Flashback by Nevada Barr Page A

were silvered, and the empty arches so black the shadows looked to be made of solid matter.
    Anna turned right, following the brick path along the ground-level casemates. The southern side of the fort was closed to visitors. The open casemates contained machinery and supplies needed to keep the fort up and running. Three were dedicated to Mack's generators, and two had been enclosed to make employee quarters. Danny lived in the first of these. The two he inhabited had the arches walled up with lumber weathered and in need of paint. A hopelessly modern door with a screen finished off the defacement of history. Anna banged on it soundly.
    A moment or two and a dim light appeared in the kitchen window, probably from Danny's bedroom. Not more than thirty seconds passed, but Anna was about to knock again when he opened the door. In place of a standard bathrobe, the maintenance man wore a Japanese kimono, black koi on a field of white that gave his stalwart form the look of a particularly deadly samurai.
    "Yeah. What is it? What time is it?"
    "The middle of the night," Anna said. "Bob never came home from his shift. I need you to take out one of the boats. We'll be looking for big stuff, the Bay Ranger or chunks of it. At first light we'll get a better idea. You dive?"
    "Not on purpose."
    "Okay. I'm getting Mack. Meet us at the dock."
    "Got it."
    William Macintyre's quarters were next, nearer the office by the generator rooms. His lights were on. Anna hoped he wasn't up because he was drinking. She didn't know Mack well-he'd been on vacation the first eight days of her stay at Jefferson-but she'd served in enough isolated posts to know that alcohol was a fairly standard form of entertainment in National Parks.
    He answered at her first knock. But for shoes and socks he was dressed in a pair of Levi's torn out at the knee and a tee shirt. Mack looked the part of a mechanic. His hands and forearms were scarred from years of working with engines. Black grease was ingrained in the flesh around his nails and the cracks across the pads of his fingers. His clothes smelled faintly of burnt oil and stale gasoline. Like Daniel, he wore a full beard but kept his close-cropped over a box-and-bone jaw. Hair grew in white in places as if it covered old injuries. Though not yet forty, he was nearly bald. The fringe of hair remaining was scraped back into a stringy ponytail.
    "You're up late," Anna said.
    "What of it?" His voice cracked as if his mouth and throat had gone dry.
    Anna looked past the hostility in his light brown eyes. He was cranky but apparently sober. She explained the situation.
    "I'm taking the Atlantic Ranger. Nobody screws with it but me."
    "Okay," Anna said neutrally.
    He started to make more demands but instead let his square jaw break in a smile, and his fingers ran over his scalp, remembering the hair that had once flourished there. "Hey. Sorry. Don't think I'm always such an asshole. Bad night's all."
    He wanted Anna to ask him why "bad" but she had neither the time nor the inclination. Warm and fuzzy wasn't a management style she had much truck with.
    "They happen. Meet us at the dock. Five minutes."
    "No problem."
    Before his door closed, his sudden rudeness and equally unexpected capitulation were forgotten. Anna's brain was churning out lists of equipment needed. Her eyes saw only the black water and the grid search she drew over it, dividing it into sectors, one for each of the boats.
    The office door was ajar, light pouring out. Anna stepped inside. Teddy was just returning from the gloomy recesses where the main radio was housed. The handhelds hadn't the power to reach the mainland. Those calls had to be made from the office, where the radio was hooked to the repeater atop the fort's walls.
    "The coast guard has a cutter two hours north of here. It's heading this way," Teddy said.
    "I said stand by," Anna replied sharply.
    Teddy was not intimidated.
    "They were scheduled to hit Key West tomorrow. They started early