Heidi stood in the galley with just an apron covering her trim body as she stirred tiny cocktail shrimps into the pot of steaming chilli. The Beatles raved about Norwegian Wood from the stereo system in the lounge, and Barry dutifully, and somewhat robotically due to the session in the tulip room, went around lighting the lamps on the aft deck, and setting the table while occasionally sneaking peeks at her in the apron.

"Only a moment, Mr. Stein," she warbled from the galley. "Open the ice wine please, and pour two glasses."

"I don't think I could handle any wine just—"

"Two glasses, Mr. Stein." The warble hardened slightly.

"Two glasses," he muttered aloud to himself. Travelling with Heidi was either going to be the most fantastic journey a man could wish to take, or it would end any moment with an exploding heart or a deep, endless coma. "All ready, Heidi." He called, as expected.

"And so is Heidi's gourmet, seafood, barn-burning chilli." She climbed the few steps to the deck with a runway model's grace, bending to set the large china crock on the table and revealing a creamy expanse of flank to Barry, who although exhausted, was still stirred by the vision.

"Sit, sit. A toast first to our new adventure and then we eat." She raised her glass and downed the contents almost without tasting. Barry sipped after her, watching the heap of steaming, umber beans dotted with shy pink bits of shrimp, plop onto his plate. "Eat, Mr. Stein." She sat and he obeyed as his eyes dipped below the hem of the apron, filling to the brim with Heidi van Rugel's central heating.

The chilli was amazing and he ate hungrily, chewing in time with the Beatles, who seemed to be stuck on a loop of Norwegian Wood.

ööööö

"God, I wish they'd turn that down or change the record." Sandra sat up and strained to see down the dock to the source of the noise.

"I like the Beatles."

"Yeah but in variety, eh? Look down there, even the lights are too bright for eating on the deck."

"We'll be gone in less than an hour, don't sweat it." Gwen tapped her pencil on the notepad she was using to make her checklist. "You got water in the tanks?"

"The guy told me everything was looked after. Hey, the champagne was in the fridge, right?"

"Champagne wouldn't do us much good in the middle of the ocean without water or gas, Sandra. I just want to be certain."

"Here's the work list he gave me, I went around and checked it all before you arrived."

"Okay then. Sorry. It's just that I feel responsible since I'm the driver."

"Shouldn't that be, Captain?"

"Then that would make you, mate." Gwen said with a straight face.

Sandra lowered her drink. "This girl cannot be made to mate." There was a long pause. "But adrift in the middle of the ocean. Well."

"That's why I'm rechecking everything, partner, so there will be no such chance." They laughed together and suddenly stopped when car lights swept down from the highway and raked the line of moored boats.

"He's in one hell of a hurry." Sandra set her glass down and squinted to see who it was.

"Oh shit," Gwen whispered. "What if it's him?"

"It couldn't be. How would he know so soon?"

"You weren't waiting with the money, remember?" They scooped up the stuff from the table and hurried below decks. Gwen raced to the bridge and checked all the standby gauges.

"Get back out and cast off those lines. Hurry!"

Sandra jumped up the steps and screeched to a halt. "Gwen," she shouted a stage whisper. "You have to see this. Get up here?"

Gwen crept up behind Sandra and they both hunched down watching the action on the trot. The car had braked to a dust storm halt, and the driver and another man left it at a gallop down the steps and onto the wooden trot, shouting the names of the two women.

"I know you're here, Gwen. You too, Sandra, you two-timing bitch! Gonna run with my boat were you? Keep all the money for yourselves?"

"It is Ted. Oh my God, that little guy is with him."

"Ernie?" Sandra clutched her throat and ducked lower.

Striding from her boat toward them hands on ample hips and Barry scrambling behind trying to hold the apron to her sides, Heidi bellowed for them to halt immediately. Ted and Ernie stuttered to a stop, both stunned by the image presented to them.

"This is a private marina, which you ignore by rushing in like this. Your lack of concern for others is evident in the fact that you spray dirt over our intimate dinner with your car and you come screaming, disturbing the peace and quiet of fellow mariners" She came to a halt, legs apart, Barry still fumbling with the skimpy apron.

Sandra and Gwen couldn't help snickering in spite of the danger, but it wasn't until Gwen recognized Barry that she felt suddenly sick.

"That's Ted's boss!" Her voice croaked as she backed slowly down the steps. "What the hell is going on?"

"Barry Stein?"

"You know him?" Gwen stopped, a frown creasing her face.

"From the bar. He used to drop in occasionally." Sandra stepped past her and looked out the side window.

"We have to get the hell out of here, Sandra. When they confront one another there is going to be one hell of an explosion."

"I think we might be too late." Gwen joined her at the window as they watched Barry sidling down the trot toward Ted and Ernie.

"Hollinger? Am I nuts, is that you, Hollinger?" Barry straightened up and his fists bunched at his sides. "What the hell are you doing—?" It hit him all at once, Ted's eagerness to go to Porstdown. His panic when Barry thought he might go instead. The suspicions he'd experienced in the office and now his showing up here. Hollinger was running off with his money!

Heidi dropped her arms and stood stunned in confusion, her apron dancing lightly in the soft breeze off the water.

"Mr. Stein?"

Barry started into a little trot, his short legs thumping up and down as he picked up speed. Heidi called again, her voice changing to a worried tone. Ted leaned forward and squinted at the apparition trundling toward him.

"Barry?" He whipped out the gun and held it out in front. "Hold it right there, Barry."

"H-o-l-l-I-n-g-e-rrrrr!" Barry screamed, hitting his top speed and reaching for Ted with curled fingers.

Heidi screamed. Barry roared. Ernie swallowed, eyes glued to the apron. Ted yelled and the gun popped. Inside the boat both Gwen and Sandra covered their mouths in disbelief. Barry jerked upright and swerved to the right, arms flailing as he tripped on a boat cleat and toppled head first into the harbour.

"Oh my God!" Sandra started up the steps.

"Where are you going?" Gwen hissed, pulling at her leg.

"To cast off before he comes gunning for us."

"You'll never make it!"

They heard a shriek and a lot of angry shouts from outside and stepping out onto the deck they were greeted with the almost nude woman that had been with Barry, wrestling with Ted while Ernie tried to grab her about the waist.

Turning her body, Heidi placed one long leg between Ted's, used his gun arm as a lever, and lofted him high over her head into a groaning crumpled heap up against the hydro box at the foot of their gangplank. She then turned on Ernie, who still had one hand on her apron, grabbed his arm and, in a whirling spin, fired him off the trot and out into the blackness of the harbour.

"Jesus, it's Wonder Woman." Sandra declared.

"We've got to help Barry."

"Are you crazy? He'll kill us in the blink of an eye. Let the Devil Woman take care of him." As she said it they heard Heidi calling encouragement as she dragged Barry's limp body toward the dock with a long boathook. "Now's our chance."

Sandra jumped down to the trot yanked the mooring ropes off the bollards, ripped the utility lines from the box, and jumped back on board, hauling up the gangplank after her. "We're good to go. Get this crate started."