you in that cell, you bastard, she thought, looking out through the door, slightly ajar.
She would also have to learn a little more about whatever the hell that thing was that had just been loaded aboard in the crate. There was certainly a high degree of fuss about it, but that was secondary to nailing Xander. She watched as he told the paleontologist that he should feel free never to call him for a reference while he looked for a new job, and then Xander walked out of the brig area toward the main cargo hold where the crate was. She heard shouts from in there, as if something was happening. It sounded like it should keep Xander busy for a little while.
Peering out from the closet, she saw the jailer call after Xander. Heard Xander say follow me , and he, too, left the brig area. She nudged the door just wide enough for her to slip through, praying it wouldn't creak, and then, while the father was telling his kid something about having a serious talk, Veronica slipped out of the closet.
She made a right turn, away from the commotion surrounding the crate, and tip-toed past the Ramirez reunion deeper into the cargo hold. As the ship's supposed doctor, she had been required to know the tanker's layout well, since she was expected to get to any part of the ship quickly in case of a medical emergency. To this end, she had studied the ship's diagrams and blueprints given to her by the captain, and now this prior familiarization with the ship was coming in handy, because while Xander was preoccupied, she would find out what the hell he was doing here by ransacking his quarters.
She knew his room was private—a rare luxury at sea—and located not in the hold, but on one of the bridge tower levels. She could get there by traveling through the long hold which ran nearly the length of the ship, which would also keep her a little more out of sight.
She crept past mostly empty, cave-like spaces that were dimly lit and stocked with unopened shipping containers—the kind that occasionally fell overboard and released their precious cargoes of Nike shoes and plasma TVs. She doubted the ones here contained mundane consumer items, though, knowing DeKirk, but right now that wasn't her concern.
Veronica kept moving, sticking to the shadows and staying low between the storage containers when she heard the voices of crew nearby. For the most part, it was easy going and after a while, she reached a circular stairwell leading up. She ascended, adopting an official air about her as soon as she reached the outer deck, as if she was headed somewhere on business and had to get there fast, no time to chat.
She knew there was a corridor of quarters for VIP guests, meaning that other than the captain's quarters, they were the nicest accommodations on the ship, and private rather than spaces crammed with triple bunks. She pounded up more flights of metal stairs, traversed a couple of wire mesh catwalks, and then pulled a door that opened into a short hallway with doors spaced at even intervals on both sides.
Guest quarters. She had taken a look earlier at the room assignment chart and knew Xander's quarters to be one of these, #412. She found the marked door about halfway down the hall on the right. She tried the knob.
Locked. As the shipboard physician, she did have keys to certain areas but the private rooms were not among them. Years of field work as a CIA operative certainly had its benefits though, and so Veronica looked both ways down the hall and then removed a lock pick from the medical bag she carried. She defeated the simple lock within ten seconds, opened the door, and slipped inside. She eased the door softly shut behind her.
Xander's quarters consisted of a single ten-by-ten room with an adjoining closet-sized bathroom, which she checked and found to be empty. In the main room, there was a single bed, a simple desk, and dresser. By the looks of things, Xander travelled light and did little but sleep in here, and probably not even