Page 41 of Dark Horizon New Dawn

She rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. I want to look my best at all times."

"You don't need heels for that." Dalhu draped his arm around her shoulders. "But what do I know? I'm just a simple-minded male."

Amanda chuckled. "Oh, stop it. We all have our hobbies, and one of mine is looking fabulous. Anyone have a problem with that?"

"Nope." Kian reached for Syssi's other foot and lifted it onto his lap. "No one dares."

As the whiz of Mia's motorized wheelchair alerted Kian to her approach, he turned to look at her over his shoulder. "Mia. You're just the person I need to talk to."

"Really? I came over to talk to you." She waited for Toven to move one of the chairs away so she could get closer to the table. "I spoke to Margo earlier, and she asked me to ask you for a favor."

Kian arched a brow. "She isn't supposed to know about me."

"She doesn't. We only refer to you as the boss or Tom's mysterious and eccentric partner, who should remain unnamed."

That got a smile out of him. "I like that. So, what's the favor?"

Mia took a deep breath. "Margo met a woman named Jasmine at the hotel, and they started chatting. Margo thinks that Jasmine's boyfriend is about to sell her. He took her passport, her driver's license, and her credit cards, claiming that he needed to keep them safe from thieves and pickpockets. The bottom line is that Jasmine can't escape him without her passport, and she needs to return to Los Angeles. Margo is asking if she can hitch a ride with us."

Kian grimaced. "It sounds fishy to me. Did that woman ask Margo if she can come aboard?"

"I don't think so, but maybe she did. Margo asked me to book an Airbnb for her so she could hide from her boyfriend until the ship arrived. If you don't allow her to come on board, having a place to hide will give her time to contact her family and have them try to help her. She said that people at the hotel had seen the two of them hanging out together, so if she booked the Airbnb under her name, the boyfriend could easily trace it through her. That's why she wanted me to book it under mine."

Syssi put her feet down and leaned over the table to look at Mia. "Did Jasmine ask her boyfriend for her passport, and he refused to give it back?"

"I don't know. I told Margo that she might be overreacting and making a big fuss over nothing, but her answer convinced me to help Jasmine anyway. She said that she might be wrong, and the boyfriend could be just a controlling jerk, but if she was right and did nothing, it would be forever on her conscience that she hadn't helped Jasmine."

"That's a convincing argument," Toven said. "I think we should allow the woman on board. We already have a group of rescued victims. What's one more?"

Kian sighed. "I might have been agreeable to letting Jasmine on the ship, but there are developments you are not aware of, which will make even getting just Margo here difficult."

"What's going on?" Toven asked.

"We interrogated Bud, the Doomers' leader, and it turns out that Kalugal left some memories in Luis's head that they were able to retrieve. One of them was that we were picking up a woman from the Grand Allure Resort in Cabo San Lucas. They don't know Margo's name, but we expect the Doomers to have a large presence at the hotel."

"That's not good," Toven said. "Are we still going to Cabo?"

"Yes, but we are putting on a charade, pretending to be a ship full of humans. That's why I wanted to talk to you. We slowed down so we wouldn't stand out among the other cruise ships that left Acapulco around the same time we did, and we will be arriving at Cabo late in the evening instead of early afternoon. Several groups will go to local clubs and restaurants, pretending to be tourists, and I plan on having the human staff intermingled with them to reinforce the perception. You need to tell Margo about our late arrival and also make up an excuse as to why we need her to take a taxi to the airport. We will collect her from there and find a way to smuggle her aboard, probably in a supply crate."

Mia chewed on her lower lip for a moment, and then she perked up. "I know what we can do. Jasmine can take a taxi to the airport from the Airbnb, and we can collect her from there together with Margo. If we can smuggle one in a supply crate, I don't see why we can't smuggle two."

Except for the law of unintended consequences, which was a major bitch, Kian couldn't find a fault in Mia's plan.

"They can both go to the Airbnb," Amanda said. "And we can pick them up from there. All the Doomers know is that we are picking a woman up from that hotel. They don't know who she is, so no one is going to watch Margo specifically."

The girl had probably told everyone in her group about being picked up by a cruise ship, and if she was the talkative type, she might have told many people about that. The Doomers could find out who she was very easily, which meant that she might be followed to the airport.

"Here is what I want you to tell Margo." Kian leaned back so he could see both Mia and Toven. "Tell her to go to the Airbnb and stay there until you call her. I will have Guardians watching the Airbnb to check that no one is following her and Jasmine to the airport. If they are compromised, we will have to change plans accordingly."

29

PETER

Peter didn't want to take any chances and risk Marina changing her mind. After everyone had left and the dining room was empty of guests, he started collecting plates with the other servers and putting them into the plastic bins.

"What are you doing?" Marina whispered.

"Helping out so you will be done faster."

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