The Pirate Vortex: Elizabeth Latimer, Pirate Hunter (Book One)

CHAPTER FOUR: Has Anyone Seen This Young Man?

    Elizabeth didn’t tell Wang what she could do or even what she was planning. He left her house a few moments later, and she returned to her bedroom. She decided that she wanted to bring the black Capri pants that she was currently wearing on her trip, and exchanged them for a pair of white shorts. She turned on her small, flat screen TV to watch the news while she finished packing.

     She shook out the Capris to fold them up and something clinked onto the hardwood floor.

     She had forgotten about Daniel’s earring. She had forgotten to study the students in her Archaeology of Piracy class to see if Daniel was among them.

     Liz looked up to find herself face to face with the sun-browned complexion and sea blue eyes of Daniel Corker on TV. “Has anyone seen this young man?” the newscaster asked. The picture had been snapped by a camera phone from a passerby after the mysterious boy had been accidentally hit by a truck. Liz gasped. He’d been hit?

     But it wasn’t his being hit by the truck that had her brow puckering. Daniel had disappeared before the ambulance even arrived, the newscaster said.

     Wang had left twenty minutes ago. Why hadn’t she asked Wang if he knew Daniel? Where did Wang live? Then Liz remembered that he had mentioned a gig at Pacific West Studios. To make extra money to pay tuition and other student expenses, on top of his TA job, Wang was a part-time stunt double. His specialty was free-running.

     Liz clamped on her helmet and told Lu she’d be out for about an hour. When her sister heard where she was going, Lulu totally insisted on joining her. They hopped aboard Liz’s Suzuki Burgman 650 and drove to Pacific West Studios on Shelbourne Street.

     The studio was locked up. But a note was tacked onto the door for Wang, who was probably late because of her. It said to meet the film crew on Government Street, near the parliament buildings. Elizabeth pulled out her iPhone, then realized she didn’t know Wang’s number. She shoved the phone inside her back pocket and got on her scooter again.

     Government Street was bustling with public servants leaving work. Up ahead she could see a movie set where the traffic was being diverted. Huge white trailers were parked at the curb, and trucks mounted with cameras were in position to shoot a scene. Liz scouted around for Wang.

     There he was.

     The director shouted “Action!” and Wang came racing down the street in a dirt-smudged, white, cropped T-shirt and kevlar pants. His young muscles bulged from his midriff and arms as his legs sent him flying over the tops of three cars toward the Empress Hotel. Up he went on a trellis that was reinforced with steel, repelling his feet against the walls of the building. He reached the roof, hammered his Nikes over the shingles until he hit the other side. Then he leaped down onto a trampoline that catapulted him onto the road again and headlong to the marina. He scissored onto a boat, shot around the corner of the deck onto another boat, then hurtled himself at a speeding outboard that was heading for open water. He missed the target and fell, legs splayed, into the sea.

     The entire crew applauded. Spectators lining the street burst into raucous shrieks, thrilled out of their minds. Liz planted her scooter against a lamppost and raced, with Lulu ahead of her, down to the docks to join in the fanfare. Some assistants were hauling Wang out of the water, handing him towels and thumping him on the shoulder, congratulating him. The actor who was chasing Wang finally caught up, clapped him on the head and tousled his hair. Wang sank down into a folding sling chair and grinned.

     “Oh my God,” Lulu said. “That was awesome!”

     “Winning is so pleasurable,” Wang said, although he didn’t know who he was talking to because the sun was in his eyes. Liz was still wearing her helmet. She stepped in front of him and released her long hair from the helmet and introduced him to Lulu. Wang sat upright, still breathing hard from the run. “Liz. What are you doing here?” he asked.