We had been sitting in the room for several hours when Armin knocked at the door.“We picked up a plane on radar,” he announced. “They’re maybe fifteen minutes away.”“Excellent,” Miranda said, then gestured to Sebastian. “Take this one back with you.”Armin unlocked the chains around Sebastian’s ankles, forced him to his feet, and shepherded him out of the room. The last I saw of my friend was his panicked eyes as he disappeared outside.“What about me?” I asked.Miranda came over and sat in the chair next to me, the gun in her hand. “Now we wait for your fiancé.”

I sat there staring at Miranda, both furious and sick with dread at the same time.She didn’t seem bothered at all by the violent drama about to unfold. She lounged in the chair like she was in a theater, waiting for a movie to start. The only thing out of place with her demeanor was the gun in her right hand.“What were you doing in Tokyo and Italy?” I asked.“I told you, we’re not talking about that.” There wasn’t any anger or annoyance in her voice, just cool detachment.“Either I’m about to die, or you’re about to die – so what does it matter if I know?”She looked at me with mild amusement. “I’m not about to die.”Her self-confidence enraged me – and at the same time, the double meaning behind her last sentence chilled me to my bones. Still, I kept pressing. “So tell me.”“There was a shipment of prostitutes in Tokyo, and a shipment of heroin in Italy.”“…into the US?”“No,” she said, her voice registering just the barest hint of sarcasm. “Into Guam. Of course into the US.”“But

Miranda’s revelations had thrown me for a loop. Even though I tried not to react, there was no denying the sour sickness in my stomach – or the bitter despair in my heart.I couldn’t stop myself from saying what came next. It was the only way I could fight against the onslaught of hopelessness and outrage coursing through me.“Even if you kill me, it won’t matter,” I said coldly. “In fact, it’ll just make it worse for you. Connor will find you. He will. And he won’t stop until you’re dead or behind bars.”“Your faith in Connor is… adorable,” she said, her voice dripping with contempt.“It’s amazing to me how stupidly overconfident you are. You think you know everything, but you don’t.”“But I do. For instance, I know that Eve Saunders is helping them. I know that she has currently accessed all the cameras aboard the ship. What she doesn’t know is that the feeds from all the cameras are fake. They’re recordings. In reality, I have three times more men onboard than Connor expects – and

I stared at Miranda.Two traitors?! “Who – ?” I started to ask, but I was interrupted by Armin opening the door. In his arms he carried a nasty-looking rifle with a high-tech scope.“They’re onboard,” he informed Miranda. “We just got visual confirmation.”“Good. What about the satellite uplink? Did you turn it off so the hacker can’t help them?”“No, we’re having trouble shutting the system down,” Armin said as he closed the door behind him and locked it.“What are you doing?” Miranda asked, obviously annoyed.Armin seemed confused. “Protecting you.”Miranda held up the pistol in her hand. “I’m fine. Get out there and shut down the computers. I don’t care if you have to blow them up, I don’t want Eve Saunders helping them.”“But – ”“GO.”Armin frowned, but he unlocked the door and started to step out.“And remind the others that I want Connor alive,” Miranda said.Armin turned back in surprise. “You want him unharmed?”“I didn’t say that. You can hurt him as much as you need to.” S

BOOM.There was a massive explosion somewhere on the ship. Every glass pane in the spider terrariums rattled, and a couple cracked.“What the hell?” Miranda said, and stumbled to her feet as the yacht began to tilt to one side.After my initial shock from the blast, I watched Miranda’s face. She was reacting with more fear – in fact, with more emotion – than I’d ever seen her display before.She looked back at me, her eyes wide with surprise.After all the indignities the bitch had put me through, I couldn’t resist. “Guess my fiancé’s here,” I said, and gave her a little smile.