Flotsam and Jetsam

"We want what belongs to us. Too many have died to get it. We believe that you have taken documents from thePacific, my dear Mr. Jacob."

"The logbooks? Yeah, we did, but we don't have them anymore. We have given them to the embassy in..."

"That might or might not be true," he interrupted me. "You will certainly understand that I have to make sure."

"What are you going to do?"

"Your new fiancée. Oh, so pretty. I personally don't care about female charms anymore. She's still useful to me, by employing her help to freshen your memory."

"Honestly, we don't have it anymore and it was worthless junk, anyway."

"Shh, shh," he just said as one of his colleagues started to bind Liz to a chair and the other opened the small suitcase they brought with them. To my horror, it was full of pliers, drills, scalpels and other torture equipment.

"She won't be as beautiful when we're done with her. You know what they say about true beauty. It's more than skin deep. You will soon get the opportunity to prove your real love for her."

The other guy started to apply a pair of pliers to one of her fingers when a deep, booming voice from the door surprised everyone.

"Stop that shit, Yuri!" I almost expected Liz' 'language,' but she seemed too occupied at the moment.

"Alexander," the Russian, who I guess went by Yuri, exclaimed. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Obviously. We've been following you. You really expected to pull this shit here, right in the US?"

The Russians dropped their guns, as the four heavily armed men who had trooped in behind Alexander looked rather convincing. And here I thought our open house was on Wednesday. I had better take this up with Liz when I got a chance. Meanwhile, our little tea room had become far too crowded.

"Yuri, they don't have the logbooks anymore. You can go home, they handed them to the embassy. They were worthless anyway. This whole unfortunate affair was just a big misunderstanding."

Unfortunate affair? A whole shipload of people had been killed.

"I see. We already suspected that they had nothing to do with it, but you understand that we had to make sure, don't you?"

"Of course, Yuri."

Despite the underlying danger and inhuman brutality, the exchange had been weirdly civilized and polite. The Russian interrogator had meanwhile calmly packed his stuff back into the suitcase and was about to untie Liz. He acted as though this happened to him every day. Maybe it did, what did I know.

As soon as he had done that, she stood up, and without any warning kicked him viciously into the balls with her spiked heels. He immediately folded and she used the moment to grab the wooden palette she used for painting and smacked it into the side of his head. A few teeth and a lot of blood were flying across the room. The side of his face was rather interestingly colorized afterward. I bet this didn't happen to him every day.

Yuri was about to defend his colleague, but Alexander stopped him and shook his head with an amused look.

I couldn't help but say "that's my girl," foolish as it may have been. Liz answered by winking at me, but she was definitely a bit paler than normal.

"Let's go, Yuri. There's nothing to be gained here for you. Report to Moscow that we already have checked the papers. Do us all a favor and leave these people alone from now on."

The last sentence was delivered casually, but with an underlying sharpness. Yuri looked at him with an empty expression.

"I strongly recommend it, Yuri. You won't like what will happen otherwise. Meaningless revenge is so unprofessional."

"Shit," Yuri answered, sighing.

"Language!" Liz remarked, surprising both men and causing me to smile.

For some reason, Alexander's last argument seemed to convince Yuri. He just nodded, mumbled something unintelligible and the whole bunch of Russian assholes left our home and life forever. We never saw any of them again.

"Okay, Jacob, you might give it to me now."

"What?" Liz exclaimed, immediately understanding what we were talking about. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Of course, Alexander," I replied, trying to appear calm while taking off my golden crucifix. To be honest, I was a bit nervous about Liz's reaction.

"You know, Liz, you can relax. Your handsome fiancé here is no professional spy," Alexander explained while he opened the thing. "He's just a rich guy looking for..."

"What?" he was sharply interrupted by Liz. "Rich?" Damn, the other cat was out of the bag as well now. "Any other details you forgot to mention? Are you from Mars possibly? Why bother telling me such insignificant stuff, I'm just your fiancée." She was really gaining momentum now. I desperately needed to say something, but I couldn't think of anything.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Jacob. I didn't know that she didn't know."

"You better explain this and you better do it now." I could almost see the steam coming out of her ears as she stared me down. Please, Alexander, tell her the right thing, I thought.

"Calm down, my dear Liz," Alexander continued as words failed me. "He wasn't supposed to talk about the microfilm in any case. It was much safer for you to not know. He did the right thing."

Thank you, Alex, I thought as I watched her deflate a tiny bit.

"Yes, he's a rich heir," he continued. "After his mother died, his father wanted to hammer him into being the ideal son. His own hopes and dreams didn't matter, he was just a blank to be forged."

Holy cow, how did he know all that about me, I thought.

"To everyone's surprise, little Jacob fought back. After countless years of brutal fights, his father had come to his wit's end. He gave Jacob an ultimatum. Either to accept his responsibilities, meaning to become exactly the man his father had in mind, or to be disowned. Jacob didn't answer but grabbed a few clothes, the money he'd saved and just walked away. As far as we know, this was the last time he ever spoke to his father."

I nodded to confirm this. This talk made me uneasy, it was a time that I didn't like to remember, much less talk about.

"He signed on with an old freighter and lead the simple life of a seaman, since then. When his father died, he inherited everything but didn't change his lifestyle. I knew his father, the old bastard, rather well and had always kept a bit of an eye on Jacob.

"He just helped us in a unique situation. We saw no other way to get the microfilm back to the US. We were rather understaffed down there, nobody expected anything to happen in Indonesia. Jacob was in the area and I had basically two choices, send him or my neighbor's dog."

"Are you nuts, you chose him over a good dog?" came her mischievous reply. I relaxed a bit. If she was joking again, we'd be good.

"I never said that Skip was a good dog. He's a bit of an asshole, actually, and he has only three legs. It was a close decision," Alexander joked back and Liz laughed a bit.

"Seriously, guys, you knew all along why the ship... I mean... So many people..." she stuttered, obviously thinking about Helene and the others who had died.

"No, I didn't know why the ship blew up," I answered. "I honestly thought that was Liam. Sorry about the microfilm, I wasn't supposed to talk about it."

"Not supposed to talk about being rich as well?"

"I would have told you eventually, but I hated my father and was never proud of the money. I've done nothing to earn it and I didn't want it to change the way you think about me."

"Asshole!" she exclaimed.

"Language!" Alexander chided and we all had to laugh. The last bit of tension was broken.

"Actually, I think this is a rather fortunate situation, don't you think? Liz's rather limited wealth is running out after a few rather unfortunate investments her late father had taken, while yours is big enough for ten lifetimes..."

"What? You have financial problems?" I asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well," she hawed, "I wanted to tell you eventually, but I didn't want to spoil the mood... I wasn't proud of that either. It's not that bad, actually. We'd have been okay for a few more years."

I interrupted her by giving her a huge kiss.

"Great! Everything is settled then," Alexander exclaimed, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Yeah, sure. Apart from Helene Saville and a ship full of people being killed, everything is peachy," she poignantly remarked.

"I know and I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It's over now."

"I hope it was worth it."

"It was, Liz. This was really important. Good luck to the two of you," he concluded while leaving the room.

For me, it definitely was worth it, I thought. Countless died, good friends among them, but I had found a love I hadn't dared to dream of.

Did I ever go to sea again, you ask? Are you crazy? Leave my wife and kids at home for months? No way. I'm far too busy being happy.

Quite a few people gave me their input on the story this time. My wife, Blackrandl1958, Norafares, George Anderson, Bebop3 and Darker Binding. I'd like to thank them all.