"Aw shit."

Sam was in the driver's seat of the Mercedes, which was annoying enough. Seth was never a good passenger. But on top of that, Chris was riding shotgun. Which meant that he had to sit in the back with...

"Aw shit."

Chris and Sam had insisted that Vivian not be near any of the controls -- similar to the old sailors' superstitious of women on board a ship. Wrenches brought bad luck to boats, and Vivian brought bad luck to cars. The back had been roomy enough, but now Seth was getting inside...does he still think I look pretty, I wonder?

"Are you two going to behave back there?"

Vivian just crossed her hands. "You sure you know where you're going?"

Sam nodded. "I've got a friend near the coast that owes me a few things. He can get us a couple of small boats. Two, you think?"

Vivian shook her head. "I'd rather have three small boats than two bigger boats for this sort of thing."

The plan was not complicated. Ramos had a old cruise liner that he had bought at an auction and remodled into a casino. At least on the first few floors. The cargo hold was where he stored the illegal narcotics and firearms, to be delievered at whatever port he was approaching. He'd pick up and drop off passengers while at the same time trading the stolen goods. And the whole thing worked, between bribing the port authorities and the simple laziness of the average dockworker...well, Ramos got away with a good many things.

Vivia knew all this, because she had bought the boat. She knew what modifications Ramos had installed and how much money he usually kept in the vault. She knew what kind of vaults he had purchased. She had supervised the purchase of the trick tables all the way down to the 600-count linen sheets. She knew everything about the boat, because it was all in her little black book.

She flipped open to an entry from over four years ago and began to read. "Ramos installed cameras in the two entrances to the vault independent of the rest of the system. They're activated by motion. I talked to Redjack, he said he's gotten past stuff like that before."

Sam chuckled as he pulled onto the highway heading north to Maine. "Who knew being the pencil-pusher would help this much."

Chris was looking out at the traffic through the window. "Getting our boats to the cruise liner is going to be the biggest challenge. We're going to Maine, and Ramos usually has his ship parked between South America and Florida. We'll have to strip these boats down to swimming gas tanks."

Seth shrugged. "It can be done." He turned back to Vivian and gave her his crocked smile. "You spent a lot of time thinking this idea up."

Vivian put her little black book away. "It was either that or start knitting." She looked down at his hands. "So, how much did you get for it?"

"What?"

"The ring? You're not wearing it anymore."

"Oh yeah," Seth lifted his hand and began scratching the back of his neck. He had been hoping she wouldn't notice. "I manage to get a new engine for the Firebird with it."

"Oh."

"Are you mad?"

She seemed almost sleepy. "No."

Chris began digging in the glovebox for a magazine. "I am not getting in the fucking boat with those two."