Chapter 9 - The Hidden Dining Room
The service passage opened behind a wine cabinet on Deck Twelve.
Ashlynn stepped out first.
Gregory followed.
Margaret Mercer sat alone at the far end of a private dining room.
She wore the same ivory suit from the wedding ceremony.
Her makeup remained perfect.
Her hands did not.
They trembled around a glass of water.
Gregory crossed the room.
“Tell me everything.”
Margaret looked at the bruise beginning to form on his chest.
Then she saw the bat in Ashlynn’s hands.
“You attacked her.”
Gregory’s shame became anger.
“You put it in my suitcase.”
“I did not force you to use it.”
Ashlynn watched him absorb the same truth she had given him in the passage.
Margaret continued.
“William believed violence would expose Ashlynn’s training. He knew you were jealous of her secrecy.”
“You fed that jealousy.”
“I kept you alive.”
“By teaching me to become him?”
Margaret looked away.
Ashlynn placed the microdrive on the table.
“What is William planning in restricted waters?”
Margaret’s eyes moved to the drive.
“He intends to transmit a false distress signal identifying this ship as carrying a radiological device.”
Gregory went pale.
“The Navy will stop us.”
“They will attempt to. William expects panic. In the confusion, his people will evacuate using a private tender.”
“And the passengers?” Ashlynn asked.
Margaret said nothing.
Gregory struck the table with his palm.
“What happens to them?”
“He believes casualties will destroy the evidence and create an international crisis large enough to hide his disappearance.”
Ashlynn looked at the satellite transmitter.
The upload was at sixty-two percent.
Margaret reached for it.
Ashlynn pulled it away.
“Where is Logan?”
“On the bridge.”
“Voluntarily?”
Margaret hesitated.
“No.”
Ashlynn’s jaw tightened.
William had not recruited Logan.
He had held him.
Margaret explained that Logan had spent years locating trafficked families from the original shipment. William captured him three months earlier and forced him to work aboard the ship by threatening the survivors Logan had hidden.
Ashlynn’s eyes burned.
Her brother had not betrayed her.
He had been protecting the same people she failed to save.
Gregory looked at his mother.
“You knew?”
“I learned today.”
“And you still helped Dad lock us in the cabin.”
“I thought I could negotiate.”
“With a man who plans to sacrifice thousands of passengers?”
Margaret’s composure broke.
“I spent thirty-five years believing I could control him.”
Ashlynn picked up the drive.
“You never controlled him. You helped him.”
A warning alarm changed pitch.
The ship had entered restricted waters.
Margaret pointed toward a security console.
“If Logan can access the bridge transmitter, he can cancel the false signal.”
“Then why hasn’t he?”
“William is standing beside him.”
Ashlynn moved toward the door.
Gregory stepped in front of her.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“That’s my father.”
“That’s exactly why you stay.”
Gregory shook his head.
“You don’t know how he thinks.”
Ashlynn looked at the man who attacked her less than fifteen minutes earlier.
May you like
“Neither do you.”
👉 To save the ship, Ashlynn had to reach the bridge—but the shortest route passed through the private deck controlled by William’s armed security team.
