Kate walked down the steps. She was met by three armed men. One of the men reached out to take the weapons from her hands.
Dirk Christie then stepped forward, extending his hand toward Kate and taking hers in his. "My, neither of us quite looks our best today, do we?"
Kate didn't respond, even though it was true. Dirk had physically transformed from lean to excessively muscled. What hadn't changed was his disarming smile.
Dirk began to squeeze her hand, progressively harder, until she whimpered in pain. "I'm so sorry, love. You know, three years, some anger and resentment has been building." He let go. "Turn around and go back up the stairs, my dear."
"You gave me your word."
"Anne, I'm a felon. What good is my word?"
She didn't budge. One of the men nudged his gun closer to her.
"You'll just have to shoot me here and climb over me then."
"People never understood what I saw in you, Anne. They only saw your brains, not your feistiness. Alas, the polishing we put on it all seems to have disappeared. Flannel? How drab."
"Just kill me already."
"I've had three years and more to imagine this moment, love. I'll take as much time as I want and I will direct the scene, thank you very much. Now, go upstairs."
"You've lost all honor."
"I wouldn't say that. I'll keep true to my original promise. You must understand the need to secure the premises, however."
Lee listened from above and retreated further into Kate's bedroom. He stashed the radio in the closet out of sight. Then he looked for the rifle Kate had left behind somewhere upstairs wondering whether even if he found it, he could shoot it left-handed. By the time he spotted it under the window, it was too late. Kate was being paraded into the room at gunpoint. Lee raised his hands in surrender.
"Nasty business, guns," Dirk said as he motioned for one of the men to pick up the rifle. "I'm so sorry, you've been hurt, officer, or I suppose I should say, what, marshal?"
"What you say really doesn't matter," Lee commented.
"Oh, Anne, clever Anne. A federal marshal? They're a dreary lot, not like this one. From the ring, I'd say he's a Navy man."
"Just leave him alone, Dirk. He has nothing to do with us."
"Your wallet, sir?"
"It'd be a little hard to reach just now," Lee explained, showing his hand.
"You won't mind if my associate retrieves it then, would you?"
Lee shrugged. The man reached into his pocket and handed the slim wallet to Dirk Christie.
Christie opened it slowly as if about to relish a disclosure. He pulled out its meager contents, letting several bills fall to the floor. His face suggested he hadn't found what he expected. "Cuff him, Roger, hands to the footboard." Lee cooperated, the only sane choice given guns aimed at him and Kate. His hands were cuffed between rungs of the hip height cast iron footboard of the bed.
"Take a look around up here, Roger. See if our friend has stashed some of the contents of his wallet."
"Maybe if you tell me what you're looking for, I can help?" Lee offered.
Christie backhanded him in the face with the muzzle of his pistol.
"Dirk, please. Stop."
"Our deal was that I wouldn't hurt the marshal. This man is not a marshal, as you well know."
"What difference does it make, marshal or Navy? You understood my point."
"Yes, but a man with no identification in his wallet? That's not a man to be trusted, now is it, Anne?" Christie took another swipe at Lee's cheek. Lee deked so that contact was minimal.
Roger returned shortly. "I found this in the other room."
Christie let out a throaty laugh. "'I'm here for you, no matter what.' Yes, you are Captain Crane. Yes, I knew you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Nelson's golden boy. Hah! You can't imagine the luck I've had this week, captain. A hurricane set me free and sailed you into what shall become your worst nightmare, and an even worse one for Nelson." Christie brought up his pistol again, ready to swipe at Lee's face again.
Kate threw herself between Christie and Lee, reaching out in an effort to grab the pistol. It fell to the ground. Christie reached out for her with both hands, angrily squeezing her arms. Her eyes closed as she cried out. Then suddenly Christie's grip eased.
"God, I remember your smell." Christie nuzzled her head, inhaling deeply, reminiscing, before he grabbed her hair and held it tightly.
Lee rattled the cuffs between the iron bed's foot rails to no avail.
"Roger, go check with Ralph about the status of our ride out of here," Christie ordered. Everyone in the room remained still as they waited for Roger's return. It wasn't long. He whispered in Dirk Christie's ear. "Stay outside with Ralph unless I call for you. Give me those cuffs," Christie ordered.
"Sadly, for you two, we find ourselves with more time on our hands than expected. Seems something damaged our originally planned transport and a replacement is being obtained." Christie breathed in deeply again, his head close to Kate's, one hand still grasping her hair. "How I've missed you, despite everything. Can you begin to fathom how that is possible, Captain Crane, to miss someone who betrayed you?"
"If I hadn't, how many more men would have died from what you were doing?" Kate asked.
Christie pulled her hair tighter. "Yes, you held the moral high ground. Bully for you." He breathed in deeply again. "God, three years and your smell still gets to me. I'd have been better off if I'd have been a butt-fucker like Arnold here." Christie released Kate and pushed her hard, back into the wall.
Lee bit his tongue, knowing that arguing with Christie was not likely to make anything easier for Kate.
"It's just pheromones."
"Don't you just love a woman who uses big words?" Christie smiled at Lee while pulling Kate by the wrist to the bed. "Sit down, Anne and don't move." He grabbed her right wrist and cuffed it to a wrought iron headboard bar behind her.
"Just tell me one thing. Did you sabotage the windows on Seaview?" Kate asked.
Christie smiled. "Even if I answered, no one would ever hear it." Then Christie's face twisted. "Unless this place is bugged or . . . Arnold, check him. . . . Don't panic, Captain Crane. Unlike some of us, Arnold hasn't gone without all these years. Of course, he may find you a more attractive option than some of the others."
Arnold Swenson cast an angry glare at Dirk Christie. Lee felt less concerned than he had a moment earlier.
"The tempering process - did you alter it?" Kate asked.
Lee wondered what she was attempting to do, provoking Christie that way.
"There's nothing on him," Swenson said.
"Check around the room then."
Swenson brought out the shortwave from the closet. "Found something. You want me to break it?"
"Just hold on to it. Maybe we'll entertain Nelson with it later." Christie advanced toward Kate. He placed his hand under her chin, lifted her face. "You're a handsome man, captain. You probably can have your choice of women, each prettier than the next. So you tell me, why a man like me, who had gorgeous women throwing themselves at me my entire life, fell for this rather plain one?"
Lee didn't like the feel of where things were headed, so he kept quiet.
"When I first met Anne, I don't think she had her hair cut for ten years. She owned maybe three outfits, nothing but drab peasant skirts. But her mind! Every major player wanted her skills. I was no different. With a little encouragement from me, she polished up a bit. All gone to waste now." Christie dropped her chin and stalked off to the bathroom. Lee heard him rummaging through drawers. He returned with a first aid kit and a pair of scissors. He tossed the kit to Swenson. "Clean him up for travel." Christie kept the scissors, snapping them open and shut as he approached Kate.
"For God's sake, Christie. Where are you going with this?" Lee asked.
"It's okay, Captain Crane," Kate said.
Christie threateningly waved the scissors in front of her face. "I wouldn't be so sure, Anne. I'm not the same man anymore. Three years in a jail cell, a man builds up a lot of resentment." Christie pushed her head forward and cut her hair off above the pony tail band she had worn. He pushed the hair around playfully. He bent down to it and sniffed.
"The scent of a woman!" Christie kissed the top of her hair. "Talk to me, Anne. Make me remember why I chose you."
"Because I didn't bore you."
"So true, but tell me, Anne, tell me more. Tell me why every time I smell you, I lose all good sense. You know how."
Kate looked upward at the ceiling briefly, then closed her eyes. "Your vomeronasal organ detects pheromones, lipophilic compounds in our skin and follicles that give us each signature odors. These can produce stimulatory responses, sometimes even aphrodisiacal responses."
As Kate spoke, Christie's hand began to move inside her shirt. He nuzzled her neck.
"Leave her alone!" Lee shouted.
Christie did as Lee asked. He got up abruptly and approached Lee, gun extended.
"What did you say, Captain?"
"I said to leave her alone."
"You have another suggestion as to how I might occupy the time, seeing as your people are responsible for the delay?" Christie smiled. "Yes, Captain, I have no doubt that the damage to our boat was caused by your people. However, it changes nothing. After all, I hold the trump cards. Maybe it's time you fully understood that." Christie turned on the radio. "Come, Captain, hail your beloved Admiral Nelson for us."
Lee shook his head in refusal.
"Very well. I'll do it. Come in Nelson. Someone wants to talk to you."
"This is Nelson. Who is this?"
Christie pressed his hand onto Lee's newly wrapped injured hand. Lee yelped.
"Lee, is that you? Lee, are you all right?"
"Answer him, Lee. We wouldn't want to worry him."
"It's me, Admiral."
"Who hailed me?"
"Christie."
"Damn. Are you hurt?"
"Not seriously."
"He means not yet, Nelson. However, I can assure you that at the first sign of resistance, that will change. Do you understand me?"
"Christie, you're not a big enough fool to think you can get away with this. Walk away now before you do something you'll regret."
"The only regret that I'll have is not seeing your face when you realize how badly you've failed, how easily you were manipulated! Imagine my delight in finding Crane here. Yes, if it had been you, so much the better, I suppose, but still, for so much to go my way! It must gall you so."
"Look, you don't even have to turn yourself in. We can work a deal. You can go someplace without extradition. Trade me for them."
"You are desperate, aren't you, Nelson?"
"You're a better man than this, Christie."
"Here's my deal, Nelson. You don't interfere, I don't kill them, at least not immediately. If you do, they die, slowly, painfully."
"You're not a violent man, Christie, we both know that."
Christie pistol whipped Lee again.
"Ask your Captain just how true that is, Nelson."
"Lee, what's going on?"
"Tell him, Lee," Christie mocked.
"Admiral, I think Christie's plenty capable of violence now."
"Enough chatter! You understand my conditions. Violate them at your own risk."
"I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth if anything happens to them, Christie."
"I look forward to it, Nelson." Christie flung the radio into the wall. "Where were we? Oh, yes, killing time whilst waiting for our ride."
"What do you intend to do with us?" Lee asked.
Christie smirked. "I think you know quite well, Captain Crane. Deja vu all over again, as the saying goes. You'll soon be visiting with your friends from the People's Republic, permanently this time, I expect."