Josh knows that the men in the room are not just a bunch of unlucky passengers. They must be connected to all the other killings and the missing disc, but how? He also knows that whoever is killing all the people wants Laura alive for a reason, what that reason is he could only speculate on. Josh and his partner fine-comb the cabin, numbering every casing and bullet hole. It takes them almost three hours to catalog and photograph all the evidence in the cabin.
Shaking his head, Josh walks out of the cabin and calls Captain Steel over.
Captain Steel has seen many things in his 25 years at sea, but in all his 54 years of life he had never witnessed such destruction first hand, and never expected it on a luxury ocean liner, it is a nightmare to him.
“Captain, due to the current happenings, I am ordering you to turn the ship around immediately and return to US waters where the Coast Guard will take control of the ship. All crew and passengers are to be detained and questioned until cleared, is that understood?”
Captain Steel thinks of arguing with the agent. They are near Grand Cayman and he would have liked to dock there and have the local police remove the bodies rather than turn around, but they are still in international waters and the ship is registered in Florida, thus he has to comply.
Josh takes some last photographs of the room, and then has the bodies taken to one of the kitchen freezers. Due to the ship having space to hold only two bodies in its mortuary, they have to clear some space in one of the kitchen freezers and lock it.
As Josh and Parker place the last body in the freezer with Captain Steel looking on, Josh comments, “Free ice cream for everyone then.”
Russtoff is standing on the main deck and glances at his watch, 6:15am, should be another hour before they are in port. He is waiting for a glimpse of the island when suddenly an announcement is made over the ship’s public address system.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. Due to unforeseen technical problems, we will not be docking in the Cayman Islands. We will also not be able to continue our cruise and are now turning around and heading back to Florida. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. Have a nice day.”
People start to complain immediately, and some make angry threats of suing the captain and the ocean liner’s owners. Russtoff is also angry, but not of a failed trip, rather of going back to Florida, taking him further away from his contacts. With haste Russtoff makes his way to a lifeboat numbered 20, and after looking around to make sure he is not seen, removes his pack that he brought with him and hid under the canvas cover.
Opening the waterproof bag, he feels inside and removes an envelope. On opening the envelope, Russtoff removes 16 sheets, each containing a printout of a deck plan for one of the ship’s levels. After studying the engineering deck plan, he starts to make his way to the engine room. Russtoff comes to a watertight outside door marked “EB5 Employees Only,” where he rechecks that he is at the correct door according to the plans, and then proceeds to enter the engineering deck. He is careful not to allow anyone to notice him while he moves towards the main control panel for the engines.
Upon reaching the main control panel, he quickly removes a one pound block of C4 plastic explosives and detonator from his backpack. Carefully, he inserts the detonator into the explosives, and then sets the timer for five minutes.
The explosion will be large enough to totally destroy the control panel, rendering the ship disabled, yet not large enough for the distance it is from the ship’s hull to breach the hull. He knows that the blast will also take out the controls to the backup generators, leaving the ship without electricity, thus the ship will have to be towed to port. With Grand Cayman being only hours away it is the most logical choice, giving him a chance to escape.
Russtoff carefully places the explosives on the panel, and then activates the timer before starting to walk away. The digital timer starts counting down the five minutes. Russtoff is only 20 feet away when he turns back and deactivates the timer. He needs at least five minutes to clear the area, but decides that leaving the explosives in the open for that long is risky. He has no more explosives and if someone finds them and deactivates them, he will have missed his chance to disable the ship.
Looking around, Russtoff notices a lunch box standing on the ground next to the control panel. On opening it, Russtoff finds sandwiches and a flask. He quickly places the explosives under some of the sandwiches and reactivates the timer before closing the lunch box. Carefully, he replaces the lunch box next to the control panel and quickly makes his way out of the room, while eating a sandwich he has taken from the lunch box. The timer counts off the seconds.
It takes Russtoff four minutes to get to the door leading to the outside, where he quickly looks around to make sure no one sees him before opening the door and carefully peering outside.
Upon finding the walkway empty, he silently slips out and closes the door behind him. 40 seconds remaining. Russtoff then runs up the stairs only 30 feet from the door and reaches one of the open decks of the ship. Russtoff smiles as he stops at the railing. He will have a nice view of the ocean as the ship comes to a halt. 30 seconds remaining.
Russtoff is in a good mood; he has the microchip with all the data he wants and more, and he will soon be off the ship. He is unaware however that an engineer has just reached the control panel to check that all is ok. The engineer has 12 years experience and only needs 10 seconds to give the electronic monitors an overview to know all is running smoothly. Just as the man turns to walk away he notices the lunch box on the ground. 15 seconds remaining.
“Samuel’s left his lunch box lying around again,” he mumbles to himself as he picks the box up and starts to walk to an exit door. The door is a little ways away and leads to the parts room where they store spare parts for repairs and maintenance of the ship’s engines. To get to the door, the engineer has to walk around some water cooling pipes and along a narrow pathway close to the ship’s hull. Five seconds remaining.
Russtoff takes a packet of Marlboro cigarettes from his front jacket pocket and removes one. While placing the cigarette in his mouth, he simultaneously looks at his watch.
“Should be close now…”
An explosion below him shakes the ship lightly and the sound cuts off his words.
Russtoff freezes and the cigarette drops from his lips, with a shocked expression on his face he keeps staring at the side of the ship. “Oh, shit,” is all Russtoff can manage.
The explosion causes some water to be blown into the air, which is now raining down on him and other passengers around him. Russtoff’s eyes widen when the shower of water clears and he can see the hull of the ocean liner below him clearly again. There is a ten foot diameter hole in the side of the ship, partly below the water line, and water is rushing into the ship with full force. The ship is sinking.
Chapter 8
Alarms are going off all over the console in the bridge, causing the crew to run around trying to close bulkheads remotely and save the ship. The ship loses its main power immediately, and the backup generators fail to start. Small emergency battery powered lights activate automatically in each room and hallways, allowing passengers to make their way out of their rooms. The bridge is now also running on emergency back up battery power, able to keep the ship’s communication going for 30 minutes.
“What the hell happened?” Captain Steel demands from his crew as he enters the bridge.
“Sir, there was an explosion in the engine room, main and backup power is lost as well as propulsion, we are running on emergency batteries.” First officer Kevin has a hint of fear in his voice as he speaks. Captain Steel wants to ask what could have caused the explosion, but in light of all the murders, he knows it must be sabotage.
“What is the status of the ship?” Captain Steel knows the answer before he even asks, but he has to follow procedures.
“Sir, the ship is taking on water due to a breach in the hull at the engineering deck and damaged pipes that are causing seawater t
o flood into the ship as a result of damaged control valves. There is nothing we can do, the ship is lost sir.” Captain Steel nods his agreement with Kevin’s assessment.
“How much time do we have Kevin?”
“Sir, from current estimation, four hours sir.”
“Very well, sound the evacuation alarm and radio George Town Port Security to let them know about our situation. Have the crew inform the passengers that they cannot take luggage but should take their wallets and other documentation.” Captain Steel never thought that he would need to give an evacuation order for real.
First officer Kevin nods and presses a button labeled “Evacuation” on the control panel, while Captain Steel walks over to the console and presses the send button next to the microphone.
“This is your Captain speaking. Due to unforeseen technical problems, we will be evacuating the ship. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill, evacuate the ship. All passengers please calmly move to your designated evacuation points.”
The ship had run an evacuation drill just as they left Florida, so everything is now going smoothly and orderly. The crew has the passengers fit life vests and helps them enter the lifeboats. When a lifeboat is full to capacity, it is lowered down to the water where the skipper of the lifeboat starts its engine and moves it away from the ocean liner. Some passengers think it is another drill, until they see the ship starting to list as it takes on water.
Victor is in his room when the alarm sounds to evacuate the ship. He immediately grabs a dry pouch specially made for phones and places his phone in it, then takes his documents and wallet and places them in another dry pouch, putting both dry pouches into a small backpack. He quickly grabs one fresh change of clothes, before leaving his room and running to Laura’s room.
Upon reaching Laura’s room, he finds the door unlocked, due to the power failure the doors automatically unlock. Laura’s room is illuminated only by the small emergency lights and Victor takes a small Diamond Storm headlamp from his backpack. Using the headlamp he quickly locates Laura’s documents, handbag, and also grabs a t-shirt and jeans from a pile lying on her bed.
Victor knows that Laura is in sickbay and makes haste to it as best he can. He has to push past people and it takes him 20 minutes to reach the sickbay. Looking around Victor finds that the sickbay is already evacuated. On seeing a crew member passing by guiding passengers to an evacuation point, he immediately approaches the girl.
“Excuse me, my wife was in sickbay, can you please inform me of what evacuation point she would have been taken to?”
The girl has a typical trained response. “Don’t worry sir, you will be reunited with her again, please follow me to a designated evacuation point.” Victor knows the girl is not going to give him the information and allow him to wander around the ship searching for Laura, unless he forces it from her and there is not enough time for that. Looking around he notices an emergency evacuation plan on the far wall. Moving closer Victor gets the information he wants from the plan, emergency evacuation assembly point B15, and a map on how to get there.
He quickly makes his way to the evacuation point, pushing people out of the way as he goes. Within five minutes he reaches the evacuation point just in time to see Laura stepping into a lifeboat.
Victor immediately makes his way to the front of the line, pushing people out of the way. Just as he reaches the lifeboat, the crew member that controls the launching of the lifeboats from the ship closes the doors.
A second crew member pulls Victor away from the door while saying, “Please step away from the lifeboat, there will be another one in a few minutes.”
Victor ignores the man and walks over to the crew member operating the controls while asking the man to open the doors again and let him on.
The first crew member quickly blocks his path while saying. “Sir, please stand back, we will bring a second lifeboat into operation in a moment. Where is your life vest sir?”
Victor tries to first reason with the man, “My wife is in that lifeboat, I want to be with her. Please open the doors.”
The crew member now taking on a firmer stance responds, “Sir, you will be seeing her again soon, step back and wait your t…,” Victor’s punch in his solar plexus cuts his words short and the man crumbles to the ground. Before the second crew member can react, Victor punches him in the guts, causing him to gasp for air. Victor then takes the controls from him and starts to open the doors.
“Hey you, what do you think you are doing?” Victor turns to face the voice and freezes. From the crowd a six foot seven man, around 250 pounds of solid muscle, is making his way directly to Victor.
“I said, what are you doing?” The man is now only two feet from Victor, and Victor punches him twice, once in the solar plexus and once in the guts.
The guy is like a brick wall and Victor’s punches only make him mad.
“Why, you little dweeb,” the man bellows as he swings a massive fist at Victor, who neatly sidesteps the punch and lands three punches into the man’s right kidney before the man spins around and punches again, this time a little slower. Again Victor sidesteps the man, but this time he kicks the man in the groin from behind. The man drops to his knees and Victor is just about to punch him in the back of the head when someone puts a gun against Victor’s head.
“That is quite enough.” As the words are spoken Victor is already moving with deliberate action. Bringing his right arm up, he grabs the gun while pushing it back and away from him at the same time as moving his body forward, causing the gun to aim away from his head. Victor then uses his hips to spin his upper body around quickly clockwise, and uses the added speed and momentum to increase the effectiveness of his punch. His left fist catches the man squarely in the jaw, and the man goes down immediately. He is unconscious before he hits the ground.
Victor takes the man’s pistol and only then notices that the man is Josh.
“Oops,” is all Victor says. Upon seeing how he disarmed the agent and took care of the bulk of a man, all the other passengers stand back and allow him to bring the lifeboat back up, having been partly lowered by the skipper on the lifeboat remotely, trying to launch it.
As the lifeboat comes to a stop, Victor taps on the window of the door with the gun. The skipper reluctantly opens the door. The first crew member that Victor knocked down is starting to get up, and Victor calls to him.
“You, lower this lifeboat and proceed with the evacuation.” He then steps into the lifeboat and makes his way to Laura. The other passengers stand away from him as far as possible given the small space available inside the lifeboat.
“Are you insane?” Laura demands, still angry at him for checking his e-mails when she was helping Sam. Victor does not answer her but just takes a place beside her, then takes the bag from his back and opens a side pocket. Pulling out a small bottle of painkillers, he shakes four pills out on his left hand and then swallows them without water. After returning the bottle to a side pocket and placing the gun in the main pocket, he swings the bag back onto his back. Looking down, Laura notices blood starting to seep through Victor’s pants on his left upper thigh. Laura goes white from shock, and it takes her a while before she speaks. “Who are you really?”
Victor replies without looking at her, “Long story.” Before Laura can reply he adds, “Will tell you all when we get on land, it is time you know what you are involved in.”
“Thank you.” Laura leans over and kisses him on the cheek as she speaks.
“For what?” Victor looks her directly in the eyes as he answers.
“For saving my life, twice,” Laura replies. Victor wants to tell her that he was actually going to shoot her the first time, but decides it is best not to inform her of that small detail at this moment. Laura comes closer and hugs Victor while she puts her head on his shoulder. For the first time in many years Laura feels safe.
The evacuation takes three hours to complete, and the people watch in horror as the ocean liner sinks slowly into
the deep abyss, 5000 feet of cold dark water awaiting it eagerly. The captain has all the lifeboats stay together and report in with head counts, making sure that no one is left behind. Blue Diamond sinks in four hours 20 minutes after the explosion, and when the last part of her disappears below the water, the captain gives the order for all the lifeboats to proceed together towards the island of Grand Cayman, the largest of the Cayman islands, with her two sister islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman around 80 miles from the main island.
The lifeboats have a maximum speed of 20 knots, and it takes them three hours to reach the port of Grand Cayman. Four marine police vessels escort them for the last hour of their journey.
Although the ride is not too unpleasant, the waters are becoming a bit choppy and there are reports of a hurricane a few days out on approach to the island. Due to the ongoing investigations, all the passengers are to be taken to a separate dock and held for questioning. Victor knows that this will be happening and makes a phone call to some friends.
“Hey Screw, I’m currently in lifeboat number 30, can you make some arrangements for me? Thanks mate, see you later.” Laura decides to wait until later before asking what that is about.
Five minutes later a voice calls their lifeboat over its radio. “Blue Diamond Lifeboat number 30, Blue Diamond Lifeboat number 30, this is Marine Police Tornado.” Victor looks out the side window as soon as he hears the call come over the radio. On the lifeboat’s port side a pontoon boat with an enclosed cabin approaches them. The boat has four 300 horsepower outboard motors on and is used by the police to catch drug runners.
“Tornado, Lifeboat 30, send, over.” The skipper is a little unsure of what to do, and it reflects in his voice.
“Lifeboat 30, Tornado, stop all engines and prepare to be boarded,” the voice is stern.
“Tornado, Lifeboat 30, stopping all engines and preparing to be boarded.” The skipper pulls the throttle back to neutral and asks one of the crew to open the side door and help raft the two boats together. The police boat has a protected cabin with sliding doors on the sides. The doors are open and one can make out four people on the boat. Two police officers with machine guns slung over their shoulders and side arms on the hip come out of the cabin to help with the rafting up. A third officer stands ready with his sidearm drawn, but pointed downwards, covering his comrades.
Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy Page 7
