Burn: A Novel (44 page)

Tiffany returned her cell to her bra, on the off chance the power was restored. What were the odds she’d run into Cael, or one of the others? Slim, but not none. Until then, she’d do what she did.

She followed Larkin. “That psycho fucker’s mine,” she muttered as she stepped onto the Lido deck. Maybe Larkin was a terrible shot, but she wasn’t.

T
HE BLAST FROM BELOW
threw Matt back. He landed hard, hitting his head against the wall. His arm took a good shot as it banged against a metal shelf in the storage closet he’d been searching, and then he landed on it funny, and pain shot through his entire body. His ears rang, filling his head with a high-pitched humming that drowned out everything else.

But he didn’t lose consciousness, and urgency got him to a sitting position, then he staggered to his feet. His first evaluation said he wasn’t bleeding too much, he didn’t think. The power had gone out, then the emergency lighting came up, casting sad, insufficient illumination over one of the least impressive parts of the ship. He couldn’t see very well, but he didn’t think he was hurt all that bad.

He was still stunned though, and it took him a few seconds to reclaim his ability to think past the ringing in his head. He hadn’t
found a single bomb, but it was a big-ass ship, and judging by the blasts, they’d all been placed one deck down.

Where Bridget was conducting her sweep.
Shit
. Bridget!

Matt jumped up, and his arm protested. He glanced down and realized he hadn’t gotten off so lightly after all. His arm was obviously broken, which meant he wouldn’t be able to dig his way out if he got trapped down here. He gripped his wrist to keep the arm still, until he could find something to fashion a sling with, and he ran into the corridor and toward the stairs. He burst into the stairway, which was filling with smoke. Black smoke drifted up the stairs. He shouted, but the sound was odd to his own ears. If he’d lost most of his hearing one level up, any survivors below would likely be deaf.

There had to be survivors, and it was possible Bridget was one of them. Maybe. Hundreds of crew members had been below, while he’d climbed one flight to begin his search. Then he saw movement in the smoke and he waited, expecting a stream of people to emerge.

Four. Only
four
had made it out? Surely to God there’d be more. This was just the first bunch, wasn’t it? He stared at them in disbelief. All of them were injured in some way. Cuts, mostly, some of them serious, others less so. Two of the survivors had blood seeping from their ears.

“Bridget,” Matt called loudly. “Did any of you see her?” Two women and one man just looked at him, dazed and deaf, thinking only of getting to the top of the ship. They continued on without stopping. Jane, a pretty blonde who worked the deck as he did, was at the end of the line. He caught her eye and she stopped on the landing.

“Bridget?” he shouted, dazed. A rivulet of blood ran down one side of Jane’s face, but she didn’t appear to be seriously injured.

Jane pointed to her ears and shrugged her shoulders. Tears sprung to her eyes.

Matt pointed to his mouth, hoping she could read lips. “My friend, the steward,” he said slowly.
“Bridget.”

Jane grimaced. “I saw her earlier.” She spoke loudly, shouted as
Matt had, and placed one palm against the side of her head, maybe trying to ease the ringing. “Bridget was headed into the storeroom. I think she was really close to one of the blasts. At least, she went that way and I didn’t see her leave …” The tears trickled down her cheeks. “What happened? What went wrong? Matt, there are
dead people
down there!”

“Keep moving,” Matt yelled, pointing up to direct her. “Get yourself on a lifeboat asap.”

“Are you coming?” Jane screamed.

“No,” Matt said, and he continued downward, into the thick smoke.

R
YAN’S ONLY INTENT
was to get his wife off the
Silver Mist
.

It was bizarre, to see all these people in evening dress running for the boats. This was nothing like the lifeboat drill, where women had giggled and men had been bored and irritated that they’d been pulled away from their putting practice or card game. Tonight order was forgotten—and then, the blast shook the boat and changed everything.

Passengers were already in a couple of unlaunched lifeboats—good-size vessels that could easily hold forty to fifty passengers—orange PFDs in place over tuxedoes and evening gowns. After the blasts women screamed; men showed their stripes, either assisting or shoving others out of the way. After the explosions below, the usual bright lights of the ship went out, and a moment later were replaced with emergency, battery-powered lights. What had been crisis became chaos.

He steered Faith toward one of the crew members and a lifeboat. “I’m going to find Cael.”

“I’ll go with you.”

He kissed her briefly, wondering if it would be the last time. “You’re not a fighter, Faith.”

“But …”

“And you’ll distract me when I can’t afford distraction.”

Her lips tightened. She looked at him with her heart in her
eyes. She didn’t like it, but she knew he was right. “I love you,” she said. “Be careful.” And then, tears streaming down her face, she allowed the crewman to take her hand and assist her into the lifeboat. He watched as the boat was swung away from the larger ship and lowered. The first group was away.

C
AEL HELD
J
ENNER’S HAND
as they burst out of the stairwell and onto the Lido deck. Behind them people pushed and shoved, screamed and cried. He separated from the group, protecting Jenner as much as he could with his body, steering her away from the crush.

The blasts had done serious damage, but the ship was extremely well built. The
Silver Mist
wasn’t going to sink, at least, not for some time. Though damned if she wasn’t listing a bit.

“You’re getting on a lifeboat,” he directed.

“Not without you,” Jenner responded, her voice steady.

He looked into her eyes. She was stubborn, determined, immovable. Damn it, he didn’t have time for this. “For me,” he said, playing the only card he figured he had where she was concerned. Apparently it wasn’t enough.

She gave him a scornful look. “Not on your life.”

Poor choice of words. “I can’t leave until I know my people are accounted for, and I’d like to make sure Frank Larkin doesn’t blow anyone else up. And damn it Jenner, I’d really like to know you’re safely away from here when I do what has to be done.”

On all sides, there was mayhem, and he didn’t know what had happened to his team. Behind him, someone screamed “He’s been shot!” and a chill walked up his spine. Jenner still kept it together, though. She realized the seriousness of the situation, but she wasn’t falling apart.

“I know you better than you realize,” she said in an even voice. “You’re a damn hero. If I’m right behind you, if you know without a doubt that I’m not getting on a lifeboat until you do, then you’ll take better care of yourself.”

The hell of it was, she wasn’t wrong.

A
FTER TAKING A FEW MINUTES TO WALK AMONG THE
panicked passengers and enjoy the upheaval he’d created, Larkin slipped into the side entrance of a restaurant, The Club, which was barely lit by the auxiliary lights mounted on the walls. He walked past the empty tables, which still showed the evidence of the passengers who’d been sitting there until a short time ago, toward the kitchen. Hidden deep in a storage closet in the kitchen, one of the incendiary bombs sat armed to go off in, he glanced at his watch, twenty-three minutes.

The sounds of passengers screaming pierced the walls. Unfortunately they were primarily screams of fright, not pain.

Not yet.

He walked into the deserted kitchen, past the food prep area. Passengers had been eating, or waiting for their food, when the alarm had sounded. The kitchen had been abandoned as the crew made their escape. The grill had been turned off, but no one had bothered to put away the food, and there had been no one remaining in the dining room to consume the finished meals.

There was some indignity in dying in a closet, but in the end it wouldn’t matter. Besides, it was quiet here. There was no traffic in and out. He could die in peace.

The headache that had faded for a while was back with a vengeance, like nails shooting through his skull. Thank goodness the sirens had been silenced.

He knew the procedures for such emergencies. And since events had not gone as planned, the captain had no doubt contacted the Coast Guard via the Amver system. How soon would rescue arrive? Likely not within twenty-three minutes. He glanced at his watch again. Twenty-two, now. The Pacific was a big ocean, with miles and miles and miles to be covered before anyone would reach the distressed
Silver Mist
.

So, a few more people would escape than he’d planned. At this rate not everyone would make it off by lifeboat, though. The idiots were panicking, costing themselves precious time. He wondered how things had gone below. Had Isaac been near the blast? Was he dead? Injured? Ignorant that his employer was responsible? He could only imagine the surprise of the security guards who’d been counting all this time on a robbery that had never been a part of the master plan.

For years, Larkin had been a success in every venture he began. He’d made deals happen, he’d influenced politics and finance, he’d secretly brokered arms deals that had affected the entire world. What was wrong with the fucking world that he couldn’t pull off his suicide in the way he’d planned?

He glanced at his watch again. Twenty-one minutes.

J
ENNER STAYED CLOSE
to Cael, but she made a point not to get in his way. She didn’t say a word when Ryan found them, and informed Cael that Faith was already off the ship, having gone on one of the first lifeboats to launch. And he didn’t take the time to needle her because Faith had cooperated and she had not.

Maybe later.

Captain Lamberti found the two men in the crowd. His distinguished face was set with purpose. “The Coast Guard has been informed,” he said. “Every ship in the area, if possible, will come to our rescue.” There was no telling what kind of ships were nearby:
fishing boats, freighters, other cruise ships. The problem was, they were currently hell and gone from any other ship. It was going to take precious time for rescue to arrive. Lamberti didn’t linger. Maybe it was true that the bombs hadn’t sunk the ship, as had been intended, but people had been killed—and he didn’t yet know how bad the toll was. No one did.

It was after the captain had moved on that Cael and Ryan put their heads together. “We need to find Sanchez,” Cael said.

“If he was below when the bombs went off—” Ryan said, then stopped and shrugged. They had no way of knowing where he’d been. Security personnel could have been anywhere on the ship at the time of the explosion, so his fate wasn’t a given. Larkin was still unaccounted for, and so was Tiffany, who’d been tailing him. Matt and Bridget had both been below when the bombs had been detonated, and with the cell tower out there was no way to check on them.

Cael turned once to look at her, and she saw the hint of a plea in his eyes.

“I’m not leaving until you do,” she said, gentle but firm.

A couple she knew ran past, dressed in evening wear and PFDs. Though they passed by so near they almost ran her down, neither of them looked at Jenner closely enough to recognize her. Their attention was on the lifeboats.

“Sanchez!” Ryan suddenly shouted, and Cael’s head snapped around. He immediately spotted the Hispanic man, who was a head taller than those around him, trying to make his way to them. He was hard to miss. With his wide shoulders he could’ve easily forced his way through the crowd, but he gently moved panicked passengers aside, and directed several to the boats.

When Sanchez finally reached Cael, he reached beneath his jacket and pulled out a pistol. He handed it to Cael, keeping the movement furtive. The passengers would panic again if they saw weapons being passed around. “You guys are easy to spot in the crowd,” he said with a strange sort of sigh, and Jenner realized it was the truth. They were the only ones not running for the lifeboats.

“Tucker’s dead,” Sanchez said in a voice lowered so only they could hear. Not that anyone around them cared what was being discussed. They were only interested in getting off the ship as fast as possible. “He was killed in the blast; that’s his weapon. I was on my way down before the explosion but got delayed. I wasn’t near the blast, as Tucker was.”

“The others?” Cael prompted.

“Asker and Zadian are on the loose, as far as I can tell.”

“That’s it?” Ryan asked. “Is anyone else besides Larkin and those two involved?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

Cael nodded to Sanchez. “Thanks for your help. You can head to the lifeboat station …”

“No thank you, sir,” the security guard responded. “I’d like to see this through, if I can.”

Cael nodded, and then a furious voice made them all turn their heads. “There you are.” Tiffany had a gun in one hand, but it was down at her side and in the crush no one seemed to notice—or care. Her exotic eyes were snapping with rage. “Larkin’s on this deck somewhere, at least he was last time I saw him, and according to Mills there are more bombs and more people in on this shit.”

“We know about the people,” Cael responded. “But we don’t have any information about more explosives. Where’s Mills?”

“Mills is dead, so he’s not going to be any more help.” Tiffany looked down at Jenner. “Why aren’t you on a lifeboat?”

Jenner didn’t hesitate. “You first.”

She took a moment to study the people gathered together, a sea of control in the midst of the chaos. Cael, Ryan, Tiffany, Sanchez, and her. They were, in effect, a small army. It annoyed the hell out of Jenner to recognize the fact that she was not a part of this army, but she’d always been pragmatic. She wanted to be one of them, an asset in a crisis, and if they got out of this in one piece maybe she would be. But now …

“We can assume Faith’s original estimation on time was correct, which means we have less than twenty minutes,” Cael said. “We can probably count on fifteen. We’re going to split up. Much as
I’d like to get my hands on Larkin, the bombs are our first priority. He’ll know where they are, and so might Asker and Zadian. Do we all know what they look like?”