Chapter Eleven
“Look at what?”
Gloria handed the binoculars to Lucy. “There is something out there in the water. See that small light?”
“Yeah. What do you think it is?” Lucy handed the binoculars back to Gloria.
“Hijackers…terrorists…accomplices of whoever has taken over this ship.” The possibilities were endless – and frightening.
Gloria eased past Lucy and made her way into the suite. She grabbed the remote control and turned the television on. “Maybe there’s something on the news,” she said as she turned the volume up and flipped through the channels.
The only things showing were ship shows and a couple newly released movies. There were no weather channels, no national news. She shut the television off and dropped the remote on the bed. “That’s odd.”
“Do you think whomever took over the ship scrambled all the signals?” Lucy stepped over to the safe located inside the closet and swiped her card to unlock the thick metal door before reaching inside and pulling out her purse. “I’m going to check to see if my cell phone works.”
It took several moments for the phone to power up and when it did, she turned it on, set it to roaming and studied the screen. Lucy shook her head. “I’m not getting a single bar. There’s no signal.”
A wave of fear washed over Gloria. The ship was not moving. The bridge and engine room were unresponsive and there was no way to contact anyone on shore. “This is much worse than I thought. I think a group of people have, for whatever reason, seized control of this ship.”
The cabin door burst open and Dot, Margaret, Andrea and Ruth exploded into the room. “You missed a great show.” Andrea vaulted onto the bed and placed her hands behind her head.
“Yeah. It was hilarious!” Liz agreed. “My stomach aches from laughing so hard.”
“We stopped for a quick bite to eat and brought you back a snack.” Dot was the last to enter the room. She slid two small plates of tempting treats on the desk. “One is bite size chicken lettuce wraps, and the other is shrimp and crab wonton.”
“The sauce is to die for,” Ruth told them.
“And we brought this back for you.” Margaret unwrapped a paper napkin and handed Lucy a coconut macaroon dipped in dark chocolate.
Lucy grabbed the tasty treat and nibbled the edge. “Great. My last sweet treat before I’m killed,” she joked.
Gloria lowered her gaze and gave her friend a warning look.
Andrea slid off the bed and headed to the balcony. “You guys still spying on the bridge?” She grabbed the binoculars Gloria had left on the small table and then lifted them to her eyes. “There’s something out there in the water.”
“Yep,” Gloria agreed. “I think the ship has been hijacked and the smaller vessel has something to do with the hijackers.”
“That’s not funny,” Liz huffed. “Trying to scare us half to death just because you can’t take a simple vacation without having some major mystery to solve.”
Gloria shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She picked up the small dish containing the chicken lettuce wrap and settled into the corner of the sofa.
Dot crossed her arms and gazed out onto the balcony. “Do you think so?”
A knock on the door saved Gloria from having to defend her theory.
Frances darted over the door, opened it a crack and peeked out before opening it wide.
Millie, Annette and Danielle stepped into the room and Frances closed the door behind them. “Good. You’re all here. We need some help.”
Millie quickly brought them up to speed and confirmed Gloria’s suspicion that some sort of vessel was hovering nearby.
“We should call for help,” Margaret suggested.
“The phones don’t work,” Gloria and Millie answered in unison.
“We already tried,” Lucy said.
Millie placed both hands behind her back and leaned against the wall. “The signals are blocked and we have no communication outside the ship.”
Danielle slumped into the desk chair and ran her hand through her hair. “We found a maintenance man unconscious in one of the storage closets not far from the bridge. The only thing he can remember is discovering someone had cut the wires to the surveillance camera outside the bridge. Next thing he knew, we were pulling him from the closet.”
Gloria eyed her cousin, Millie. “You weren’t able to find Amit either?”
“No.” Annette’s shoulders drooped. “We noticed a dab of frosting on the wall next to the entrance to the bridge but there was no trace of Amit.”
“Some of Siren of the Seas security, along with three of the temporary employees who have now come forward and admitted they are undercover FBI agents are going to lower one of the lifeboats into the water and then head back to the small island of Vieques to get help,” Millie explained.
“All we’re supposed to do is keep the passengers calm until help arrives,” Annette finished.
“How long will it take for them to return with help?” Frances asked.
Millie did the mental calculations. “We left San Juan almost five hours ago. The lifeboat can move a lot faster than the cruise ship so shave off a couple hours …maybe three hours to get to Puerto Rico. Once they get there they’ll have to find help, formulate a rescue plan and then return to the ship.” She shrugged. “Maybe twelve hours?”
Gloria frowned. They might not have twelve hours, depending on what the hijackers planned to do with the cruise ship and passengers, not to mention the crew.
“There’s a mole,” Millie said. “Someone who works on this ship is in on it. If we could figure out who that person is, we might be able to discover a gap in the hijackers plan and rescue the captain, crew and staff.”
Gloria secretly wondered if this “Amit” was the mole. Based on Annette’s reaction to her employee going missing, she wouldn’t take kindly to that theory so Gloria kept the thought to herself.
Annette nodded. “If we had some way to set up a surveillance of the bridge and / or engine room, we might be able to get a hit on the perp.”
“Wouldn’t security be able to set up some sort of surveillance?” Ruth, the surveillance expert, asked.
“I asked the same question,” Millie said, “and they basically told me to butt out, that they are working on it and to stay out of the way.”
She went on. “We were told our job is to keep the guests calm and happy.”
“I…might be able to help out,” Ruth said casually as she inspected her fingernails. “Depending on the type…and amount of equipment you want.”
She wandered over to the adjoining suite and returned moments later, dragging a large suitcase behind her. Ruth laid it on the floor, unzipped the cover and flung the top open.
The girls gathered around Ruth and peered into the open suitcase.
“Good grief, Ruth! What on earth?” Gloria sighed.
“I can tell you what it is.” Annette reached inside, grabbed a pencil thin black stick and turned it over in her hand. “This is the Silo 450 zip camera with wide lens. I’ve been eyeballing one of these.”
Ruth grinned. “Just got this baby last week. I ordered it from SpyCom in Virginia and since I ordered three, I got the third one half off.” She plucked one from the suitcase and held it up. “See the little eye right there?”
Annette and Ruth began talking spy lingo, to which Gloria groaned and Millie rolled her eyes. “Oh no. Here we go.”
Annette was like a kid in a candy store as Ruth unpacked her spy equipment and showed her everything she had brought onboard. She looked up, her eyes gleaming. “Man! I hope we get to use some of this cool stuff,” she exclaimed.
“Until Dave Patterson and the agents discover we’re working on our own recon,” Danielle pointed out.
“We’ll stay out of the way,” Millie said.
Ruth carefully placed two of the Silo slim 450 zip cameras on the floor before packing the rest of her “essential” spy gear back inside the suitcase and zip
ping it shut. “I have more, but these two,” she pointed at Millie and Gloria, “are chomping at the bit to set up surveillance.”
“I’d love to help,” Annette said eagerly.
“Have at it,” Gloria said. “I’m willing to leave it to the so-called experts and just tag along.”
Ruth led the way with Annette hot on her heels as the girls…all eleven of them headed out to set up surveillance.
Chapter Twelve
“I need a chair or a ladder…or even a pail to stand on.” Ruth teetered on her tiptoes and attempted to mount the small camera in the corner of the hall.
“Shh.” Gloria placed her index fingers to her lips and Millie pointed at the bridge door.
“Don’t shush me,” Ruth gasped. “I need help!”
Millie remembered seeing a mop bucket inside one of the closets earlier when they had searched for Amit. She opened the closet door, reached inside and pulled out the bucket before placing it upside down and sliding it to the corner for Ruth to stand on.
“Thanks.” Ruth smiled at Millie and frowned at Gloria.
“This isn’t my ship,” Gloria pointed out.
Ruth got back to work as she carefully pressed the tiny spy camera in the upper corner of the hall. “Don’t let me forget it.”
Lucy snorted. “Like you’ll ever leave a single piece of precious surveillance equipment behind.”
“Let’s move onto the engine room,” Millie suggested, in an attempt to diffuse the tense situation between Ruth and Gloria, which was nothing, the banter between them more of teasing each other.
Millie led the way as they descended the stairs, going below the deck that contained the crew quarters. They were officially in the bowels of the ship.
Andrea shivered as she shifted her eyes and gazed overhead at the clanking pipes. “This place gives me the creeps.”
“Me too,” Danielle agreed. “I don’t believe I’ve ever been down here before.”
The path leading to the engine room was narrow and the girls had to walk single file. It was a good thing Millie knew where she was going because it was maze of twists and turns. They walked down a long hall and Millie turned right.
“You’re going the wrong way. It’s to the left,” Annette said. “Follow me.”
The women backtracked and followed Annette until she stopped abruptly in front of a round metal door with bold red letters, Restricted Area, emblazoned across the front. “This is it,” she said in a low voice.
Ruth shifted her small satchel of surveillance equipment and carefully studied the hall. “This is perfect. There are a million places to hide a small piece of spy equipment.”
She lowered her bag to the floor, unclasped the front and reached inside. Next to the door was a set of metal steps leading to nowhere. “This will work. Hold this.”
She handed the small surveillance camera to Annette and climbed the ladder. When her head bumped the pipe above, she looked down. “Hand me the camera.”
Annette handed her the small gadget and they all watched as Ruth carefully pressed the surveillance camera against a metal pipe directly overhead.
“Are you sure it will capture anyone going in or coming out of the engine room?” Margaret asked.
Ruth wiped the palms of her hands on the front of her slacks. “Guaranteed or your money back,” she quipped as she backed down the ladder. “Now, all we have to do is sit back and watch.”
“I’m hungry,” Millie announced when they reached civilization aka the passenger area.
“Me too,” Gloria said. “Dinner was an eternity ago.”
“Margaret and I can pick up a few pizzas down at the pizza place and bring them back,” Dot suggested.
The women parted ways when Margaret and Dot headed across the pool deck to the back of the ship where the fresh, made-to-order pizza station was located.
Gloria led the way back to the suites and as soon as they were inside, Ruth and Annette began setting up a temporary command center. The women settled in at the table in the corner while Gloria, Liz, Frances, Lucy and Millie headed to the balcony.
Danielle and Andrea plopped onto the small sofa to watch a rerun of the previous evening’s show.
Millie rested her elbows on the railing and gazed wistfully at the bridge. “I wish I knew what was going on in there.” Amit was missing. Captain Armati and Captain Vitale were being held against their will inside the bridge. Perhaps they were hurt or worse yet, dead.
She remembered watching from Liz’s balcony as someone hit either Captain Armati or Captain Vitale on the back of the head and then dragged them from sight.
Millie looked straight down. A shadow from the slider directly below caught her eye. She gazed at the bridge again, and then shifted it to straight below.
Millie had been inside Captain Armati’s apartment numerous times, not to mention out on his deck…that was directly below not only Gloria’s suite but also her friend’s suite!
“Oh my gosh!” Her mind began to race as she stuck her head into the room. “Does anyone have a selfie stick, one with an extension?”
Andrea lowered the volume on the television. “I have one. It’s in my suitcase.”
“I need to borrow it if you don’t mind,” Millie said. “I also need some duct tape.”
Gloria followed Millie into the suite. She turned to Ruth. “You got any duct tape in that magic bag of tricks you brought?”
Ruth frowned. “No! I packed it but the darn roll was gonna push me over the baggage weight limit at the airport so I had to leave it at home. I thought about packing it in my carry-on bag but wasn’t sure security would let me through with a roll of duct tape.”
“I have a roll of duct tape,” Liz said.
“Huh?” Gloria stared at her sister.
Liz shrugged. “What? Haven’t you read any of those cruise trips books where they tell you to pack a roll of duct tape for emergencies? Why, that stuff can fix nearly anything.”
“Can I borrow it?” Millie asked.
“Sure.” Liz exited the cabin and returned moments later with a brand spanking new roll of silver duct tape. “Here you go.” She handed it to Millie, who was already holding the selfie stick Andrea had given her.
“What’s the plan?” Gloria watched as her cousin placed the selfie stick, roll of duct tape and her cell phone on the edge of the bed.
“There’s a hall that connects the bridge to Captain Armati’s apartment, which means his apartment is directly below your suite…and the one next door. I am going to put my phone on the end of the selfie stick, lower it down off the edge of the balcony and record some footage of the inside of the captain’s apartment.”
“If the curtains are open,” Ruth pointed out.
“True.” Millie nodded. “They should be. Captain Armati has a teacup Yorkie, Scout. Scout has a small grassy area at the end of the balcony, which is where the captain lets him out to take care of his business. The slider is open almost all the time.” She placed her phone in the slot and then tightened the thumbscrew to secure it.
“What is the duct tape for?” Lucy asked.
“This is a little extra security in case the phone somehow manages to come loose. If it falls off, it’s gonna be bye-bye phone,” Millie said.
She peeled a piece of the sticky tape off the roll and tore the end before sticking one end on the edge of her phone and the other end on a small section of the black selfie stick. She firmly rubbed both ends of the tape. “That should do the trick.”
Ruth stayed near her laptop to keep an eye on the surveillance cameras while the others followed Millie and her makeshift spy equipment out onto the balcony.
Millie turned her phone on and switched to recording mode before extending the selfie stick all the way out. “Here goes nothing.”
Millie sucked in a breath and carefully lowered the stick - and her phone - over the side of the balcony.
She was careful not to lower it too far down, in case someone inside the apartment, namely the c
aptors, happened to be looking out.
Millie waited a few seconds and then lifted the phone, turned the stick over and played back what the phone had recorded. The video was disappointingly dark.
“I can see a soft glow from below. Either it wasn’t down far enough or the lights are off,” Gloria said as she stared at the dark screen. “Try again.”
Millie switched it to record again and lowered the phone even further. She slowly shuffled along the edge of the railing in an attempt to record several angles of the inside of the apartment directly below them.
She moved back and forth along the rail and then pulled the selfie stick and phone up. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
Dot and Margaret arrived moments later carrying three pizza boxes, several cans of Diet Coke and regular Coke, along with plates, plastic cups and silverware. “Piping hot pizza, right out of the oven!” Dot declared.
Although Millie was dying to see what they had caught on tape, she didn’t want the food to get cold. “We can eat first, and then check out the video,” she suggested.
They all loaded their plates with pizza and sat on the chairs, the couch, the edge of the bed and even the balcony furniture.
“The only one missing is Cat,” Millie commented to Annette.
“She’s had enough on her plate lately,” Danielle said.
It was true. Cat had been through a lot, which reminded Millie that Cat needed help. As soon as the current crisis was over, she vowed to focus on helping Cat.
“We should pray,” Gloria said.
All of the women bowed their heads. “Dear Lord, we thank you for this food and pray you bless it to our bodies. We pray for poor Amit, for Captain Armati and the others in the bridge and in the engine room, that you protect them. We also pray for a swift and successful rescue mission with no injury or loss of life. Thank you Lord.”
The prayer ended with an echo of “amens.”
Millie quickly finished her pizza, wiped her mouth with the napkin and placed the napkin on top of her plate. She was anxious to see if the phone had recorded anything that might be useful.
Cruise Control (Cruise Ship Christian Cozy Mysteries Series Book 6) Page 8
