By Nick B
© 2007
The one where it’s Uncle Pete's turn…
Thanks Krisspoos...
My thoughts were filled with the visit to the boss, Ed Crouse’s office where he sprang this trip on me. Not only did he spring (this) the bloody cruise, but also that I would be accompanied by none other than Gil Parker and the suggestion was, my niece Lucy.
Now I had nothing against Gil Parker, she was perfectly good at what she did. It just seemed to me that I should have been able to choose someone that I actually liked to go on this assignment.
“Where does Lucy come into this?” I asked.
“She can be your daughter. It would look so much more natural and attract less attention to yourselves if you had a child with you.”
I thought for a moment, shaking my head. “Child? I don’t know that she’d like to hear you say that.”
“Well she IS only young isn’t she?”
“I don’t know that she would quite see it that way or anyone else either come to that.”
“Well I’m sure you’ll think of something.” said Ed brusquely and showed me to the door, holding it open and ushering, alright — pushing me through it. I wasn’t finished though.
“What if Lucy can’t go?” I asked, stopping midway through the large polished doorway.
“Then find someone else who is and let me have the details.” he said, giving me one final shove and shutting the door firmly behind me. That was that then.
It took a great deal of fast talking and assurances that Lucy would not be harmed, folded, spindled or mutilated, before my sister Sara agreed to let me take Lucy, but she raised an eyebrow, presumably at the thought of her nineteen year-old daughter posing as the daughter of a thirty-three year old and his thirty-something (less than thirty-three anyway I’d guess to be on the safe side) wife. She didn’t say anything though and I tried not to think about that side of things too hard.
The reason for the trip was simple.
We believed that someone was running a scam out of a dating agency and that was somehow linked to the disappearance of a number of young men in their late teens to early twenties. We could prove nothing, but the boss believed that this trip could help put everything into perspective, mostly because according to sources, a member of the crew of the ship we were to sail on, called the Paradise was apparently involved, though we didn’t know who that crewmember might be.
I wasn’t sure how Gil was going to view this assignment. Firstly we had to pretend to be married and I got the impression that she would rather be married to a dung beetle than someone like me… well particularly me. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, we had to share a cabin. True, we had a two bed cabin, but unfortunately we didn’t get a twin room for us, we got a double and Lucy had the single. There was no way SHE was going to share with either of us.
We had to share the bed anyway since we didn’t know the rank or position of the crewmember involved in all this. We couldn’t take the chance of not sharing and blowing our cover.
“Oh don’t be silly. Who’s going to know?” asked Gil.
“I don’t know and neither do you. We can’t take the chance and get found out. It only takes a slip of the tongue from someone like the cleaner and that’s this mission sunk.”
“Well I’m not happy about this.”
“You can take it up with Crouse when we get back if you like. Believe me, I will.”
To say that the atmosphere was frosty between Gil and I, is a bit of an understatement. The first night aboard I thought that she was going to get into bed in a full suit of armour. As it was, I think I was the less enthusiastic of the two of us. Even though I wore pyjamas I felt exposed, with her eyes following me round the cabin. I wondered if she snored. I was sure I didn't.
Lucy made it no easier. We had to explain that as far as everyone was concerned, she was our daughter.
“Huh! As if.” she snorted.
“What? It’s a perfectly sound idea.”
“Sound?” she asked, her eyes going as big as saucers. “How old were you two when I came along then, like twelve?”
Gil coughed back a laugh and I just fumed. I was hoping we’d get away with it, but obviously not.
“Alright, smarty-pants, what do you suggest?”
“Well you’re like my uncle right? Why not make Gil my aunty?”
It was my turn to stifle a laugh, especially seeing Gil wrinkle her nose at that particular idea and the more I thought about it, the more Gil looked at me with daggers drawn and the more I liked it. It seemed this did have its compensations then.
“Well, that seems to be the best option. Aunty, uncle and niece it is.”
Gil stormed off into the bedroom at that point, huffing and definitely not pleased.
Cruising is an expensive pastime and I felt sorry for Lucy who I knew didn’t have bucket-loads to spread around on this ship. She spent most of the first day in the cabin peering at the TV screen. I wanted to help, but I hadn’t exactly been given an unlimited expense account at my disposal either.
Day two we almost had to push Lucy out the door, figuring that as long as she at least went out for breakfast - that would be something. Lo and behold, it really did seem to work. She came back after breakfast all of a dither. She was excited, yet she was also a bit pensive.
“I think someone’s in love.” said Gil in my ear. I nodded, smiling.
“What?” demanded Lucy, seeing that we were staring at her.
“Nothing.” we chorused.
“Bloody weirdoes. I’m going out.” she said, thrusting her nose into the air. As soon as she passed the cabin window, both Gil and I burst into fits of laughter. At least it relaxed the tension from Gil’s side, but now I had Lucy to contend with and I wasn’t sure that was the lesser of the two evils.
While Lucy went to enjoy herself, Gil and I took a walk around the ship. It was more or less just another cursory glance around to see if we could spot any likely candidates.
“Not all crooks carry bags marked ‘swag’, wear hooped jerseys and black masks you know.” joked Gil.
“I know.” I said, realising that this wasn’t going to be an easy task and we went back to trawling through the hundreds of names on the passenger manifest to see whether we could make any headway there.
The next evening, Lucy asked us if she could go to the nightclub. We were only too pleased to have her out from under our feet since we were busy going through the that huge list of names and having her there with the TV blaring and so on, was terribly distracting. Mind you, Lucy’s attention to detail was wonderful. She never forgot to prefix ‘Gil’ with ‘Aunty’ and I have to say that that in itself was seriously entertaining.
We worked on and being in such close proximity to Gil, gave me a whole new perspective on this woman. I had seen her, worked with her a couple of times, but somehow, she just didn’t seem to stand out particularly.
At this point however, I was close enough to smell the subtle fragrance of her perfume and…
“Are you listening?” she said, sitting back from the laptop.
“What? Oh, er, yes of course.” One eyebrow rose dangerously and I shrugged, wondering whether I should have been letting my mind wander.
“I suppose it is late. Perhaps we ought to call it a night and get some sleep. Coming?”
Now ordinarily, if a woman says “are you coming” — to bed that is, most men would beat them to the bedroom, be stripped naked and waiting for them in two heartbeats or fewer, but on this occasion, I was forced to do a double-take.
“You know what I mean.” she said slapping me playfully on the arm.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It’s not that I’m sacred of intimacy or anything but… okay, so I’m a little nervous. This was an important matter and getting involved with a co-worker was definitely not what this was about. She did smell nice though.
We didn’t hear Lucy return. I vaguely remember something being warbled and giggled outside momentarily, but I didn’t pay much attention. I was too busy realising that Gil’s head was resting on my shoulder, her arm across my chest and I was marvelling at how nice it felt before drifting back off to sleep.
“Come on Lucy, time to get up.”
I could hear Gil trying to rouse our associate ‘niece’ in the other cabin. I contemplated stopping her, but I figured she should find out for herself.
“Bugger off!” came the stern reply.
“I thought you’d be ready and raring to go. Look, it’s a lovely day…” she said, blindly walking into the jaws of the waiting alligator and who says they don’t exist outside of tropical and sub-tropical climes?
“Listen ‘Aunty Gil’ either you go close those curtains and get the hell out of here, or I’m afraid I’m going to have to hurt you.”
I could just imagine what was going through Gil’s mind at this point. Did she feel lucky?” Did she? I didn’t think so.
“She’s a bit of a handful first thing isn’t she?” Gil asked moments later.
“Er, no. Not a morning person, our Lucy.” I don’t think my oversized grin helped any.
“Oh, you’re just as bad as her.” she added, slapping me on the arm - again.
It must have done some good though as it was only about fifteen minutes later that a rather bed-headed, bleary-eyed ‘thing’ in dressing gown and big fluffy slippers, exited the other bedroom and padded into the room where Gil and I were going through some notes from the night before.
“You got up then?” I asked.
“Obviously.” she said in that typically obnoxious tone all teenage girls seem to cultivate. “I didn’t have a lot of choice. Someone opened the curtains before I was ready. Do you think I could like, get back to sleep after that?”
“Well, I’m glad you’re up. We can have a family breakfast.” I said brightly.
“Oh you’re just full of it aren’t you?” she snipped. I looked at Gil, who returned my look with one of surprise. That’s teenagers for you.
“A bit hung-over this morning, are we?” I asked dryly. She just poked her tongue out at me.
“Did you meet anyone nice last night?”
“Only Kim really. There were a couple of boys there too, but they were so like into themselves, we had to ditch them.”
“Kim?”
“Yeah. She’s the girl I met the other day.”
Girl? Oh well, perhaps we were wrong about the falling in love bit then.
Anyway, regardless of how she may or may not have been feeling, she did accompany us to the food court where breakfast was already well under way and as luck would have it, the very girl we had been talking about was right there having breakfast herself.
“Hi Kim.” said Lucy, the hangover apparent in her voice.
“So this is the famous Kim is it?” I asked.
“Sorry. Uncle Pete, Aunty Gil, this is Kim. Kim, this is my Uncle Pete and Aunty Gil.”
“I’m not your auntie, Lucy!” said Gil and I have to say that regardless of plans, this cover wasn’t sounding too hot right then. I didn’t say anything, well none of us did. We just stood there while Kim looked on a bit bemused
“Well, it’s easier than telling the truth.” said Lucy and I wished we hadn’t bothered rousing her this morning. Family affairs are definitely NOT what they are cracked up to be.
Kim broke the ice and told us about what she recommended for breakfast and we settled into our chairs. Gil for one was looking daggers at Lucy, who just ignored both of us and went through her breakfast like she hadn’t eaten in a week, finishing off by grabbing Kim by the arm and almost dragging her out of the food court.
“Where are you going?” I asked. Lucy just rolled her eyes and told me “As far as I can on this tin can”, tutting loudly before disappearing out on deck.
“Don’t worry.” said Gil, taking my hand in hers. “She can’t go far.” I felt the warmth of Gil’s comparatively small hand in mine and contemplated keeping hold, but it was removed before I could return the squeeze.
Anyway, it wasn’t how far they could go that I was worried about. There was someone out there who was possibly responsible for the disappearance of half a dozen people. I suppose it wasn’t too much of a problem though, since they tended to favour boys rather than girls and really, how far could they go?
Nevertheless, Gil and I were a bit embarrassed at having had our grubby laundry aired in the food court. We went back to the cabin to continue working, but it wasn’t long before Lucy came back. She had a tear-stained face and was obviously in a quandary. The outer door slammed shut behind her and I swear that they could have heard her stomp across the room in the very bowels of the ship. Without a word, she stomped into her cabin and there was another crash as she slammed that one behind her too.
Gil and I looked at one another and then at the door that was possibly still shaking after feeling that is had been heaved to by forces not of this world. We looked back at one another.
“We’d better go see what happened.” said Gil.
It was a tentative knock that alerted Lucy to our presence.
“Go away.”
“Look we just want to talk to you.” I said. Moments later the door opened slowly and we just saw Lucy throw herself back onto the bed.
“What happened?” asked Gil, sitting beside the prone teenager.
“Nothing.” said Lucy through the pillow as she pressed her head as far into it as it would apparently go.
“It must have been a big nothing that caused all this.” she said gently.
“She wanted to take me to dinner.”
“So?”
“I can’t can I? I’m not her girlfriend.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Well, it’s not like breakfast is it?” she sobbed. “It’s like dinner, you know, like restaurant, dim lights; candles? Don’t you know anything?”
“What’s the problem?” asked Gil patiently. “Lots of women go to dinner together, it’s not like they’re girlfriend type girlfriends and even if you and she are getting along that way, what’s the problem?”
Even I was a little shocked by that one, but we left her to it and went back into the lounge to continue with what we were doing.
It wasn’t long before Lucy was back out. She’d fixed her face and aside from a little residual reddening in the whites of her eyes, she looked very presentable.
“I’m going out.” she said and before we could say anything, she was gone. We returned to our work, but a couple of hours later, my stomach was making noises and I decided it was time to get some lunch.
We walked out on deck towards the food court and Gil slipped her arm through mine. I have to say I was a little concerned, but she just looked up at me and smiled.
“For the sake of appearance.” she said.
O… kay. I could handle that. I think.
Meeting up with Lucy and Kim again wasn’t planned, it just seemed to happen. They were bright and cheerful and that minor upset that happened earlier seemed all but forgotten. However, that was the last time we were to see Kim for about four days.
Lucy had been driving us mad. We could see that this friendship had gone a bit deeper than she was letting on, just by the results of separation. We tried to give her ideas for things to do and it wasn’t working.
As a result of that, neither were we — well as much as we needed to anyway. It wasn’t Lucy’s fault though. She was smitten; anyone with half a brain could see that and Gil cautioned me to keep my thoughts about the two of them having any form of relationship to myself. Lucy said nothing to us about it, but the difference between her with Kim and without was quite profound.
On the fifth day, we went to breakfast. Lucy had been eating little and moping lots. Fortunately, by this time, we had grown accustomed to it and were getting on with things.
We had kind of got a list of suspects together and were trying to find a way of putting our theories to the test, but really, it was speculation at best. We didn’t have any ideas that were based on anything other than conjecture and vague hypotheses.
In the food court, we encountered Kim and I must say, I’ve seen better looking corpses. Her skin had a greyish cast to it and her eyes were sunken into their sockets.
I made a joke about where she’d been hiding and she smiled, but I could see the deadness in her eyes. Whatever she’d been through, it wasn’t good. Had she perhaps been overdoing it in the nightclub? Drinking too heavily? Whatever it was, she needed to stop it before it stopped her.
She asked if we would help her out of the food court, which surprised me. When she stood, she was visibly shaking and I could feel a cold shiver go down my spine. I just knew this was bad.
This next part all happened so quickly, but as if to confirm my suspicions, before any of us could move, she was lying on the floor. I could hear the whoosh of gasps around us as Kim’s chair slid to a halt and saw the look of concern on Lucy’s face; Gil’s too.
I rushed to her side and picked her up. God, it was like she didn’t weigh anything at all and I marched us all out of the food court amidst the stares to take her back to our cabin.
Bless her, Lucy had one of Kim’s hands and wouldn’t let go. I could see the poor thing was close to tears and regardless of the fact that they hadn’t known each other more than five minutes, I could see for my own eyes that if this all went pear-shaped, she was not going to get over it in a hurry.
I placed Kim gently on the sofa in the cabin and went to get the doctor, telling Gil and Lucy to keep an eye on her, returning some time later to see that fortunately, Kim had regained consciousness.
The doctor did the best he could in the cabin, but conceded that he needed to do more in order to ascertain what was actually wrong. The fact that she had been given things that she didn’t know the names of was worrying to him and we took her down to the infirmary. It was at this point that my suspicions about Kim were aroused, but at this stage, it was no more than a hunch.
With Kim safely tucked up in bed, the doctor and I went into his office.
“I have some issues with that little girl out there.” I said and briefly outlined the fact that we were on the lookout for someone and thought that Kim was involved; also that she may not be what she appeared to be.
“She’s not in any trouble is she?”
“Not with me. I trust that I can count on you to keep this to yourself?”
“My lips are sealed. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have given her a thorough examination as to what I find.”
“I appreciate that doctor.”
Later the doctor rang the cabin and confirmed what I thought — that Kim wasn’t a girl after all, that she was in fact the one we had been looking for. It was just one of life’s ironies that the very person we were looking for was right under our noses and had this not happened, we may never have known.
“I would never have guessed.” said Gil.
“Me either. I don’t even think that Kim’s aware of how convincing he is.”
“What do we tell Lucy?”
“Nothing. It’s enough that she can’t get her head round what’s going on let alone telling her that the girl she’s in love with is really a boy.”
“Love? You think it’s gone that far?”
“I do.”
I was excited to think that we had actually taken Kim right from under the noses of the people we were after and knew also that thanks to her, sorry HIM; we could identify at least two of the perpetrators. Thing was though, the excitement was stopping me from sleeping and having taken Kim out of the equation, things would undoubtedly start getting very messy very quickly.
I was just starting to doze off when I heard movement in the cabin. I strained my ears to try and work out what was happening and when the main cabin door opened and closed very quietly, I knew that Lucy had gone outside.
I got out of bed and put some clothes on, trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake Gil. Performing this feat in the dark wasn’t easy, but despite hopping about on one foot, putting things on several times to get them round the right way or the right side out, I eventually finished and made my way to the infirmary.
Everything round that area was quiet and rather than burst in, which would possibly lead to heart attacks or worse, I hung around in a recess a few yards down the corridor, keeping my eyes on who went in or came out of the infirmary. Ah that ‘stake out’ routine. Standing around for hours waiting for something to happen… which usually didn't.
About twenty minutes later, I saw the nurse come out, lock the door behind her, then run past me, bag in hand. I ducked out of the way and then continued to keep the door under surveillance.
Soon enough, my patience was rewarded as down the corridor and past me, came two men. One was an ordinary chap in a jacket and the other was one of the crew. Trouble was I couldn’t see the crewmembers face.
On they went to the infirmary and the man in the jacket tried the door.
“It’s locked.” he exclaimed.
“Don’t worry, I can open it.” said the crewmember and fiddled about with the keys for a few moments before pushing the door open and telling the jacketed guy to “just get in, do it and get out. I can’t be seen here.” The crewmember then disappeared down the corridor. I wish he’d come back past me so at least I would know who he was.
I crept out of my hiding place in the recess and headed for the door to the infirmary. I stood in the doorway just as Lucy raised a stainless steel bedpan and brought it down on the man’s head. The man did a funny sort of pirouette before sinking to the ground and Lucy dropped the bedpan on him.
“Looks like you’ve beaten me to it.” I said, grinning. “Not what I would have done, but just as effective. Next time, would you mind waiting for me?”
She looked absolutely mortified as she came and gave me a hug, bursting into tears and apologising over and over again.
I had no alternative but to involve the Captain. We were at sea and as far as I could guess, in international waters. This meant that we were under maritime law and it was at the discretion of the Captain as to what was done with the man who called himself Dr. Weintraub.
“I just wish I’d known that was a hoax call.” said the nurse. She looked agitated and I could understand that. “If I ever get my hands on the woman that made that call…”
Fortunately for us, the Captain didn’t think that what the nurse had done was wrong. There was no way she wasn’t to know that the call wasn’t legitimate in the first place, but agreed that what the doctor had attempted was serious; serious enough for him to be incarcerated and we thanked him for seeing it our way.
“I knew you two were on board, but I have been given very few facts about what you’re up to.”
“I know, I’m sorry, but we have to be discreet. It would appear that one of your officers is involved. I saw one earlier unlocking the infirmary door whilst the nurse was out on that bogus call.” I explained.
“This is perhaps more serious than I thought.” he said.
I took Lucy back to the cabin and was really pleased that we had made so much headway and in just over a week too. The sooner we got this sorted, the sooner we could get down to enjoying the cruise.
Gil was waiting up when we got back and didn’t look best pleased.
“Where have you been?” she asked, but I don’t know whether that question was to me or to Lucy.
“It’s alright.” I assured her. “Thanks to our budding hospital helper here and a well aimed bedpan, we now have a certain Dr. Weintraub in custody. The Captain himself had him incarcerated. It looked as though he was trying to give Kim some extra shots. Our intrepid heroine here ensured that didn’t happen.”
“What about Kim?” asked Gil.
“Slept like a baby. The doctor says that she’ll make a full recovery and should be up and about within a couple of days or so. For now though, I think it’s time to get some rest.” No-one argued at that and While Lucy went into her room, I followed Gil back into ours.
“What was Lucy doing?”
“I think she was just concerned, that’s all. The nurse got a call and dashed out, but it turned out to be bogus. While she was out, the crew member we have been looking for and Doctor Weintraub gained entry to the infirmary and while the crewman made a dash for it, the doctor was left to do his thing.”
“She was very brave — Lucy that is.” said Gil. “I think she’s taking this really well.”
“Yeah, but we’ll have to see what happens when Kim gets back out. The doc reckoned it would be about three days before she’d be up and about.”
“She?”
“What?”
“You said ‘she’.”
“So?”
“Kim’s a boy, remember.”
“I’m sorry, it’s late. I still can’t picture Kim as a he.”
“Never mind. I’m sure you’ll get used to it.”
“Yes, but the question is, will he?”
It was three days before Kim was allowed out of the infirmary and then it was only because I had said that she, sorry, he, should stay with us.
Lucy was like a cat on a hot tin roof all day and in the evening I brought her back. Look, I’m sorry, but even though those breast things have been taken away and the fact that he’s not made up, I still see Kim the girl. I will get used to it.
Anyhow, I had a barrow-load of questions for him upon his return. The first thing I did was tell him that we caught the man who gave him the shots.
“Man?” said Kim. “He only gave me one shot; it was Donna who fed me most of the drugs.
“Donna?” I asked. “Donna who?”
“Donna Elliot. She has a suite on B deck.”
“A woman?” asked Gil.
“Hey, didn’t the nurse say that a woman had made the call that took her out of the infirmary?” said Lucy. We all turned to look at her and poor thing, she started to blush.
“She’s right. I’d forgotten about that.” I said. “Stay here.”
Gil and I ran straight round to the cabin that Kim suggested, but to our chagrin, it was locked and no-one was answering.
We questioned Kim closely when we got back, peeved that our mission had been unsuccessful. We would have to continue the next day. I figured that before breakfast was probably the best time. He gave us a detailed description of Donna and I phoned the security officer to make sure we’d got the right cabin.
Kim was most surprised that we would be going to so much trouble on her account and asked us what was going on.
“I would have thought that you of all people would have figured that one out by now.” I said.
“All I know is that…” He stopped, blushing and tearing up. “That, well…”
“This wasn’t what you expected from a cruise?” supplied Gil.
“No, not at all.”
It was going to happen sooner or later and at that point it was the wrong time, but Lucy started to get quite angry about the secrecy and I tried to get her to stop. She wasn’t having any of it, going on at me and Gil about trust.
“It’s not us.” I said. “It’s Kim.”
“You mean she’s lying?”
“No…”
“It’s that… I’m not what you think I am.” she said.
“Huh! Like I’m surprised. My Uncle Pete’s not what I thought he was either.”
“It’s not like that at all.” he said and the tears were starting to flow. “I’m not a girl.”
Lucy was in full flight now and I’m positive that she wasn’t taking in what she was being told.
“What do you mean not a girl?” she asked, incredulous.
“I think this has gone far enough.” I said.
“NO! What do you mean, not a girl? Like you’re some sort of alien or something?” she yelled.
It went downhill from there. I wasn’t sure we should have allowed it to happen, but it did and thankfully, it didn’t happen for long. Lucy stormed off into her bedroom and Gil went to Kim who was crying buckets. I just stood there, alternating my impotent stares between Lucy’s door and Kim, cradled in the arms of Gil, who was rocking gently and whispering “there, there” and “It’ll all be alright.”
I left the girls to it. There was nothing I could do for Kim that Gil wasn’t already doing and I thought that the only thing Lucy could do was cool off. I knew that this was hard on her, but it was nothing compared to what Kim was going through.
I stood outside on the outer deck and braced myself against the railing looking out over the sea as the sun went down. It was beautiful out there sometimes and tonight ironically, was one of them. I decided to take a wander and found myself heading towards Donna’s cabin.
As I neared, I could hear the sound of raised voices.
“Of course it’s your fault, you shouldn’t have left him. Shit! Now Herb’s been locked up and the shits going to hit the fan.”
“You can’t blame me for Herb.”
“Oh can’t I? If you hadn’t fucked up your end, this would never have happened.”
“Margaret, but…”
“Don’t but me you stupid girl. Now get rid of anything that can point to you or us before this whole ships crawling with cops.”
I stood where I was for a few more minutes, waiting to see or rather hear whether anything else would be said and the next thing I saw was the woman who Kim had described, throwing bags overboard.
Could those have been Kim’s?
I raced to the scene just as the last bag left her hands. She had just one more in her hand and I could see that there was hesitation there.
“Don’t you dare!” I shouted and threw myself at her, grabbing her and the small bag all in one.
She struggled, but she was no match. I wrestled the bag away from her and holding her in a half-Nelson from behind, I suggested that she allow me into her cabin to get anything she hadn’t managed to throw overboard.
“That was all of it.” she said.
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s the truth. The only things there now are the girl’s clothes.”
“Well, let’s have those then.” I suggested.
We went into the cabin and I noticed that there were several cases just inside the door and I presume packed. I should have thought more about it, but I was too focussed on Kim and her, sorry, his, predicament.
I was shown into the spare bedroom. There was a fair pile of clothes there, one or two things I recognised from when we had seen Kim before. It must have cost a pretty penny and I was sure that Kim would need a change of clothes even if they WEREN’T the most appropriate.
“Is everything alright Donna?” said a man’s voice from behind.
I spun round just in time to see the Bursar there, or rather his fist, just before it made contact.
The bastard caught me right on the end of my nose and I’d be surprised if he didn’t break it. Broken or not, my eyes ran like a couple of Olympic sprinters and I couldn’t see a thing.
“Just leave them. Now make sure you’ve got you passport, it’s time we weren’t here.” said the Bursar and then it went quiet.
I was left alone in the cabin. It seemed to me that whatever was going on, they had an escape plan. I blinked and dabbed my eyes, everything a blur. I picked up the phone and called our cabin.
“Gil? Yeah, it’s me… Call the Captain… Yeah I know it’s late… I think our quarry is about to jump ship.”
I met Gil and the Captain a little later after dropping the clothes I picked up from Donna's cabin.
“Did we get them?” I asked.
“No, we just saw on the monitors the launch leaving the stern, we weren’t in time to stop them.” said the Captain bleakly.
“How far can they get in the launch?”
Not very far. It has enough fuel aboard to last about a day, but we’re much further than that from any port.”
“What about another ship?”
“I knew you’d ask that. We’ve alerted the coast guard and they are now monitoring the launch on satellite. Wonders of modern technology eh? We can track them with their own SatNav!”
“Shouldn’t be long then.” I said.
I walked back to the cabin with Gil.
“It’s not turned out badly has it?”
“Much better than I thought.”
“Thanks to Kim.” I said and once again, Gil put her arm through mine.
“Appearances?” I asked.
“Not entirely.” she said and smiled. I got butterflies in the stomach and that feeling of going over a hump-back bridge too quickly. Why was it she made me so nervous?
To be continued…
Comments
It Unfolds!
The mystery unfolds. Still a few wrinkles left, and some bad guys to corral, but that just raises the tension of the story as we get closer to the conclusion.
So, are we going to get back to the original viewpoint of this story, that of Kim's? Lucy's story, and now Pete's are quite strong in the narrative, and overshadow Kim's, which was shrouded in the unknown and filled with emotion. Yet, it was that emotion and feeling of being Alice lost in Wonderland that made the story in the first place.
Kool
Yay get the villains! Nice story Nick.
grover
See,I Said You Were Devious
Great twists, Nick. I didn't see it coming at all. Now what further twists in wrapping it all up?
At least one more
Remember the implant that "Donna" referred to as Kim was drifting into consciousness?
And as Kim has not yet remembered that, and the Dr. has not confessed to that part yet either, whatever it is is still going on, changing Kim to Kimmy rather remorselessly.
Questions
Ok, So we got two of the culprits running.
Who is this Margret?
Weren't there several women involved with Kim's transformation? What about them?
They still have Weintraub, will he spill the beans to save his own neck? Will he survive to spill the beans?
The operation is a lot larger than it first appears. Would that mean higher authority people may also be invovled to smooth things over, to give the appearances that it was a small operation?
Like how far up the protocol chain does this scam go? I don't want to give further thoughts away, but it makes one stop and think. Was the coast gaurd really notified?
Is Kim's life now in danger too? After all, she has seen the other women who made her over.
OK enough said, I don't want to spoil things if it is a true consiracy. Where is that gas can so I can burn the evidence??
Grinning
Joni W
Answers
Okay, I'm not going to give the game away either, but Margaret was in chapter one and was one of the ladies that made Kim over.
Nick
One of those twisted dramas from the 30's.
This is really entertaining. Now of course the girl gets the girl errrr boy right?
Gwenellen