Ben sighed. “I’m sorry you heard the news so bluntly. Last night when I left him, I overheard Noah asking Lars for happy pills. Just now, Lars told me Noah died of an overdose. The man may have been depressed about his actions and how they derailed his life. I know he had a sharp temper and gave as good as he got when it came to bitter words. What he chose to do last night might have been his attempt to escape the consequences of his actions. Know this, Noah owned his actions, all of them and no one else.”
“What… what happened to him,” Yvonne asked quietly.
Ben glanced at Zama, then looked at Yvonne. “He was dead, so Kaan gave him a sea burial.”
Yvonne sucked in a sharp breath but quickly got control. Ben eased the woman back to a seated position, then stood and walked into the bathroom to use her toilet brush to smash the tile containing the hidden camera. He tugged it from the wall, then walked out into the bedroom to do the same to the camera there. He put the brush back, then rejoined the shocked women.
Yvonne was staring at Ben in surprise. “What did you do?” she asked.
Ben tossed the cameras onto the bed. “I just removed the hidden cameras. Zama was the one who brought them to my attention.” Yvonne looked like she was about to explode into outrage, but Ben took her face between his palms and looked into her eyes. “Sorry, I need you to focus! I don’t know how much time we’ll have, and I need to speak to you two in private. I believe the reason we aren’t moving is that there may be a navy ship somewhere nearby, searching for me. I need to contact them, but getting to the bridge isn’t going to happen, and I don’t know how to use the radio anyway. I have an idea on how to draw attention to us, but I need access to some items in the kitchen.”
“Guests cannot get in there, but companions are allowed to visit the kitchen to help with cleaning,” Zama said. Ben and Yvonne looked at her.
“Can I borrow your notebook and pencil again?” Ben said, and the woman rushed away.
“Why would a US Navy ship be searching for you?” Yvonne asked.
“I do work for them, and they currently don’t know where I am. I have faith in my friends. They’ll be looking,” Ben said, careful not to divulge too much and put Yvonne at risk.
“Can I get angry about the hidden cameras now?” she asked, her outrage rising again.
Ben looked at her for a moment, then shook his head grimly. “I’d advise you contain it until after… I do what I’m about to do.” The more he thought about what he was attempting to do, the more it felt like a long shot. He began to doubt it would work. However, if he was right about the General pulling in navy resources to search for him, he knew their best chance at being close by would be now, at the beginning of their search based on his last known position. He felt he had to commit.
“I get the feeling I’m being kept in the dark about something important,” Yvonne said with frustration in her voice.
“Not my intention, and if I can safely do so, I’ll fill you in shortly.”
They looked up as Zama rushed back into the room. She wasn’t alone. Ben looked into the nervous eyes of Phan Thi Nguyêt, who was carrying fresh bed sheets.
“Sorry, I stopped to remove my cameras, too,” Zama explained. Yvonne scowled but held her tongue.
Zama continued. “I met Nguyêt in the hall, so I brought her along.” Zama pronounced her name as Moo-yah.
Ben looked at the petite beauty, and she tried a smile. Her lips were very pretty and a little distracting when she did that. “Mooyah?” He was certain he was doing her a disservice with his pronunciation.
“Please call me Moon,” she said quietly, confirming his doubts. He nodded, then accepted the notebook from Zama. He quickly began writing out a list of items he needed. He glanced at Moon as he worked. “Do you have access to the kitchen?”
She shook her head. “I’m too new. Some of the others do.”
Ben stopped writing. “Will you be able to get them to help you collect some items from the kitchen?”
She nodded. “Megan and Peter will help you.”
Ben relaxed a little and finished off the list.
“I’m going to sit in the solarium. If you can get these items, and I mean all of them, bring them to the area where the plastic chairs are stored. Otherwise, don’t take any chances. Understood?” he said to Moon as he handed her the list.
She quickly read the list and looked at him in confusion.
Ben gave her a concerned look. “Is there anything on the list that’s impossible to get?”
“No, Peter can probably get some of this from storage below deck, but what will you do with it?”
Ben took a breath to relax and shook his head. “Safer if you don’t know. Once you put the items by the chairs, get everyone to the lounge. No one should be below deck or on the deck level.”
Moon held his eyes for a moment, then nodded and rushed away.
“Come on, let’s go down to solarium. You two will need to head to the lounge when the companions do,” Ben insisted. “If you see Lars, Lola, or Mara, take them with you. Insist they come.”
Watching him with concern, Yvonne and Zama followed Ben out of the room and down to the glass dome beyond the dining room.
As they settled down on the lounge chairs, three companions arrived to offer to put lotion on their bodies. Zama and Yvonne nodded, but Ben shook his head and asked for an umbrella instead. He needed to stay dry but couldn’t explain to them why.
As they rushed off to collect an umbrella, he looked up and saw there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Maximum visibility. Good.
“Not partaking in suntanning, Ben?”
Ben turned his head and saw Kaan standing behind him. He had two of his security team standing a short distance back. He shook his head to his host and turned his face away as he didn’t want the man guessing his true intent. “Not today. Sun’s too hot.”
The man snorted. “Who’d have thought you’d be worried about a little… overexposure.” He chuckled to himself at his clever double entendre as he walked away. His security men left with him.
The umbrella arrived, and Ben had it positioned to his left as it blocked him from sight from the bridge.
As he thanked the two men who carried the umbrella over, he spotted Moon walking out onto the deck with a laundry bag over her shoulder. Megan had one too.
They walked out of the solarium onto the pool deck and left the bags, and Moon pulled the storage door open to draw the stack of plastic chairs out again.
Ben caught her eye and nodded.
A young male stepped out of the door at the back of the deck which led to the lower level. He also had a laundry bag and dropped it by the others.
Moon tugged Megan’s and Peter’s hands, and they followed her inside, over to the stairs, and up to the lounge. The other companions followed as Megan gestured for them to come as well.
“Time for you two to head upstairs,” Ben said, and Yvonne stood but looked back at Zama, who seemed hesitant to go.
“Please!” Ben insisted.
Yvonne took Zama’s hand and pulled her away.
Ben immediately went to work. He left the warm solarium to step into the colder air by the pool. Out on the Atlantic off the coast of northern Africa wasn’t as warm as he’d imagined it would be. He picked up the three bags. He carried them to the barbeque and emptied the bags Moon and Megan had collected from the kitchen. He quickly scanned the items and nodded as everything he’d written down was there. Peter’s bag must contain the items he asked for that would give off a lot of smoke when burned. Soft plastics, polyester, and rubber were what he asked for. As he looked into the third bag, he failed to stop a burst of surprised laughter.
“What’s so fucking funny?” Ben glanced up to see one of Kaan’s security goons approaching with an angry look. It was the asshole who slapped Megan’s ass.
“Eat a bag of dicks,” Ben growled, and the man snarled as he reached for his shock stick.
Ben swung the laundry bag, catching the thug on the side of his head. The heavy impact took the man right off his feet, and he hit the deck hard and stopped moving.
He felt a little stupid for the corny one-liner, but it’d popped into his head and passed his lips before he could stop himself. The bag with roughly thirty silicone dildos in it proved a useful weapon, but it wasn’t what Ben needed to create smudgy smoke. He’d have to explain the difference between silicone and rubber to Peter later. He dropped the bag on the unconscious-no, dead guard. He must have hit him too hard.
Ben had to move quicker as someone was bound to come looking for the man.
He put the tins of cooking oil onto the barbeque grill. In the center of the grill, Ben placed the large glass bottle of grease from the kitchen grease trap. There was quite a lot in the bottle, so it should make for a delightful explosion and fireball. He started all the burners on the grill, maximum heat, and closed the lid over the cans and the bottle.
He casually walked back to the stacks of plastic chairs and carried them back to the barbecue. He split the flour bags Moon collected and balanced them atop the chairs.
He’d been away too long, so he walked back inside and climbed the stairs to take him to the lounge. He saw Kaan standing and facing the rest of the guests and all the companions with a scowl on his face. He turned to glare suspiciously at him.
Ben ignored the man as he looked at the full complement of companions for the first time. The kitchen staff were also sitting amongst the companions. Some of the gathered looked a little worse for wear, but all of them were staring back at him with looks of hope on their faces. He felt that like a weight on his shoulders, and dread filled him as his recent activities on the pool deck might just have put them all at risk. He suddenly felt like an incredible fool for taking such a chance.