Beach Blanket Bijou (Pajaro Bay) Read Free Page B

us."
    "I don't need you," Jeff said coldly. "But she's got the only remaining chip."
    Carmen glared at him. "The chip? What about Edmund?"
    "Ben messed up. We don't have Edmund. I don't know where he is. Ben panicked and ran too soon. This should have been neat and tidy. But Ben blew it. Now we need you."
    Quinn stepped in front of her. "Not happening."
    Jeff looked like he'd gladly shoot him, but Quinn still held the cardboard box. "Yeah," Quinn said. "You need this box. Full of hard drives, isn't it? Backup of all the software to run the chip?"
    "We have everything we need. And we don't need you. Set down the box and step back."
    "Are you sure?" Quinn said.
    "What do you mean?" Jeff asked.
    "Look for yourself." He set down the box in front of him, then stood in front of Carmen, shielding her from Jeff's gun.
    "Check it," Jeff said to Ben.
    Ben put his gun in his jacket pocket and knelt next to the box. He opened it and looked inside, then began cursing.
    "What?" Jeff asked.
    Ben picked up the powerful aquarium magnet Quinn had dropped in the box while Bijou had been licking Ben's hand. "He's erased the drives with this!"
    "I still can get something for the chip in her head," Jeff said. "Get out of the way."
    Quinn took a step back, knocking into Carmen's wheelchair and sending her backwards. Bijou squealed as she slipped off Carmen's lap onto the dock.
    Bijou ran happily up to Ben, begging for more treats. Ben and Jeff both looked at the little squealing dog for a moment, and Quinn gave Carmen's chair another shove.
    The wheels of Carmen's chair hit the edge of the dock and rolled off.
    Quinn dove after her, the sound of gunshots roaring in his ears.
    "This way!" Carmen shouted to Quinn. She had ducked under the pier, using her powerful backstroke to maneuver herself out of sight of the men above.
    Quinn swam over toward her.
    "Where's Bijou?" she asked when he got to her.
    Unable to speak, Quinn pointed up.
    Then she heard the sound of Bijou's high-pitched warning bark above them. The boom of running footsteps on the wood over their heads made them instinctively duck, but the sound faded away, to be followed by the roar of a boat's engine starting.
    Through it all, Bijou's barking never stopped.
    "They're gone," Quinn gasped out when the boat sounds were gone. "Bijou's safe—she's still barking."
    "But they got away," Carmen said. "All of dad's work, gone!"
    "Maybe not," Quinn said.
     
    •••

    Carmen sat up against one of the posts on the pier. The blanket the Coast Guard had wrapped her in was scratchy, but she felt a warm glow in her belly as she watched Quinn cuddling Bijou and comforting her with soft whispers. The dog licked his chin, and when he laughed, Carmen felt tears welling up in her eyes.
    "Clever guy," her dad said, looking over at Quinn. "Dropping that powerful aquarium magnet into the box of hard drives probably damaged at least some of the software. And they don't have the chip." He kissed her on the top of the head. "Even if Jeff and Ben make it all the way to their buyer in China without getting caught, they won't have all the technology. I have a feeling they won't be getting the kind of reception they were counting on."
    Carmen put her head down. "But Edmund.... He was such a nice guy."
    "He still is. Edmund's fine," he said. He sat down on the pier next to her and swung his legs over the side.
    "He's alive?" The tears she'd held back through the night spilled over, and she impatiently wiped them away with one hand. "How did he get away?"
    "They never had him." Her dad looked out at the water, chuckling to himself. She put out her hand to touch his shoulder, and he turned to look at her. "Their bad luck. Ben thought Edmund's disappearance was the signal to take the software and run. But Edmund and his girlfriend had just decided to elope," he said. "That's why they disappeared. When they got back from the wedding chapel in Vegas, they saw some shady-looking guys hanging around the house, so they