Blood Cruise: A Deep Sea Thriller (11 page)

20.

The ship rose with the swells and crested the tops of the good-sized waves then dove down into the trenches. Over and over it did that as it moved across the open ocean. Nothing unusual, as it would have been the strategy of any good captain to aim into the waves and keep the ship from capsizing.

Except the NCDC ship no longer had a captain. Not in one piece, at least.

The navigation system was running on autopilot, and being a ship in the fleet of a major defense and tech contractor, that autopilot was an exceptional piece of programming. It could sense the changes in weather patterns and adjust to the expected changes in the sea. It knew when to adjust the rudder and when to increase or slow the engines.

The ship could handle navigating the waters all on its own. Which was a good thing since every human being onboard was ripped to shreds and being fed upon by the massive creature that had returned to the safety of its tank. Despite the thing’s incredible strength and ferocity, it was still a member of the octopodidae family and shy by nature.

It preferred to be safe and comfortable. At least until it sensed prey. Then nothing was safe and or comfortable.

It supped on the femurs of half a dozen men, sucking the marrow straight from the bones, savoring the flavor as it passed through its incredible beak. Not that it needed the beak to taste. Its tentacles and suckers had the ability to taste food as well as any human’s taste buds. It knew what it liked and what it didn’t before the food even got close to the sharp, parrot-like beak.

Having finished off the femurs, the creature slid from its tank and hunted around for something new to eat. Its hunger was never sated; the creature lived in a perpetually ravenous state. Something in it, a part of that uncanny octopus intelligence, knew that its hunger was not natural. It knew that it didn’t need to eat anywhere near as much as it was. But it couldn’t stop. Once it had tasted blood, tasted the flesh of humanity, it couldn’t stop the urges. Or, more accurately, the urges that had been built inside it.

As the thought sped through its complex and fairly alien mind, the creature came upon the corpse of Dr. Glouster. It hesitated, its tentacles waving slowly, lightly, over the man’s body. Its hunger told it to grab the corpse up and eat, eat, devour, but it couldn’t do it. The man raised it, the man cared for it, the man taught it many things and showed only kindness. The hardest part of the creature’s impossible life had been watching Dr. Glouster bleed out on the vault’s floor.

The creature couldn’t quite come to terms with the event and one of its tentacles settled on the man’s body, nudging it carefully, gently. When there was no response, it started to withdraw the tentacle then thought better of it. It grabbed up the corpse and walked it back to its tank. There was a rattling in the man’s pocket and the creature hesitated. Before dumping Dr. Glouster’s body into the saltwater, it plucked something from the dead man’s pocket, looked it over, then threw it aside. The corpse bobbed up and down in the tank and the creature stared at it for a minute before it went back to gathering more food.

Arms loaded to capacity, the creature entered its watery sanctuary once again and began to feed some more. It pressed itself up against Dr. Glouster’s corpse, feeling a slight comfort in having the man near even if the doctor was no longer part of the living. It paused only briefly in its feast to observe the corpse, a hope that the man would suddenly come to life.

The creature instantly began to grow from all the feeding, its enhanced genes kicking into over drive. The accelerated growth made the tank uncomfortable and the creature grew irritated. The irritation became frustration with the frustration quickly turning to anger, anger against humanity at allowing Dr. Glouster to be killed, to be murdered, to die.

The anger became rage and the creature took up Dr. Glouster’s corpse with four of its tentacles ready to tear it apart. But it couldn’t do it and instead it slowly, carefully, kneaded the body until the bones were nothing but dust and the corpse was soft and pliable. Just like the creature. It had changed Dr. Glouster just like the doctor had changed it.

But with that act it struggled with a feeling that grew alongside the rage. It didn’t know grief, but it knew it had lost something when Dr. Glouster had died. It also knew it had lost something when it was changed from what nature had meant it to be. It looked outside the tank and its eyes fell on the human remains scattered about the vault, falling on a body that it was surprised was still a part of the living.

Its grief could not be vented, but its rage could be.

The creature crawled back out of the tank and rushed over to the body of Wagner. It lifted two tentacles, ready to bring them down onto the unconscious man’s chest, but it stopped. Next to Wagner was the item the creature had thrown from Dr. Glouster’s pocket. A USB drive.

Instead of ending Wagner’s life right then, the creature undid two belts from the dead men on either side of Wagner and tightened them around his bleeding stumps for legs. The man moaned and the creature jammed an eye right in Wagner’s face, but Wagner did not wake up.

Once it knew the man wouldn’t die right away, the creature set the USB drive in the man’s hand. It did not know why, but the act felt like what it should do. It knew the drive had been important to Dr. Glouster. The drive needed to be saved.

The creature turned to face the vault and its rage still boiled. It crawled from the no longer secure space and began to collect body parts. It wanted to feed, but the hunger of its body could not override the hunger of its rage. A rage that began to create a new need with every body part it lifted into its tentacles.

A need for vengeance.

21.

The woman had asked Ben to take a seat while she explained the situation he was in, but he’d declined and said he’d prefer to stand, as most people do when presented with a suspicious scenario. As soon as she had finished talking, the idea of sitting down seemed like a very good one as Ben’s knees became weak and his legs started to tremble.

“This is a sting?” Ben asked then looked around quickly, alarmed that he had been overheard.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Clow,” Ashley said as she tapped the screen of her phone. “I have access to the ship’s entire surveillance system. I know where everyone is at all times.” She showed him her phone and the image of Tony Giraldi talking to a couple of his men at the bow of the ship. “His men are keeping watch over him. They’ve established a perimeter so that the bow is all Tony’s.”

“He’s the king of the world, eh?” Ben laughed then coughed then went silent as Ashley stared at him, her lips not even coming close to cracking a smile. “Sorry.”

“I need you to take this very seriously, Mr. Clow,” Ashley said. “We have been tracking Mr. Giraldi for months and know he has something planned. What we believe is that he’s going to intercept a ship that is en route now. I have satellites hunting the sea for miles around us, but so far, other than legitimate commercial vessels and a couple of cruise ships, there is nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Yes, okay, great,” Ben said. “So what does this have to do with me? You could have kept me in the dark. Nick has and he’s as close to a best friend as I have in this world. You sure didn’t need to spill the beans.”

“Actually, I did need to spill the beans because you are close to ruining this entire operation,” Ashley said. “That is why I have told you everything and why we are talking right now.” She leaned forward and the button-down white shirt she wore went tight across her chest. She adjusted her position and pulled at her shirt. “Stupid uniform. I guess being a hostess on a yacht like this means showing as much cleavage as possible. Degrading.”

“I have two daughters,” Ben said. “I agree one hundred percent on that.”

“The problem is, Mr. Clow,” Ashley continued, “is that you are pissing Mr. Giraldi off so much that I’m afraid you are going to blow this entire operation. He’s either going to abort what he has come to do or he’s going to shoot you between the eyes which means I am forced to get involved. As much as I want to arrest him for what he has planned, I will have to arrest him for homicide if he kills you. That’s just how the law works.”

“International law,” Ben said. “Because you are INTERPOL? Why should I believe you? A laser printer and a laminator can make the ID you showed me. Easy enough to buy fake badges on the internet.”

“Feel free to talk to Nicholas about this,” Ashley said. “Discreetly, of course.” She leaned back and relaxed into the chair. “You will quickly find that my partner and I are legitimate.”

“Your partner?” Ben frowned then nodded. “Manny.”

Ashley smiled. “What I need from you, Mr. Clow, is to pull back on the irritation level. I need you to stop pushing Mr. Giraldi’s buttons and start making him feel confident. I want him relaxed, at ease, thinking he is in total control at the table. If he thinks he’s in control at the table then he will assume he is in control of everything else. Pissing off a man like Giraldi is never a good idea, Mr. Clow, regardless of whether there is an INTERPOL operation in place or not.”

“You know who I am, so I assume you know my background,” Ben said. “Then you also know I’ve been at tables with way scarier men than Giraldi.”

“No, you have not,” Ashley stated.

“Actually—”

“No, you have not,” Ashley repeated. “Do not kid yourself, Mr. Clow. Yes, you have played against some very, very bad men and women while you were a rounder with Nicholas, but at no point have you been in the presence of a monster like Giraldi. This is a man that blinds children in front of their parents with a cocktail fork just to make a point. Giraldi is not, and let me be very clear as I repeat this, Giraldi is not a man you piss off. Not unless you want your daughter and her girlfriend to be raped and dismembered, left on the wet Olympia streets to be found by some yuppie walking her labrodoodle tomorrow morning.”

Ashley showed him her phone again and it was an image of Tanni and some girl laughing at a party. Ben’s eyes took in the entire scene and he gasped when he realized there was a young man passing as a teen standing only a few feet behind the two teenage girls, his eyes locked on to them. And those eyes were deep, dead pools of violence. Ben kept the gorge from rising in his throat, but only barely.

“The good news is that I am seeing this video because one of my people is at that party,” Ashley said. “I also have people watching your ex-wife’s house while she and your youngest daughter sleep.”

“The bad news?” Ben asked. “Because I know there has to be some of that.”

“There is,” Ashley said. “The bad news is that the guy Giraldi has sent to watch your daughter Tanni is known as the Guillotine. He is very good at his job and very fast. No guns, just one deadly sharp blade. Even with my agent in place, there is the risk that the Guillotine will be too fast and kill either Tanni or her girlfriend before he can be stopped.”

“Then stop him now!” Ben shouted. “Put a bullet between his eyes and keep my girl safe!”

“The second we make a move on him then we risk Giraldi being contacted,” Ashley said. “I’m sorry, but as much as I want to make sure your daughter stays alive, I have to take Giraldi down. Whatever he has planned probably has to do with illegal arms, since he rarely involves himself with the other parts of his business. If it is arms then it has to be missiles or worse in order for him to go to all the trouble of using Nicholas as a front. Mr. Giraldi has put a lot of work into this deal and so have I. I can’t jeopardize it all to save your daughter.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Ben said and stood up. “Then I’m getting her out of there. I’m going to text her right now and tell her she needs to get her ass home.”

“How?” Ashley asked. “No one there is sober enough to drive and she’s too young to call a cab. Even Uber would probably balk at giving an intoxicated teen and her girlfriend a ride. Liability insurance is a bitch.”

“Have you been listening to me and Maggie talk?” Ben asked.

“Of course we have,” Ashley said, wiggling her phone. “I have access to this entire ship.”

“You suck,” Ben said. He was about to say more, but Nick came hurrying into the lounge.

“There you are,” Nick said. Then he saw Ashley. “Oh, uh, hello, Ashley. The game is starting back up. Could you maybe have the chef set up a buffet of snacks? That would be great.”

“I know,” Ben said.

“You know what?” Nick asked. “That snacks are a good idea when poker players get hungry?”

“I know who Ashley is,” Ben said.

“Oh, that,” Nick said. He grinned then frowned then settled on an expression half way between the two which made him look constipated and confused. “I was going to tell you about that.”

“No, you weren’t,” Ben responded.

“No, I wasn’t,” Nick admitted. “But, how exciting, right?”

“Giraldi has a killer watching Tanni and her girlfriend right now,” Ben stated. “How excited about that do you think I am, Nicky? On a scale of one to ten, tell me how excited I am that my baby girl could have her throat slit open because you got your ass busted and now have to be INTERPOL’s bitch.”

“I never said he got busted,” Ashley said.

“You didn’t have to,” Ben replied. “I’ve known this man my whole life. No way he’d get involved and risk his rep as a playboy that can weave in and out of legitimate and illegitimate circles just to do the right thing. What was it, Nicky? What crime are they wiping away so you could get Giraldi onto this boat?”

“Yacht,” Nick said. “And it was heroin.”

“What?” Ben nearly shouted. “Smack? Since when did you start dealing smack?”

“I don’t!” Nick exclaimed. “I hate that shit, you know that.”

“Not sure what I know,” Ben scowled.

“It was a girlfriend of mine,” Nick said. “I had no idea she was a junkie. I just thought she liked to take naps in public at strange times.”

“Seriously?” Ben grumbled.

“Dude, if you saw how hot she was you’d have been happy to let her nap wherever and whenever she wanted,” Nick said. “Plus, she didn’t have tracks in her arms or anything. She shot up in that vein in her upper thigh. I’d noticed the marks when I went down on her, but it’s not like my mind was exactly putting two and two together at those moments, man.”

“So she got busted?” Ben asked.

“She died,” Ashley said. “She was a mule for her dealer and had seventeen balloons inserted in her rectum. Five burst at once and she overdosed just as Mr. Sheeran and her were crossing the border from Germany to Austria last year.”

“So you nabbed him and turned him for good,” Ben said. He waved his hands around. “So this yacht isn’t even yours, is it? It’s all a front.”

“Uh, no, the yacht is mine,” Nick said. “That’s all true. It’s why INTERPOL decided I was worth making a deal with. They knew I had been trying to unload it for a while and they knew Giraldi was in the market for a yacht as a front to conduct some business. One thing led to another and now we are all here. Yay…”

Things clicked into place for Ben at that moment and he looked at Ashley.

“Giraldi suggested the route we’re taking tonight, right?” Ben asked. “It was part of his security terms to agree to play cards. He decided where the yacht would be and where it would go while we’re at the table. Use someone else for transportation and if his deal goes bad he can walk away like he had nothing to do with it. Am I right?”

“You are right,” Ashley said. “We have let him run things from the very beginning. All we had to do was be ready for tonight.”

“And along comes the ex-poker pro with the mid-list blog to ruin it all,” Ben said.

“Almost ruin it all,” Ashley said. “Now that you know what’s going on, you can switch your strategy from pushing him off his game by getting him riled up to making him feel like he’s a winner and kicking your butt. Can you handle that, Mr. Clow?”

“Yeah, I can handle that,” Ben said. “I’ve run harder cons with Nicky. At least this one is for the good guys.”

“And maybe I can still sell this yacht,” Nick said. “Yeah? You’re busting Giraldi, not the others, right? Leaving me out of it so no one suspects?”

“Yes, Nicholas,” Ashley sighed. “You get to sell your boat.”

“Yacht,” Nick corrected. He clapped his hands and grinned. “Alright. Let’s get back to the cards, shall we?”

Ben studied his friend for a brief second. Alarm bells went off in his head. Nick was too agreeable. He was rolling over and letting Ashley push him around like he didn’t have a care in the world. That wasn’t how Nick had acted around authority when they’d worked together. Ben had always had to shut the man up and keep him from making things worse.

“Yeah, let’s get back to the cards,” Ben said as he saw a brief flicker in Nick’s eye. A dangerous, secret flicker that no one but him would have ever seen.

There was more going on, but Ben didn’t know what. He shoved the suspicion aside as Nick gestured for him to follow. The two head back to the game room and Ben had to restrain himself from grabbing Nick and pounding him in the face until he told the truth. Because Ben believed at that moment that the real truth Nick was hiding was key to getting Tanni to safety, not relying on the INTERPOL agents.

It may have been a hunch, but Ben had been at the game long enough to know when a hunch should be relied on.