Chapters (47)
- Cover
- ALSO BY MARJORIE B. KELLOGG AVAILABLE FROM DAW BOOKS
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- About the Author
Not of my day, either, I mused. My attention drifted. “Listen, did you know Rousseau has our bunks searched on the sly?”
“I’ve heard it happens.” Jenn unrolled long sleeves, then rolled them up again, more artfully. “Why?”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“Sure, but . . .” She looked pensive. “As long as we keep letting new people in, I guess I’d call it necessary for good security.”
“But . . . our bunks?”
She weighed her hands. “Privacy or safety? Not a choice I’d want to make. Okay, I’m off to the laundry room.”
“Your idea of a night off, scrubbing your fingers raw?”
“Better than no clean clothes.”
I glanced down at my own, patchy with old stains. Was it only yesterday I gave so little thought to what I wore? “Maybe I should join you.”
“Might better rest up for the morning. Big storm on the way. And when you find Rubio . . .”
“I’ll tell him.”
The warnings I had to pass along were piling up like hurricane wreckage at his door.
FOURTEEN
Jenn was more-than-usual stern about sending me off to bed. Maybe she read the floaty distress that hit me after my session with Rousseau. A familiar bunk’s the best retreat when the ground turns unsteady. I took her advice.
It was a known fact how there used to be spy cameras everywhere in the city. You still found them tucked away here or there, dead of course, and even if still storing solar, where would they send their video?
Denfolk made jokes about an in-house system, mostly raunchy ones. No one took the idea too seriously. But now I was searching every corner, every crumbling plaster leaf on a column capital, for a hidden lens. Even up in my bunk with the drapes pulled close, I prodded every single inch for signs of a bug. Nothing. But I still felt . . . watched.
I wanted a closer look at the sheath of documents, but didn’t dare take it out of my wallet. What about the old book? Did Rousseau keep tabs on every book in the den? I decided to risk it, slid it stealthily out of hiding and opened to my page marker:
“We have today been divided into watches & are to be on deck and on duty night & day as follows: 4 hours on and 8 hours off for sleep or rest as the time may be. In this night or day, we are divided into starboard, middle & larboard watches, consisting of 7 in middle & larboard & 8 in the starboard and for instance, the starboard watch commences at 8 O.C. at night, then continues until 12 O.C., then the middle at from 12 to 4 O.C., then call the larboard to stay from 4 until 8 in morning & so on throughout the day. I was chosen by the Capt. for the middle watch & I have to be on deck tonight from 12 O.C. to 4 and then go to sleep again if I please.”