Chapter 3
Temporary confinement was a storage room with a lock on the outside.
No camera.
No porthole.
No chair.
Just gray walls, metal shelves, a drain in the floor, and the smell of old rope.
Ortiz closed the door but did not lock it immediately.
He stood there, jaw tight.
“I saw him kick you.”
“I know.”
“So did half the ship.”
“Seeing is not the same as testifying.”
His eyes dropped.
He was ashamed.
Good.
Shame could become courage if it was not left to rot.
I lowered my voice.
“Chief, I need my bunk searched before Kane does.”
He stared at me.
“What?”
“There’s an NCIS evidence packet taped under the lower support rail.”
He stepped back.
“You’re NCIS?”
“Attached.”
“Undercover?”
“Not anymore.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Christ.”
“Kane will look for it now.”
“Why?”
“Because I found Deck Four.”
Ortiz went still.
The ship hummed around us.
Somewhere overhead, boots moved fast.
He whispered, “You went down there?”
“Last night.”
His face hardened.
“What did you see?”
“A locked compartment that shouldn’t exist. Medical supplies. Water pallets. Blood on a tie-down ring.”
Ortiz closed his eyes.
“That place is cursed.”
“No. It’s managed.”
He looked at me.
“Your brother was Eli Mercer.”
It was not a question.
My throat tightened anyway.
“Yes.”
Ortiz swallowed.
“He was a good Marine.”
“You knew him?”
“I was on watch the night they brought him up.”
My breath caught.
“They?”
Ortiz nodded once.
“Kane and two Marines from his security detail. Eli wasn’t heatstroked. He was beaten.”
The room tilted.
I had known.
I had spent six months knowing without proof.
Hearing it still felt like a blade going under my ribs.
“Did you report it?”
His eyes filled.
“I tried. My statement disappeared. Then my son’s medical waiver vanished from the system. Kane told me paperwork was fragile.”
There it was.
Kane never threatened only the person in front of him.
He reached into their families.
I took a slow breath.
“Then help me end him.”
Ortiz looked at the hallway.
Then back at me.
“I lock this door, I have maybe ten minutes before someone notices I’m gone.”
“Use them.”
He nodded and shut the door.
The lock clicked.
Darkness closed in.
I sat on the floor and pressed a hand to my ribs.
My brother’s face came back.
Eli at twelve, stealing my cereal.
Eli at nineteen, saluting me as a joke.
Eli in his dress blues before deployment.
Eli’s last message, sent through a scrambled channel to an NCIS tip line.
Hannah, if this reaches you, don’t trust Kane. Deck Four. People are dying thirsty while supplies are being sold. If I disappear, it wasn’t the heat.
He disappeared three hours later.
The Navy told my mother he had died serving honorably.
My mother folded into herself after that.
My father stopped speaking unless necessary.
And I became a blade pointed at one ship.
The door opened nine minutes later.
Ortiz slipped inside.
His face was pale.
“It’s gone.”
My stomach dropped.
“The packet?”
“Yes.”
“Kane?”
“Maybe. Your bunk was already searched.”
I stood too fast and nearly fell.
“Damn it.”
Ortiz caught my arm.
“Wait. Whoever took it left this.”
He handed me a small folded paper.
It was from my own notebook.
One sentence written in block letters.
DECK FOUR HAS A SECOND ROOM.
Below it was a symbol.
A trident inside a circle.
My pulse changed.
NCIS field mark.
Agent Cross.
He was aboard.
I was not alone.
Ortiz frowned.
“What does it mean?”
“It means Kane has more enemies than he knows.”
Footsteps approached.
Ortiz shoved the note into my hand and stepped back.
The door opened.
Two Marines entered.
Kane’s security detail.
Sergeant Pike and Corporal Dane.
I recognized them from the Deck Four footage.
Pike smiled.
“Colonel wants a private word.”
Ortiz stepped forward.
“I have custody.”
Pike looked at him.
“Not anymore.”
They dragged me out.
I did not fight.
Not yet.
They took me down.
Not up.
Past engineering.
Past storage.
Past a red-painted hatch with restricted signs.
My heartbeat slowed.
Deck Four.
The lock buzzed.
The hatch opened.
May you like
And from inside the dark, someone whispered my brother’s name.
“Eli.”
