Harm for the Holidays by Donn Cortez

Author:Donn Cortez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Heart’s Voyage was only a few years old, a massive ship just over 950 feet long with a beam of 123 feet and a gross tonnage of 112,000 tons. Her top speed was twenty-three knots, she could accommodate almost twenty-seven hundred passengers, and it took a crew of eleven hundred to service her lounges, restaurants, theaters, gyms, laundries, kitchens, and engines.

Horatio intended to search it all.

The pretext for the search was disease. Ever since a number of cruise ship passengers had come down with an intestinal infection called the Norwalk virus—one that caused nausea, vomiting, and stomach cramps—in the early twenty-first century, the Center for Disease Control had been authorized to make two unannounced shipwide inspections per year on any oceangoing vessel capable of transporting more than thirteen passengers at a time. While the cruise ship line wouldn’t be happy about the negative publicity, the cover story would cause far less panic than the possibility the ship might be carrying a one-kiloton nuclear stowaway.

The divers would be harder to explain. Horatio had a police boat dock a few berths away, with a Diving School sign prominently displayed; if asked, they were conducting a training exercise for police divers.

But this, Horatio thought, is no drill.

Delko was in charge of the external search, while Calleigh, Horatio, and Nadira would coordinate search teams inside. Nadira and Horatio had pulled together an impromptu task force, putting almost a hundred Miami PD, crime lab staff, and FBI agents side by side for the search. Everyone was in plain-clothes, except for a few decoys in bright yellow CDC jumpsuits.

The ship was taking on supplies for its next cruise, meaning there were no passengers aboard yet and only a skeleton crew. Horatio hoped the term wouldn’t prove more than metaphorical.

For the external search, Delko and three other divers examined the hull closely below the waterline. They studied the maneuvering props inset into the keel, making sure no foreign objects had been placed in the waterways; they checked the intake and outtake for the main props, the bilgewater outflow, and the anchor housing. Horatio himself believed it unlikely the bomb would be placed externally—but if there was one thing the Brilliant Batin had proven so far, it was that he was far from predictable.

The interior search was far more complex. The Heart’s Voyage boasted thirteen passenger decks, including nineteen bars and lounges, three swimming pools, four restaurants, a fourteen-thousand-

square-foot fitness center and spa, two Internet cafés, a video arcade, several clothing boutiques, a full-scale concert hall, and a casino; in addition there were the crew quarters, the engine room, the bridge, the lifeboats and cargo hold, plus all the internal equipment and maintenance space.

They cleared out all ship personnel first, then began their search. They went deck by deck, starting at the top and working their way down. Horatio wanted the outside areas done first and as quickly as possible; the less attention the searchers drew, the better.

Unfortunately, the layout of the ship worked against them. People on cruises wanted a view, so there were many glass walls and open-air decks and even balconies.

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