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discussions delve into business. The Bettises, who’d helped with Sharmali earlier in the day, were the only married couple in the party.
    A few passengers had remained aboard the Far Horizon , declining the beach party adventure.
    Meg glanced to where Mrs. Bettis slept next to her husband. She was Finchon’s stepdaughter from his first marriage. Her mother was deceased, but apparently the generational billionaire had promised his late wife to raise her.  
    As Meg was contemplating what life must have been like for Callina, Red materialized out of the dark, coming inside the lodge from doing a patrol of the grounds. Glancing at the towel over the now deceased passenger’s face, he grimaced. He squatted next to Meg’s chair. “We’ll bury her in the morning,” he said, resting his hand on her arm for a moment. “You doing okay?”
    She nodded. “You should get some rest,” she whispered.  
    “No worries, I’ll cat nap.” He rose, stretching from side to side.
    She caught his sleeve. “Are you expecting trouble tonight?”
    He hesitated. “Honestly? I don’t know what to expect. I do know the map in the ranger office shows sonic screens embedded to protect this whole place, which says to me there are land-based predators equivalent to the eel thing I killed earlier. And all of the defenses have been rendered inoperative, apparently during the withdrawal power-down when the rangers left.”
    “Could be native fauna worse than the eels,” she said, trying to remember details from previous visits. The company played down the dangers, for fear of scaring away passengers. The rangers kept the tourist site safe, or used to. “But I don’t mean the flora and fauna, I’m talking about why we’ve been marooned here, why our ship hasn’t returned for us.”
    Red’s answer wasn’t comforting. “All the things I can think of, based on my previous experience, would be your worst nightmares. Let’s just say for now I’m happier patrolling in the dark, and will be ecstatic when the sun rises.”
    “We were so busy late yesterday, you and I didn’t have time to talk privately, or make plans,” she said.
    “Yeah, we need to figure out our next move, where we go.”
    “What do you mean? Why can’t we stay here? This is where a rescue expedition will expect to find us.” Meg wrinkled her brow, trying to comprehend his intentions. “We’ve got good shelter—we can even open the houses with your special access code. There are edible fish in the lake to supplement my stores, fresh water, all the amenities.”
    Trever, sprawled atop a stack of beach towels on the floor nearby, rolled over groggily. “Will you two please take it somewhere else so a guy can get some sleep?”
    “Sorry, buddy.” Red extended his hand to Meg. “Got any real coffee in those robos?”
    “Of course.” Realizing there was nothing else she could do for Sharmali, she allowed him to draw her to her feet. He led her through the sleeping passengers into the hall and to the kitchen at the rear of the building. Earlier, he’d found a few emergency lamps left in a cupboard, so he flipped one on, setting it on the counter as she activated the robo to brew coffee. “We’re marooned now, so there is no crew versus passenger,” she said. “All consumables are share and share alike at my discretion.”
    “All right then, as long as no one is docking my pay.” He took the mug with a laugh. “I’ve missed the real stuff since I left the Teams. Special Forces gets their own allotment. Too pricey to drink much in my new civilian life.”
    She acknowledged the shared joke from yesterday with a raised eyebrow, and sipped her coffee, but refused to be distracted. “Talk to me. Why are you urging me to move these people somewhere else? And where would we go?”
    He leaned against the counter. “We can assume whatever reason the TDJ captain had for leaving was compelling.”
    She nodded.
    “And no sign of Drewson returning.” He sipped the