Lost At Sea

She had studied Henry’s picture carefully for several weeks prior to boarding the cruise ship. She knew every line and detail of his face, and yet she was not prepared for the look she got in the moment Henry realized his life was over. In the one, brief instant that existed between her forceful push on his back near the edge of the cliff, and Henry’s complete loss of balance, she found herself wondering, for the first time in her career, why she did what she did. The kill itself was not the cause of her doubt. The look on Henry’s face, however, was. For that one, second-long eternity, Henry gazed up at her with a look of sympathetic mercy, as if to say “I’m so sorry you’ve chosen the life you have, but I forgive you.” She could not shake the feeling she got as she gazed into his sorrowful eyes. They had burned their impression on her mind, and she was affected by them as she had never been by the pleas and offered bargains of countless others before Henry. Henry did not beg, and he did not grovel for his life. He did not have time.

Henry was a hard target. That is why she got the job. She was the best, and besides that, she had attributes her male colleagues did not have, and she needed all of them to get close enough to Henry to do this job. She knew from her employer that Henry was going to be on this cruise, ostensibly for business, and that he did not always keep his wedding ring on his finger during these “business trips”. The first part was easy, marking Henry from the well studied picture she was given when she got the assignment. The next part, for her, was equally simple; seduce Henry and gain his trust. Henry was a closed man, and did not trust anyone. It turned out, however, that his fondness for female company was stronger than his fear of assassination. Henry had been targeted several times before, and was extremely careful with his life, but he never imagined his wife would hire another woman to kill him.

During the first three days of the cruise, she looked for an opportunity to get Henry off the ship, away from the other passengers. That opportunity came when the ship’s activity director announced a small boat tour of some of the local islands. Henry seemed excited about the prospect of sightseeing with his new mistress when she brought it up that evening. They would join the early tour tomorrow morning at 0900. Stepping onto the small boat with Henry and five other passengers, she felt a sense of relief that this assignment would soon be over. She had dealt with tough jobs before, but even now, she had a sense this one would be different. None of the other passengers seemed to notice as the new couple stepped onto the boat, and none of them even really looked in their direction during the trip out to the first island. After stopping at the third island, the couple’s group met up with the group from the later tour for lunch. The late group was traveling in the opposite direction, so this was their second island of the morning. She sat next to Henry as he chatted with a man from the late group about the breathtaking views on the island to which Henry’s group was about to travel. When they got there, Henry seemed to be a different person, and he exhibited an enthusiasm she had not seen in him before. She could barely keep up with him as they made their way up to the vistas. As he stood there near the edge, she knew this would be her only chance to avoid witnesses. No one had taken names when they got on the boat, and no one was likely to notice one less person on the journey back. She walked up behind him quietly, and extended her hand.

No one seemed to notice her as she stepped onto the boat for the short ride back to the ship. None of the five other passengers spoke to her, and none noticed Henry’s absence. She would disappear to meet her contact, and there would be another assignment waiting. There would be a new job, a new identity, a new life. No matter what she changed about herself, however, she could not forget Henry’s eyes.