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“Hex.” Aran halts me as I begin opening drawers in search of something to counteract the sedatives she must’ve been pumped with. For her to look this way, she must’ve been here for quite some time, maybe even since the day she disappeared. “It’s obvious what happened. They are testing drugs on the staff.”

I pinch my forearm, my heart beating so quickly, I can feel every thump along the side of my neck. I can’t imagine it’s consensual either. And there are so many of them, too. We knew something bad was happening here, but it didn’t cross my mind that it could be this level of bad.

“Why would they do something like this?” I question out loud, a lump forming in my throat as I take in the vast lab.

This is the worst. All those VIPs need to pay for what they’ve done to these people!

“If I had to guess, they must’ve synthesized a new variant of that drug,” Aran answers, rummaging through the glass cabinet with ampules in various colors that’s across from Eleanor’s cot. “They must be testing its effectiveness before they roll it out.”

“And what better way to make sure it performs than testing on the crew of a two-week long exclusive cruise…” Mong adds, his voice jittery. “I can’t believe they were doing it right under our noses, too. What if…” His eyes scan the room, fear swimming in them. “What if I had been next?”

I don’t like the thought of that, so I squeeze his hand in reassurance and don’t think about it. “But you weren’t. Now let’s wake Eleanor up?”

He nods and helps me look for a way to bring Eleanor back to consciousness. My breathing is haphazard, my skin feels itchy. I don’t like this place, and I want to leave as soon as possible so the bad guys can be brought to justice.

A part of me questions if that will even happen. I am not naïve—if entire governments are involved, they’d do anything in their power to prevent this from getting out. We’ll need to be very careful how we go about it, and most of all, we need indisputable proof before we even think about going public.

I survey the space once more, searching for cameras. But I come up short. There’s nothing. Annoyed, I click my tongue. Mrs. Lynx and the other assholes have taken precautions—there is no surveillance for me to steal. I flick my gaze to Aran, who’s made a mess of the folders and documents on the nearest desk. I think he’s already looking for other incriminating evidence, but what if he doesn’t find anything either?

Taking a deep breath that does little to calm me, I cast my eyes over the sleeping people once more. If we can’t find anything, we’ll need help from someone who was directly involved.

“Hey, Eleanor. Wake up,” Mong says, gently shaking the sleeping woman.

Aside from the saline IV drip, no other solution is being pumped into her, so whatever they’d used to sedate her must be relatively strong. But if it’s been a while—and it looks like it has been—surely it must be about to wear off.

Sadly, neither Mong’s nor my efforts are enough to wake her up. What if it’s not a sedative? What if she is in a coma or something because of side effects from that evil brainwashing drug?

“Try this.” Aran nudges me on the shoulder. I make space for him, and he injects something into her IV. “It’s a counteracting agent that I found in the cupboard with sedatives. It should help wake her up.”

It does, and quickly. She opens her eyes within a couple of minutes, mumbling something as she tries to sit up.

“I’ll find Katy! She must be here somewhere,” Mong hollers once she’s recognized our faces and looks a tiny bit less like a disoriented deer.

“Wait,” Eleanor croaks, shivering. She hugs herself as tears fill her eyes. “She—They—”

A surge of icy alertness washes over me. I clench her hand and rub her back.

“Did something happen to your friend?” Aran asks flatly in his business tone.

The woman nods, the tears dripping down her cheeks. “They—I went to talk to… Mrs. Streiss. Katy was there and…” She coughs harshly, clutching her chest. “I tried to help her! But I couldn’t. And then they injected me with—” she cuts herself off, bawling now.

Goosebumps crawl all over me. This is horrible. And it almost happened to me, too. I inhale with my whole chest, focusing on the air flowing through me so the flashback of the VIPs ganging up on me doesn’t consume me. I am fine, Aran saved me. He didn’t let the worst happen to me, he protected me, just like he’s always done.

I can’t imagine the trauma Eleanor will have to deal with. But we are here now. She’s safe, and once we are back in Japan, I’ll have Aran get her any help she might need.

“She’s dead. I’m so sorry.” Eleanor continues to cry, wiping snot and tears from her face. “I’m so sorry, Katy. I never should have invited you to that party.”

“It’s not your fault,” I coo, stroking her wavy black hair. It’s clumped in a few places, which only serves to prove that she’s been here since the night of the party.

“But it is! I knew…” She whimpers, hanging her legs off the cot. “I knew they intended to test that stupid drug here! But Mrs. Streiss promised it was safe! I had no idea any of this—” she frowns at the sedated people and presses her palms into her face. “Oh my god.”

“Just focus on breathing,” Aran cuts in, hovering behind me. “You were manipulated.”

She shakes her head. “I knew Mrs. Streiss wasn’t the benevolent woman everyone believed she was! I… helped her screen some of the staff on the cruise!” She sniffles, going even paler. “They planned it, from the very start. To use the unsuspecting employees as guinea pigs. And… And this isn’t the first cruise either. Her former assistant left right after the previous one…”

Or maybe that’s not even what happened. They probably just suffered the same fate these people did. The timelines align. In the months since Matt and Kieran came from the US, there could’ve easily been more than a few attempts to synthesize a working mind-control drug. I snap my gaze to Aran. He nods grimly and rubs my back. This is horrible. Every rich snob on this ship deserves to die.

“We need to do something…” I mutter, pulling out my tablet and connecting it to the nearest computer. “There must be some way to expose this.”