Chapter Thirteen

Precious Cargo

Fernando glanced up from the blueprints he'd recollected from the floor as there was a knock on the door to his office. "Come in," he ordered.

"I hope I am not disturbing you," Varela began smugly as he ushered Carolina and Eva into the room. "But I found these two lovely ladies in a smaller storage compartment."

Fernando didn't know if he should laugh or cry at seeing his wife and her little sister so soon after he'd bid them goodbye.

"What should we do with them?" Varela asked curiously as he studied the two women. Carolina looked sheepish while Eva seemed as defiant as ever.

Fernando directed a glare at them and then nodded at the chief of security. "Leave them here with me, I'll take care of them," he replied curtly.

Eva took a step forward as Varela closed the door behind him and nodded at the drawings at the desk. "What are you doing with the blueprints?" she asked suspiciously.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What's it to you?" he replied.

"Fernando," Carolina chastised at the level of hostility he'd just directed at her sister. "What's gotten into you?"

He huffed sarcastically. "You know I could ask you the same thing."

"Have you found any stowaways?" Eva asked bluntly.

Fernando frowned as he casually leaned back in his chair. "Except the two of you?"

"Yes," she deadpanned.

"Should I have?" he wondered aloud. "Why should I look for stowaways, Eva?"

"Look, I think it's time that we started working together instead of throwing accusations against one another," Carolina said sharply, causing the others to temporarily do a double take.

"Why don't you start by telling me why you're onboard?" Fernando asked.

"The ship's second officer, Pierre, came to see me. Nicolás was missing and he thought perhaps he'd taken a trip to see me," Eva explained. "I tried to let the matter rest but then after the funeral Uncle Pedro came to meet us."

"He told me that one of the truck drivers I had hired to make the journey across the borders had been seen at the harbor," Carolina filled in.

"Uncle thought he'd seen the man accompanied by Chantal Vásquez," Eva added softly, her face full of concern and confusion, obviously trying to tie everything together.

"We snooped around and found out that he'd been seen boarding the ship," Carolina finished. "Right now, it doesn't make sense."

"Didn't your Uncle Pedro accuse him of stealing from the company?" Fernando asked.

"Papá did actually," Carolina answered. "Now, please tell us why you're here Fernando?"

"Carolina, I wasn't lying when I told you I was needed back in Spain," he replied.

"No, but you weren't totally honest either," she countered. "I cannot be in a marriage full of secrets, Fernando, please, you have to trust me."

"I accidentally bumped into Carlos and Aníbal one night at the dock. They appeared like nothing was going on but I believe they were doing business behind my back," he explained. "One day when I was working late I saw my dear brother-in-law transport something onboard in wooden crates. I've tried to find them. I've searched every nock and cranny of this ship."

"You didn't find anything?" Eva guessed.

Fernando shook his head. "Then with everything else going on I had to drop the matter and let it rest."

"Then papá showed up on the ship," Carolina recalled.

"And now they're both gone," Eva reasoned. "But surely they couldn't have done it on their own, could they?"

Carolina stiffened suddenly. "Eva! The driver, the truck driver," she said. "He's looking for the crates. That must be why he's onboard."

"He must have wrongly assumed that Nicolás, as the first officer of Barbara de Braganza, knew where to look for it," Eva deduced in a subdued voice. "We must let the captain and Varela know."

Carolina narrowed her eyes suddenly as she turned from her sister to her husband. "Fernando, you said you've searched this ship but what about the Codonga?"

Eva frowned. "Carol? What do you mean?" she asked curiously.

"Have you forgotten what Casandra and her creepy followers did? They spied on me from a sealed room," Carolina said.

Fernando sighed. "I've compared the two sets of drawings and I've found several possible ways to get into sealed compartments but they've either been bolted shut or welded shut," he explained.

OOOOOO

Santiago turned around as the door to the bridge opened to reveal his second officer. "There you are," he said. "I was wondering where you'd disappeared to. It's enough that Nicolás is missing."

Pierre swallowed, choosing to ignore the fact that the captain had left Nicolás alone in Rio de Janeiro. "You did tell me to leave the bridge earlier," he pointed out. "Captain, there is something I need to tell you."

By the look on the second officer's face the older man could tell it was a private conversation. "Very well, the ship can be manned by its third officer for the time being," he reasoned and gently patted Pierre on the back. "Come on, let's take it outside."

"I have found something very disturbing," he began darkly as his superior closed the door to the bridge behind him. Pierre cast a cautious look over his shoulder to make sure they were alone. "This ship carries more than her share of declared merchandize, most of them must have been meant to be shipped off in Rio. I do hope you know nothing about it, sir."

Santiago narrowed his eyes at the slight accusation in the younger man's voice. "All right, officer, I think you'd better explain yourself," he said seriously.

"When I was overseeing the loading of our storage compartments earlier, I inspected a damaged steel wall," Pierre shrugged and made a face. "I suppose it must have been taken the brunt force of stacked crates during the storm on our way here."

The captain nodded faintly, patiently waiting for the other man to continue.

Pierre leaned closer. "Captain, there's a whole sealed compartment behind that sheet of metal and its stacked with wooden crates," he whispered through clenched teeth.

Santiago's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You mean to tell me someone is using my ship to smuggle things out of the country?" he asked in disdain.

"Not just things," Pierre remarked. "Those crates down there, they're filled with golden bars."

Santiago balled his hands into fists in frustration. "Summon Mr. Fábregas to my cabin. I don't care how late it is and I don't care if he's asleep," he ordered.

OOOOOO

Eva couldn't sleep, she twisted and turned in the bed for a while before she finally gave up and threw the covers aside. She stared out the window at the starry sky and smiled as she recalled the time when she and Nicolás had been standing on deck, close to the bridge, sharing a kiss for the first time. She missed him terribly even though she'd tried to get him out of her mind. It felt weird being back onboard the Barbara de Braganza knowing he wasn't onboard. She was worried about him even though she knew he wasn't hers to worry about. This was what Francisca had warned her about but it had been far too late by then. Eva had already started to love Nicolás. Even though she would not admit that to anyone, her interest had peaked when she saw him at the Captain's dinner the first night onboard.

She couldn't help but to wonder where he'd got to, if he was all right. If he still loved Chantal. Eva sighed and went over to pick up the stack of clothes she'd left on the floor. She smirked at it and then shook her head lightly. Francisca would be very disappointed at seeing how she treated the carefully ironed blouse and trousers.

Even though Carolina was onboard it wasn't the same when they didn't share a cabin, she couldn't run everything on her mind through her without Fernando listening in. Well, she could claim she needed to see her sister alone but at this time of night she doubted he'd leave their common cabin because his wife's little sister wanted to walk around the ship on some wild ghost chase.

Eva prided herself of having a good memory and she'd studied the schematics of the ship for hours before she finally called it a night. Now, since she couldn't sleep, she figured that it wouldn't hurt anyone if she took a few hours to search for an entrance to the closed off compartments on her own. Her father was dead, Sofía had disappeared on their way to Brazil and Casandra/Carmen, or whatever she wanted to call herself, would not trouble her in the middle of the night. The woman's creepy assistant she'd brought onboard halfway across the ocean was still imprisoned. Simply put; there were no dangers lurking the decks and corridors of the ocean liner this time around and she would be back before Carolina even realized she'd wandered off.

OOOOOO

"Damn, I have been looking everywhere on the ship but here," Fernando remarked as they walked into the large storage compartment close to the bow of Barbara de Braganza.

Pierre said nothing as he carefully revealed the hidden steel door behind the sheet of metal in order for them to be able to access the room behind it. The captain had returned to the bridge muttering something impolite under his breath, fuming at almost everyone at the moment.

Carolina stood behind her husband wishing she had had the time to bring her sister in on this. She knew Eva would be furious for being left out. Then again Fernando might have been right as he'd told her that it might be nothing to see and that it would be rude to wake her up in the middle of the night for nothing.

OOOOOO

Eva nodded politely at a sailor as she made her way through the greasy sections of engineering.

"Ma'am," he said curtly. "This is no place for a lady."

"I'll be fine, don't you worry," she replied with a smart smile and waited patiently as he disappeared around a corner. She quickly placed her hand on the wall and began to knock lightly. She'd repeated the procedure for almost an hour across the many corridors of the stern section of the ship and her knuckles had began to hurt.

Eva was just about to go around another corner but hesitated as she heard distant voices. She desperately searched for a door or a crate to hide and jumped behind a large conduit just in time to see a man and a woman appear at the end of the corridor. She curled up, put her head down and squeezed her eyes shut as they walked past her. She waited a few extra seconds as they'd disappeared until she deduced it safe enough to reveal herself. Eva frowned; she hadn't had the time to study the pair but there was something about the woman that seemed familiar somehow. She shrugged and shook her head, writing it off as a vivid imagination as she once again began to knock on the wall. After a while she reached a set of steel doors that lead to closed storage compartments and her mood sank, she'd hit another dead end. There was nothing to be found at this part of the ship. She made to leave and go back the way she came but hesitated mid-step as she thought she heard something inside.

She pushed her ear against the locked door. "Hello?" she called.

There was an instant rustling at the other side. Then someone tapped on the steel.

"Is someone in there?" Eva asked in a loud and clear voice.

"Yes!" A man's voice wheezed. "Dampen your voice or they'll hear you."

Eva frowned in confusion as she studied the lock. She remembered Nicolás teaching her how to pick a similar one. With one swift moment she pulled out a hairpin and placed it into the lock. After a moment it clicked open. She smiled to herself in triumph as she pulled the chain free and opened the door.

Alvaro Rojas grimaced as the hinges screeched in protest and raised his hands in despair. "Hush!" he said in a dampened voice.

Eva stared at him in surprise. "Doctor? What on earth are you doing here?" she asked dumbfounded.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said through clenched teeth as he walked up to her and dared a careful glance outside into the corridor.

It was then, in the exact moment Rojas walked past her, that she froze. Her heart went out to the familiar man seemingly unconscious on the ground. "Nicolás?" she whispered in disbelief.

Eva practically sprinted across the room and knelt down next to her aspiring lover. She gasped as she took in his pale and haggard appearance, the vivid bruises on his face, the dried blood in his hair. She took a quivering breath and reached out to grab his shoulders. "Nicolás," she called anxiously.

Rojas returned to his patient. "Eva, he's-,"

The young woman turned toward him with an incredulous look on her face, a mix of fear and disbelief. "No," she said.

Rojas shook his head. "Listen to me," he said seriously. "He's badly injured and he needs proper medical attention. I was intercepted in the harbor by a petite dark-haired woman, not so unlike you."

"Chantal," Eva deduced coldly.

Rojas nodded. "This is all part of something bigger," he whispered. "They're looking for something onboard the ship. I am guessing that Carlos somehow managed to smuggle more of his blasted German blood money onto the ship without Pedro knowing it."

Eva's thoughts where swirling at the revelation. "They?" she questioned quizzically.

"The man who's accompanying the woman is the same man that drove one of the trucks to Germany several years ago," the doctor explained.

"Then Uncle Pedro was right," Eva whispered as she once again focused her attention on Nicolás. "Please, doctor, go and get help."

"Are you crazy," he asked incredulously. "You can't stay here."

"I am not leaving him here now that I have finally found him," she argued.

"No one is leaving this room," Jean Fonte said menacingly as he stepped over the threshold with Chantal in tow.

Eva moved closer to Nicolás as the doctor grabbed his bag and hurled it towards Jean. He then threw Chantal towards Jean and rushed out the door and began his mad dash through the corridor.

Jean aimed his gun and fired but the bullets ran wild and pinged off the steel walls. He cursed and started after the doctor but the man had gotten such a head start that it was useless. Furious he made his way back toward the women and the officer.

OOOOOO

To be continued