His Devious Rule

Anya had thought that the Johnson communication center would wait for them to connect to the Vice-captain. Since they ended the call, Anya started working on the laptop immediately.

Alvin noticed her hair draping at the sides when she lowered her head and started typing on the laptop. He silently grabbed the hair clutch from the counter, carefully held her hair, and put it on. This time, it stayed perfectly and didn\'t disturb her work.

Satisfied, he sat with a knee facing the ceiling and another leg folded on the cold floor as the next call might take another five to ten minutes. He had a lot of questions in his mind.

Why do the captain of the ship and so many people don\'t know Harper\'s complete plan?

Is Harper afraid many people might ruin the plan?

Doesn\'t the cruise ship belong to Harper? As far as Alvin got the report, it was under Johnson companies.

Is somebody else supporting Harper in the plan?

He highly suspected that. If they don\'t get a clear idea, Anya might still be in trouble after Harper goes behind the bars. His hand itched to reach his mobile to ask his people to investigate but there was no mobile network.

Meanwhile, Anya chose not to trouble Alvin by asking him to change his voice so she wrote a simple set of codes and programs that could remove some depth in his tone while he speaks.

"Unlike mobile networks, it\'s hard to identify the voice in radio communication. However, I will write a program that will help a bit in changing your voice." Anya let him know so that he doesn\'t have to modify his voice vocally.

Alvin looked at her and heard her worn-out voice. He saw her fingers slower than usual. Her eyelids were hanging down yet she was forcing them to open and focus. More than anybody, this mission was important for her due to her family\'s safety and she was ready to sacrifice her well-being for it. He hummed in response when she looked at him.

She sent him a video of the Vice-captain to his mobile. He barely watched as it was to show him how to speak like the Vice-captain of the ship.

It took nearly ten minutes to complete her task. The connection request hadn\'t been notified yet so she stretched her arms lazily like a kitten while yawning. She suddenly gasped when Alvin held her arms, pulled her back. Close enough for her to feel his body\'s warmth.

She couldn\'t fathom why she feels safe around him though he holds her without permission and sometimes tries to scare her to the wits. Although her body was craving to lean to his warm embrace, her mind refused adamantly, "Alvin…" She tried to shift away.

Anyway, he leaned her back on his body. "Rest, I will wake you up." His magnetic voice sounded behind her ear like a lullaby. She struggled to get up which led him to cage his arm around her waist and keep her secured.

Sighing, Anya contemplated. She was really exhausted, she was facing hard to even keep her eyes open so she couldn\'t fight him even if she wanted to. Hence she ignored her protesting mind. She closed her eyes, relaxed her shoulders, and snuggled her head to a comfortable position.

She mumbled, "Wake me up." Even her voice was wimpy as the sleepiness overtook her. Yet, she wanted to wake up and do her job without fail.

Alvin expected her to put up a long fight. Knowing how tired she was, he again adjusted her, helping her to free her crossed legs on the floor, and leaned her to his arms, resting her head on his chest just by following his instincts.

Anya added some protesting hums when he moved her and shifted her to his arms but her heavy eyelids refused to open. She heard rhythmic and steady beats of his heart. She urged her body to get away from him but had no strength to do so. Her body gave in to exhaustion without listening to her mind.

\'So treacherous.\' Her mind might lie, her heart might hide but her body heard nobody and found itself wrapped in a warm blanket-like warmth.

Her hands hung on his shirt, failing to push him or push herself. In a few minutes of silence, Anya fell asleep like a baby in his arms.

Looking at the harmless kitten while peacefully sleeping, Alvin couldn\'t believe she had a baby to look after when she looked like one. For no reason, he had the urge to embrace the stubborn woman but controlled it.

He quickly shifted his focus on the laptop. Supporting her with an arm, he worked with a hand. He had seen her working on it to establish the connection, so without any intention of waking her up, he prepared for the next call. Soon his mobile vibrated first, then he saw the connection request on the screen.

Alvin introduced himself as Vice-captain before the connection was established in the standard routine. [We have received the picture you sent. Boss asked us to pick another person and send a picture. Over.] The cocky voice continued.

Alvin made a note, the vice-captain sent some kind of picture. How is it possible?

Is the hacker so proficient?

What kind of picture could it be?

Harper had threatened to kill the people, did they start aiming at people\'s life to scare Bernard?

If a person was killed, where is the body?

Alvin looked at Anya who hadn\'t woken up to his voice. To check the unusualities on the ship, Anya will have to wake up and hack the network. But he didn\'t want to disturb her sleep.

For now, he needed to end the call, "Alright, the work will be done. Over."

[Why do you sound different? Over.]

Alvin had expected Harper\'s team to be smart and identify the different ways of speaking. "Stomach upset. Over." He lied.

[Get to work, be careful. Over.] The call ended immediately.

Alvin wasn\'t sure if the person at the other end believed him or not. They could only take the gamble.

He worked on the laptop for a few minutes to connect the cruise ship to the yacht. "Alvin here." He didn\'t follow the standards and his voice had returned to cold and overbearing.

The other end reported immediately, [Sir, we are following the ship at a distance of 4 miles. Anymore closer than this could notify the ship. We have arranged a seaplane as you have asked.]

"Alright." Then he ended the call.

It is the escape plan he has arranged. Even if they get caught, they will have to manage for a few minutes before jumping into the ocean. By seaplane or yacht, they could get on it and leave immediately. In front of his and her safety, he didn\'t care about the lives of people on the cruise ship.

He packed the devices\' bag while carefully supporting her. He pushed it back to its position and changed her position as though they were still sitting and playing on their mobile.

He resumed the live surveillance and stood up carrying her in his arms. He went out and laid her on the bed. He grabbed the comforter from the couch and covered her.

Seeing her unaffectedly sleeping, he realized she lied to him as the bed was uncomfortable, although he would agree it was softer than necessary.

He needs to catch some sleep. He couldn\'t just sleep on the couch as they were husband and wife. So he went to the couch, continuing to pretend to be watching a video on his mobile. Soon he dozed off.

-----

In a room on the ship,

A dimly lit room looked mysterious with the gray walls. There were two white round clocks on the wall. One had the time of the ship location and another had the time of the country Narnia. There were no windows due to the room under the ocean surface.

Below the wall cock on the wall, there were six monitors in two rows, playing the videos of couples inside their cabin. There were small devices on the table. Opposite the electronic devices, two men in their twenties were sitting on the swivel chairs watching different screens.

A man in a plaid shirt was watching a middle-aged couple being intimate on the couch. He furrowed, "This is so boring." Yet he put them on recording and changed the video to check if any exciting things were going on in a different room.

The jacket man\'s face was full of doubts, "We need to check this room camera."

"Which one?" The plaid shirt man asked.

"The new boarded guests\' room."

"Oh, that sexy, feisty couple." The plaid shirt man eagerly turned to the other side. He was waiting for their night. However, his face changed as soon as his eyes fell on the screen, "What are they doing on the bathroom floor?" He asked, with disbelief written all over his face.

The jacket one answered in no less bewilderment, "They are sitting and talking like this for fifteen plus minutes. Their voices are low so we couldn\'t hear them." Then he expressed his main point, "Look closely, there is a glitch in the video."

The plaid shirt man observed closely and his expression changed drastically, "Wait… Look carefully, their body language, movements are the same. It\'s like... repeating the same thing."

Both looked at each other in panic, before the plaid shirt man grabbed a walkie-talkie to notify their boss, the Vice-captain of the ship.