Thick fog and a moonless night made it impossible for Juliana to see the city lights as the plane started its descent. Sean did not share in his partner's child-like enthusiasm. To avoid making small talk with Juliana, he took a nap after finishing his standard pair of Hennessey whiskeys.
The flight attendant came up the aisle and paused momentarily to tap Sean on the shoulder. He awoke with a rather sour look on his face, as he heard: "Please raise your seat. We are preparing for landing."
Sean thought about giving his typical sarcastic remark to the somewhat attractive young girl, but then remembered that Juliana was sitting next to him. Silently Sean mouthed the words with a mischievous grin.
The landing went quickly and Juliana and Sean were soon getting into a cab that would take them to the Glacier Bay Cabin Resort. They would spend one night and a good part of the next day at the resort while waiting to board the cruise ship.
Their ship was scheduled to arrive at noon and immediately start disembarking passengers, but would not begin boarding new passengers until later. Sean would have to wait until 4 p.m. to get on the ship. Nevertheless, he wanted to get there early enough to sniff around and maybe get in on the local longshoremen's gossip, something he was good at and enjoyed.
This would have to wait until tomorrow; now he had to handle a much less familiar and trickier situation: spending the next fourteen hours alone with Juliana.
Sean was taking up more than his share of the back seat and was not about to more over, but Juliana had no intention of showing any discomfort.
"It sure is a brisk cool evening," Juliana said loudly, knowing that the cold was something she would have to get used to. Her Caribbean home was beautiful and warm, but now she could only see darkness and feel the chill of the Alaskan night, as well as that of her partner. She began to think that maybe her acceptance of this assignment - intended to expose the worldwide criminal activities of Arctic Sunset Cruiseline - might have been too hasty.
