Page 28 of No One Aboard

No one was there.

He scrolled to Madden’s phone number with one hand as he barreled down the hall and into the galley. He turned on every light switch, just as he had done the first time, and just like the first time, the boat looked calm and quiet.

The Old Eileenwas empty.

“Hello?”

Jerry leaped out of his skin. “Jesus, hell...” He put the phone to his ear to confirm the voice was Madden’s.

“Detective?”

“You all right?” Madden sounded distracted and muffled. There was some kind of commotion in the background of the call.

Jerry kept his back flat against the wall to steady himself. “Someone’s on the boat. Or was on the boat. Just now. I heard something.”

“Boats creak, Baugh. Sure it wasn’t that?”

Jerry cursed. “I know what boats sound like, Detective! It was a person, okay?”

“Okay, stay put. I’ll send someone over. One moment.” Static thundered over the receiver before Madden’s voice returned, clearer than before. “Shit, sorry, it’s a madhouse over here.”

Jerry continued to look up and down the hallway. He couldn’t get his heart rate down. He tried to focus on their conversation instead. “Uh, what’s going on?”

Madden was quiet for a moment before giving a big sigh. “Well, you might as well hear it from me. The media will be gorging themselves on it by morning.”

“Tell me,” Jerry murmured, wishing fervently that he had put up with the cat’s screams and stayed on his own boat, that he had never gotten caught up in this mess to begin with. Maybe he even wished, deep down, that when he sawThe OldEileenhe had just kept on motoring by.

The detective cleared her throat. “Search party finally found someone. We don’t know who yet.”

Someone? Jerry couldn’t swallow. Couldn’t speak. “If you don’t know who, then...”

“All that was recovered were remains.” Madden’s voice was grim. “No good way to say it, Jerry. One of the seven is dead.”

Chapter 13

Tia Cameron

Call sign: Thimble

Day 3 at Sea

The sea monster from Rylan’s drawing wormed its way into Tia’s nightmare. Its tentacles were thick and translucent; she could see the snakelike muscles twisting beneath glossed skin as they strained for the ship. For her.

When they reached her, she was in her bed, simultaneously viewing her own perspective and that of the monster as it unlocked doors and slithered through the hall, leaving a wet trail in its wake. It wound around her foot, cold and powerful and impossible to escape.

Tia woke and yanked her foot back toward her body. Beside her, Rylan snored softly in his bed. Her watch read 4:52 a.m.

She detangled herself from her bedding and rose. She needed to refill her water bottle in the galley sink. She tiptoed out into the hallway.

A shock burst from her bare feet up through her spine.

The floor was wet.

She jumped and backed away, deeper into the hallway, but wherever she stepped, the floor was slick with water. Was it flooding? A spill? No... A narrow trail crept down the hall, the same exact path of the horrible creature in her dream. Tiadropped her water bottle and ran past the galley as her imagination colored monsters into every dark shadow. She hadn’t grabbed her life jacket on the way up, but the sea was calm tonight. Besides, there were bigger things to worry about. Bigger, slippery, serpentine things.

The thrum of the engine gave something for Tia to focus on. Francis must have ordered the motor to run so they could keep on track without wind.

Tia locked her hands around the railing as she brought herself back to reality. She wasn’t about to dismiss monsters entirely—who was she to say what was out there in the depths of the sea?—but a massive creature attacking her family’s ship seemed farfetched at best. Rylan was always assuring her that the largest creatures of the sea, giant squid and blue whales, were gentle giants. They didn’t have an aggressive tentacle or flipper in their bodies.