Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy

by Anton Swanepoel

  Laura is taken aback a little by the gift, but does not want to be impolite.

  “Thank you, why a gift?” she says as she takes the gift and starts taking off the ribbon.

  “For all you have been through,” Victor replies smilingly. Laura gasps when she opens the lid. Inside the box is a silver breast pin in the shape of a butterfly, the size of a quarter.

  It is a stunning piece, and Laura immediately asks Victor to put it on for her, forgetting she has a low cut dress on. Victor stands up and walks around the table. Laura turns in her chair as he comes to stand next to her, while holding out the breast pin for him. Victor on purpose does not take it with the tips of his fingers, but lets his fingers slide over Laura’s hand and takes the pin with his thumb, pressing it against the palm of his hand. As he pulls his hand back he gently brushes the tips of his fingers over Laura’s hand.

  It feels as if an electric current is running through Laura’s body, making her blush. Some of Laura’s hair is hanging over her shoulder and in the way; Victor brushes her hair away with his hand, gently touching her neck as he does so.

  His touch causes Laura’s body to react even more and her nipples harden. Laura blushes even more, but Victor acts as if it was all by accident and if he is not even aware of her body’s response. With care, he pushes the pin through the top of her dress and curls just the tip over so that he can push the clip on at the back of the pin. Victor acts as if he is struggling to get the clip on and moves his arm up and down twice, each time gently rubbing her right breast and erect nipple. Laura does not know what to do, her body now on fire. She is not used to this kind of flirting.

  “There you go,” Victor says while turning around and walking back to his chair as if he has not noticed anything.

  “Evening sir, madam, I am Sam. I will be your waiter for the evening, would you care for some w…”

  “Yes,” Laura says, cutting Sam off and grabbing the water pitcher from him, pouring a glass for herself. Laura gulps it down, just to pour herself another glass and gulp it down as well. Sam just stares in amazement, while Victor gives a sly smile.

  “Evening Sam.” Victor breaks the silence and takes Sam’s attention off Laura, giving her a chance to relax.

  “Would you care for the special of the day?” Sam is now focusing his attention on Victor. The special of the day and the chef’s choice of the day are listed at the top of the menu, neither of which interest Victor as they contain crab and lobster respectively.

  “No thanks, anything to drink Laura?” Laura never really went out or bothered to drink alcohol, but her housemate loves red wine, so Laura decides that she will try some.

  “Red wine please,” she responds, and then continues to study the menu. Sam dutifully waits for the brand and year she desires.

  “Dry, house choice, by the glass will be fine, and apple juice for me,” Victor says without looking up, now also scanning the menu.

  “Yes sir, any starters?” Sam is professional, but Victor just wants to get rid of him as he is killing the atmosphere.

  “Laura?” Victor asks, and when Laura shakes her head he continues, ordering the main meal before Sam even asks if they are ready. “I will take the roasted duck salad.”

  “A good choice sir, and you madam?” Laura has no idea what to order. Everything on the menu sounds so delicious, but she is not too hungry.

  “Tuna salad with no dressing please.” Sam nods his head and after making sure that they are okay and do not need anything else, he turns to place their order at a computer near the bar.

  “I take it this is your first cruise?” Victor opens up the conversation.

  “Yes, actually my first real holiday as well, never been out of the country before.” Laura relaxes a bit.

  “Your drinks.” Sam neatly places a glass of wine in front of Laura and a glass of apple juice in front of Victor, then takes the water jug and refills Laura’s glass. After turning over Victor’s water glass, he fills it up.

  Nodding to them, he goes to help another table. Victor scans the room, but cannot see anything out of the ordinary, yet he cannot shake the feeling that they are being watched. He continues the conversation by asking about Laura’s family and her upbringing, likes and dislikes. Slowly he starts to learn about her. Every now and again, he reaches over and touches her hand. At first by accident, but then later as she relaxes, on purpose. Sam brings their dinner not long after, which they thoroughly enjoy. They order chocolate ice cream for dessert when they finish their main meal.

  Laura and Victor enjoy each other’s company so much they do not even realize it is 10pm when they are finally ready to leave. An employee had brought Victor’s new room access card to him during dinner, after Josh had the room sealed and his belongings transferred to another room.

  “Can you dance?” Victor asks while looking directly into Laura’s eyes. The question takes Laura off guard, she is playing with the breast pin Victor has given her as a gift and it takes her a moment before she can answer.

  “Not really, never had the time to learn.”

  “Then I will have to teach you,” Victor replies while smiling, and starts to get up. Before Laura can react Victor is next to her and holds her chair, ready to pull it out for her when she stands up. Laura’s heart starts to pound against her chest from excitement, both from being with Victor and from the thought of learning to dance.

  “Did you enjoy the meal?” The voice startles Laura and she swings around to see who it is. Behind Victor is Sam, standing with his hands behind his back.

  “Yes, thank you,” Victor replies. Sam nods and then bows slightly before continuing.

  “My apologies sir, due to a technical problem we are not able to currently scan your new room card as it is not in your name yet, can you please sign for the bill on your old room and we will add it to your room as soon as the system is updated again?”

  Looking down, Victor notices that Sam is holding a brown leather holder with a blue diamond etched on the front. Victor nods and takes the holder from the waiter. As he opens the holder, he notices that Sam has forgotten to provide a pen for him. He is about to ask for a pen when a customer from another table calls Sam away.

  “Please excuse me sir, just leave the bill on the table,” Sam quickly says as he moves to help the other customer.

  “Must be a busy night for him, he forgot a pen,” Victor comments to Laura.

  “Oh, I have a pen, hold on,” Laura replies while starting to search in her bag. Victor wonders if it is safe for her to just stick her hand in her bag and search around, from what he had seen of what women keep in their bags, she could pull her hand out with anything from a nail file to a fork stuck in it.

  “Here you go,” Laura says excitedly as she hands a brilliant blue stubby pen to Victor.

  “Impressive, where did you get such a beautiful pen Laura?” Victor starts to sign the bill when Laura replies.

  “Oh, Nick mailed it to me with a necklace that had a large cross on, and some CDs to listen to while on the trip. I mailed the necklace back to him, but kept the rest.”

  Laura did not know that the necklace she mailed back was actually a signal for Nick’s contact on the ship who is buying the disc from Nick. He planned to inform the man where the disc is and who has it once he had confirmed that his money for the disc had been wired to an offshore bank account in Switzerland. The package containing the necklace she mailed back was also the one that the Russians had picked up on, and thought may contain the disc.

  Unfortunately for Nick, they managed to follow the package up to the point where it was delivered to the original sender’s address. After five days of interrogation, Nick died, missing multiple toes, fingers, both ears, and was shot in both kneecaps and elbows, never divulging the location of the disc.

  Victor freezes when he hears her reply, for a second he does not move, and then he slowly finishes signing the bill, his mind racing.

  “That’s very nice of Nick, did you listen to the CDs L
aura?” Victor does not look up, but acts as if he is inspecting the bill.

  “Yes, actually at home, I could not wait until I was on the ship, very nice relaxing instrumental music.”

  Why would Nick give Laura a pen if the files were on a CD? Suddenly it comes to him why. Just then Sam passes close by Victor with some wine glasses on a tray. Without anyone noticing, Victor trips Sam, who comes crashing down on a table full of guests eating. The table topples over as Sam falls on it, causing food and cutlery to scatter in all directions. Everyone in the room turns their attention to the fallen waiter, now apologizing as best he can and trying to clean up the mess.

  Victor uses the distraction to quickly unscrew the rear cap of the pen - nothing. No memory card falls out. He is just about to replace the cap when something tells him to look inside the cap. Laura has gone over to help Sam, while other waiters are bringing napkins to help clean up the mess. Victor smiles as he looks down the cap and sees a small Micro SD card stuck in the cap. He tries to remove the card by hitting the cap against the palm of his left hand, but to no avail. Looking around he notices toothpicks on his table and quickly uses one to move the card around in the cap until it slides out into his hand.

  The card is exactly the same Micro SD card that his cell phone uses. After making sure that Laura is still occupied, Victor quickly inserts the card into his phone. The card is a 16 GB sized card that is almost full. Victor’s phone has an internal 32 GB memory capacity, and he initiates a file copy.

  He thinks of keeping the card, but then decides that it will be best to return it, for if it is not the right card and Laura is involved, she could notice that the card is missing, compromising his chances of finding the real card. Looking at the phone Victor notices that the file copy process is 56% done.

  “What are you doing with your phone?” Laura’s voice right next to Victor makes him jump, he never noticed that she is no longer helping to clean up the mess he had made.

  “Oh, I got an urgent call from work and they are sending me some documents to look at. It is for a very important contract; I am just busy downloading it now,” Victor replies while taking a glance at the phone, 82%. Laura immediately gets cross with Victor.

  “How can you think of work while leaving me alone to help poor Sam?” Laura snaps at him, anger on her face, and then suddenly she turns around while saying, “I think I will return to my room now.”

  Victor looks at his phone, file transfer complete. Just then Laura turns around and walks back while holding out her hand.

  “My pen.”

  “Oh, yes…I think I put it on the table,” Victor replies while pointing to their table with his right hand, pulling the memory card out of his phone with his left thumb. As Laura turns to look at the table, Victor quickly inserts the card back into the pen cap and re-assembles it.

  “My apologies, I put it in my pocket Laura.” Victor holds out the pen to Laura who angrily grabs it from his hand, just to spin around again and walk away, leaving Victor standing speechless. Neither Victor nor Laura notices the man sitting two tables away, who has watched the whole scene intently. As Laura walks away, he slowly gets up from his table and starts to follow her.

  Not knowing that Laura’s life is in grave danger, Victor decides to let her cool off a bit and moves over to the bar in the corner for a drink and to see what is on the card he has just copied. As he moves between the tables towards the bar, he takes one last glance to the main exit. However, Laura has already disappeared out of sight.

  Slowly Victor turns his gaze away from the exit, but then something in the corner of his eye catches his attention and he immediately returns his gaze to the exit. He notices several people entering and leaving the room, however one man stands out from the rest. There is something that bugs Victor about him, not the fact that the man is looking at Victor while leaving the room, but something else.

  The man is around six feet six, normal build with dark brown hair, and is wearing a black dining suit. Nothing unusual in this upscale dining room, then Victor realizes what had caught his attention, it is the jacket. The jacket is too short and wide for the man, as if it was made for a person with wider shoulders but shorter in length, not by much, but just enough for Victor’s trained eye to notice it.

  Is Laura in danger, maybe he should follow her just to make sure she is ok. Victor makes to go, but then stops. It is possible that the man borrowed the suit for the evening and that there is no danger. Victor decides to have a drink and inspect the files. Although he cares for Laura in a way he does not fully understand yet, finding out what is on the memory card is of greater importance at this moment than running after her. He also does not expect any more assassins or spies on the ship, for how many people can be looking for the disc?

  It makes sense now, the man who had tried to plant the bug in his cabin is working for Josh. It is just too unlikely that someone would try to kill him, and on failing bug his room instead. The most likely explanation is that Josh quickly had someone sent in with a bug to try and catch him or Laura on tape giving themselves away or saying something about the disc when the agent left. Victor is unaware of just how desperate Russia is in obtaining the disc, and that they had sent Russtoff after hearing about the three dead hitmen. He also does not know that the man he killed in his room was sent by his own agency after discovering that he had killed the three men and taken Laura to his room. They feared that he had turned.

  Victor continues on to the bar. The young but capable French bartender greets him with a warm smile as he sits down. He guesses the man to be around 26 years old. The bar is currently deserted save for Victor and the bartender, everyone else is busy eating. The bartender places a bowl of salted peanuts and a coaster in front of Victor as he greets Victor.

  “Good evening sir, I am Thibault, your bartender for tonight, what will it be for you?” Thibault has a friendly but professional smile as he talks.

  “Whiskey, straight up,” Victor replies while taking his phone out of his pants pocket, and starts looking at the files he has copied from the memory chip in Laura’s pen. Thibault nods and starts pouring Victor’s drink, but keeps watching him out of the corner of his eye, making sure Victor is not watching him pour the drink. Victor is unaware just how much Laura needs him at this very moment.

  With fury in her step Laura makes her way back to her cabin. Although it is a good 10 minutes walk back to her room, she is so pre-occupied with her own thoughts that she does not notice the man trailing her, only a few steps behind her, waiting for the right moment. When she reaches her cabin, she starts looking through her purse for her cabin access card, while behind her a shadow is waiting, opening a small bottle and pouring chloroform onto a handkerchief.

  Laura finds her access card and slots it into the door mechanism, the red light next to the handle turns green and a click informs Laura that the door is unlocked. The shadow steps closer, ready to strike.

  With her left hand Laura pulls the access card from the door and with her right she reaches for the door handle and opens the door. Suddenly a hand appears from behind her and places a cloth over her mouth and nose while another hand grabs her by the hair, stopping her from turning her head.

  Laura tries to kick the attacker, but her power leaves her almost immediately. The world around her starts to turn and Laura’s legs give in. A hand catches her as she falls to the floor, and darkness takes her.

  Russtoff picks Laura up and throws her over his shoulder, then opens the door to the room completely and carries her inside. As soon as he is inside he drops her onto the bed. Russtoff quickly picks up Laura’s purse and room card that she has dropped, and then closes the door behind him.

  When Russtoff first saw Laura and followed her to the dining room, he thought that he would have to torture her to get the disc, but this is far easier. The unknown man got the memory card for him. Strange that the man replaced the chip and did not keep it.

  Working quickly Russtoff finds the pen in Laura’s purse and r
emoves the chip. He has no means of accessing the data on the memory card himself, but he needs to make sure that he has the right card. Russtoff starts to search Laura’s apartment and finds her net book. The net book has a place for different memory cards and one is for a Micro SD card, just what he needs, he just hopes that Laura does not have a password on her net book.

  Opening up the net book, Russtoff presses the power button and a smile comes on his face. He glances towards Laura to see that she is still unconscious, although he knows that it will be hours before she will awake from being chloroformed.

  Laura did not shut down her net book, nor did she lock it, she just closed the lid when she left, causing it to go into sleep mode. When Russtoff pressed the power button the net book immediately resumed the tasks from before it was closed down. Russtoff quickly accesses the memory card and starts to go through the files, at the same time as Victor is also viewing the files on this cell phone.

  Victor frowns at the data from the memory card; it contains a lot of photos of different people, taken all around the world. Each picture is named only by a number, 500 in total. Scrolling through the index and passing all the pictures, Victor notices two documents and an application file. One document is named “List” and the other “Unknown”.

  The bartender brings Victor’s drink as Victor opens the first file. Instinctively Victor reaches for the drink as he waits for the large document to open. Slowly Victor brings the drink to his lips and is about to take a sip when the file opens. What Victor sees makes him stop all movement, so it is true. Quickly Victor closes the large document. He has an idea what the application file is, but cannot test it on his phone, and opens the second document. This one is smaller and opens immediately. The document only contains a few lines of text, but it is the text Victor sought.

  “This is ridiculous. Bartender, a beer, Heineken.” The voice startles Victor, as he had not even noticed the man sitting down next to him, and causes Victor to almost drop his phone. Quickly he closes the document and hides his phone.