“I’m not pulling your leg.”
Adrenaline began jolting through his system. “Where is it? When do we go?”
“That’s the tricky part. You’re going to have to deal with it from here.”
“What do you mean?” he said, his growing excitement turning to confusion.
“It’s in India.”
“India. The country India?”
“Uh-huh. In Mumbai.”
“How the hell did we get access to a communications hub in Mumbai?”
She reached for the two sets of headphones on her desk. “There’s someone I’d like you to talk with.”
10
Robert opened his eyes to a sun barely peeking over the horizon.
As he sat up, he was greeted with the aches and pains from sleeping on a too-thin cushion covering a too-hard wooden bench. He took a few moments to stretch and then rose to his feet.
Pax was still asleep, breathing long and deep. One of the man’s arms had fallen off the bench, and his hand now rested on the deck. Robert would be surprised if Pax didn’t have a knot in his shoulder when he woke up.
As he stepped into the central aisle, he suddenly remembered Kat had been sleeping up there with them. Apparently she had decided not to slit their throats; that was good. Robert walked down the aisle to check on her, but stopped short when he caught sight of the bench where she’d slept. It was empty.
He hurried back to the front of the boat, not worried so much that the others might have broken out, but more that if they had, they’d taken Robert’s and Pax’s things with them. The rope holding the stairway door closed was still in place, however, so it appeared Kat had left on her own.
Wanting to get as early a start as possible, Robert hopped off the boat and jogged over to the fuel truck. The tank was less than half full now, but he was confident it would be more than enough to get them to Isabella. The dock was too small for the truck to drive onto it, so he had to pull the hose out to the ferry. By the time the last bit of fuel flowed out of the truck’s tank, Pax had begun to stir. Robert pulled the hose back on shore and wrapped it in its holder.
As he walked back on board, someone pounded on the stairway door.
“Hey! You gotta let me outta here!”
“Pipe down,” Robert said.
This only seemed to increase the man’s anxiety. Rapid-fire thuds, followed by, “You can’t leave me down here with him! Come on! Please! Let me out!”
A sleepy-looking Pax came around the side of the toilets. “Our guests are awake, I take it?”
“Jesus, man!” the guy behind the door yelled. “It’s inhuman! You can’t just leave me here! I don’t want to catch it! I don’t want to catch it!”
Robert and Pax looked at each other.
“What are you talking about?” Robert said.
“It’s Aiden! He’s sick! I don’t want to be sick!”
Robert looked back at Pax and whispered, “What do we do?”
Pax moved up to the door. “Listen very carefully, Luke. We’ll let you out, but only if you promise to head straight off the boat and not touch anything. Do you understand?”
“Come on, open the door! Come on! Come on!”
“We are not opening anything until I know you will follow my directions.”
“Sure, sure. Whatever. Just open it.”
“Not good enough. What are you going to do?”
“What? Uh, uh, walk off the boat.”
“Without…?” Pax said.
“Without what?” Luke asked.
“Touching anything.”
“Right. Without touching anything. I get off the boat without touching anything.”
Pax turned to Robert, and said in a voice loud enough for Luke to hear, “Get the rifles.”
“Hey, wait a minute!” Luke said. “What d’you need rifles for?”
“To make sure you follow directions.”
“I’ll follow them, dammit! Don’t shoot me.”
Robert retrieved the rifles and gave one to Pax.
“Tell me again what your instructions are,” Pax said
“I, um, I go off the boat and don’t touch anything,” Luke said.
“Okay. Now you’re going to hear some noise around the door, but you hold still until I tell you that you can open it. Got it?”
“No problem.”
From deeper in the hold they heard a muffled cough.
Pax whispered to Robert, “You ready?”
Robert pointed his weapon at the door and nodded. After setting his rifle down, Pax untied the rope holding the door closed and tossed it out of the way.
As soon as he was rearmed, he said, “Open it. Slowly.”
The handle turned and the door eased out, revealing a terrified Luke standing on the other side. More coughing echoed from below. Luke glanced over his shoulder as if the sound was a monster he could actually see, and then looked back at Robert and Pax, his eyes pleading for release.
“Come on out,” Pax said.
Luke stepped through the doorway. Robert and Pax adjusted their positions so they could keep several feet between them and Pax’s former kidnapper.
“It’s a nice straight shot,” Pax said, nodding his head toward the dock. “Keep on going and everything will be fine.”
As soon as the way was clear, Robert closed the staircase door.
“I don’t want to be sick,” Luke said. “I don’t.”
“Whether you are or not shouldn’t be what’s worrying you at the moment,” Pax said. “Keep moving.
Luke walked across the deck as if his feet weighed a hundred pounds each. When he finally reached the edge of the ship, he stopped and looked back. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked.
“Not our problem,” Pax said.
“You can’t leave me here. You gotta help me.”
“Nope,” Robert said. “We don’t.”
Luke looked at Robert and then at Pax, panicked. “I’m sorry. About the boat, I mean. And…and pointing a gun at you. We were just trying to get home.”
“Get. Off,” Pax said.
Robert bobbed the end of his rifle to emphasize the point.
“Where’s your compassion?” Luke asked.
“I’m about three seconds from pulling this trigger,” Pax said.
Luke used the first two to continue to stare before he finally scrambled onto the dock.
“Don’t stop there,” Robert said, his rifle still aimed at the man.
“I’m off, goddammit. That’s what you wanted.”
“I said, don’t stop.”
Luke clenched his jaw, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. “You can’t do this!”
Pax adjusted the aim of his gun from Luke’s chest to the man’s head. “Move!”
Luke huffed out a breath, whirled around, and started walking toward the street. He only made it about a dozen feet before he stopped, his head turned to the right, looking at something.
Robert followed the man’s gaze, and then groaned under his breath.
Kat was standing halfway between the storage building and the boat, cloth bags dangling in both hands. She had obviously been heading back to the Albino Mer, but had stopped when she saw Luke being escorted off.
“Keep coming, Kat,” Robert yelled. “Don’t get anywhere near him!”
Luke shot a quick glance back at the boat and adjusted his course toward Kat.
“Don’t even think it!” Pax yelled. “Don’t you get anywhere near her!”
Luke slowed but didn’t stop.
“What’s going on?” Kat asked. She was frozen in confusion.
“Aiden’s sick,” Robert told her. “Luke’s been exposed! You don’t want to get anywhere near him!”