Free Triton by Dan Rix Page A

Just the facts, no opinions—”
    “Why do you get to stand?” said Cedar. “You think you’re better than us?”
    Jake sat down. “There. Happy?”
    “You still think you’re better than us,” he muttered.
    “I’ll start,” said Naomi, shooting a glare at Cedar. “Since yesterday at midnight we haven’t seen anyone else on board, there’s evidence that the crew left in a hurry, and Sky reports that she was taken somewhere.”
    Jake nodded, massaging his chin. “Has anyone checked the lifeboats?”
    “Still there,” she said. “I saw them this morning.”
    “They didn’t leave on lifeboats ,” said Cedar. “They were taken . . . like Sky said.”
    “Sky had a bad dream,” Brynn spat.
    Cedar spun his chair to face her. “Sky woke up outside a stateroom that was locked from the inside. How do you suppose she accomplished that feat?”
    Brynn rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t even mean anything. The doors lock whenever you close them. She probably stumbled into the hall when she was drunk thinking it was the bathroom and got locked out . . . in fact, she probably invented this whole story because she was so embarrassed.”
    Brynn glanced at Sky and—with a burst of cruel satisfaction—saw wounded disbelief flare in her eyes, if only for an instant. Served her right, the exhibitionist.
    Jake leaned forward on his elbows and pressed the tips of his fingers together. “So what is your theory, Cedar? How were five thousand people taken in the middle of the night ? ”
    “Eight thousand including the crew,” said Naomi.
    “Were they abducted?” Jake added.
    “I’m just saying—” Cedar began.
    “We hear what you’re saying. We’re just looking at the what’s likely right now.”
    “Oh, and what is likely , Jake? Since you’re so smart?”
    “That everyone’s still on board. That they’re somewhere below decks.”
    “In case you didn’t notice,” said Cedar. “Our cabins were empty.”
    “We only checked three.”
    “Sky made her announcement to the entire ship,” said Cedar. “If there was anyone else on board, they would be in this room right now suffering through this goddamn lecture.”
    “Not if they were unconscious,” said Jake.
    His statement was met with silence, and Brynn’s eyes wandered back to Sky—the one person who hadn’t spoken yet.
    “Why don’t we ask her?” she said, pointing at Sky. “Isn’t she the one who supposedly knows what happened?”
    Sky peered around the conference table at the four gazes targeting her like she was some kind of alien. Her eyes gravitated again to the light-haired boy with ruddy cheeks . . . the cute one.
    Cedar.
    At first she had dismissed him as eye candy, typical jerk flavor. Her least favorite type, too: perky boyish cheekbones and a jawline sharp enough to cut her. In other words, adorable.
    He leaned back in his chair and regarded her like he didn’t give a shit, his long, lean arms slung across his chair’s armrests and his skin-tight bleached white T-shirt leaving little of his lithe torso to the imagination—though she did a pretty good job filling in the rest anyway.
    But now, staring into his vivid blue-gray eyes, she realized he might be the only one on her side. The others didn’t believe her.
    Last night, she had been taken somewhere, abducted. The cruise ship had been attacked. And she needed to tell him.
    Later, though. When he was alone.
    Right now, she didn’t want them to think she was any more of a psycho than they already did. “It was probably just a bad dream,” she said.
    “Well, that settles that,” said Jake, slapping both his hands on the table. “Let’s get back to the search of the ship.”
    “We still don’t have a way to get into the rooms,” said Brynn. “They’re all locked, remember?”
    “The crew have master keys that open all the doors,” said Naomi. “If we can find those, we’ll have access to every room.”
    “The master keys.” Jake nodded. “Good