Page 62 of Wait for Me

One last intruder raised his arms to get up from the floor, and Omar finished him before Marie could. She tried not to read too much into it, but Omar’s smirk gave her the impression that he was delighted to be faster than she was.

Whatever. I’m not here to compete with you.

Marie had no idea how much time had lapsed. Covered in blood and sweat, she was exhausted as she stepped aside for the shipboard security to take over. Those bodies were no doubt going to the ship morgue.

TheAlaskan Queen of the Arctic Seaswas heading for the glaciers, and wouldn’t be docking at a port until Friday. As far as the rest of the five thousand passengers were concerned, the cruise had been uneventful.

Even as six men lay dead in Marie’s stateroom, spilling blood and guts all over the off-white carpet.

Marie wanted to get her things—her purse and the suitcase in her closet. Security debated whether she should, but she insisted that she needed her pajamas and her passport.

They sent a steward in with a trolley to get her luggage, and told her they would take it to an empty stateroom, where she would stay for the rest of the cruise.

Her old stateroom was officially a crime scene.

In the hallway, it bothered Marie that Zaid had broken the necks of Buchanan’s men. She would have rather kept them alive for INTERPOL interrogation.

“No need,” Zaid explained in Arabic.

He seemed to wait for Marie to answer, as if testing her basic Arabic. He’d soon find out that she had already conversed with Omar in his mother tongue. Fluently.

“Because you’ve already traced Buchanan’s point of origin while he was on the phone,” Marie responded in English.

She knew it was a burner cell phone, and Buchanan was smart enough to use private VPNs. If INTERPOL, the FBI, the CIA, MI5, and MI6 could not find him the last three years, who was Zaid to succeed?

“If they were alive, you could ask them questions,” Marie said.

“Is that what you do, generally? Play nice?” Zaid smirked. “These people killed millions with their weapons. We will track him down and take him home with us. He will be tried and executed for his crimes.”

“So you know who was behind this.” It was becoming clear to Marie now. “You were sending him a message by killing all six of his men.”

“One was a woman.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. Then again, Buchanan is an equal opportunity arms dealer.”

Zaid nodded. “When they boarded the ship, we thought they were pirates. But when Buchanan started talking, I contacted my office and found out that he is wanted in my homeland.”

He spoke so casually that Marie wondered what kind of job Zaid did. “We who? Do you work for the captain?”

He laughed. “The captain works for us.”

“Us who?”

“Her Royal Highness Aliyah’s husband owns this cruise line.”

“What?” Marie was surprised.

“You didn’t google?”

“I was busy working.”

“Of course.” Zaid gave her a sly smile. “Please tell your boss at INTERPOL that Buchanan is ours.”

He said INTERPOL.

Marie tried not to react. Zaid knew where she really worked.

“You don’t have to worry. He won’t be bothering you anymore.”

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