It was a book on sharks. Kim tried to pretend she was interested, but the close up pictures of shark teeth and the stark, doll-like eyes of these animals began to make her uneasy. Placing the book back onto the shelf, she began to sort through the other periodicals. I’ll just browse for a few more minutes, then I’ll go.
A youthful, British accented voice spoke up behind her. “You’re into sharks?”
Kim turned. The young man she was looking for stood smiling about a meter behind her. The combination of surprise and confusion made her mind blank out. “What? This? I-I was just kinda… curious.”
He had slight stubble in his chin that she hadn’t noticed before. “Have you done some diving, miss?”
She shook her head. “No, and my name is Kim. Short for Kimberly.”
He nodded. “Sorry. We’ve been trained to address everyone formally here unless told otherwise. I’m Oliver Marriot, but you can call me Ollie if you want.”
Kim’s mind was still trying to sort itself out due to his sudden appearance. “Um, okay.”
Oliver pointed towards an open doorway behind the counter. “I was in the office when I overheard you talking with Master Diver Kurien.” He then pointed at the man behind the counter, who gave them both a friendly wave. “You win the prize for the day, Kim.”
She raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What prize?”
He pointed at all the equipment hung along the walls. “For being the first ever guest to enter our humble shop. I can offer you a three-day course to become a certified Open Water Diver. Or if you want something else, there’s also snorkeling, kayaking, water skiing, or the best of them all, the banana boat ride.”
“A banana boat? You’re kidding, right?”
He chuckled. “I am, but only partially.” Oliver pointed at a nearby poster on the wall, featuring smiling tourists clad in life vests while riding the top of an inflatable giant banana pulled along by a speedboat. “You might need the rest of your family for that one, though.”
“Wow, so many things to do. I don’t think I can decide right now.”
“Well just take your time,” he said. “If you have any questions, feel free to let us know.”
Something did pop up in her mind. “If I was to go for this Open Water Diver training, what do I need to do?”
“Do a bit of studies, then take a written test. After you pass, then we can do some training on how to use the dive gear at the swimming pool. Once you’ve mastered that bit, we can do a couple of ocean dives. After you’ve gotten your certification, you can dive anywhere in the world.”
“And who will be the one to instruct me in all this?”
“You can choose,” Oliver said. “Helmut is the co-owner of the shop and he also speaks German. Kurien can train others using Hindi, Malayalam, or English. As for me, I can only speak one.”
“You’re an instructor too?”
Oliver nodded. “Everyone in this shop is minimally certified as an Open Water Scuba Instructor. Helmut and Kurien are both Master Instructors. Aquaholics only hires the tops in their fields.”
“Wow, this place is something else.”
“It’s a five-star resort designed to cater to the very top of world society,” Oliver said.
Kim giggled. “Well, I wouldn’t say my family is one of those. We just sort of lucked into this.”
“You’re here now, that’s what matters,” Oliver said. “All guests have a free run of everything we offer, so take your pick.”
Kim felt the vibration of her smartphone. “Excuse me for a second.” She held the device up to her eyes and saw a text from her parents, telling her to go have lunch with her brother, while they would be staying inside the bungalow for a few more hours.
They must be having sex, she thought. At least they seem to be in love again, and that’s a good sign. The last thing I’d want is for them to get a divorce, and then I’d have to choose who to live with.
Kim placed the phone back in the side pocket of her shorts and returned her gaze to Oliver’s sky blue eyes. “I need to go find my brother and make sure he gets fed, then I’ll decide what I want to do. The problem is, Scotty is kinda hard to find since they allowed him into the staff area of this whole place.”
Oliver glanced at his dive watch. “Well since I’m not doing anything right now and I also have access to the staff areas, I can help you find him.”
Kim grinned in delight. “Would you? That would be very helpful.”
Oliver gave the man at the counter a parting wink before returning his attention to her. “Not a problem. Let’s start at the nearby beach areas, then we’ll work our way into the hotel building. I’m sure he’ll turn up.”
22
TAKING ANOTHER MINIATURE bottle of vodka from the small refrigerator, David Blaise twisted it open and downed it in one gulp. He had holed himself up in his room on the fourth floor of Lemuria’s main hotel, and his frustration was now at a fever pitch. The near transparent blue waters surrounding the beach outside his window looked inviting, but he had work to do.
The only time he had left his room after his arrival was when he stayed up at the bar near the reception area the night before, intending to get hammered with endless cocktails and beer, but he quickly returned to his room when he saw the general manager eyeing him disdainfully from afar. Mustn’t raise his suspicions too much, or else he’ll find an excuse to throw me out of here.
His laptop remained open on the desk by the window. He had been attempting to send an email to his editor for the past several hours, only to get frustrated as the internet connection suddenly became spotty, and he failed to send the message, despite repeated tries.
Are they trying to block my internet access? he wondered. David had already called the hotel manager twice to complain about the uneven internet, and he was repeatedly assured that the connection was alright, and perhaps it was his computer that was the problem. When the manager suggested he try the desktop consoles at the business center downstairs he refused, for David felt they might have installed tracking and keylogging software on those units.
Checking to make sure his laptop’s firewall was running properly, he again ran a virus check on his machine. Morgenstern is a billionaire with plenty of dirty tricks up his sleeve. I bet all the stuff I’m sending out gets sent directly to him, the bastard.
The unused smartphone lay on the disheveled bed, beside a tray of dirty plates with bits of food still on them. He knew the phone itself could be used as a tracking device, and he trusted it less than his laptop. Can’t use the damn phone either, so I need to make this work.
Before he got to Kerala, David had had a friend install a voice chat application with an encrypted communications tunnel on his laptop computer. Having already done a test run with the program before, he was heartbroken to find it had suddenly stopped working the moment he tried using it in Lemuria. Opening up the options panel of the program, he could see a bewildering array of virtual controls he needed to tweak if he was going to communicate privately with the outside.
His drinking made him feel lightheaded, but David knew it was the only way to curb the anxiety attacks he’d had over the years. His wife asked for a separation when he became too irrational at times, and he amused himself with third world bargirls when he needed a sexual outlet nowadays.
I need to concentrate, he thought while sitting back down at the chair and placing his hands on the laptop’s keyboard. I’ll just need to fiddle with the options until I get it right.
For the next half an hour he kept at it, only for the screen to repeatedly tell him the connection remained unencrypted, defeating any hope he had of communicating with his colleagues in privacy.