Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy (6 page)

“Yes, I have a table. The gentleman is not here yet, would you like to wait for him at the bar or at your table?”

“I’ll wait at the bar,” Laura replies, already making her way to the bar.

There are no other people at the bar, as the dining room is not full and no one has to wait. Laura takes a chair close to the back, at the end of the bar. As soon as Laura sits down, a nice looking French bartender comes over, and Laura orders a glass of water.

“You look stunning.” Laura jumps from shock when she hears the voice behind her. She was busy trying to remove imaginary wrinkles from her dress. It is a tight fitting, low cut, backless red dress, which shows her cleavage and is so short that it barely covers her bum. Two spaghetti straps hold up the top by crossing over at the back. Laura has matching red high heel shoes and a small black purse. She is not used to wearing outfits like this, but it is a gift from her best friend, and she wants to impress Victor.

He had seen her arrive, having entered 20 minutes before her by using a side door leading from the pool area. Victor did not approach her immediately when she entered the room, nor did he wait at the door for her, as he wanted to see if she would communicate to someone else with a hidden microphone when she entered and found him not waiting at the door.

He still does not know if Laura is acting innocent or has in fact no idea what the men are after.

He helps her from the high bar stool and then links arms with her. Leading the way, they walk back to one of the reception desks at the main doorway.

“Good evening sir, madam, welcome to the Blue Diamond dining room, do you have a reservation?” The man asks politely. Laura looks for the waiter who had helped her earlier and sees that he is busy seating another customer.

“Yes, a table for two under Victor.”

The man scans a list with his finger and stops as he reaches Victor’s reservation.

“Oh, yes, please follow me.” The waiter takes two menus from his desk and walks to a table with a reserved notice on. Places for two people are already set. He politely pulls out Laura’s chair for her and allows her to sit, then does the same for Victor. After placing a menu in front of each of them, he takes a napkin off the table and places it on their laps, then bows as he says, “Your waiter will be with you shortly.”

Laura admires Victor’s outfit. He is wearing a light blue satin shirt and black pants, which she is sure cost more than her whole wardrobe. She wonders what timepiece he is wearing, as she cannot see any. It must be expensive. Her friend told her to always look at a man’s timepiece; you can tell a lot about a man from his timepiece, her friend had said. Maybe the timepiece is beneath his shirt’s sleeve. Laura reaches over to touch his left wrist while saying, “Oh, is that real silk?”

She is shocked when she realizes he is wearing no timepiece. Oh no, her friend never said anything about men not wearing a timepiece. Well, a man with expensive clothes like his and no timepiece must set his own rules and time. That is so cool, and sexy.

“I have a present for you,” says Victor, placing a small paper box on the table as he speaks. The box is wrapped with only a pink ribbon that is secured with a pink butterfly on top.

Laura is taken aback a little by the gift, but does not want to be impolite.

“Thank you, why a gift?” she says as she takes the gift and starts taking off the ribbon.

“For all you have been through,” Victor replies smilingly. Laura gasps when she opens the lid. Inside the box is a silver breast pin in the shape of a butterfly, the size of a quarter.

It is a stunning piece, and Laura immediately asks Victor to put it on for her, forgetting she has a low cut dress on. Victor stands up and walks around the table. Laura turns in her chair as he comes to stand next to her, while holding out the breast pin for him. Victor on purpose does not take it with the tips of his fingers, but lets his fingers slide over Laura’s hand and takes the pin with his thumb, pressing it against the palm of his hand. As he pulls his hand back he gently brushes the tips of his fingers over Laura’s hand.

It feels as if an electric current is running through Laura’s body, making her blush. Some of Laura’s hair is hanging over her shoulder and in the way; Victor brushes her hair away with his hand, gently touching her neck as he does so.

His touch causes Laura’s body to react even more and her nipples harden. Laura blushes even more, but Victor acts as if it was all by accident and if he is not even aware of her body’s response. With care, he pushes the pin through the top of her dress and curls just the tip over so that he can push the clip on at the back of the pin. Victor acts as if he is struggling to get the clip on and moves his arm up and down twice, each time gently rubbing her right breast and erect nipple. Laura does not know what to do, her body now on fire. She is not used to this kind of flirting.

“There you go,” Victor says while turning around and walking back to his chair as if he has not noticed anything.

“Evening sir, madam, I am Sam. I will be your waiter for the evening, would you care for some w…”

“Yes,” Laura says, cutting Sam off and grabbing the water pitcher from him, pouring a glass for herself. Laura gulps it down, just to pour herself another glass and gulp it down as well. Sam just stares in amazement, while Victor gives a sly smile.

“Evening Sam.” Victor breaks the silence and takes Sam’s attention off Laura, giving her a chance to relax.

“Would you care for the special of the day?” Sam is now focusing his attention on Victor. The special of the day and the chef’s choice of the day are listed at the top of the menu, neither of which interest Victor as they contain crab and lobster respectively.

“No thanks, anything to drink Laura?” Laura never really went out or bothered to drink alcohol, but her housemate loves red wine, so Laura decides that she will try some.

“Red wine please,” she responds, and then continues to study the menu. Sam dutifully waits for the brand and year she desires.

“Dry, house choice, by the glass will be fine, and apple juice for me,” Victor says without looking up, now also scanning the menu.

“Yes sir, any starters?” Sam is professional, but Victor just wants to get rid of him as he is killing the atmosphere.

“Laura?” Victor asks, and when Laura shakes her head he continues, ordering the main meal before Sam even asks if they are ready. “I will take the roasted duck salad.”

“A good choice sir, and you madam?” Laura has no idea what to order. Everything on the menu sounds so delicious, but she is not too hungry.

“Tuna salad with no dressing please.” Sam nods his head and after making sure that they are okay and do not need anything else, he turns to place their order at a computer near the bar.

“I take it this is your first cruise?” Victor opens up the conversation.

“Yes, actually my first real holiday as well, never been out of the country before.” Laura relaxes a bit.

“Your drinks.” Sam neatly places a glass of wine in front of Laura and a glass of apple juice in front of Victor, then takes the water jug and refills Laura’s glass. After turning over Victor’s water glass, he fills it up.

Nodding to them, he goes to help another table. Victor scans the room, but cannot see anything out of the ordinary, yet he cannot shake the feeling that they are being watched. He continues the conversation by asking about Laura’s family and her upbringing, likes and dislikes. Slowly he starts to learn about her. Every now and again, he reaches over and touches her hand. At first by accident, but then later as she relaxes, on purpose. Sam brings their dinner not long after, which they thoroughly enjoy. They order chocolate ice cream for dessert when they finish their main meal.

Laura and Victor enjoy each other’s company so much they do not even realize it is 10pm when they are finally ready to leave. An employee had brought Victor’s new room access card to him during dinner, after Josh had the room sealed and his belongings transferred to another room.

“Can you dance?” Victor asks while looking directly into Laura’s eyes. The question takes Laura off guard, she is playing with the breast pin Victor has given her as a gift and it takes her a moment before she can answer.

“Not really, never had the time to learn.”

“Then I will have to teach you,” Victor replies while smiling, and starts to get up. Before Laura can react Victor is next to her and holds her chair, ready to pull it out for her when she stands up. Laura’s heart starts to pound against her chest from excitement, both from being with Victor and from the thought of learning to dance.

“Did you enjoy the meal?” The voice startles Laura and she swings around to see who it is. Behind Victor is Sam, standing with his hands behind his back.

“Yes, thank you,” Victor replies. Sam nods and then bows slightly before continuing.

“My apologies sir, due to a technical problem we are not able to currently scan your new room card as it is not in your name yet, can you please sign for the bill on your old room and we will add it to your room as soon as the system is updated again?”

Looking down, Victor notices that Sam is holding a brown leather holder with a blue diamond etched on the front. Victor nods and takes the holder from the waiter. As he opens the holder, he notices that Sam has forgotten to provide a pen for him. He is about to ask for a pen when a customer from another table calls Sam away.

“Please excuse me sir, just leave the bill on the table,” Sam quickly says as he moves to help the other customer.

“Must be a busy night for him, he forgot a pen,” Victor comments to Laura.

“Oh, I have a pen, hold on,” Laura replies while starting to search in her bag. Victor wonders if it is safe for her to just stick her hand in her bag and search around, from what he had seen of what women keep in their bags, she could pull her hand out with anything from a nail file to a fork stuck in it.

“Here you go,” Laura says excitedly as she hands a brilliant blue stubby pen to Victor.

“Impressive, where did you get such a beautiful pen Laura?” Victor starts to sign the bill when Laura replies.

“Oh, Nick mailed it to me with a necklace that had a large cross on, and some CDs to listen to while on the trip. I mailed the necklace back to him, but kept the rest.”

Laura did not know that the necklace she mailed back was actually a signal for Nick’s contact on the ship who is buying the disc from Nick. He planned to inform the man where the disc is and who has it once he had confirmed that his money for the disc had been wired to an offshore bank account in Switzerland. The package containing the necklace she mailed back was also the one that the Russians had picked up on, and thought may contain the disc.

Unfortunately for Nick, they managed to follow the package up to the point where it was delivered to the original sender’s address. After five days of interrogation, Nick died, missing multiple toes, fingers, both ears, and was shot in both kneecaps and elbows, never divulging the location of the disc.

Victor freezes when he hears her reply, for a second he does not move, and then he slowly finishes signing the bill, his mind racing.

“That’s very nice of Nick, did you listen to the CDs Laura?” Victor does not look up, but acts as if he is inspecting the bill.

“Yes, actually at home, I could not wait until I was on the ship, very nice relaxing instrumental music.”

Why would Nick give Laura a pen if the files were on a CD? Suddenly it comes to him why. Just then Sam passes close by Victor with some wine glasses on a tray. Without anyone noticing, Victor trips Sam, who comes crashing down on a table full of guests eating. The table topples over as Sam falls on it, causing food and cutlery to scatter in all directions. Everyone in the room turns their attention to the fallen waiter, now apologizing as best he can and trying to clean up the mess.

Victor uses the distraction to quickly unscrew the rear cap of the pen - nothing. No memory card falls out. He is just about to replace the cap when something tells him to look inside the cap. Laura has gone over to help Sam, while other waiters are bringing napkins to help clean up the mess. Victor smiles as he looks down the cap and sees a small Micro SD card stuck in the cap. He tries to remove the card by hitting the cap against the palm of his left hand, but to no avail. Looking around he notices toothpicks on his table and quickly uses one to move the card around in the cap until it slides out into his hand.

The card is exactly the same Micro SD card that his cell phone uses. After making sure that Laura is still occupied, Victor quickly inserts the card into his phone. The card is a 16 GB sized card that is almost full. Victor’s phone has an internal 32 GB memory capacity, and he initiates a file copy.

He thinks of keeping the card, but then decides that it will be best to return it, for if it is not the right card and Laura is involved, she could notice that the card is missing, compromising his chances of finding the real card. Looking at the phone Victor notices that the file copy process is 56% done.

“What are you doing with your phone?” Laura’s voice right next to Victor makes him jump, he never noticed that she is no longer helping to clean up the mess he had made.

“Oh, I got an urgent call from work and they are sending me some documents to look at. It is for a very important contract; I am just busy downloading it now,” Victor replies while taking a glance at the phone, 82%. Laura immediately gets cross with Victor.

“How can you think of work while leaving me alone to help poor Sam?” Laura snaps at him, anger on her face, and then suddenly she turns around while saying, “I think I will return to my room now.”

Victor looks at his phone, file transfer complete. Just then Laura turns around and walks back while holding out her hand.

“My pen.”

“Oh, yes…I think I put it on the table,” Victor replies while pointing to their table with his right hand, pulling the memory card out of his phone with his left thumb. As Laura turns to look at the table, Victor quickly inserts the card back into the pen cap and re-assembles it.

“My apologies, I put it in my pocket Laura.” Victor holds out the pen to Laura who angrily grabs it from his hand, just to spin around again and walk away, leaving Victor standing speechless. Neither Victor nor Laura notices the man sitting two tables away, who has watched the whole scene intently. As Laura walks away, he slowly gets up from his table and starts to follow her.