Untitled Action Novel

                                                                                                             Untitled Action Novel
                   

         Ania reaches her hand below the surface of a desk bending down to assure herself the scroll isn't tucked underneath it.
         "What are we even looking for?" her partner asks as he rifles through a steamer trunk.
         "It could be a metal cylinder. Perhaps with adornments on the end." Ania then glances over at her fellow operative as he continues to sift through the chest.
         "It won't be in there," she explains to him.
         "And how can you be sure?"
         "No one familiar with the contents of that scroll would put it anywhere near his shoes, or his underclothing."
         "And why not?" the man asks.
         "For the same reason you wouldn't find that stored in there," she says pointing to a German Cross that hangs on the wall.
         Following three more minutes of searching for hollow chair arms or bed posts, Ania approaches a brass telescope mounted in a stand along a windowsill. After raising the maritime apparatus off its base and scrutinizing it for a few moments, she lifts it to her eye. There's something in the device narrowing the view. She unscrews the glass top and removes it. Wrapped up inside the ancient lens is the scroll.
         Delicately she pulls the religious parchment from its hiding place. She's no sooner taken the object of her search in her hand, when she hears the sound of footsteps outside the cabin.
         The scroll's Nazi owner suddenly rushes into the room. Ania flips open the bag slung across her chest and shoves it down into the case. Whipping out a gun, he demands that Ania surrender the satchel. She's about to obey when the ship hits an enormous wave throwing the Nazi temporarily off balance.
         Using the opportunity to mount an attack, she lunges directly at the soldier. She comes close to knocking the man off his feet, but he remains upright. Realizing she's trapped, her male counterpart shouts for her to toss him the satchel. Ania's just pulled the case's strap off her neck when the Nazi grabs her by the wrist arrest to prevent her from completing the exchange. Her partner immediately takes off. Ania herself spins out of the German's hold, and attempts to flee as well, but the Nazi rips the satchel from her person before she can escape.
         Ania then rushes through the boat's narrow, sweltering corridors, as she seeks out passage to the ship's upper level. "Can you please tell me how to get to the top deck," she asks a mother, who carries her baby a foot away from her chest, sparing her wailing infant from the stifling enclosure of her arms. The child's cries, along with the bellowing of the ship's motor directly behind the wall to their right, drown out her question. The mother ignores her second inquiry. When moments later Ania poses the same question to an old man she passes further down the corridor, he answers with a muted shake of his head, his eyes fully closed, as he lifts a cloth to dab his forehead.
         As she continues along the hall, Ania's attention is so focused on her search for stairs that she trips on a life preserver lying loose in the hallway. She careens headlong onto the vessel's floor, greasy with oil spilling out of the engine room. As she falls, her blouse comes untucked leaking the scroll she'd shoved into her shirt just under the satchel. She grabs the purloined document and continues desperately searching for any outlet through which she might flee both the Nazi and the oppressive heat.
         Ania finally catches up with her partner. He himself scrambles along the vessel's lower corridor still searching for a way to the upper deck after a locked door had stymied his first effort to make it off the bottom level.
         Ania shoots him a sideward glance as they both continue along the hall.
         "Do you have it?" he asks continuing to stare straight ahead, unable to look into the woman's eyes now condemning him for his cowardice.
         Ania hesitates before answering. She'd almost rather watch torn pieces of the religious scroll sinking in the Baltic than turn the document over to him simply because he might better match up against a Nazi.
         The lights flicker, an indication of ship's failing engine. In the now dimly illuminated corridor, her partner finally catches sight of a set of stairs. He points to them and single file they begin an ascent up the narrow steps.
         Ania spots three female passengers, one of them dressed in a naval uniform. "There," she says to her partner under her breath.
         He joins her in lock step at the back of the group as they fall in behind the women.
         The officers along with those bringing up their rear are approaching a room housing an empty swimming pool when a hand comes out dividing Ania's partner from the rest of the contingent.
         "Female Auxiliary only," a guard says to the odd man out. Ania smiles subtly to herself. She lifts her eyes to the ceiling as she continues on into the facility, watching with satisfaction as her partner melts away from the scene.
         Women jockey for position on the two-level sections of the empty basin. Those with less gusto are left balancing on the sloping median between the shallow end and the pool's diving area. They crouch at a precarious angle, in jeopardy of being thrown off their perch every time the waves jolt the ship.
         Ania looks at the shoulder of her besmirched blouse where the Nazi had torn a hole during their struggle. She's also missing a button on her skirt. She knows that her disheveled appearance amongst the uniformed officers would label her as an interloper in almost any context save the one in which they now found themselves. The imminent peril of their ship's failure in enemy waters has deprived anyone around her of an eye discerning enough to recognize her intrusion.
         Suddenly an older woman with course skin turns to see Ania pressing her hands and feet counteractively to retain her equilibrium on the sloping pool bottom. The elder officer motions for the young woman to come join her, creating a divet between her and a fellow member of the military outfit with a sharp elbow to the other passenger's ribs. Ania takes the offered seat, expressing her gratitude with a nod and a smile.