The Virgin Vagabond

Chapter 19, part 2

Luke smiled at Kesias comment and put an arm around her shoulders.

”We are done with the stuff, now we have time to drink some wine before the cruise is over” he said and kissed her cheek.

”I would love to, but we need to stay aware of the fact that our seekers might also be here somewhere. I haven’t seen them but they would probably go through lengths to stay hidden if they were on the same boat.”

”True. Lets find a secluded corner somewhere and make Fabian get us some drinks.”

”Can we use him like that?”

”Yes, believe me, we can use him any way we want. Also, we can start thinking about what to do with the answer to the riddle.”

Fabian suddenly appeared between them.

”I happen to have some input on that matter” he said and waved around a piece of paper. ”I’m instructed to give you this when you solve the riddle. I just wanted to wait until Victoria got out of the way.”

”Smart move” said Luke and took the paper from his hands.

They found some sun chairs in a corner of the boat and sat down. There were only two so Fabian remained standing. He tried to see the paper as Luke unfolded it but Luke waved him off.

”Could you go get us some drinks, Fabian? That is after all the point of this cruise.”

Fabian nodded shortly and disappeared in the direction of the bar.

”We can’t include him like he is one of us, he isn’t a player after all” Luke said to Kesia as soon as Fabian were out of earshot.

”True” she said. ”What does the note say?”

”Fetch your key to the quote at the North Mole” said Luke, reading out loud från the piece of paper. ”Do you know what that means?”

”No, but I’m sure we can find that out easily. For now though, lets enjoy the wine.”

Fabian came back with their drinks and gave them each a glass just as Kesia finished her sentence.

”Well timed, Fabian, thank you!” she said and held her glass up looking at Luke. ”To us” she said and smiled widely. Luke smiled back at her and carefully touched her glass with his.

”To us” he repeated with a smile. Then his smile faded and his eyes fixed on something behind Kesia. She turned around to see what it was.

”Oh, s**t” she exclaimed when she saw the female seeker standing by the rail a few meters away. She had not yet spotted them. Before really thinking about it, Kesia got up from the chair, snook up on the seeker and as she turned around to take her picture, Kesia gave her a hard push. Desperately, she tried to find something to grab but failed and fell into the water below. Kesia looked surprised at her own actions and looked at Luke who stared at her with a dropped jaw and raised eyebrows.

”Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

One of the employees came rushing towards Kesia and Luke threw himself in the way, making the guy fall over.

”Come on!” he said to Kesia and held out his hand.

She took it and together they ran to the rear of the boat.

”Where is the other seeker?” asked Kesia, a little winded.

”Probably fishing his partner out of the water. That was genius, Kessie! Man, you are so sexy when your cunning and unpredictable!”

He kissed her passionately and then they laughed together. Fabian pulled up next to the ship in a smaller boat, probably one of the lifeboats.

”Quick, get in!” he said.

Luke helped Kesia to climb over the rail and into the boat. He then followed and Fabian steered them away from the cruise ship.

Fabian looked like a question mark when they asked him to pull up by another hotel than the one they hade checked in to the day before. Luke ignored his expression and got out of the car to fetch their bags from the trunk.

”Why are we here?” he asked and Luke continued to ignore him.

”Some things are for you to know, Fabian” said Kesia and continued, ”and some things aren’t. This is one of those things.”

She got out of the car and joined Luke by the entrance to the new hotel as he was just giving instructions to the bell boy about where to bring their bags. Luke then walked over to the car to talk to Fabian.

”You can go back to the hotel or do something else, we will call you when we need you” he said and then tapped the side of the car twice, like you do a taxi when you are ready to go. Kesia felt a bit bad, ditching Fabian like this, but she knew it was necessary. He reported everything back to the Commission, they could assume as much. Luke didn’t seem to feel bad at all but then again, he hated the guy. They went inside the new hotel and Luke checked them in while Kesia checked her messages. It was soon dinnertime which meant it was almost 1am in Sweden. She couldn’t call her parents now, they were most definitely asleep. Instead, she sent them a text message saying that everything was fine and that she would call the next day. Then, she set a reminder to call them the next day at 2pm, that would be around 9pm in Sweden, which would be a good time to call.

”Let’s go to the room” said Luke and grabbed her hand in his. She looked up at him, smiled a little and nodded.

”I feel a bit bad about Fabian” she said while they walked towards the elevator.

”Why?”

”Because we ditched him, Luke.”

”Oh, come on! He doesn’t care. The Commission will have him doing other things I’m sure. Besides, we have to keep him in the dark when it comes to certain parts of our dealings, you know that.”

”Yes, yes” Kesia said wearily, ”I know all that.”

”Speaking of which” said Luke and took something out of his pocket.

It was the USB-drive that he had spoken of earlier.

”Do you want to come with me and drop this off to my contact?”

”Don’t I have to?”

”Yes, I just wanted it to seem like it’s your choice. Besides, we are not going right now, we need to wait for…”

Lukes phone rang, interrupting him.

”…the sun to set.” He held up the phone, ”it’s John.”

”Oh” said Kesia, ”should we answer?”

”Yes, I think we have to” said Luke and put the phone to speaker. ”Hey man!”

”Hey, where are you guys?”

”Um, at the next destination. Where are you?”

”Well, you didn’t tell us where to go so we are still in Berlin. Tell us where to go” answered John. ”And… is Kesia there?”

”Yes” said Kesia, ”I’m here.”

”Oh, I’m on speaker? Nice. How are you?”

”She’s good, John” answered Luke before Kesia could react. ”We’re gonna continue on our own from here, dude. If the Commission discovers we have taken help from you guys we could be disqualified and we prefer to win, actually, so thanks for everything and I’ll see you later?”

”Wait! We can help from a distance, we don’t have to be in touch, just tell us where you are and we can help any way we can from a far.”

”Thanks, man, but no, we’re good. Give our best to Keren, ok?”

He hung up and turned off the burner phone. Then he put it on the floor and stepped on it until you couldn’t see that it was a phone anymore.

”Just to be safe” he said. ”They might have put a tracker in it, he was the one to give it to us. Although, he really seemed to not know where we are.”

”Yeah, if they show up here within the next 24 hours, we will know.”

Kesia sat down on the couch, suddenly tired. She also realized that she was really thirsty. On the cruise, they had mostly had wine, not so much water, so she was probably a little dehydrated. Just as she was getting up to get some water, Luke put a glass of water in front of her.

”Best drink some water, right? We had a lot of wine on that cruise” he said with a crooked little smile.

”Actually, we’ve had a lot of wine since we left Sweden. Every day, I think” said Kesia and took a sip of the water. It was ice cold.

”We’re traveling” said Luke with a shrug. ”It’s okay when you are on a trip.”

Normally, Kesia would agree with that. When you were on vacation, it was okay to have a little wine every night. But this was a long trip, and hardly a vacation. Really, they had to stay on their toes.

”That might be true but I think we need to cut back a bit if we’re gonna be on our toes for the rest of the game. I don’t want any more hangovers, to be honest.”

Luke lifted his eyebrows and pouted his lips a bit.

”Interesting… I haven’t even thought of the amount of alcohol we consume but you might be right, it is probably a good idea to actually cut back a bit.”

Kesia stood up in front of him and stretched out her hand.

”Deal! Let’s shake on it!”

Luke took her hand and pulled her closer.

”Let’s seal it with a kiss instead” he said and his lips were on Kesias before she could say anything. She didn’t mind, though.