Carnage on the High Seas: Part Two

The saloon was half-empty as the girls went to dinner. An orchestra was playing, and a girl singer was seated by the stand looking bored. Lady Sylvia looked around her, smiling at the grand scene.

"You know," she reflected, "I never went on a cruise liner before. And I've got a title, too."

"I've been on millions," Ms. Madison laughed, "and my father's a policeman."

"But you work for the Green Man," Lady Sylvia nodded. "And I've started working for the Green Man, and my very first case I get to cross the Atlantic in a cruise liner."

"The Green Man strikes again," Ms. Madison grinned happily. "Where do we go from here, Lynette?"

"We take in the scenery, Sylv," the blonde told her new colleague. Just keep our eyes open and see what comes up. Right now, all we know is that people have been disappearing from these ships on a regular basis. So tonight we're playing the good, old-fashioned game of 'spot the suspicious person.'"

"And that works?" the young aristocrat asked.

"Normally," Ms. Madison informed her friend. "And especially on a cruise ship like this, where people can't keep out of sight forever. I..."

Suddenly, Ms. Madison fell silent. She looked across the room and tried very hard to keep her mouth closed.

"What is it?" Lady Sylvia demanded, leaning over the table towards the pretty blonde. "What is it?"

"There," Ms. Madison indicated a distinguished looking man with a neatly clipped moustache and a military bearing. "That man is Colonel Maxillian Rostov."

"And?" Lady Sylvia looked confused.

"Colonel Rostov," Ms. Madison told Lady Sylvia, "is the most dangerous international mercenary in the world. He sells revolutions and treachery to the highest bidder."