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‘Wait, did you say cabin sixteen?’ asked Olivia.
‘Goodbye, Miss Campbell.’ Dr Tove ushered her out and shut the door in her face.
Christa and Jay. The honeymooners. She hadn’t seen them at breakfast. The doctor’s words continued to spin in Olivia’s mind, so much that she had to take a seat on the carpeted floor.
Someonehadn’t been poisoned.
Twopeople had.The couple from cabin sixteen. The cabin she and Aaron had been assigned. She’d seen a bottle of champagne in there before she’d switched.
And now they were both dead.
16
Three bells chimed from the loudspeaker. There seemed to be no end to the announcements they were expected to listen to.
Olivia’s head was spinning. She thought of the champagne, the bottle wrapped in opaque pink foil. Her favourite brand. Maybe Jay and Christa had thought someone had left it as a gift for their honeymoon.
It had been intended for her and Aaron.
She needed to tell him. Ask him if he had any idea what might be happening.
‘Greetings, everyone!’ It was the chirpy voice of their cruise director Elisabet. Olivia could hardly focus enough to hear. ‘Following on from the captain’s announcement earlier this morning, we’re going to do your kit testing, disinfecting and briefings so that we face no delays once we reach our first anchor. In your cabins you’ll find your assignments. If you’re part of the kayaking or camping groups, please head to the mudroom now for your briefing.’
Olivia picked herself up off the floor. She had to get to the library. If this was deliberate, then …
A door opened at the end of the hallway, a few feet from where she was standing. ‘All right, keener?’ Liam popped his head out of the room and grinned at her.
Olivia blinked. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘You’re the first to arrive. You were looking for the mudroom, right? For the briefing.’
‘But …’
‘It’s mandatory, so you might as well come in.’
Still, Olivia hesitated. But it didn’t look like she had much of a choice. Besides, if she was with Liam and the rest of the kayaking group, she wouldn’t be in any immediate danger. She nodded and followed Liam into the room.
Black-rubber matting covered the mudroom floor, and it bounced as she walked over it. All around the perimeter of the room were low wooden benches with pegs above, like an old-fashioned locker room. A shelf stacked with pairs of mid-calf-length black wellington boots was at the far end, along with rows of kayaking paddles.
She walked over to the paddles, running a finger down a plastic stem. Could she do it? Paddle in the polar water? It had been years.
The next person to walk in was a tall Black woman with a cap over her braided hair. Her name tag read ‘Melissa’. Even though it was chilly in the room, her crew jacket was wrapped around her waist. Her arms were bare, showing off well-muscled shoulders. She would be strong with a paddle.
‘All right, Liam?’
‘Decided to show up finally, did you? We need to get these drysuits sorted by size.’
‘My orientation with Elisabet overran,’ the woman replied curtly, getting down to work by wiping down each drysuit as she arranged them in order.
Olivia waited along the back wall as other passengers began to filter in. She looked out for Janine but couldn’tsee her. Cutler and his family came next, along with more of the VIP guests she’d met at dinner. It seemed like they were participating in all the excursions, getting the full service treatment. Naturally Robert was there – he had been bragging about his experience, and she was certain he’d never miss an opportunity to show off his outdoor skills. But Greg and Tariq – the art critic and curator – didn’t exactly seem like the type to relish physical exertion. Greg especially was eyeing the drysuits with wary scepticism. She was conscious these were some of the people she needed to schmooze, but for the moment she hung back, watching.
The room gradually filled, until there were about twenty of them standing, shivering in the chilly room. The final couple to enter the room included the man she thought she’d recognized the day before. Maxwell. Next to him was a tall, slim woman with jet-black hair tied up in a bun – his girlfriend presumably. They shook hands with Greg and Tariq, confirming her suspicion that Maxwell was the same man she’d seen back in the art gallery in London. It was too much of a coincidence otherwise. Finally Olivia spotted Janine standing off to one side.
Liam clapped his hands together. ‘Welcome to all our extra-adventurous expeditioners. Let me tell ya, I’ve been doing this for several trips now and it never gets old. If you’re out with us on the kayaks, you are gonna get up close and personal with the world’s most wild and untamed landscape. This is nature as you’ve never seen it before. For those of you camping on the continent next week, you are in for a proper treat.’
‘Sounds fantastic, Liam. Now how about you get us suited and booted? We want to be first out tomorrow.’Of course it was Cutler who was taking the lead, most of the others nodding in agreement. Greg looked vaguely alarmed, whispering something in his partner’s ear.
‘You got it. If you check out the shelves around you, you should find your cabin number. Under that cabin number are your boots. Then come and see me or Melissa, here, and we’ll get you sorted with a drysuit. Once we’ve figured out all the kit issues, we’ll get you all to disinfect your boots, so they’re ready for tomorrow morning. Keep. Them. Here. Anything that goes on shore needs to be vacuumed and disinfected, to make sure that we don’t drag any of our rest-of-the-world contaminants on to the pristine peninsula. The rules are in place to keep us all safe.’