The Obscurati (19 page)

Next came the Red Sea, which was full of oil tankers and military ships.

We rarely saw Hamlet and Pierre, and I can’t even guess what they were off doing.

About every other day, Oberon and I would be called away. My sniper rifle was needed even if I was on vacation. The number of calls was way down, but I was still in demand. No kids to murder, so that was nice. Most were in India, the Middle East, or Africa, so they were short pops for us. We never had to stay overnight. The queen or Pierre saw to that, and I was grateful.

After a dozen of these runs, I took a load of gold bars to Zürich. Schmidt was right on target. All I had to do was call out to her using mind-words, and she would be waiting at the bank. She even gave me a couple of large canvas bags with heavy-duty straps. It made it easier to carry several kilograms of gold without any danger of them falling and killing somebody or destroying an old building. She got me to promise not to let the inventory build up so much.

“I’m on vacation,” I said.

“Still….”

O
BERON
and I would spend hours on the deck with the heliport. We could lie down and stare at the stars. It was so different from Germany because we had no city lights to compete against the stars. I had forgotten how many stars were in the night sky. Thomas Edison and his inventions had polluted the night. The world had gone crazy with light bulbs, which had erased most of the stars from view.

One night we were on our backs when a wave made the yacht kick. Oberon and I were thrown into the air. The truth is that I have no idea if humans would have been thrown.

We started out floating a few feet over the deck.

Oberon’s hand moved between my pullover shirt and shorts. He felt my stomach with an open palm as he leaned into my ear. “I love you, Mr. Man,” he whispered. I just smiled as his fingers found a nipple. He wasn’t looking for sex. Oberon was happy just being with me. Friggin’ wow.

“I don’t know how to say this,” I started. “No, never mind….”

“What?” he asked. “You can tell me anything.”

“I know. I just love you so much that I want you to be the only one who makes love to me.”

He thought about that and gave me a hug.

“You need more sex than me,” I said. “I may want to top others, but I don’t want anybody but you inside me.”

He thought about what I had just said, and then he pulled his hand away from my stomach. Great: I had just pissed off my husband. But no, it wasn’t anger. I saw something else. He hugged me. He pulled me tight into both of his arms.

“You’re crying,” I said.

He nodded. “So are you,” he whispered. “So are you.”

W
E
WERE
off the coast of Africa one night when the captain walked into the swimming pool room. Oberon and I were in there, skinny-dipping. The walls and ceiling were tile, so I was sure we were making too much noise. Oberon was feeling frisky, and we were splashing each other more than usual.

“Excuse me, sir,” he said. If he objected to our nudity, he didn’t say anything. If he had come about five minutes earlier, he would have seen us making love.

“Captain?” Oberon said.

“I know this is a vacation, but we have spotted some pirates. Pierre said you might be able to help protect the yacht.”

“How far away?”

“Probably two nautical miles, headed our way.”

“That’s almost four kilometers,” Oberon said.

“Say no more,” I said as I floated out of the water. Oberon and I dried ourselves and headed to our suite. I grabbed the PSG, and Oberon grabbed his bag of ammunition and calculators. We both went all the way up to the bridge, where the captain was waiting. It was only the second or third time I had seen the captain, so this must have been important. He looked worried as he pointed off to the port (left) side of the yacht. He had our ship moving as fast as it could, but the other boat was closing the gap.

It was a serious situation, so it didn’t even dawn on me to ask why he knew we might be able to take out a pirate’s boat at such a distance. Pierre must have told him about the rifle.

“Are you sure they’re pirates?” I asked.

“Positive, and they’re coming to attack us.”

“How can we help?” Oberon said.

“Make them stop before they get to us,” Pierre said as he walked onto the bridge. He looked worried.

“Is there a way for me to get outside on top of where we are?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said, pointing to a ladder bolted to the wall on the back of the bridge. There was a door or hatch or something on top. A crewmember in the bridge raced up the ladder like a monkey and opened the hatch. Then he slid down the ladder, holding only the edges.

“Okay, we can do this. Where does a boat like that store its fuel?”

“I like the way you think,” the captain said, “but it is probably below the waterline.”

“Front or back?”

“Aft, most likely.”

“Okay, they are too far out right now. This rifle won’t work yet. It will take a few minutes to get set up. When we do, can you stop our ship completely?”

“Yes.” And with that, Oberon and I climbed the ladder and found ourselves outside with nothing but sky. The crew had turned off most of the exterior lights on the yacht, so it was fairly dark outside. By the time I was ready, the bogey was in range. It was going to be a tough shot with all the waves.

“I think incendiary bullets,” I said. Oberon already had a clip out.

“These will go ‘boom’ when they hit,” he said with a smile. “The tips are depleted uranium, which means they will pierce any steel or plating on the boat before they explode. All you have to do is get the bullet close and let it do the rest.”

Oberon was proud of his work.

“You’re really scary sometimes,” I said.

“I know,” he grinned.

I couldn’t see the back of the boat, but I could see the bridge. Oberon had loaded a large magazine, so I had at least a hundred rounds.

“I don’t think I’ll need that many,” I complained.

“If you do, you’ll have them quickly.

POP
. I missed.

POP
. I put a round right into the bridge. It exploded but didn’t set anything else on fire. The pirates must have seen the hit, but the boat kept coming.

POP
. I sent another round into the bridge, and I saw somebody go down.

POP
. I fired onto a machine-gun thing toward the front of the boat. I think I hit the gun, and the explosion must have created some shrapnel. Both of the men who were standing at the machine gun blew backwards.

Whoever was steering got the message. He turned the boat to the right. Sorry, starboard. Yes, I was in the US Navy once, but that was a hundred years ago, and they never let me go near any of their ships. The pirate boat turned sharply. What they did was expose the back end of their boat to my rifle and Oberon’s incendiary bullets.

POP
. Nothing.

POP.
Splash of water.

POP
and
KABOOM
. The pirate boat was a ball of flame instantly. I don’t really know what I hit, but it was lethal.

As we watched the boat sink, I saw a warship headed our way. It was flying a US flag. I clicked the safety on the PSG. Oberon and I headed for the door. I couldn’t just slide down the ladder, but I moved as quickly as I could.

As soon as we were both back inside, about a dozen people on the bridge gave us a standing ovation. We had killed the bad guys.

“There’s an American ship moving toward us,” the captain said. “They may want to board. Ask Ruprecht where you can hide your rifle and ammunition. Here’s an M40.”

“What’s this for?”

“Fodder,” the captain grinned. “I don’t mind the Americans boarding. I’m sure they saw you on top of the bridge. If they ask to see your weapon, show them this. Do you know about the M40?”

“Sure, US-made, but not in the same league as what I use.”

“The Americans will be very impressed,” the captain said. “If one person using an M40 could do that much damage… well, they may try to recruit you.”

“I was in the US Navy when I was turned, so I guess I am technically still in the Navy. They think I’m dead.”

“You are,” Oberon chuckled.

“Anyway, the Navy wouldn’t let me anywhere close to weapons.”

“Remarkable,” the captain said. “And they won the war. Go now. You have a few minutes before the Americans get here. We’re going to get underway again. They will radio us if they want to talk.”

Ruprecht was waiting for us at the lift.

“I understand that congratulations are in order,” he said.

“Not really,” I said.

“Pirates in this part of the ocean are a real problem. You just put an entire crew out of business. Bravo.”

“Thanks,” Oberon said with a smile.

“I am to help you store your weapon, I think,” Ruprecht said. “Please pardon the appearance of the deck, but I think the best place is going to be one deck up from the engine. We have laundry facilities and workshops. There is a vault for securing valuables.”

“Will the Americans demand to search the ship?” Oberon said.

“The Americans are well-armed, and these are international waters. They can do whatever they want.”

“If I were the Americans and I wanted to confiscate the weapon, I think I’d look in the vault,” Oberon noted.

“Good point, sir.”

“Could we store it, say, under the mattress of your room?”

“But of course,” Ruprecht said, “but my room isn’t tidy, and I’d be embarrassed….”

“No worries,” Oberon said. “Why don’t we go to your room, and we’ll stay in the hallway while you hide our two duffel bags?”

“As you wish, sir,” Ruprecht said. “The rifles will be safe and undetectable there. I think maybe you have done this before.”

“No,” I said. “Maybe we could just pop off the ship for a while and either hover over a cloud with the rifle or land somewhere nearby.”

“If the Americans saw you on the roof, they know what you look like. I think you need to be onboard, or they will get suspicious.”

The US Navy
did
want to come onto our yacht. Two Marines were there, and they wanted to meet me. All they did was salute and shake my hand.

“I don’t get to see such fine shooting often,” one of them said. He was taller than me (but who isn’t?), and his hair was only a few millimeters long. Very Marine. Hamlet’s type, not mine.

I just shrugged.

“If we had attacked them, we would have just opened up with one of our big guns,” he said. “I was watching through a telescope. You did all that damage with a rifle?”

“M40,” I lied.

“M40?” the marine said as he scrunched his eyebrows. “You shouldn’t have been in range with….”

“Homemade ammunition,” Oberon said. “I made some with a little extra powder.” He didn’t mention the depleted uranium. That could have caused some kind of international incident. Vampires armed with armor-piercing incendiary ammunition. I could see the headlines.

“Okay, I am going to forget this conversation,” said the Marine. “You really shouldn’t be armed out here. It is against several rules. I’m supposed to confiscate your weapons, but I like the idea that you guys are out here.”

He smiled and turned to leave. “I didn’t see any weapons,” he said on a handheld radio. “Must have been from somewhere else. Ship’s clean.”

He turned and gave us a salute.

A
BOUT
an hour later, Ruprecht was knocking on our stateroom door. I was outside on the balcony, and Oberon was looking at the computer screen in the cabin. There was a map of the world and a dot showing us where we were. He could go from that to a satellite image and several other screens.

Ruprecht brought the two duffel bags back to us, and Oberon gave him the M40 to return to the captain.

“The crew wanted me to thank you,” I heard him tell Oberon as I walked into the stateroom from the balcony. “Very impressive. If those pirates had boarded the yacht, who knows how many they would have killed? I’m afraid there’s going to be some ‘hero worship’ for both of you over the next weeks.”

I just shook my head. “Could you ask the crew not to embarrass me?” I said.

“I can ask, but they’ll ignore me. Is there anything else you need? The staff has started a list of guys who want to have sex with you.”

“Bring ’em on,” Oberon said with a grin.

I just went back to the balcony to clean the PSG. From time to time I could hear a loud groan or yelp, so I knew my husband was having fun. As soon as I saw the first hint of light on the horizon, I went back into the suite. There were three men in bed with Oberon. The men were asleep or too worn out to move.

There was just enough room for me to collapse on the bed and die for the day.

Chapter 16

T
HE
Great Barrier Reef is the most awesome thing I have ever seen. It is enormous and just northeast of Australia. We had a full moon, but it was still really dark under the water.

Pierre and Hamlet took out the little submarine that was stored inside the yacht. Hamlet is so queer; I’m sure he didn’t want to get sand under his nails or salt in his hair.