Morning, August 27th, outskirts of Dutch Harbor Alaska

Jacqueline stood in the middle of the dining room, reading the list again from top to bottom. She breathed out slowly through pursed lips and threw her head back to stare at the ceiling. Bogdan and Aleksandr stood patiently.

Laura sat quietly, two tables away in the dining room, pretending to nurse a cup of black coffee. Jacqueline asked her to arrive and observe from a distance, armed. The Russians, or she assumed they were by the accents, hadn't specified anything about armed guests. Laura clocked the pair immediately. The older, stockier one moved with an air of confidence and even brute sophistication. His accomplice looked wiry and jumpy. But together, they projected a certain authority. Laura couldn't hear every word over the din of the lunch hour, but she didn't need to; she saw Jacqueline's face blanch after the list changed hands.

Jacqueline stood stationary for a moment then folded the list neatly in her pocket and started walking toward the entrance to the dining room, accompanied by the two Russians. One stood to her front, one to her back, both with their hands in their coats. As she passed the ornate flower display, she pretended to adjust her waistband and knocked the list out of her pocket, where it fell at the base of the entry table. She hoped Laura would see it.

Laura saw the note drop and paused a beat for the trio to exit the dining room, then quickly strode over to pick up the list. The neat type read:

We are armed. We require the full cash reserves of your on board casino. We know how much cash to expect. If you do not comply, we have ways of causing significant harm to your guests. There are contingencies in the event the men you see are harmed. Any deviation from this order will not end well for you. Do not consider it. Comply with the following steps:

On receipt of this list, ask all security personnel responding to stand down and resume their ordinary duties

Walk directly to the casino, and request that the safe be opened

We will observe you, and any officers or staff involved in opening the safe

If we have any indication that you have contacted law enforcement, we will use a hidden contingency to cause great harm to your ship and guests

Assemble the cash in $10,000 bundles, and bag them in duffel bags

Do not attempt to mark the bags with dye or paint, or to insert a tracking device

Deliver the bags to the waiting helicopter

Allow the helicopter to leave, unimpeded

Any attempt to follow the helicopter will result in grave harm

You are in more danger than you can possibly imagine.

Laura shook her head. Laying it on a little thick, she thought. She read it again then paused. A larger team or hidden retaliation is the most important thing here. But could they be bluffing? She folded the note, slipped it in the inside pocket of her blazer, and walked straight to the elevator.

Outside the dining hall Jacqueline walked with a measured pace toward the cacophony of slot machines and acrid must of stale cigarette smoke that trailed out from the casino. She reached the staircase to the casino, and saw employees milling around full rows of slot machines. Further ahead, felt covered poker tables buzzed mid-hand with attentive dealers while a roulette wheel spun.

Laura reached the bridge a few minutes later. She found Helen, and handed her the list. Helen cleared her throat. "Officers on the bridge circle up! We have a new development." When the group assembled, she passed the note around the tight circle.

Helen scanned the circle. "Do we think this is legitimate?"

Laura met her gaze. "They could be lying about some or all of it, but we have to treat it as legitimate until we know more."

"What could their contingency be? Where could the rest of their network be? What if they're bluffing about the whole thing, and we hand over bags of cash unnecessarily?"

"It's possible they're bluffing. But their network could be large. The taller man has an eight pointed star tattoo on his neck. Usually, those are worn by enforcers or higher ranking members of the Russian mafia."

One of the officers in the circle drew a sharp inhale.

Helen tipped her head forward and massaged her temples. "Hang on, so you're telling me we've been boarded by the Russian mafia?"

"It looks that way."

"Shit. Okay. What do we do about it?"

Laura folded her arms. "Well, first you need to give every indication that you're following the order they've given. We don't know their capabilities yet, or who else is involved. They could be working with a fishing boat that's trailing us with rocket propelled grenades. But while we're complying, we should draw it out as long as possible and try to find out what we can about them"

Helen nodded. An officer jogged over to a nearby radar terminal. "I'm not seeing any other craft within the surrounding nine nautical miles. That's the range of our radar."

"That's a start. What if their contingency is someone else on board? What about the helicopter pilot?"

The officer who had manned the radio perked up. "No, Rusty has been running tour groups for years. He's a veteran, and a pretty reliable guy."

Laura nodded. "Ok. Crossing off possibilities. What about an employee on the ship?"

A few officers looked sideways at each other. Helen replied. "Not likely. We do recruit from all over. We have a few Russian or Eastern European employees, but we have a strict screening process. We also screen everyone boarding the ship. Employees and guests alike. So, it's unlikely they are malicious, and not possible that they're armed."

Laura nodded. "We should roll back the tape, see if we can spot anything about how they arrived." The group agreed, and started down to the security office.

Below in the dining room, Dave Stevens was a table away when he heard the conversation between the security officer and the two scruffy looking men. Something about it made the hair stand on his neck. He pretended to carefully peruse a menu while he eavesdropped. He heard the burly man say "we will begin to execute guests," and saw one of the men reach into his jacket. Did he have a gun? When he saw the security guard, the two men, and the woman he met at dinner the other night leave the dining room, he knew something was very wrong. He turned to his partner, and told her his suspicions.

An older man in the table behind him craned out of his chair to listen. "Are you saying there are criminals on the ship? They're armed and dangerous?"

Dave nodded.

"Well fuck me. I'm not staying in a dining room while this shit goes down. I'm out." He stood up, threw his napkin onto his plate, and started walking.

Dave got up, too. His partner followed. Soon, a mass of people streamed out of the dining room, talking in hushed tones about the news.

In the casino, Jacqueline reached the cash desk, flanked by the Russians. She explained the situation to the dealer there. He immediately stiffened. She explained carefully that there was no room for error, and that the bills needed to be bagged and unmarked.

The Russians stood behind, watching attentively.

In the security office, Laura, Helen, and the officers stood around a stool in the security office. They replayed the arrival of the helicopter, and traced Bogdan and Aleksandr after they arrived on the ship.

The Russian pair walked across the sun deck, down an elevator, and through the long hallway to the dining room in camera feeds all along the path.

Laura sat forward and pointed at the screen. "Hold on, back it up."

The security guard manning the tape hit rewind, and the pair retreated back down the hallway. "The bag! Look. The shorter guy is carrying it as he gets off the helicopter. It looks heavy and bulky. But hang on, pause it here." The screen stopped. "It looks smaller, right? The shape is different."

The security guard manning the security tape nodded. "Huh. Yeah. I think you're right." He pressed a few keys, and rewound the cameras. He switched from one view to another along the hallway, as the pair fell out of coverage. In the edge between two cameras, they saw the shorter of the two men lean down and adjust his bag on his shoulder. Or at least it looked that way. "What do you think he is carrying? A bomb?"

Laura watched closely. "No idea. Could be. Can you play both views again?" They replayed the same two seconds, from the two cameras before and after the pair in the hallway. They paused it and watched frame by frame.

The guard leaned back. "They left a bag. Look, you can see it here." He flipped forward a few frames. "There's no shoulder strap in this frame. See? He's not holding a bag." He flipped forward a few more frames, one by one. "Then, he is again. He must have switched his bag for a spare."

They watched the video forward again. Laura pointed again. "He's texting someone. It might be about the bag."

The guard picked up a radio. "I need an officer to check the service elevator bay. Mid-ship, deck five. We're looking for a black duffel bag. Please report immediately."

No one spoke in the tense minute, the air sucked from the dim, gray room.

The radio crackled. "This is Danilo. I checked the elevator bay, no bag. Nothing looks wrong. I checked the floors above and below. Nothing there either."

Laura covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes widened. "Someone picked it up."