Wait until I show you my cabin.
We’re having a seafood buffet tonight. It’s been ages since I could afford a good lobster.
Look at the crew member over my shoulder, the dark-haired one. I’m going to lure that man into my cabin at least once on this trip!
I’m laughing until my gaze moves to the left of the braw crew member. The man next to him is tall and skinny, his head slightly turned away but I know him from somewhere.
Why is he so familiar? I guess it dinnae matter, but-
It feels like someone just punched me in the chest.
It’shim.The American doctor who questioned me in my room at Anselm’s compound, who strapped me down, took all my blood. The doctor who fawned over Anselm when he was expressing his Aryan fantasies at that horrible “investor’s meeting.”
“No!Nonononono!”I stab frantically at the call icon. It goes straight to voicemail. “Carol, pick up! Pick up pick up pick up! Do NOT get on that boat! Please call me this is important please!” I call again, and again, each time getting nothing but her voice cheerfully urging me to leave a message.
That’s why Logan couldn’t track the operating location for the organ trafficking ring.
They’re taking their victims on a fecking cruise ship.
“Carol’s gone. She’s on that hell ship and they’re going to kill her and take her heart or her liver or-”
“Shh… Bella, keep the heid. I know you’re scared, we’ll find her. This is good, it is.” Logan stops my frantic pacing by wrapping his arms around me and putting me on his lap.
“How is this good?” I’m sobbing. I remember being trapped in the CT scanner, that fecking doctor strapping me down. How Anselm told me they would tear out my organs without any anesthetic. “Carol is one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. She thought she washelpingpeople with this study!”
“I know, I know, love.” Logan’s rubbing my back, watching Xenia and Georges pull up the texts and pictures from my phone.
“This is good,” Xenia’s eyes never leave her laptop, so I have to lean in to hear her. “No, this is good, Arabella, I promise. Your phone is top of the line; its location app is second to none. We already have the island she texted from. The pier the boat was at. Cross-referencing ship’s logs… Georges, don’t they have to file a log before they leave port?”
“Yeah, but… likely… then the…”
Pulling loose from Logan’s grip, I stand between the two hackers so I can read their lips.
“Oh, sorry Arabella. I was telling Xenia that they most likely filed a false log, but we can triangulate location based on departure time and which sailing routes are statistically more likely to be used.” Georges’ fingers are a blur. “Of course, once I bypass the security features, I can hack into the weather satellite that’s in orbit over that part of the ocean and I can locate the ship. Hell, I can get video of everyone on the ship with the cameras on that beauty.”
Xenia smiles at me sympathetically. “Hang in there, Arabella. Give us a minute to work and then Logan and Kai can make a plan.”
“Wife, come with me, aye?” Logan’s pulling on my hand but I dinnae want to move, as if my sheer terror will make Georges and Xenia find the ship’s location more quickly. He swings me up in his arms and carries me four flights up to the clock tower. “Look out over the city. Tell me four things ye see.”
“Do ye think they just… cut into the victims the minute the ship leaves port? One by one, to avoid panicking the rest, then? It was a mid-size ship so not like a thousand passengers or anything I’m thinking around four hundred. Those rich bastards getting the organs, they must know. They do, it’s-”
Logan’s mouth fiercely descends on mine, his hand stroking through my hair, tongue sliding along the seam of my lips. He finally pulls back when I sag against him. “Look, sweetheart. Tell me four things ye can see.”
My heart still feels like it’s trying to pound out of my chest, and I have to grip the railing to keep upright. He stands behind me, a solid, reassuring presence.
“Ah… The flowers in the Square are blooming. Bluebells and daffodils. Three of the guards are playing cards in their cottage on the corner. There’s- there’s an older lady walking her dog on the next street over. He’s wearing a wee bow tie…” Tears are streaming down my face, I dinnae notice until Logan uses his t-shirt to wipe them away.
“Tell me the fourth thing.”
“The guy who’s always lifting weights with his curtains open out onto the street is at it again.”
His voice sharpens. “Where?”
Giving a wet little chuckle, I point at the house. “He’s maybe sixteen, love. Ye have nothing to worry about.” The skinny fella is straining with his nine kilo barbells, but he looks so pleased with himself.
I can feel the rumble in his chest as he laughs, vibrating through my skin, soothing my racing heart. “I know this is terrifying, I canna change that. I can tell ye that this is good news. Ye gave us the break we’ve been looking for. I should have seen it sooner. Fecking Anselm made his original fortune with his cruise ship lines. I’m sure the pieces of shite on his company’s board are all in on this.
“Once we have the ship’s location, we can start a facial recognition scan. When we know who’s on board, that gives us infiltration options, aye? This will move quickly. I promise.”
