Barracuda Page 14

  Micko decided that he needed to investigate the money-laundering caper while trying to be inconspicuous. He also wanted to contact the law in Majuro and have the Micronesia police investigate the attempt on the researchers’ lives and the missing rebels. The scientists decided that they had to learn what had caused the sharks to leap in fear and who was responsible for de-finning the sharks on the Saratoga flight deck.

  Once all that was established, they needed a rational plan and then the execution of that plan. This would take time, so Micko walked over to Flacka and ordered another round. She motioned for Micko to follow her to the far side of the pool.

  “Watch out for Tanya,” she warned in a low voice.

  “What happened, Flacka?”

  “She was here earlier and threatened me. She wants to know all about you and why you are here. She thinks that you are investigating the Russians and that damn journal.” Flacka had her eyes and head lowered in a submissive posture, and Micko felt sorry for her.

  “Don’t worry, Flacka. I can handle Tanya. She can be both predator and prey.”

  ***

  It swam victoriously back into Its lagoon after routing the gray reef sharks for the second time. Taking up Its position in the protective layers of the netting in the bridge masts, It looked down upon Its kingdom. The huge shipwreck lay like a beaming city below. The bodies of Its enemies were strewn about, providing substance for citizens who would eventually become Its meal. It felt sunlight shimmer off Its body, so It slithered under more netting, seeking the shadows that hid his presence.

  Then It felt that something was amiss. There was less netting, and It suddenly noticed small fragments of rope floating in the water. It swam out of the protection of the shadows and made a cursory reconnaissance of Its kingdom below. Something was wrong, and It had to find out if it could be perilous to him. Soon It noticed the lower strands of rope concealing the entrance to Its den flailing in the current. It became enraged and attacked the webbing with the same viciousness that It had attacked the reefers. Before long, the rope was removed, and It once again found solace in Its den.

  ***

  Once Micko had assured Flacka that everything would be all right, he returned to the table with the round of margaritas. The scientists were talking excitedly, and Micko asked, “Hey, what’s all the commotion about?”

  “Our underwater surveillance camera in the passageway!” James shouted.

  “What about it?”

  “It should have recorded the sharks’ leaping frenzy and the cause,” Dr. Collins explained. “We can download the video from a satellite, and then play it back on our computer screen in our room. Let’s go, gentlemen!”

  “What about the drinks?” Steve asked, a little plaintively.

  Dr. Collins grabbed his glass, gulped down his drink, and asked, “What drinks?”

  The rest downed their frosty drinks and walked to the hotel to powwow in the researchers’ room. When they entered the lobby, they ran into Hiroshi, who stood aghast with his pudgy little mouth wide open. Micko smiled and though to himself that he could probably lob a full orange into it.

  “What happened? Where have you been, Dr. Collins?” Hiroshi asked. “We have not seen you at dinner for days.”

  “We were just conducting elaborate experiments, Mr. Hiroshi. Never worry about us.” The professor smiled as he walked by.

  The group took the elevator up to the researchers’ rooms, and James went straight for the satellite uplink. Micko and Steve were marveling at how nice the suite was when James cursed, “Damn! The camera won’t download! I’ll have to go out to Enidrik tomorrow and bring it back here.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Dr. Collins said.

  “No, we’ll all go, except Steve,” Micko said. “He has a recovery of his own to work on.”

  ***

  Rat was holding court in the Pegasus Lounge at the Bikini resort. “Are you Renegades ready for tomorrow morning’s scavenger hunt?” he asked.

  The crowd roared its readiness and approval.

  “The Renegade that recovers the most bandanas wins a free scuba trip to Cairns to dive off the Tusa dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef. Second place wins a Dacor regulator, third place wins a Henderson wet suit, and the rest will go to the bar in search of solace.”

  Again, the crowd roared its approval. The beer and booze appeased their anger at arriving a day late. This gang of extreme divers would make up for the lost time with reckless diving and partying.

  “Bulldog, did you charter the boat for our crew only?” Rat asked.

  “Yes, Rat, the entire boat is ours for the morning, and we will be the only ones diving on the Saratoga. The Thor will take the Californians to the HIJMS Nagato in the afternoon,” Bulldog replied.

  “Has anyone seen Billy or Bobby yet?”

  “I checked with the front desk, and they’d already checked in from the Majestic. Maybe they had to go back to get some of their gear,” Skinny Hal answered.

  “Well, look up their room number at the Majestic and find out what’s up. We scavenger tomorrow—with or without them!” Rat declared.

  He looked over his group, pleased. They were all hardcore drinkers and divers, and a great week was in store for them—with or without the B and B brothers.

  “Party hearty, brothers and sisters, but be on the dock at seven a.m.—and leave your hangovers and complaints in your room.”

  ***

  Micko and Steve left the scientists to continue their shark research.

  “Steve, go ahead and plan your recovery and containment of the hatch,” Micko said. “I’ll go see the resort liaison officer and let her know what’s going on.”

  Steve walked back across the hotel lobby toward the dock and scuba shop while Micko took the elevator to Andrej’s penthouse office. When he neared the door, he could hear angry voices from within. He was unable to make out their words, but he heard part of one sentence.

  “I don’t ever want another soul to see the Bible again!”

  With that, Micko barged into the office. He found Andrej frozen with a discolored ledger in his hand. Also frozen were Tanya and Alex. Micko had certainly caught them by surprise, and now he thought that a helping of good news would stun them further.

  “I have great news!” he announced. “We found Dr. Collins and James, and they are just fine. A storm tore their boat loose while they were diving, and I found them living on a small island. They are now getting right back to work on their project.”

  Tanya spoke first as Andrej quickly handed the ledger to Alex, who quickly disappeared into another room. “That is good news,” she said, “but you should knock on doors before you make such grand announcements.”

  Micko had to be clever, so he started acting very excited. “Knock? Are you crazy? This is terrific news, and I knew you would be excited, too, so I just barged right in. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything, but the scientists are alive!”

  The Russians just stared at him in angered silence. With one of her catlike movements, Tanya grabbed Micko’s arm and gently guided him out of the office. “Have you had dinner yet?” she whispered.

  Micko knew the seduction was imminent, so he replied, “No, I haven’t.”

  “I have a private room in the casino,” she cooed. “Let’s have a real nice meal.”

  “Great idea. I’m famished,” Micko whispered back, pretending to be under her spell.

  Tanya was skilled in the art of seduction. She had already dressed to the nines in anticipation of seducing the cop that night. As they sat in the privacy of her room, she ordered cocktails and oysters. While they waited for the order, she batted her eyelashes at Micko when she talked, lowering her eyes sensually so that he could get a look at her bouncy breasts protruding from the low-cut dress without her noticing. Micko easily could have fallen for this trick except that she reminded him of a spider luring a fly into her web. Then the picture of Bill hanging in the web of wiry death sprang into his mind. Make this predator your prey,
he thought.

  A sexy waitress delivered the apple martinis and oysters Rockefeller. Tanya told her not to return until she was summoned. The waitress curtsied with fear in her eyes as she closed the door behind her.

  “Is everyone here afraid of you?” Micko asked.

  “It’s not easy being a woman in a man’s world,” she replied.

  “Do you ever forget that you are a woman?” Micko was going to make it easy for the seduction to begin.

  Tanya crept up close to Micko and whispered into his ear, “Only when the right man allows me to lower my guard—and you are the right man.”

  Boy, is she laying it on thick, he thought. “You always wear prudish business outfits, but this dress is quite stunning,” he returned.

  “I have to play different roles in my job as a liaison. At night in the casino, I dress to arouse and keep the players distracted so they want to stay at the gaming tables. I whisper in their ears and bend over so they can see my cleavage. It’s a game—a game that I play very well.”

  “Are you playing the game with me?” he asked.

  “Let me slip into something more comfortable and you’ll be able to answer that question for yourself.”

  Tanya went into the next room. Micko quickly picked up both martinis and dumped them into a potted plant base before she could return. He sat back at the table and imagined that she might return wearing a sexy babydoll outfit with seduction on her mind.

  When Tanya returned, Micko was startled by her appearance. She wore black thigh-high leather boots with four-inch heels to match her black fishnet stockings that were attached to a skin-tight black studded leather corset. Tanya looked like a dominatrix. The only things missing were the whip and the handcuffs.

  “Are you opposed to alternative lifestyles, Detective?” she asked.

  “I’ve been around the block a few times, Tanya, so nothing surprises me,” Micko replied, although in truth he was surprised. He quickly ran this new game through his mind and figured that she either wanted to shackle him to the bed and torture him for information or she was simply into it.

  He stood up and feigned dizziness. “Oh, I guess I shouldn’t have drunk those martinis so fast,” he mumbled. He stumbled over to her, touched her hands, and said, “You are the sexiest woman I have ever seen.”

  Tanya looked over at the empty martini glasses, smiled, took him by the hands, and led him silently into the bedroom. The room was tinted red from a low-watt red light bulb, giving it an eerie yet sexy warmth. It was equipped with a queen-size brass bed with an elaborate brass headboard.

  Tanya gently pushed Micko down on the bed and began removing his clothes. She knelt down and removed his sandals one at a time. She had a base pan filled with water, and she used a cotton cloth to wash his feet. She used her sensual tongue to lick his toes and then she dried them.

  Next she unsnapped his fanny pack and placed it on a table next to her purse. She figured that his wallet and ID were in the fanny pack since they hadn’t been in his room when she’d tossed it earlier.

  Tanya pulled Micko’s bathing suit off next. She knew that he had just come from diving, and his body was encrusted in salt from the ocean, so she gently washed his genitals and dried them before using her experienced tongue again.

  Micko knew that Tanya’s plan was to get him drunk and have sex with him until he was worn out and fell asleep. Then she would go through his personal items, seeking information about his mission on Shark Alley Island—if there was any mission at all. He doubted he was going to fall asleep, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t enjoying himself.

  Tanya folded Micko’s bathing suit and placed in on a chair. Then she flashed a wicked smile and walked over to one of the end tables. Her movements were slow and graceful as she removed a pair of fur-lined handcuffs from the drawer. Her lithe body placidly slid onto the bed next to him and she whispered in his ear, “You have been a naughty policeman and now Tanya must punish you.”

  Micko knew that he could not allow himself to be placed in a position where he was completely helpless, so he answered, “How about tying me up with those sexy stockings?”

  Tanya hesitated for a brief moment and then whispered, “I like that idea, cowboy.”

  She stood up from the bed and did a slow, exotic striptease that rivaled the moves of any porn star. Micko felt himself getting too excited and began to conjure up a plan of his own. Tanya’s amorous restraints were quite stimulating as she tied each wrist to opposing bedposts. Once she felt that he was helpless, she put the stiletto boots back on, turned on some soft music, and then stood over him and ran the heels of her right boot down his chest.

  Tanya seemed to be getting off on this sense of power and dominance. She jumped off the bed and removed a large feather from the bureau then did a sensual dance as she rubbed the feather over Micko’s erogenous zones. She had no intention of just jumping into the sex act in a heated rush. Her erotic antics lasted for hours as she slowly wore her prisoner down.

  ***

  Steve was on his way back to the scuba shop when he unexpectedly ran into Hiroshi.

  “Well, Steven, what’s the hurry?” Hiroshi asked.

  “Mr. Hiroshi, I have to tell you something.” He related the sad story of the Aussie brothers, and that he needed to set up a recovery party for the remains and then a repair party to lock down the opening into the Saratoga’s hull.

  “Sorry, Steven, but that will have to wait a couple of days,” Hiroshi responded. “I need both dive boats to tow my fireworks barge from Eneu tomorrow.”

  “But, Mr. Hiroshi, the brothers’ bodies will be eaten by fish, and I’m afraid that other divers will enter the same hole.”

  “There will be no divers from the Majestic going out tomorrow, and I don’t give a damn about the divers from the Bikini resort,” Hiroshi snapped before walking off toward the casino.

  Steve was in a quandary. He had wanted to use the Lily I to complete his tasks, and Micko and the scientists were supposed to use the Lily II to remove the underwater camera from the Enidrik passageway. Now there were no boats available from the dive shop.

  He walked over to the big game fishing charter boat and found Captain Hugo playing cards with his mate Christian. Steve explained his dilemma without going into great detail, and Hugo agreed to turn his boat into a search and recovery vessel if the Majestic would cover the cost of his fuel. Steve lied and promised that Hiroshi would cover the cost. Then he went to the scientists’ rooms and explained the situation.

  James said, “Let’s stop what we’re doing, Professor, and go see Celestial. We must have a boat for our research.”

  Dr. Collins agreed, and they went down to the fishing village to seek out Celestial and his sidekick Regis.

  Steve went back to the scuba shop to begin making telephone calls to request help from his dive masters and instructors for the next day’s gruesome task. He also made a mental note to call Denise, the dive master at the Bikini resort scuba shop. He wanted to warn her about taking divers to the USS Saratoga until the hole was repaired.

  ***

  Tanya finished her exotic dancing and teasing, and then jumped on top of her highly aroused captive. She had a faraway, glassy look in her eyes as she mounted her prone prisoner. Micko knew she was also very aroused by her wetness as she slowly slid down his erect shaft.

  Micko was so excited that he was ready to explode, so he used an old trick. Thinking about Mickey Mantle and batting averages never worked, but pain or unpleasant thoughts usually did. Every time he was about to lose it, he kept envisioning that fish swimming out of Bill’s eye socket and into his nostril. Micko never lost his erection, but he lost the immediate arousal to have an orgasm.

  Tanya was working her magic and enjoying it immensely, and she was grateful that this sneaky detective had enough stamina to give her several intense orgasms. She thoroughly enjoyed the “woman on top” position where she could control both the man and the sexual rhythm.

  The pair of sexaholic
s had really worked up a sweat when Micko suddenly pulled his hands free from his bindings. He knew from previous experience how easy it was to slip out of stocking cinches, especially when sweaty wrists were involved. He rolled Tanya over in a flash, took up the male dominant sexual position, and commanded control. Tanya had a look of utter surprise on her face as Micko began using her as his sexual toy.

  Micko no longer had to think ugly thoughts to hamper his orgasm. His “line of duty” leg injury had begun to hurt, and the more he gyrated and changed positions, the more his leg hurt and the less sexually excited he became.

  Tanya turned her surprise into renewed passion. She loved the fact that a dominant man was actually controlling her and bringing her to sexual heights that she had never believed possible. Who was this man who kept tossing her into various sexual positions for his own gratification?

  Finally Micko thought that this had gone on long enough, so he allowed himself to be aroused fully, pulled out, and ejaculated on Tanya’s gorgeous breasts. He showed her who was boss by taming her in the bedroom and beating her at her own game. Two highly charged egos came head to head.

  “My god! That was incredible!” she gasped. Her breasts were heaving like she had just run a marathon as wet sperm dripped down her cleavage.

  “You’re not too bad for a Euro broad,” Micko kidded. “We’re both pretty messy and need the bathroom. Do you want to go first, because I’ll be in there for a while?”

  “No, you can go first. I need to catch my breath, and I don’t think my legs will work just yet,” she said with a laugh.

  Micko went into the bathroom and left the door slightly ajar. He filled up a cup of water from the sink and slowly poured it into the toilet. While he did this, he peeked out the door into the bedroom. Tanya was going through his fanny pack and wallet, just as he’d expected her to do. He ran out of sink water and began the usual after-sex requirements while Tanya did her covert search.