The cabin was filling with water at an alarming rate. It seemed incredible that a few small holes could let in so much, so quickly but before we knew it the water was sloshing around our ankles and rising rapidly towards our knees. Of course we did what we could to plug the holes using whatever papers and bits of old rag we could find but the sea seemed able to force its way through any barrier we constructed. Continue reading
“Anyone fancy a drink?” said Sid. “I think maybe we’ve earned it, don’t you?” The Elise had been chugging steadily across the Mediterranean for an hour, the four of us sitting in a vaguely anxious silence on the narrow bunks of her cabin, before the tension relaxed sufficiently for such a suggestion to be made. Continue reading
We hurried off in different directions, Michael to go and collect Felicity and whisk her out of the hotel on their ‘date’ while I scurried up to my little room on the fifth floor. Once inside I retrieved the dour grey maid’s uniform I had liberated from the locker room the previous day and set about putting it on. I was still in the middle of dressing when I heard a second muffled explosion echo around the hotel. Realising there wasn’t much time to lose, I tucked my hair beneath the rather ridiculous little cap, slipped on my shoes and headed down the stairs. Continue reading
If you walk east along the boulevard, the wide sandy beach running alongside eventually comes to an abrupt end at a point where a rocky promontory juts out into the sea. This marks a boundary of sorts between the resort and the old town; on the other side of the promontory a cluster of white-washed houses, shops and cafés straggled up the hillside above the harbour. I was vaguely irritated to note that Felicity was right in so far as a little time spent wandering the shady streets and secluded squares here did wonders to soothe my agitated nerves. I stopped and enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch at a rustic little tavern before heading off to find Captain Dupree. Continue reading
The next day – heist day itself – had been scheduled to begin with another room change for Felicity. The plan called for her to decide overnight that the colour scheme in her new suite was too vibrant and insist upon being moved to a more soothingly-decorated set of rooms. But when she called down to the reception desk first thing in the morning to make her demand she was notified that the manager was currently unavailable. So too it seemed were the deputy manager, the concierge and the head housekeeper. The best that the receptionist could do was to make a note of her complaint and promise to send somebody up just as soon as they were available. Continue reading
Operations kicked off the next morning with another room change for Felicity. Before breakfast she called down to the desk to complain that her sleep last night had been ruined by the comings and goings at the casino next door and, despite the best assurances of the deputy manager about the thickness of the walls and windows, she refused to be placated by anything other than an offer to move her further away from the source of the noise. So, later that morning, the suitcases were re-packed, a fresh phalanx of porters was summoned and the whole procession traipsed up two floors to Room 418. Continue reading
As the Bentley sailed along the boulevard towards the Hotel Majestic I turned in my seat, slid aside the glass partition that divided myself and the chauffeur from the back of the car and addressed Felicity who sat alone in the midst of the plush rear seat. Continue reading
The first sign of trouble in paradise came when the small ferrety man in the white tuxedo jacket fell from the roof of the casino. It was a sign that ought to have been quite hard to ignore, given that he took his plunge at 3am, just as Michael and I were leaving the casino, and landed with a sickening thud just a few feet away from us. Naturally there were shouts and screams and a crowd quickly gathered. But this was the kind of place where nothing was allowed to interfere with the business of pleasure for long. The casino staff soon had the area roped off and the police were hastily summoned. Within forty minutes the lifeless body of the man, whose presence up on the roof at that hour nobody seemed quite able to explain, had been carried away, the steps hosed down and the familiar air of opulent ennui settled over the resort once more. Continue reading
There are many great things about the travelling life (seeing new places, meeting new people, rarely stopping anywhere long enough to be obliged to do the washing up) but I must confess that being always on the move does come with one or two drawbacks. For me, chief amongst these is the variable quality of bathing facilities on the road. Whilst you can usually be fairly certain of getting a decent meal at any hotel, tavern or wayside inn the same cannot be said of your chances of getting a good wash. The plumbing at some of the places we have stayed ranges from the highly unreliable to the downright non-existent. So when we came by chance upon a small town on the edge of the mountains that boasted a public bath-house of some repute both Michael and I leapt at the chance of a good soak. Continue reading
