“Miss Stevens,” the woman said, carefully. “Chris was on a small boat for two months. Uhmm…”
“Don’t sweat what happened in the compartment,” the guy said. “You’re not the only one who has been friendly with others, Miss. We’ve got a saying…”
“What happens in the compartment, stays in the compartment,” the woman said.
“He found someone?” Gwinn said. She couldn’t decide if she was hurt or relieved.
“Sort offf…” the woman said. “He really didn’t talk about the boat until we had to board it. We didn’t even know about you two until… He told us to look for you, your body anyway, for your access card,” she finished, pointing at the card on her lanyard. “And I’d been around him lots of times. Which, by the way, meant he was really broken up about it. If he’d gotten over you completely he’d have talked about you. That’s how it works, mostly.”
“Look,” the guy said. “Can we get you two topside and figure out the social-political issues later?”
“Mind if I bring my crowbar?” Rob said. “Just in case?”
“You don’t get to use it on Chris,” Gwinn said.
“Not gonna,” Rob said. “I’m afraid he’s gonna want to use it on me.”
* * *
When they reached topside and the twosome were shielding their eyes from the light, Faith reached for her radio, then paused.
“How do I do this, exactly?”
“Better you than me,” Fontana said.
She switched frequencies and looked around. Sure enough the Cooper was right off the ship, taking on more survivors. There were three passengers for every crewmen but about twice as many crew as passengers had survived.
“Cooper, Cooper, this is Shewolf for Cooper actual, over,” Faith said.
“Cooper, actual, over.”
“Talk to him, girlie,” Faith said, holding out the radio.
* * *
“Chris… Chris, it’s Gwinn…”
* * *
“The Assault Carrier Iwo Jima is in the Bermuda High so it’s out of the storm belt,” Steve said as the Toy was tossed by another wave. “We need the ammo, we need the guns and with any luck at all, there will be some surviving Marines…”
He spun the boat to the south and put the hammer down. Behind him the boats of Wolf Squadron formed themselves into a ragged line and followed. There were ships to clear.
Two miles to the north, the cruise ship rocked on a darkling sea silent as a tomb…
To Be Continued