“Yeah, well, I’ve got time.” He shook his head, disbelieving. “So, like, Lisa Carver, the Arrival PR people, they’ve got no idea you’re on the ferry, that you’re headed for their presser? Am I right? I mean, I can’t imagine you were on the guest list.”

Kyle nodded slowly. “That’s correct.”

“So you’re sneaking in. You want to see for yourself what they’re up to.” Travers’s head bobbed up and down sympathetically. “Look, I get it. I’m one of the people who’s believed you from the beginning. I think they fucked with your software, and I think they killed that woman who used to work with you. Staged that bathroom accident.”

Kyle turned to face him. “You believe they murdered Rhonda Templeton.”

Travers nodded. “I do. You just need to keep digging, get something for real on Lisa. Some real honest-to-god proof. But I don’t guess I’m telling you anything you don’t know.”

“It’s nice to know I’ve got at least one ally out there,” Kyle said.

“Sure, yeah, you bet. Just hold still there for a second.” Travers raised his phone to his eye and fired off several shots of Kyle.

“What the hell,” Kyle said. “Stop that.”

“We were talking about proof a minute ago, right? When I write my piece, tell everyone I ran into none other than Brandon Kyle sneaking into Arrival’s event of the century, I’m gonna need a pic to back up my story.”

“No,” Kyle said.

But Travers was already tapping away on his screen with his thumb. “You have to understand, I’m an ally. I believe you. But I just can’t ignore that you’re here. A tweet now, the full story later.”

“You can’t do that,” Kyle said.

Travers said, looking down at the message he was composing, “Not getting many bars here. The ferry’s got Wi-Fi, but . . .”

He was so busy looking at the phone he didn’t see the computer bag coming straight at his head. Kyle connected with Travers’s temple. Travers dropped the phone and staggered backward.

“What the fuck!” he shouted.

The phone had landed on the deck. Kyle dropped to his knees, grabbed it, and lobbed it over the top of the railing. As it sailed through the air, Travers made a futile attempt to grab for it, leaning over the railing and clutching at nothing.

Kyle quickly glanced around.

It was just the two of them back here. This was an isolated part of the ferry. There were visible security cameras on the upper decks, but he’d noticed none down here.

The railing was too high to push someone over it easily. That would be very difficult. But pitching, well, that might just work.