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I got up and this time she didn’t stop me. I grabbed a few bottles from the minibar and put them into the laundry bag from the wardrobe along with the morning’s newspaper and a T-shirt.
My identification and other papers I left. If any scraps survived, they would support the fiction that we had died in the explosion. I pocketed my cash—a few hundred American dollars—along with a tin of Altoids. I stripped the thin neoprene case off of my e-reader and put the case into the same pocket, stopping just long enough to grab a couple of large safety pins out of the vanity kit to secure it closed.
Into the other pocket went the Swiss Army knife I’d brought in my checked bag, but I left that pocket open just in case I needed quick access to it. I grabbed my lighter, heavy and silver, stashing it in my pocket with the knife. There wasn’t much in my jewelry roll, just a few pairs of hoop earrings and some diamond studs, which I put into my ears. They were a carat each, so clear and flawless they looked like fakes, but they’d be a useful source of cash if we needed to pawn them. Also in the jewelry roll was a narrow belt of gold coins that looked like replicas but were Pahlavis, souvenirs from a job in Iran and the only other thing of value I had brought. I would have clipped it around my waist, but it clattered like hell so Ihanded it over to Helen for safekeeping. She stuffed it into her Birkin with her address book and her pills.
By the time I finished sorting my things and turned my attention back to the others, they were on their feet. The change in posture had changed the mood. They were focused now, serious and businesslike. We checked our watches—some things we like to do old-school—and looked at each other. We were in a small huddle, standing close enough to one another that I could smell Helen’s Shalimar, Natalie’s neroli oil, Mary Alice’s green tea shampoo. A wave of love for them hit me so hard, it nearly buckled my knees.
“Screw it,” I said abruptly. Emotion is a good way to get yourself killed, the Shepherdess had taught us. I hefted the attaché case.
“You’re taking it?” Helen asked.
“It’s better this way. The lower down it is when it detonates, the greater the chance it will take out the whole boat.” I went to the door and took one last look. “See you on the other side.”
“The other side,” they said. Three old women, nodding their heads like the witches inMacbeth. I’d known them for two-thirds of my life, those impossible old bitches. And I would save them or die trying.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I made my way belowdecks, stopping a few times to dodge around a corner when a crew member passed. It seemed to take ages to reach the engine room, but my watch said it had been less than ten minutes. I wasn’t surprised. Time always seemed elastic on a job. Seconds felt like eternities and whole hours could pass in an instant. Heather Fanning’s key card swiped me right where I needed to go, and I slipped into the room, keeping my ears open for the sound of any engineers who might be hanging around. It was after nine and most of them were probably finishing their dinners or hitting the crew bar. A few would be left to supervise that everything was running smoothly, and they could do that by monitoring the computers. There wasn’t much call for them to hang out by the NGL tanks, I realized. It seemed as good a place as any to stash the case, so I wedged it between two tanks, counting on the shadows to conceal it from a casual glance.
Then I headed up another deck to the deserted library. Hunkered behind a chair, I took out the T-shirt and used the Swiss Army knife to cut it into pieces. The newspaper I crumpled into loose balls and piled on top of the T-shirt, soaking the whole pile with the alcohol from the minibar. The newspaper would burn fast but the fabric would smoke like hell, hopefully setting off the emergency warnings. I opened the door and took a cautious look outside. Empty. I slipped out and jammed the door closed.
My third stop was my own cabin. I was out of liquor, but I made do with some nail polish remover from Mary Alice’s toiletry bag, dousing the sheets and setting them alight. I fired my bed and Mary Alice’s, making sure to drop the security bolt as I exited by the terrace doors. I left them open, the sea breeze already whipping the flames up high enough to touch the ceiling. The curtains were drifting dangerously near and it would only be a matter of minutes before they caught.
I stood on the terrace, waiting for Natalie’s signal. Suddenly, the alarm sounded, loud as a trumpet of the Second Coming, and I put a hand to the railing, vaulting over it and lowering myself to the deck below. Another suite was just below ours, and I counted on the guests still being out. They’d even been considerate enough to leave the terrace doors open, and I passed through their suite, emerging into the corridor on the other side.
From there I moved out to the deck where pandemonium had erupted. Natalie was shrieking about smelling smoke and a harried pair of stewards were trying to quiet her down whileHeather Fanning urged everyone to stay calm. She was still insisting it was just a false alarm when the captain’s voice came over the PA issuing the orders to head directly to the lifeboats.
To their credit, the crew did as they’d been trained, organizing the passengers into their lifeboat queues, trying to check everyone off by name. Helen and Mary Alice hit two lines each, giving their own names to one steward, mine and Nat’s to another. Both times they were answered with brusque nods and told to stay close in order to be loaded into the next boat. And both times they slipped away into the scrum.
Nat and I headed towards the back of the boat to rendezvous with them. We’d just rounded the corner of the Theia deck when a voice boomed out behind us. “Ladies! Don’t be frightened. I’ve got seats for both of you.”
It was Hector, wearing a lurid fluorescent orange life vest and looking determined to play the hero. “Thanks, but we’ve got assigned seats,” I told him. “Go on to your boat and don’t worry about us.”
“Absolutely not! My ladies should not be left alone to find their way. Come, I will take care of you.”
“Jesus Christ,” Natalie muttered. “We’re running out of time. We have to get rid of him.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have flirted so much with him,” I hissed at her. I turned squarely to face him. “Hector, we’re not assigned to you. We are fine. Go to your boat,” I said again.
He shook his head and put out a hand to grip my arm. “You’re just panicking because you’re scared,” he said in whathe probably thought was a soothing tone. “Now, come with me.”
“I don’t have time for this patriarchal bullshit,” I said, whipping out a right cross that caught him on the sweet spot just below his ear. He went down silently, as if every bone had been filleted out of his body, landing in a heap on the deck.
“Wow. He must have a jaw like porcelain,” Nat remarked.
Together, Nat and I hoisted the unconscious Hector. I grabbed his shoulders while she took his ankles, and we swung him over the rail, dropping him into the water with an enormous splash.
I caught the attention of the nearest steward. “Man overboard!” I shouted, gesturing to the sea below where Hector was bobbing peacefully.
The steward swore and ran to alert someone while Nat and I hustled to the stern of the boat to meet up with Mary Alice and Helen. They were standing by the motor launch, the rubber motorized raft designed to ferry passengers from the boat for a hundred yards or so to the waiting docks. It was meant for harbors, not the open sea, but it would have to do. Together we maneuvered it off the fantail, cutting it loose instead of wrestling with the ropes. It started to drift as soon as it hit the water, the current carrying it away from the larger vessel.
We had seconds to jump, a good twenty feet straight down to a target that looked a hell of a lot smaller than I had expected. Nat went first, landing squarely in the middle of the launch and scuttling out of Helen’s way as she dropped. Mary Alice didn’t even try, preferring to take her chances in thewater. She went in a clean six feet from the launch, a few strokes pulling her to the side, where Helen and Nat hauled her in. Behind me, the alarms were shrieking and there was a thunderous boom from somewhere deep inside the boat. The noise caused more mayhem, with people screaming and shoving as the lifeboats were launched.
I took a breath and jumped, aiming as Mary Alice had done for the sea next to the launch. The water closed over me, warm and silky, and so dark it was impossible to tell which way was up. I held my breath, letting it out slowly so I could figure out where to go. A slender line of silver bubbles trailed out of my nose, pointing the way. I followed, breaking the surface to see a constellation shimmering just overhead.
Helen and Mary Alice reached out, hoisting me under the arms until I flopped into the bottom of the boat, coughing up seawater.
Helen looked up into the night sky, assessing the stars to determine our location.
