Retribution Road, Jon Coon [top business books of all time .txt] 📗

female quarterback in UT history.” Carol stepped in and hugged her dad. “But he had to settle for a cowgirl and a cutting horse rider.”

“Excuse me,” Tom interjected. “That’s state champion girl rider.”

“I’m impressed,” Gabe said. And he was. With all of it.

A short Hispanic woman in her sixties and a starched white linen apron came in and announced lunch was ready. Steaks, eggs, and ranch-style potatoes waited on the dining room table. As they were about to sit down, Tom’s cell phone played “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” and he stepped out of the room to take the call.

Carol realized Gabe was feeling uncomfortable with the setting and the wealth that surrounded her family. She hugged him and said quietly, “Relax, pal. It’s just me. It’s still us. Nothing has changed.”

“It’s a lot.”

“It’s okay. We’re not taking any of it home with us. Except a couple horses. That’s all.”

Before Gabe could answer, Tom was back. “They found the plane. If you’re up for it, we can knock this out before dark. Consuela will make sandwiches. We need to go.”

“Fine with me. Let’s do it.”

“Be careful. Come home safe, you two,” Carol said and kissed her dad. Emily bounced in from wherever she had been and hugged Gabe. They drove back out to the hangar where the Cessna had been refueled and turned back toward the runway. Tom did a preflight, and they were back in the air for the hour-and-fifteen-minute flight to Galveston.

Chapter 10

“THIS THING WITH THE GHOSTS, how did that start?”

They’d been quietly enjoying the view from 15,000 feet before Tom opened up.

“It was after Katrina. I was helping with the diving part of the cleanup. A lot of body recovery work. We found a school bus with a bunch of kids in fifteen feet of water. It was so bad you could taste death in the water. I picked up a backpack that had a name on it. I must have read the name aloud, because as soon as I did, a little girl started screaming at me to help her. Then the rest of the kids started—”

“Good Lord, man, that’s awful.”

“It could have been a hallucination, but I swear, it was the most real, most terrifying thing I’ve experienced. I ended up in the hospital. Everyone in the hospital thought I was nuts. But then Alethea, my mother’s cousin, found me. She believed, and gently pulled me back. It wasn’t easy.”

“Was that Alethea, the professor from Tulane? Carol told me about her.”

“Yes, Marie Laveau’s great-great-granddaughter, Alethea. Because of the traditions she was raised with, she believed what happened to me was certainly possible, if not reality. She said I might have discovered a wonderful gift if I could learn how to use it. Control it. With her help, I learned, but I’m not sure it’s a gift.”

“That’s an amazing story. And you used that gift to save Emily?”

“I suspect Alethea had more to do with saving Emily than I did.”

“Carol told me about that part too. Do you really think she traded her life for Emily’s?”

“I did. She was pretty sick right after that, but she’s doing well enough now to be on a book tour. However, she said Marie lived exactly a year after she made the deal with the baron. It hasn’t been a year yet so . . .”

“So we wait. Partner, I must say, life is a little different on your planet.”

“Yes. I’m afraid it was too much for Carol.”

“I wouldn’t go to that pasture too soon, son. I think she’s still very much in love with you. But after losing Charlie and nearly losing Emily, it’s been a rough six months. Give her some time. I’m pretty sure she’ll end up in your corral.”

“Yeah, not to mention this business with Paul.”

“Right.”

As Tom brought them down through the clouds, Scholes International Airport appeared dead ahead. After a brief conversation with the tower, Tom landed and taxied to a waiting Texas Ranger truck. They were quickly loaded and underway to the dock at the Texas A&M marine station. The boat was a sturdy, steel-hulled, aluminum superstructure hundred-footer. Tom introduced the boat captain and then Gabe went to check the dive tanks.

The sonar boat reported the plane to be in 110 feet of water, so Gabe had asked for nitrox to cut down on decompression time and pure oxygen to decompress with. From his kit, he set up his oxygen analyzer, used an air tank to check the calibration, and then checked the nitrox tanks. Satisfied that the label taped to the tank matched the actual percentage, he put regulators on two nitrox tanks and one oxygen tank and then laid out his harness, backplate, and wing. As he finished, one of the Rangers came to the deck and introduced himself.

“You’re Gabe Jones, right? I’m Brad Hendricks. I’ll be your safety diver. Just tell me where you want me and what you need me to do.”

“Great. Appreciate your being here. Guess the first thing is to get a buoy on the plane or as close to it as possible. Then if you want to dive, why don’t we put you on the buoy line at about eighty feet with extra gas just in case. We’ll hang the deco oxygen at twenty feet, and we should be good to go.”

“Sure. You don’t want me at the plane with you?”

“Not as long as I know where you are. I’ll set the slings and we should be good to go. Do you know when the barge and crane are supposed to get here?”

“Shouldn’t be too long, but we can let their divers do the hookup once you’ve cleared the plane. You’ve got your cameras and lights?”

“Yeah, GoPros and Ocean Reef lights. They do a great job.”

“Cool. Well, I’ll give you a heads-up when they get closer. You might as well get some chow and rest till they get here.”

“Roger that. I’ll be in the galley.” Gabe nodded and entered the small galley