Axel tilted his head to one side, like a dog trying to understand what its human was saying. “I told you already. She walked onto the ship through the Elite passenger door and, moments later, the cruise liner left the dock. Boom. Ka-pow.” He clapped his hands together once and then made a gesture like something taking off into the wild blue yonder. “They even made it five minutes ahead of schedule, which must have pleased Director Patmore to no end.”
Cam didn’t have a good feeling about this. “So you personally saw her get aboard?”
“Yes. I saw her board the ship myself. Why? What’s wrong?”
Cam couldn’t very well tell him the truth…exactly. At least not yet.
“Nothing’s wrong. You sounded irritated when you called. I wanted to make sure nothing else was going on beyond me not helping with the search.” Cam knew precisely why his brother had been angry.
Axel’s eyes narrowed. “You left and went home and purposely didn’t look for the missing passenger. So, yeah, I’ll admit I was a little annoyed. But now you’ve said you’re woefully sorry, that you simply couldn’t go another second without my forgiveness and you’ll never, ever leave me hanging out to dry again. I have accepted your courteous regrets even though you didn’t really have a good reason not to help me.”
Cam repeated what was likely the lamest excuse in the world. “Well, I was really tired.”
“From what, having a day off?”
Cam shrugged. “Well. Yeah. Maybe I went out and partied and then came home late last night.” He’d been exhausted from staying up all night with Ria.
“Oh? You partied all night? What’s her name?”
Cam managed a quick, “No comment.”
“That means youwerewith someone.”
“Itwasmy day off.” Without admitting he was with a woman and especially not saying her nickname or who she really was, he said, “Let’s just say I didn’t turn in early last night expecting to go to work this morning. Your call was unforeseen.”
Axel shrugged. “Are you saying that it was my fault you didn’t look for the missing passenger when you knew it was only the two of us out there searching?”
Cam put his hands up in surrender. “No. That’s not what I said. I just wondered what happened and where you found her.”
“Why? What difference does it make?”
“Maybe I’ll add it to the watch list under where to look for escaped aliens off recently docked cruise liners at the way station. I know you were annoyed you had to look for her all by yourself. But can you get over it long enough to tell me where you found her? I just wondered where she was hiding out.”To ensure no one looks at my house.
It was Axel’s turn to look sheepish. “I didn’t find her. She came in of her own accord.”
Cam frowned. Someone came in, but not Ria. Who was it? “Explain.”
“Well, she came in with her lady’s maid,” Axel amended.
“She had a maid? I didn’t hear about that. So there were two Alphas loose in town this morning?” He threw his hands in the air as if truly put out, but wasn’t.
“Not exactly. You see, after her mother talked to us and was apparently unimpressed with what she called the ‘lackluster security systems’ in place on this backwater colony, she sent their personal lady’s maid out to help look for Alexandria. I got back frommyuseless search just in time to learn about the lady’s maid and then see the missing passenger return with the maid following dutifully along behind.”
“Where did this Alexandria say she’d been?”
“She didn’t,” Axel said. “At least not to me. I saw her board the ship through the Elite Class door along with her lady’s maid. Director Patmore also watched them climb aboard. He was the one who allowed the maid to go off on her own to find her. Once the two returned, he signed the manifest confirming he had a complete roster of passengers, gave me a copy and away they went.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
“Is it? What’s so interesting?”
A question Cam couldn’t answer. He didn’t know who’d gotten on the ship, but it wasn’t Ria. “I don’t know. That her maid brought her back, I guess. How did she know where to look? Why wasn’t she present during our meeting with her mother? Why did we have to look for her if her lady’s maid was going to be dispatched to find her right away? And it had to be somewhere in the facility, right? Otherwise, the maid would’ve had to leave the vicinity, which she most definitely didn’t have permission to do.”
Axel nodded, his expression shifting to one of resolve. “Good point. You’re probably right. The lady’s maid likely knew exactly where the girl was the whole time and simply fetched her.”
“Maybe,” Cam murmured, knowing that wasn’t the truth at all. But if the lady’s maid did go somewhere, who came back with her?Please, please don’t let it be some stray earthling you picked up along the side of the road.
The calamitous possibility of earthling exposure to aliens flying around the galaxy on a cruise liner not scheduled to return for ten days flitted through his mind. Cam’s heart skipped a beat.What can I do? What should I do?
