“So, if this is a hostage thing,” she asked him quietly, “will they bargain for us?”
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “I mean, the US will do their best because of my position,” he murmured. “But we just took two Russian businessman hostage ourselves,” he said. “We don’t call it that obviously, but we’ve detained them.”
“And we weren’t planning on letting them go free?”
“No. They’re involved in money laundering, as far as we can tell, but they’re very high up in the Kremlin.”
“How is it the Kremlin and businessmen?”
“Two brothers of somebody high up in the Kremlin.”
“Well, so now family is involved, which is really ugly.”
“Everything in Russia is ugly,” he said quietly. “Money can buy damn-near everything, including the position at the top.”
“Nice,” she whispered. “Well, if it’s an exchange issue, then we should be safe, right?”
He gave a one-arm shrug. “They generally keep political prisoners in decent shape,” he said slowly.
He wasn’t telling her something. “But?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I just can’t be sure that anybody even knows we’re missing.”
“Of course they do,” she said. “We had to let everybody know that we were taking holidays and where we were going,” she said, “and now you’ve disappeared off the face of the earth. That’s a big clue right there.”
“Yes,” he said, “but think about that. Don’t you realize they ran the yacht into that cargo ship on purpose?”
“Maybe, but wouldn’t it have caused some damage to the cargo ship itself? Like when one car runs into another and leaves paint behind?”
“No,” he said, “not in this instance. I think they just crushed the yacht, so we would be assumed lost at sea.”
“Well, then they can’t exchange us, can they?” she said in exasperation. “What would the point of that be?”
“Well, you’ve already thought of it yourself,” he said. “I know you have.”
“Well, I considered it, but there was no point in doing that.”
“Except for the fact,” he said quietly, “that they would try and keep us under wraps, until we’re where we belong.”
“Meaning, in Russia?”
“If that’s who’s behind this, yes,” he said, “though I don’t understand then why we’re on this boat.”
“Except to keep us quiet, to keep us out of the public eye,” she said.
“But why not just fly straight into Russia?” her mother asked quietly. “Something else is going on here. I just don’t know what. And I don’t like anything that doesn’t follow normal logic,” she said.
“Wouldn’t the military come after us?” Gizella asked her dad.
“Absolutely, and I’m wondering if that’s why the kidnappers are doing all these evasive tactics, in order to avoid getting caught.”
“Well, of course they’ll do something to evade their own capture,” she said, “but surely the US can find their way through all those little tricks, can’t they?”
“Well, we’ll have to believe that they can,” he said. Then he looked at his daughter with a smile. “Just look at you, Gizella. It’s so good to have you here with us.” Then he stopped, closing his eyes and shaking his head, as if wondering at his words. “Man,” he said, “I’m so sorry I said that.”
“It’s all right, Dad,” she said, recognizing the politician smarminess and the words that fell glibly off his lips but didn’t reflect the inner person. “I know you would rather I was somewhere else just now.”
“I really would,” he said. “This could get rough.”
She wanted to point out that, if that were so, it would contradict what he had just been saying, but there was no point in mentioning that because he didn’t know what would happen any more than the rest of them did. All she could do was hope that somebody was coming for them. “It should be Navy SEALs,” she said suddenly.
“And they will be called,” he said. “But?”
“No buts,” she said, nodding slowly. “I did know one,” she mentioned. “His name was Baylor. I met him at a port one day.” Her mother looked at her askance. Gizella just smiled and laughed. “Nothing happened,” she said. “He was just a really nice guy, and we enjoyed the evening together.”
“Well, maybe it’ll be him,” her mother said.
“Not likely,” her father answered. “There are thousands of Navy SEALs.”
“I only know that much from the guys in the group he was hanging out with. They were all SEALs, and somebody was blabbing about it, even though the others were trying to shut him down.”
“Yeah, they don’t tend to advertise the fact.”
“No, I don’t imagine they do,” she said, remembering the guy with a laugh. “I haven’t thought of him in years. It was in Coronado. Remember when I went down there with Julie, one of my college friends?”
“Of course Julie took you down there,” her mother said in exasperation. “That’s such a Julie place.”
“Julie did like to have a lot of fun,” Gizella admitted. “But she was harmless in her fun, and she never did heavy drugs or got all crazy. She did like her guys though.” But that was hardly a crime in this day and age.
Just then came a shout from up above. Men came scrambling down; two of them with guns stood at each side of the door, guarding them.
She looked at her parents. “Well, this sounds like progress,” she said.
“How do you figure that?” her dad asked.
“Anything that hurts them,” she said, “is bound to be good for us.”
He looked at her, then smiled and said, “You’re right. This could be a good development.”
“Or it could be the end,” her mom said fearfully.
“Not likely,” he said, in a reassuring tone of voice. “Just give it a few minutes.” At that, they all settled back again and waited.
Gizella studied the two gunmen, committing their faces to memory. Then she smiled and said, “Did the Navy SEALs get here?”
One of their guards looked at her in surprise, then shook his head and said, “No, of course not. They don’t care.”
“Don’t care or don’t know?”
“Either way,” he said, “they’re not coming after you.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because
