No. Thomas was not going to come stalk me in my own room.

"Look, I just told Dani, I’m not going to tell people! Do you really have to follow me around like this?"

Thomas smiled. "I just thought you might want to know that I heard back from Jon."

Oh. That changed things a bit. "What does he have to say?"

Thomas glanced up and down the hall. "May I come in? I’d rather not discuss this in the hallway."

"Fine." I stepped aside and held the door open. He didn’t move; he just shifted his weight like he was waiting. "Well?" I leaned forward and grabbed him. "Hurry up, I want to get this over with." I tried to pull him into the room, but something happened. He tripped, or I tripped, and we fell. It almost felt like he had pulled himself out of my grip and fallen deliberately. I tumbled back into my room, and he fell out into the hall. He sat up with a wince, like he was in pain.

"Oh, come on," I snapped. "Either get in here and tell me what you have to say so that you can stop stalking me or go away!"

He smiled, stood back up, and slid past me into the room. He regarded the beds for a moment and sat on the one that wasn’t mine. That was a bit creepy. Actually, it was really creepy. The crew had just made them, and I didn’t know how he knew which bed was which. Nevertheless, I sat down across from him.

"So," I began, "Jon."

Thomas sighed. "Jon." He bit his lip like he was wondering how to say things. "So, Jon is my boss."

"Your boss?"

"Well, actually he's higher up than that. He’s the head of our agency."

Agency? That caught my attention. Agency was a government term. For an absurd moment, I thought that he worked for the government, but quickly pushed the idea aside. He was just a college student. There was no way he worked for some government agency. Plus, it had to be a pretty small company. If this Jon guy really had a position that much higher than Thomas, he wouldn't be personally corresponding with him or TS. Then, something else occurred to me, and I felt like an idiot for never even considering it before. They had all known each other to begin with. Out of 307 students, I was the only one from my school, and I had only heard of one other from my state. Mariana and Dani of course knew each other, but they had to have known the others before the voyage started. They wouldn't all be sticking together like this, if they didn't. And suddenly, things seemed a bit stranger.

"And what you saw…" Thomas continued. "Well, you shouldn’t have. I had to report it, and I figured I'd just go right to the top. Jon wants to talk to you."

"Like, on the phone? Did you get my number while you were stalking me?"

"867-5309, right?" Thomas asked, looking like he was trying to hide a grin.

It took me half a second to recognize the number. I glared at him when I did. "Wrong Jenny."

He laughed. I realized that it was the first time I'd heard a genuine laugh from him. Under any other circumstances, it would have been a cute laugh. "I'm sorry," he said, still chuckling. "Bad joke. I didn't think you'd know that song."

I rolled my eyes. "It has my name in it. You’re far from the first person to make that joke. It is a catchy song though."

"Most 80s songs are." He turned serious again. "Anyway, no, he's not going to call you. He's coming to Panama."

"What?" We'd be in Panama in two days. Why on earth would the head of the agency or whatever come all the way to Panama? "Let me get this straight," I said. "The Big Boss is coming here just to talk to me?"

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"Well, I assume he wants to see me too."

"Why?" There was no way this supposedly high-up guy was going to come all the way to Panama to talk to one girl and see a random employee.

"He's... sort of like my father."

"Sort of? He either is or he isn't."

Thomas shrugged and looked uncomfortable. "He took care of me after my father died."

I felt embarrassed for pushing the issue. My first instinct was to say I was sorry, but I knew from experience that people offering sympathy about a dead parent didn't always mean much. Instead I said, "My father's dead too."

He looked surprised that we had something like that in common. "I'm..." He hesitated, and I had a feeling he felt the same way I did.

"Thanks," I said softly.

He nodded, and we shared a small smile. Then, he sighed and, after a moment, spoke again. "I'm not entirely sure when Jon will be here. Sometime after we get to Panama."

"What exactly is he talking to me about?" Thomas obviously didn't want to talk any more about his father. But, that was all right with me. I didn't want to talk about mine either.

"About... the other night," Thomas said. Just like that, my empathy from our last topic vanished. I had guessed that much. More dancing around the truth.

"Is he going to explain things?"

It seemed like he hesitated. "Yes. And," he added quickly, "until he does, you have to continue to keep quiet."

"And then?" It seemed like I really did have to wait at least two more days until they stopped hiding things from me.

"Then, uh..." Thomas paused in thought. "Well, then, you'll know. And you'll still keep quiet. 'Secrets are no fun, unless I am a part of one', right?"

That was, I hated to admit, true. All I really wanted was to know what I had seen and get my questions answered. If I knew what was really going on, I probably would keep it a secret.

"Yeah. I won’t tell anyone," I said. "If you promise that it’ll all be explained."

"Oh, it will," Thomas said with a smile. He stood. "I should go."

"Are you guys going to keep stalking me?"

"We’ll ease up a bit."

"Fine."

Thomas let himself out, and I sat on my bed, replaying our conversation. Maybe this was bigger than I had thought. Had I really seen something so important that this "boss" was going to come all the way to Panama to talk to me? I took another moment to entertain the idea that they worked for the government. Had I stumbled onto some secret government experiment? They wouldn't be using a bunch of college kids on a cruise ship, would they? I lay back with a sigh and thought for a while. Even though they were going to give me my answers in two days, I decided that I wanted to try and figure it out first. I liked a good mystery, and I had just found myself smack in the middle of a very odd one.

I put off going to dinner for as long as I could to puzzle it out, but finally decided to go up before they started putting the food away. On the way there, I stopped by the Student Life Desk. The wall across from it was covered in pictures of every student on the ship, like a giant yearbook page. It listed our names, birthdays, schools, majors, and expected graduation dates. I didn't know their last names, which was how the wall was organized, so I knew it would be a challenge. The pictures were all too small to be useful, so I had to scan every single name and squint at the corresponding picture. It took a few minutes, but I found them all. Mariana Bar — she must have kept her last name — was majoring in International Affairs at a school in New York. Thomas Clark and Tethys — which explained why he went by TS — Conall were majoring in International Affairs too. My breath caught. They went to the same school as Mariana. A minute later, I found a bio for Daniel Pelagos, and then, I spotted one for Charles Smith. A chill ran up my spine. There was no way that this was a coincidence. All of them went to the same school and had the same major?

It was satisfying to have confirmed that they must have known each other before the voyage, but the student bios left me with more questions than answers. I headed for the dining room, mulling over the new information. There was no line at the buffet, so I grabbed a plate and started loading up. Most of the lettuce had already been taken, and it looked like they weren’t going to replace it. I piled some veggies on my plate and moved on to the hot foods. The pasta looked rubbery and cold; I waited too long to go up. I scooped out of a spoonful of the International Choice, some beef dish it looked like, and grabbed a fillet of tonight's fish. I picked a couple of rolls out of the basket at the end of the buffet and looked around the dining room for a seat.

The professors had been and gone, and it looked like most of the students were finishing up. A table over by a window caught my eye, and I watched the occupants carefully. Charlie, TS, and Mariana sat next to each other, talking. Dani and Thomas were on the other side of the table, with a textbook between them. There was an empty place next to Dani. Thomas glanced up from his book, and his eyes met mine. He tilted his head at the empty spot and smiled. I squared my shoulders and walked over. I sat down and braced myself.