles replied.