"I don't know if I want to take that chance," he said, and pushed upwards, driving his knife through the canvas.
Diana gave a little yelp of dismay, but Hammer was already outside on the deck. He looked around, satisfied that his instincts had been true.
"How did you know the soldiers weren't around?" Diana asked, sitting up.
"I could feel the vibrations of their feet through the lifeboat cables," Hammer replied. "I spent a year in solitude in the mountains of Xanadu, meditating on the harmonies between all things. I could feel it when they went back around the side of the cabins. We have maybe three minutes before they start around again."
"What do you-"
Hammer grabbed Diana's arm and pulled her out of the lifeboat. "No time," he said, and steered her through a convenient door into the upper galley. Diana grabbed a cook's long white coat from a rack as they passed. Hammer's mind spun with his memorized map of the cruise ship and its various spaces.
"We can't take a lifeboat," Diana said, as if reading his mind. "It will take too long to lower it, and the soldiers will have a gunboat off the side."
"You didn't see one?"
"I've been playing the part of socialite," she said. "Except for some very minor reports I didn't have any contact with my people. It was important to be entirely in the character."
"Entirely," Hammer muttered. All the cooks were gone; the gunfire had made everyone go to ground. All Hammer carried during missions was his handmade knife; he had a minimalist mindset, but now he wished he'd packed a few guns.
"I think we both know that we can't escape alone," Diana said. Outside, they heard shouts; the soldiers had found the lifeboat with the torn canvas. Diana and Hammer ducked down behind a counter.
"The soldiers are dull, but not stupid," Hammer whispered. "They'll start combing the ship properly in a few minutes. The gunboat will circle, so we can't swim for it."
"I have an idea." Diana peeked over the side of the counter, and then crawled to a cupboard. She rifled through it, pulling out some items, and then crawled back. "Just give me a minute…"
Hammer watched as Diana mixed some powders and liquids together, pouring the resulting slime into a bottle. She carefully wobbled it back and forth, but didn't shake it.
"Simple explosive," she said, smiling. "Got a match?"
Colonel Mahir Aiyalot, 7th Division, stalked down the hallway towards the galley. He had seen the American, seen him vanish like a ghost only to reappear and fight through a full division of his men before disappearing again. It seemed that there was someone with him; it wouldn't have surprised the veteran soldier if the American had help from someone on the ship.
Two of Mahir's most trusted men walked with him. They'd sent the bulk of their forces around to the other exit; Mahir trusted in his own abilities to hold this side if need be. Considering the abilities demonstrated by the American, the Colonel was worried that they'd need to kill him instead of capturing and interrogating him.
He positioned the two men by the galley door. This side led directly to the dining area, with the small antechamber hallway hiding the bustle of the galley from the passengers. Mahir drew his curved sword, a relic from a previous war, and entered.
The first thing he saw was the figures of a man and woman; the American wore a ripped shirt and held a knife to the throat of the woman, who wore a white cook's coat. The man saw Mahir and shouted, "No closer! She's a passenger and I'm holding her hostage!"
The Colonel stopped in his tracks, making a gesture to halt his men. The American stood in the alcove between two stoves, his back to the wall. Mahir smiled in his mind; he knew that there was no way out of the galley that wasn't through him or through his other forces.
"Do not harm her," he said in accented English. "You have no reason to hurt an innocent woman."
"She's my ticket out of here!"
"You should let her go and give us terms."
"You won't negotiate if I let her go!"
Mahir slowly moved forward. "You should let her go," he said, and dropped his sword. "I will be your hostage."
The hostage's eyes widened. The American said, "You'd let me hold you against my own life?"
"This," Mahir said, "is only proper according to the codes of battle. An innocent should never be unnecessarily harmed."
The American lowered his knife. Mahir stepped forward. The American said, "That makes me feel really bad about this."
A powerful explosion ripped through the galley.
Hammer and Diana crouched in the small chamber, hearing the explosion two rooms away.
"How did you do that?" Diana asked.
"I studied electronics and imagery with Edison," Hammer said. "Light can be transmitted in dark or enclosed spaces; the large mirror reflected our images in the galley through that pinhole, and through the array of glassware I set up while you set the explosive."
"You're full of surprises," Diana said. "I almost believe you know what you're doing."
Hammer smiled. "Don't get cocky just yet. We have only a few minutes before the soldiers regroup."
"Did you mean what you said about killing that man?"
"He showed personal honor in battle. I hate to take lives without necessity, but to take the life of an honorable man is almost worse than killing an innocent."
"He'd have killed you without thinking."
"But for reasons of honor, not of evil. No matter who employed him, that man was worth ten of his own."
Hammer took Diana's arm and led her down the stairs. The air had started to fill with smoke; some part of the ship was on fire. They could hear the sounds of evacuation, alarms, the shrieks of pampered passengers made to discomfort themselves and leave their belongings behind.
"So," Hammer said. "Did you have an escape plan?"
"Just a contingency," Diana replied. "I expected to take the book on the last day and disembark with the passengers. They'd never have noticed it until I was long gone. You?"
"My escape plans," Hammer said, "never go according to, ha, plan. Someone always starts shooting or punching and then I have to make a mess. I feel sometimes like trouble follows me around."
"I'm certainly following you," Diana said. "But we should try to get to the underwater observation deck. It will bypass the passenger evacuation route and get us to the outer hull with fewer distractions."
"What good will going deeper into the ship do us?"
"The crew puts on underwater shows for the passengers," Diana said. "I read it in the brochure. They have undersea gear, breathing apparatus, quality things to make their guests pay more in tips. We could steal some and escape underwater."
"And avoid the gunboat," Hammer said. "Good thinking. You might actually be an undercover operative after all."
"I get by on being underestimated," Diana muttered.
They heard noise in the hall ahead. Hammer said, "Stay behind me," and pushed through the door.
Two soldiers, muskets up, shining lights into every corner. Hammer began to run. They noticed him as he reached the halfway point, and before they could shout Hammer's thrown knife killed one of them where he stood. The other flinched as his friend fell back, and then Hammer was on him.
The soldier was not a simple grunt. Contrary to media portrayals, most soldiers are highly trained and efficient in the killing arts. Hammer disarmed the soldier with a kick, and then found himself falling back as the soldier attacked with his service kukri.
The fight was fast and brutal. Hammer, using the ancient martial art of Baritsu, recovered his balance and went on the offensive; the soldier would have been more than a match for any ordinary fighter, but Hammer was far from ordinary. Evading the kukri, Hammer pulled the soldier's arm into a lock, twisted, and snapped it at the elbow. The soldier cried out; Hammer continued his movement, directing the soldier by the broken arm, and slammed him headfirst into the wall.