“New Zealand?”
	“You need some time off,” Nadia pushed, balancing on the balls of her feet. “Besides, we will be on the cruise ship part of the time, too, so at least you can spend a bit of time, ya know… doing nothing?”
	Charlotte knew that a part of her owed this to Nadine. “I don’t know if I will be able to get the time off at such short notice…” she started, but Nadine just blew raspberries at her.
	“You know you can. Even I know you can. The ‘bank’,” Nadine said, using her fingers to make air quotes for effect, “will give you time off whenever you want it. You don’t have a particular assignment at the moment, now do you?”
	“How would you know? Perhaps I get called up and they need my help with something?”
	“They’ll manage. You’re not the only one that works there,” Nadine said, still fit to burst. Charlotte couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something would almost certainly go wrong. It so often did, after all.
	“Okay, fine. A two week trip to New Zealand and back again,” she said. Why not?
	“YES!” Nadine said, leaping into the air in excitement.
	“We’ve only got a bit of time to prepare, though,” Charlotte said, wagging her finger at Nadine to emphasis her point. “You had better not pack your bag the night before.”
	“Of course not, I’ll start packing now!” Nadine said, going to run up the stairs. She paused and quickly doubled back, slamming into Charlotte like a cannonball. A torrent of thank yous poured out before she dashed away again and thundered up the stairs. Charlotte let out a sigh. Nadine was a handful at the best of times, but perhaps doing what her niece wanted for once might give her a little leash where she needed it.
	The most annoying part was that Nadine was right. It HAD been too long since Charlotte had taken a break from her work. It was a strange thing, to be proved wrong by a 16-year-old, but Charlotte had long since given up on trying to control her every move. She was a part of her work, after all. That much was true. It also made her more of a nuisance.
	Charlotte looked at the brochure again and smiled a little, despite herself. She had always wanted to go to New Zealand.

*

	“Isn’t it great? It’s such a huge ship! I can’t wait to explore,” Nadine said, running awkwardly to the boat as she dragged both her suitcases with her.
	They went through customs without incident, and were on board in about twenty minutes. Moments later they found themselves standing in the midst of their small stateroom, throwing down their carry-on luggage and laying down on the comfortable beds.
	“This is perfect,” Nadine said, an enormous silly grin plastered across her face. After a moment she sat up. “When can I go take a look around?”
	“We just need to lay down a few ground rules,” Charlotte said, trying to keep her face serious. She was never good at this with Nadine.
	“Rules? But we’re on holiday,” the girl pouted. 
	“Rules are still important to keep you out of trouble. We’ll keep our valuables in our room safe, but I want you to be back to the cabin each night by 10pm. Also, we eat dinner together every night at 7:30pm. Apart from that, you can do pretty much as you like as long as you aren’t raising hell.”
	“Yes! You’re the best, auntie,” Nadine said, jumping up to crush Charlotte in a solid hug. Charlotte could never work out how her niece could act so dainty and be so strong at the same time. She coughed and smiled.
	“Go on now, you can go explore the ship,” she said. Nadine quickly exited, charging down the corridors to cause mayhem somewhere that was, hopefully, far from Charlotte. When she was gone, Charlotte locked the door and checked the room. It was a habit from long years of experience, but she was able to ensure it was safe and clean. She felt a little naked without her usual equipment, but that was something that she was determined to become accustomed to during her time off. She really had become too used to being in the field.
	She soon made to explore the ship herself. She had already looked up its specifications beforehand. Two thousand two hundred and fifty passengers were typically aboard, with around six hundred crew. It was a big ship, after all. She knew it was very difficult to sink. She knew the locations of all life boats, life rafts and life jackets. She had read the emergency procedures three times. She was a little over protective.
	Within minutes she found herself seated on the deck of the ship, reading a good book, as she watched the harbour slide by. It was a pleasant day to set sail, with the temperature warm at around twenty-six degrees. She headed to the buffet for lunch at half past one, getting a cheeseburger and a salad. As she ate, she surveyed the area. Old habits and all that. The staff were very friendly people, and wandered about clearing tables, offering drinks and waiting on people with great efficiency.
	There was one person who looked a little… ah but she was being too suspicious. It was probably that woman’s first day. The waitress was carrying a tray in a very ungainly manner, tipping and turning this way and that. The glasses looked precariously as though they were only just kept from falling by her best efforts. Charlotte smiled. That waitress was almost certainly going to drop something before the day was through. She felt a small pang of pity, but understood that the woman might be having a bad day. All kinds of circumstances could lead to something like that. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself and reminded herself, for what felt like the hundredth time, that she was taking a holiday.
	Dinner time came all too soon, and Charlotte sat just across from Nadine as they ate. Nadine spent an inordinate amount of time talking about everything she had seen, everywhere she had been and all the people that she had spoken to and Charlotte just smiled. It was good to see her so animated and happy. She was secretly a little gladder that they had decided to come on this cruise.
	“So what did you do today?” Nadine asked, and Charlotte realised she had been only half paying attention.
	“I uh, well... nothing much really. I sort of just lounged around for a while until dinner.”
	“And are you enjoying yourself?”
	Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m enjoying myself.”
	“And you haven’t taken any of your work with you?” Nadine said. For a moment, Charlotte considered telling her niece the suspicions she had, but thought it was best not to risk ruining the first day of their holiday with an argument. She knew that Nadine had a very specific idea of what she wanted to have happen on this trip.
	“Of course not. It’s been quiet, and I’m happy. What do you want to do tomorrow?”
	“We could do some of the trivia together, and there’s a show on in the evening. Want to do that? Ooh, and a waterslide. Let’s do that too!”
	“We can do whatever you want. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
	Nadine pouted. “But what about you?”
	“Well, I’ve got plenty of time to do boring adult stuff that I like.”

*

	Charlotte woke early that morning to head off to the gym. She had not had the opportunity to see it when they boarded, as it was still being prepared, but thought that now was as good a chance as any. She changed and headed straight over after waking, stopping only once to ascertain the direction she had to travel. When she arrived, she found that it was mostly quite empty. She grabbed a towel from the pile of neat rolls on a counter and started her workout, listening to her favourite tunes.
	Perhaps thirty minutes in, a song ending gave her a few moments of total silence as the next song began. She heard the soft but unmistakeable click that she had unconsciously been dreading all of yesterday. Switching off her music, but keeping her earphones in, she peeked carefully around the corner to see one of the staff, and a flash of metal. Tension caught in her throat as she saw the unmistakeable handle of a pistol. She slipped back around the corner and took a silent, deep breath, before strolling confidently around, acting as though she had noticed nothing. The crew person jumped and quickly adjusted their clothes, before beaming a broad smile. Charlotte acted very vague and gave a small smile back, while the crew person passed her to head the other direction. She whipped her head around to ensure they were alone before ripping off her headphones and grabbing the man’s wrist, forcing him against the wall.
	He cried out as his face struck the wood and grimaced in pain. She reached under his shirt, grabbed the gun and ejected the magazine, all in a single fluid motion, before dropping the gun. One or two gym goers saw what was happening, but just stood there in shock, as it had all happened so fast.
	“Why are you carrying?” she asked, giving the man another shove into the wall.
	“It’s just for protection!” he cried out, and one of the gym goers started moving closer to her from the corner of her eye. Charlotte sighed and reached into her undershirt pocket, where she kept her ID at all times. She held it out for the person to see.
	“Don’t stress, I’m not a bandit,” she said, and they stopped short.
	“Well that’s a relief,” the person said. “I honestly just didn’t know what was going on.”
	“Can you do me a favour?” she said. The man nodded. “Run and grab a security officer. I should stay here and keep an eye on this guy. Tell them–” she stopped short when she heard gunshots. They all jumped a little. “Well shit. This is organised.” She looked back to the man. “Damn it all.” She wasn’t able to easily knock him out – that stuff in the movies was just not the way it worked, after all, so she shoved him to the cleaning closet, found some rope, and tied his hands and feet, before gagging him. She turned to the other two people.
	“You should get to your staterooms. If you’re caught heading back there, just surrender. They aren’t likely to hurt you if you don’t resist.”
	“Who are you?” one of them asked.
	“Just a friend,” she said, taking the gun off the ground and reloading it. She had found another clip on the man and stuffed it into her gym shorts. Without waiting for the other people, she went to the door and carefully opened it, standing just off to the side in case gunfire erupted from the other end of the corridor. She kept the gun close to her chest and advanced, checking for the shooters as she continued to walk. At the forefront of her mind was Nadine, who was still sleeping in the cabin when she had left. Charlotte checked her watch. It was nearing 8:00am, which is about the time that Nadine would wake up. She’d be out of her cabin in under ten minutes. That meant that Charlotte had to move fast.
	She rounded a corner to see a man holding a pistol. His eyes widened and his arm started to raise, but Charlotte was faster. She fired and struck his chest, downing him. Advancing quickly she kneeled down, took his gun and spare clip and then continued. A minute later and she advanced on the back of a third conspirator (she wondered how many there were). She rushed forward and, as he started to turn, smacked the butt of her pistol to his head. He crumpled to the ground, she looted him and kept moving. She was hoping to not have to kill anyone, but was not about to let anyone shoot her, either. She arrived at her cabin just in time to see three people leading Nadine out, bound and gagged. Without hesitation, she levelled the gun and fired three shots, as non-lethal as she could make them. All three struck home and Nadine fell to the ground, spitting out the gag.
	“You told me you wouldn’t bring your work with you!”
	“Work found me,” Charlotte said, shrugging. She unbound her niece, before being half-crushed in a hug from her. “You need to stay here for a bit while I take a look around,” she said.
	“You’re leaving me?” Nadine said, her face falling.
	“I have a job to do.”
	“You know I can take care of myself,” she said.
	“Well, sorta. I’ll get in trouble if I endanger you though.”	
	Nadine folded her arms. “You can’t stop me,” she said.
	Charlotte grit her teeth. She was just like her mother had been.
	“Right, let’s go then,” Charlotte said, “but no gun.” Around a corner they found one of the crew members, who quickly threw their hands up.
“Don’t shoot!” they cried, holding a phone in one hand. Charlotte indicated to the phone.
“Can you call for help?” she asked.
“I already have,” the stewardess said. “I saw someone knocking out the captain last night and called. I was hiding in a closet ever since. They’re everywhere. The military’s coming, but the people with guns have rockets or something. They’ll be sitting ducks!”
“We’ll deal with them,” Nadine said, iron in her voice. Charlotte was impressed.
They headed around the ship, sneaking until they found the pool area where many of the passengers had been corralled. Just as Charlotte was wondering what to do, though, helicopters charged in from over the horizon, coming in low. She recognised them as their own, but could see that the bandits had two missile launchers prepared – one for each chopper.
	“Go, go,” Charlotte said, pointing at one of them, and Nadine raced around. She ran up to her own mark and tackled him to the ground, while Nadine dealt with the other. A flurry of blows brought the large woman to the ground and knocked her out cold, and Charlotte looked over to see that Nadine had already dealt with her own. She dragged her mark over and lumped them together.”
	“Back at work again already, huh auntie?”
	Charlotte smiled. “Taking care of you already has me on the longest shift of my life.”