by Matt Lincoln
He was so absorbed with the conversation that it wasn’t until the phone died on him that he realized his little sister still hadn’t returned several minutes later. He was about to yell into the bathroom for her when he heard a high-pitched shriek from inside.
Fear seized his heart in an instant. He’d recognize the voice of his sister anywhere, and that wasn’t the kind of whiny scream she’d make when she wanted attention or was trying to get her way. She sounded like something was wrong.
He didn’t hesitate before bursting into the bathroom to find her, too concerned about the way she’d just yelled to care about decency or breaking the rules. He found her right away, standing just in front of the sinks and sobbing uncontrollably. He was so focused on her that it took him a second to realize that someone else was in the bathroom as well.
A woman was lying face down on the ground, her long hair splayed around her face. Adrian rushed to his sister first, kneeling down in front of her.
“Kendra,” he called her name as he gently shook her shoulders. “Hey, Kendra! Calm down, okay? Everything’s okay. Please stop crying!”
He was probably a little too blunt, but he’d never been good at dealing with her when she was crying. He wished their mom was here instead. She would know what to do. Thankfully, Kendra did stop crying, her loud wails calming down to small sniffles as she looked up at her brother.
“That lady fell down,” she mumbled as she pointed to the woman.
“Okay, but are you okay?” Adrian asked as he checked his sister over for injuries. She didn’t look like she was bleeding or anything, but she could have an internal injury, maybe. He’d heard about that on TV before, about people bleeding to death on the inside.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” She sniffled before looking over at the woman. “She looked sick. I asked her if she was okay, but she just fell down and started shaking.”
“Shaking?” Adrian repeated as he looked down at the woman.
“Yeah, like this,” Kendra replied before holding her arms out and vibrating them.
“Maybe she had a seizure,” Adrian muttered as he looked between the woman and his sister. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He needed to take care of his sister, but she didn’t look like she was hurt. Should he call for help? He didn’t know CPR or anything. He looked at his sister. “Don’t move for a minute, okay? Hold this.”
He handed her his phone before crawling over to the woman and shaking her shoulder gently. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked as he brushed some of her hair out of her face. As he did, he froze. Her eyes were wide open, staring up at him but not seeing anything. All of a sudden, Adrian felt as though he was going to be sick.
“Is she okay?” Kendra asked as she took a hesitant step toward them, her small voice trembling as she spoke.
“Yeah,” he lied as he got shakily up to his feet before grabbing her hand and leading her quickly away from the woman. “She’s just asleep, but uh… we need to find someone to come help her. Come on.”
Kendra followed after him without a word, still wiping the tears away from her eyes with her free hand. Adrian still didn’t know what he should do. Should he just flag down the first adult that walked by? He’d seen some security officers around the ship. Should he try to find one of them? A thousand thoughts were rolling around in his head, and he couldn’t seem to think straight.
He tightened his grip around Kendra’s hand and led her back into the dining room. There were plenty of people there. He’d find someone who worked on the boat and ask them what to do. He and Kendra had barely stepped back inside when a loud, grating scream assaulted his ears. He stopped in his tracks, his heart pounding quickly at the sudden, unexpected noise.
“Someone help!” a woman at the other end of the dining room shrieked. “This girl just fainted! I think she’s choking!”
“What’s happening?” Kendra started to cry again, clinging to the leg of Adrian’s pants.
Before he could answer her, there was another scream, and then another. He could barely believe his eyes as he looked around the large dining room. People were dropping like flies, suddenly freezing up and stumbling before they suddenly fell to the ground. Some of them seized for a minute before going still, making grotesque noises as they sputtered and coughed.
Kendra was fully sobbing now, screaming with fear as the chaos in the dining room grew worse. Everyone else seemed to be panicking as well, wondering what was happening and demanding answers.
“It’s poison!” one man finally shouted as he angrily slapped a plate of food off a nearby table. “The food must be poisoned!”
Horror gripped Adrian intensely as he heard that. Could it be true? Kendra had just finished stuffing her face with multiple platefuls of food from the buffet. Was she about to drop dead like those other people?
He jammed his hand into his pocket for his phone. He needed to call his parents. They would know what to do. However, his panic only worsened when his fingers closed around empty air. He let go of Kendra’s hands, frantically checking both pockets until he remembered that he’d handed his phone to Kendra back in the bathroom. He immediately dropped to a crouch in front of her.
“Kendra, where’s my phone?” Adrian asked her, but she didn’t respond. She just kept crying. “Kendra, stop!” He squeezed her arms with his hands. “Tell me where my phone is! I need to call mom and dad!”
“I don’t know!” she finally cried out, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. “I don’t remember! I think I dropped it! I’m sorry!”
Adrian wanted to cry, too, out of fear over what was going on and now out of guilt for how he’d just screamed at his baby sister.
“It’s okay,” he assured her as he picked her up and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She threw her arms around his neck, clinging tightly to him and pressing her wet eyes against his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled. We’re going to go find mom and dad, okay? You’re going to be fine.”
He kept repeating that last sentence in his head as he carried her quickly out of the dining room, but he couldn’t stop his mind from replaying the grizzly scene that he’d watched play out in the dining room. Five separate people had all fallen over, one by one, and that wasn’t including the lady in the bathroom. Had Kendra eaten whatever had caused them to die?
He stopped in the middle of one of the rotundas and looked around frantically. He couldn’t remember which showroom his parents had gone to. He couldn’t even remember what the name of the show was right now. He couldn’t calm down enough to concentrate. Before he could decide, he heard another shout. Kendra’s arms tensed around his neck, almost choking him as he turned around and spotted yet another collapsed woman on the ground, shaking from head to toe, her eyes staring straight up at the ceiling.
Adrian ducked through the crowd as the people in the rotunda became aware of what had happened and began to panic. He made a beeline for the nearest elevator and pressed the button for their floor before jamming the ‘door close’ button over and over until the doors finally began to slide closed with a chime. As the glass elevator began to rise up toward the cabin floors, he could see down at the people. He watched as another woman fell over. A man wearing a dark shirt went to check on her before suddenly getting up and running away.
That was weird, he thought vaguely. If he knew her enough to check on her, why did he just leave her there? He couldn’t imagine just abandoning Kendra if it had been her.
His arms were straining by the time they made it up to their floor. Kendra wasn’t a baby anymore. She was probably half his own size and pretty dang heavy, but he didn’t want to set her down. He was afraid that if he did, then his fears might be realized, and she would suddenly collapse.
The hallway was quiet, which felt unsettlingly discordant against the torrent that was raging inside him. He dug awkwardly through his pocket for the room key with one hand before unlocking the door. His face fell with disappointment when he opened it and realized that the room was empty. H
e’d hoped that, by some miracle, his parents would be here, but they were obviously still at that stupid show his mom had been so excited to go see.
He stepped inside and kicked the door closed behind him before finally, reluctantly, setting his sister down on her feet. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she was shaking and staring off into space with a blank, anxious expression.
“What happened to those people?” Kendra asked meekly as Adrian sank down to the ground in front of her.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly, his breath hitching. “Hey, how do you feel right now?”
“Huh?” Kendra asked as she followed her brother’s lead and sat down as well. “What do you mean?”
“Do… uh, do you feel sick?” Adrian asked warily. “Does your stomach hurt or anything?”
Kendra looked off to the side, cocking her head as though thinking deeply about it.
“No,” she replied after a moment of hesitation. “I don’t feel sick. Why? Do you feel sick?”
“Nah.” Adrian smiled at her weakly, relieved to hear that, but still not sure what he should think of what just happened. “I was just wondering.”
Kendra nodded slowly before standing up and walking over to the window. It was beginning to rain outside, and Adrian could see bolts of lightning flashing in the distance. It was fitting, he thought, and it certainly seemed to echo the turmoil taking place inside the ship.
He really hoped his parents would be back soon.
2
Ethan
I stretched my arms over my head giddily as I got out of bed that morning. Finally, the doctor had deemed me fit enough to take off that obnoxious sling my arm had been confined to for the better part of two months. A machete-wielding pirate had attacked me during our last mission, and I had come away from the fight with a deep muscle laceration. It had been a little over six weeks since then, and I was finally ready to go back to full duty.
I frowned at the memory of the past month and a half as I got dressed and ready to head into the office. Even though I’d finished off the rest of the mission just fine, Diane had decided that it would be better for me to take it easy until my wound completely healed and had relegated me to mostly desk duty in the interim. Her logic was sound, but it was incredibly boring just sitting around, doing clerical work and other busy tasks all day. The prospect of finally getting involved in a real case out in the field thrilled me.
I turned the TV on as I whipped myself up a quick breakfast of eggs and sausages. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was leagues better than the granola bars and fast food I’d been subsisting off for the longest time. I kept more regular hours lately than I usually would, which meant that I had more time to actually make myself decent meals for once. It was possible that it was about to change, but I didn’t mind very much.
As I ate, I heard the news anchor say something about a murder on a cruise ship. That piqued my interest, as most things involving boats did, but I quickly tuned it out after the anchor revealed that the news station had very little information to go on, and most of what they were reporting was just speculation. Apparently, the ship had only docked a few hours ago, and officials were still investigating.
No point getting invested in something that isn’t confirmed, I thought to myself as I turned the TV back off and walked back into my bedroom to get everything I’d need for work. It wasn’t all that surprising, considering they had no way of getting clear information while the ship was still at sea, and it wouldn’t be until the boat came into dock and they could investigate that the authorities would find any real answers.
After double-checking that I had my gun and everything else I would need for the day, I left my houseboat and headed over to my car. After getting inside, I quickly checked my phone for any new emails. I’d been waiting to hear back about Viper’s gun.
During our most recent mission, Holm and I had discovered that the man we were chasing down was actually in possession of a rare antique pistol that had once belonged to the pirate Grendel. I still had no idea how or why he had it, and ever since then, I’d been doing everything I could to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, as it was technically evidence of a crime, there were an insane amount of hoops for me to jump through to make that happen.
I sighed at my empty inbox. It wasn’t surprising since it really wasn’t standard protocol to just hand evidence over to agents who happened to be part of the case, but it was disappointing. Nevertheless, I didn’t intend to give up. I was going to get that gun one way or another.
I pushed the thought out of my mind as I pulled up to the office. I was in a good mood about returning to full duty today, and I didn’t want anything to sour that.
The office was bustling as I walked inside. Our finances were going well enough that we no longer had to stagger how many agents we had in at one time, and Holm had even been bugging Diane about getting another jet.
“There he is,” Holm greeted me as I went to put my stuff down at my desk in the bullpen. “Ready to get back to reality?”
“More than ready,” I replied as I sat down at my desk, relieved for once not to have to struggle with where the most comfortable place to set my arm was.
“Finally,” Holm remarked as he looked over at me. “I was basically grounded while you were out of commission, too, since I can’t exactly do much without a partner.”
“Didn’t you assist Birn and Munoz on something about a week ago?” I asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not the same,” he sighed in response. “That was just one thing, and I was third-wheeling the whole time. The dynamic is weird when you have two partners that actually work well together and one extra.”
“Well, hopefully, Diane will have something for us soon,” I replied as I glanced up at her office door. I could see her through the opened shutters. She was sitting at her desk and speaking with someone on the phone.
Just an hour later, my wish came true when Diane’s door opened, and she called Holm and me into her office. I got to my feet at once, eager to get back out into the field.
“How’s your arm, Agent Marston?” she asked me as we stepped into her office.
“Great.” I smiled at her as I took a seat in one of the familiar chairs across from her desk.
“And the lung?” Diane raised an inquisitive eyebrow at me.
“Good as new,” I replied easily. “Physical therapy’s been going great.”
“I’m very glad to hear that,” she replied before picking a tablet up off her desk and scrolling through it. “Especially since I have a case for the two of you. A bizarre occurrence on a cruise ship, the Ruby of the Seas, just off the coast of Florida late last night. It just came in to dock early this morning.”
“Oh, that thing with the murder?” I asked curiously. “I heard something about that on the news this morning.”
“They were probably talking about this,” she confirmed. “Though I’m not sure I would call this a murder, strictly speaking.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my curiosity over the case growing stronger as she told us more about it.
“Twenty-seven people dead, in total,” she replied as she handed me the tablet. My eyes went wide with shock as I heard that. So many were almost unheard of. “According to eyewitness reports, at around ten in the evening, several people on board the boat suddenly began to collapse. Many reported seeing them seize before suddenly going limp. All in all, most were dead in a matter of seconds.”
“What the hell?” Holm muttered as I leaned over to show him the tablet. It displayed the autopsy reports of the victims, as well as photographs. There didn’t seem to be any visible injuries on any of them.
“As you can imagine, there was a panic on board the ship,” Diane explained as she clasped her hands together on top of her desk. “Some people erroneously assumed that they had died of poisoning since a large group suddenly collapsed all at once in one of the dining rooms. That rumor spread, and there was a small witch hunt as people tried to figure ou
t who had done the poisoning.”
“Jeez,” I sighed. Mass hysteria in enclosed spaces like that could quickly turn deadly. “I’m assuming poisoning wasn’t actually the case?”
“No,” she replied flatly. “Unfortunately, one of the cooks and his young assistant were both beaten half to death before onboard security could calm everyone down.”
“What a mess.” Holm shook his head before looking up at Diane. “So what did happen?”
“The autopsy reports revealed massive amounts of cocaine in each of the victim’s stomachs,” she explained.
“Cocaine?” Holm asked. “In their stomachs? They ate it?”
“Perhaps not willingly,” Diane answered, and at that moment, it clicked for me.
“Drug mules,” I concluded, which Diane confirmed with a nod.
“We believe that’s the most likely case,” she replied, “as traces of rubber and plastic were also found.”
“So these people were being used to smuggle drugs into the US,” I posited. “It’s not an uncommon method, packing condoms or small balloons full of cocaine and then ingesting them to carry them across borders. Something must have gone wrong and caused the packages to break while they were still inside the people.”
“But all of them in such a short time?” Holm gaped at me. “I mean, the logic is sound, but what the hell kind of mistake causes all the bags to suddenly rupture like that?”
“Who knows?” I muttered as I thought it over myself. “Maybe something the dining room served that night caused the material to break down? You did say that a group of victims all died there, right?”
“That’s correct,” Diane replied. “While we don’t know yet exactly what happened to cause their deaths, we do know for certain that these people were all being used to smuggle drugs into our borders.”
“And that’s why MBLIS is taking this case,” I replied. “Okay. What do you want us to do first?”
“Head down to the ship,” Diane replied as I handed the tablet back to her. “The authorities have prevented the passengers and crew from leaving for the time being.”
