Chapter 27 Una #2
The champagne Una had just swallowed burned in her throat.
“I was too nervous to eat lunch, so I’m starving. Should we get some food?” Charles asked.
“Sure.” Jill pointed at the buffet. “You go first. It’s your party.”
A blush spread over Charles’s cheeks. Standing tall, he said, “You’re with me, so you don’t have to wait in line.”
Una had never seen such a decadent spread. There were baskets of bread, platters of cheese, and small bowls of caviar. There
was salmon in dill sauce, roast beef, lemon chicken, baked ziti, roasted potatoes, five different kinds of salad, and an assortment
of pickles and olives.
Though most of the guests heaped their plates high, Una wasn’t very hungry. Kristofer would want her to sample the sumptuous
food, but she had very little appetite. She took a small piece of salmon, a few potatoes, and some asparagus. Jill’s plate
contained mostly cheese, bread, and pickles while Charles had gone for roast beef and glazed carrots.
“Let’s eat outside. It’s stuffy in here,” Charles said.
Una and Jill followed him to the back deck, where tables were arranged around the perimeter of the dance floor.
As Jill spread butter on a slice of French bread, she glanced around. “After we eat, we should start watching her.”
“She probably won’t do anything until we leave the dock,” said Charles.
Una put her forkful of salmon down. “We’re going somewhere?”
“Just around the harbor.” Charles looked at Jill. “I heard my mom tell your mom that we’re going to stop just past the channel
markers. That’s when we’ll do the cake and fireworks. It was Mrs. Smith’s idea, you know. To rent a boat. She told my mom
it would be safer to shoot off fireworks over the water. More impressive, too. The party planner almost lost her freaking
mind finding a boat big enough for all these people.”
It was her idea.
Suddenly, the ship’s horn blasted, and a voice boomed out of the wall-mounted speakers.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Captain John and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to Charles’s bar mitzvah celebration.
It’s come to my attention that some Russian spies have learned of the secret cargo we’ve got on board, so we’re going to cast
off in hopes of staying one step ahead of them. As soon as we’re anchors up, the scavenger hunt will begin. Ask any crew member
for a clue sheet and put your spy skills to the test. We expect a smooth cruise around the harbor tonight, but just in case,
there are life jackets on every deck and lifeboats on both the stern and port sides. Now, let’s cast off before the Russians
have a chance to crash this party.”
The deck vibrated under Una’s feet as the engine thundered to life.
We’re going out to sea, she thought in a panic. Into her territory.
Guests flocked to the rails to watch the crew detach the boarding platform and untie lines.
Una’s mind was spinning. Their plan had been desperate at the start. Now, with the dock sliding away, it was bound to fail.
What could she do? Beg the captain to stop?
Find Elaine and tell her that she was playing into Mrs. Smith’s hands?
And even if she could still disembark, she wouldn’t.
She couldn’t leave Jill and Charles and J.J.
alone to face whatever was coming. And something was definitely coming.
Icicles of foreboding formed in Una’s chest.
She saw the fear in Jill’s eyes and whispered, “It will be okay.”
The boat cleared the dock and headed toward the channel. Una stared at the trail of white froth behind it. The path to land.
To safety.
The DJ started playing the James Bond theme song.
“Kids!” he shouted into his mic. “See if you’ve got what it takes to be a secret agent! Get your scavenger hunt sheet from
any crew member and don’t forget to grab a Polaroid camera. Put any pictures you take in this big bowl to my left. Who knows?
One of you might snap a photo of a Russian spy.”
“Come on, Charles.” Jill motioned for him to get up. “If we team up, we can pretend to play while keeping an eye on her.”
The kids rushed toward a crew member, their fear momentarily forgotten. Una saw J.J. waiting in line with a handsome boy with
dark hair and broad shoulders. Seeing Jill, the handsome boy smiled and performed a small bow. Jill lit up like a star, but
didn’t leave Charles’s side.
Una gave the kids a head start before ascending the same staircase. The music still permeated to this deck, but it wasn’t
nearly as loud. Scanning the groups of people, Una saw Benjamin in conversation with a gorgeous woman in a one-shouldered
midnight-blue gown.
The woman’s gaze landed on Una. Her dark eyes narrowed into hostile slits.
Mrs. Smith.
Suddenly, a group of kids swarmed Benjamin. They shouted excitedly, explaining their need to search under the cushion of his bench. Finding a clue taped to the underside of the cushion, they whooped in triumph and raised their Polaroids to capture the moment.
Camera flashes struck Mrs. Smith like bullets, and she snarled. Seeing her distress, Benjamin took her elbow and steered her
to the other side of the boat.
“Ohmygawd, look at her! She’s totally pissed.” A girl in a hot pink dress showed her photo to her friend.
Mimicking Mrs. Smith’s scowl, the other girl said, “Like, chill out, lady. It’s a freaking party.”
The first girl threw the photo to the floor and rushed off after the other kids.
A whorl of air blew the photo in front of Una’s feet. She picked it up and went rigid with terror.
The woman in the photo had become a beast. Her eyes were two black wells illuminated with firefly sparks of hatred. Her lips
were pulled back uncannily far, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. It was the lethal smile of a viper.
Una felt dread coil around her bones. The creature in this photo was not here to dance or make friends. She was here to hurt.
To hunt.
Shoving the photo in her purse, Una decided to take stock of the boat. She needed to locate the exits, the lifeboats, and
the smoke detectors. She needed to find the wheelhouse and lay eyes on the radio in case she had to call for help. Finally,
she needed another weapon. Something bigger than her hunting knife.
There were grappling hooks and boat hooks secured to the rails of every deck. After cutting partway through the ties of a
boat hook with her knife, she ignored the no admittance sign and approached the bridge.
The captain was irritated to see a guest in his command center, but Una smoothed things over by saying that her father, a lifelong fisherman, would’ve wanted her to introduce herself to the man piloting such a fine vessel.
Hearing this, he told her all about the boat.
Una pretended to listen while studying the instrument panel.
Once she’d located the radio, she craned her head around the wheelhouse.
There, hanging on a hook next to the door, was a marine harpoon kit in a plastic carrying case.
The slogan on the bag read all you need to stick a monster.
“Best seat in the house for fireworks,” the captain said.
Una smiled and said, “And they’ll be set off from . . . ?”
The captain pointed at the ceiling. “Bow of the sundeck. We’ll drop anchor just past the channel buoys and then—boom!—we’ll
light up the sky. It’ll be like a second Fourth of July.”
Una thanked the man for his time. Tipping his cap, he said, “You should head back to the main deck. They’re serving the cake
in fifteen minutes. You’ll want a front-row seat when they wheel that baby out.”
Una had seen the cake when she’d cut through the kitchen. It was a three-tiered behemoth, decorated to look like a tuxedo,
and had 0013 piped along the base in gold icing. The figure of the spy on the top tier wore a yarmulke and carried a scroll instead of
a gun.
Fifteen minutes later, just as the captain had predicted, an announcement came over the speakers, asking for the guests to
congregate in the buffet area. Una waited until the other guests headed down before following them to the main deck. Once
there, she scanned the crowd. She found Jill and Charles, but there was no sign of Mrs. Smith.
Una’s heart thudded in her rib cage. All of the children were gathered together, so where was she?
As soon as the lights went out and the cake was wheeled in, Una climbed the stairs back up to deck two.
Other than a few crew members, the deck was deserted.
Una paused next to the port-side lifeboat. The corner of the cover had been untied. Una hadn’t noticed this before, but it seemed an odd sight on a ship run by such an exacting captain.
Walking around to the starboard lifeboat, she found its cover untied, too.
She heard a noise directly above her—a faint clip clip clip.
Cheers burst from the deck below. As Una imagined the guests parting to make way for the giant cake, something flew past her
and struck the water hard.
Una couldn’t see what had fallen off the boat. Leaning over the rail, she caught a flash of white in the dark water, then
nothing.
She’s above me.
Closing her hand around the knife inside her purse, Una whispered, “Be with me, Amma,” as she ascended to the sundeck. When
she reached the top of the stairs, she saw a woman in a midnight-blue dress pouring gasoline from a red plastic container
onto a crate of fireworks.
“Stop!” Una cried. “Stop that!”
Mrs. Smith emptied the can and tossed it over the rail. Then she flicked a lighter. Its small flame danced in the night breeze.
“You’re going to die tonight, Islendingar.” Mrs. Smith’s voice was a low growl. “I have tasted your blue-eyed brothers and sisters before. Now, it is your turn.” Her
mouth stretched into a terrifying grin. “This fire will send you all into my realm. While I feed on the children you love, my children will pick your bones clean.”
Mrs. Smith knelt and touched the lighter flame to a Roman candle fuse. With a whoosh, the fire galloped over the rest of the gas-soaked fireworks.
In that searing flare of light, Una saw that Mrs. Smith’s hands were stained with blood.