Unlucky 13

Chapter 54

Yuki had been huddling against a bulkhead on the Pool Deck for a long time, terrified for Brady, having no sense of what these terrorists wanted in exchange for releasing the passengers of the FinStar.

And if they didn’t get what they wanted, what then?

Start shooting?

Blow up the ship?

She was very aware that she was wearing a see-through nightgown under the short ship-provided terry-cloth robe. She tucked the hem of the robe under and around her, then interlaced her fingers in front of her life preserver as if it could actually save her life.

These were the questions going around and around in her head on an endless loop: Where was Brady? Had they done something to him?

About six hours before, Yuki had been savagely woken by an unimaginably loud air-cracking boom. Her bed had pitched sideways, throwing her to the floor.

She had grabbed the floor as the ship rolled in the other direction, and she had fallen head-first hard against the bed frame. She’d screamed, “Brady! What’s happening?”

Glass crashed and doors swung open and slammed closed while the echo of the concussion rumbled long and low below her and the ship rolled again. Light flashed where light should not be—outside the windows, below their balcony.

Yuki got to her knees, grabbed the side of the bed, and pulled herself to her feet. Although the bed had been tumbled, Brady’s side of it was still neatly made.

She turned to the bathroom and screamed “Brady!” expecting him to come out, saying, “What the hell?” or “Get down!”

But he hadn’t been there.

Just then, there had been another loud boom—a bomb going off, for sure. This boom was more muffled than the first, coming from across the hall or maybe the other side of the ship.

Sirens sounded in the hallway, and then a man’s voice came over the public address system, saying, “Crew to emergency stations.” It was repeated several times.

Yuki’s mother would say, “Find your husband, Yuki-eh. Go to your husband.”

No kidding. Where was he?

Yuki had pulled on a robe and gone to the windows. She’d spotted a number of small boats, visible in the still-light night sky of Alaska. The boats were motoring at high speed toward the ship.

Yuki remembered feeling pure gratitude.

Thank God. Help was coming.

Help was on the way.