Day 5: Southampton

Sly was no idiot. He knew when there was danger afoot. He was like a magnet: trouble always seemed to come to him. For once he wished that he could go a year without ending up in some major incident outside of thieving. Now he was facing a possible murder. If he knew who the guy he overheard in the alley was; he might be able to know who he was targeting.

Bentley disbelieved him. While Murray, as gullible as he was, would believe almost anything. Bentley said it could have been the cold; but Sly knew why Bentley was liked this: he didn't want to get dragged out of his already nice vacation into a life-threatening situation.

Sly couldn't even sleep that night. He had been blindly watching TV for several hours-the only thing that had caught a hold in his distracted mind was that an odd cold front had formed over the North Sea, giving Oslo and Edinburgh an unusually colder winter climate than normal. For the rest, he had been laying in bed all night.

Morning had arrived and the alarm went off.

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Sly walked along the upper story of the promenade deck, stopping once in a while to catch a glimpse of the features of the shores of Southampton water. Sly knew his history. Southampton was home to the Titanic, its sister ships, and the two Cunard queens-Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth-and was also currently home to the largest ship afloat: the Queen Mary 2.

The ship would only dock for a few hours instead of the day in order to be able to reach open water before an unexpected winter storm blew up over it. For some people, this was a far as they'd go, disembarking, while for the others, this was the beginning.

By 1:00 PM, the Leviathan weighed anchor and was released her moorings, heading out to the English Channel. The passengers would not see land for another four days.

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"So how is your trip so far Ms. Fox?" Robert Wall asked, sitting across from Carmelita as she sipped a coffee.

"Very well thank you Mr. Wall," Carmelita smiled. "And please, call me Carmelita."

"Well since I'm on first name terms with you I suppose its only fair you call me Robert," Robert replied.

"Where we headed to next?" Carmelita said, looking out the café's window and out onto the promenade.

"We reach New York in about four days," Robert answered. "Four days of open ocean and then two days of rustling and bustling New York."

"I suppose we would expect ice?" Carmelita said.

"Well yes," Robert shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "It is December. It should be easy to spot your everyday iceberg, but growlers are the worry."

"Growlers?" Carmelita asked.

"They're flat chunks of ice so low to the water that they sometimes are awash. They're as good as invisible at night and can tear open a ship like a can opener. But ships like the Leviathan have a double skin and sealed watertight compartments made mandatory after the Titanic sinking. Plus radar should keep us clear of the larger buggers."

"You know an awfully lot about this sort of thing," Carmelita pointed out.

"I'm just a simple guy," Robert said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to me."

"So where you headed?" Carmelita asked.

"Full circuit for me," Robert answered. He took a sip of his own coffee. "Well gossip travels around here fast for a ship this big."

"Why?" Carmelita asked.

"Well somebody is staying the whole circuit in the Deuville Suite," Robert said, taking another sip of coffee. "It's the most expensive room on the ship, and its worth three times more than a captain's yearly salary! I was talking to the purser about some valuables and he brought up the man. A Mr Peroco? Well the purser said that the room was used only twice ever in this ship's four-year operating status. Nice man Peroco, he told me. Tipped the stewards big enough to make all the other passengers look stingy."

"I'm sure he's filthy rich," Carmelita commented. "He probably loves to flaunt his money about."

"The purser told me that this was the first time he had a vacation of this magnitude," Robert continued. "Apparently the guy works a lot but rests even more. I guess he deals in rare valuables; jewelry, gold, rare books-there was an unconfirmed rumor that a copy of the Rubyat of Omar Kayam passed through his hands."

"Sounds like an interesting man," Carmelita said.

"I for one would like to meet this Peroco fella," Robert replied.

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"This is the Captain," the figure said.

"I'm Tennille," the man replied. "Damn it! Why do we have to use these crappy code talks?"

"Loosen up Kronsteen," the figure answered

"Don't use names!" Kronsteen barked back at his equal. "My name is Agent Orange!"

"Fine Agent Orange!" the figure snapped back. "Is my agent on board?"

"Yeah Agent Jonah has boarded as a passenger and is ready for your word," Kronsteen answered.

"Good," the figure replied. "Tell Agent Jonah to look out for the enemy. I don't want another botched operation like last time. It was bad enough we killed that woman!"

"Relax," Kronsteen settled. "Everything will go right this time."

Suddenly the figure grabbed Kronsteen by the collar of his crew uniform and hauled the short man to his eye level. "For your sake it better go right!"


A/N Sorry it took so long to update. Im already well into Day 6. AS a heads up, next chapter will include a little history trivia, so next chappy, keep your eyes open for the hidden answer.

In next chapter: The captain of the Leviathan recieves orders, Sly self-teaches himself to swim, Sly meets Carmelita, and that's about as far as I got into writing that chapter.

Till next time!