Chapter 34
Harm spent a moment at the ship's rail, looking out over the ocean. He'd taken to running in the early evening since Mac was still getting up to run in the mornings. This particular evening-- less than twenty-four hours since his conversation with Baggy and the AV crew-- the sun lay low on the horizon over a calm, flawless sea. The light breeze was fresh and cool, but to Harm's mind lacked the choking tang of jet fuel that should have accompanied it.
He sighed. His body had not taken well to having a twenty-year routine undone. He was staying up until two or three a.m. every night and sleeping until noon, and had probably eaten more junk food in the last five and half weeks than in the previous five and a half years. And though he had stuck to a regular exercise regime, it didn't feel like enough.
Harm stretched extensively, cursing his age and ejection seats, then headed out along the upper deck track. He liked it more than the lower deck's. Fewer people came up there, which was worth the price of having a significantly shorter loop. The short loop meant there wasn't much of a straightaway, and that put more strain on his bad knee. Not that he would ever admit to having a bad knee. It wasn't sufficient to keep him off flight status, just twinged more often and tended to stiffen up when it was going to rain. One more injury, though… Sometimes Harm wondered just how many more times he'd be able to come back from something serious.
Pushing such bleak thoughts aside, he started off. The rhythmic thump-thump of his shoes on the track made a perfect counterpoint to the cries of the gulls wheeling overhead. The birds gave the Radiant Heart a constant escort, having learned that cruise ship passengers often tossed food over the rails just to watch them dive to catch the pieces.
Harm had gone about two miles when he saw a young woman angling across the deck to intersect him. She looked like one of Nikki's friends-- the redhead who often hung around with her. He searched his memory for a name, finding it after a moment. Chelsea.
Frowning, he slowed to meet her.
"Hi, Harm." She tucked a lock of deep red hair behind her ear. She was dressed in a pair of cutoff shorts and a halter-top, but there was nothing particularly flirtatious about her greeting.
He nodded in return. "Chelsea. What's up?"
She cocked her head to look up at him. "I'm looking for Nikki. You haven't seen her, have you?"
Harm put his hands on his hips. He hadn't seen her except in passing since the incident at the pool, and was quite content to keep it that way. He shook his head. "Not recently."
She wrinkled her nose in frustration. "She must be avoiding me. Well, thanks anyway." With a wave, she turned away.
Harm watched her go, wondering if he should be concerned about Nikki. There was no telling what she might be up to. Finally, he shook his head. He'd finish his run first, grab a shower and then check in on her. Mac wouldn't get too upset, he didn't think, and it would ease his conscience to make sure.
#
Mac sat at a small table in the same restaurant she and Toby had been going to lately, sipping coffee and daydreaming as she stared out at the water. Very soon now the cruise would be over-- the investigation would be over, whatever the outcome-- and she would be able to go back to her life. A life that had one huge, wonderful, fundamental change to it.
She glanced at her wedding rings, then back out at the ocean. Right now she was fantasizing about changing out her nameplates at work and getting a new driver's license. That would be a relief-- she looked downright shaggy in the current one. Her experiment with growing her hair out hadn't been very successful.
"Mrs. Rabb."
Mac looked up to find Selena standing beside her table, her hands folded gracefully in front of her.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Ariel asked me to find you. He'd like to talk to you about the last two days of the cruise. There are, as you probably remember from your orientation, a few changes to the ship's routine as the cruise nears its end."
Mac froze as her heart began to pound. This is it.
"Just me?" she asked Selena, unable to help the suspicious not that crept into her voice.
Selena shook her head. "Of course not. It is an individual interview, to make sure all topics are open for honest discussion." She gave Mac a fake smile that was probably intended to reassure her. "Mr. Ariel has already spoken with each of the Andersons."
"What about Harm?"
Selena shrugged. "I believe he's running at the moment. I'm sure Mr. Ariel will talk with him later this evening."
Mac rose to her feet, feeling a wave of dread mixed with adrenaline. Showtime.
She followed Selena to Ariel's office. Stepping inside, she made a quick review of the room, but saw nothing alarming. It was just an office, though even messier than her own.
"Come in, Mrs. Rabb." Tony Ariel didn't stand to greet her, but instead waved her forward from where he sat behind a modern-looking black metal desk. Mac did so, seating herself in one of the chairs pulled up before it. Selena withdrew silently, leaving Mac to study Ariel across the space of a few feet.
"Can I call you Sarah?" he asked as he swiveled his chair ninety degrees toward a small wet bar tucked away behind the desk.
Mac forced herself to lay her hands calmly in her lap. "I prefer Mac."
"All right. Mac it is." He glanced at her from beneath thick black eyebrows, the expression in his eyes less friendly than his voice. "Can I get you something to drink? Coke? Pepsi? Tea? Frappuccino?"
Mac wondered what would happen if she refused. He would have to find some other way to drug her. But she was the bait for this little trap, and it was time to play her part. Harm, you had better be out there somewhere, watching my six.
"Coke, please." She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared. Everything inside her rebelled at the idea of voluntarily giving this man power over her, especially knowing what he would do with it.
Ariel eventually emerged with a couple of drinks, handing one of them across the desk to Mac. She sipped it, detecting a faint bitter tang that might not have belonged, but she couldn't be sure.
They spent twenty minutes talking about the last days of the cruise, and how things would go if both couples remained faithful. Mac resisted the impulse to ask Ariel some pointed questions about what would happen to his bonus if that happened. She would have liked to have seen his expression, though. The thought nearly made her giggle. She managed to bite her lip, shutting away the bubbling laughter.
Phew, there was definitely something in the Coke. She was starting to feel giddy and lightheaded. She needed some air. And a deeper instinct told her she needed to get out of there, and fast, before she was unable to go anywhere at all.
"I'd better go," she told Ariel, rising unsteadily to her feet.
Ariel didn't seem the least put off by her sudden desire to leave. "Of course. Thank you for your time, Mac." He watched as she turned away, a small, amused smile on his fleshy lips.
Mac made it all the way out into the hallway before her legs started to wobble. She grabbed the wall for support as the world tilted sideways and threatened to slide away entirely.
"Mrs. Rabb? Are you all right?" a voice murmured in her ear. Ariel gripped her arm in one large hand. "Here, let me help you to your room."
Mac stared at him, unprotesting, as he led her down the hall. Sounds had taken on strange echoes, like she was walking through a metal pipe. Nothing seemed familiar until Ariel opened a door and led her into a stateroom. It wasn't hers, she knew immediately, but the bed looked awfully comfortable. She sighed contentedly when Ariel walked her over to it and let her collapse onto the soft surface.
She turned her head to look at him. "Tired," she told him, slurring the word almost beyond recognition.
"I'm sure you are," he answered pleasantly. She felt the bed sink as he sat on the edge beside her.
The last thing she was aware of as she slipped away were his fingers on her shirt, slowly unfastening the buttons.
#
Baggy drummed his fingers impatiently on the AV console, wishing a pox on Bob Schliegler and all his kin. The AV crew had taken care of the redundant control system in the wee hours of the morning, which he'd let Harm know about in a few hours at the HALO tourney. Knowing what he did now, though, all Baggy really wanted to do was to put the two cabins up on the main monitors and wait for something to happen. He wasn't entirely certain what that might be, but it was bound to be interesting.
Baggy looked over at his boss, who sat in his chair reading his soft porn magazines and occasionally glancing around the room to make sure the techs were keeping busy. Baggy muttered a few choice words. As long as Schliegler was around, the monitors had to stay on their normal targets.
Who knew what they might be missing.
#
Harm had just stepped out of the shower when someone banged on his stateroom door.
"Coming!" Still dripping, Harm wrapped himself in a towel and went to answer it. One of the techs from the morning shift stood on the other side, sidling from foot to foot in fretful impatience. He pounced the moment Harm opened the door.
"Harm! Word is your wife went to see Ariel in his office for some kind of meeting. But when I went by there, his assistant said they'd both left. She said Mrs. Rabb didn't look like she was feeling too good."
It's started. The knowledge hit Harm like a physical blow. Please, let her be all right.
He didn't let his reaction show. "When was that?" he asked.
The young man checked his watch. "Twenty minutes ago. I wasn't sure where you were."
Harm nodded. "All right. Thanks." He glanced down the empty hallway. "You'd better get out of here."
The tech nodded and took off. Harm closed the door. He just stood there for a moment, gathering his wits. A part of him wanted to panic, to scour the ship until he found Ariel and beat the man's face in if he'd so much as touched Mac. But the rational part of him maintained control. Ariel wasn't the key. Toby Mathis was the critical link in this particular chain. The set up went from Ariel to Toby, and from Toby to Mac. So that was where Harm needed to go.
Harm shook himself into motion. He went to the closet, dressing in a loose shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. Then he went into the bathroom to retrieve both black cases, laying them out on the bathroom floor. He pulled out the Berretta nine-millimeter pistol and inserted the full clip. He chambered a round, lowered the hammer and flipped the safety on. The gun went into his waistband at the small of his back, beneath his shirt. He also pulled out the satellite phone. There was no point to hiding it now, and he might need it.
Thus prepared, he left the stateroom, headed for Toby's. If the younger man was planning to meet Mac for Ariel's arranged rendezvous, he would no doubt be getting ready. He had to force himself not to run through the hallways, but still used his long legs to great advantage. It only took a few minutes to reach Toby's cabin. He knocked.
A few agonizing moments later, the door opened to show a slice of Toby's face. He stared at Harm in surprise, colored by guilt. Harm tried not to let himself feel too much anger toward the man. They were using him as much as Ariel was.
"We need to talk," he told the other man.
Toby stared at him for another moment, then started to shut the door. Harm jumped forward and shoved his shoulder into the gap, forcing it open. Toby stumbled back. Harm quickly let himself into the room, pushing the door closed behind him.
Toby backed away, his expression frightened. He raised his hands. "Hey, look man, I don't know what you think's going on, but nothing happened. I swear."
Harm stared into the other man's face, wondering what his own expression must have looked like. He probably thinks I'm ready to kill him. He made a conscious effort to calm down.
"It's o.k., Toby." Harm didn't move from his place by the door. He effectively had the young man trapped. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to know when and where you're meeting Mac."
A puzzled crease appeared between the blond brows. "What?"
"When and where you're meeting her." Harm tried to keep his words slow and calm. "She sent you a note, probably through Tony Ariel, arranging a tryst. I need to know when and where."
Toby slowly shook his head, looking mystified. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Harm could see the truth of the statement in his clear blue eyes.
He stared at Toby in dawning horror. His link to Mac had just evaporated.
