I have no idea if it takes us five or ten or fifteen minutes to get to the smoking room, it’s hard to breathe and think and move. I’m crashing, the adrenaline draining off me at the worst possible moment.
But I still make it onto the boat. Aran hauls me with ease, getting everyone in before he activates the crane and hops inside. We hit the water hard as the telltale buzz of the drones reaches my ears and overpowers the angry screaming and shouting I can hear from the ship.
Then it’s another race as the faint blinking red lights approach us like a flock of deadly bees. The motor of our boat roars, fighting the rumbly waters as we speed away from the St. August. It feels slow, too slow, my heart barely able to take it.
The gigantic lit up behemoth of a ship gradually shrinks in my view, reaching the size of my palm by the time we pause for a breather. The red lights gather around it, forming the circle.
Then there is silence, and after it, the horizon explodes.
34
Aran
Ahelicopterpicksusup before the coast guard arrives. The fireball that the sinking ship has turned into can be seen from miles away, so it shouldn’t be long before another vessel spots it and alerts the authorities, if they haven’t done so already.
We’ll be landing in Honolulu, as that’s where the closest airport is. The Akiyama’s private jet will then take us back to Nagoya.
Sighing, I drape a hand over my forehead. My breathing is still erratic, my heart pounding like it’s in the middle of a rampage. This was crazy, even by my standards. Things went south too quickly, too suddenly. One moment we are in the lab piecing together this mystery, and the next we are trying to outrun suicide drones after Hex has turned the ship into a floating coffin.
Still, lowering the lifeboats was a genius move. We don’t know for sure if everyone died, but the chances are high. Unfortunately, that includes all the drugged and innocent people who were unaware of what was going on that ship, but there was very little we could do. Hell, we barely made it out. Whoever ordered that drone strike poured enough firepower in it to ensure that the ship and anything in its vicinity got scorched to death, so even if someone made it onto those boats, the likelihood that they had enough time to get away from the cruiser is minimal.
Hex plonks his head on my shoulder, sagging against me. He’s been in and out since we boarded the helicopter. The adrenaline got too much for him, I think. Being shot at twice is bad enough, but then the whole ordeal with the drones happened… and if not for his quick wit, we’d have ended up at the bottom of the ocean while the evil bastards who were running drug experiments on unsuspecting employees would’ve gotten away with it.
But they didn’t. They are dead and it’s all thanks to Hex.
I rest my hand on his head, massaging his scalp gently. He settles more comfortably against me, some of the tension vacating his body.
Carefully, so I don’t disturb him, I extricate the tablet he’s holding in a death grip against his chest. I enter the password—he’s changed it so it’s my birthday—and tab between all the apps he’s got open. Among them are a bunch of log files he’s downloaded, but the majority are corrupted. Those must be the videos and the results that incriminate not just those billionaires, but the involved governments as well. But sadly, they are unusable.
“We have the list,” Hex says quietly into my shoulder. “No evidence, but all the bigshots are dead. The drug prototype is gone, too.”
He sounds exhausted, like he could sleep for a week. It’s what happens after you’ve been high on adrenaline for extended periods of time. “Are you sure?” Everything happened so fast in the lab that my brain is still trying to organize the order of events and analyze whether we failed or succeeded in our mission.
Plopping into my lap, he aims those strikingly gorgeous eyes at me. “Yes. There were… briefs and some documents on the lab servers. Emails. This was… they had almost everyone here because they were expecting a breakthrough. Key players, sponsors, scientists. The staff were meant to be their test subjects, Aran.” He scrunches his forehead. “Even us.”
“Shh,” I coo, kissing his forehead. “It’s over. We are safe.”
Guilt and sadness swim in his gaze, heartbreaking and heavy. “Yes, but the rest…”
The decision we made was a hard one. It will take him a while to make his peace with it, but eventually he will. It wasn’t his fault, even if it might feel that way now. The world demands sacrifices sometimes, and there is little you can do.
Hex shoots up suddenly, barely avoiding point-blank collision with my chin. “The list!” He snatches the tablet and opens a file containing a bunch of names. “These are the assholes who didn’t attend the cruise because they weren’t important enough or busy with other shit. But they are still involved.”
Which means they could pick this up and try again. A drug that could allow you to control the minds of people is just too lucrative. Too tempting to let go and forget. It’s worth anything to those in high places, a new toy, a new opportunity, to get even more power. They have been set back, but it’s not like entire corrupt governments were on that ship. A representative or three, yes, while the rest stayed home.
Small fries will rise, I am sure of it. Vultures will peck on what remains, so they can become the new elite.
“We’ll hunt them down,” I promise not just him, but also myself. My reasons might be more selfish than his, but my kind-hearted genius deserves an equally kind world. And I intend to give him that. “One by one, until they are all dead.”
He hums, putting his weight on me as we come shoulder to shoulder. “Ominous. But also very in character with the new unhinged you. I love how deadpan you were when you said it.”
He mimics me, bringing a smile to my face. He’s precious, my biggest treasure. He made this mission a success, despite the rather abrupt and life-threatening ending it had, and thanks to him, we have a direction, a way to put out what remains of this evil conspiracy. The stars in the sky have nothing on him—he shines brighter than any of them. He’s a godly being that walks the earth among us mortals, and he’s picked me. I’m his and he’s mine.
“I can’t wait to get home, have a hot shower and crash in bed,” he mutters, his voice a bit groggy.
“Just hold on a bit more.”
He yawns. “No, I don’t think I can. I’ll sleep and you won’t wake me up because you are nice like that. And when we land in Japan, you’ll carry me to my apartment in a princess hold.”
