He’ll know! He’d known when Amelia had managed to get out of the brig that she was planning something. And, of course, one of them would have gotten into the ship’s computers and made sure that the cameras were down.
But Wes was out there, somewhere. Somewhere close.
And still...
Since she’d been a little kid, she’d always been taught to be independent. To take care of herself—and to help others when they couldn’t take care of themselves.
But she had been hit with the needle.
Still, she’d known what it was, and she’d twisted; she couldn’t have gotten the full dose intended for her. In fact, she could still feel the wetness where the liquid in Celia’s syringe had failed to reach its target.
Wes was out there on the ship somewhere!
Was he close?
Did he know?
She listened to Broderick, who seemed to have gone into a full-throttle psychotic break. He wasn’t going to shoot this group.
He was going to send them paralyzed into the water, let them drown.
She had to do something! She had grabbed her bag as she’d nodded, agreeing to go along with whatever they were doing. Because at first, of course, he’d made it sound like they’d live if they just obey.
“With Edward out of the way, along with my hanger-on brother and Celia’s pathetic excuse for a husband, Celia, Amelia and I will reign, we’ll reign supreme! We will eventually own the entire cloud!”
“Not just the cloud!” Amelia added, smiling. “We’ll own the world, no, the universe!” She was as pleased with herself as could be. But then she grew serious. “Come on. Let’s get to work. Find the disposal shaft. Don’t forget, the security offices are just down the hall past all the bins up in the aft area! We’ve got to move! Oh, and trust me! This time I will take care of Sally.”
“Let’s hope!” Broderick said. “You messed it up pretty badly before.”
“Two times!” Celia told her. “Let’s hope—”
“I’m out here and I brought everything necessary, right?” Amelia snapped back.
Chloe didn’t know if she did or didn’t blink; she could only feel the heaviness of her own body, as if she was frozen in time and space.
But she knew everything that was going on; she could see the horror of what was happening around her.
She could watch. Yes, she could see clearly.
And... she discovered she could blink. And she had to do more. Much more.
The horror that had claimed others, the terror that haunted those on shipboard, would eventually come to her—and she’d be expelled to drown right along with those she was sworn to protect.
All she could do was hope, pray and believe that she and Wesley had followed the right steps...
And that there just might be a miracle.
Step by step. Her mind was active; she had to think back, back to the very beginning and determine just how she had gotten to be where she was...
And how the hell was she going to get out of the situation.
She couldn’t even open her mouth to scream...
Or can I?
Then she heard it. The softest whisper.
“As you wish!”
