From far away across the water, the faint whir of helicopter blades chopping the air became louder.
The people prayed with him, their voices blending, with Max’s strong baritone raised above them all.
Some of the sailors fell forward on their faces, prostrating themselves as Maxence blew the stops out. This washisship now, and these people answered tohim.
The breeze stiffened, then gusted around him.
A helicopter engine thundered over the deck.
Maxence raised his hand to shield his eyes from the whipping air blasting his face as the chopper touched down.
Two men stepped out, crouching as they hurried away from the helicopter toward him.
Casimir van Amsberg and Arthur Finch-Hatten, Max’s two closest friends in the world, hadn’t left him to die on this stinking ship.
His chest clenched.
Arthur reached Max and yanked him into a bear hug.
Casimir looked at the crowd of sailors on their knees and lying face-down. “I think we’re extraneous.”
Arthur sniffed as he pounded Max on the back, his fist impacting Max’s bare shoulders. Arthur said, “A gentleman is never extraneous.”
Maxence wrenched himself out of Arthur’s grasp and looked back at the helicopter, where only a pilot sat inside. “Where’s Dree? Did you leave her back at the palace?”
Arthur tilted his head. “Who?”
“Dree Clark,” Maxence said. “When all Hell broke loose at the Sea Change Gala and they were muscling me out, I gave her my phone with the panic app calling you. You should have found her first.”
“We came to findyou,”Arthur told him, squinting his silvery eyes in the bright morning sunlight.
“But she had myphone,”Max explained. “So, you’ve got her, right? You picked her upbecause she has my phone,andthenyou came to find me.”
Arthur rolled his eyes and then grabbed Max’s wrist, where his steel watch shone in the sun. “The homing beacon is in thewatchI gave you, not in yourphone.”
“But you’ve got her. She’s safe,” Max said, insisting.
“I have no idea of whom you speak,” Arthur said. “I spoke to a woman briefly on your phone, but then we located your signal from the watch. We came to getyou.”
Horror.“You don’t have her. She was in that hell at the Sea Change, and you don’t have her. We have to find Dree.Give me your phone.”
Arthur handed over his unlocked phone, already showing Max’s phone number. “How were we to know that some woman has your phone and you wanted us to go get her first? Is this the nurse from the Nepali charity junket you commandeered to be your secretary because that’s how you recruit all your staff?”
Max said, “There’s no cell phone signal out here. There’s no way it’ll reach land.”
Arthur cleared his throat. “It’s a peculiar kind of satellite phone. It would work on the Moon.”
Trust Arthur to be walking around with apeculiarkind of satellite phone.
Max tapped the green call dot.
The phone rang and rang, but no one answered.
Max tapped in Dree’s mobile number from memory.
A voice told him the number wasn’t available.
Maxence grabbed Arthur’s arm and stared directly into his eyes. “We need to find her.Now.”
