Jonas reached out. Dr. Barb put her small, chubby hand in his. They started walking down the ramp together. Suddenly Dr. Barb turned, waved the clipboard, and said, “Have a nice ride, Dr. Bimm!”

“Have a nice ride? Don’t you remember what happened last time? Don’t you care about my welfare? And why are you holding hands with my best friend?”

Jonas waved without even turning around. “Bye, Fred.”

“Stop that! Stop that immediately! I don’t have time for more complications right now! Jonas! Get your hands off my boss! Jonas! Joooonaaaassss!” Then, in a near whimper, “Dr. Barb?”

Luckily, Jonas obeyed, dropped Dr. Barb’s hand, and raced back to her. Now that was more like it!

He sure had gone above and beyond in this whole “distract my boss” thing, but now—

“Give me the key card,” he hissed.

“What?”

“Thomas’s key card! I know he gave you a spare. Hand it over. You guys aren’t going to be back for a while, right?”

“I’m not giving you the key card to a hotel room that isn’t mine so you can bang my boss!”

“Yes you are,” Jonas said. “Or I’ll kick your fishy ass right into this harbor. With all the shit.”

“Fine, take it.” Fred sulkily handed it over. “Unnecessarily complicate my life, see if I care.”

“Okay. Bye!” He scampered back down the ramp, toward the woman he’d had a crush on for six years.

“I didn’t mean any of it!” Fred shouted, but the lovebirds ignored her.

Stifling the urge to kick something, she stomped the rest of the way up the ramp.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Captain O’Donnell was not at all happy to see her.

“Get this nautical menace off my ship,” he said by way of greeting to Thomas.

“Calm down, O’Donnell. This is official NEA business.”

“And my father’s,” Artur piped up, interrupting his conversation with a dazed-looking first mate.

“Low profile, dumbass,” Thomas snarked.

“That goes for you, too, dumbass,” Fred said. She turned back to the captain and gave him her nicest smile. He recoiled. “Now, captain, all that stuff is behind us, right? I was a completely different person back then… ignorant, willful—”

“It was two months ago, Dr. Bimm.”

“But we’ve both aged decades since then in wisdom, haven’t we.” At his look of disbelief, she added crossly, “Well, I have!”

O’Donnell turned to his first mate. “When was the last time we had a VSC?”

Artur sidled over to her. “The king of the ship seems agitated.”

“It’s a long story, Artur.”

“What is a VSC?”

“Vessel Safety Check.”

The first mate checked a chart and said helpfully, “Two weeks ago yesterday, cap’n.”

“Hmm. I guess that might be all right.” He shot Fred a distrustful look. “Possibly.”

Now Thomas was on her left. “Why is the crew treating you like you’ve brought the plague on board?”