Nikolas looked at him. “I would think he floated in, no?”
“But he’s dressed in a suit. You don’t go swimming—”
“Well, no, he fell from the sky.”
“Huh?”
“This afternoon. He fell into the drop off.”
Ben turned to him, glanced around, and saw a number of people were standing close, so he took Nikolas’s arm and led him away, even though they were speaking Danish. “You saw that man fall out of the sky, and you didn’t say anything? To me? To anyone?”
Nikolas shrugged. “I see lots of things.”
Ben just stared at Nikolas for a while longer. “Did you see a plane?”
Nikolas frowned again. “No, why?”
“Well, duh! He didn’t just fall from heaven, for fuck’s sake.”
By this time, one of the waiters had been volunteered to swim under the restaurant to pull the body out. He clearly wasn’t too happy with the task. This was slightly more interesting for Nikolas to watch, because the waiter had stripped down to his white shorts for the swim and, apparently, no one had anticipated this lightweight tropical material getting wet, because it became completely transparent when it was. Ben also seemed to think this was worth detailed study, so they stood watching the young man twisting and turning under the glass, trying to drag the heavy body behind him. He couldn’t hold his breath for long enough to make the swim in one try. Nikolas said he’d go and help, which got him a punch on the arm, so it was some time before the body was retrieved and dragged to the beach.
It seemed like a good time to leave. Neither wanted to be questioned by the police, even as vague witnesses, and Nikolas wasn’t about to mention what he’d seen out by the drop off. He did think about it, though, and something had occurred to him that piqued his interest in the whole dead-man-in-a-suit incident. But he pushed it to one side and piqued his interest in Ben for the rest of the night. He was in trouble, he knew, mainly for not mentioning the whole falling-body thing, but also for his interest in the waiter.
He found it amusing if Ben ever watched another man, because this rather negated Ben’s assertion he wasn’t gay, but Ben hated it ifheeven so much as flicked a glance to anyone. He enjoyed Ben’s jealousy, though, so he sometimes engineered it so he could smooth it away later. Ben wasn’t quite so easily placated this night, so it was some time before Nikolas could return to his interesting thoughts. Ben finally fell asleep, his head on Nikolas’s chest, both of them naked on the bed, hot and sticky. In his mind, though, Nikolas was in the deep, cold water and seeing again the moment when the man hit the ocean and sank. Rapidly…Unnaturally so…At the time, believing he was seeing things anyway, it hadn’t struck him as so odd that when he dived down to watch the body sink under the water, it hadn’t been there. Clearly itwasreal, so the only thing he could conclude was it’d been weighed down with something very heavy that had taken it down rapidly, but which had now broken free and let the body rise to the surface and wash into the lagoon. Whatever the heavy thing was, therefore, it was still at the bottom of the drop off…He lay awake, idly stroking Ben’s shoulder, thinking for the rest of the night. If questioned on this, he’d have denied vehemently he was excited by the prospect of going treasure hunting; he wasn’t ten years old, after all.
But that’s exactly what he was thinking.
§ § §
The next day, Ben was surprised when Nikolas asked him if he knew how to dive. Ben did, of course, as he’d dived with the army many times. He’d never bothered to get certified, though; they’d have to join the hotel’s dive school and do a course if they wanted go diving alone on the holiday. Nikolas didn’t mention this again, but when Ben went to the gym, he accompanied him to the hotel and went to use his computer. When they returned to the hotel that night to eat, there was an envelope waiting for Nikolas at reception, and he took it to the table with them. It had just their names on it, Christian Beck, Benjamin Rider. Nikolas tore it open and pulled out two faxed sheets. He smiled and handed them to Ben. “It appears we’re both qualified divers and can hire our own equipment.”
“Huh?”
“I pay Kate ridiculous sums of money, but so far my investment has paid off handsomely.”
“You’ve had fake dive certification made up for us? Why?”
“So we can hire a plane and go flying. Don’t be dense, Benjamin.”
“No, I mean, I get you want to go diving and as usual can’t be bothered to do anything legally or properly, but why dive in the first place? It’s activity. Since when do you do activity?”
Nikolas pulled out one of his irritating dismissive waves Ben had almost missed. “You need to keep busy, Benjamin, or you’ll start to get into mischief—fooling around with waiters. I’m merely doing my duty as your—” He laughed suddenly. “Did you just kick me?” He took the certificates back and studied them. “So, do you know how to dive?”
“Yes, I do, but it’s been years! You have to—”
“Can you teach me?”
That rocked Ben back a little. “Me, teach you?”
Nikolas frowned. “Yes. I don’t know how to dive! We were a little busy in the Russian army, winning wars, fucking with corrupt western democracies and destroying the evils of capitalism. I didn’t have time to swan around to holiday destinations, diving.”
“You’re pissed that I know how to do something you don’t, aren’t you? This is the first time in five years you’re going to have to listen to me and do what I say. Oh, God, I’m so going to enjoy this. And did you just call capitalism evil? You?” He waved vaguely around the room to emphasise his point.
Nikolas refused to discuss it further. He tucked the certificates into his pocket and picked up the menu. He chuckled and showed it to Ben. “They’ve taken off the sushi.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The next day, Nikolas woke Ben early. This wasn’t that unusual as Ben was used to being woken with some part of Nikolas’s anatomy on or in him, but this morning all he got was an elbow and then some clothes thrown at him. He was still groggy and sore from the previous night’s activities and wanted to swim to cool off and wake up, but Nikolas claimed they’d have plenty of swimming later and made him get dressed. They motored over to the beach and went to the dive shop, which was still closed, much to Nikolas’s annoyance. Ben was able to have some breakfast in the restaurant before he was dragged back to the shop and told imperiously to hire them whatever they needed.
