"Maloney, Mack - Wingman 05 - The Twisted Cross UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maloney Mack)

Pegg couldn't speak, but he weakly gave Hunter a thumb's up sign.

Leaning over the man's bed, Hunter told him: "We'll get the people responsible for this . . ."

Peg's eyes started to water as he clasped Hunter in a handshake. Just then, a gorgeous middle-aged nurse walked in and announced that it was time for Pegg to get some rest. Pegg took one look at the nurse, then managed a slight smile through the tangle of wires around his mouth.

Hunter gave him a wink and whispered to him in a mock scolding voice: "Behave yourself . . ."

Chapter 5

The sun was just starting to come up when Hunter left the hospital.

It had been dark and somewhat confusing when he rode into the place hours before in the back of the police van, so the pilot was somewhat surprised to find the hospital was so close to the city's docks. Now, as he walked out near the Toulouse Street Wharf, he could smell the tantalizing aroma of New Orleans waking up. There was no shortage of eateries in the area, and the air was a mixture of flapjacks, eggs on a grill, coffee and biscuits.

He knew he had to report to Jones as quickly as possible. But, judging by the hectic night he'd just put in, he decided to allow himself some chow before heading back to the New Orleans airport to retrieve his F-16.

But as with so many of the things in his life, it was if he was guided by some invisible hand to the cafe he chose to breakfast in. It was a small joint that hung out over the water, attached to the edge of an active pier. Inside there were only a half dozen window-side tables and a counter with ten or so stools. Hunter walked in and took a small window table within leaping distance of the door, hanging up his hat and M-16 in the process.

A pretty black waitress appeared, took his order for coffee and a plate of flapjacks and home fries, then disappeared

back into the small kitchen. Hunter quickly surveyed the other clientele - two hookers drinking tea at the far end of the counter, three sailors sobering up at the far table, plus a couple of militiamen nearby -and decided everyone was generally harmless.

His meal arrived quickly and he immediately dug in. But three mouthfuls later, he found his attention drawn away from the stack of jacks and glued onto a large ship that was just entering the harbor.

"What the hell is this?" he thought to himself through a gulp of coffee.

It was a luxury liner. Big, sleek and all white, it appeared to be flying a hundred different flags. For the next ten minutes he watched in suspicious fascination as the ship was nudged into a nearby pier by a squad of tugboats. Once it was close enough, he noted the ship's decks were lined with a couple hundred passengers. They all seemed animated enough, as if they had actually just returned from a pleasure cruise. He wouldn't have been surprised if he'd seen them all start throwing confetti and streamers.

His waitress returned to fill his coffee cup and he took the opportunity to point out the newly-arrived ship.

"What's with 'The Love Boat?'" he asked her.

She took a quick look at the white ship, now almost completely settled into a berth close by and laughed.

"Why that's the Big Easy Princess" she said, matter-of-factly. "Coming back from another 'Cruise to Nowhere,' I suspect."

"It docks here regularly?" Hunter asked.

"Sure does," she said. "Been doing so for about the past six months. It goes out for about two weeks at a time. Comes in, stays a few days, then heads back out again."

Hunter reached inside his shirt and came up with two bags of real silver.

"Where's it go?" he asked her, pressing the money into her hand. The savvy waitress immediately knew that he had just paid about ten times too much for the meal.

"From what I hear, it travels all over," she said, still clutching the bags of silver. "Sometimes Barbados, or Saint

Thomas or Saint Croix. Sometimes all the way down to Colombia."

A bell went off in Hunter's head.