by Lyle Howard
“Holding steady at eight-six-oh degrees and she’s up to sixteen knots,” the technician called out. “She’s twelve miles due east of our current location.”
“Very good, Hassan. Thank you.”
Simms looked over the technician’s shoulder and then turned back to Sowell. “Why are you tracking an oil tanker?”
The Captain wiped the corner of his mouth with his handkerchief. “You asked me about my motivation…look at me. What do you see? Do I look like the picture of health to you?”
“I’m sorry, but no.”
Sowell cringed. “Have you ever had to deal with our country’s Veteran’s Administration? I will be long gone before any doctor from the V.A. even knows I exist. Do you have any idea what a private oncologist charges these days? I would use up every cent I have only to prolong the inevitable. Where does that leave my family? If that justifies your motivation of greed, Mr. Simms, then I’m guilty as charged.”
“Captain,” Hassan called out. “We have eight, no, nine contacts closing in on the Dobrinski’s location.”
Simms looked at Sowell who had a satisfied smile on his face. “That would be the cavalry. Keep me posted, Hassan.”
“What cavalry?” Simms asked. “What the hell is going on here?”
The Captain reached into a pocket on the side of his chair and pulled out a plastic bottle of water and took a long swig. “I have done a lot of things that I am not proud of, Mr. Simms, but treason is not one of them.”
Simms stared at the radar and watched as the distance closed between all the targets on the screen.
“What you’re seeing is the United States Navy out of Norfolk closing in one the supertanker Dobrinski. As you might guess, she is not heavy with crude, but she does contain a crate that our government would like to have back.”
The smaller targets were encircling the larger blip on the screen.
“The minute Peter Mason scuttled my ship and killed my crew, all deals were off as far as I was concerned. Any man that values his own ambitions over human life will eventually have to pay the piper.”
To say the Petty Office was confused would be an understatement. Suddenly, up was down and black was white. He rubbed his forehead trying to get his thoughts in line. “So this entire evening was a ruse to catch Peter Mason in the act of treason?”
The Captain took another sip of water. His throat felt so parched lately. “There is so much going on here, Mr. Simms, I can’t begin to explain it to you. This ship really is a mythological creature with many heads.”
“And you orchestrated this whole thing?” Simms asked.
Sowell chuckled. “You give me too much credit. You and I are nothing but pawns in a much larger game.”
“So who is running this show?” The Petty Officer asked.
Roy Sowell felt a sharp twinge in his side in a spot where he never had one before. He smiled through the pain. “That, Mr. Simms is the million dollar question you should be asking yourself.”
65
The Doctor and Detective headed down the central staircase to the dining room level. Lauren was holding up the hem of her skirt with one hand and was swearing aloud that if she ever got married, she would be wearing pants. Toby was two steps behind her huffing, puffing and miserable. It wasn’t the gallons of perspiration he was losing that bothered him so much as the fact that someone must have just washed down the handrails, because they felt all wet to him.
“Why are these rails so wet?” He complained.
“Even your palms are sweating, Toby” the detective explained. “Harriett needs to buy you a treadmill or a gym membership!”
They reached the landing and turned for one more flight of steps.
“She’s suggested that,” the Doctor admitted.
“And?”
“What do you mean, ‘and’? Can’t you tell that I’ve been pumping iron? For the last three years, when I’m not dissecting cadavers, I’m working as a stunt double for The Rock! Would you please slow down?”
The Detective reached the dining level and let her mentor catch his breath. “Seriously, Toby. What would Benjamin do if something happened to you?”
Toby was bent over with his hands on his knees. “I notice you didn’t say, ‘Harriett.’ You think she’d find someone that fast?”
Lauren put her hand on his shoulder. “Eat a salad every once in a while so we won’t have to find out!”
Toby blew out a deep breath and nodded. “I hear you loud and clear. Now, how do you want to handle this?”
Lauren let the hem of her dress fall to its full length. “Nicky is a psychopath with a hair-trigger temper. We don’t want him going off in a roomful of civilians. We need to separate him from the rest of the passengers. Divide and conquer.”
Toby matted his forehead with his handkerchief. “You make it sound so easy.”
Lauren put her hand on the doorway leading into the dining room. “Let’s hope it goes that way!”
A flaming Baked Alaska was being prepared at each table as the dessert course was served. Lauren and Toby looked at each other as they stepped into the room. “Are you kidding me?” Toby asked under his breath. “There’s like twenty-five fires burning in here!”
“Walk slowly,” Lauren advised. “Let them burn out.”
They spotted Matt at his table across the room talking to an elderly couple. They were both glad to see that he was safe. What they didn’t notice was that Simone Goldman was missing.
Nick Coltello was sitting at his table trading stock tips with a business regulator from one of Jacksonville’s largest banks. Jimmy Diaz was the first to spot the Detective returning to the table. He didn’t know who was with her, but he assumed it wasn’t her date. Diaz stood and held out his hand. “Detective, so glad to see you again! Here for another dance?”
“Sit down, Mr. Diaz. I need to have a few words with your employer.”
Diaz did as he was told. “May I ask what this is about?”
“It’s a private matter.”
Diaz picked a napkin off the table and handed it to Toby. “You seem to be sweating, Mr...?”
“Doctor,” Toby answered.
“Doctor? Are you with the police department as well, Doctor?”
“Bilston.”
Diaz smiled at him. “Is somebody sick, Doctor Bilston?”
Lauren held up her hand to stop Toby from saying any more. “We’d like to speak with Nicky, now!”
Diaz gestured toward his boss who was still speaking with the banker. “As you can tell, he doesn’t seem interested in talking to you.”
Lauren shook her head. “Jimmy, we don’t want to create a scene. There are too many people here. We need to talk to him. We can do this like civil human beings, or I can drag him out of here by his hair. Either way is fine with me.”
Toby thought his bladder just leaked a little. He knew Lauren’s reputation, but he had never witnessed this side in person. It was scary and a little arousing at the same time.
Nicky the Knife halted his investment conversation in mid-sentence. He gave no excuse or apology. His head slowly turned upward as he glanced at the Detective and then at the Doctor. “You are the biggest fucking Weeble I have ever seen! Is it really true that you wobble, but you can’t fall down?”
Toby immediately got the toy reference, but it went right over Lauren’s head. What did kids ever play with before smartphones?
“Don’t let the body fool you, Nicky,” Toby said, unabashedly. “Underneath, I’ve got the reflexes of a nineteen-year-old arthritic cat.”
Coltello dabbed the corner of his mouth and stood up. “You’re a funny guy, Doc. I like you.”
Toby didn’t smile. “Stop it, Nicky. You’re making me feel all warm and fuzzy.”
To the Doctor and Detective’s disbelief, Nicky the Knife started to walk away. “I’d re
ally like to stay and talk, but I don’t think so.”
Lauren looked at Toby and then at Jimmy Diaz. Was Nicky trying to make a run for it? Where did he think he was going to? They were out in the middle of the ocean! “Nicky, you need to stop,” she called out, trying not to draw too much awareness to their situation.
Coltello picked up his pace and burst out through the dining room doors. Lauren turned her attention to Jimmy Diaz. “He realizes that there’s nowhere to run, right?”
Diaz shrugged. “I don’t know what he thinks anymore. I’m just here to have a good time and enjoy the food and music.”
Toby grabbed Lauren by the arm. “You need to go after Nicky while I head for the control room to see if I can slow down this ship!”
Lauren called out to Toby as he started to walk away. “I think you’re going to need a pass key to access the bridge!”
The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and held up the required card. “Already taken care of!”
66
When Matt got back to the table, Simone was gone. He sat down for a few minutes, figuring that she might have gone to the restroom, but when she never returned, he started to get nervous.
Everyone else at the table was enthralled by the waiter as he flambeed the extravagant dessert. They clapped politely as the waiter began to portion out slices of the Baked Alaska. Matt looked around the dining room and spotted Detective King and Doctor Bilston heading to Nicholas Coltello’s table. He hoped they knew what they were doing.
“Excuse me,” he asked of the elderly couple with the cochlear implants, who had introduced themselves before as Eloise and Jonathan Harmon. “Have you seen my date? I doubt she would go wandering off by herself.”
Eloise looked at her husband as if she were afraid to say something that might get the pretty young woman in trouble with her boyfriend. Jonathan assured her that if he were in the same position, he would want to know. They were whispering to each other, but for someone who could read lips as well as Matt could, volume wasn’t an issue.
“What don’t I know?” Matt said, rising to his feet. “Where is Simone?”
Jonathan nodded at his wife, and she reluctantly spilled the beans. “Simone. That’s a beautiful name for such a lovely young lady!”
Matt gritted his teeth. They were older and set in their ways just like his grandfather, but if Eloise didn’t get to the point soon, he was going to flip out. “My date. Where did she go?”
“Personally, I thought he was much too old for her. Didn’t I say that to you, John?”
The old man nodded.
Too old for her? His head snapped to the right, and he immediately saw that Anthony Magnetti’s seat was empty and his Baked Alaska was nearly melted.
“Did she leave with an older man? Did he introduce himself as one of the guys from the baseball team?”
“Why yes!” Eloise exclaimed like Matt had just shown her a card trick. “How did you know that?”
“Do you know where they went?”
The old woman put her hand on her chest. “I didn’t even see them leave. Did you see them leave, John?”
Jonathan had a rivulet of vanilla ice cream dripping down his chin. “She got up before him. He followed her.”
Eloise occasionally dipped into her dessert and spoke at the same time, making it very hard for Matt to understand what she was saying. He wanted to stop her from eating, but he didn’t want to cause a scene by slapping her spoon across the room.
“I don’t remember that, John. Are you sure?”
The husband continued to ignore his chin. “Positive.”
“Well, he seemed like a nice enough fellow. He brought over his souvenir baseball bat to show her. It must have had sentimental value, because he said he never traveled anywhere without it. He kept it in his cabin. A bit much if you ask me. How emotional can you get over a piece of wood? Did you know that Jonathan and I had our poodle Mitzi stuffed when she died? But she was a living thing and part of our family.”
“Crazy old goat,” the old man grunted under his breath.
“How long ago did she leave?” Matt pleaded.
Eloise looked at her husband. “Couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, wouldn’t you agree, Jonathan?”
Jonathan never looked up as he scraped his dish to get every last drop. “You just missed them.”
There were four levels and over one hundred cabins to search. It wasn’t like he could knock on every door and wait for a response. Matt would have to wait for someone to personally open the door. The search would take all night!
Matt sprinted out of the dining room and headed for the central staircase. His only choice was to start at the bottom of the Hydra and work his way up. He reached the second deck landing when a thought occurred to him. If they had just left the dining room, they were probably still on the move. He wouldn’t take her into a secluded cabin. It wasn’t Simone he wanted. It was him! He would take her somewhere they could be seen. Somewhere in the open!
Matt ran over to the diagram of the ship mounted on the wall and moved his finger around the picture, floor by floor, cabin by cabin, public space by…the Oceanwalk! How much more out in the open could you get? Everyone was busy in the dining room, so the walkway would be empty now!
The Oceanwalk was on the same floor as the dining room, where he had just come from! He had to go back up. He flew up the stairs two at a time, u-turning on the landing, and made the last ten steps in five long leaps. Left or right? He was a natural southpaw, so he went left.
There was an automatic sliding door that opened onto the Oceanwalk. There was a warning posted on the glass, but Matt paid no attention. He raced into the glass tunnel and stopped short. Matt’s inner ear was his Achilles heel, and he knew it. Plane travel was difficult, and even long rides in a car could mess with his equilibrium. He couldn’t hear a thing, but his accelerated breathing was coming in loud and clear. He reached out and pressed his hands up against the glass walls on both sides to steady himself. Beneath him, there was nothing. Just the froth of the ocean rushing by under his shoes. Even if he didn’t have ear damage, this would probably be one of the most disorienting sensations a person could be subjected to. Why would anyone conceive of such a horrible experience?
The tunnel was empty ahead of him, so he slowly backed his way out of the glass passage. One step at a time, like he was walking an invisible tightrope…backwards. He could feel the sweat running down his forehead like the ice cream on Jonathan Harmon’s chin. This wasn’t some kind of psychological phobia, this was a real physical reaction, one that until this moment he was totally unaware he had.
He was starting to hyperventilate as the sliding glass doors slid open behind him. The rush of cold air was a welcome relief as he paced back and forth to regain his composure. Matt kept repeating to himself that he could overcome this.
Matt checked his watch. Five more minutes had passed. Precious timed wasted because he was as disabled as his grandfather believed him to be. It was time to step up to the plate and prove him wrong. He had been through far worse, and Simone was in trouble. Whatever it took, he would handle it.
The entrance to the starboard-side Oceanwalk was past the central staircase. This time, Matt paused to read the warning posted on the doors. The sentences where it mentioned disorientation and proceeding at one’s own risk were something they should have considered writing in a bolder font. He would have to complain about that on the post-cruise survey.
Anthony Magnetti stood in the middle of the glass tunnel holding Simone by one hand and his baseball bat in the other. Matt stood in the open doorway, his feet refusing to step onto nothingness. Simone was clearly petrified, and with his hands trembling, he signed to her that everything would be alright now. Her expression didn’t change with the news.
Magnetti waved the bat in Matt’s direction, gesturing for him to come out and joi
n them. In his mind’s eye, Matt was already on top of the murderer, beating his head to a pulp with his own weapon and saving the day. The human brain could play cruel tricks on people. Matt was sure that the moment he placed one unsteady foot onto the walkway, the predator before him would sense his weakness and strike.
The Hydra suddenly shuddered, and its forward speed began to decelerate rapidly. Matt grabbed onto the door frame to steady himself. The ship was coming to a stop! That off-kilter feeling didn’t seem as intense anymore. In less than a minute, the Hydra was hovering in place above the surface of the ocean. If Matt kept his eyes focused straight ahead, and didn’t look down; the dizziness was almost gone. Seventy-five percent would have to do.
The Oceanwalk was well lit along the edges of where the walls met the ceiling. There was no lighting on the floor, to minimize the glare and allow the passengers to see the water at night. Without a reflective surface, shadows were practically non-existent, making it very easy for Matt to see what Magnetti was saying.
Matt signed to Simone. “Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head, and the killer pulled her in closer.
Magnetti tapped the floor with the head of the bat as he spoke. “How are you not dead? It took me over three hours to refinish Sweet Amy after that night! You were one bad-ass little mother fucker! You even broke my nose! Yeah, I remember that night like it was yesterday. Now look at you, all grown up!”
“Why did you kill my parents?” Matt asked, inching closer. He chose not to interpret the conversation to keep Simone as calm as possible.
Magnetti tried to stop the girl from struggling in his grasp. “It wasn’t personal, kid. I still can’t believe you’re standing here in front of me! I’ve got to tell you, this is a first. I have never had a survivor before you.”
Matt held out his hand in front of him to try and keep Simone and the killer still. “Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Matt said peacefully.
Magnetti dragged Simone backward with him. “I still don’t know how you tracked me down, but there’s only one way this can end for you two. I need you to walk over to me very slowly,” the killer ordered, motioning with the bat.