Chapter 13

Tabatha stood in the café hatchway watching her new husband. He was sitting at a remote console with his back to the door. She could see that the console screen was blank – or rather, it was presently displaying the ship’s logo screensaver.

A moment earlier, however, it had been displaying the image of her grandfather-in-law, Frank Tabor. She knew, from researching her husband’s family, that Frank Tabor was over a hundred years old, although he appeared to be in his early twenty’s.

She could sense her husband’s distressed thoughts and stood quietly, unashamedly eavesdropping on him.

‘That’s what I get for going to Gramps looking for sympathy. What I got was a Royal Reaming! But he’s right. Everything he said was true. I guess I deserve what I got... ‘

“Yes, you do,” Tabatha said quietly, still standing behind him. She was still angry with him, but she was ready to make up. She’s spent half her life looking for someone who was special like him, and she wasn’t about to let his poor opinion of her lifestyle spoil everything.

Jake Hedron turned halfway around in his seat and looked at the alluring redhead standing in the doorway. As much as she fascinated and enthralled him, he still couldn’t believe she’d married him.

When they’d met, she was an agent of a foreign government – a trained field operative, no less. Mentally, she could out-perform anyone in his family, plus, she was very dexterous, and clever, too. During the short, fierce firefight to reclaim his rightful position as Chairman of Tomlin Security, she’d also demonstrated her courage in battle, holding her position right alongside him. She even got herself shot protecting his flank, not realizing that he had enhanced healing abilities because of his lineage.

As a trained field agent himself, Jake realized that there was a need for frequent and intense sexual release. The idea that Tabatha’s sexual prowess and expertise should rear its ugly head and distort his feelings for her was ludicrous.

His grandfather was right. Tabatha was a product of her society. She had learned to survive in a carnivorous world, and not compromised who she was to get where she was. She was fiercely proud of that, and because she, perhaps foolishly, loved him, he had wounded her terribly by doubting her self-integrity.

‘My grandmother was a stripper!’ Jake Hedron thought to himself. ‘She may’ve had hundreds of men before she met Gramps. What she did wasn’t important to him. What was important was who she was. And Grandma has more integrity than anyone I know, except maybe Gramps.’

Tabatha stood leaning against the doorway with her arms folded, listening to his thoughts as they gazed at each other, calmly waiting for the words that would destroy her soul.

She had done her best in his behalf. Their future together was now up to him. She didn’t wonder why she’d handed him that kind of power over her future happiness, and she didn’t regret it. She just waited to see what he would do with it, knowing that his decision could destroy him, too – or save them both.

Five days later, the cruise ship North Star docked in Miami. Jake and his new bride had spent most of the last week in their tiny cabin, making love and talking. They actually did a lot more talking than making love. Tabatha’s empathic abilities helped them to stay honest with each other. The couple that walked down the gangplank toward Tanya and Béla was more than just newlyweds. They were lifemates.

“I thought you said they were having trouble,” Béla said to Tanya as they watched the pair descend down the wide plank.

“Well, evidently, they worked it out,” Tanya replied.

“I suppose we’d better go before they spot us,” Béla said, suddenly changing her mind. She was ready to help them if they needed it, but this pair didn’t need help. Béla decided that she would meet them when they were ready to meet her. Béla and Tanya quickly turned away. They walked behind a concession stand and vanished.

“Have you ever been to Miami?” Jake asked, looking at his new wife.

“Twice,” she replied, “but it was all business. I didn’t get to go anywhere.”

“Well,” Jake said, grinning widely at her, “you do this time!”

“Why?” Tabatha asked, smiling up at him. “Where are we going?”

She anxiously resisted raiding his mind to find out. That was one of the many topics that had come up during the last few days – her casual invasion of others’ privacy. Having that ability was a valuable asset to an agent, but it could wreak havoc in a marriage. And she’d developed the bad habit of simply reading everybody’s mind. “How can I ever plan a surprise for you if you always know what I’m thinking?” he’d asked her.

She agreed to stay out of his mind, unless invited in. And he invited her in a lot.

“I’ll show you,” he replied, answering her question. Being careful not to touch her, now that he was thinking about the surprise, Jake began walking along the dock toward the empty sandy beach, and away from the city. A platform on one side of the dock lowered them down to the beach, itself. A half-mile further down the beach was a beautiful long, white, marble pier.

Tabatha gazed at it, and at her husband as he climbed the stairway up to it. “It doesn’t go anywhere,” she complained.

“Yes it does,” he replied. He turned away, letting her climb up by herself. Jake walked to the end of the beautiful pier, then turned and looked at his wife. She stood a few steps behind him. He held out his hand to her, opening his mind.

There was an image of an underwater dome – ‘Atlantis!’ – a newly completed resort and casino that few people even knew existed. It was the brainchild of Roger Trump, of the Atlantic City Trumps – a place where the ultra-rich could get away from everyone else. The perfect, and private, underwater retreat.

“Or the perfect honeymoon,” Tabatha whispered, in awe of the fact that her husband could snag a reservation for such an exotic retreat. Then she saw it in his mind. ‘Of course he already knew about it! Tomlin was supplying the security!’

Tabatha laughed with joy. Jake had gone to great lengths to make this the perfect honeymoon – Italy (her idea), the cruise across the Atlantic, and the underwater Atlantis resort.

“How do we get there?” Tabatha asked, then saw that in his mind, too.

“You swim!” he laughed.

“It’s too far!” she exclaimed, laughing, knowing he was teasing her.

“Sorry. That’s how the young and healthy get there,” he replied, pretending to be serious. “There’s an underwater causeway for us old folks.”

She could see he was teasing her. It actually was possible to swim to the resort, and there were those adventurous souls who did so. For the rest, a glass-encased causeway ran from the end of the pier, underneath the water, to the resort, itself. A glass elevator was, even now, rising up right out of the water at the end of the pier to meet them.

Tabatha watched, enchanted, as water cascaded off the top of the elevator and down its contoured sides. Then the glass doors opened and they stepped in. There was acoustical music being piped in through invisible speakers somewhere in the glass and steel above them. The doors closed and the elevator carried them down under the wildly splashing waves.

“This is beautiful,” Tabatha exclaimed softly, gazing out in wonder at the sandy ocean bottom. This close to shore they could only see a short distance because of the silt stirred up by ocean waves, but after a moment the elevator doors opened on the seaward side. They looked out into a long, fragile-looking glass tube that disappeared into the distance.

Jake stepped out of the elevator onto a wide steel platform and turned to offer a hand to Tabatha. There were several comfortable-looking seats bolted to the floor on one side, with rails extending from underneath to vanish into the blue-green distance. Jake and Tabatha both sat down and the ride began.

Atlantis’ creator, Roger Trump, had spared no expense in creating an artificial reef alongside the glass tube through which they traveled. Artificial lighting blended in so well with the natural sunlight from the surface that Jake couldn’t tell where one left off and the other began. But he was willing to bet that, at night, it looked fantastic!

There were thousands of colorful fish, a squid, a real octopus, and quite a few sharks swimming around outside their fragile little tube. Tabatha felt like she was twelve years old again, visiting Marine Land in Sydney with her uncle, a year after her parents had died.

Thinking about them, and that stupid accident the year before, when that ancient cable car had dropped them a half-mile down into a canyon, brought tears to her eyes. It disturbed her that she couldn’t remember her life before her parents were taken from her, but she wasn’t going to let that ruin this special moment with Jake. This was Jake’s time now, and hers.

She leaned closer to Jake and watched the incredibly beautiful underwater panorama pass by. Much too soon, about thirty-five minutes, actually, they approached a huge glass dome. It looked just like an artist’s rendition from an old Disney film. As they reached the base of the dome, she was overawed by the sheer size of the structure as it loomed up like a huge bubble and disappeared into the distance.

Large double-doors opened before them and suddenly they were in a Las Vegas casino environment, complete with slot machines and gaming tables. Tabatha laughed, not really understanding why, not knowing what she expected, but delighted with what she saw – especially with the sharks and the orca swimming in the huge tank over the ceiling of the gaming tables.

Atlantis’ manager, Gene Stockwell, personally greeted the Chairman of Tomlin and welcomed both he and his bride to their resort. Chairman Hedron, as head of their security organization was given carte blanche and they were both assured that their every whim would be instantly acted upon.

They spent a wonderful four days there – with breakfast in bed, or at a buffet – scuba diving – treasure diving (different than scuba diving; no tank, you see) – and, Tabatha’s new vice, gambling!

She won, then lost, thousands of credits. On the last day, she determined that she was actually ahead two hundred and fifty credits. Ten minutes later, she was dead even. Frustrated, she determined to stop, refusing to go into the hole on their last day. An hour later, she’d lost a thousand credits. Two hours later, she’d lost over ten thousand credits.

‘One more hand!’ she decided. So far, she’d played fair, not using her empathic abilities to ‘read’ the dealer’s cards. She had a ‘9’ and a ‘5’. The dealer’s ‘up’ card was a ‘6’. She looked at the dealer. There were two other players at the table showing face cards and she was holding up the game. She tapped her finger on the table. She got a Jack. ‘Damn!’

Furious with herself, she got up and left the table. ‘I should have read his mind to find out what he had!’

Tabatha would have continued to play, but she’d promised Jake that she’d only play until 2:30. It was almost three p.m. now. She looked up to determine where the exit was, found it, and found Jake.

“Hi, Hon,” said Jake, smiling. Then he saw the determined look on her face. “Uh-oh, bad day?”

She didn’t say anything. She walked up to him and politely kissed him on the lips. In that kiss, she mentally dumped the entire day’s frustration on him. He grinned at her.

“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s only ... No, It’s not even money, anymore, is it?”

Even Tabatha smiled a little. She was glad he loved her. She didn’t feel very lovable, right now.

“Our baggage is already at the terminal, so we should go,” Jake told her. They turned to leave, and ran right into Mr. Stockwell, Atlantis’ manager. He smiled at them, and shook the Chairman’s hand.

“Mister Chairman, Madam,” he began, “I do hate to delay your departure, but I would like you both to come to my office for a short visit.”

“Well, I ... We have a flight,” Jake began.

“I am well aware of your schedule, sir,” the casino manager told him. “We have a limo available that will get you to your terminal in plenty of time. Shall we?” He gestured with his hands that they should follow his assistant.

They were escorted to the manager’s office. Mr. Stockwell invited them to sit, then walked around and sat down at his own impressive real wooden desk. He cleared his throat. Jake and Tabatha casually reached out and held hands.