Chương 5
This time she removed a tiny black object no larger than a coin.
“What’s that?”
“Tracker.”
“Why?”
“Captain wants it on you.”
“Does Flynn know these exist?”
“No.”
I took it.
The plastic felt warm from her body heat.
“Where do I put it?”
“In your bra, waistband, anywhere unlikely to fall out.”
I slipped it beneath the lining of my bra.
The indignity was almost comforting.
There was nothing cinematic about fumbling with a tracker under my clothing while a shower ran too loudly and a nervous steward watched the door.
“Listen to me,” Lila said.
Her voice changed.
“If they force you out of this room before we can intervene, do not let them take you to the stern.”
“What should I do?”
“Make noise.”
“They can overpower me.”
“I know.”
“Then what good does noise do?”
“It tells us where you are.”
The answer was practical and terrible.
I nodded.
Lila turned off the shower.
Before leaving the bathroom, she caught my arm.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Captain checked the navigation order.”
My stomach tightened.
“The one supposedly from me?”
“Yes.”
“He found the authorization record.”
“And?”
Lila swallowed.
“It wasn’t entered using your password.”
“That’s good.”
“No.”
Her grip tightened around my arm.
“It was entered using your fingerprint.”
For a moment, I thought I had misheard her.
“My fingerprint?”
Lila nodded.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked down at my hands.
The answer arrived before either of us said it.
For three nights, Flynn had watched me sleep.
He had touched my hands a hundred times.
He could have pressed my finger to anything while I was drugged.
My skin crawled.
“Can someone use a fingerprint without waking me?”
“If you were sedated enough.”
I rubbed my thumb against my index finger until the friction hurt.
The bathroom suddenly felt too small.
“He used my body like a password.”
Lila’s expression tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
I hated the apology because it made the sentence real.
“Does Captain Mercer know when?”
“He’s checking the access record now.”
“Can he prove I wasn’t there?”
“Maybe.”
“There are cameras.”
“Some were disabled.”
“Of course they were.”
Lila glanced toward the door.
“I need to leave before someone notices.”
I caught her wrist.
“Wait.”
She stopped.
“If this goes wrong, what does Captain Mercer actually plan to do?”
Her eyes moved away.
That was enough.
“He doesn’t have a plan.”
“He has one.”
“What is it?”
“To keep control of the bridge, protect the communications systems, and delay any order to reduce crew.”
“That isn’t a plan for me.”
“No.”
At least she admitted it.
“What happens at eleven forty?”
“If outside support hasn’t reached us, Captain Mercer will intervene directly.”
“With seven crew against six people who may have weapons?”
“He doesn’t want violence.”
“I’m sure Flynn appreciates that.”
Lila flinched.
I regretted the cruelty immediately.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
We stood there with the towels between us and the bathroom still damp from the shower.
Lila looked younger than I had thought.
Maybe twenty-six.
Maybe younger.
She had a small scar beside her chin and chipped pale-blue polish on one thumbnail.
I wondered who was waiting for her on land.
“You shouldn’t be in this,” I said.
“Neither should you.”
“That’s different.”
“Not really.”
She picked up two used towels from the rack to make her visit look legitimate.
“Captain says the safest thing is for everyone to keep acting normal.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“It’s a yacht.”
A dry edge entered her voice.
“People are very committed to acting normal on yachts.”
I almost smiled.
Then she opened the bathroom door.
Before she left the cabin, I said, “Lila.”
She turned.
“Thank you.”
Her face changed in a way I could not name.
Then she nodded once and left.
I locked both locks again.
The hidden speaker came alive as soon as I opened the panel.
“I heard most of that,” Daniel said.
“Good.”
“Security is now treating the fingerprint authorization as evidence of deliberate impersonation.”
“Can you prove it?”
“We have to preserve the records first.”
“Can Flynn erase them?”
“Possibly.”
I looked at his tablet.
The screen had gone dark again.
“Then why are we sitting here?”
“Because keeping you alive is still the priority.”
“What if keeping me alive lets him destroy everything?”
Daniel paused.
“That is a real risk.”
It was the first time anyone had spoken to me like I had a right to weigh the consequences.
“What would happen if we confronted him now?”
“He could deny everything, restrict access to devices, destroy evidence, pressure witnesses, or accelerate whatever he planned.”
“Could Captain Mercer confine him?”
“On what legal basis, and with what physical support?”
“He threatened to murder me.”
“In a conversation you overheard and our system recorded, yes.”
“So?”
“So Captain Mercer is a ship captain, not a police officer with a tactical team.”
I sat on the floor beside the bed.
“Rich people really do build very expensive cages for themselves.”
Daniel made a sound that might have been a suppressed laugh.
Then someone spoke urgently behind him.
His voice disappeared for several seconds.
When he returned, it was sharper.
“We have your course.”
I straightened.
“Where are we going?”
“A position roughly eighty nautical miles south of your original route.”
“What’s there?”
“Nothing obvious.”
“That sounds promising.”
“It places the vessel farther from normal traffic.”
My throat tightened.
“And?”
“And outside the response corridor we initially planned.”
“So they knew.”
“We can’t conclude that yet.”
“They changed the route using my fingerprint and disabled cameras.”
“I know.”
“Say it.”
Daniel went quiet.
“Say what?”
“That they knew.”
“I won’t tell you something as fact until I can support it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
His discipline made me furious because fear wanted certainty, even ugly certainty.
“Fine.”
“We are adjusting.”
“How?”
“Coast Guard coordination, regional assets, and your father’s private support vessel.”
May you like
“My father sent a boat?”
“He redirected one of Sterling’s security vessels from Puerto Rico.”
