The next morning
Wednesday

The Atlantic Storm
St John's, Antigua
Position: 17.1327° N 61.8632° W
1,331nm logged

When I awoke at seven that morning, I felt so happy – nothing could destroy such a beautiful day.

The sun shone and the temperature was in the high twenties. The previous night had been just perfect and it had been good to be able to spend time with Dave. We had met new people and gained some new friends. One thing that did worry me, was Joshua. He had been a little subdued when we had returned to the Atlantic Storm. Josh had waved it off to fatigue but I caught the warning look from Chloe and did not press it. The look told me that Chloe was worried, but that she could handle it.

I gave everybody a not so gentle boot as we were due to leave for nine o'clock, that morning. The kids had been up until almost eleven the previous night having a mini party and I was sure that I could hear the music from the Dragon! Whatever, Abby said that they had all enjoyed themselves – which was the point and there were empty cans of Coke everywhere, not to mention the remains of many pizzas! Needless to say, it was not easy to motivate the tired kids to get up and dressed.

..._...

With breakfast over, we had the engines running and were ready to depart on time. Commander Perrin, his wife and Cassie, along with Lieutenant Lawrence, were on the dock to wave goodbye. We slipped our moorings and headed out of Deepwater Harbour on a course of 254° at 20 knots. Everybody was excited to be back at sea again. They all enjoyed the open ocean – all of us had grown up in cities, so having nothing to block our vision was something totally new and much enjoyed.

Our destination was the island of Guadeloupe. The island was shaped like a butterfly and our final destination, Guadeloupe's largest city, Pointe-à-Pitre, was in the south of the central portion that joined the butterfly's two 'wings'. We would arrive off the northeast coast and pass down the east side of the right hand part of the island before wrapping around to the west along the south of the island and then north to Pointe-à-Pitre.

I wanted the island to be a great place to unwind before we headed home.

Almost six hours later

Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe
Position: 16.2278° N 61.5353° W
1,432nm logged

By 15:00, we were moored at a dock in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

We used the tender to ferry people across the small harbour to where there was a beautiful beach with pleasant white sands. All the kids; including the teenagers, wanted to play in the sand – I had to admit that I was one of them: yes, Hit Girl liked to play in the sand!

Megan and Chloe seemed to be the most excited about the prospect of playing on the beach – miles ahead of Stephanie, Anne-Marie and Danny. Tommy and Curtis were looking forward to messing about in the water and Abby was intending to just sunbathe.

I, on the other hand, had other ideas...

The sun felt hot on my skin as I lay on the warm sand.

I had never been to such a place. My holidays, when I was younger – and when I still had a family – had been to cooler places, such as Scarborough or The Lake District. My pale body was screaming out for some sun after many months of being covered up from head to toe in black clothes and boots.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard mutterings and the mutterings were getting closer... I braced myself as the mutterings sounded very much like Tommy and Curtis. What did the two idiots have planned...

I screamed as freezing cold water landed on me and I opened my eyes to see the two wankers pouring two large bottles of iced water over me!

I heard Stephanie scream.

No big surprise as I had watched the two boys moving carefully towards her while unscrewing the tops of two large bottles of iced water. I knew exactly what they had planned but I had no desire to intercede; Stephanie could look after herself, very well.

The girl sprang up and chased after Curtis who seemed to be the slower of the two boys and Stephanie looked furious with the laughing eleven-year-old. She never caught Curtis as Tommy intercepted her with a well-executed tackle that had the two kids rolling across the sand laughing.

I went back to kissing my husband in the shade of a palm tree.

Twenty minutes later, Dave and Ryan headed back to the Atlantic Storm for what they called: 'male bonding' while I decided to go shopping – I may be a cutting edge vigilante, but I was still female and I enjoyed shopping, either for a new pair of jeans, or an assault rifle.

I pulled two pairs of shorts, two t-shirts and two pairs of sneakers out of a bag.

"Anne-Marie, Danny – put these on..." I called.

"We going shopping?"

"Yes, Danny, we are."

As the two kids got dressed, I sought out Stephanie.

"You want to come, Steph?"

Stephanie popped her head up from the enormous hole that she and Tommy were digging. The sand covered girl thought about the question for a moment before she replied.

"No thanks; got a lot of work to do here."

"Okay – stay out of trouble!"

"We won't..." Came the response from Tommy and Stephanie.

It was hot and there was a very pleasant warm breeze; I was happy.

We were taking a walk a short distance from the beach and the sea. It was paradise and I had never experienced anything like it. The kids just loved it; it was a far cry from that hell on earth called Gotham where they had grown up and even their current home in Chicago for that matter.

The kids had spent the past hour on the beach, digging holes in the hot sand. I did not want to dwell on what Josh and Chloe were doing – let's just say that Josh was very thorough with the suntan lotion! Mind you, so was Curtis, and Megan just squealed... Cathy was out somewhere, shopping with Abby who had given up on her sunbathing.

..._...

The shops were full of the usual tourist rubbish, but I thought it would be good for the kids to have a souvenir or two to take home with them, to show their friends. We passed dozens of places, none of which had what I was after.

"Mom, where's Anne-Marie?" Danny asked.

"Huh? She's..."

I looked around, expecting to see my daughter close by. There was no sign of her; no big problem, she would never have gone far. I started looking at the crowd around us – there was still no sign of the seven-year-old girl. Where had I last seen her? I thought back... She had stopped to look at some t-shirts and I had called for her to come... Then I had been distracted by Danny and we'd kept walking. How long? It could only have been five minutes – maybe ten?

Oh my God!

Despite my training, I felt panic rising inside me. I had just lost one of the two very young people that I had promised to protect with my life! I looked around, everywhere, keeping a very tight hold on Danny's hand as I did so.

"Anne-Marie!"

I was yelling now and yes; I was really panicking.

"Anne-Marie!"