The Conclusion of The Reluctant Hero
And now the Conclusion of The Reluctant Hero
In Case you missed a part:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
The house was so quite it was eerie. I jumped to my feet a little discombobulated and looked for my cell phone in the dark. I found it and saw I had one voice message from Patti about 12:30 that said,
“Ran, if you are there answer, please!”
Then nothing, so as you may imagine I was somewhat troubled. I threw on some shorts and a tee shirt and headed down the stairs hoping that everyone else would be sitting up drinking and chatting knowing full well that this would not be true. The downstairs was just as dark and quiet as the upstairs. I knocked on Luis and Maria’s door and my knock was answered by a tired and a little irritated Luis who said he had no idea where the others were. He did offer to make some coffee while we tried to figure out where the others were for which I was grateful.
I had a cup of coffee and my head started to clear and I called Patti’s cell phone and the call went straight to voice mail. The same happened when I attempted to call both Nicki and Terrell. I went out on the grounds with Luis to look around and found that Terrell’s boat was also not there and thinking the three of them may have went for a late night ride, however I cannot imagine them doing this without so much as leaving a note and then there was the voice mail from Patti that left no information. I remembered that on my new phone I had the ability to check the location of individuals cell phones by using GPS coordinates. I looked at the coordinates of Patti’s phone and plugged it into the GPS which showed the current location only about 4 miles down the coast. I asked Luis what that area was like and he stated it was a very sparse section of the coast with several inlets and old shacks. He also stated that as far as he knew not much good every happened in that area. Interesting, so now what do I do?
Just then a text came in and it was from Patti, all it said was HELP!
I am not a quick thinker and nothing like this had presented itself to me before so I was not sure what to do. I was at the empty boat dock and noticed that before Terrell had gone on his “business” Luis had unloaded the Sea-doos and they were sitting on their lifts. I made a decision, I would ride down the coast on one of the Sea-doos and see what I could see. I told Luis if I was not back by first light to call the authorities and let them know what he knew, which was not much , and give them our last known location.
Firing up the watercraft off I went into the dark with only my phone’s GPS light shining out my next stop.
The evening was absolutely beautiful with a clear sky and extremely calm waters, which under any circumstances but this would have been great, however as I was riding into uncertainty I would have preferred cloud cover to cloak my arrival.
I was about a mile out and the GPS had me navigating into a body of side water not very wide but which looked to be straight as an arrow. I decided to beach the watercraft and walk the last mile to check out the situation. I would like to reiterate that I am not the hero type nor do I posses any covert or special outdoor skills, however I do have a lot of common sense so I would need to rely on that. I walked up the sandy beach along the river like part of the ocean and could see a few lights in the distance. As I neared I moved into the tress off the beach as to assess the situation under both cover of darkness and concealment in the trees. I could see that one of the lights was on the water and I could also see Terrell’s boat tied to the doc. As I peered from the darkness to the other light what I saw caused me to lose my breath for a few minutes.
There was a fire and on one side of the fire sat Patti, Nicki and Terrell on some rocks and on either side of them were several very rough looking characters. They looked to be of the biker type, however as we were near the ocean my mind keep seeing them as pirates, why I am not at all sure. The time was nearing 4:00 A.M. and I knew that I needed to devise a plan because Luis was due to call the local authorities in about an hour and as I had no idea what was happening and what Terrell’s “Business” was I did not want to needlessly involve him with the authorities if I did not need to.
The "buccaneer" types that were holding my wife and friends as captives appeared to be heavily intoxicated and still drinking passing around a bottle of something (no not grog, well maybe) and laughing lightly among themselves.
I eased back into the darkness of the tress and moved back to the beach and slowly approached the boat. I saw no guard and stalked into the back of the boat and into the cabin using my cell phone to illuminate the area I found not only the keys to the boat, but also the keys to the gun locker. I took the keys and opened the gun locker grabbing the shotgun and a pistol and several dozen rounds of ammunition and moved back to the cover of the trees running back to the Sea-doo.
I had the pistol stuck into the waist band of my shorts and rested the 12 gauge on a log. I pushed the Sea-doo into the water and tied the handle bars to point straight and started the engine pointing it the direction I would be going to attempt to aid the captive party. I calculated that in low I would have plenty of time to return and get into place for my plan of action which was not all that clear as of yet.
I loaded the pistol returning it to my waist band hoping it would not go off prematurely and cause me to lose something vital. I also loaded up the shotgun sticking the extra ammo into both pockets of my shorts and back up the beach I ran.
I passed the Sea-doo and kept going returning to my previous observation post. I wanted to send Patti a text to warn her what I was attempting but could not risk any sound or warning as I was not sure her phone was still in her possession or on mute.
About this time I heard the Sea-doo and so did the marauders all of whom who was left as guard started down to the boat dock. I silently slipped around the side of the only building and picking up a rock tossed it into the tress on the other side of the camp. The guard heard the noise and took a few steps into the trees to check out the sound. I sprang into action approached my wife and friends making a hush sound I emptied the contents of my pockets into the fire and noticing they were not bound I gave the shot gun to Terrell as I drew out the pistol and started to fire of the head of the guard in the trees.
“Run back into the trees!” I shouted to the girls.
Who wasted no time following my orders and Terrell followed my lead firing a couple of shots into the trees. We then quickly followed the girls back into the trees when all hell broke loose.
The cartridges and shells I had tossed into the fire started firing off sounding like a small army had just opened a salvo on the camp and we could see the party that had went to the boat to check out the sound of the approaching Sea-doo returning all brandishing weapons and firing in all directions.
About this time we also could hear approaching sirens and see lights as it had appeared Luis had done his job. We ran to the beach and could see that Sea-doo had hit the back of the boat and was sitting there running. I gave Terrell the key to the boat and said,
“You and the girls get on the boat and head home and I will follow on the Sea-doo!”
No one replied all simply sprang into action and in a minute we were all running at high speed up the coast back to what we hoped was the safety of Nicki and Terrell’s home. I could still hear gun shots in the distance; however they were diminishing as I imagined the rounds in the fire were all but fired off.
We pulled back into the boat dock at Nicki and Terrell’s and as you may imagine I had many, many questions that needed to be answered. After Terrell docked the boat I approached and was not very happy and was just about to ask what the hell was going on Central Patti ran up to me throwing her arms around me kissing me several times. That kind of took the starch out of me as well and I realized that no matter what the cause I was glad my wife and friends were all safe and I had just pulled off the most unimaginable and reluctant rescue I could have ever hoped to imagine.
Post Script
Terrell informed us the next day that his “business” was importing furniture, somewhat illegally into the country. He would take his boat out into international waters and rendezvous with a boat from other parts of the world who would give him furniture to deliver it to the “pirates” who he assumed was then selling it to buyers around the country. What he found out that night was that night was that inside some of the pieces of furniture was other contraband, weapons and drugs, and when he delivered the load that night his buyers found no other items and assumed he had stolen it. They followed him home and Patti and Nicki arrived about the same time as the Pirates and were all abducted and being questioned as to the whereabouts of the other items.
Now what is not clear to me is if Terrell really did discover the contraband and steal it or if they “pirates” were mistaken or of the items were stolen somewhere else in transit. I was not about to get involved any deeper as to keep some Plausible deniability to any story the authorities may become involved in. I was simply glad it was over. I never did find the true answer to the missing contraband and the authorities never discovered Terrell was involved. You see Luis made his call anonymously and well who were the “pirates” going to tell.
As we rested on the plane flying home I was almost to sleep when Central Patti put her arms around me and gave me a kiss and simply said,
“Thank you.”
To which I replied with a smile and drifted into exhaustion glad that this vacation was over and hoping I would never have to be a reluctant hero ever again.
Or would I?
Cheers
I hoped you enjoyed the conclusion of The Reluctant Hero, the continuing Adventures of the Professor and Central Patti. And remember to keep following MySideOfTheBar.
In Case you missed a part:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
The house was so quite it was eerie. I jumped to my feet a little discombobulated and looked for my cell phone in the dark. I found it and saw I had one voice message from Patti about 12:30 that said,
“Ran, if you are there answer, please!”
Then nothing, so as you may imagine I was somewhat troubled. I threw on some shorts and a tee shirt and headed down the stairs hoping that everyone else would be sitting up drinking and chatting knowing full well that this would not be true. The downstairs was just as dark and quiet as the upstairs. I knocked on Luis and Maria’s door and my knock was answered by a tired and a little irritated Luis who said he had no idea where the others were. He did offer to make some coffee while we tried to figure out where the others were for which I was grateful.
I had a cup of coffee and my head started to clear and I called Patti’s cell phone and the call went straight to voice mail. The same happened when I attempted to call both Nicki and Terrell. I went out on the grounds with Luis to look around and found that Terrell’s boat was also not there and thinking the three of them may have went for a late night ride, however I cannot imagine them doing this without so much as leaving a note and then there was the voice mail from Patti that left no information. I remembered that on my new phone I had the ability to check the location of individuals cell phones by using GPS coordinates. I looked at the coordinates of Patti’s phone and plugged it into the GPS which showed the current location only about 4 miles down the coast. I asked Luis what that area was like and he stated it was a very sparse section of the coast with several inlets and old shacks. He also stated that as far as he knew not much good every happened in that area. Interesting, so now what do I do?
Just then a text came in and it was from Patti, all it said was HELP!
I am not a quick thinker and nothing like this had presented itself to me before so I was not sure what to do. I was at the empty boat dock and noticed that before Terrell had gone on his “business” Luis had unloaded the Sea-doos and they were sitting on their lifts. I made a decision, I would ride down the coast on one of the Sea-doos and see what I could see. I told Luis if I was not back by first light to call the authorities and let them know what he knew, which was not much , and give them our last known location.
Firing up the watercraft off I went into the dark with only my phone’s GPS light shining out my next stop.
The evening was absolutely beautiful with a clear sky and extremely calm waters, which under any circumstances but this would have been great, however as I was riding into uncertainty I would have preferred cloud cover to cloak my arrival.
I was about a mile out and the GPS had me navigating into a body of side water not very wide but which looked to be straight as an arrow. I decided to beach the watercraft and walk the last mile to check out the situation. I would like to reiterate that I am not the hero type nor do I posses any covert or special outdoor skills, however I do have a lot of common sense so I would need to rely on that. I walked up the sandy beach along the river like part of the ocean and could see a few lights in the distance. As I neared I moved into the tress off the beach as to assess the situation under both cover of darkness and concealment in the trees. I could see that one of the lights was on the water and I could also see Terrell’s boat tied to the doc. As I peered from the darkness to the other light what I saw caused me to lose my breath for a few minutes.
There was a fire and on one side of the fire sat Patti, Nicki and Terrell on some rocks and on either side of them were several very rough looking characters. They looked to be of the biker type, however as we were near the ocean my mind keep seeing them as pirates, why I am not at all sure. The time was nearing 4:00 A.M. and I knew that I needed to devise a plan because Luis was due to call the local authorities in about an hour and as I had no idea what was happening and what Terrell’s “Business” was I did not want to needlessly involve him with the authorities if I did not need to.
The "buccaneer" types that were holding my wife and friends as captives appeared to be heavily intoxicated and still drinking passing around a bottle of something (no not grog, well maybe) and laughing lightly among themselves.
I eased back into the darkness of the tress and moved back to the beach and slowly approached the boat. I saw no guard and stalked into the back of the boat and into the cabin using my cell phone to illuminate the area I found not only the keys to the boat, but also the keys to the gun locker. I took the keys and opened the gun locker grabbing the shotgun and a pistol and several dozen rounds of ammunition and moved back to the cover of the trees running back to the Sea-doo.
I had the pistol stuck into the waist band of my shorts and rested the 12 gauge on a log. I pushed the Sea-doo into the water and tied the handle bars to point straight and started the engine pointing it the direction I would be going to attempt to aid the captive party. I calculated that in low I would have plenty of time to return and get into place for my plan of action which was not all that clear as of yet.
I loaded the pistol returning it to my waist band hoping it would not go off prematurely and cause me to lose something vital. I also loaded up the shotgun sticking the extra ammo into both pockets of my shorts and back up the beach I ran.
I passed the Sea-doo and kept going returning to my previous observation post. I wanted to send Patti a text to warn her what I was attempting but could not risk any sound or warning as I was not sure her phone was still in her possession or on mute.
About this time I heard the Sea-doo and so did the marauders all of whom who was left as guard started down to the boat dock. I silently slipped around the side of the only building and picking up a rock tossed it into the tress on the other side of the camp. The guard heard the noise and took a few steps into the trees to check out the sound. I sprang into action approached my wife and friends making a hush sound I emptied the contents of my pockets into the fire and noticing they were not bound I gave the shot gun to Terrell as I drew out the pistol and started to fire of the head of the guard in the trees.
“Run back into the trees!” I shouted to the girls.
Who wasted no time following my orders and Terrell followed my lead firing a couple of shots into the trees. We then quickly followed the girls back into the trees when all hell broke loose.
The cartridges and shells I had tossed into the fire started firing off sounding like a small army had just opened a salvo on the camp and we could see the party that had went to the boat to check out the sound of the approaching Sea-doo returning all brandishing weapons and firing in all directions.
About this time we also could hear approaching sirens and see lights as it had appeared Luis had done his job. We ran to the beach and could see that Sea-doo had hit the back of the boat and was sitting there running. I gave Terrell the key to the boat and said,
“You and the girls get on the boat and head home and I will follow on the Sea-doo!”
No one replied all simply sprang into action and in a minute we were all running at high speed up the coast back to what we hoped was the safety of Nicki and Terrell’s home. I could still hear gun shots in the distance; however they were diminishing as I imagined the rounds in the fire were all but fired off.
We pulled back into the boat dock at Nicki and Terrell’s and as you may imagine I had many, many questions that needed to be answered. After Terrell docked the boat I approached and was not very happy and was just about to ask what the hell was going on Central Patti ran up to me throwing her arms around me kissing me several times. That kind of took the starch out of me as well and I realized that no matter what the cause I was glad my wife and friends were all safe and I had just pulled off the most unimaginable and reluctant rescue I could have ever hoped to imagine.
Post Script
Terrell informed us the next day that his “business” was importing furniture, somewhat illegally into the country. He would take his boat out into international waters and rendezvous with a boat from other parts of the world who would give him furniture to deliver it to the “pirates” who he assumed was then selling it to buyers around the country. What he found out that night was that night was that inside some of the pieces of furniture was other contraband, weapons and drugs, and when he delivered the load that night his buyers found no other items and assumed he had stolen it. They followed him home and Patti and Nicki arrived about the same time as the Pirates and were all abducted and being questioned as to the whereabouts of the other items.
Now what is not clear to me is if Terrell really did discover the contraband and steal it or if they “pirates” were mistaken or of the items were stolen somewhere else in transit. I was not about to get involved any deeper as to keep some Plausible deniability to any story the authorities may become involved in. I was simply glad it was over. I never did find the true answer to the missing contraband and the authorities never discovered Terrell was involved. You see Luis made his call anonymously and well who were the “pirates” going to tell.
As we rested on the plane flying home I was almost to sleep when Central Patti put her arms around me and gave me a kiss and simply said,
“Thank you.”
To which I replied with a smile and drifted into exhaustion glad that this vacation was over and hoping I would never have to be a reluctant hero ever again.
Or would I?
Cheers
I hoped you enjoyed the conclusion of The Reluctant Hero, the continuing Adventures of the Professor and Central Patti. And remember to keep following MySideOfTheBar.
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