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When they returned to the ship, it was time to depart and Caitlin and Levka headed back to their rooms to change into something dry. Afterward, they planned on having lunch. But for now, Caitlin stared at the tons of gift bags sitting on Alicia’s bed.
Caitlin looked in one. A gold necklace. In another, a pair of gold earrings. A gold watch, gold bracelets, and a gold nose ring filled the other sacks. What did Alicia do? Buy out the store? Examining the receipts, she found Alicia had spent over a thousand dollars.
Shaking her head, Caitlin hurried to get a shower before the gold princess returned and took over the bathroom.
***
After Ruric called to Levka with some concern, he met him on the upper deck.
“Levka, I’ve heard more from the teens who intend to cause trouble aboard ship. They repeated they want to delay its return somehow so their spring break is extended.”
“But you don’t know how they intend to do this?”
“No. I believe they’re still in a quandary as to how to accomplish their plan.”
“We must find them before they try anything.”
Just as the words were out of his mouth, two explosions rocked the ship’s stern, the blast deafening. Plumes of black smoke billowed out the back end.
“This is the captain speaking. All passengers and crew to the lifeboats! Abandon ship! The ship is on fire!” boomed a voice over the public address system.
Confusion and panic immediately seized the passengers. Some headed for their lifeboat stations, donning lifejackets. Others hurried to the lifeboat stations without their lifejackets. Meanwhile, crew members tried to maintain calm.
“The pranksters,” Ruric warned Levka. “It’s the same voice I heard speaking before.”
“Maybe so, but the ship is on fire.” Levka headed toward Caitlin’s stateroom. “Find the others and meet us at our lifeboat station. We’ll make plans from there.”
“Right.” Ruric stalked off toward the ship’s bow.
A girl screamed near the boat’s stern and Levka whipped around to see, Amie, one of the Georgia girls they’d dined with, wearing her lifejacket. Her broom skirt had caught fire as the wind whipped the flames over the deck. Her face was white with terror as she screamed again. Before he could reach her, she climbed over the railing and jumped.
Without thinking, Levka vanished, reappearing beneath her over the ocean and caught her before she impacted with the water. Dropping into the ocean to douse the flames, the realization he couldn’t swim came too late. Amie flailed her arms in the water, sobbing and screaming, but her lifejacket kept them afloat.
“Are you burned?” he asked, trying to calm her. She was too hysterical to respond coherently, and her flailing threatened to drown them both. “Amie, look at me,” he said. “You’re floating in a pool, enjoying a lazy day on your spring vacation. Relax and enjoy.”
Levka wished he could allay his fears as well. Amie grew still in his arms and floated in the slight swells of the water.
“Turn the ship around!” Levka commanded his friends. “Two of us are in the water. Amie, one of the girls from Georgia, is burned, but I can’t learn the extent of her injuries. And someone make sure Caitlin gets to a lifeboat.”
“At once, Levka. Can you manage?” Ruric asked.
Levka held tight to the girl. “Amie is wearing a lifejacket.”
“I’ll go for Caitlin,” Arman said.
“Ruric and I will get the captain to turn the ship around,” Stasio said.
***
“Levka, where are you?” Caitlin asked, grabbing her own lifejacket and Alicia’s, her heart racing. She couldn’t believe the announcement the ship was on fire and they had to abandon it, but the blast had to be the cause. “I’m getting my lifejacket, but I don’t know where Alicia is.”
“I’m coming for you,” Arman assured her.
“Where’s Levka?” she asked, grabbing her purse.
“Helping a girl in need, as usual,” Arman said, his voice dark.
“Good. Do you want me to wait for you here or…”
