She kept telling herself that she wasn’t all that hungover.

Trish had somehow woken up like a Disney princess or something, windows open and sunlight streaming in. Adelaide had managed to shower and take a few Advil before heading out to meet Ray for breakfast before their afternoon departure time.

And so now she was back in the Cheesecake Factory, but she was now really grateful for the coffee. She was sort of just sipping it with her eyes closed before she suddenly realized that was a very odd thing to be doing when not alone, and opened her eyes to see Ray politely not looking at her.

That was something she appreciated more and more about him. At their first meeting, his habit of looking down at his menu or off into space had seemed dismissive, like she wasn’t worth his attention But now it seemed almost comfortable — like he was giving her space not to be social for a few minutes. Adelaide wondered if it was a Triangle thing, born of cramped spaces. Or maybe it’s just how he was.

Anyway, he seemed to recognize that she had rejoined the waking world. “So did you get a renewed head count?” he asked.

“Everyone’s back in.”

“I figured.”

“You did? I thought you thought they were all tourists looking for a pleasure cruise?”

“Who said they aren’t? But I wouldn't expect any of them to get scared off from that first trip. Not when everything went so smooth.”

Adelaide paused before responding. She wouldn’t have put it that way, but now that she thought about it, it was hard to say that anything had gone really badly. It had been tense, and she’d been frightened once, but overall…

So she wasn’t sure why she asked, “You think that went as well as that?”

“I mean, it wasn’t exactly finding the City of Gold in terms of profit, but we made our investment back plus quite a bit, even enough for those gizmos you picked up. And everyone came back in one piece.”

“You deserve plenty of credit for that.”

“I did fine. And so did you, by the way. But that just wasn’t really dangerous, as those things go.”

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Adelaide heard the Mother’s cry in the distance, and then shook her head. “I guess you’ve seen worse.”

She hadn’t meant that as a challenge, but she saw his shoulders tense as he looked past the walls behind her. She was about to apologize, but then he said, “Nothing wanted to kill us. Don’t take that for granted. We saw dangerous things, in a way, but only because we were poking them. Sometimes they come for you, and you just hope you can run.

“I was out about a year ago, with a group. They were trying to mine.. No fancy exploring, no biology, no treasure seeking. Just make landfall at the first island we saw of any size, dig, and turn around. And they found something that seemed fine and were digging a clean shaft, with a nice prefab camp outside of it, buildings and everything. I wasn’t supposed to even have to go in, just to guard the outside in case something tried to get in.

“And then, one day, one branch of miners just didn’t come back. So I took a few guys I’d brought with me, to see if we could find them. We brought weapons, but I wasn’t expecting to use them. Not that I was optimistic but — well, mining is dangerous all by itself. And these were freshly dug tunnels. So what could be in there?

“I shouldn’t have even seen them. I just got lucky. I was turning to look back at someone behind me who had dropped their flashlight, and it happened to point up at the ceiling, and there it was. It was like a centipede the size of a cat, crawling on the ceiling. And I turned, and there were a dozen of them. And more coming. They were waiting to get numbers on us, I know it. And then the first one I’d seen just dropped. Like a rock, and it landed on one of the guards I brought and he didn’t even scream, just fell down. The rest of us just ran.

“But where had they come from, right? Well, we leave, and I’m trying to convince the mining bigwig we need to go, that I’m going to use my Prerogative, and he’s telling me that we can handle it, we’ll just deploy guards, and then I hear something. And I take him outside, and the roof of our prefab shelter is covered in them. Hundreds. Even then, he still had his men drag out the last bit of ore they’d mined.”

He fell silent, and Adelaide didn’t say anything as she put a hand on his arm. And then he shook his head and looked at her. “Anyway. All I’m saying is, we need to be careful. Unless I’ve scared you off?”

Adelaide thought about it. She’d known, of course, that death was possible, but their first trip had made her feel like it would be manageable. But, of course, there was every chance they’d find something they couldn’t handle, or something that surprised them. Something that didn’t scream, just acted silently. Or something that wasn’t alive at all.

Because that was the thing with the Triangle — no one had found a way to know what was coming.

Ray looked at her. “What are you thinking?”

She took a sip of coffee to compose her thoughts. “Please don’t think I’m — it’s not that I don’t appreciate what you’re saying, or what you went through. But … well, honestly, I’m still excited. Even with all of that. I still really want to get back out there.”

Ray smiled. “Well, Professor, I think I can officially say it: welcome to the life. I think you’re going to be here a while.”