by Nick Thacker
No.
He shook his head, still holding his pineapple.
It can’t be.
“Reggie?” he asked.
Reggie turned around and beamed. “Ben, welcome back! How are you?” He walked over and extended his hand. “Nice pineapple, by the way.”
Ben nodded. “Thanks.”
They shook hands, but Ben wasn’t trying to hide his emotion. His expression was one of confusion and annoyance, and Reggie apparently could tell. He brought his hands up, backing up a step. “Easy there, buddy,” Reggie said. “I didn’t come to crash your little date. E sent me.”
“So you did come to crash my date,” Ben said. “Reggie, why are you here?”
Reggie’s smile grew. “We have a job.”
Ben looked down at Julie, who hadn’t moved from the lounge chair. Her laugh had shrunk to a smile, small and light on her petite face. She shrugged.
“What job?”
“We can talk about it — “
“We can talk about it now, Reggie,” Ben said. “Because we’re on vacation. And we’re not leaving until I’ve had about forty of these ridiculous pineapple things.” He held up the cocktail and swirled it around in his hand. He caught Julie’s eye as he stood face-to-face with his friend and coworker. Only right now, at this moment, he didn’t feel friendly or interested in working.
Reggie just smiled, the gigantic grin on his face almost contradicting the man’s eyes. If Ben didn’t know him any better he would have assumed that Reggie was faking it, wearing the smile for his sake.
“How did you get here?” Ben asked.
Reggie shrugged. “I walked on. Just went right through the security wall like it wasn’t there.”
“Really?” Julie asked.
“They’re looking for booze, really,” he said. “Let’s be honest. They’re rent-a-cops at best, working minimum wage for the cruise line. They don’t care who comes aboard.”
Ben squinted into the light, directly at Reggie. “How’d you really get here?”
Reggie’s smile waned a few notches. “Fine. Got me. I had Mrs. E arrange it. Through the transit authority, couple calls in to the Mexican tourism board, I’m sure. Still though, wasn’t really that difficult.”
“You just get here?”
Reggie shook his head. “No, I stayed in Cozumel while you were coming in, then I got on the ship that evening. Been holed up belowdecks with a nice crew member named Suarez. Doesn’t really speak much English, or at least he wasn’t interested in speaking with me.”
“Why’d you wait to come find us?” Julie asked.
“You’re enjoying yourselves. I didn’t want to ruin that.”
“Thanks,” Ben said, his face belying the sarcasm. “Definitely haven’t ruined our vacation.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Reggie asked. “Mr. E said it was urgent.”
Ben sighed. He took another glance out at the water, at the receding sunlight as the orange orb floated downward, casting its glow out to the far reaches of their world. He wanted to sit here and watch it, like he’d done every other night of their trip, but he knew that was all over. Even though there was no chance he’d agree to whatever scheme Reggie and Mr. E had cooked up, he wouldn’t be able to shake it from his mind. It would affect him, and Julie would pick up on that. She could read him like a book, so there was no sense trying to hide his feelings. He was curious, concerned, interested, angry. All of those things, all at once. Reggie had crashed their almost perfect vacation and given it a death sentence, and there was nothing he could do about that now.
“Okay, Reggie,” Julie said. “Ben’s not going to drop it, and neither am I. Want to grab a drink.”
Reggie’s mouth grew by another two inches. His smile was contagious, but Ben’s internal monologue fought against the charisma of his friend. One drink, he told himself. One drink, hear him out, then back to cruising. Back to my vacation.
He deserved it, and Julie deserved it as well.
One drink.
7
THREE DRINKS LATER AND BEN was starting to feel it. Rum, then whiskey, then some sort of cocktail Reggie had explained was Brazilian in nature, complete with a type of liquor called cachaca, a sort of Brazilian rum.
Reggie had lived in Brazil for a few years, running a survival training camp for corporate executives who really just needed a way to feel important once again. He’d explained to Ben and Julie that he’d enjoyed the information, the practice, but hated the clientele. They were all soft, mentally and physically. When Ben’s and Reggie’s paths had crossed under unfortunate circumstances, they had struck up a fantastic friendship and had been nearly inseparable ever since.
But now, in the dingy, smoky lounge Reggie had chosen for their ‘one drink,’ Ben felt as though he wished he and Reggie had never met. Here was a man so focused on his job, so aligned with his mission, that he would stow away on a cruise ship to interrupt the vacation of his so-called friends. Ben was frustrated that he had to waste the time hearing his pitch, but he was also frustrated that he wanted to hear it.
“Whatever it is,” Ben started, “we’re not doing it.”
“Easy, Ben,” Reggie said. “We just got our drinks.”
Julie rolled her eyes. “We just got our third drink.”
They had spent the last hour catching up — while it was difficult to admit that Ben was glad to see his friend, he was glad to catch up with him. He liked Reggie. He just knew there was more going on under the surface. There was a reason he’d crashed their vacation.
Reggie held up his hands in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. You got me. Drinks are on me, by the way.”
“We know,” Ben said. “Why are you here?”
Reggie looked at his watch, a ridiculously oversized military-issue thing that Ben had seen him use as a weapon before. “Right now,” Reggie said, “we’re heading north-ish. Right? Toward Florida?”
“That’s where the cruise ends, yeah.”
“Mr. E wants us to take a look at something down there.”
“Florida?”
“Off the coast of Florida.”
“So the Keys?”
Reggie shook his head. “Other side. East of Florida.”
Julie frowned. “Like The Bahamas?”
“Farther north, actually.”
“Out in the middle of the ocean?” Julie asked. “Seems like that’s a bad place to put anything, right out there where it’s prone to get hit with hurricanes.”
“It is, in my opinion. But that’s where we’re heading.”
“That’s where you’re heading.”
Reggie grinned. “I know you’re not wanting to get involved, Ben,” Reggie said. “But we need your help. Both of you.”
“We’re on vacation. We already covered this.”
“We did. But you haven’t heard what it is, yet.”
Ben crossed his arms. The bartender, a man who looked to be about ninety years old, took it as a slight and backed away slowly from the edge of the bar. “Don’t need to know what it is. I’m here with my wife, Reggie.”
“Fiancée,” Reggie said. “You got another two months.”
Ben glared at the man sitting next to him. “Make your case, and make it quick. We have dinner at eight o’clock.” Reggie’s eyes widened, but before he could say anything, Ben jumped in. “And no, you’re not invited.”
“Okay, okay. Here’s the deal. Mr. E wants us to check up on something in the area. Like I said, off the coast of Florida, about forty miles east of Palm Beach, and twenty north of The Bahamas.”
“What sort of thing are we ‘checking up on?’”
“It’s a park.”
“A park?”
“Yeah, like a nature park or something.”
“A nature park in the middle of the ocean?” Julie asked. She grabbed at her glass, a vodka cranberry made with vanilla vodka, a new concoction she’d recently discovered.
“A nature park off the coast of Florida, yes,” Reggie said.
“I don’t really know much more about it than that. But we’ve got a week-long pass.”
“If you don’t know any more about it, why does E need us there?”
Reggie shrugged. “I never asked.” Ben eyed him, not believing his friend.
“If you had to guess?” Julie asked.
“If I had to guess, I would guess that he needs us there because he’s our boss, and he told us to.”
Ben motioned to stand up, gripping the leather arms of the chair and pushing himself upward. Julie’s and Reggie’s heads snapped over at him. “Ben…” Julie said.
“No. I’m done here,” Ben said. He sniffed. The bartender looked over and Ben gave the man a quick nod.
Reggie stood up next, reaching for Ben’s shoulder.
“Listen, buddy,” he said. “I don’t know what this is about. But I know it wouldn’t even be on the radar unless Mr. E thought it was important. Crucial, even.”
Ben crossed his arms over his chest as Julie rose to her feet. “Don’t lie to me, Reggie.”
“Ben,” Julie said again.
Ben waited. Watched Reggie’s face. It hardened, softened again, then he looked down and grinned. “Okay, fine. I know a little about what this is about. Not the end game, not even the real ‘why’ behind it, but I know the motive of sending us there.”
“And what’s that?” he asked.
“The security team at the park. They were just hired, contracted by the park’s employment department.”
“And?”
“And it’s a company called Ravenshadow.”
8
JULIE WATCHED HER FIANCÉ’S BODY language. She was no master of reading the subtle clues of movement and facial expression, but she was better than average. To make things easier, Ben was nearly incapable of hiding his feelings from her. She used to assume that he was doing it on purpose, letting her in, allowing her to know him better, but it turned out that she was able to read Ben easier than anyone else she’d ever met.
And it drove him crazy.
He would try to conceal his emotions from her, which only made them more obvious. If he was angry, he would pout and furrow his brow, then turn away from her so she couldn’t see his face.
Now, standing in the smoky atmosphere in the depths of the cruise ship, surrounded by old men puffing on cigars and their unfortunate wives, she was amazed with what she saw in his reaction to Reggie’s words.
A complete reversal. A one-eighty, from the reluctant, frustrated friend to the eager, overenthusiastic man raring to go. He was doing his best to hide it, but she could see it all over his person: his arms, relaxing and tightening over and over, his palms squeezing shut and open again and his forehead wrinkling. He was thinking, trying to figure out how to keep his thoughts to himself, all the while knowing Julie was reading every word of his inner monologue.
“Ben,” she said a third time. Finally he looked at her. Saw her, as if for the first time that day. “Ben, we’re not —“
“Julie,” he said softly. “It’s…”
“I know. But no. We’re not going. Ben, think about it. We’re on vacation. The first one we’ve had since, hell, since we met.”
“We stayed at The Broadmoor that one time,” he said.
“We stayed at The Broadmoor before we left for Antarctica. For a mission, Ben. It wasn’t vacation.”
He flashed his eyes at Reggie, then at Julie. Stopped on Julie. “I — I want to find him, Jules.”
She gritted her teeth. Looked down, felt her face flush. I didn’t want to think about this. Of all the things we were supposed to do on this trip, all of it was so I wouldn’t have to think about this. About him.
About Joshua Jefferson.
Their friend and de facto leader of their small group, the newly formed Civilian Special Operations, had been murdered in Philadelphia at the hand of a man who had kidnapped Julie, chased the rest of her team around the nation, and finally escaped without answering for his crimes.
The man was the founder and CEO of the private security firm, Ravenshadow.
The same security firm that this park had hired.
“We will find him, Ben. But there’s no reason to —“
“Jules, we’re there. We’re already at the park. We’re in the Caribbean, closer than we’ll ever be to him. Reggie, how long will it take —“
“Mr. E has a helicopter waiting on the mainland, dispatching from Miami tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be an hour flight from there.”
“How will it get to the ship? There’s no helipad.”
Reggie nodded. “My understanding is that Mr. E arranged a small dinghy that we’ll take out of the range of the ship, then the chopper will grab us from there. That was the compromise, since the cruise company was very adamantly against this whole thing. If I understand correctly, Mr. E’s company runs communications for this entire region of the ship’s operating area.”
Julie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “No, Ben. Stop. Think about it. We’re not taking a blowup boat off of a cruise ship and then getting picked up by a helicopter in the middle of the ocean. It’s insane.”
“It’s the only way.”
She felt her entire body heat up. “Listen to yourself. You’re already scheming. You’re already on board.”
“I’ve already decided.”
Reggie took a step back, probably without realizing it. He scratched the back of his head.
Julie balled her fists. “Have you? Really? Fine. Enjoy your trip, Ben.”
She turned to Reggie and nodded once, the only thing she could think of doing that wasn’t going to get her kicked out of the lounge. She was leaving anyway, so she should have hit him. It couldn’t have made things worse. She wanted to smack him for coming here, for crashing their vacation and wasting their time.
And she wanted to kill Ben. She loved him for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was his constant fight for justice. He was the first to rush into a dangerous situation, and he was the last to leave. That was how they met, in fact, back at Yellowstone, racing after the terrorists who’d planted and detonated a bomb beneath the world’s largest active volcano. He was bold, resilient, and even a bit reckless, and what he lacked in professional training he more than made up for in sheer willpower and determination.
There was a lot to love about the man, but those same characteristics were easy to hate. He wouldn’t give up, and she knew it. He’d set his mind on finding the man who’d killed Joshua Jefferson, and he was going to relentlessly pursue that goal until it was done. He had been thinking about it constantly since they’d started this vacation, and while he’d done his best to hide it from her and enjoy his time away, she read it on him as clearly as if he’d just come right out and told her.
She was angry with him, and angry with herself for being surprised. She knew he would react this way — as soon as Reggie had said the words she’d known. He would be obsessed, focused on nothing else. Reggie had sold him with a single word.
Ravenshadow.
Like Ben, she wanted to catch the leader of the organization as well. She wanted vengeance for the death of their friend and coworker, and she certainly wanted to see justice served. But she wasn’t a fighter — she was scrappy when she needed to be, but she tried to stay out of fights. Ben, on the other hand, was foolhardy. He put his head down and rushed forward, like a bull, into whatever mess lay on the other side.
She reached the set of open double doors at the end of the long, low-ceilinged lounge before Ben called to her. He’d waited until she made it here, as a test. To see if she was really going to leave him here with Reggie. She was seething, the anger surging through her, feeling betrayed and blindsided and disappointed and let down all at once.
“Julie,” Ben said again, louder. “Julie, wait.”
Reggie didn’t say anything — he knew better. Ben would try to salvage this, to make her feel okay about it, but he wouldn’t try to change it. He’d already made up his mind, and now he would try to make
up hers as well.
She checked her watch. 7:54. She would be late for dinner. It was a formal night, and she’d brought the perfect dress for the occasion. She wouldn’t have time to change now, and she hated being late. It was a table for six, and there were two other couples sharing their space. She’d be embarrassed for showing up after their scheduled appointment, and even more so for showing up without her date.
She ignored the pleading calls of Ben and left him standing in the center of the lounge. She marched toward the elevators and waited impatiently for the car to arrive.
Screw it, she thought. I’m hungry.
9
“WELCOME TO OCEANTECH INSTITUTE,” ADRIAN Crawford said. “And welcome to the new era of science and entertainment.”
He forced his smile wider, knowing the large dimple on his left cheek would add to the effect. It had caused more than one woman in his past to swoon, and ever since he’d reached adulthood he’d banked on his good looks as a secret weapon, a final card to play after he’d used his intelligence and business acumen to make the sale.
“OceanTech is an innovate new company, and a cutting-edge idea, funded by the best in the venture capital and angel business, as well as a firm vote of support from the leading nonprofit educational and scientific organizations the world over.”
He chuckled a bit under his breath, both underlying and enhancing his charisma and delivery and simultaneously enjoying the fancy non-speak. ‘A firm vote of support’ really just came down to different organizations agreeing with his vision, and ‘leading nonprofit educational and scientific organizations’ really just meant he’d received a positive response to the question, ‘should I build this?’
It was all marketing, all the time. That’s what his job came down to. He was qualified, a gifted scientist in his own right, but this phase of the process was purely superficial — bringing in the deep-pocketed philanthropists and business gurus who saw the potential of a first-to-market investment opportunity.
He needed their money, even though they had been fully funded a year ago. But funding was fickle. It was there when you needed it, until it wasn’t. No projections, data analysis, or budgeting could change the reality of a growing startup with big plans. Things changed, and he needed to be prepared.
