Page 51 of High Seas

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“While you’re doing that, think about something for me.”

“What’s that?”

“Can you remember any of the upgrades? The procedures themselves?” He crossed his arms and watched me quietly.

I glanced around the room, grasping at anything. “No. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember even walking into the Med Ward, but I must have. I don’t remember going in, and I don’t remember walking out. You’d think I would remember the room and nurses, both before the upgrade and after, but all I remember is Maru’s reactions to the ones that took – in the training room.”

“So, you weren’t awake for any of them?”

“Hell, no. I’m pretty sure I’d remember that.”

He pressed his lips together and nodded.

“Do you remember them?”

“Not really,” he muttered.

However, I knew Titus well enough to know there was a reason why he asked the question. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He swallowed and pinched his eyes closed, choosing his words carefully. “When you were sick after you landed here, I watched you thrashing around in that bed with your eyes open, speaking like Kael was with you. It seemed like more than a dream, like you were re-living a memory. And if it was, he –” Titus shook his head and pursed his lips together.

“He what?” I prodded.

He shook his head again, unable to speak.

“Titus, what did he do? Tell me what he did.”

“He goddamn tortured you, okay? He didn’t sedate you. Didn’t even allow you a local anesthetic, from the sounds of it.”

The wind rushed out of my stomach like he’d punched me. But I don’t remember it. It must have been a nightmare. “I’m sure it was only a dream, Titus. That’s all. I don’t remember ever feeling pain from one of the upgrades.”

He braced his hands on his hips. “I’m exactly like you, Eve. I don’t remember ever walking into the Med Ward. I don’t remember putting on the hospital gown, or getting an IV, or feeling pain, or even feeling fuzzy. I remember Josh telling me I was being upgraded after a long day of training, and then it’s like my memory skips ahead to after the upgrade. Right back into the training room. No recovery. No chicken broth. Or hot nurses. Nothing.”

I swallowed thickly. “Mine’s the same.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” he replied ruefully.

Chapter Fifteen

Eve

The crewmen began to yell, running back and forth across the deck. I sharpened my hearing. A ship was fast approaching from ahead. Titus looked at me. “If this is some kind of pirate ‘roid rage, I’m gonna be pissed.”

“Be pissed, then,” Enoch growled as he pushed the door open. “I assume that means being angry.”

“It does, indeed,” Titus affirmed, mocking Enoch’s proper tone.

“Good, because we’ll need that anger focused in on the crew and ship about to attack us.”

Titus muttered a curse under his breath, earning a look of warning from Enoch. “What, man? I didn’t even say it out loud.”

“She could hear you, could you not?” Enoch asked, turning his attention to me.

Titus argued, “Who cares? She’s said a lot worse. Besides – we’re about to get blasted to bits!”

“We certainly are not,” Enoch growled. “I came to tell you to stay inside.”

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