Chapter One
Out the window in the distance the shorelines was just on the edge of the horizon, the sun sunk lower and lower over the water. The sky was darkening and things on the ship were just starting to come to life on board. Erin was still cooped up in her room, sitting across the bed starting out the sliding glass doors.
On the bunk right beneath her Melanie stared out the window, sitting Indian-style and smiling as the orange light peaked over the balcony. Erin fell back into the bed with a novel resting on her chest. “I’ve never been on a ship before,” Melanie smiled. Erin opened the book and started to read. “I mean, when I was younger my dad used to take me to the duck pond and I would ride the paddle boats,” there was a nostalgic tone in Melanie’s voice, “But I wouldn’t call that a real boat.”
Erin closed the book, “Don’t you think that this whole situation here is…well…romantic.”
“Agent Pelham!” Melanie’s tone was all too excited, “Are you hitting on me?”
Erin smiled, “Melanie,” she just giggled shortly, “I mean doesn’t being here make you want to just go out and meet some handsome guy…”
Melanie let out a short laugh, “Agent Pelham, guys never look twice at me…I guess its because I come off so innocent.” Erin sat her book down and climbed down off the top bunk. “That’s why first thing when I heard we were coming on this cruise I ran out and bought this,” Melanie moved across the room quickly and pulled something from the closet.
It was a slinky red dress with tapered hips and a slit up the side, it had been draped over the hanger because it only had very thin halter top straps. In the middle of the chest there was a diamond to show off cleavage.
Erin smiled and dropped into one of the chairs across the room, “That’s a real beautiful dress.”
“Thank you, I’m saving it for the formal dinner…”
Erin shut the blinds, “I was wondering what you thought of coming here with us,” asked Erin.
Melanie hung her dress back up, “I was just happy that y’all invited me,” said Melanie, “makes me feel like part of the group.”
“You are part of the team,” Erin slapped the couch with her hand, it forced her point across. “Even before you officially became an agent, you worked with the Bureau.”
“Yeah that’ helped me get to know people a lot easier,” Melanie agreed.
Erin’s smile grew and her brown eyes seemed to shimmer, “And I can tell you right now that Agent Caynon will watch over you and take care of you, its just how he is.”
“Yeah, he’s been really cool.”
There was a long pause, the sun had finally dropped past the horizon, the last light vanished from the edge of the sky. “Do you know what time dinner is?” Erin stood to walk into the bathroom.
“I think it’s pretty soon,” said Melanie.
“Well we better get the hell out of here, I heard they have good food on these ships,” Erin said.
“Mm, I can’t wait!” Melanie was slipping her shoes on, Erin was already headed for the door. She opened it and they both headed out.
PJ whipped the drink away from his nose as suddenly as he could, “This smoothie smells like shit!” he sat the glass back on the bar and reclined back in the lounge chair.
Justin looked at him, lifted the smooth and smelled, “Oh God,” he slammed it down on the table, “we should throw that overboard.”
“Like shit, huh?”
“You see PJ, that’s the thing, did you ever notice how some of the most disgusting smelling things get compared to shit?”
“That’s because shit is, by definition disgusting…” PJ affirmed.
Justin folded his arms, “But many times, as with this smoothie here, the actually thing smells worse than shit in fact.”
“Yeah I can see that,” PJ leaned out to sniff it again, “In this case.”
Justin shook his head, “I mean most of the time, the thing doesn’t really smell as bad as shit, or it’s worse.”
“Well nothing quiet has that spring morning fresh aroma like shit…”
“Close, but uh…” Justin trailed off.
PJ sighed, “Well here’s the other thing, are we talking about like people shit, or diarrhea, or dogs or what?”
“I just mean shit in general,” Justin moved his hand with a matter of fact gesture.
“I really don’t know where you from man, but when I shit, it smells like…well shit.”
“Maturity at its best.”
“You men should be proud, really sexy.”
Two bikini clad women were standing just feet away. PJ sat up to defend himself, “Oh come on now, you walked in right in the middle of the whole thing.”
“Yeah, my friend, Prentiss and I were just discussing common American idioms,” Justin chimed in.
The taller of the two women made the most sensual face she could, “Oo, trying to lie?” she let out a cute little tone, “Now you just look like common American idiots.” Both of the women walked off.
As they left PJ held up the smoothie, “Would you like to try some smoothie?” his tone lowered, “Eh, they’re gone.” He sniffed the smoothie again, crinkled his face and slammed the glass down.
A man with red spiked hair walked over with a martini in his hand, her was dressed in a leather jacket and had a slight stumble in his walk as he laughed, “Good job gentlemen,” his Australian accent was thick.
“Speaking of shit,” Justin glanced over at PJ, “It’s Stroud.”
Stroud sipped his martini, “Jesus Christ, I’m annoyed already.”
PJ sighed, “Agent Patterson, what besides a fierce wind out of Hell brings you to us?”
“I came up here to scope on girls,” Stroud pointed down the deck to where some young women were sitting, “I mean have you checked out some of the eye candy on this piece of boat?”
Justin nodded, “Yeah if beauty had a weight this ship would be sunk…”
“Too bad there’s a little beauty below decks already waiting for you!” Stroud joked.
“Fuck you, un-cool, we rag on each other, each other’s moms and so on, but no love life issues,” Justin paused, “And I seem to recall someone losing the fiancé just recently!”
Shut up you ass,” Stroud sipped the martini again.
PJ stood up, “For once I will have to agree that if you and Erin hooked up on this little cruise, I wouldn’t be shocked.”
“Just friends,” said Justin, “Never going to happen.”
“Well I’ll be happy just to get some relaxation time,” PJ said, “What are you going to try and do Stroud, nail some poor drunk unsuspecting girl like the ones that just came by here?”
“Me? No those are too old for me,” Stroud started, “I think I’ll find myself a fourteen year old that looks like she’s eighteen and have my way with her…”
“You are a sick, twisted son of a bitch…” Justin said.
Stroud shrugged, “But the thing is at sea, there’s not any real laws.”
Justin stood up, “Alright Cap’n No-Dick, but there is dinner time, and I think its getting pretty close. You ready to go PJ?”
“Yeah I could eat,” he said as he got up too.
“I’d hate to say this, but Stroud, I guess you’re eating with us?” Justin asked.
Stroud sighed, “Yeah, I’ll come.”
The bar closest to the back of the ship seemed not to be the place to be, with the exceptions of Heather, Amy, the bartender and one other person there was no one back there.
A balmy wind swept around the back end of the ship. Heather’s dark brown hair was in her face a little. Amy had pulled hers back into a ponytail. They were done drinking for now and just needed a place to sit, somewhere that they could relax and talk with out interferences.
Heather turned on her seat and looked out at the sea behind them, the water was choppy, waves beat out from the back of the boat, stirred up in its wake. “I can’t believe that you advised against asking the Assistant Director for this,” she looked back to Amy.
“I never thought in a million years they would let all of us take a vacation together,” Amy sipped some of the water that was left over from the melted ice of her drink. A little of the condensation ran down her hand and she had to wipe it on her shirt.
Heather smiled, “Come on, we work harder than most around that place.”
Amy cracked a smile and took another sip, this time she got an ice cube in her mouth, “I’m sure that’s not what AD O’Shea would say.”
Out to the west the sun was sinking just to where it touched the horizon, the waves lit up orange and danced beneath the sun. Heather had to turn to watch all of this.
“We should be able to leave the work at work and just have fun while we’re here,” Heather said.
Amy leaned down on her hand, “Well as much work as you do off the clock, I never thought I would hear you of all people say that!”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Heather leaned back slightly, “Even I need a rest once in a while.”
“Good to hear, I was starting to think we had a robot on our team,” Amy turned and glanced back down the bar.
Heather sighed, there was still some ice left over from her drink, she sipped a piece of it, “I think it was good we invited Melanie.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I mean I don’t want her to feel left, she just joined and all,” Heather said.
Amy’s eyes were half closed, “Dinner,” she muttered.
Heather’s eyes went wide, then fell back to their normal place, “What?”
“I think we should start heading to the dinner…room…”
“You mean the dining hall,” Heather corrected.
“See what I mean, I’m starting to forget how to talk!” Amy’s tone was one of mock distress.
Standing slowly from her seat Heather wrapped on her shoulder lightly, “Relax, we can head down there now, this place is getting kind of dull.”
“The ocean smells so fresh,” Pellegri hung her body over the side rail of the boat, her short reddish orange hair hung just past her face. She let her mouth open and inhaled. The back of the boat was shaded from the setting sun for the most part. A misty spray rained back onto the deck lightly from the ocean far below.
Claudia had propped herself up on the railing of the boat and was sitting with her back against the wall, her legs stretching down the length of the railing. She turned away as Pellegri spoke, “I really don’t want to hear it.”
“You have to be so negative,” Pellegri turned to face her and leaned back on the rail.
“This world is not a positive place,” Claudia said.
The automatic doors that led into the ship opened and a younger looking girl with dirty blonde hair charged out, a few steps onto the deck she slipped and fell on her side.
“It’s dinner time inside…” she let out as she lay there gathering her thoughts.
“You had no business running out here to tell us that, Sabrina…” Claudia sighed.
“Oh Clau-Clau, I just wanted to let you guys know,” she got to her feet slowly.
Pellegri walked over to look the girl over, “We’ll just take dinner in the room, same as we do on all our trips.”
Claudia nodded, “And I can go a lot longer with no food…”
Pellegri touched the side of Sabrina’s arm, “And we know what happens to you when you get around too many people.”
“Yeah I know,” Sabrina’s head lowered, “But what’s the point in coming out here like this if we can’t at least have a little fun.”
Claudia slipped her shades on, “We are here on business, I don’t have a desire for fun really,” she paused, “had enough of that in my younger days,” the last part was in a low volume.
There was a moment of silence, Sabrina walked over to the opposite side of the deck and looked off across the water. There was a smaller boat not too far off to the side, like a personal yacht. Sabrina pointed to it, “People are having sex over there…”
“Jesus Christ?” Claudia shouted, “Are you a fucking idiot, don’t talk like that out here, take your ass back down to the cabin!”
Sabrina lifted herself from the railing with a pouty face and walked back through the doors.
Pellegri just shook her head and walked across the deck, her arms were folded across her midriff and she had a on a slinky kind of purple dress with a flower patter embroidered slightly on it.
“What’s on your mind?” asked Sabrina.
“Well I was thinking, maybe Bri was right; one of us should go to dinner,” Pellegri said.
Claudia climbed down from her perch, “You’re so troublesome…I know that he intrigues you,” she walked towards Pellegri. “I know that you want to see what everyone is talking of, go.”
“You want me to go?”
“Yes, just go and see if you can find him, he’ll know of you, he’ll smell it on you, as you will on him…” Claudia said.
“I guess I better hurry before they serve everything!” Pellegri said.
The dining room was deep shades of red, maroons and brick dominated here. Everything was outlined in white, in golden fabric and color. The place looked wealthy. When entering you had to come down a staircase, the old fancy t shaped kind that split in the middle.
Every room had been given a table number at random, unless that is of course you had requested to eat with other rooms where you had friends. Pellegri found herself at a table with two vacant chairs and a group of people that she had no knowledge of. She must have looked to them as if she some rich man’s wife, her dress, her hair spiked down, the jewels around her neck, she had even removed her piercing. It was all to keep up appearances.
“I guess if we’re going to sit together we better all get to know each other,” said a black man with braided hair two people down from her.
“Do all of you…” she paused to clear her throat, “…know each other?” She could tell from their demeanor that it was truth.
“Yeah,” one of them said, “my name’s Heather, by the way,” she paused to shake Pellegri’s hand. “Oo, you’re cold.”
A smile spread across Pellegri’s red lips.
Heather piped up again, “This is Prentiss, but we call him PJ, over here we have Stroud, Justin, Melanie, Amy and Erin…” she pointed to all of them and they nodded in turn.
“This a little friendly trip?” asked Pellegri.
“Well yeah, we all work together…Federal Bureau of Investigation,” said Melanie with a huge smile.
Pellegri seemed impressed, “Wow, government job…”
“Yeah,” Amy said.
“I have questions, is it really like on television?” asked Pellegri.
There was a laugh from down the table, “Naw, all the girls look better,” Justin joked.
“I have a question for you,” Stroud started and scooted down to fill the empty seat next to her, “It’s more of a riddle, really…do the carpets match the drapes?”
“Oh fuck now Stroud, scare her off before we even get to know her name!” PJ griped.
Pellegri seemed a little embarrassed, but she didn’t blush, “My name’s Pellegri.”
“That’s such a pretty name,” Erin complimented her, “You wouldn’t happen to know the people who belong to these chairs, would you?” Erin pointed to the empty chairs.
“My two friends Sabrina and Claudia, they decided to check out some of the clubs on board.”
“I knew a beautiful girl like you couldn’t have been alone,” Justin smiled.
Stroud glared at Justin across the table, “May I have a word with you elsewhere, Agent Caynon,” his tone was nearly a sneer.
“You may Agent Patterson…” Justin and Stroud got up and dismissed themselves from the table. The waiter was just coming by.
When they were out of ear shot Stroud smacked Justin in the arm, “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are?!”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Justin asked.
“You can’t just hit on her, she’s all mine, you stick with Erin,” Stroud stuck his finger n Justin’s face.
“Me and Erin…nothing going on…you should go find some under-aged girl to fuck!” Justin kept his arms folded.
“This shit, right here…keep it up Caynon…all of this its like an ass whooping with interest!”
Justin shrugged, “Well maybe if you want, Stroud, I can make a down payment!”
Amy called out to them from the table, “It’s time to make our orders if you two don’t mind?”
The two of them came back to sit down and the orders for drinks were taken, then the food immediately after. Pellegri surveyed the room most of the time that she was sitting there, her eyes never stopped wandering. She just wanted to see if she could spot him, when she did it was as she always imagined it would be.
He sat flanked by women, his hair was long and dark and his eyes an ice blue color. He must have noticed her too. She excused herself from the table and walked over towards him, she had to make sure that this wasn’t just nothing.
When she neared his table she caught a glimpse of a glimmer in his eyes, he stood up from the table and walked out to meet her. She motioned to a small deck out of the view of the general people around there and they both headed that way.
The door was shut behind them, she paced around the deck waiting for him to say something, to be this close to him she was star struck slightly.
“Here now, you’ve come to do this?” he asked. She stopped dead in her tracks, he walked over to her and put his face close to her neck speaking, “You’ve come to handle this here?”
She remained silent.
“Answer me!” he demanded.
“You should know by now, don’t fight this, just come along quietly…” Pellegri finally let out.
“My aren’t we forgetting what it is they will do to me?” he said.
“Voltaire, there’s not going to be anything drastic if you come back when we get back on land…” she offered.
He was close to her neck again, “You don’t know that, my dear.”
“I’ve always admired you, please don’t make this hard on yourself,” she pleaded.
His fingers traced their way up her arm and slipped her dress strap down, “You’ve just gone and done what you told me not to…” he forced her back against the wall as she struggled slightly.
She cried out in pain as he locked onto the little place between her neck and shoulder with his teeth, her head went back and she opened her mouth. Half of her mind was focusing on staying alert while the other half wanted to make sure her dress didn’t fall. Both sides lost out as she flopped over into his grasp and slipped away.
Chapter Two
Erin was the first person that Pellegri saw when she came to, all of the other agents were in the room, “Thanks to Stroud’s stalker like demeanor he saw what happened to through a window in the hall.”
Pellegri’s eyes were bloodshot, she looked sickly. Slowly she sat up, and as fast as she could she pulled Erin’s arm and bit her, Erin yanked back, “What the hell are you doing?”
“Blood…” Pellegri managed.
Stroud sighed, “I’d hate to say this, but it makes sense now,” he reached back, “We found this in your purse.” He produced a sack of red liquid.
She grappled for it and when he finally gave it to her she bit into it and drink furiously, “I needed this…thanks…I hadn’t expected to get attack…” she spoke between gulps.
“What ate you?” asked Amy.
“I think the answer is obvious,” Justin said, “but how?”
“Give me some time to regroup my thoughts, I’ll tell you what I can then…”said Pellegri
