“Be assured I shall kill him when I find him.”

“All the more reason for him to willingly go ashore. He’ll want a head start, and I shall advise him to be quick.”

“The Big-Game Hunt. I shall love it. I’ll find him—even if he hides in another body. What a lovely game it will be.”

David fell quiet for a moment.

“Lestat, there is one other possibility, of course … ”

“What? I don’t understand you.”

He looked away as if he were trying to choose just the right words. Then he looked directly at me. “We could destroy that thing, you know.”

“David, are you mad to even … ?”

“Lestat, the two of us could do it. There are ways. Before sunset, we could destroy that thing, and you would be … ”

“Say no more!” I was angry. But when I saw the sadness in his face, the concern, the obvious moral confusion, I sighed and sat back and took a softer tone. “David,” I said, “I’m the Vampire Lestat. That’s my body. We’re going to get it back for me.”

For a moment he didn’t respond, and then he nodded rather emphatically and said in a half whisper, “Yes. Correct.”

A pause fell between us, during which time I began to go over each and every step of the plan.

When I looked at him again, he seemed similarly thoughtful, in fact rather deeply engaged.

“You know I think it will go smoothly,” he said. “Especially when I remember your descriptions of him in that body. Awkward, uncomfortable. And of course we must remember what sort of human he is—his true age, his old modus operandi, so to speak. Hmmm. He isn’t going to get that gun away from me. Yes, I think it’s all going to work as planned.”

“So do I,” I said.

“And all things considered,” he added, “well, it’s the only chance we’ve got!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

FOR the next two hours we went exploring the ship. It was imperative that we be able to hide in it during the nighttime hours when James might be roaming the various decks. For this, we had to know it, and I must confess that my curiosity about the vessel was extreme.

We wandered out of the quiet and narrow Queens Grill Lounge, and back into the main body of the vessel, past many cabin doors before we reached the circular mezzanine with its village of fancy shops. Then down a large circular stairway we went and across a vast polished dance floor through the main lounge, and off to other darkened bars and lounges, each with its own great spread of dizzying carpet and throbbing electronic music, and then past an indoor pool around which hundreds lunched at large circular tables, and then outside to yet another pool in the open, where countless passengers sunned themselves in beach chairs, snoozing or reading their folded papers or little paperback books.

Eventually we came upon a small library, full of quiet patrons, and a darkened casino, not to be opened until the ship had left the port. Here stood banks of somber darkened slot machines, and tables for blackjack and roulette.