Jack Ryan 1 - Without Remorse Read Online Free PDF Page B

water.
    'Sorry, Kelly. Didn't know it was you,' Two minutes later the familiar shape of a Coast Guard forty-one-foot patrol boat eased alongside Springer. Kelly scrambled along the port side to deploy his rubber fenders.
    'You trying to kill me or something?' Kelly said in a conversational voice.
    'Sorry.' Quartermaster First Class Manuel 'Portagee' Oreza stepped from one gun'l to the other with practiced ease. He gestured to the fenders. 'Wanna hurt my feelings?'
    'Bad sea manners, too,' Kelly went on as he walked towards his visitor.
    'I spoke to the young lad about that already, ' Oreza assured him. He held out his hand. 'Morning, Kelly.'
    The outstretched hand had a Styrofoam cup filled with coffee. Kelly took it and laughed.
    'Apology accepted, sir.' Oreza was famous for his coffee.
    'Long night. We're all tired, and it's a young crew,' the coastguardsman explained wearily. Oreza was nearly twenty-eight himself, and by far the oldest man of his boat crew.
    'Trouble?' Kelly asked.
    Oreza nodded, looking around at the water. 'Kinda. Some damned fool in a little day-sailer turned up missing after that little rainstorm we had last night, and we've been looking all over bejazzus for him.'
    'Forty knots of wind. Fair blow, Portagee,' Kelly pointed out. 'Came in right fast, too.'
    'Yeah, well, we rescued six boats already, just this one still missing. You see anything unusual last night?'
    'No. Came outa Baltimore around ... oh, sixteen hundred, I suppose. Two and a half hours to get here. Anchored right after the storm hit. Visibility was ptetty bad, didn't see much of anything before we went below.'
    'We,' Oreza observed, stretching. He walked over to the wheel, picked up the rain-soaked halter, and tossed it to Kelly. The look on his face was neutral, but there was interest behind the eyes. He hoped his friend had found someone; Life hadn't been especially fair to the man.
    Kelly handed the cup back with a similarly neutral expression.
    'There was one freighter coming out behind us,' he went on. 'Italian flag, container boat about half full, must have been knocking down fifteen knots. Anybody else clear the harbor?'
    'Yeah.' Oreza nodded and spoke with professional irritation. 'I'm worried about that. Fuckin' merchies plowing out at full speed, not paying attention.'
    'Well, hell, you stand outside the wheelhouse, you might get wet. Besides, sea-and-anchor detail might violate some union rule, right? Maybe your guy got run down,' Kelly noted darkly. It wouldn't have been the first time, even on a body of water as civilized as the Chesapeake:
    'Maybe,' Oreza said, surveying the horizon. He frowned, not believing the suggestion and too tired to hide it. 'Anyway, you see a little day-sailer with an orange-and-white candystripe sail, you want to give me a call?'
    'No problem.'
    Oreza looked forward and turned back. 'Two anchors for that little puff o' wind we had? They're not far enough apart. Thought you knew better.'
    'Chief Bosun's Mate,' Kelly reminded him. 'Since when does a bookkeeper get that snotty with a real seaman?' It was only a joke. Kelly knew Portagee was the better man in a small boat. Though not by much of a margin, and both knew that, too.
    Oreza grinned on his way back to the cutter. After jumping back aboard, he pointed to the halter in Kelly's hand. 'Dont forget to put your shirt on, Boats! Looks like it oughta fit just fine.' A laughing Oreza disappeared inside the wheelhouse before Kelly could come up with a rejoinder. There appeared to be someone inside who was not in uniform, which surprised Kelly. A moment later, the cutter's engines tumbled anew and the fotty-one-boat moved northwest.
    'Good mornin'.' It was Pam. 'What was that?'
    Kelly turned. She wasn't wearing any more now than when he'd put the blanket on her, but Kelly instantly decided that the only time she'd surprise him again would be when she did something predictable. Her hair was a medusalike mass of tangles, and her eyes were unfocused, as