Another day passed by without the agents making any breakthrough. Although, unknown to Michael and Sam, Jefferson had met with the captain of the ship and entrusted him with the contents of the box. The contents, apart from being a crucial part of Jefferson’s plan were also a sign of the years Jefferson had spent in law enforcement and the connections he had on the legal side as well as in the gray area.
On the third day of the cruise, Jefferson awoke early in the morning, got dressed and waited for the knock on his door. The previous night, He had instructed Michael and Sam to come to his room first thing in the morning and accordingly, they were at his door at six. After the three of them were seated, Jefferson finally let them in on his plan. He explained every step in detail, along with the significance of the object in the box. After he was done, the two agents gave each other a silent look.
“Will he fall for that?” asked Sam.
“Even if he doesn’t, he will not be able to resist the urge to check on the diamonds and his facial expressions and body language will be more than sufficient to reveal his identity to us.”
“But how do you plan to watch all the people at once?”
“Simple. We assemble them in the lounge because it is big enough and has cameras. I’ll be monitoring the footage myself.”
“You mean we will be monitoring the footage,” said Michael.
“No, I mean I, you two will be in the lounge.”
“That’s just great!” retorted Sam.
Michael got up and said, “Then let’s get to work, what’s our reason for assembling the guests?”
“We keep it simple, just tell them that the captain has an important announcement to make.”
Michael left with the intention of going to the captain’s cabin.
Sam looked at Jefferson and said, “What do we do once we know who he is? How do we confront him and get the diamonds?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” said Jefferson before exiting the room.
After a rather hurried breakfast, Jefferson headed to the surveillance room, while Michael and Sam went to the lounge. They took seats on opposite sides of the room and waited for the announcement. After a wait of just two minutes, a voice reached their ears. The voice belonged to the captain, and it was booming through the electronic announcer which was fitted in every location on the ship. The announcement was short and precise, the passengers of the cruise were requested to assemble in the lounge as the captain had an important announcement to make. Michael and Sam saw as, within minutes, all the passengers on the ship were assembled. Once more, Michael was grateful for the fact that the number of passengers on board was low.
After a minute had passed, the captain entered the lounge with a grave expression, in his hand he had a small box, the same box which Jefferson had given him.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as all of you are aware, I have an important announcement to make, and I prefer to make it face-to-face.”
A murmur of agreement passed around the room. Michael and Sam were looking at each passenger very closely. Although Michael tried to focus his attention equally on each passenger, he found that he could not help but focus a bit more on Will Singer. The man in question seemed to be ill at ease as he smoked a cigarette, taking a long drag each time.
“I will not beat around the bush. As you will be aware, the famous collection of diamonds, Les Morceaux de Lumiere has been stolen recently, now, we have a situation on board.” saying this the captain opened the box and took out its contents. Everyone gasped as they saw what rested in the palm of the captain’s hand. There, lying in the center of the palm, lay a glittering diamond.
The captain ran a quick eye through the crowd and so did Michael and Sam. In the surveillance room, Jefferson was not even blinking, his eyes were glued to the screen, and he was trying to look for any signs of nervousness. But that was quite a job, as everyone had a look of surprise on their faces. He could see Michael and Sam, who were now on their feet, looking at each passenger in turn.
Back in the lounge, the captain said, “This is one of those diamonds. Now, I strongly urge all of you to share any information you might have regarding the diamond or about the identity of the person who has smuggled it on board.”
The captain looked expectantly at the faces of each of the passengers but none of them said anything. They just looked at each other’s faces with either suspicious or confused eyes.
After a few moments of expectant silence, the captain spoke up once again, “If any one of you wishes to talk to me privately, they can come to my office. I look forward to your cooperation.”
After the captain had left the lounge, there was an awkward environment in the lounge. Each passenger looked at the other with apprehensive eyes. Soon the numbers began decreasing as the people exited the lounge to clear their heads. Michael looked up at the camera as a signal to Jefferson that it was up to him now. Once again, the only inhabitants of the lounge were Sam and Michael.
Sam walked over to where Michael was sitting. “Did you notice anything? Anyone who might have reacted strangely or who looked too surprised?”
“Nope, but I did see someone who was not surprised. We need to keep an eye on Will Singer.”
Sam looked at Michael and said, “The tall chap? Why?”
“Like I said, he wasn’t surprised, and that would make sense if he already knew that the diamonds were on board.”
“So, you think that he realized that the diamond which the captain had was a fake?”
“Could be. Anyhow, let’s check on Jefferson.”
Within minutes, Sam and Michael were standing in the surveillance room talking to Jefferson.
“What did you see? Anything out of the ordinary?” asked Jefferson.
“Nothing other than general surprise on my end,” said Sam.
“Same with me, except in the case of Will Singer,” said Michael.
Jefferson raised an eyebrow and said, “What do you mean?”
Michael told him what he had seen and what his theory was, and Jefferson nodded along. After listening intently to what Michael told him, Jefferson said, “That is an interesting theory, more so because Will was one of the four passengers who went straight to their rooms after the announcement was made.”
“Who’re the other three?” asked Michael and Sam in unison.
Jefferson beckoned them towards the monitor, on which four screenshots were displayed. Each one had the face of a passenger opening their room, with the timestamp on one corner of the monitor. Michael recognized the middle-aged woman he had met in the lounge, Will Singer, another man named Francis and a woman named Dorothy.
“And we suspect these four because we presume that the thief would have the diamonds in their room, correct?” asked Sam.
“That is the most secure place, and the thief can check the diamonds whenever he wants. Keeping the diamonds on his person is risky and so is hiding them somewhere on the ship where any crew member could easily find them,” replied Jefferson.
“And why do we even suspect the women? Surely, they couldn’t be our thief,” said Sam.
“Sam, we know that the thief is cunning. While it may be true that the odds indicate that he is male, but remember, don’t ignore Dorothy and the middle-aged woman because we think our thief is male, he could have always lied to us about his name.”
“But we saw him on the…” began Sam.
“There is no guarantee that the person we saw was the thief, it could be anyone!”
Michael said, “So as of now, these four are our primary suspects, correct?”
“Precisely, we need to keep an eye on them at all times.”
“I’ll take Will, my gut says he is up to no good,” said Michael and went out.
“I’ll tail Dorothy, there is no law against following a beautiful suspect, is there?” joked Sam and headed out.
Both the agents had left, thinking that they had cleverly left Jefferson with not one but two suspects to surveil, but Jefferson knew that very well, he just didn’t think it was important. He didn’t mind working hard, because that was the only assured way to obtain the desired results.
(II)
Michael was on the deck and was pretending to read a book while his eyes were fixed on Will, who was talking to another passenger. They seemed to be having a funny conversation as the two men kept bursting into laughter from time to time. Various thoughts were going through Michael’s mind. He was trying to formulate a plan to get the thief to tell them where he had hidden the diamonds, but he saw no way of doing that without alerting Oliver in the process. To prepare a plan which would guarantee results they had to identify their thief first but as of now, it could be any one of the four suspects.
Suddenly Michael heard a voice calling the name “John”, at first, he did not react but then, with a start, he realized that everyone knew him as John and that the person was addressing him. He turned to find Gary standing a little distance away, with his chess set tucked under his arm.
He came towards Michael and said, “Want to have a game of chess? You won’t always manage to draw the game with me.”
Michael’s first instinct was to refuse the offer, but then he saw that Will was heading towards the lounge and realized that he would be able to keep an eye on him under the pretence of playing chess with Gary.
“Sure, let’s go to the lounge.”
Michael and Gary headed to the lounge and just before they entered, Michael saw that along with Will, the old woman was also seated there. The situation Michael found himself in was the perfect one for achieving two objectives at the same time.
(III)
Dorothy was in the dining hall, enjoying a cup of coffee. One of the people in her current surroundings was another passenger named Logan Young. For some reason, the man kept shooting periodic glances in her direction and that annoyed her to such an extent that she decided to confront the man.
“May I help you?”
The man looked surprised. “Excuse me?”
“You keep looking at me, is there something you would like to say?”
Sam did the only thing which could have saved him – he complimented the woman. “I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t help myself, your eyes are stunning.”
Unfortunately for Sam, that did not work. Dorothy said, “Did you think you could get away by complimenting me?”
“I must admit that I did, but I presume I’ve failed that endeavor?”
“Quite so, so tell me the real reason.”
“Believe it or not, that was the real reason, but if it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll leave.”
“I think it would be better if you did,” replied the woman in a cold manner.
Sam departed rather hurriedly and once he was outside, he shook his head. He was fool to look at her in a way that she felt uncomfortable, he was just doing his job, surveillance, but he would not be able to do it any longer if he kept getting himself in situations like these.
Sam took a quick look inside to see that the woman had settled comfortably in her chair once again. He leaned against the wall in the hallway and looked out towards the deck at the other end of the hallway, trying to think of a way around the latest obstacle, when he saw Jefferson come into his field of vision. Sam walked briskly towards the deck and weaving around a couple of passengers he caught up with Jefferson.
“Hey!”
Jefferson turned and said, “Hey Logan…” and in a whispered tone, he added, “What’re you doing?”
“I think you should go for a coffee in the dining hall,” said Sam with a wide smile.
“What? But I need to go to the…”
“I’ll go to the little video place. Why don’t you just head over for some coffee? You look like you could use some caffeine.”
Jefferson understood and nodded. After he was gone, Sam heaved a sigh of relief, that solved the problem. Smiling to himself and avoiding the gaze of his fellow passengers, he went up to the “little video place” which was also known as the surveillance room.
(IV)
Later that night, the three agents convened in Michael’s room for a short meeting. They had worked on their respective assignment for the entire day and now was the time to discuss the conclusions they had formed.
“So, what have we got?” asked Jefferson.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing, your plan gave us suspects but we have nothing to identify the real thief from the lot,” complained Michael.
“We cannot keep going on like this, just watching the suspects the entire day did not yield any results,” stated Sam.
“I’m open to suggestions,” said Jefferson shortly and looked at the other two meaningfully, but they fell silent. Jefferson did not blame them, it was a difficult situation, one that had to be managed delicately and yet with speed. In such situations, it was the easiest thing to lose your cool and make a mistake, but it was Jefferson’s job to see that they did not do so.
“We still have time, the cruise will continue for a few more days and that means that the thief will be on board, and we will be able to catch him. Rest, don’t overexert yourself, we’ll meet tomorrow morning to discuss what we should do next.”
Sam and Michael departed soon after. Michael went to his room and shut the door, he then closed his eyes and attempted to go to sleep. He spent the first few minutes just lying on the bed with his eyes open, but after a while, sleep found him. But suddenly, he heard a gunshot and woke up to realize that he was bleeding.
Aurum Regium 