by Skylar Cross
"No, no," she said. "That's all right. You don't have to do that."
"I insist," I said. "After the way you treat me, you think I'm going to let you walk all the way to the dock carrying this heavy monstrosity?"
"Oh, thank you, Jacob. You're such a kind boy."
She followed me all the way down to the dock, where I stepped on the yacht with the cooler.
"Mealea, come on!" shouted Maru Huang from the fly bridge. "We have to go now! We're going to be late!"
"Where would you like it?" I said.
"Oh, there is fine," she said as she stepped onboard.
I put the cooler down and jumped back onto the dock.
Maru Huang fired up the engines. Mrs. Huang brought the cooler into the boat and disappeared inside.
"Jacob!" shouted Maru Huang. "Will you untie me?"
I untied the boat from the dock and gave Maru Huang a thumbs-up gesture. It began to drift away.
The engines kicked to life and I watched the big boat as it gathered speed.
If you had told me that was the moment my life was going to radically change forever, I wouldn't have believed you.
In the companionway of the yacht, I saw a little face pop up and wave at me with a big smile.
Oh, shit. It's Kiri!
"Ha ha!" she said as she went back into her hiding place.
"Kiri!" I shouted, my voice drowned by the sound of the engines.
Fuck.
What should I do?
Well, what's the big deal anyway? I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Huang will find her. It's even better that they have one of their kids with them. Might prevent Sebastian from doing anything he might regret.
Not that anything like that could happen.
Right?
Everything that had been simmering inside me exploded to the surface in a series of alarm bells. A disaster was about to happen. I knew it. I felt it in my bones. I had to stop it.
The old me would have just disappeared like a good con artist.
But I couldn't let anything happen to the Huangs or Kiri.
I need the real locket!
I ran full speed back to the house, all the way up the big steps.
Teva, the housekeeping supervisor, was in the Huang's kitchen with Narith and Dara.
"Jacob!" he said as I ran in and ripped open the flour can. "Have you seen Kiri?"
I didn't answer him as I ran, locket in hand, back to the dock.
My only option was a stupid dinghy. Maru Huang had recently sold his speedboat. The nearest one was at the next resort over and it was guarded by a team. This damned dinghy will have to do.
I got in, untied it, and began rowing.
Shit, I'll never catch them in this thing!
But I have to try.
I felt possessed. Nothing was going to prevent me from getting out there to stop whatever dreadful thing all my nerves told me was going to happen.
Shit, why didn't I stop them before they left? Why didn't my alarm bells go off earlier?
It was the little girl Kiri. She set off my alarm system. I can't let anything happen to her!
I rowed like a madman. Sweat poured off me.
I quickly realized that if there was one thing I hadn't mastered it was boating. As I drifted further and further out to sea, I marveled at how inept I was at getting the dinghy to go where I wanted it to go. A couple of times I thought a wave was going to swallow me but it didn't.
I'm not sure how much time went by. I swear it was a couple of hours, but maybe it wasn't that long.
I was in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by ocean on all sides. Big waves tossed me around. My stomach rolled.
This was a bad idea. I'm just going to end up dying out here. I should have taken the time to go over and steal a powerboat. What was I thinking?
I hadn't been thinking. That was the problem.
So I decided to turn around, cursing myself.
Then I saw them.
There they were!
The two boats. Sebastian's catamaran and Maru Huang's yacht.
I rowed toward them.
I had no idea how I was going to handle this, but I had to be there.
The spirit force that propelled me took over, granting me superhuman energy.
As I got closer to the two boats, I heard a gunshot.
Shit. No, it couldn't have been.
Then another. Then another.
No.
No.
No no NO!
I rowed faster.
Then I saw Sebastian standing on the deck of the yacht.
His white shirt was covered in blood.
I stopped rowing and lay face-down in the dinghy. If he killed them, then he could kill me. Better to stay down.
I peered over the edge of the dinghy, snippets of what was going on visible in flashes as the rough sea tossed me.
Sebastian got into the catamaran. He had tied a rope to the steering column way up on the yacht's fly bridge. Valentina got in the catamaran with him.
The girl. Where's Kiri? Did they kill her?
Sebastian maneuvered the catamaran around and hit his engines. Whatever he had tied the rope to on the fly bridge kicked up the engines of the yacht. It took off fast, spinning in circles.
After about twenty spins a giant wave came up and smashed into its side, tipping it backwards. The engines kicked off.
I don't know what Sebastian did, but the boat was sinking.
The catamaran was almost gone on the horizon. If they had seen my dinghy, they hadn't paid any attention to it. I was probably hidden by the large waves.
I rowed toward the big yacht, its large end now completely underwater. I heard loud creaking and breaking sounds as the powerful ocean tore it apart.
As I got closer, I saw the bodies of Maru and Mealea Huang. Covered in blood.
Sebastian, you bastard! You murderous bastard! We're not supposed to kill anybody! Not ever!
For the first time in my life, I had found what felt like a home. Like these people were my family.
And now they're dead.
Dead by the hands of my mentor.
Dead by my own hands.
I killed them.
I killed them by being a part of this.
I heard a big cracking sound. The boat lurched backwards and toppled. The bodies fell into the sea. I watched the lifeless head of Mrs. Huang as it bobbed for a while and then sank beneath the waves.
I sat there and cried. I don't remember crying before, unless I was faking it for a job. This was real.
When my father died, I didn't cry. When the social worker told me that my mother had died, I didn't cry.
But for these two beautiful people I cried.
No greater wrong had ever been committed.
I didn't want to go on. I wanted to die right there with them.
Maybe I will. Maybe I'll just sink my little dinghy and drown. I deserve it.
Then I heard something. Crawling out from the companionway was little Kiri.
She's alive!
"Kiri!" I shouted.
She looked at me with intense fear. She was looking around like she was trying to find her parents. Did she see them get shot?
At least the bodies are gone. I wouldn't want her to see that.
I have to rescue her, I said to myself. I have to save this little girl.
"Kiri, over here!" I shouted.
She looked at me blankly. Normally she was very expressive, but she was apparently in a state of shock or something. Don't blame the poor little thing.
I rowed harder, fighting the waves, until I was alongside the big boat.
I reached out to grab the rail of the bow, but it almost pulled me under. The yacht sank a few feet more.
Kiri climbed to the tip of the bow, the only part that was above water now.
She was only about three feet from me. I stood up to try and grab her, but quickly realized I can't stand on this damned thing without tipping it over.
If she could ju
st reach out to me...
"Give me your hand, Kiri!" I said.
But she just sat there and stared.
What the fuck? Why isn't she grabbing my hand? Doesn't she know the boat is going down?
"Give me your hand!"
The dinghy was drifting backward. I rowed madly to stay close to her, then I reached out again.
The big boat took a huge turn downward. A wave came up and smashed the little girl in the face, but she held on.
"Kiri, grab my hand!"
Dammit, she isn't going to grab my hand! She's just going to stare at me and die!
"Kiri, you've got to take my hand now!"
I looked deeply into her eyes, my hand only a foot from her now. Finally, she reached out and took my hand. I yanked and pulled her over onto the dinghy.
With a large cracking noise and a final plop, the large yacht sank beneath the waves.
"It's okay, Kiri," I said as I hugged her. "It's going to be all right. You're safe now. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."
Chapter 7
I awoke with a start, gasping.
"It's okay," said the woman with red hair. "You're all right."
I sat up fast, hitting my head on a beam.
"Oh, you poor dear," said the woman, "that's the last thing you needed. We're on a sailboat so the ceilings are low in here. Be careful."
"Where am I?" I said, as I nursed my head. The words didn't come out right, though. I didn't recognize the sound of my own voice.
The woman handed me a glass of water. I drank it down in two seconds flat. Best water I ever tasted.
She filled the glass again. Another guzzle.
I felt a wave of nausea hit me. My stomach had been empty for days, so the sudden onslaught of water sent it reeling.
"That's enough for the moment," she said. "You'll just throw up if you have too much at once. Just lay back and I'll give you some more in a few minutes."
I kept trying to speak, but realized it was useless. I lay back on the bed in the small stateroom and closed my eyes.
I'm not sure how much time had passed, but there she was again with another glass of water. This time, I got up without hitting my head and drank it down.
"Thank you," I said. Ah, there's my voice. "Kiri. The girl who was with me. Where's the girl?"
"She's okay," she said. "She's in shock but she's alive. You're both going to be all right. We're going to call the authorities to send a medical transport out to get you, but we're having some trouble with the radio."
"No! Please, no. Don't do that. We'll be fine."
I didn't mean to be so emphatic. That wasn't good. That's going to alarm her. But the last thing we need is the French authorities. I'm probably wanted for the murder of the Huangs by now. I'd even be willing to bet that Sebastian framed me for it.
"Where am I?" I said. "Who are you?"
"My name is Martine. You're on my husband's sailboat. We found you and the girl on a tiny boat and we took you aboard. What happened to you?"
I tried to think of a story quickly, but my usually sharp brain was dull from dehydration.
"Our boat sank," I said. "My parents went down."
I tried to cry, which I could usually do on command, but I had no fluid in my tear ducts. The woman looked at me with a squint.
"Oh, that's terrible," she said. "I'll tell my husband to let the authorities know."
"No!" I said. "You can't."
Her look went from worried to distrustful.
"Why not?" she said.
Think, Caden, think!
"Because it was the authorities that killed them," I said. "My parents were up to no good. I'm trying to escape with my sister Kiri. We need to get back to America. To my aunt in Kansas."
Martine just looked at me with the same squint.
"Well, you're a long way from Kansas. But we are headed for Tahiti. We're going to enter port there for a while, and you both need to go to hospital."
"No!" I said. "You can't let us fall into the hands of the police there. They'll kill us."
"They'll kill an eighteen year-old boy and a five-year old girl? Really? Why would they do that?"
Shit, I'm better than this. This story sucks.
"Look, I can't go into details," I said, as a coughing fit hit me.
Martine put her hand on my back as I coughed. She handed me another glass of water and I drank it down.
I put my head back and fell asleep again.
Chapter 8
It had been two days since Mr. and Mrs. Decoud rescued Kiri and me. I was able to convince them not to call the authorities to send a helicopter. They agreed we would dock and go to the hospital in Pape'ete.
It's not that I didn't want Kiri to get medical treatment. I wanted her to see a doctor, yes. But as soon as I set foot on Tahitian soil, I'm at risk of going to a French prison. I've heard nightmare stories about French prisons and I refuse to get locked up in one!
I sat there leaning on the rail of the sailboat they called the Nostromo. I took the locket out of my pocket. I opened it and looked at the sepia-toned woman in the photograph. I read the numbers carved into it.
All this death and misery for what? For this?
I thought about throwing the damned thing into the ocean. But I snapped the locket shut and put it back in my pocket.
Kiri was unresponsive. Every time I tried talking to her, she just stared. All the expressiveness had gone out of her face. Her big eyes had no life behind them.
As I watched the setting sun, I blamed myself. I had finally found a tiny sliver of meaning in my life. But I had allowed Sebastian to destroy it with his obsession.
Fucking Sebastian. I always knew he was capable of murder but I thought I would get away from him before he committed one.
Fuck.
What do I do now?
As I stared at the setting sun, Jacques Decoud came up on deck to check the riggings. He gave me an evil glance, then went about his work.
Once I had gotten some of my senses back, I embellished my story with my usual devotion to detail.
But Jacques Decoud was having none of it. I couldn't charm him.
I saw something in his eyes that I recognized. It was the same thing I saw in my own eyes. A vast intelligence. A superb reading of human behavior. And a criminal past.
The old cliché It takes one to know one rang true when Jacques Decoud and I met eyes.
Not like Sebastian, though. Sebastian was 100% dead behind his eyes. Valentina too. They belong together.
But Jacques Decoud was like me. Crafty, clever, and intelligent. But with a real human being hidden inside somewhere. In another lifetime, we could have been friends.
But we were not friends on this boat.
I had to figure out a way to get us away from the Decouds and off to the United States. I had two fake passports in a safe deposit box in Pape'ete along with enough cash to live on for a while, but I'm bound to be arrested if I walk into that bank. I'll have to charm one of my girls into going in for me. Shouldn't be too hard.
As for Kiri, I had to protect her. Somehow I had to make things right for her. Her parents were killed because of my stupidity.
Probably the best thing would be to get her to Teva, who would reunite her with Narith and Dara. From there, I would hope there are relatives somewhere who would adopt them. Somehow I'll get some money to them for the kids.
I felt terrible for all three of them, but Kiri was the only one who was on the boat when her parents were killed. I have no idea what she saw. Maybe she was hidden and didn't see anything.
But I have a feeling she saw it all, which is why she's in shock. Poor little thing.
As I seethed there on the deck of the Decouds' sailboat, fantasies of strangling Sebastian filling my head, I vowed to myself that I would make it up to all of them, all three kids.
Mrs. Decoud seemed to be a very kind person, but I could tell her husband must have told her not to trust me. She wanted to, but couldn't.