A plan began to formulate in her mind. “What if we rented a small boat and some dive gear and at night anchored a few hundred yards off the coast,” Parkowski suggested, “and traveled that distance with scuba gear underwater? Once we get there, we hide our gear and book it to Hangar AZ and get inside.”
DePresti smiled. “That’s not the worst idea you’ve had.”
DePresti found a nautical map of the Cape Canaveral region in their hotel room.
Parkowski put it down over the topographical map she had been studying and the two engineers began to closely examine the shallow waters off of the coast of the launch complexes.
Her boyfriend traced a path from the interior part of the port — where most of the boat rental places were located — along the Atlantic up Landing Zones 1 & 2 where OuterTek landed their first stage boosters, just two miles east of the main gaggle of buildings that contained their final destination of Hangar AZ.
She shook her head. “No, no, we can’t go right there. That’s too suspicious. We need to go out to sea and then hook back towards the Cape.”
“Fine,” DePresti agreed, “we go out here,” he said, pointing at a spot a little over two and a half miles off of the coast, “outside the security zone, set anchor, and then come back to LZ-1.”
“Why do we need to land there?” Parkowski asked.
He laughed. “It’s two miles from the hangars, and that’s the closest point along the Atlantic side. We’re going to swim two-plus miles and then walk another two-plus to our destination. I’d like to keep it as short of a trip as possible.”
“Gotcha,” she replied.
Parkowski checked the clock. It was four-thirty, almost time for dinner. She needed some sense of normalcy before they embarked on their mission. “Want to go grab something to eat?”
The Space Force officer nodded. “Yes, but let’s go get some gear first.”
The pair got back out on A1A and found a dive shop. Inside, they used some of the cash Chang had given them to rent tanks, masks, buoyancy compensators, flippers, and respirators, as well as to buy a pair of wetsuits. The water around Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach was warm, staying in the low seventies even in the winter, but if they were going to have to swim miles to and from the boat, especially at night, having the neoprene shorty suits would be beneficial. DePresti also picked up a dive knife, a waterproof satchel, and an underwater flashlight.
After paying for all of that in cash, they drove farther up A1A to the seafood restaurants located just before Port Canaveral.
The wait was too long at the first one they tried, but the second one had none. They ate outdoors along the dock. The weather was perfect, absolutely perfect, thought Parkowski, and there weren’t any bugs or seagulls to ruin the setting.
She ordered a crabcake sandwich while her boyfriend got blackened, freshly caught tuna.
They ate mostly in silence, Parkowski’s mind elsewhere, as the second of the two cruise ships departed the port for the open waters of the Atlantic.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” DePresti asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
Parkowski nodded. “I need to figure this out, Mike. I need to know what Bronze Knot is. Even if it’s something mundane.” She paused. “It’s bigger than the both of us now.”
“I know how you feel,” he said in agreement. “I’ve felt the same way ever since we had to jump off of the pier. Not only is that the only way for us to get out of this mess, deep down I need to know why the government and a bunch of defense contractors seemingly need to kill people in order to protect a secret.”
After dinner, they headed back and went to bed early. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Unlike the previous day, they both woke up early at nine.
There was a rare morning rain shower, large raindrops beating against the motel room’s window as they packed their gear and got the scuba equipment ready. Their two handguns and one of their laptops went into the waterproof satchel along with some food and maps.
Parkowski only had half a dozen dives under her belt, and only one in the open ocean, but she felt ready for tonight. It wasn’t like she had much of a choice. They were either going to uncover the secret behind Bronze Knot or slink back to Los Angeles with their tails figuratively between their legs, hopeful that the people who had killed Pham and all of those innocent people on the pier had forgotten about them.
After a quick lunch, they put on bathing suits underneath their street clothes and headed to the boat rental shop they had selected the night before.
