Chapter 3
The elevator rose in silence.
Laura stood with Claire and Dr. Morrow at her back.
Richard Prescott watched her like a man inspecting a building before demolition.
His two guards remained near the control panel.
One wore a shoulder holster.
The other held a stun device low against his thigh.
Richard smiled.
“I understand why Nathan chose you.”
Laura did not respond.
“You are composed,” he continued. “That quality is rare.”
“You raised your son to attack women with a bat.”
Richard’s smile barely changed.
“I raised him to understand consequences.”
“You call assault a consequence?”
“I call discipline necessary.”
Claire’s voice shook behind Laura.
“You disciplined Mom until she could barely walk.”
Richard looked past Laura.
“You always were dramatic.”
“I saw the hospital reports.”
“You saw private medical documents you had no right to read.”
Richard turned back to Laura.
“Claire confuses discomfort with abuse. It is why her marriage failed.”
Claire clenched her jaw.
Laura remembered the bruises at the wedding.
“What happened to Claire’s husband?” she asked.
Richard’s eyes became colder.
“He learned she was incapable of loyalty.”
Claire whispered, “He nearly killed me.”
Richard ignored her.
The elevator chimed.
Deck Twelve opened into a private hallway lined with dark wood and gold fixtures.
No tourists.
No music.
Only silence and two additional guards.
Richard stepped out.
“Bring them.”
Laura walked willingly.
She counted cameras.
Three in the hallway.
One above the suite entrance.
All active.
Unlike the disabled cameras near her cabin.
This level recorded everything.
Because Richard controlled the recordings.
They entered a massive suite overlooking the ocean.
Vivian Prescott sat near the window.
She wore a cream silk dress and held a cup of tea with both hands.
Her makeup was perfect.
Her posture was not.
One shoulder sat lower than the other.
Her fingers trembled.
Nathan stood beside the bar with an ice pack against his jaw.
When he saw Laura, rage flashed across his face.
“You broke my tooth.”
“You tried to break my skull.”
Nathan started toward her.
Richard lifted one finger.
He stopped immediately.
Laura noticed that.
Nathan feared his father.
Vivian did not look at Laura.
“Sit,” Richard said.
“No.”
One guard moved closer.
Laura turned slightly, ready.
Richard raised his hand again.
“Do not touch her. We need her cooperative.”
“That ship sailed when your son swung a bat at me.”
Richard poured himself a drink.
“You believe this is personal.”
“It became personal when you put my name on a forty-eight-million-dollar trust.”
Nathan’s face changed.
Claire had not been supposed to reveal that.
Richard looked at his daughter.
“You stole the file.”
Claire said nothing.
“You always disappoint me at the worst possible moment.”
Laura stepped forward.
“Tell me about my father.”
Richard took a slow sip.
“Thomas Bennett was brilliant. Difficult, but brilliant.”
Laura had not heard anyone outside her family speak her father’s name in years.
“He designed offshore stabilizing systems,” Richard continued. “At the time, my company was expanding into coastal construction. We funded his research.”
“You stole it.”
“We improved it.”
“He died.”
“People die.”
Laura’s hands curled into fists.
Richard noticed.
“Control yourself,” he said. “Your father struggled with that too.”
“How did he die?”
Vivian’s cup rattled against the saucer.
Richard glanced at her.
The movement was quick.
But Laura saw it.
Vivian knew something.
Richard set down his glass.
“Officially, an engine fire.”
“Unofficially?”
“A careless man ignored safety procedures.”
“My father was never careless.”
“You were twelve. You did not know him professionally.”
Laura looked at Vivian.
“How did my father die?”
Vivian kept her eyes on the tea.
Richard spoke before she could answer.
“The past is irrelevant. What matters is the trust.”
Nathan took the ice pack from his face.
“You sign authority to me. Then we go back to our cabin and start over.”
Laura stared at him.
“You think this marriage is continuing?”
Nathan smiled through his swelling.
“You have no idea what continues and what ends.”
Richard opened a leather folder on the table.
Inside were legal documents.
A psychiatric evaluation.
A power-of-attorney form.
A trust transfer.
An affidavit claiming Laura had suffered violent episodes for years.
Her signature appeared at the bottom.
Forged.
Dr. Morrow stepped closer.
“That psychiatric report lists me as the examining physician.”
Richard looked at her.
“You should have stayed in the clinic, Doctor.”
“I never examined her.”
“No one will ask.”
“I recorded everything.”
Richard’s expression changed for the first time.
Barely.
But enough.
“Where is the recorder?”
Dr. Morrow said nothing.
Hargrove entered the suite behind them.
His face was flushed from running.
“We searched the medical center. It wasn’t there.”
Richard set down his glass.
“Search her.”
Two guards seized Dr. Morrow.
Laura moved.
The man with the stun device raised it.
Richard shouted, “No damage to the bride!”
The hesitation gave Laura an opening.
She trapped the guard’s wrist, turned it inward, and drove the stun device into his side.
He collapsed.
The second guard reached for his gun.
Laura kicked the table into him.
Documents flew.
Nathan lunged from behind.
Claire grabbed a glass bottle from the bar and smashed it across his shoulder.
Nathan screamed.
Vivian dropped her tea.
Dr. Morrow broke free.
Hargrove drew his weapon.
“Everyone down!”
Laura pulled Richard in front of her.
Hargrove froze.
Richard’s face pressed against Laura’s forearm.
“You are making a fatal mistake,” he said.
“No,” Laura replied. “I’m finally correcting one.”
She backed toward the balcony doors with Richard as a shield.
Claire and Dr. Morrow moved with her.
Nathan held his bleeding shoulder.
“You will never leave this ship.”
Laura looked at Vivian.
The older woman had not moved from her chair.
“Come with us.”
Vivian looked toward Richard.
Fear filled her eyes.
Richard laughed.
“She won’t.”
Laura tightened her grip.
“You don’t have to stay.”
Vivian’s lips parted.
For one second, Laura believed she might stand.
Then Vivian looked down.
“I cannot.”
Claire’s face crumpled.
“Mom.”
Vivian whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Hargrove shifted his aim.
Laura saw it.
He was preparing to take a shot past Richard.
She moved toward the suite’s side door instead.
Claire opened it.
A private outdoor deck stretched beyond.
Wind hit them.
Laura shoved Richard backward into Hargrove.
Then the three women ran.
Security shouted behind them.
They crossed the deck toward a stairwell.
Nathan came through the door.
“Seal the level!”
Metal shutters began descending over the exits.
The stairwell entrance was twenty feet away.
Fifteen.
Ten.
The shutter dropped fast.
Dr. Morrow slid beneath first.
Claire followed.
Laura dove as the metal edge nearly caught her legs.
They landed inside the stairwell.
Laura jumped up and pulled the emergency release.
Nothing happened.
The shutter sealed behind them.
At least Richard’s men were trapped on the other side for the moment.
“Down,” Laura said.
They ran.
A shipwide announcement sounded.
“Attention, guests and crew. A dangerous passenger has assaulted members of the Prescott family. Please remain in public areas and report any sighting of Laura Bennett Prescott.”
Her new married name echoed through the stairwell.
A criminal identity Nathan had given her.
Dr. Morrow handed Laura the digital recorder.
“I hid it inside my jacket lining.”
Laura took it.
“Can we transmit these files?”
“If we reach the communications room.”
Claire shook her head.
“They will expect that.”
Laura stopped at Deck Ten.
“What would they not expect?”
Claire thought.
“The legal office.”
“Why?”
“It has a secured external line for offshore contracts. My father uses it when he wants communications that do not pass through the bridge.”
Laura opened the stairwell door slightly.
The corridor was empty.
“Deck Four?”
Claire nodded.
They continued downward.
On Deck Eight, they heard passengers gathering in the atrium.
Nathan’s announcement had made Laura famous.
Screens displayed a security notice with her wedding portrait.
DANGEROUS PASSENGER.
DO NOT APPROACH.
Laura watched from behind a service door.
Her smiling face appeared beside a warning symbol.
Nathan had prepared the image before the attack.
“That photograph was taken at our rehearsal dinner,” she said.
Claire looked sick.
“They planned this before the wedding.”
Dr. Morrow touched Laura’s arm.
“We need to move.”
They entered a crew passage and descended to Deck Four.
The legal office was at the end of a quiet hallway near the conference center.
The door required a code.
Claire entered six digits.
Red light.
“They changed it.”
Laura examined the keypad.
“Stand back.”
She pulled a fire extinguisher from the wall and struck the electronic lock.
Once.
Twice.
The casing cracked.
Sparks flashed.
The door released.
Inside, filing cabinets lined the walls.
A satellite terminal sat on the desk.
Dr. Morrow connected the recorder.
The screen requested authorization.
Claire inserted the stolen key card.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Files began uploading.
Laura watched the progress bar.
Ten percent.
Twenty.
Thirty.
An incoming call flashed across the screen.
RICHARD PRESCOTT.
Claire looked at Laura.
“Answer it.”
Laura pressed the speaker button.
Richard’s voice filled the office.
“You have made your point.”
“No,” Laura said. “I’m about to.”
“The external terminal is monitored.”
“So you know we’re sending evidence.”
“You are sending files to a server I own.”
Dr. Morrow froze.
Richard continued.
“Every system on this ship belongs to one of my companies.”
Laura looked at the upload destination.
A secure federal address appeared on-screen.
But the certificate information showed a private routing server.
Prescott Maritime Holdings.
The progress bar reached eighty percent.
Laura canceled the upload.
Richard laughed softly.
“Smart.”
Claire slammed her fist against the desk.
“Then how do we get it out?”
“You don’t,” Richard said.
Laura opened drawers while he spoke.
“You are on a ship hundreds of miles from land. Communications are controlled. Security is loyal. The captain understands who pays his salary.”
Laura found a printed passenger list.
Several names were highlighted.
Women.
Spouses.
Fiancées.
Business partners.
One name stopped her.
MARGARET BENNETT.
Her mother.
Cabin 6142.
Laura could not breathe.
Richard’s voice became almost gentle.
“Sign the documents, and your mother remains unharmed.”
Laura held the page in both hands.
“You brought her onto this ship?”
“She believes she won a free cruise.”
Claire looked at Laura in horror.
Richard continued.
“She is currently enjoying dinner. She has no idea her daughter is running through service corridors dressed like a fugitive.”
Laura forced herself to think.
Her mother was alive.
For now.
“Let me speak to her.”
“Come to the theater at midnight.”
“What happens there?”
“You sign the trust transfer in front of witnesses.”
“And if I refuse?”
Richard’s answer was immediate.
“Your mother falls overboard.”
The line went dead.
Dr. Morrow checked the clock.
11:18 p.m.
Forty-two minutes.
Claire looked at Laura.
“It’s another trap.”
“I know.”
“We cannot go.”
Laura folded the passenger list.
“I’m going.”
Claire grabbed her arm.
“You cannot sign over everything your father left you.”
“This is not about money.”
“It is about what they did to your father.”
“And what they will do to my mother.”
Dr. Morrow removed the recorder from the terminal.
“There may be another way.”
Laura looked at her.
“The ship broadcasts live entertainment through a satellite feed. The midnight theater show is streamed to promotional channels onshore.”
Claire understood first.
“If we hijack the theater feed…”
“Everything could go public,” Dr. Morrow said.
Laura looked toward the door.
Richard wanted witnesses.
May you like
She would give him millions.
“Then we go to the theater,” Laura said. “But we do not sign quietly.”
