13 DISILLUSIONMENT

Level Three

The Emperor of the Seas

Just off Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

May 17

1600 hours

“I can’t believe you used me like this!” I yelled, storming through the narrow corridors of the ship toward our room. “I nearly got killed!”

“Obviously, that wasn’t how the plan was intended to work,” Catherine said, hurrying after me with Mike and Erica in tow. “We intended to catch Murray in the act of accosting you. It didn’t occur to us that you’d abandon your post. I told you to act as a lookout while we broke into the Chrysanthemum Ballroom, but you left the area and went onto the Promenade Deck without telling us.”

“I was trying to help with the investigation! Because I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing! I didn’t realize that my job here was simply to draw Murray out!”

“Benjamin, please keep your voice down,” Catherine said nervously. “Or the whole ship will know that you’re a secret agent.”

“Isn’t that the plan? To let Murray know I’m here so that he can come kill me?” I called out at the top of my lungs, “Murray! It’s Ben! Your attempt to kill me failed! So come polish me off for good!”

A few passengers poked their heads out of the room ahead of me, wondering what the commotion was about.

“We’re actors,” Catherine told them. “Rehearsing for tonight’s theatrical performance. It’s a rousing spy thriller set on the high seas! You should come see it.”

The other passengers now seemed excited to catch the show. I stormed past them all and barged into our room. Catherine, Mike, and Erica entered right on my heels.

Alexander was sitting on the bed in the adjoining room, looking surprisingly healthy, given that the night before, he’d been the same color as a watermelon rind. He was dressed, groomed, and back to his normal complexion. “Hello, everyone!” he said cheerfully.

Even though I was livid, I still paused to look at him, struck by his transformation. So did everyone else.

Mike told Erica, “I thought you said he was delirious.”

“I’d like all of you to meet the Tralfamadorians,” Alexander told all of us, pointing to some nonexistent beings. “They’re from the Bingpot Galaxy.”

“Oh,” Mike said. “There’s the crazy.”

“Alexander,” Catherine said with concern, “I don’t see any aliens in that room.”

“Well, of course you don’t!” Alexander replied. “They’re invisible to us. They exist in sixteen different dimensions, so we can’t see them.” Then he whispered to us in confidence, “That’s probably a good thing, though, because I’ve heard they look like giant earwigs. But they have very lovely dispositions.”

Catherine turned to Erica. “Why don’t you and Michael deal with your father while I talk to Benjamin?”

Although she phrased this as a question, it wasn’t really a request. It was an order. Erica didn’t look pleased to be saddled with talking to her father about invisible aliens, but she nodded agreement and went into the next room with Mike.

“Do either of you have any cheese on you?” Alexander asked them. “The Tralfamadorians are absolute fiends for dairy products.”

Catherine closed the door on them and then turned her attention to me. “I know you’re upset,” she said. “And I understand why. But I can’t have you jeopardizing this mission with emotional outbursts.”

“And yet, jeopardizing my life is totally okay?”

“This is a dangerous business, Benjamin. You knew that when you signed up. I’ve been used as bait many times myself.…”

“But your partners told you that was happening, right?” I asked pointedly. “They didn’t lie to you about it.”

Catherine shifted from one foot to the other uneasily, then admitted, “That’s true. I had my issues with lying to you, but the higher-ups felt it was better if you didn’t know. They don’t know you the way I do. They still see you as a child.”

“A child whose life they’re putting at risk.”

“Yes.” Catherine now looked far less upset with me and significantly more apologetic. “Just out of interest, if we had been honest with you, would you have agreed to this mission?”

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully, then slumped onto one of the beds. “What’s most upsetting about all of this is that I was used as bait when I first came to spy school. I thought that maybe I’d proved myself since then. But apparently, bait is the only thing I’m qualified to be.…”

“That’s not true.” Catherine sat beside me and put her arm around my shoulders. “You were brought on this mission for many reasons. You do know Murray Hill better than anyone.…”

“Maybe not. I was wrong about where he was staying on the ship. And you were obviously upset about that.”

“I was upset at myself, not you. I agreed to this mission, thinking I could protect you—and I failed. The plan wasn’t for you to confront Murray and Dane on your own. If they approached you, Erica and I were supposed to get the jump on them. But they caught us off guard. You almost died because of my mistake. If it hadn’t been for Michael, you would have died.…” Catherine trailed off. There were tears in her eyes. “Oh, Benjamin, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said, and was surprised to realize that I meant it. It seemed that I should have been angry at Catherine at that moment. Really angry. And yet, now that she seemed so upset with herself, I actually felt bad for her.

“No. It’s not okay.” Catherine pulled me even tighter against her and held me there for a bit, the same way my mother would have done if she had allowed a nefarious villain to throw me off a cruise ship. (Although, in my mother’s defense, she had never put me in a situation nearly this dangerous; the worst she had ever done was to forget to pick me up after school one day when I was seven.) It was very comforting. Eventually, Catherine released her grip on me and said, “You’re right, you deserve honesty. So here we go: I don’t intend to drop my guard and let anything bad happen to you again—but of course, there’s no way I can guarantee that. So if you want out of this mission, I’ll understand.”

“How would that even work?” I asked. “I mean, it’s not like I can just leave the ship.”

“True,” Catherine agreed. “But we could have you lay low in here until the mission is over. Since Murray and Dane believe you’re dead, there’s little chance they’ll come looking for you.”

I considered what laying low might be like: sitting in our tiny room, watching TV and listening to Alexander rave like a lunatic. While that might have been safer, I certainly didn’t feel like doing it. I realized I was far angrier about having been lied to than I was about being used as bait. “I want to stay on,” I said honestly. “I want to find Murray and thwart his plans and make sure he and Dane are locked up for good so that they can’t try to kill me anymore.” Then I thought to add, “And so they can’t kill anyone else, either.”

Catherine smiled, blinking away her tears. “Sounds good to me,” she said, then called out to the others. “We’re good in here if you’d like to join us.”

The door between the adjoining rooms opened immediately, as if Erica had been waiting desperately for the all clear. She and Mike came right in.

Behind them, Alexander was still in rapt discussion with his imaginary aliens. “My favorite cheese? Definitely Cambozola. You must try it some time.”

Erica closed the door on him. “I liked it better when he was puking his guts up,” she said.

“Benjamin and I have worked things out,” Catherine reported. “But I’m against the idea of using him as bait once more. I’d rather keep his survival a secret and let Murray and Dane continue to believe that they’ve successfully gotten rid of him.”

“Then we’re right back at square one again,” Erica said. “How are we supposed to find Murray and Dane on this ship? It’s like searching an entire city. It’s much easier to let them come to us.” She looked to me. “No offense. I’m not trying to get you killed again. But the fact is, using you as bait worked.”

“Except for the whole part where you dropped your guard and Dane threw me overboard,” I reminded her.

“Er… yes,” Erica agreed. “But we won’t let that happen again.”

Catherine said, “I propose that, rather than hunting down Murray and Dane, we search for what they’ve been plotting instead. Perhaps we’ll catch them red-handed. Shayla Shang doesn’t want us getting into the engine room. So let’s get into the engine room.”

“How?” Erica asked. “The Shangs got us the passes to access the crew areas, but not the engine room. And the restricted areas of this ship have tougher security than Fort Knox.” This would have been an exaggeration for most people, but it wasn’t for Erica; not only was she familiar with the security system at Fort Knox, but she also knew how to get past it.

The moment she said this, Mike’s eyes lit up with excitement. “The Shangs got us the crew passes?”

“They had them delivered to us last night,” Catherine answered. “One for each of us, as promised.”

“Then I think I know how to get us into the engine room,” Mike said.