Her Lieutenant Protector Page 9

  Mallory dragged a chair over to the corner, then donned a pair of gloves and grabbed a tongue depressor. She glanced around quickly to make sure no one was watching her and climbed onto the seat of the chair.

  She only had to stretch a little to reach the black box. Working carefully, she inserted the flat wooden spatula into the seam between the body of the box and the lid. She applied a little pressure, and the lid popped off and sailed through the air, landing on the floor with a clatter.

  “Whoops,” she murmured. Hopefully it didn’t break when it hit the ground...

  She turned back to the box and frowned. The black plastic framed a panel of some kind that was mounted to the wall, with a collection of colorful wires and cables running in and out of various ports. It looked like the kind of thing that would be found inside a computer terminal, at least to her untrained eye. But she was most interested in what was missing.

  There was no gray putty.

  She peered closely at the guts of the box, going so far as to reach up and feel around in the corners and under jumbles of wires. Nothing.

  “Maybe it’s on the lid?” she mused. It was possible the putty had stuck to the interior wall of the lid and been pulled free when she’d sent it flying. Mallory hopped down and retrieved the object in question, but when she flipped it over she saw nothing but a smooth expanse of plastic.

  “What is going on?” she muttered. If Everest was right, and the gray putty was an important part of the communication hubs, then the stuff should be found in every box on the ship. But this one was empty. And she was willing to bet if she popped the lid off the box in the hall, that one would come up empty, as well.

  That meant whatever Danny had encountered, it wasn’t supposed to be part of the boxes. So what was it? And how had it gotten there?

  More important, were any other boxes affected?

  Her stomach dropped as her imagination took flight. What if the putty was distributed in some of the passenger cabins? If the material were to escape the confines of the box, any unsuspecting person who came across it could be injured. Danny had sustained his injuries in a matter of moments, which was impressive, considering his skin was toughened, thanks to regular exposure to cleaning solutions and chemicals. The average passenger would probably suffer from more extensive burns, which made this substance a liability.

  She popped the cover back into place and stepped off the chair, her mind whirring. If she wanted to make the argument that passengers were in danger, she had to prove the gray putty was present in the boxes found in the cabins. But she couldn’t very well waltz into someone’s room and start fiddling with the communication hub.

  Or could she?

  There was one cabin she knew without a doubt was unoccupied. Now that Jeff and his friend had been turned over to the Jacksonville police, their room was empty. She could slip inside Jeff’s former cabin, examine the box and have an answer once and for all. If that box was devoid of the gray putty, she would chalk up Danny’s exposure as a random occurrence and stop worrying. But if she did find the stuff, she’d have evidence to take to the captain.

  And Everest.

  But how could she get inside? She didn’t have a master key for the passenger cabins, which presented a bit of a challenge. Everest would have access, but she didn’t want to bother him. He hadn’t been too enthusiastic about the prospect of searching the boxes, and she didn’t think he’d be interested in helping her now, especially when her little expedition might turn out to be a waste of time. She’d rather investigate this alone, to spare herself potential embarrassment if she turned out to be wrong.

  “Doc? Is that you?”

  Danny’s voice was weighted with fatigue, and she frowned. He should be feeling better by now, but it sounded like he was getting worse. She strode over to his bed and pulled back the privacy curtain, dismayed to find his color had not improved since the last time she’d seen him. He was still pale, and the pinched set of his mouth revealed his discomfort.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  He winced. “My head is killing me. Do you think I could have something to take the edge off?”

  She nodded and turned to the laptop mounted on the wall by his bed so she could type in an order for pain medication. A glint of light caught her eye, and she glanced back at the bed, searching for the source of the distraction. Her gaze zeroed in on the ring of keys and access cards clipped to Danny’s belt.

  Oh, perfect, she thought, hardly daring to believe her luck.

  “Danny,” she said, trying to sound casual while she typed her orders. “Do you happen to have a master key to the cabins on your ring?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Why?”

  “I locked myself out of my room this morning,” she said. “Would you mind letting me borrow your key card so I can get back inside? I left mine on the dresser, and it will only take a minute for me to grab it.”

  He hesitated a moment, and she tried not to let her eagerness show. “It’s fine if you’d rather not,” she said. “I can always call security and have them send someone to meet me there at the end of my shift. I was just kind of hoping to take care of it now while I had a moment.”

  “Okay,” he said with a little sigh. “Technically I’m not supposed to let the keys out of my sight, but if I can’t trust you, who can I trust, right?” He laughed weakly, and Mallory tried to smile. Guilt nipped at her thoughts as he unclipped the ring from his belt and flipped through it. He’d taken her at her word, but she had lied. She felt terrible about it, almost bad enough to tell him not to bother. But she had misled him for a reason, she reminded herself. She had to make sure the passengers were safe.

  He held up the ring, one card gripped between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s this one,” he said, passing it over to her.

  “Thank you,” she said, accepting it from him with a smile that she didn’t have to force. “I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem,” he replied. “Just be quick about it, yeah? I’d hate for my boss to drop by and see my keys are missing.”

  “Don’t worry,” she assured him. “This will only take me a minute. I’ll be back before anyone notices I’m gone.”

  * * *

  Mallory’s stomach churned as she walked along the corridor to Jeff’s old room. She forced herself to act naturally, nodding to passengers and other crew members as she passed by them. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, per se, but snooping around in a passenger’s cabin wasn’t exactly in her job description, even if the passenger in question was no longer on board and she was only trying to protect others.

  She glanced down at her hand, double-checking the room number she’d scribbled onto her palm after checking Jeff’s chart. She was getting close... There it was.

  Mallory stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath, resisting the temptation to look around to make sure no one was watching her. It was hard to appear normal when her nerves were clanging, but she knew if she showed any hint of worry it would only draw attention to herself and what she was doing.

  “In and out,” she muttered, inserting the key card into the electronic lock. Just a few minutes, and she’d have her answer. One way or another.

  She slipped inside the room and let the door swing shut behind her. The room was cast in shadows, thanks to the shades being drawn over the windows on the far wall. She flipped on the lights and glanced around, a little surprised to find the room was spotless. Everest and his team had gathered up the men’s belongings and sent them with the Jacksonville police, and it seemed the housekeeping staff had wasted no time in flipping the room after the occupants had left.

  The network hub sat perched in the corner, and Mallory dragged the desk chair over so she’d have something to stand on. She donned a fresh pair of gloves, and within a minute, she had the cover off and was peering inside.

 
; The now-familiar jumble of wires and blinking lights greeted her, but her gaze immediately caught on the lump of gray material pressed to the inside wall of the box.

  “Bingo,” she breathed.

  Excitement made her fingers tingle as she studied the foreign material. Part of her felt vindicated at her discovery, but her satisfaction at being right was quickly replaced by a growing sense of worry.

  The gray putty didn’t look like anything she’d seen before, but that didn’t mean much. She wasn’t exactly an expert in the workings of communication networks, and she didn’t know what kind of materials were required to make them function properly.

  “But this isn’t required,” she said, thinking aloud. If the material was a necessity, it should be found in every box. But the hub in the clinic had been empty, and it seemed to work just fine. That meant this stuff, whatever it was, didn’t need to be here.

  “So what’s it doing?” And was it in the other passenger cabins, as well?

  All of a sudden, her mind flashed to her first patients of the day. The woman she’d examined had had a sunburn on her neck and the side of her face, as if she’d dozed off while lying on one of the lounge chairs.

  I haven’t been in the sun that much, the woman had said. I’ve mostly stayed inside, shopping and watching the shows.

  At the time, Mallory had just assumed the woman had underestimated her sun exposure. But after seeing the burns on Danny’s palms, now she wasn’t so sure...

  If this material was in the woman’s cabin and in other places throughout the ship, perhaps it had caused the woman’s sunburn-like rash. Mallory closed her eyes, picturing the markings on her patient’s skin and seeing them in a new light. Maybe she hadn’t been sunburned after all; maybe her skin was showing signs of irritation due to chemical exposure.

  But what kind of chemical could induce such an obvious response without direct contact? Mallory racked her brain, but came up empty. There was another possibility, though, one that filled her with a heavy sense of dread.

  Radiation.

  She’d seen the effects of radiation treatment on cancer patients during medical school and her residency. People who received radiation to shrink their tumors often displayed red, sunburn-like rashes on the areas of their body that had been exposed. And the other common side effects of the treatment? Nausea and vomiting.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered. Was it really possible? The pieces seemed to fit, but it strained credulity to think radioactive material was scattered throughout the ship.

  Mallory looked again at the putty, suddenly very aware of how close she was to the box. Her stomach twisted, and she quickly popped the cover back onto the box and climbed down, needing to move so she could think things through.

  She paced the confines of the room, searching for a more plausible explanation for her observations. But none of the alternatives she came up with seemed to fit in quite the same way.

  Implausible as it sounded, Mallory was forced to admit the idea that the gray putty was radioactive was worth investigating further. But she couldn’t do it alone.

  It was time to call Everest and tell him what she was thinking.

  She walked over to one of the beds and sat on the edge, then reached for the phone on the bedside table. She dialed his pager number and typed in a quick message, asking him to meet her here. He’d want to see the evidence firsthand, and then they could formulate a plan.

  Mallory let her gaze wander around as she waited. The box could be seen from every part of the room, which meant whoever was inside would be continually exposed. Not good.

  Jeff’s words echoed in her head. There’s a body in the walls.

  “I don’t think so, buddy,” she murmured. Everything looked normal on that front, as far as she could tell. The closet door was cracked open, and she stood and walked over to look inside. It gave her something to do while she waited for Everest to call back.

  She noticed the damage right away—a piece of cardboard had been tacked to a spot on the wall, probably to conceal a hole or some other flaw. It was hanging precariously by one corner, the other having pulled free from the pin holding it in place.

  Mallory knelt and pried the pins from the wall, intending to straighten the cardboard and put it back in place. Just as she’d thought, there was a hole behind the makeshift barrier, likely the result of Jeff or his friend kicking through the drywall while high.

  She leaned forward to put the cardboard over the gap, and the light from the overhead bulbs glinted off something inside. “That’s odd,” she muttered. As far as she knew, there shouldn’t be anything shiny inside the walls...

  She bent over so her face was directly in line with the hole. At first, she couldn’t tell what she was looking at. Then realization struck, and she gasped.

  The light she’d seen had reflected off a thick sheet of plastic, the kind of tarp found on construction sites. And it was wrapped around what looked like a human foot.

  Mallory jerked back, falling onto her bottom with an involuntary shout. She scrambled to her feet, her heart in her throat and her mind racing.

  Jeff hadn’t been hallucinating. There really was a body in the wall of his room.

  Her panicked brain latched on to one thought: Everest. She had to find Everest, and now. She couldn’t sit here and wait for him to arrive any longer—she had to go track him down. She was way out of her depth and needed help.

  The door shushed over the carpet as it opened behind her, and she felt a wave of relief.

  “Thank God you’re here—”

  The blow was unexpected and came without warning. One second, she was turning to greet Everest. The next, she was on the floor, her vision blurring as spots of light danced across her eyes. The back of her head felt like it was on fire, and she tried to lift her hand to touch the spot. But a wave of dizziness swamped her, and she closed her eyes, sinking into the inky-black depths of unconsciousness.

  Chapter 9

  Everest rounded the corner and walked swiftly down the corridor, headed for Jeff’s room. He was filled with a mixture of curiosity and exasperation; he’d known as soon as he left Mallory standing in the clinic that she was going to do something, and sure enough, she had conducted her own little investigation.

  Part of him was interested in seeing what she’d found, but a larger part wished she had left this kind of thing up to him and the members of his staff. She was a doctor who had no training in security issues, and if there really was some strange toxic substance on board, she may have put herself in danger by charging off on her own.

  The door to the room was open, and he pushed inside to find Wesley, his right-hand man, kneeling on the floor next to a body.

  No, not a body. Mallory.

  Everest’s heart jumped into his throat, and he quickly moved forward. “What the hell is going on here?”

  Wesley’s head jerked around, his wide eyes relaxing when he recognized Everest. “I’m not sure. I was down at the end of the hall when I heard a shriek, and then a man came bursting out of the room and took off. I started to follow him, but I saw her on the floor as I went by.” He turned back to Mallory. “I couldn’t just leave her here like this.”

  Everest lowered himself to the floor by her head, worry gnawing at his stomach. “Mallory,” he said loudly. “Mallory, wake up.” What had happened? Had she been stabbed? Beaten? It was impossible to tell from this angle—she was lying on her stomach, and while he saw no sign of injuries on her back, he couldn’t see the front side of her body.

  His battlefield instincts kicked in and he ran his hands over her body, starting at her ankles and moving up her legs, over her hips, across her back and shoulders and down her arms, searching for any signs of injury. He couldn’t feel anything through her clothes, but perhaps he was just missing something...

  Mallory
moaned and began to stir. Everest carefully helped her roll onto her back and leaned over her face, calling her name. She winced and moved her hand to her head, rubbing her temple with her fingers.

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  She squinted up at him. “Everest? Is that you?”

  Her question made his blood freeze. Could she not see him?

  She blinked up at him, and he realized the overhead lights were probably blinding her. “It’s me, Mallory. Do you want to try to sit up?”

  “Yes.” Her hand gripped his arm, and she held on tight while he eased her into a sitting position. He settled down next to her, keeping one arm around her shoulders to make sure she didn’t fall back again.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said. She shook her head, then winced at the movement. “I was waiting for you, and I thought I heard you come inside. But when I went to turn, something hit me on the back of the head.”

  “Not something,” he said grimly. “Someone. Wesley said he saw a man run out of the room and take off down the hall.”

  Mallory glanced over, apparently noticing Wesley for the first time. “Did you get a good look at him?”

  Wesley shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I just saw the back of him as he ran away.”

  “Why don’t you see if you can track him down,” Everest said. “I know it’s a long shot, but maybe you’ll see him again.”

  “Maybe,” Wesley said, sounding doubtful. He rose to his feet, his expression skeptical. “Are you sure you’ll both be okay here?”

  Everest glanced at Mallory, who nodded subtly. “Yes. I’ll escort Dr. Watkins back to the clinic and then find you so we can discuss what you saw and review the security tapes. Hopefully the cameras caught a good view of his face so we can track him down.”