“This is... wow. Gorgeous,” Wes murmured. “Too bad...”
She laughed and said softly, “Too bad we can’t just climb into bathing suits and soak in the sun and sea?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, something like that.”
“So, how was your class? Really,” she murmured.
He slipped an arm around her, pulling her close and speaking very quietly. “The man is very good. He talks about the fact that whether we like it or not, computers, the internet and AI are taking over. He points out the fact that while people are the ones feeding data to AI, the whole thing with AI is that it’s programmed to offer us the desired result, but... we still need to be incredibly careful because that result may not be entirely accurate or correct. He was a great speaker and, of course, he seems to be sincere.”
“So...” Leaning against him in a way that made it appear they were just husband and wife, enjoying the view, she murmured, “So far, Edward seems to be the real deal, Celia and Jeff are both good, though she rules the roost. But just because she can be a bit condescending to her husband, doesn’t mean she’s a murderer.”
“But we know that someone is. And I’m a little surprised that we haven’t heard more people talking about what happened in Broward County. I mean, although the news isn’t out everywhere that a number of incidents across three states are probably connected, the Broward incident was big news.”
“It was,” Chloe agreed.
She looked around, assessing the ship and the people near them.
A family with a daughter of about twelve and a son who was maybe nine or ten.
Several couples.
A group of five young women, probably early to mid-twenties, attractive, laughing, evidently out to have fun.
Two men with the haircuts and look—even in casual clothing—that implied they might have come specifically for the computer classes.
“None of our people,” Chloe murmured.
“Suspects?” Wes replied lightly.
She shrugged. “There are others, of course, who have given classes—”
“Hey, don’t ever forget that we have some of the finest techs in the world searching through whereabouts, expenditures, contacts... if there’s someone else we need to be watching, they will let us know.”
“I know, I know, of course. And yet...”
“We always need to be careful. If any of these people should become suspicious regarding us...
He smiled, pulling her closer, mussing her hair.
“We’re not giving them any reason to become suspicious!”
“No,” she murmured.
And, as the word left her mouth, the brilliant blue beauty of the day was suddenly shattered by a tremendous scream.
And from where they stood, they saw the body of a man plunging into the sea beneath them.
And a cry went out.
“Man overboard!”
There were, of course, ship’s workers who could follow the man overboard.
There were lifeboats, and life preservers.
But Wes apparently didn’t trust any of them.
He leaped onto the rail and quickly plunged into the sea in the wake of the man who had gone over.
