Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy (11 page)

They pass two shops before reaching the elevator. Upon reaching the elevator Victor pushes the up button with his left hand and then suddenly grabs Laura by the small of her back with his right hand and pulls her in close before kissing her. The action is so fast and unexpected that Laura cannot react. Laura’s head starts spinning and butterflies fill her stomach.

Her body says yes, but her mind says no, and just as she is about to push Victor away, a ping sound from the elevator informs them that the elevator has arrived. Victor immediately lets go of Laura and walks into the elevator, holding the doors open for her.

“If you’re scared of elevators, we can take the stairs, but I am not carrying you up.” Victor winks at her as he speaks. At the sound of his voice, Laura jumps into the elevator, her head still spinning. It feels as if she is floating on air. Laura’s nipples start to harden and immediately she folds her arms over her breasts, her face turning red.

The elevator stops seconds later on the third floor and as the door opens Victor puts the palm of his hand in the small of her back and gently pushes her out of the elevator.

In the middle of the wall directly in front of them is a beautifully decorated wooden door. The door has palm trees engraved all around the sides and depicts a sun setting over the beach with gentle waves and two sets of footprints disappearing into the water on the beach as its central theme. The key is a normal door key and after inserting it, Victor has to turn it twice before the door is unlocked.

The door handle is in the shape of a banana and Victor pushes the door open, then stands back and indicates to Laura with the palm of his left hand to enter while he gently pushes her forward with his right hand on her back. A cool breeze and the smell of vanilla greet them as they enter their room. The room is built as one large long continuous unit with drywalls between sections.

The door opens into the kitchen that has large white tiles and a glass table with seating for four in the middle of the kitchen. There are four wooden chairs placed at the table and cutlery is already set out for two people. A sink, stove and fridge are to the right of the kitchen against the dry wall with an open archway next to it leading into a small living area that has a television cabinet against the drywall, with a couch large enough for three people, which can fold out to form a bed, against the opposite wall.

A doorway leads to the bedroom that has off white tiles and a king-size bed with standard white bedding. There is a built in wardrobe against the right wall, and a night stand on either side of the bed. A small reading lamp is situated above the bed that contains two reading lights, positioned so that each occupant can read without disturbing their partner.

The bed is close to the left of the room, next to curtains with sea life drawings on, drawn closed. To the right of the bed is another door that leads to the bathroom. The same off-white tiles decorate the floor of the bathroom, which has a large bath with a shower head against the wall.

It is not a luxury room, just a getaway place from the city life. However, for Laura it is as good as a five star hotel. This is her first ever trip out of the country and she has never stayed in a hotel or place other than her parents’ place and her small apartment in the city. She finds it strange that the kitchen, living room and bedroom all have curtains on the same wall.

Walking over, she draws open the curtains in the kitchen and is surprised to find glass doors that can slide open to give access to a balcony with an ocean view. The balcony runs the length of the unit and allows one access to the balcony from the kitchen, living room or bedroom through sliding glass doors.

Each room gives a stunning sea view when the curtains are open. The balcony has two deck chairs, each with a small table for drinks next to it. While Laura is admiring the unit and ocean view, Victor takes a banana from the fruit bowl on the kitchen table and proceeds to peel it open. After taking a few bites he takes an apple and another banana from the fruit bowl and walks over to Laura, who is now standing on the balcony.

“Hungry?” Victor holds both the second banana and apple out to Laura who cannot resist the red apple.

After taking a few bites Laura turns to Victor and says, “You owe me an explanation.” Victor smiles and takes another bite of his banana, finishing it off.

“What is a cat boat?” Laura continues. Victor almost chokes on the banana from laughter.

“Of all the things you can ask, that’s the first thing you want to know?” Laura just takes another bite from her apple, waiting for Victor.

“Ok, fishing has always been part of the Cayman tradition, with the locals building their own schooners.

A local fisherman designed a new type of schooner and while he worked on it, he covered the boat so that no one could see how it looked. After completing the boat, he invited his neighbors to come and see his new boat.

“With everyone around, he removed the cover from the boat and to their surprise, they found that a cat had made a home out of the boat and had given birth to a litter of kittens. From then on the style of boat was known as a cat boat. Apparently, it was a brilliant design and for the people to ride in a cat boat was like riding in a Rolls Royce.”

Laura stands thinking for a while when Victor ends and then comments, “That’s beautiful, and I am glad that the boat did not get its name from someone dying as with the story of Rum Point.” Victor bursts out laughing, and then takes the backpack off his back. He removes the clothes he grabbed when the ocean liner sank and hands Laura’s to her. Laura looks on in amazement as Victor hands her one of her denims and a t-shirt.

“What’s this?”

“Fresh clothes, I grabbed them from your room when we evacuated the ship. It’s Saturday, we will not make it to town in time to get new clothing, and all the large shops are closed on a Sunday on the island.”

Laura takes the clothes and turns towards the bathroom, asking over her shoulder, “How do you know all this?”

“I lived on the island for six years.” She nods and continues towards the bathroom. Looking at the clothes in her hands she suddenly realizes that he did not give her any underwear, another first for her. As she enters the bathroom, Victor calls to her from the balcony.

“Take your time; I have a few calls to make.” He waits until he can hear bath water running before taking out his cell phone and calling his contact.

The call connects, but no one speaks on the other end. Victor waits for two seconds and then hears the metallic sound as the line is being secured. Victor knows they will recognize his phone number and know it is him reporting in.

“Line secure, code sparrow,” comes from the other end.

“Primary and secondary objectives complete, courier alive, compromise on details of primary objective.” Victor is emotionless as he relays the coded message. There is a ten second silence.

“Understood, sending orders.” The line goes dead after the reply. Victor places the phone on the kitchen table, and then uses the unit’s phone to call the help desk. As he does so, a text message comes up on his phone, “upload data package, eliminate compromise and carrier at all cost.”

“Help desk, Betty speaking, how may I help you?” Betty’s voice is cheerful.

“This is room 303. Can you send some tuna sandwiches, salad and orange juice up to our room please?” On hearing Victor’s voice Betty’s face lights up and she replies with a soft voice, as if someone is listening in.

“Would that be for one or two people?”

Victor looks at the cell phone on the table before replying, “Two,” he keeps his cover even when he knows he will be dining alone.

“Ok.” Victor detects disappointment in her voice. Replacing the receiver, Victor walks over to the living room where he left the backpack and removes the pistol he took from Josh.

After checking that the magazine is full, he chambers a round and goes to sit on the couch.

He places one of the couch cushions on his lap. From experience he knows that a cushion makes a perfect silencer. He does not want to do it, but the orders are clear.

Laura finds bubble bath next to the bath taps and pours a good amount into the bath. While running bath water into the bathtub, she stirs the water around, making bubbles. The smell of jasmine fills the room. After filling the tub to almost full, she stands up and gets undressed. Slowly she climbs into the bath, not wanting to spill water onto the floor.

The warm water relaxes her sore muscles, and the aroma in the room helps her to relax. Cupping her hands, she takes some water and splashes her face, then keeps her hands on her face.

She is deep in thought. The last two weeks of her life have been turned upside down. She had worked at a public library for five years, finding the job after working for two years flipping burgers and waitressing at the local Wendy’s near her parents’ home. Her dad got her the job at Wendy’s as soon as she got out of school, due to knowing the owner as an old schoolmate.

She loves working at the library, almost as much as she loves to read, especially historical accounts of lost treasures or legends of any sort. She often volunteers to work extra shifts, not just for the money, but to be able to read one book after another. Her favorite subjects are ancient legend, mythology, and lost worlds. There is no book in her library on any of the subjects on any culture she has not read.

Laura was so involved in her books that she did not even have time for a relationship or friends, the stories in the myths were in any case far more interesting to her than going to the local bar and drinking all night while complaining about how hard life was.

Her life seemed perfect, until two weeks ago when the library informed her that they would not be in need of her services any more due to budget cuts.

The manager liked her a lot and gave her the option of working two months at double pay or leaving immediately to find work while receiving two months standard pay. She elected to leave immediately, having managed to save over $50,000 in the five years she had worked at the library. The extra two months pay did not bother her much. Laura managed to save the money partly due to living with her parents for the first four years of her employment.

She had moved into her own apartment a year ago, which she shares with an old school friend. Suzy is a bit of a party girl and was almost never home. She does not work, but has a string of men beating down her door, throwing money at her. Laura did not mind being alone most of the time, as it gave her an opportunity to read.

Suzy loves to chat online, even opening an online chat account for Laura in the hope that she will find a guy she likes. It was through the online account that she met Nick six months ago. He is a software engineer living in Spain and at first the chats were exciting, but then later got routine.

He is cute and Laura likes him and his sense of humor, but he is so far away and she later accepted that she will never see him.

The day Laura was fired she immediately went home, hoping to find Suzy there to talk to. However, she was out, having left Laura a note saying that she had found a new guy who has a yacht in Florida, and he has invited her to stay with him on his yacht for the weekend.

The note was left on the kitchen table, and it was clearly written in a hurry in addition to having stains on it. Laura smelled the note, wine. No doubt Suzy was not alone when she wrote the note, as she never drank wine at home alone. Laura then decided to try Nick, and was delighted to find him online. She wasted no time telling him that she had just been fired and needed to find a new job.

Instead of consoling her, Nick was delighted to hear that she had been fired.

“Laura, this is a good thing, you’ve been stuck in those dusty books for years now, how many times have I told you to get out and enjoy life? This is the perfect opportunity.” He then suggested that she visit him in Spain. Laura was shocked by the proposal and immediately but politely declined his offer.

Nick then suggested a different option, by suggesting that Laura take a cruise ship from Florida. The cruise he proposed goes around most of the larger islands in the Caribbean, stopping at Cancun, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Bahamas, before returning to Florida.

If at any point Laura changes her mind and wishes to visit him, she can immediately contact him and he will arrange a flight for her to Spain from where she is. If she decides not to visit, then she only has to stay on the ship until its return to Florida, having at least enjoyed a small vacation.

Laura was still unsure about the whole thing, but Nick is a fast mover and while she was still typing excuses why she cannot do it, a message on her computer indicated that she had received an e-mail from Luxury Cruise Liners. Upon opening the e-mail, she was shocked to see that Nick had gone ahead and booked a ticket for Laura on the Blue Diamond cruise liner two weeks in advance. She just sat staring at the monitor; speechless until a chat message popped up, asking if she had received an e-mail confirmation. When Laura confirmed with a simple “Yes”, Nick replied that he suggested she start packing and that he had to go. Before Laura could reply again, Nick signed off.

She decided to call Suzy while she was out on her date, something she never does unless it is an emergency.

“What’s wrong Laura?” Suzy was immediately concerned by Laura calling her. Laura informed her of all that had happened, including Nick’s invitation.

“You’re going, that’s it Laura, end of story, I’ll help you pack when I return. Oh, and you’re going to need clothes to party with. I’ll pick you up some on the weekend, see you Monday, bye, got to go.”

Laura could hear loud music playing in the background in addition to people laughing and singing. Suzy, the party girl.

How different Suzy is from her. The weekend went by with Laura doing almost nothing, and when Suzy returned on Monday evening, she had a whole wardrobe of new clothes for Laura to wear on the trip. Laura packed and unpacked and then packed again, not knowing exactly what to take and what to leave. It was driving her crazy, but at the same time it was so exciting.