Page 18 of Finding Elodie
He could feel her fingers clutching the loop of his pants at the small of his back, and unexpected goose bumps broke out on his arms as she adjusted her hold, brushing against him in the process.
He couldn’t believe how quickly she was getting under his skin. Had that ever happened to him before? No, he didn’t think so.
Mustang had let Midas take point and he was currently scanning the hallway connected to the galley for movement. He gestured for them to follow when all seemed well.
“The door at the far end, to our left, goes to a set of stairs,” Rachel whispered. “If you go up, you end up on a floor with living quarters, if you go down, there’s a hallway with storage rooms. Toilet paper, that sort of thing, and the laundry facilities. Below that is another floor with bedrooms, it’s where my room is, and then the engine room. At least the top deck of it. It’s huge, and there are actually four levels in there. It’s usually really loud, and hot, but with the electricity being off, I have no idea if it still will be.”
Mustang nodded. He and the others had studied the blueprints of the engine room carefully. That was where they figured most of the pirates would be, hunting for the missing employees.
He was having second—and third—thoughts about Rachel being with them. When they got into that engine room, things were going to get exponentially more dangerous. He’d much rather stash Rachel somewhere safe, but he knew as well as they all did that, technically, nowhere was safe with the pirates running around. He had to assume they knew something was wrong because their friends weren’t responding to their radio calls, so they’d be even more trigger happy as a result.
They quickly cleared the level under the kitchen and headed down one more to the floor where more crew quarters were located. So far, Rachel had done everything he’d asked. She’d been silent, and was doing a good job of moving quietly. She wasn’t quite as light-footed as he and Midas, but for a civilian it was pretty impressive.
“There are five rooms on this floor. My assistant and I stay down here, and the head engineer and two other guys. They like being close to the engine room,” she whispered.
The pirates hadn’t spared this floor from their ransacking. Peering into the first room, Mustang saw clothing strewn around on the floor and the furniture had been upturned.
When they got to the last room in the hallway, Mustang was glad Rachel couldn’t see what he was seeing through his night-vision lenses.
Her room had also been torn apart—but her underwear and bras were on her bed, as if whoever had discovered them had displayed them for his viewing pleasure. Now they knew there was a woman onboard. But what Mustang wasn’t sure about was whether Rachel would be a larger target or not.
“This is my room,” Rachel said softly. “Is it as bad as you said the others were?”
“They searched it too, if that’s what you’re asking,” Mustang said.
“Right.”
Her tone of voice was…off. She sounded upset, which wasn’t unusual. Anytime someone was robbed it felt like a violation. When he turned to look at her, her eyes were wide in her face and she was biting her lip again.
He wanted to ask if there was something inside that she was particularly worried about being stolen, but now wasn’t the time. They needed to keep moving.
Mustang heard Slate telling the team that the first round of reinforcements were roughly thirty minutes out from boarding the ship. He’d explained earlier that help was delayed when several boats full of Djibouti nationalists had been apprehended while heading for the Asaka Express. They claimed they were out fishing, but because of the amount of weapons onboard—and the large ladders with hooks on the ends, found on each boat—the US officials assumed they were the pirates’ compatriots coming to help pilfer goods and valuables from the ship.
They were securing the last of those men now, and there was a veritable US Navy fleet surrounding the cargo ship, so they didn’t have to worry about any more pirates joining the party onboard, but they still had to find and eliminate the rest of the men who were currently hiding in the nooks and crannies of the ship.
“The ship’s getting dangerously close to shallow waters,” Slate informed everyone. “We need to get the electricity back on, stat. We should be getting a pilot up here with the first wave of reinforcements, but we need to get communications with the engine room up and running to get the ship out of danger.”
“Ten-four,” Midas replied quietly. “We’re two minutes away from heading down there. Stand by.”
“Watch your six,” Pid chimed in. “Found one man on the outer decks, he was more worried about what was in the container he’d managed to open than whoever might be sneaking up behind him, but the second he saw me, he fired. It was too late, of course, but these guys are shooting first and asking questions later.”
“Got it,” Mustang said. “Do we have any idea yet how many tangos we’re looking for?”
“No,” Jag said.
“Damn,” Midas muttered.
Rachel could only hear their side of the conversation because she didn’t have an earpiece, but she kept quiet and didn’t ask for more information. Mustang’s respect for her grew.
He turned his head and asked, “Ready, Rachel?”
When she didn’t comment, almost as if she hadn’t heard him, Mustang thought about the background her employer had run on her…and how fishy everything had seemed. It was becoming pretty obvious that Rachel wasn’t her real name. Especially when she hadn’t reacted to it just now.
He reached back and touched her arm. She jolted as if he’d stuck her with a stun gun.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you ready to do this?” he asked. “It’s not too late to head up to the bridge. The outer decks are clear and you should be good to go.”
“I’m ready, and no, I’m staying with you,” she said, softly but firmly.
