“I’ve been watching you,” the boy said, panting. “You’re so beautiful. I’ve been waiting. I’ve been waiting for this so long.”

When it was done, the boy pulled up his pants and was gone. Corrina cried as she rolled over on her side, holding one hand around her bruised neck and one hand squeezed between her bare thighs. It hurt to cry. Everything hurt.

When she opened her eyes she saw at the same time as she seemed to first hear, Darren on the floor crying in the corner of the living room. She crawled towards him, pulling her pants up but undone. Coming closer she saw the blood on his lip; she remembered the fist hitting Darren’s temple, and it occurred to her that he’d possibly continued trying to fight, until perhaps giving up, and she might not even have noticed.

When she reached him she embraced him, pulling him to his knees, she on her knees, and they joined together in crying to a synchronous beat.

When their crying stopped, a great silence came up around them. She pulled Darren to his feet. Her baby. She was overwhelmed with the idea that his life was broken and irreparable. They walked back to the lounge. They found their spot around a lounge-chair table unoccupied, and uncrowded by any groups at nearby tables, and they sat there quietly.

In a way it didn’t happen. No one around her knew anything. No one was there to see that it had happened. There were no police to report it to. The only mark, its only history and existence, was the pain.

All her life she had spent overcoming her beauty. As if she had the power to do that. It was all just a joke. Any man could take from her whatever he wanted at any time. She’d felt so strong, as if she’d learned the secrets how to deal with the world on her terms. No, she thought, she never had learned to protect herself. She’d fooled herself into believing the world’s protections were her own invention.

44

Travis found the Colonel alone in Hesse’s office, and they waited together for Hesse to return. Hesse and Brenda White were doing their own recon work, checking for safe routes to the emergency power room, hoping Travis would have give them a bit of a distraction. Travis waited with Warrant.

“Brenda’s stayed behind,” Hesse said when he returned. “She doesn’t want to have to keep crossing that gun.”

“Anything touched?” Colonel Warrant said.

“Not really, no,” Hesse said. “I don’t think they’ve found it.”

“If they haven’t found it, they haven’t looked,” Colonel Warrant said.

“It’s a big ship,” Travis said. “That room’s a needle in a haystack.”

“Not at all,” Warrant said. “They’re not looking. So what are they doing?”

“Waiting,” Travis said. “They’ve no plans, honestly it doesn’t seem like the concept of a plan to get themselves off the ship has even occurred to them. Like they’ve convinced themselves that only some of us can get rescued, so if they can outlast us, they WILL get rescued.”

“Anything else?” Warrant asked.

“They’ve got a lot of bullets left,” Travis said. “I saw some magazines on Golding. But it’s still only one gun. Golding’s sharing it, at least with that little guy, his name’s Dumas, maybe with some others. The gun was in the galley with Dumas when I went there, and then they took me down to Golding at the Theater.”

“How close did you get before they found you?”

“Well, there’s just no way to approach the Theater or the galley without being seen. The galley’s wide open, with glass walls and they have sentries around the Theater. Except, I was noticing the Theater doors are really heavy doors, without windows. So I wonder if there’s any way to isolate the outside sentries, take them out without getting any attention, or just shut them off from the Theater somehow.”

“How does Golding seem?” Colonel Warrant asked. “And the other guy he gives the gun to, Dumas?”

“They’re nervous,” Travis said. “I think they feel that since they have the food, we’re coming after them.”

“Well, they’re right,” Hesse said. “But they must know we’re fishing, so they don’t know how long we can wait.”

“I don’t think they have anything specific planned against us,” Travis said. “Anything more, I mean.”

“They will,” Colonel Warrant said. “Stupid can’t last forever. We’ve got to act soon.”

“Even if we took the galley when the gun wasn’t there,” Hesse said, “even if we got all the food back here, what’s to stop them from taking it again? They’ve got the gun.”

“We need to take out the gun,” Travis said. “It’s the only way.”

“He’s right,” Colonel Warrant said, “we can kill Golding, or we can kill all of them, or we can let them kill us. I think you’ll agree, the most palatable option is the fat man.”

“So how do we kill Golding?” Hesse said.

“I have a gun,” Travis said.

If Travis had said he had a nuclear weapon or an escape rocket he would not have gained a more powerful response. Both men froze, their eyes and mouths open wide.

“Colt 1911,” Travis said. “From a dead pirate. Seven bullets.”

“HOOOOOORAH!” the old Colonel cried out.

Hesse fell back in his chair with his arms spread wide, laughing.

The Colonel clapped his hand and stomped his foot, and a painting fell off the wall, the glass smashing and they all laughed. They were intoxicated with hope.

They made him confirm several times the existence of the gun. When they began to calm, Travis told them he’d found it and had kept it hidden since.

“So how do we do it?” Hesse said.

“I’ll do it,” Travis said. “I’ll kill him. I hate the guy.”

He did too, he thought. He had an actual enemy he wanted dead. That was a first.

“Do you know how to fire a gun?” Colonel Warrant said. “Never mind. You’ll have to trust me. I’m very good with a pistol. I’ll show you my trophies when we get home. I’ll kill the fat man.”

“If we’re gonna do this, let’s figure it out now,” Hesse said. “Time is not our friend.”

“The restaurant is one deck above the Theater, and aft,” Colonel Warrant said. “There are three staircases that are clustered around there. Now, there’s one hall on the restaurant level where all these staircases arrive. There’s an open view of it from the bathroom. If I can get in that bathroom-”

Travis shook his head. “They’d see you from the restaurant. They can see that whole hall if they’re looking that way.”

Hesse thought a moment. “You said they brought you down to the Theater, did anyone stay in the galley?”

“Yeah,” Travis said. “There was another guy there.”

“What about Theater side?” Hesse said to Warrant. “Travis managed to see the sentries without being seen, maybe you could.”

“Very risky,” Travis said. “I think to keep a real watch for Golding coming out, you’d be spotted eventually. Besides, I think he uses the rear entrance, from the backstage area. There’s a sentry there too, but there are definitely hiding places around the corner from the sentry. If you just waited, you could ambush him there eventually, you’d hear him coming.”

Colonel Warrant tapped his fingers quickly on the table. He was sitting, Travis was sitting, Hesse was standing, moving around, looking out at the Atrium mob and the faces that occasionally looked back at him hoping for something.

“Alright,” Warrant said, “give me the gun.”

“I haven’t got it with me,” Travis said. He’d been waiting for the request so he answered without pause.

“Well, where is it?” Warrant asked.

“Hidden upstairs.”

“OK,” Warrant said. “I’ll do this tonight, in the dark. I’ll get in position and wait there till morning.”

“Do you think going alone is best, or would you want a point man?”

Warrant thought.

“No,” the old soldier said at last. “Two people is just twice the chance of being heard or seen. I’m better alone.”