“Sharks have a deadlier reputation than they deserve, honey. People are not on their menu. Most attacks are because they were mistaken for something lower on the food chain.”
“But Billy thinks...”
“Sometimes Billy lets all that beach talk get involved with real life. Do you really think that shark is annoyed because I have his name?”
She looked at him very gravely, then shuddered slightly and grinned. “Maybe I’ve been in the islands too long,” she said to him.
“Maybe.”
“But don’t take me away from them.”
She turned under his arms and her hands came up behind his head. In the semidarkness he saw her mouth glisten, her lips part slowly, then he lowered his mouth to meet hers and they melted together, their bodies tense, each knowing what their emotions were demanding, each realizing that they had walked to the edge of the cliff and there was no way back and they had to jump, not knowing if they would land in the soft snow or on the jagged rocks.
Mako pushed Judy away gently and said, “Careful, lady, be careful.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.” He smiled.
“Why?”
“Because we’re still in the middle of some crazy game that can have some pretty damn mean implications, that’s why.”
“Can we get out of it?”
Mako shook his head. “No way. We’re in this to the end and it’s not just us. We have a big, silent crowd on our islands who don’t know what’s happening at all, but if we don’t do something to control it, their lifestyles are going to come apart. They own land and they have a government of sorts, but the one thing they don’t have is money. They deal in fish and crabs and conchs and spend their wages on nets and engine parts. They’re poor as dirt, but happy as hell, and knowingly they wouldn’t give up their way of living for anything.”
“But what can we do?” Judy asked him.
A few seconds passed, then Mako said, “We stay in the game and win it, kiddo.”
Their eyes met, searching the other’s thoughts, Judy’s asking, Mako already knowing the answer.
Mako said, “You can direct any operation on Lotusland, can’t you?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Judy bobbed her head. “Most likely. There could be objections, but nothing that I couldn’t handle.”
“Good. That’s going to be a major point here.”
“But where does Lotusland come in?”
“That ship is the Trojan horse.”
“I remember the story, but it doesn’t fit.”
“It will, doll, it will.” He ran his fingers through her hair and gave her a squeeze. “Let’s go back to the party, okay?”
In the shadows beside the nested forms of two inflatables, Chana Sterling watched them leave. When Lee Colbert took the miniature receiver out of his ear she said, “Anything important?”
Colbert totally disliked surveillance of personnel on his own team and only went along with Chana’s idea to keep her quiet. He switched off the microphone disguised as a camera, glad to remember that he had forgotten to drop a tape in to record the conversation. “You want to know what guys whisper in a girl’s ear while they’re in the dark on the stern of a ship?”
Chana almost snarled. “Forget it!”
Lee wanted to tell her that she never would know, either. But he didn’t.
Chapter Fifteen
In the short time they had been on the stern of the ship, something had disrupted the festivities. There was no glaring change in the action that anyone could point to, but Mako felt it and all his senses suddenly became alert. There were four separate groups of men in earnest discussion, a younger man seeming to travel back and forth between them as if passing information. Each group was led by the type they called “elder statesman,” and, in fact, two of them had been, in the United States Senate.
Every few minutes a uniformed middle-aged crew member would come out of the passageway and go directly to one of the groups, hand over an envelope, take what was apparently a written receipt, hand it to the bigger man in the blue suit who was accompanying him, then hurry back toward the dark recess of the passageway.
“What’s happening?” Hooker asked.
Judy frowned and followed his gaze, then shook her head.
“Something’s going on, kid,” he told her. “They’re having an office meeting.”
“Oh, they always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Their businesses all seem to interlock and when something happens on the market they hold their committee meetings right here. Apparently it’s a pretty good arrangement.”
“You see those messengers coming up to them?”
“Yes. They’re from the computer room.”
“Each one of those guys has a bodyguard and they’re packing a pretty big piece under their jackets.”
Slowly Judy looked up at him, then said, “How would you know that?”
“Because I’m in the business, baby. How would you know what the big boys over there are doing?”
A tight expression came over her face for a moment. “I’ve... seen it several times. Why, what’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing, but I thought these guys were all retired. Hell, they have their millions, what more could they want?”
After a moment’s thought, Judy asked flippantly, “Billions?”
Hooker nodded and said, “You may be right, doll.”
It was the wind that gave him the answer. From the small gathering to his left he heard the same word twice. It wasn’t a new word. It had been in the news for a year and openly debated in public forums for a long time, but bandying it about here gave it a new meaning. The gentle breeze across the deck had carried the word right to him and he said, “Euro currency.”
“What?” Judy was staring at him, puzzled.
Hooker pulled Judy away from the passengers, got each one of them a soft drink at the bar, and when they were alone, he told her, “They’ve gotten some inside information on the European financial market... something to do with the new euro currency.”
“Would that be important?”
“In the right hands it could be damn important... and all the right hands in the business world seem to be aboard your boat, Judy.”
“Mako... they’re on vacation! This is a pleasure trip for them.”
“The hell it is. Who authorized a computer room like this on a pleasure ship?”
“Well, that was Marcus Grey’s idea. This way the guests can keep up with their business affairs. It was one of his promotional projects.”
“Have you seen the equipment?”
“Yes, but...”
“Describe it.”
“Mako... I can’t. All I know is...”
“That it’s state-of-the-art,” he finished for her.
“Yes. Very highly specialized. There are no duplicates in the world.”
“How many units?”
Mako slipped his hand around her waist and she moved close against him. It gave him a warm feeling and he said, “Let’s get out of here. Crowds aren’t my thing at all. Can you order up an inflatable to get us over to the Sentilla?”
Her smile said it wouldn’t be any trouble at all.
But she didn’t have to bother. One of the cruise ship’s waiters brought her word that Captain Watts had sent a launch over to pick them up. No, he didn’t say what for, but it was an important matter.
Don Watts was waiting at the top of the boarding ladder when they got there. His face was serious when he nodded hello; he escorted them both to the wheelhouse, where they could surround themselves with the darkness of the ocean and the lights of the cruise ship and Lotusland. Tellig was there too, an even darker smudge on the ocean, her presence not reflecting any light at all.