Page 3

3

Aran

Hex behaves for a whole ten minutes. He sits out of sight at the back of the control room while the Chief of Security gives us instructions, blending in like some human chameleon. I always find that impressive, considering the way he looks. He’s not exactly flashy, but his blue hair and bold style usually put him apart. Being a hacker and all, you’d think he’d be the type to dress in a way that would make him invisible, but he’s the opposite of that. He’s like a Diva at a rock concert, and while I will never acknowledge it publicly, I’m here for it.

The fact that he’s wearing the same uniform as the rest of us helps, of course. He left the nose ring on despite my protests, but no one seems to have noticed, or if they have, they don’t mind it. The same goes for his messy bed hair. Most of the others have either shaven or slicked-back hair, or like me, have it tied neatly. Not Hex. Hex does what he wants. Gone are the days when he was a shy, cute kid who’d hide behind his father when I visited.

The room slowly empties once the security chief leaves. I wait until most of the guys are gone before I approach my apprentice .

“Mr. Suwannarat!” He beams at me, causing my heart to stutter. It really needs to stop doing that or one of these days I might end up suffering from a heart attack. “I am sooo excited to be in your care today!”

He’s way too enthusiastic about it. And I’ve had way too few coffees to put up a fight.

Sighing, I take out the work phone they handed me and show it to him. It has the ship’s layout and the areas I’m responsible for this week are marked in yellow. Next week, I’ll be looking after some other section of the ship, but I won’t know which one until the change.

Hex snatches the device as he leans his elegant frame against the room’s window. The blinds are down, so anyone walking by will remain unaware that we are still here unless they actually come in.

“So, they gave you the entertainment deck… or most of it, anyway. What’s back there? In the grayed-out area?” he asks the exact same thing I’ve been wondering since getting my allocation.

His attention is narrowed down to the otherwise unremarkable grayed-out section. It’s right at the back of the deck and it’s not very big. Comparatively speaking. It’s the size of four or five luxury cabins, so it could accommodate quite a few people. About a hundred if my guess is right.

“I don’t know.” I minimize the layout and open the briefing document. “It wasn’t in the info pack.”

Hex claps his hands, muttering something under his breath. “That’s where we start our investigation, then. I bet if we go there, we’ll find out what our mysterious guests are here to do.”

The likelihood of that is high. But that is precisely why we must be extra careful in how we approach this. The St. August is a mid-sized cruise ship with a capacity of 3500 guests and crew. There are 250 security personnel and about 250 staff—housekeeping, chefs, vendors, performers, deck crew & engineers. Which leaves space for 3000 guests. Of those, the list with the animal code accounts for only 500. With so few people meandering about the decks, it will be laughably easy for someone to notice us snooping around. We have to be smart about it.

“No,” I halt him before he can get too excited. “We lie low today and only observe. We already know this is a very high-profile gathering of people. And we know these people are connected to the drug the US government is after.”

Hex peers up at me. “You still don’t know what it is exactly?”

I shake my head. “Minister Kesam is yet to fess up. And Goro doesn’t know.” I still can’t believe those two tried to go against one of the Akiyama Group’s core principles by getting involved with this drug conspiracy. “Daichi is wary about bringing in an external specialist, considering the sensitive nature of this whole operation.”

The truth is that we are way out of our expertise here. The data on the chip Matthew and Kieran brought with them from the US is like nothing the world has seen before. Tarou, the Akiyama Group’s Chief of R&D, was baffled when we showed him the diagrams. They were very similar to what he had reverse-engineered from Goro and Kesam’s prototype drug, except better. Half of the compounds are proprietary like in the prototype, but the other half shouldn’t even exist. Yet they do, and someone figured out how to synthesize them and create a brain chemical that, according to Tarou, doesn’t simply make the target easily susceptible to suggestions. It makes it so that they act on them if certain conditions are met.

It should be impossible. Mind-control is a concept of sci-fi, not the real world. Yet, we can’t ignore the threat this substance poses. The change it might bring on if it turns out it’s real. We must get to the bottom of this mess before it’s too late to stop it.

“It’s okay. Me and you will solve this.” Hex preens, gracing me with a self-assured smile.

“Just not today,” I warn him, pressing a finger against his forehead. Unlike mine, which suffers from frown and worry lines, his is still smooth and unblemished. “Today, we are just two security guards doing their job. We won’t be investigating any secret parts of the ship.”

“But—”

“Hex. No. I am serious. We are risking a lot already by having you pretend you are part of the security team. If the Chief sees you, he’ll know you weren’t at the pre-departure briefing.”

“We’d be risking a ton more if I remained in the kitchen.” He puffs out his reddening cheeks. “C’mon, Aran, have you ever seen me cook? They’ll know I’m a farce the moment I start chopping.”

Despite the serious nature of the situation, I let out a chuckle. Hex is a genius, the smartest man that I know. But he’s a disaster in the kitchen. The one time he tried to surprise me with a home-cooked meal, he almost burned down the building. That was back when we lived together. I took on cooking for us after that, and when I eventually moved out, I made sure Hex had food delivered to him daily. I get him stuff from the various Akiyama Group associated restaurants, so he doesn’t eat the same thing every day or just chocolate and energy drinks.

Voices outside the door snatch my attention. I place my hand over Hex’s mouth as he begins to say something, then pull him off the window. The blinds straighten up as if he’d never leaned against them.

We stand still in the tense silence. Hex’s eyes are on me, intense and unwavering. I can feel his heat, the elevated rhythm of his heart, the thoughts racing in his head. It’s like I am tuned in to him, like my body just can’t help but detect all the signals he sends me. He soaks up any contact I offer like a plant seeking water after a year of drought, and it would be a lie to say that it feels anything but thrilling.

It’s unnerving. I shouldn’t let myself get swept up in his pace, no matter how tantalizing it is. I should be more careful. I made a promise, and I must see it through. Hex is the forbidden fruit I can never have, the one man I’m not allowed to ever touch.

I loosen my grip, letting my fingers drag down his plush lips and delicate chin. I wish he didn’t make it so damn hard every time. That he would stop trying to undermine my efforts. Since I took him in all those years ago, time and time again he’s tried to change the status quo, to turn this into something it shouldn’t ever be.

“I’m dying to kiss you right now,” he says, running his pink tongue over his bottom lip in invitation.

Heat surges through me, exacerbating that buzz I feel whenever I find myself too close to him. Part of me wants to give in, to taste him and see just how profoundly it would change my life. But I don’t dare. I can’t betray my best friend like that.

The weight of the promise I made roils my stomach. I can’t ever break it, and even if I let myself entertain that thought, I’m just too old for Hex. The dangerous life that I’ve lived and continue to live is not for him. My future and Hex’s just don’t converge—we are too different, like a bright star and the dark cloud of mist meant to protect it.

“I think we can go now,” I say, straining my hearing. The voices are no longer in front of the room, so I prop open the door and gesture at the corridor. “It’s game on, Hex. Don’t disappoint me. I’m counting on you.”

His eyes light up with excitement as he gives me a vigorous nod. He shines so brightly whenever I praise him. He absorbs every word like it’s the air he needs to breathe. I shouldn’t like it, but I do. It’s another of my secrets, another dark part of me that will never see the light of day.

Because Hex will outgrow me, sooner than later. He’ll meet someone younger, someone more interesting, and he will move on from me. I’m fine with that. He’ll forget me eventually, he’ll be happy, he’ll start his own family and have a life full of joy.

But I will continue to watch over him, even when that happens, from the shadows and until the day that I die.