“Oh… Dr. Kenmore…” Marty shook his head. “…I’m sorry, he stepped out. Should I have him call you back when he returns?”
“Yes, please. My cabin number is 914 and I am looking forward to meeting you as well.”
“I will have him call you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Cooper.”
She cradled the phone with a smile.
“Well, somebody has been spanked,” she said to Marty. They both chuckled.
“Tom works fast,” concluded Marty.
“I’m going to change and go get a drink and take a stroll,” asserted Myra.
“I can handle that,” returned Marty, “but first, I am going to help you change.” He grabbed her and threw her on the bed.
“Animal,” she shrieked.
***
One deck below, Monk sat stewing on his balcony. He had made a mistake and that was very rare. When he had accidentally bumped into Pam, he had looked her full in the face. Previously, on another assignment for Chiles, he had done surveillance on some of the staff, which included her.
One of his MOs was that he never showed his face to anyone connected with the case. This worried him. He would have to be very careful if he was in her vicinity again.
Meanwhile, it was time to scout out the congressman’s digs. He donned his first disguise of a beard and long grey hair, a light brown shirt, and brown pants. With his sun glasses, floppy hat, and his book, he passed perfectly as a professor.
The arrival of a U.S. Congressman was always an event, and this was no exception. Although the public was not apprised of his presence, the crew had been notified.
Monk looked around, immediately spotting where the congressman was assigned. Security at the stairway and the elevator was a little more than he had anticipated. The ‘delivery’ would need to be done on the run. He had foreseen that scenario, but he needed to scope out the dining room.
Seemingly lost, he wandered into the dining room expecting to be met, but there was no one. Monk walked over to the concierge podium. The map of the tables was marked with magic marker and he saw the congressman’s table fourteen, with names marked at each seat. The table adjoining was number fifteen.
Finding his table nine on the layout, he quickly switched table numbers nine and fifteen. Checking again that no one was around, he walked over and picked up the nametags from Table nine and switched them with table fifteen, placing himself directly behind the congressman.
Meanwhile, on deck, Marty and Myra relaxed at the bar, watching the passing parade. They had sailed about ten minutes ago, and the mood was lighthearted.
Marty picked up his cell and hit the return number for Dr. Arthur Kenmore.
“This is Dr. Kenmore.”
“Dr. Kenmore… Marty Cooper returning your call.”
“Yes… Yes, Marty, and please, call me Arthur. I wanted to apologize for my actions when we met at the airport. I had just received some rather disturbing news and I was not myself.”
Yeah… Yeah, thought Marty. “No problem, Arthur. I assume we will be at the same table for dinner tonight. I will look forward to seeing you then.”
“Wonderful. I’ll see you then,” replied the Dr. in an overly sappy tone.
Marty clicked off as a man approached him from behind. Myra started to warn him when the man put his finger to his lips, shaking his head.
“Are you sure you are on the right ship,” quipped the man.
Marty turned and broke into a smile. “Norm… How nice to see you.” Marty turned to Myra, “Myra… I’d like you to meet Norm Arthur.”
Myra offered her hand, “Nice to meet you, Norm.”
“Norm is the Chairman of the ’Council on Safe Medicine (COSM).”
“So nice to meet you as well, Myra. Are you enjoying yourself so far?”
“Very much, and I plan on a lot more while you boys continue to save the world,” she said, which brought a chorus of laughter.
Marty edged closer to Myra, “…care to join us, Norm?”
“No. I just came to get a drink for Lin, my wife, to bring a back to the cabin. I assume we will see you at dinner?”
“Of course, we’ll look forward to it.” Everyone said their goodbyes and Norm strolled away.
“He seems pleasant,” Myra said.
“He is a great guy. I just wish we weren’t on opposite sides.”
Myra looked puzzled, “Does it get nasty?”
“No. He’s too much of a gentleman to let that happen. …but he can be very persuasive with his point of view. We have managed to avoid any hard feelings and I think he respects me as much as I respect him. This trip will be very interesting. Particularly with the two egos of Dr. Kenmore and Congressman Barnes. Hopefully, Norm and I will be the two buffers.”
Marty’s cell chirped.
“Marty Cooper.”
“Mr. Cooper, it’s Nancy. I am so sorry to bother you. Am I interrupting anything?”
“No. Go ahead, Nancy. What time is it there?”
“It’s 9am. I hope this is nothing, but I thought I should notify you immediately. We have been attacked by someone on our server. Our security caught it, but I don’t know if they got in or not.”
Marty frowned, “First of all, I am glad you called. I haven’t had time to introduce you to Dave Reasoner, our IT guy. You will find his number in my phone list file on my laptop. I gave you the passcode.”
“Right.”
“Call him and after he’s done an assessment, have him get back to me with you on the line.”
Nancy sighed, “OK.”
“Nancy… you did the right thing.”
“Thank you.”
Marty closed off, “Goodbye.”
Nancy was furiously scrolling through Marty’s phone list when her cell beeped. She looked down and saw it was Kelly.
“Hi, Kelly.”
“Hi, Nancy… You busy?”
“Kind of… but go ahead.”
“I was wondering if we could get together tonight. Nothing special.” Kelly remembered that they were probably being recorded. “I just thought we could have a drink.”
“That sounds great. The same place at 6:30.”
“Great. See you then.”
She continued scrolling and found Dave Reasoner’s name and punched in the number.
“He… hello…” answered a sleepy voice.
“Mr. Reasoner… I am so sorry if I woke you. My name is Nancy Stone. I am the executive assistant to Marty Cooper.”
There was a rustling sound and then, “…What did you say your name was?”
“Nancy Stone. I work with Marty Cooper.”
“Oh… OK… Sorry. I worked until 4 this morning.” Nancy stared at the phone. She had forgotten that IT people don’t work normally.
“…Um …well… Mr. Cooper is on a business trip and I have just discovered that we had an attack on our system during the night and he said to call you immediately and have you do an assessment and then call him with me on the line.”
Dave sat up in bed. “OK. I am going to go to my computer and then I will direct you how to get me on the system remotely and we will see what we can find.”
***
Marty’s cell chirped just as they entered their cabin.
“Marty Cooper,” he answered.
“Hello, Marty… Dave here.”
“Dave… Don’t give me any bad news.”
Dave laughed, “Well… I don’t have any bad news, but I don’t have any good news. Definitely, someone tried to get in. On a preliminary basis, I would say they failed to get through the security. But it seems that it wasn’t just an ordinary hack. I think they targeted you.”
“Wow,” exclaimed Marty, “why would they be after us?”
“Well… You have some pretty sophisticated algorithms and search capacities that, I imagine, competitors would love to have. I don’t know if I will be able to track anything. I would bet not, but I will give it a shot and keep you posted. In the meantime, I did not conn
ect Nancy on this call because I wanted to discuss with you how secure you feel with her.”
Marty paused, remembering the speed with which he had hired her. His ‘gut’ told him that she was trustworthy and no problem. “Dave, I have no reason to doubt her integrity, but why don’t you keep an eye on her and let me know if you see anything that would cause us problems.”
“OK… will do.”
“We’ll get together when I am back in a week. OK?”
“Great… see you then.”
***
Pam had decided to stay in her cabin on the balcony and enjoy the fresh air, dozing from time to time. Her headaches had stopped and the wound was healing nicely. She had been able to cover it with a little hair manipulation so no one noticed.
Reading through the itineraries, she learned dinner was at 7 and her table and seat was prearranged. She was intrigued about the placements and who she was seated beside. Fortunately, she had remembered to call the steward and had her dinner attire sent out to be pressed.
After checking the time, she decided to take a jog before getting ready for dinner. Throwing on a pair of sweats, she emerged from the cabin just as Marty and Myra were walking down the hall. They exchanged waves.
“I guess we’ll see you at dinner?” questioned Myra.
Pam nodded, “Yes. I’m excited. I’m just going to go for a quick jog. See you later.” She hoped that this chance meeting was not going to be the norm. She planned on a lot of ‘alone’ time.
She had studied the ship’s layout a little and knew the jogging track was on the top deck. Rather than taking the elevator, she decided to walk the two flights. As she was starting up the second flight, she glanced down the hall and saw the man she had bumped into at the boarding station. They locked eyes again for a brief moment and then both continued.
Pam couldn’t understand what it was about the man that unnerved her, except that he seemed to take an unusual interest in her. She shrugged it off and entered the top deck to gorgeous bright sunshine.
***
Monk sat on the balcony staring out at the ocean as he pondered the latest occurrence. He had always been a great believer that there were no coincidences and now there had been two encounters with this woman in which, both times, she had seen his face express interest.
He smiled! Perhaps, he was getting too old and sloppy for this business. Maybe with this large job, he would finally retire. But that didn’t solve the problem right now. He began to consider whether it was serious enough to work out a solution. She certainly did not know who he was and the chances of seeing her again after this job were slim… Hmmm.
Meanwhile, he had to make some preparations. Back in the cabin, he began dressing for his performance, as he liked to think of them. First the makeup and then the beard and mustache, topped by bushy eyebrows and artificial colored contact lenses, followed by the complete ‘under outfit’ of a grey mock turtle neck and black slacks.
Next came the slightly oversized slacks, shirt, and jacket, with a clip-on bow tie, and finally, the shaggy grey wig.
Before leaving for the cruise, he had visited his favorite doctor who specialized in euthanasia. The doctor found Monk’s drug selection rather humorous, considering the name. It was called Aconite, from the plant Monkshood (also known as wolfsbane), which causes arrhythmic heart function, quickly leading to suffocation, leaving only one postmortem sign; that of asphyxia.
The quick deterioration of the toxin in the body boded well for this client because proximity to a modern postmortem facility was negligible.
He had only used this method one other time, so dosage was somewhat unknown. He knew that death was inevitable, but when was a question. He had to be sure his ‘getaway’ was rapid.
For his previous event, he had developed a flat, handheld container that, when pressed against an object, injected the solution into the tissue.
Carefully, he inserted the small vial into the mechanism and secured the cap over the injector, then placed the device in his pants pocket for quick retrieval.
***
Myra hollered from the shower, “Have you picked out what you’re wearing?”
“Yeah…” mumbled Marty as he continued his research. He wanted to be totally ‘up to date’ on any new blog comments. He knew this was going to be his first session with Norm and the congressman and he certainly didn’t want to be ‘sandbagged.’
Emerging from the shower, Myra saw Marty on the computer.
“Marty! We have to leave in fifteen minutes.”
“OK… OK… I’ll make it,” he said as he popped up, stripped, and jumped in the shower.
Sure enough, he almost made it as he finished buttoning his Tommy Bahama shirt. Myra came out of the bedroom and Marty stopped dead and just stared. She was absolutely dazzling in her Oleg Cassini cocktail dress.
“What?” smiled. Myra.
Marty laughed, “Oh, nothing… I just thought you would be wearing something other than an old house dress.”
She whacked him on the arm.
Chapter 10
The main dining room was majestically decorated, as were the guests filing in past the concierge podium. The cocktail bars were already active when Marty and Myra arrived. They walked through a crowd shaking hands and hugging. Marty’s growing reputation and the news of Cooper Consulting had gained him additional recognition. Reaching the bar, they were met by Norm Arthur and his wife, Lin.
“Marty, Myra, say hello to my wife, Lin.”
Myra reached out her hand, “A pleasure, Lin.”
“Nice to meet you, Myra,” Lin gave them a sweeping smile, “thank you. I have heard such nice things about you both. What a pleasure.”
They all turned as the bartender asked for their orders.
The arrival of the drinks was met with a whirlwind of activity preceding the entrance of Congressman Chet Barnes. He was a dashing figure. An athlete during college, he graduated with a law degree from Harvard, followed by a four-year stint in the Military. His three-year political career was uneventful until he took up the torch to fight for stronger enforcement by the FDA after the sudden cancer death of his wife. That had taken a toll, but since then, he had returned to the spotlight, earning plaudits for his efforts.
The Congressman waved as he spied Norm and walked over to the group.
“Norm… How nice to see you. Lin, how are you.”
Lin smiled, “Great. How are you, Chet? Nice to see you again.”
“Lin, why haven’t you left him yet. You know I am waiting for you.”
Everyone laughed. Chet looked to Marty, “You must be Marty Cooper.”
Marty looked surprised, “Yes. Nice to meet you, Congressman… and this is my wife, Myra.”
“Please, call me Chet, and a pleasure to meet you, Myra.”
Just then Marty noticed all eyes turned toward the door to see Pam walking toward them, followed by Dr. Arthur Kenmore. Myra waved at Pam while Dr. Kenmore stood basking in what he thought was his glory.
As Pam hugged Myra, “Hello,” she looked over Myra’s shoulder, straight into Chet Barnes’ eyes. Neither one broke the gaze until, finally, Myra pushed away and said, “Pam, I want you to meet Congressman Chet Barnes.”
Pam reached out her hand while Chet extended his. “Pam Styles,” she said.
“Chet Barnes. A pleasure to meet you.”
Marty jumped in, “Pam is the executive assistant to Tom Chiles.”
“Really,” exclaimed Chet, “I saw the table seating and I wondered who that name was.” He looked over to Pam and paused. Her unblinking black eyes held him captive.
“I have admired your work, Congressman Barnes. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Please… not so formal. Call me Chet.” There was silence as they stared at each other just as the tone sounded to be seated. “Shall we eat?” suggested Chet, reaching for her elbow.
Myra looked at Marty with raised eyebrows. Marty scowled and shook his head slightly.
Followi
ng Congressman Barnes, the group strolled to their designated table. Observing the seating plan, Chet picked up Dr. Kenmore’s name card, beside his, and replaced it with Pam’s, while the others sorted out their location. Marty and Myra again locked eyes. What was all this about?
Predictably, Dr. Kenmore held back so he could be the last one to the table after everyone was seated. As he walked over, Marty rose and they shook hands, then Marty addressed the group, “I think you all know Dr. Arthur Kenmore.”
Everyone nodded. “Nice to see you all again,” exuded the Dr." Then, eyeing the Congressman, he said, “Congressman… I am a big fan.”
Chet gave him a jaundiced stare. “Nice to meet you, Dr.,” he said unenthusiastically.
Oh… Oh, thought Marty, this is already on a rocky road.
“Well, now… does everyone know everyone?” said Dr. Kenmore in an attempt at humor, which was met with blank stares, then muffled, polite chuckles around the table.
Being round, there was no ‘head’ of the table, but there seemed to be a slight separation between the congressman and everyone else, indicating an elevated importance, which was quickly altered even more by Chet moving his chair closer to Pam. To Pam’s right was the Dr. then Lin, Norm, Myra and Marty.
***
Watching from the bar across the room, Monk had watched the introductions with interest and was surprised to see Pam join the group. Obviously, she was in some official capacity. He still had qualms about her and had contemplated calling Chiles for directions. He would have to be extra careful. He would make some decisions tomorrow.
He had decided that if an opportunity presented itself, the first night would be preferential. He had memorized the ship’s itinerary, and knew that they would be at the port of Split, Croatia within an hour, and he would have time to catch the fastest flight to anywhere in Europe and then back to the U.S.
His ‘table mates’ had begun to arrive, so Monk rose from the stool, grabbed his cane, and started across the room. Pam had her back to him so he was not concerned about her seeing him.
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