His eyes gleamed with hatred, and he stormedtoward me. In one step he’d be upon me. I wound up the towel andtook a step back, whipping him in the face, momentarily blindinghim. The other guard was now writhing on his back, hands stillclutched around his throat. The guard I whipped struck out with hisfoot, sending the door sailing into me as it tried to close. Istumbled back, still clutching the towel. The door swung backtoward the whipped guard, who kicked it again. It slammed into themirror that I’d propped on the doorjamb as I’d flung the dooropen.
He lunged for me, and I jumped onto the bed,snagging the pillow as I went and sliding the cover off it. Helunged again, and I’d intended to jump off the bed, but thepressure made me sink into the soft bed, slowing me down. His handgot a hold of my ankle, and I fell backwards off the bed, landingwith a thud into the wall opposite us.
My head cracked back, and a moan escaped mylips. Stars scrambled my eyes, and I shook my head to catch mybearings. He was upon me, his thick hands crushing my neck. I letgo of the towel and in one swift motion, grabbed the other end ofthe pillowcase and pushed it up at his neck, then brought my kneeup for a nice groin hit. His hands released their hold, and herolled over in pain, clutching his crotch, fire in his eyes. Igrabbed the lamp beside the bed and whacked him over the head withit. It didn’t stop him; it only seemed to make him more mad.
His legs shot out, clipping mine andthrowing me to the floor. All the air whooshed out of me, and myhands flew above my head, one landing in the pile of mirrorfragments. He was now sitting on the edge of the bed, a gun pointedat my face.
“I give,” I called out, palming a shard ofglass as I brought my hands to my waist. “I give.”
He kicked my leg. “If I didn’t have strictorders not to kill you, you’d have a bullet in your head rightnow.
I sat up, noticing that the guard I’d hitwith the bolt cover no longer struggled. I swallowed hard, tastingbile.
“Get up here,” he said in a flat voice, thegun trained on my chest now.
I stood and he did too, giving me access tothe bed. In effect, we switched positions. I lay back, ready to betied up only to cut myself loose after he left the room. But thenhe sneered at me. “I know what you’ll be doing in Africa, and Ithink after what you’ve done, that it’s only fair that I get apiece of you before you go.”
A shiver that turned into a flame flowedthrough me as he moved toward me, a horrid look of nastyanticipation on his face. I let him get close enough that it wouldonly take one double strike to disable him. One of my arms juttedout to whack his gun hand and the other pushed the shard of glassinto his eye. I had been aiming for his jugular, but missed as headjusted to my initial strike. He called out in pain, dropping thegun. I grabbed the gun and hit him hard in the temple. He fell onthe bed.
I tied his arms using the restraints they’dused on me and pulled the glass from his eye. I used the pillowcaseto tie around his head to stop the bleeding. There was no sense inletting him die, too, even though he was a total scumbag. I hopedhe would be around when the bratva fell. I’d be the first one inline to testify against him.
I tucked the gun into my waistband and useda piece of the mirror to look under the door and see if the way wasclear. We’d been so noisy, no one could have been anywhere near orthey would have heard us. Then I remembered how long I’d had toscream in order to get anyone to come. We must be far away fromanyone.
I walked out into a narrow, completely whitehall. I was in the last room in the hallway. I hurried to theopposite end of the hall and found a door. A locked door. I felt inmy hair for bobby pins, but found none. I looked back to the room.One of those two guards had to have keys. I rolled my eyes andheaded back. In my rush, I’d left a lot of valuable things that,had I been in my right mind, I never would have left behind. Istuffed the other guard’s gun in one boot, then took both sets ofkeys.
I hurried back down the hall to the door andunlocked it, prepared to find more guards just outside, but no onewas there. I must have been in the bottom-most accommodations inthe belly of the ship near the front third of it. The rear wasfilled almost exclusively with containers or cells. Above me weremore accommodations, the galley, and then the bridge. Once I foundMikado and the kids I’d have to deploy a lifeboat. I had no cluehow I’d accomplish it without running into others. And I had noidea how loud such a process might be or how long it would take tolower the boat. Unfortunately, besides the engine room, themajority of people were to be found in the area I’d have totraverse. I prayed that the others were sleeping soundly.
I sifted through all the information I’dever read or learned about container ships. While they weren’t allthe same, they had the same elements. I had a long way to go to getout, and I most likely would not find a clear path. I wondered howlong I’d been on the ship, just how far I was out to sea. Therewere no
