there.”
Brady got onto his stomach and wriggled ten feet over to Lazaroff. They talked quietly for less than a minute, then Brady slid back to her side.
She wanted to ask what they were discussing, when she heard the clank of combat boots on metal. Jackhammer came down the stairs from the track deck above and stalked to the long side of the pool, directly opposite where Yuki and Brady sat together.
Yuki was shaking again.
The sight of the man, the way he walked, his hardy-har attitude, and the random murders were so crazy-making, she felt this close to going bug-fuck. Like the man who’d thrown the chair, she was seized with a need to pick up something, or throw something, or find an insult so humiliating …but she couldn’t think of anything that would achieve anything but her own certain death.
Brady shifted his position so that Yuki was hidden behind him. She heard him say, “Okay, honey, shhhhh.”
She’d been whispering. Or maybe whimpering.
Jackhammer struck a pose, legs apart, hands on his hips, mocking them all.
He said, “I have good news.”
CHAPTER 77
YUKI SHIVERED BEHIND her husband’s broad back, remembering other times when Jackhammer had said he had good news.
About an hour ago he had said, “Good news, everyone. The execution is over and we have sent proof of death to your hosts back in Finland. You can all relax for a little while. Uh, for fifty-nine minutes to be exact. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see the northern lights.”
What news would Jackhammer deliver now?
Buffet dinner in the Luna Grill? Aerobics on the sports deck?
Yuki reached around her husband and gripped his chest.
He patted her hand and said beneath the sound of the water lapping the hull, “We’re going to be okay. I mean it.”
Brady would protect them if he could, but what chance would he have? Jackhammer’s crew had already shot six people she knew about, and maybe dozens of crew had been gunned down when he and his gang had first boarded the ship.
If he didn’t get his money, he might have himself a real party and shoot every passenger on board. A bloodbath. A massacre.
Jackhammer spoke from the across the pool. “Guess what, everyone? We got an e-mail from your cruise line. They say they’re going to be transferring money soon. Won’t that be great? We’re standing by for our bank’s confirmation of the wire transfer from Finlandia. Okay? Didn’t I tell you I had good news?”
There was a sprinkling of applause from the captives who were bunched, crouched, sick with fear.
Jackhammer said, “Hey. Let’s hear it for money coming, all right?”
The faint applause increased. Whatever it took to mollify the monster.
Jackhammer said in his most mocking ringmaster voice, “And now, let’s have some music.”
CHAPTER 78
AFTER THE HIGH-PITCHED feedback squeal from the sound system just about uncorked the top of Brady’s head, salsa music jumped out of the speakers on the Pool Deck bar. The dance-y Latin music was incongruous, crazy, and from Brady’s perspective a good thing.
The music seemed to change the mood of the terrorists. He hoped it might make them a touch complacent. Dance fever covered low conversation.
Brady said to Yuki, “What a mindfucker that guy is. He could write a book on it. Don’t believe a word he said.”
Brady knew that crowd control was one of the terrorists’ biggest problems. The nineteen shooters were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the combined thousand passengers and crew. But Jackhammer’s brutal, successive, random killings had created paranoia, enforced compliance, and put thoughts of rebellion down cold. He’d overwhelmed their ability to fight back. He’d undermined their sanity.
Brady wrapped both his arms around his wife and held her tightly. Yuki was a strong person, but the direct threat to her life had shaken her hard and he wasn’t sure how much more mind control and terror she could take.
A lot of pictures came into his mind, and not the kind of thoughts he usually had. He thought about grabbing one of those AK-47s and just going Rambo.
Yuki squeezed his hand.
“I’m okay,” he said.
No, he wasn’t. He was a cop. He couldn’t let these guys keep shooting people while he just hoped that the accountants and bankers would come through for a bunch of people they didn’t know.
Brady had to do something about this. He was fatter now. Years of smoking had cut his wind. But he still had a strategic mind and the will to kill. He would protect Yuki.
What he had to do was stay focused, look for an opportunity,