“What do we look for?”
“Anything suspicious. A locked door or padlock. Signs of recent use. It would be helpful if we could find where the women are being held captive.”
“Or the women themselves.”
He nodded.
“Do you think they’re here?”
“If they’re lucky,” he said darkly. “Come on.”
Drizzle floated down from a black sky as they made their way toward the front of the ship. Fog hovered at the deck level. Ahead, more decrepit containers were stacked like old cars awaiting the crusher.
They entered a walkway. Containers rose from the deck on either side, conveying the impression of a narrow canyon. Madrid climbed a scaffold that took him to one of the lower containers. He tried the door.
“Locked.” He rapped his fist against steel. “Damn it.”
There was no way they could reach the upper containers. But, honestly, Jess didn’t think the containers looked like the kind of place where smugglers would stow human cargo. They were too out in the open.
“What about below deck?” she asked.
“Things could get dicey if we get caught below deck.”
Jess knew he was having second thoughts about including her in this mission. While the realization that he was concerned for her safety warmed her, she couldn’t let it keep them from doing what they’d come here to do.
“Madrid, we can’t pass up this opportunity. We’ve gotten this far. Let’s look around and see what we find.”
When he looked at her, his expression was so torn that for a moment she wanted to reach out, touch him, tell him everything was going to be all right. But Jess knew better than to give in to that kind of temptation at a moment like this. Another kiss like the one he’d given her earlier and she might just lose her head.
“There’s no one on this ship, Madrid.”
“You don’t know that.”
“We can’t leave empty-handed.”
“Damn it, Jess, I don’t want you to end up like Angela.”
The words rendered her speechless. Up until this moment he’d been operating on logic. Was it possible coolheaded Mike Madrid was experiencing some of the same emotions as she?
“Too many people I’ve cared about have ended up dead.” He ground out the words as if to justify his earlier statement.
She did reach out then, a soft brush of her fingertips against his cheek. He winced as if her fingertips burned him. “Nothing is going to happen.” She forced a smile she didn’t feel. “We’re the good guys, remember?”
“Sometimes that isn’t enough.”
“This time it has to be,” she said.
He stared hard at her, nostrils flaring, his expression fraught with tension. “Fifteen minutes.” His voice was so low she had to crane her neck forward to hear. “Then we’re out of here even if I have to drag you. Believe me, I will.”
Jess didn’t doubt it, but there was no time to think of that now. “Let’s go below deck.”
Sighing as if in resignation, Madrid motioned toward the direction from which they’d come. “We passed a hatch a ways back. Follow me. Stay close.”
The only sound came from the soft tap of their shoes against the steel deck. The hatch was set into the fore-mast platform. An oval steel door complete with a wheel lock and rubber seal. Jess kept watch while Madrid went to work on the lock. Two minutes and the hatch creaked open.
Madrid turned to her before entering. “If anything happens, I want you to get back up on deck. If you can’t get off the ship, I want you to jump overboard and swim. Follow the lights.”
For the first time, the reality of what they were doing hit home. A quiver of fear every bit as cold and deep as the water surrounding them ran the length of her. “We’re not going to get caught.”
“What we’re doing is foolhardy, Jess.” Giving her a final hard look, he slid the flashlight from the duffel and ducked through the hatch.
Descending into the bowels of the ship was like descending into hell. Only, this particular hell wasn’t hot and fiery. It was cold and damp and dark. The odors of garbage and saltwater and diesel fuel filled the air as they reached the lower level.
The flashlight beam cut through the utter darkness to reveal a narrow horizontal corridor. Jess had never been claustrophobic, but she felt it pressing down on her now.
“This way.”
Madrid’s voice jerked her back from a place she knew better than to go. He went left and she followed close behind him. Somewhere in the distance she heard water dripping. In her peripheral vision, when the beam hit just right, she could see droplets streaming down the rust-covered walls.
A distant scream shattered the silence. Jess froze, her heart leaping into a wild staccato. Vaguely she was aware of Madrid stopping, too, and the flashlight beam disappearing. The uneasiness she’d felt earlier grew into a slow and cold fear that wrapped around her like the fingers of death.
“What the hell was that?” she whispered into the darkness.