Escape from Havana: A Moses, Charlotte and Jack Adventure

By Lawrence Barker

17 yr. old Moses LeConte sees a postcard from his uncle, Augustus LeConte with his grandmother’s address only and no message on the card. It is from Havana, Cuba and shows the old fort at the Havana harbor, Ft Morro, now a prison in Havana. Moses deduced his uncle was stuck in Havana for some reason and in prison. He decided to sail to Havana on his sailboat and find out what happened. He enlists the aid of his two friends, Jack Barker and Charlotte Pace to go with him. They are all out of school and it will be an adventure. Along the way, they encounter drug smugglers, prison guards, a stolen emerald and while skin diving they battle a 10 foot boa constrictor in the clear waters of Cuba. It is a real teen’s adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665570749

Lawrence Barker

Lawrence Barker (Larry Barker) is a former officer in the US Army. He retired from the Multi Line Property Casualty insurance business after forming his own company. He and his beautiful wife, Linda, married 49 years, love to travel and go to exotic locations all over the world. This is his 4th novel. He lives in Savannah Ga. And has 2 sons Jason and Brian, and 2 grandchildren, Jack and Charlotte Barker.

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© 2022 Lawrence Barker. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/14/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7072-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7073-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7074-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916946

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1 June 1

Chapter 2 June 2

Chapter 3 June 3rd

Chapter 4 June 4

Chapter 5 June 6

Chapter 6 June 9

Chapter 7 June 10

Chapter 8 June 12

Chapter 9 June 14

Chapter 10 June 16

Chapter 11 June 17

Chapter 12 Latitude 23.9 Longitude 80.9

Chapter 13 Coast Guard Sector Miami

Chapter 14 On board the Nuclear Carrier, USS Nimitz

PROLOGUE

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T he City of Havana, Cuba lies some 100 miles south of Key West, Florida. It was founded in 1515 by the Spanish King Phillip II of Spain, and they named Havana as the capital. It has a beautiful well protected deep harbour. The city built a stone fort at the entrance to the harbour for protection. Castle Morro was designed to repel buccaneers and French Corsairs trying to plunder the city. It had a tall stone round tower as part of the fort and was at the edge of the harbor. A sentry could spot any ships as they approached the entrance to the harbor. They would stretch an iron chain from the Castle to the other side of the harbor to prevent ships from entering the protected bay. The cannons could then fire on the attacking ships. It was also used as a lighthouse to guide ships at night. Havana became an important trading port and civic center especially with the Spanish sending ships loaded with gold and silver from the mines in South America back to Spain. The relationship with the United States flourished until the mid 1950s when the Communists took over and installed a corrupt totalitarian government.

A prison was built on the site of the former castle, Ft Morro, on the coast near downtown. It is called La Cabana and used to house political prisoners. It has a brutal reputation and the prisoners are subjected to many beatings and atrocities. It is part of old Fort Morro. If the prisoners comply with all the rules of the prison they are eventually allowed to leave the prison daily to go work in the sugar cane fields. They are returned each night to their cell. Escape is virtually impossible due to the armed guards that are constantly on patrol.

Havana retains its old world charm and is like a step back in time to 1955 before the revolution and the Communist take over. The buildings are in a state of decline with little updates and are literally crumbling with minimaL modernization. The cars on the few paved roads are American Ford’s and Chevrolet’ s from that era but the Cubans keep patching them up. Communism has not delivered the prosperity it claimed and the entire island is in a shambles. The USA tried to help but politics intervened and all the improvements in relations with the USA were brought to a halt

JUNE 1

Hattie LeConte’s New Home

Melrose Place, Daufuskie Island South Carolina

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H attie LeConte went to the mailbox to get the mail. She was now living at Melrose Place in a new home. Her grandson, Moses, was still in school and went in to Hilton Head three days a week for Chef School at the new Hyatt Hotel on the island. Hattie rifled through the mail finding a bunch of junk mail and some bills. There was one colored Postcard addressed to her that caught her eye. It was a picture of the old fort El Morro in Havana, Cuba showing the fort and the harbor. She turned it over and all that was on the back was her address and the initials A. L. It was in her son, Augustus’s, handwriting. There was nothing else on the postcard. She thought that’s odd. She knew her son had retired from the Marine Corps 2 years ago and was working for the US State Department. She had no idea why he was in Cuba if in fact he was.