Friends Wanting Benefits (12 page)

"I'll be right back."

She watched smiling as he made his way across the large room to the empty bar and picked up the phone. He returned a minute later and said, "Captain Waterbrook would love to see you. He asked that you wait in the South Sea Lounge right back here. I can show you."

"Thank you."

He led her to the large empty room at the back of the ship with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. It featured a stage area and seating for about one hundred people. He walked to back of the room and pointed to a table. "How's this?"

"Perfect."

"Can I get you anything, Agent Wilde?"

"No, I'm good."

"He'll be here in just a few minutes."

She smiled. "Thank you so much."

As Ricky headed away her smile faded.
Shit, what the hell do I do now? You're an agent in the facial recognition what? What the hell is that? What do I say?

Her panicked expression faded when she looked down at her bare legs and a smile took its place.
When you want to direct their attention away from your words, use a beaver shot, just like Sharon Stone did in Basic Instinct.

She rose out of her chair, moved behind a large plant and pulled her tiny panties down her legs and off her feet. She stuffed them in her purse then returned to the chair with the gears turning in her head. Her eyes brightened and she tugged her skirt up a bit more so it was barely covering anything at all and crossed her legs. Then, to setup emergency plan B, she positioned her purse on the arm of the chair and waited.

Less than a minute later, Victoria spotted the captain as he entered the enormous room and headed toward her. She swallowed hard watching the hulk of a man lumber her way carrying his burly, imposing frame with power and masculine grace. He wore a deadly serious expression, which faded slowly the closer he got to the scantily clad stunning blonde.

Narrowing his eyes, he held out his hand. "Agent, um…"

"It's Wilde— Agent Wilde." Trembling on the inside, she put on her deadliest, sexiest smile. "Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me."

"My pleasure." Smiling, he sat down and his eyes traveled up her long, crossed legs to her tight top, lingering a moment too long on her cleavage before coming to rest on her face. "So, what can I do for you Agent Wilde?"

"Oh, I was hoping to offer my services… In an unofficial capacity, of course."

"I don't follow."

Clearing her throat, she sat up a bit straighter. "Um, I understand you're in the middle of a serious crisis over this incident in the locker room."

"Yes, we're in full high-alert mode here, but my security staff is working around the clock and we will find the individual responsible."

She uncrossed her legs and his eyes followed her movements, she paused a second then slowly re-crossed them bringing the other leg up. His eyes opened wide as he must have gotten at least a shadow of a glimpse of her lady parts. His jaw fell open and his eyes glazed over a bit.

"Captain?"

He didn't respond.

"Captain?" she repeated softly.

"Sorry. Sorry." He shook his head and looked her in the eye. "I'm running on no sleep here… What exactly do you think you could do for us?"

She began confidently, "As I was telling Ricky, I'm an Assistant Director in the F.B.I. working in the Facial Recognition Software Division."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Computers are sort of my hobby, tell me more."

Oh, fuck. I have to get the only ship's captain who's also a computer geek.

"Yes… Sure. I specialize in facial type, um… identifying terror suspects and, you know…" she stammered with her words trailing off weakly.

He narrowed his eyes, suspiciously. "And exactly how can you help?"

She did the leg trick again, but he didn't bite.
Oh, shit!

"I'm, um, glad you asked." She took a deep calming breath then began, "Well, I believe that if I'm brought up to speed on everything you know and given access to your security camera footage and passenger photograph database that I could deploy my software on your network and within just a few minutes cross check the passenger manifest to every frame of footage and tell you if you have a match or if you're just spinning your wheels." She flashed him a confident smile.
Where they hell did that come from? I guess
I know a little about computers myself big guy and I've watched a hell of a lot of movies.

"Really?" He studied her curiously for a moment. "We are struggling to resolve this and we'd love to have your help. Now, if you could just show me your credentials." He gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry to ask, but it's just a formality."

"No I completely…" Using her elbow, she knocked the purse off the arm of the chair and quickly climbed up on it. Leaning over the back of the chair, she knew full well that her tiny skirt would fail miserably covering her pantilessness.

Captain Waterbrook didn't blink once, nor take a breath in the approximately five seconds he was afforded a view of Victoria's most intimate of areas. When she finally returned to her chair with her purse, he was in a near catatonic state. Holding back a smile, she opened her purse and pretended to search. "I think I have it here somewhere."

She returned her eyes to him and found he was still moved by the
Victoria Experience
. "Oh my, you do look tired?"

"What?" he muttered.

"I said, you look tired."

"What happened?" Bringing his hand to his forehead, he wiped away some sweat.

"Are you okay, Captain?"

He shook his head. "I'm fine. I think. What were you, uh—"

"Good." Returning to her purse, she fumbled through it another moment then looked him in the eye. "I know… It's in the safe in my room." She rose to her feet. "I'll just run and get it. It'll give me a chance to change. It's so cold on the ship today."

"You're going to change?" He asked with concern.

"Yes, I'm a little cold."

"Hold on." He pulled a small communication device from his belt and pressed a button.

A moment later it buzzed and a voice spilled out of the speaker, "Yes Captain?"

"Make it three degrees warmer in the South Sea Lounge." He smiled to Victoria then added, "In fact, make it that much warmer in all the common areas, right now."

"But sir—"

"Just do it!"

"Yes, sir."

He rose to his feet and pulled off his jacket. "Would you like my jacket?"

"Oh, thank you." Standing, she smiled appreciatively.

He helped her put on the jacket then motioned for her to return to her chair as he slipped back into his. She performed the leg cross routine once more then gazed into his eyes, waiting.

"I don't think I'll need your credentials." His eyes dipped down to her bare knee then back to her face. "Now, what would you like to know?"

She smiled. "First, it seems like you are treating this matter, no disrespect intended, with a—"

"You think we're overreacting?"

"Well, maybe just a little. I mean, it's not as if someone was actually raped and, I mean, let's be honest the victim was a man and an old one at that."

The super-masculine Captain Waterbrook's lip quivered and he appeared as if he might burst into tears at any moment.

Leaning forward with concern, she placed her hand atop his. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"Agent Wilde, you—"

"Victoria," she interrupted.

"Victoria, when I was thirteen, I…" he took a deep breath before continuing, "… I was nearly a victim of a sexual assault myself."

"Oh my God."

"It was our football coach and I actually suspected he was molesting other members of my team and I didn't do anything about it. I just sat by and watched, too terrified to tell anyone what I thought I knew. But the day he put his hands on me he pulled back broken fingers."

"What happened to him?"

"That day I also broke my silence and he was arrested, but the damage to three of my teammates had already been done. I could have ended it sooner."

"You can't beat yourself up over this. Those other boys could have come forward too and you said yourself that you weren't sure."

"I know. I know." He let out a long, slow breath and shook his head. "I take sexual assault very seriously, especially if the victim is a child or a woman, but even an elderly man deserves justice."

A genuine tear streamed down her face. "I was, um… I was almost raped myself."

Waterbrook narrowed his eyes angrily.

"I did something stupid and put myself in a dangerous situation and—"

"No means no! Miss Wilde. I don't care if you're wearing sexy clothes or acting a certain way, no is still no."

"Yes, I know. The man I'm on the cruise with saved me that day and I'm so grateful and he's… he's a wonderful guy."

Waterbrook shot her a proud look. "I'd love to shake his hand."

Pulling a tissue from her purse, she dabbed her eyes, then grabbed another and handed it to the captain. He turned to look behind him and upon finding them alone, he wiped his eyes and they shared a gentle smile.

For a brief moment she felt terribly guilty, but she shook off that thought remembering that there was no real rapist onboard and that her story, at least her near-rape story, was, in fact, true. She sighed then looked at him with genuine concern. "Now I understand what's going on here. I get it and I want to help."

"Thank you, Agent. Now, what else can I tell you?"

"Do you have any security camera images of the hooded man's face?"

"We do, but they're so grainy that at this point they're unusable. I have two members of our audio visual staff trying to enhance the best images we have and a dozen other officers searching through the security footage now looking for clues."

Victoria sighed. "Your staff is probably overwhelmed with this search and I'm sure they have so much other work to do, that isn't getting done. You have four thousand passengers to keep safe onboard and I'd hate to see another incident occur while everyone is preoccupied with the search."

"I appreciate your concern, but if we don't solve this before we reach our next port the individual responsible might slip away when we dock."

"My unit has developed an advanced facial recognition system which is currently in use in seven airports throughout the United States. I have access to this system."

"Okay."

"Now, this project is so highly classified that I shouldn't even be mentioning it to you."

"You can trust me, Agent."

"I know I can. If you give me access to the Internet along with access to the suspect's image and your passenger database I can help. In less than thirty minutes I will be able to tell you with absolute certainty whether or not you can identify your subject with the footage you have."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, this software is so advanced that if it can't find the match, no crew ten times the size of yours spending months searching will find it. Either I will find the match or you can sleep easier knowing you did all that you could."

"Okay, let's do it."

"I'll need private access to a computer. No one without Level 1 United States government security clearance can even know what I'm doing. Can we keep it our little secret?"

"Yes." Waterbrook rose to his feet. "Follow me, Agent."

The captain led Victoria to the bottom floor of the ship and its information systems area. Inside a room ten crew members sat in front of screens viewing security camera footage.

Bobby Garboni, a sweaty, overweight, nerdy-looking guy with greasy hair scowled at the captain. "I can't give her full access to our system! Who is she?"

"That's classified."

"But, what if she—"

"Garboni, I want you to give Miss Wilde whatever access she needs right now and I want this room cleared."

The officers looked up from their screens to the captain.

Waterbrook boomed. "Now!"

Wide-eyed, the ten officers scurried from the room and the captain grabbed the last man by the arm and said, "I want everyone to return to their normal duties. Tell Branson to contact me immediately."

The captain returned his attention to Garboni. "Do it now!"

"Okay," he grumbled.

Waterbrook smiled to Victoria. "Thank you for helping us. If you have any trouble getting what you need, please contact me. I can be reached on extension 5634."

"Thank you." Victoria smiled. "I'll call you when I'm done."