Beyond and around them lay the awesome, unending sea in rays of blue and black.
He hadn’t been lying after all.
Overwhelmed with nausea, I ran from Charlie and over to the edge. One of the men looked at me strangely but didn’t say anything. The sounds of hammering and brushing were terrible. How did these people work like this all day? I tried to figure if Dad would go into the office with me still gone. Oh God, poor Dad. He must be worried out of his mind. I stared into the vague blue of the sea and tried to send him a psychic message. I knew that stuff wasn’t real, but it was as good a time as any to doubt myself.
“You ain’t gonna jump, right? ‘Cause I ain’t a great swimmer.”
I glared at Charlie. He was struggling to light a cigarette against the lashing of the wind. I yanked it from his mouth and threw it into the sea.
He stared at me, slack-jawed and silent.
“Did I hear you say Singapore back there?” I hissed. “Did I hear you say six days?”
He just smiled and pulled out another cigarette from his pocket. “Unless you’re a great swimmer, then…” I threw the new one as well.
“Yeah.” He finished his thought and stared back and forth from me to his hands—amazed by the disappearance.
I put my head between my legs and tried deep calming breaths. It wasn’t doing much good; I was officially freaking out and becoming dizzy from my panic.
“What then?” I asked.
“The American embassy is real close to the port. You can go straight there.”
I stood back up and looked him in the eye, wanting, needing to know the answer. “How do I know you or someone else won’t kill me before then?”
His eyes narrowed and he reached for a cigarette, but then smiled and put the pack away. “Guess you don’t.”
I wanted to say something else, but couldn’t think of anything clever enough. That alone bothered me. Why should I care what this kidnapper, thief, who-knows-what-else, thought of me? Social norms don’t apply when you’ve been taken hostage, right? Still, I couldn’t disengage that part of my psyche that searched for a better way to insult him. Instinctually, I felt as though I would be able to let go easier of those social properties if it wasn’t for him. By offering me some safety, he was already taking away my option to feel like a victim. And like the topic of Mom, the mere idea of it made me uncharacteristically angry. Perhaps knowing how unreasonable it was made it that much worse. I tried to think back and remember when a single individual had riled me so much in such a short amount of time, but couldn’t remember anyone.
“She’s alive! She’s alive!” A pair of hands grabbed me by the shoulders and almost sent me jumping out of my skin.
“Hey, take it easy.” Charlie punched at the life vest Yuri was wearing and he took mock swings back.
Oh, they are trying to kill me, I decided—by heart attack.
“Despite your people’s best efforts.” I bundled the jacket around me, as it was much too large, and wrapped my arms around myself. I could feel the warmth of Charlie inside—No, Addie, no. Stop that.
Yuri smiled and put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “Hey, you were right about this one.”
I glared back and forth between them but thought better than to say anything.
Yuri took off his working gloves, which were black and rusty at the fingertips.
“You know, you’re pretty lucky, Little Girl.”
I looked back at Charlie. His eyes offered no explanation.
“The way Wallace bashed your head in and had that chokehold on you, we thought you were worms’ meat.” His laugh was menacing and it was enough to chill my spine. “The only reason Ben agreed to let you come aboard was so that when you did keel over, we could just throw you overboard. Real easy.” The loud snap of his fingers at the end of his explanation was enough to make me nauseous again. “We left so much evidence at the house we thought that would at least be a quick fix.”
Charlie punched him for real this time and Yuri stopped explaining. In all honesty, I wasn’t paying much attention to either of them anymore. I reached a hand behind my head and felt the sting there, winced at the pain, and again felt for the newly formed knot. At least that explained the headache.