The Last Passenger
Page 23
She was lying on her bed, where they had tossed her before leaving and slamming the door shut. She’d been there two hours, and all of her attempts to undo the restraints had been in vain. When she tired of floundering about like a tuna in a fishing net, she tried to relax and put her mind at ease. She needed to calm her anxiety and, above all, think of a plan.
She tried to recall everything that had happened, but it was impossible to follow the course of events. In some strange way it seemed like the reality in which she lived and the reality of 1939 were trying to occupy the same space. The Valkyrie.
For some reason the two worlds seemed to be bleeding into one another and creating a new reality that was dark and menacing, one in which something very dangerous was after her.
And then, there was Robert, of course.
She looked to the shelf, which held the urn containing Robert’s ashes. That was the actual Robert, what was left of the man she’d known. Yet, a few hours ago, several decks below, she’d been kissing that same man, who she had thought was gone.
She was completely incapable of understanding how it was possible. She had a sneaking suspicion that the ashes being on board had something to do with it. But the rest of the story was so complicated that she was baffled.
“That’s very feminine,” a familiar voice said from behind Kate. “Instead of just accepting a gift from heaven no questions asked, you have to try to understand why it’s happening. With you there’s always a next question. You’ll never change, Katie.”
Kate smiled for the first time in hours. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, and she felt it spread like a fire throughout her body.
“That’s very masculine,” she replied, incisively, but with tears of joy in her eyes. “Sitting on your ass and talking about how annoying your wife is instead of freeing her when she’s handcuffed.”
She rolled over, so she could see him. Robert was smiling brightly on the sofa, one arm outstretched along its back. The knot in his tie was loose, and his blazer was folded at his feet. He looked relaxed.
“You really want me to untie you?” he asked with a grin. “Seeing you like this is the best. Remember that one time with those handkerchiefs from Hermès?”
“Robert!” Kate cut him off. She was still crying with joy but now feigned a look of anger. “Help me or you’ll pay!”
“Really?” Robert laughed as he got up and walked toward Kate. He sat on the edge of the bed and began slowly undoing the tape. “What can you do to me? I’m dead. Remember?”
“Just maybe I’ll throw you and your conceited smile in that urn once more,” answered Kate, emotionally scattered. But she was lying. Never in a million years would she throw away a chance to spend time with him, even if he left her tied up there until she died.
Robert finished freeing her wrists, and Kate threw the tape to the floor. Then, he began massaging them until, little by little, the circulation returned to her fingers.
Kate looked at her husband’s hands with fascination as he continued to rub her wrists. His touch was firm, steady, and warm. He still had the small paper cut on his right ring finger that he’d gotten a couple of days before the accident.
It really was Robert Kilroy.
Her Robert.
It was all too much for Kate. She’d built gates to control the pain and sorrow of Robert’s death, and the torrent of emotions that had been bottled up for weeks pressed against those barriers before toppling them over with tremendous force. Kate freed her wrists from Robert’s hands and laced her fingers behind his neck. Her mouth searched anxiously for his, and the two melted into a long kiss, slow and passionate. They were like two people who’d discovered an oasis after traveling across a desert for weeks.
The kiss was electric. All of Kate’s physical urges and needs were suddenly unleashed. She felt her underwear become wet as her skin charged with electricity. She needed physicality.
And Robert did, too. His fun-loving, confident smile had disappeared, replaced by an anxious, excited expression of urgency. He had the face of a small child who’d been lost in the mall all day only to come across his parents after all hope had been lost. The face of a man who had just been pardoned from death row.
The face of someone with renewed hope.
Robert pushed her onto the bed without separating his lips from hers. He pushed Kate’s arms above her head and pinned her down under the weight of his body as she twisted with pleasure beneath him. Robert grabbed both of her wrists with one hand and slid his other hand slowly down her neck and began tracing long circles. His fingertips caressed Kate in such an alluring way that she arched her back and let out a soft moan.
Robert began licking Kate’s neck as his hands pressed down her body to her breasts, touching them lightly before moving to her zipper. Before Kate knew it, Robert had already undone the zipper and brought her pants to her ankles. With a deft move of his foot, he caught the jeans between his toes and sent them flying across the cabin in one swift motion.
Kate could take no more and reached toward Robert’s shirt. She began unbuttoning it and kissed his chest with each new opening. Robert had always been particularly sensitive on his chest, and she knew she could drive him crazy, nibbling and licking. Robert groaned as she finished the last button. Kate threw it off without taking her mouth from his body. She’d been inching down his abdomen to his navel. Her tongue playfully swirled inside it, and Robert, unable to take any more, grabbed her in his arms and brought them back to the bed with her on top.
Kate smiled lasciviously. She knew the game. Straddling Robert, she pulled her blouse over her head and undid her lace bra, leaving only her thong. Robert breathed deeply. He looked up and down from her breasts to her waist and back up to her eyes, memorizing every last detail of her body. His hands found her ass and squeezed with delight.
Kate leaned forward and, without taking her eyes from his, began tonguing little circles all over Robert’s chest. Then, she went lower, down to his waist, and undid the top button. It was his turn to rip off his pants, leaving him in only underwear.
She ran her hand over the enormous bulge that had grown. She could feel it pulsing, waiting on the other side of the fabric. She began kissing it through his underwear, and Robert was unable to contain a low groan. His entire body was tense, supercharged.
Robert placed his hands on Kate’s head and, with another groan, buried his fingers in her thick, soft hair. In response Kate grabbed the waistband of his boxers, lowered them, and eagerly licked down his groin. Robert’s member was swollen, and she grabbed it and rubbed it on her cheek. With patience that was almost painful, she began kissing it with her eyes closed, enjoying its familiar scent. Gently, she brought her lips to the head and pushed it into her mouth, sucking rhythmically and passionately.
Robert gasped, out of control, and his hips tightened. Kate enjoyed the immense feeling of power she had. Her head bobbed up and down on the shaft as she held the base with one hand and fondled his testicles with her other. She felt it pulse on her tongue, and she went deeper, leaving him slick with her saliva.
Kate continued for several minutes that were too short to her. Robert could take no more, and he pulled her hair back. She licked up his body, past his neck to his lips, and received the most wonderful, deep kiss she’d ever experienced. Robert’s hands fondled her breasts, brushing over her nipples until they hardened like two pointy bullets.
He turned her over on the bed—it was his turn to lick. He started around her breasts and lightly bit her nipples, giving Kate a wave of pleasure. The feeling was so overwhelming that she was already moaning loudly.
Robert moved his hands down to Kate’s hips and hooked a finger under the string of her thong. Automatically, in a gesture of total surrender, Kate raised her legs, allowing Robert to remove the tiny garment.
Robert spread her legs apart and came closer. Slowly, he rested his member on her lips and began rocking back and forth without entering her. The move was enough to rouse a moan of impa
tience from Kate.
Then, very gently, he entered her, filling up every last bit of space inside her. She dug her nails into her husband’s back as her own moans became more rhythmic.
Robert began thrusting faster. With each move of his hips, Kate screamed, taking pleasure in the mix of joy, desire, and disbelief. Two bodies, united, in sync, their sweat mingling. The bed creaked underneath them.
Then, she felt an immense sensation begin to build in her pelvis. She buried her face in Robert’s chest as an overwhelming orgasm rushed through her body. She screamed as waves of pleasure shook her to the core. It was a long, explosive, and deep orgasm—one of the most intense she’d ever had.
Robert responded by driving faster and harder—a staccato of delight. He gripped Kate’s hips and pinned her into complete submission. As he did so, his face twisted into pure ecstasy immediately before he climaxed inside of her.
Feeling her husband’s release, Kate experienced a new, surprising orgasm. The floodgates within had been opened, and she felt a deluge of pleasure fill her body.
Both collapsed on the bed gasping, their sweaty skin still touching. Kate snuggled closer to Robert and put her head in the crook of his neck. He gently caressed her back with smooth strokes.
“I love you, Robert Kilroy,” she whispered. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep us together. Even if that means staying aboard this stupid ship forever.”
Robert propped himself up on one elbow and suddenly looked serious. “Don’t say that. Don’t even joke about that. This place is cursed, Kate. You have to get out of here as soon as you can.”
“Only if you come with me, Robert,” she answered and cuddled closer. “I can’t imagine living the rest of my life without you. The world is too dark without you.”
Robert pursed his lips, struggling against a severe internal conflict. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it right away. He hugged Kate tightly and buried his nose in her hair, taking in her wonderful fragrance.
“I’ll always be with you, Kate. No matter what you do or where you go. Never forget that.”
Kate detected profound sadness in Robert’s words, but she closed her eyes and clutched him tighter. She wished the moment would never end.
“Now listen to me carefully,” said Robert, sitting up in bed. “You need to move quickly. Only a few hours remain.”
“A few hours? Until what?”
“To stop the Valkyrie, Kate. If you don’t stop this ship, it will be too late. We’ll be trapped forever.”
XXXIX
“I can’t leave here, Robert,” Kate said. “There’s a guard at the door, and Moore, Feldman, and everyone else seem to have gone mad. What can I do?”
Just then, more than two hundred feet below them, a small digital clock ticked down to its final second. A row of zeroes blinked across a screen before sending a tiny electric signal to several packages of Semtex that had been fastened to the lateral stabilizers.
The explosives went off in rapid sequence, and a roaring fireball propelled by a wave of destruction swept through the room, blasting the stabilizing engines into a thousand pieces. A bulkhead, held up with rusted rivets that were decades old, could not withstand such a violent force and was blown up, followed by a cloud of tiny steel splinters.
The three engineers in the adjacent room did not stand a chance. A volley of shrapnel passed through and ripped apart their bodies, scattering their remains across the engines. They were dead even before the floor gave way.
The rumbling shook all of the Valkyrie as if a giant had decided to kick the ship. The table lamps trembled, and the bed moved a few inches. All around the ship, the noise of hundreds of items falling to the ground and breaking could be heard as security alarms began sounding once more.
“What was that?” Kate asked.
Robert raised his head and kept his eyes closed for a good while. He seemed to be listening to an inner voice that only he could hear. He reminded Kate of a Tibetan monk in a state of deep meditation. His face was relaxed and peaceful, and he looked like he existed in some mystical realm beyond good or evil.
When he finally opened his eyes, he looked extremely worried and even slightly afraid.
“The lateral stabilizers have been blown up,” he said.
“The what?”
“A modern addition Feldman made. Something foreign to the original design of the Valkyrie. That’s why she allowed it.”
“Will that stop the ship?”
Robert shook his head. “No, although it will make everything more difficult. There’s still a way to stop the ship, but you’ll need backup.”
“I have you.” Kate held him close, worried he might evaporate into thin air again.
“I can’t help you with this. But Senka Simovic can.”
“Senka?” Kate thought of Senka, who had been sent to the brig by Moore. She had no idea where that could be. “Why can’t you help me? I don’t want to leave you. Not again!”
“Kate, when we are together she can’t see us, but only if we stay in a cabin. That is all I can do. I already told you that there are rules. If we move about the halls, she’ll find us. This time she’ll really be mad.”
“So what do we do?”
“I’ll try to distract her. Make her angry. Divert her attention.” Robert got up and began getting dressed with confident, deliberate movements. His entire life he’d exuded an air of confidence. He acted like he was about to go out for coffee rather than being on the verge of confronting a dark force. “In the meantime you look for Senka and then head for the engine room.”
“What for?”
“You’ll know when the time is right. Trust me. Now get dressed, love. If you walk around the ship naked, I don’t think you’ll go unnoticed.”
She dressed quickly, choosing the most comfortable clothing she could find, suspecting she would be moving around a lot during the next few hours.
“You still haven’t told me how we’re supposed to get out of here,” Kate said. “Remember, I can’t walk through walls.”
“Nor can I.” He walked over and hugged her. He smelled like cologne and sex. “But I can do other things.”
He approached the closed door and turned the handle. The lock clicked, and the door swung open soundlessly. If the situation hadn’t been so frightening, Kate would have clapped like a schoolgirl watching a magic trick.
Cautiously, Kate leaned into the hall. The guard had vanished, possibly headed toward the blast or to receive orders.
“Be careful, my love,” she heard Robert whisper from behind.
Kate turned around to respond, but he had vanished again.
“I hate it when you do that, Robert Kilroy,” she whispered as she stepped into the hall. “I really hate it.”
She had no idea where to start. The Valkyrie was vast, and apart from her fleeting excursion into the lower decks the day before, she was familiar with only the first-class section and a couple of halls in second class. She didn’t know where Senka was being kept or what the hell to do when she found her.
Luckily, she remembered something important. Before communication had been cut off, Anne Medine had said she would send information pertaining to the Valkyrie. Maybe it would provide a clue about where to begin.
The Gneisenau Room was two levels above where Kate stood. She would have to try to get there and pray nobody saw her, especially Moore. Kate perceived a subtle change in the balance of power aboard the Valkyrie. Feldman had stepped aside and allowed that English brute to make decisions as he saw fit. But she was certain that Feldman still played a vital role in everything happening aboard his ship.
She walked down the hall without seeing a single person. She was surprised that a couple of cabins were wide open with no one inside, as if their occupants had forgotten to close the door after leaving their rooms. Kate scanned inside them and found unmade beds, scattered clothes, and books and computers lying about. Then, she heard a dull, repetitive noise approaching.
A dull click-click-click, like a damaged gear shaft, came closer, and a pair of legs and the wheels of a laundry cart came into view.
The legs stopped in front of the cabin. Kate swallowed, certain she’d been seen. But the legs remained motionless as if their owner were unsure what to do next. Kate lifted up the bed skirt a hair for a better look. It was Mrs. Miller, Feldman’s maid. She was wearing a verdigris KDF uniform. Her hair was in an old-fashioned bun, and she looked haggard and worn as if she’d been drinking. Her white apron as well as her mouth and chin were streaked with blood that had run from her nose. She was moving sporadically like a robot losing its charge.
The woman muttered something unintelligible in German. Kate watched as she approached the table in the cabin and gathered all of the books on top as well as the laptop and its cables. Next, as if it were the most normal thing to do, she tossed everything into the laundry cart. The computer cracked as it hit the metal. Mrs. Miller then left the cabin and paused outside the door across the hall. She jingled her keys a moment before she managed to open the door and enter.
This was Kate’s chance. She crawled out from underneath the bed and went back into the hall. Passing the cart, she glanced at its contents and became pale. Piled up haphazardly, at least twenty laptops, cell phones, chargers, calculators, and digital tablets were mixed in with technical manuals. Some of the gadgets had cracked screens. It looked like a heap of trash ready to be tossed into the sea.
They were slowly eliminating any sign of the twenty-first century. The Valkyrie, or whatever lived inside the ship, had imposed her voice adamantly.
Kate headed for the elevator, which she thought would be less risky than taking the stairs. She pressed the button and waited nervously for the elevator to arrive. The humming of the engine and the rattling of the gears sounded like cannon fire in the ghostly silence that had overtaken the ship. The sirens had stopped sounding, and silence covered everything. If she hadn’t known there were other people on the ship, Kate would have sworn she was the sole passenger.