Sam hit the end button and threw the cell phone he had found in the speedboat into the waters of the bay and pushed the throttle forward. He didn’t look back as the last three years of his life burned fiercely behind him. Visions of his family flashed through his mind as he raced away from his past and into his history. Sam Baker had been killed for a reason and some people were going to wish he had never been reborn.
Sam knew that his own life was irrelevant. Going to the trouble of trying to kill him could mean only one thing. His brother, the illustrious Senator from Montana and according to the polls, the soon-to-be President of the United States, had unsettled some very powerful people. Although seven years younger than his famous brother, Sam had always had to watch his brother’s back. Charles Baker was a talker. He fought his battles with wit and rhetoric, much to the infuriation of previous opponents who, having been humiliated, had often turned to violence. And that was when Sam stepped in, he was the fighter.
As he neared the North Haven harbor, Sam slowed the speedboat and turned towards a small jetty that lay before the entrance to the harbor and pulled up alongside. The contents of the metal trunk had been emptied and most of it repacked into a large waterproof holdall. The rest was being worn. Sam checked that nobody was watching before slipping over the side and into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It had been years since he had donned his wetsuit and was most surprised to find it still fitted. His runs to work had done the trick and kept the mid-life spread at bay. As he slowly descended into the dark waters, he flicked his legs and the huge flippers went to work propelling him through the water with ease. The old technique hadn’t been lost and in no time, Sam found himself below the harbor wall and wondering how he was going to cover the distance between the water and the car park without being seen.
His plan was to take the assassins’ car and make it look like the four men who had hired the speedboat had simply put it back in the wrong jetty and returned to the mainland in their car. The deaths and fire at his house would look like a murder suicide and the assassin would be laid to rest alongside his family. Something Sam would sort out in due course. For now, he had other priorities.
Sam slipped off his SCUBA tank and let it drop to the ocean floor and pulled himself up and onto an empty fishing boat tethered to the harbor. He needed a diversion. Sam carefully unhooked the boat and with the boat free from its restraints, he powered the engine and thrust the throttles forward, slipping back into the water as the propellers began to turn.
As the boat slipped out of its mooring and powered out of the harbor, chaos ensued. All eyes were suddenly focused on the runaway fishing vessel as it careened towards the outer wall of the harbor. The plan had worked perfectly. Having swum to the far end of the harbor away from the action, Sam Baker slipped out of the water and, dragging his holdall, he ran across to the car park and entered the assassins’ car. The Chrysler, much to his relief, had blacked out windows and any other ferry passengers would not be able to tell that the car was three people lighter than it should have been. With only ten minutes until departure, Sam turned the key and accelerated out of the car park just as the small fishing trawler crashed into the outer wall of the harbor. Nobody would later recall the car leaving nor would they be able to confirm who was in it.
With no requirement to buy a ticket for the return journey, Sam drove onto the ferry with only two minutes to spare. Killing the engine, he sat back and with the doors locked, he closed his eyes. Sleep was going to be precious and thanks to his previous training, was something he could do at will and under any circumstance. Ninety minutes later and for the first time in three years, Sam Baker was back on mainland USA. And he was a man on a mission. Search, rescue and destroy. Find his brother, get him to a safe location and then systematically eliminate the enemy. This time, it was personal.