Joe reached to his side to get Elise’s attention while she continued to pour wine. “This is Elise. Elise, this is Ed’s friend Pauline.”
Pauline looked at Elise. “Oh! You are the one that Ed tells me teaches aerobics and is a gourmet cook. You look very fit.”
Elise smiled and returned the complement. “I can tell that you are fit. I will bet that you are in the low body fat club. But don’t miss out on the food being served by the Berkeley Culinary Institute over there. It really is the best at the festival.”
Ed and Pauline looked at each other. With a little grin, Ed answered, “Oh yeah! I am famished. We better get over there before another long line forms. We’ll be back over a little later. Pauline really needs to taste your wonderful wines.”
Robert’s PCF boat made its way across the chop of the 6-foot swells that had risen with the northeasterly winds now howling across the bay. The boat had to cut its speed to only 6 knots due to the swells, and was now wallowing between white-capped wave crests, the tempo of the engines varying with the position of the boat within the seas. Juan was soon tasting dinner again as the sun sank closer to the Marin Headlands. He now wore a slicker to stay dry from the cold salt spray being kicked off of the white caps. Nonetheless, his longish black hair hung wet and stringy down the back of his neck.
Juan held on to the edge of the open doorway to the leeward side of the pilothouse where Robert was manning the helm. “This weather is going to make it a bitch to shoot at that ship. When we slow down enough to shoot, we roll way too much.”
Robert could see that Juan was turning green and grinned a little bit. “When we prepare to shoot we will get in the lee of the ship where the breeze and the swells will be much less. We will maintain some headway to help stabilize the boat.”
At that moment, Juan grabbed on tightly while he leaned out to projectile vomit over the gunwale of the boat. Robert’s grin grew wider. “There is some ginger root below, which can calm down seasickness. You had better have some so that you will be able to shoot the RPGs.”
Juan leaned back in, his face now an even darker shade of green. “If we could just stop this wallowing, I would feel better.”
Robert pointed out the pilothouse window, the windshield wiper running to clear the spray. “Alacatraz is just ahead. I will turn into the lee of the island to shelter us from the wind.” He leaned over to peer into the radar screen. “That big object to the west is the Honolulu. We’ll only have to wait a few minutes for it to arrive for us to shadow it. We should be able to follow it on its leeward side until just past Yerba Buena Island, where we’ll sink it.”
Juan just nodded his head as leaned out the door once more to throw up.
DeMario, now clean and clean-shaven, walked through the wine festival. He held an empty glass in his hand, not wanting to even take a sip of wine for fear of it adversely affecting any of the skills and abilities he knew would be called into play tonight. As he walked through the wine festival, the band at the stage near the Gambaro Winery table stopped playing to take a break. There he noticed a familiar face. “Well hello Ed! Somehow I knew that I would see you here.”
Ed and Pauline were back at the Gambaro Winery table sampling the wines with their recently acquired gourmet foods. “DeMario! I didn’t expect to see you here. What brings you to the wine festival? Oh, and I would like you to meet my friend Pauline. And over here, this is Joe and Elise Gambaro, who make some of the finest wines in the Gold Country.”
DeMario glanced quickly from face to face. “My cousin Umberto couldn’t make it, but thought I should come. There are a lot of wineries and a lot of people here.” Looking over at Pauline, “Ed has never told me that he had a friend as beautiful as you.” Pauline blushed almost imperceptibly.
Joe interjected, “So are you Umberto’s cousin? His crew is going to start picking my grapes next week.”
DeMario locked his gaze on Joe. “One and the same. I have an irrigation supply company east of Fresno. We supply lots of grape growers with irrigation equipment.”
It suddenly dawned on Ed why DeMario was really here, but he was composed enough not to violate the trust of something that he realized was probably covert. “Come let me show you some of the fantastic food that they have here.” Looking over at Pauline, “Why don’t you stay and enjoy some more of Joe’s wine. DeMario and I have some catching up to do. I‘ll be back in a few minutes.”
Pauline, feeling slightly affronted but caught off guard, just nodded her head in affirmation.
Walking with DeMario, Ed asked, “So are the bad guys up to something here tonight?”
Without looking at Ed, DeMario walked, trying to figure out just what he could say. “If I were you I wouldn’t stay here too late. There might be some fireworks nearby. You won’t be able to drive out of here easily if there is a big bust nearby, the roads will be a mess.” DeMario thought of a good way to change the subject. “Who is the foxy lady with you? You never told me about her.”
Continued ... 
