Snakehead

bottle of water for himself. He was going to need it. Continuing down the corridor, he passed a laundry, a game room, and a miniature hospital. He came to an elevator and was tempted to take it. According to the display, there were six floors above him. But he didn’t have time and dreaded waiting for it to arrive, only to find it packed with Yu’s men.
    He came upon Yu’s stateroom at the very end of the corridor. It wasn’t locked—but there wasn’t a man on board the Liberian Star who would have dared enter even if the door had been open and Yu miles away. Alex slipped inside. He saw a table with a number of files and documents spread across the surface and wished he had time to examine them. What secrets they might reveal! But he didn’t dare touch anything. Moving even one page a fraction of an inch might give him away.
    He looked around him, taking in the pictures on the walls—scenes of the English countryside with, in one image, a traditional hunt setting out across what might be Salisbury Plain. A sophisticated stereo system and a plasma TV. A leather sofa. This was where Yu worked and relaxed when he was on board.
    The bedroom was next door. Here was another bizarre touch. Yu slept in an antique four-poster bed. But Alex knew at once that it was perfect for his needs. There was a silk valance that trailed down to the floor, and lifting it up, Alex saw a space half a yard high that would conceal him perfectly. God—it reminded him of being six years old again, playing hide-and-seek with Jack Starbright on Christmas Eve. But this wasn’t the same. This time he was on a container ship, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by people who were determined to kill him.
    Same game. Different rules.
    Alex took a swig of the water he had stolen and slid underneath, easing the silk valance back into shape. Very little light bled through underneath. Alex prepared himself, trying to find a comfortable position. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to move a muscle once Yu entered the room.
    He was suddenly struck by the craziness of his plan. Could he really stay here all night? How stupid would he look if Yu found him? He was briefly tempted to crawl out and find somewhere else. But it was already too late. The search would have begun, and he couldn’t risk starting again.
    In fact, it was several hours before Yu came in. Alex heard the outer door open and close again. Footsteps. Then music. Yu had turned on the stereo system. His taste was classical…Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, the music they played at the Albert Hall in London every summer. He listened to the piece while he ate his dinner. Alex heard one of the stewards deliver it to him and caught a faint scent of roast meat. The smell made him hungry. He sipped a little more water, glumly reflecting that it was all he had to last the night.
    Later Yu turned on the television. Somehow he had managed to tune in to the BBC, and Alex heard the late-night news.
    “Pop singer Rob Goldman was in Australia this week, just five days before the conference taking place on Reef Island, which has come to be known as Reef Encounter and which has been timed to take place at exactly the same time as the G8 summit in Rome.
    “Goldman played to a sold-out audience at the Sydney Opera House and told an enthusiastic crowd that peace and an end to world poverty were possible—but that they would have to be achieved by people, not politicians.
    “Speaking from 10 Downing Street, the British prime minister said that he wished Sir Rob every success but insisted that the real work would be done in Rome. It’s a view that not many people seem to share…”
    Much later, Major Yu went to bed. Alex barely breathed as he came into the bedroom. Lying in the semi-darkness with muscles that were already aching, he heard the major undress and wash in the adjoining bathroom. And then came the inevitable moment: the creak of wood and shifting metal springs as Yu climbed into bed, just inches above the boy he was so determined to find. Fortunately, he didn’t read before he slept. Alex heard the click of the light switch, and the last glimmer of light was extinguished. Then everything was silent.
    For Alex, the night was yet another long, dreary ordeal. He was fairly sure that Major Yu was asleep, but he couldn’t be certain, and he didn’t dare sleep himself in case the sound of his breathing or an accidental movement gave him away. All he could do was wait, listening