Philip Kerr - The Five Year Plan (1998)

'No.'

'Well, I'm still glad you came.'

'Kate, I have to talk to you.'

'I've been avoiding you, I'm sorry. I guess you've swept me off my feet. I didn't know how to respond... What are you wearing? Here, let me turn the light on.'

But Dave held her still, and sensing that he didn't want the light, she began to think that something might be wrong.

He said, 'I want you to know I meant everything I said. About loving you. About wanting to marry you.'

'I know you did, I know.'

'And?'

'Can't we talk about this after we've made love?'

He sighed and moved away from her in the darkness.

'I'd like to, really I would. But you see, I'm getting off the boat. Tonight.'

'Getting off? Dave, what are you talking about? What's happening?'

'Listen carefully. Two things.'

Kate reached across and turned on the light. At a glance her eyes took in the bulletproof vest, the .45 automatic, the submachine gun, the night sights, and the walkie-talkie. He looked like some kind of navy commando. Or maybe something worse.

'Jesus.'

Dave shrugged apologetically and said, 'Well, that's the first thing.'

'What the hell's going on here?'

Dave started to answer, but she silenced him as quickly. Her mouth narrowing with disapproval, she said, 'No, don't tell me. I think I can guess. This is a hijack, isn't it?'

Dave said, 'Sure you don't want to change your mind and come along with me?'

Kate laughed with contempt. Only the contempt wasn't for him. It was for herself. To have been proved wrong about this man, the man she loved, and by Kent Bowen of all people. He would never let her forget it, the bastard. She heard herself say, 'Me, on the lam with a drug hijacker? I don't think so.'

'That's too bad,' said Dave. So he had been right about there being drugs somewhere on board the ship. That's what she thought he was planning to steal. 'Because I meant every word.'

'Yeah, you said that.' She smiled bitterly. 'You said a lot of things that don't mean a thing now. And me? I really fell for that millionaire routine, didn't I? Then the gentlemen jewel-thief bullshit. You had me dangling on a string, and how.'

'So, I'm a liar,' admitted Dave. 'Everyone in this world is pretending to be something they're not.' He paused, hoping she might volunteer something about her own deception.

She said, 'No worse? Don't fool yourself, Dave. If that's your real name. You're just another cheap recidivist from Homestead.' Kate smiled at the look of surprise on Dave's face. 'Yes, I know all about that.'

Dave tried to figure how she made him an ex-con. She was still uncertain of his real name, but could somehow connect him with Homestead.

'You want to be more careful whose books you steal.'

So that was it. There must have been something in one of his books. A bookplate or something. He should have been more careful. Dave realized he had underestimated her.

'I guess you think you've figured out all the angles.' Kate slipped slowly off the bed and onto the floor. 'Well, I'm not going to wish you luck. Your kind isn't interested in leaving things to luck. You want a sure thing. But there is something I'd like to give you, in the way of a keepsake. Something to remember me by. When you're doing time again.'

Dave watched her coolly lift the bedspread, admiring the way she was handling herself. Him armed to the teeth and her, dressed only in pyjamas, still going for it, undeterred, thinking she still had a chance to nail him. Reluctant to admit defeat. There was no doubt about it, he had picked a really special one. Kate Furey was one hell of a woman.

Slowly she pulled out the bed drawer and said, 'A little souvenir, of our love. So you'll always know exactly what you missed when you lost my good opinion of you, Dave.'

Smiling, Kate reached into the drawer, all the way to the back where she kept her identity card and the Ladysmith .38. The way he was sitting there, legs akimbo, arms folded, smiling slightly, like the score was already in the bag. The last thing he was expecting was a weapons-trained federal agent coming out of that drawer with a gun pointed at his balls.

Dave watched her search become more urgent and the sly little smile she had been wearing quickly disappear. 'Looks like you've missed something yourself,' he said. And taking her ID out of the pocket of his huntsman's vest, he flipped it open over his forefinger. 'Is this what you're looking for, Agent Furey?'

Kate lunged for her wallet.

'Uh-uh-uh,' he said, and returned it to his pocket. 'This and the gun that was with it. What would you have done if you had found it? Would you really have shot me?'

Kate sat back and folded her arms calmly. 'We'll never know, will we?'

'Agent Furey. I prefer that name. It suits you a lot better than Parmenter. Agent Furey sounds like something the Army might have used in Vietnam. A defoliant, maybe. You certainly shook the leaves off my tree, I don't mind telling you. They're all over the grass.'

'Parmenter is my married name.'

'That part true? About you and he getting divorced?'

'Yes.'

'Is he FBI too?'

'No, he's an attorney.'

Dave nodded.

'When did you find out?' she asked.

'Oh, I could ask you the same question. But I'm afraid we're out of time.' Dave reached into his vest then tossed a pair of a handcuffs onto the floor. 'Just on the one wrist please, if you don't mind.'

'And if I refuse to comply? Do you think you can shoot me?'

'Nope. I couldn't even point a gun at the contents of your closet. But I wouldn't mind betting I could give that boss of yours, Kent Bowen, a good crack on the ear.'

'That makes two of us.'

'And Al -- well, Al is capable of just about anything where a Fed is concerned.'

'I figured.' Kate snapped the cuff on one wrist. Much as she disliked Kent Bowen she really hadn't the stomach to see any harm come to him.

'Just in case you were wondering, Bowen and the other fellow are safely handcuffed in the luxury of their own staterooms.'

Kate held up the wrist wearing the cuff. 'Can you get me the earrings to match?'

Dave pointed inside the head. 'In there, please.'

She got up and went through. He told her to sit down on the floor and to open the closet underneath the sink where the reel-to-reel tape machine was hidden.

'Nice stereo,' said Dave. 'By the way, who was it that you guys were really after?'

'What? You expect me to finger the dope for you, is that it?' Kate assumed he was being flippant. That this was just another way of taunting her. 'You. We were after you and your friend, Al.'

He said, 'No, you weren't. I already listened to your tape.'

'Then why are you asking me?'

'You're right. It doesn't matter. Now reach around the waste pipe and manacle the other wrist.'

When she had done it, he dangled the keys and said, 'I'll put these in my safe. I assume you know where that is. My guess is you already tried to open it when you searched my room. The key to the radio room's there as well. It's a four-digit combination. The first number's keyed in. It takes about two hours to work your way through the 999 remaining possibilities. The ship's crew are all locked up in the workshop, but it shouldn't take them more than a few hours to break out. I've told them you're here, so you shouldn't have long to wait. Of course, we'll be gone by then.'

He took out a roll of surgical tape. Just in case she started hollering and putting the crews on the Russkie boats on alert.

'I'm sorry about this,' he said. 'Really I am. You have the most attractive mouth--'

'Save it for the judge, asshole.'

'Anything I can get you first? A glass of water, perhaps?'

'How about a glass of water and a goodbye kiss?'

'Easy.' Still apologizing, Dave fetched her some water from the faucet and helped her to drink. She swallowed most of it but as he moved closer to kiss her, she squirted a jet of water right back in his face.