Author's note: Hey hey hey! It's me again. I'm really sorry for not being able to update any sooner because my Internet connection was down over the months. Once again I hope that this chapter will not suck. Thanks! Love, cascade-of-black-ink.
Disclaimer: I own only Andie Ocean and Gallagher-boy.
Chapter 6"Do you want the security schedule as well? It'd be useful."
When she got no reply, she turned her head to her left.
He had already fallen hopelessly asleep. Andie knew her father wouldn't last an afternoon with the computer. He preferred the old-fashioned sneak-and-grab-the-loot way.
She poked his shoulder. "Dad?"
Danny shifted and mumbled something along the lines of "Not now, honey." A sleepy smile decorated his face, and it made Andie smile as well. He looked childish and innocent, not like his profession.
Andie stretched, yawned and rubbed her eyes. She was exhausted as well. She placed the laptop on the coffee table and headed for the mini refrigerator to get a drink. As she poked around for something other than cold beer, the smell of lavender soap caught her attention.
"What don't you like about beer?" A half-dressed Rusty Ryan nonchalantly reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a can of beer, his hand brushing against her cheek. She jerked her head away and eyed him irritably. Rusty sipped his beer and narrowed his eyes at her. "What?"
"You smell of lavender."
"So?"
"Men don't usually smell of lavender. It's a woman's scent."
"The hotel didn't give me any choice." He shrugged, took a long swig from the can and offered it to her. "Want some?"
Andie gagged and shut the refrigerator. "No thank you, please."
"Why? You don't think I taste good?"
She plopped back onto the sofa beside her sleeping father and drew her laptop back onto her lap. "Honestly, I don't care."
"But you cared about the way I smell," he rested his elbows on the sofa and grinned at her. She felt his breath on her neck and suddenly felt leaden. Her fingers rested on her precious notebook but didn't move. She forgot what she had in mind.
"Andie?" He edged closer to her and noticed her uneasiness. Then he whispered into her ear, "Am I unnerving you?"
Andie gathered her wits and answered firmly, "No."
Rusty laughed and touched her face. "Then look at me."
"Why should I?"
"To prove that you're not afraid of me."
"I don't have anything to prove."
"Really?"
She whipped her head around and glared at him. "Really."
He laughed and touched her cheek lightly with a finger. "Well, I'm not buying."
Andie plastered a sweetly fake smile on her face and batted her eyelids, "You don't have to."
The clock ticked the afternoon away. When Andie awoke on the couch, her father was still dozing.
And her laptop gone from her lap.
Putting a hand to her mouth, she muffled a cry of panic. She jumped off the couch and roamed the sitting room, looking under pillows and under the sofa. She went to the kitchen mini-bar and even pillaged the refrigerator.
Where is it?
In a sudden burst of realization she strode furiously towards Rusty's room and knocked. "Open up, Mr. Ryan!"
No answer. She launched into a series of hard bangs. "Rusty Ryan, I command you to - "
The door opened and Rusty emerged, looking equally angry. "What's Klaus Hagner about, Miss Ocean? And who's Betty Kavnik? An Europol pal of yours?"
Her anger fused with panic. "No one," she quickly replied. Rusty's face hardened. "I want you to tell me the truth. No lies!" he said coldly. She hesitated, her mind frantically groping for a good answer.
"Well?" he shouted, a tad too loud.
"Rusty? Andie?" Danny had woken up. He looked at them incredulously. "What's going on?"
Before Rusty could answer, Andie shoved him inside and said to her father, "Just – just an argument. Don't worry about us!" She disappeared behind the door and shut it immediately, locking it behind her.
Now it was Danny's turned to pound on the door. "Hey, hey, don't you dare – don't you dare lay a finger on my daughter, Rusty!"
Rusty ignored him. "Be honest, Miss Ocean! Why are you snooping on us?"
"I'm not snooping on you! I'm not even with Europol!" Andie replied, looking at him with defiance.
"Just – admit –it!" Rusty shouted.
"I'm saying I'm not and that's the truth!" she spied her precious notebook on his bed and a cold realization hit her.
From the look on his face, she knew that he had known everything.
He saw her eyes on the notebook, and he looked away. She snatched it and was ready to kill him. "Who on earth gave you the damn permission to sneak into my laptop?"
"I …"
"Ha! Now you are the one who's at a loss for words!"
"I'm just doing what's best for Danny!"
"I'm not an impostor! I'm his daughter, for God's sake! Why would I betray my own father?" she yelled back.
"Because your mother asked you to?"
"God, you're impossible!"
"So are you!"
Danny continued hitting the door. "What the hell's going on in there?"
"Go away!" Andie and Rusty shouted together.
Andie cast Rusty an angry look, and he glared at her too, but a tinge of disappointment showed.
Finally he opened the door and said, "Just get the heck out of my room."
"Certainly," she replied colder than she meant to, and shouldered her father roughly on her way out, feeling, strangely, more hurt than furious.
Isabel tapped her fingers impatiently on the metal desk and eyed the bespectacled man behind it.
"What was the name of the person again?" Georgis Orwell looked away from the computer screen and stared at her blankly.
"Woman," Isabel corrected. "Andromeda Ocean."
"Very unusual."
Isabel sighed and fanned herself with a travel brochure. It was sweltering hot in the room. She stared at the radiator and wished she could turn it down. But Georgis Orwell did not seem to have a problem with it.
She was in the General Director of Copenhagen Airport's office. If she had guessed right, she would have been able to obtain enough information to find out Andromeda Ocean's credit card number and, hopefully, the hotel where she was currently staying in. If only he would hurry up.
Isabel shut her eyes and allowed herself a few minutes of shuteye. Her head nodded to the fuzzy traces of classical music playing on Orwell's ancient radio and sank into the heat.
In her mind she saw Rusty, laughing and surprising her with a bouquet of yellow roses. Then the vision shifted and they were in a field of yellow roses. She was wearing a yellow dress and he had a grey suit on. The thorns of the roses tore against her dress as they ran together under a pale blue sky. They ran until they fell, exhausted, and he kissed her, laughing as he did.
As surreal as it seemed, Isabel couldn't help but smile in her sleep.
The scene changed, and this time she was standing on a balcony of a squat building overlooking a narrow canal. Large, fancy boats floated on the canal below the balcony, and in each boat were two lovers, disguised in fancy masks and Elizabethan costumes. They kissed, then smiled and waved at her. She smiled and waved back.
Then she saw a gondola, where she saw Rusty in it, dressed in the same grey suit. He was smiling and laughing, but not at her.
Beside him was a girl, dressed in a sharp, black suit. Her hair was black, and it was pulled back together in a ponytail. Isabel couldn't see her face, but the feeling of shock and rejection cut through her heart as sharp as razor. She leaned over the balcony and called out to him, waving furiously.
"Robert! Robert!"
He didn't hear her.
She leaned too far, and when she realized it, she was falling. The gondola and canal disappeared and she fell through empty space, screaming her throat.
"Ah! I have found her, Miss Lahiri," Orwell said nonchalantly, but to Isabel it was a rude reality check. Isabel jolted awake. When she saw Georgis Orwell's unsmiling face, her heartbeat returned to normal. She was back in familiar surroundings. Thank God for that.
What a horrible dream, she thought hazily.
Isabel mumbled incoherently as she went around the desk and studied what the computer screen had about Andromeda Ocean.
Her eyes skipped to the number of her credit card. She took it down in her notebook and asked permission to use Orwell's ancient Netscape Explorer.
As she waited for the Europol homepage to load, she took note of all the ancient things in his office. Her eyes traveled to the shabby couch, where it was his turn to fall asleep. She smiled. A few clicks brought her the information she needed.
Andromeda Ocean was currently lodged at Rejdna Hotel, downtown Copenhagen.