Read Cruise for Free Online Page A

Warning bells went off in Bibi’s always-suspicious head. Now more cautious, she leaned forward to try to read the name tag while she talked to him through the door. “Let me see your ID,” she said.
    “What?” shouted the man, his expression changing to one of annoyance.
    “Your identification. I can’t read your name.”
    “I am Ammad,” he said, now shouting at her through the door.
    “Who is the package from,” Bibi asked.
    “Hey, woman,” said the Arab with a sneer. “You no want this, I go. Take it back. You too much trouble.” He turned and started down the front steps and toward the outside door. Quickly making up her mind, Bibi unlocked and opened the door. Two men, hidden on either side of the entrance and totally invisible until the door was open, were on her in an instant. The bigger one, who was built like a TV wrestler, had a ball gag on a strap that he tried to force into her half-open mouth. The other, a slightly smaller man, also with moustache and beard, wore a leather jacket and cap, had handcuffs that he sought to clip on her wrists as she fought to get back inside. As these two men grabbed her, Bibi brought up both feet, her knees touching her chest and, kicking hard, pushed off on the delivery guy, catapulting him onto the floor of the entry area and down the steps. The force of her jackknife kick took her and the two men back inside the door.
    Surprised to encounter this degree of resistance, the remaining two men forced Bibi down to the tile floor and set about subduing this blond hellion. Outside, Ammad, the delivery guy, dropped the package and charged back up the steps and through the half open door, landing on top of the thrashing trio. He was squeezed between the other two on top of her, trying to get both arms around Bibi’s tiny waist and trap her arms. As he tried to lift her up, both of the other men struggled to get her arms under control.
    Bibi, on her back on the floor, was fighting for her life with one locked handcuff dangling from her left hand and her other arm and legs flailing wildly at the three attackers. Three hard punches to the kidneys of Ammad on her right slowed him down and he fell off the pile of bodies. Sensing rather than seeing him on the floor, Bibi kicked him hard in the crotch and was rewarded with a shout and a moan as he rolled away, clutching his smashed balls.
    Bibi used this tiny respite to shift from defense to a stronger offence. Anyone who practiced combatives or tangled with Bibi in the past would have known that this subtle change in tactics signaled that it was time to leave and leave quickly if you wanted to remain ambulatory for the rest of your life.
    Using one of her favorite moves that looked like a poor and frightened woman’s defense, Bibi rolled up into a protective ball, pulling her arms free and wrapping them around her head. She made crying sounds. Her body shook with fear. Both men, figuring that she was capitulating, eased up for a moment. Suddenly, Bibi once again jackknifed both her legs, flipping onto her left side and momentarily trapping the men’s arms under her while she struck out simultaneously with her right leg and fist at the second man, catching him in the balls with her bare foot and splattering his already hooked nose with a one-two, double slash of her stiff right hand. The man went down screaming; alternately clutching his ruined, bloody nose and his crushed testicles. Shouting breathlessly in Arabic to each other, the two remaining men were losing the battle, but were too dumb to know it was time to disengage.
    Bibi rolled further to her left, presenting only her back to her single remaining attacker. Getting her left arm free, she swung it viciously with the attached cuff, catching the big guy in the side of the head and opening a deep cut just in front of his left ear. Bibi grabbed the wrestler’s same ear with her right hand and tore downward, hard. The ear ripped noisily, the cartilage popping under the