Octavio Jordan Jr.

“So,” Octavio said. “What do you think is going to happen?”

“You mean, do you think that Byrd and Chang are going to catch the unsub?” Liberty asked. “Hopefully.”

“Why are you so interested in this anyway?” Octavio asked. “I mean, they’re undercover. It’s not like you’re going to end up getting praised or anything.”

Liberty sighed. “Yeah, I know.” She said. She never answered Octavio’s question.

The next morning, Octavio woke up with a smile on his face. Today was June 23. Octavio’s seventeenth birthday. He hadn’t told anyone, but his parents and Liberty already knew.

Octavio looked out the window. Despite their deadline to catch the killer, he wasn’t going to let that ruin this day. He checked his phone. It was 8:00 AM.

Octavio quietly got out of bed and got dressed. He put on his favorite sweatshirt, black fabric with an anime picture sewn into it.

He was sitting on his bed, cross legged when his phone buzzed, waking up his parents.

“Sorry,” He said, and put the phone on silent. His parents got up anyway.

Liberty had texted him. You gotta get over here. She said. Something happened. Come to the lounge.

Octavio was worried for three reasons; One, it was Liberty, which meant that whatever happened was really bad, or no big deal at all. Two, that did not sound like Liberty texting him, which meant it was either the unsub or maybe one of the agents. Three, there was a murderer on the ship, so he was scared for his friend’s safety.

Once Octavio had convinced his parents to let him go to the lounge, he saw Liberty, Agent Corey Byrd, and Dr. Juniper Rice.

“Where’s Agent Chang?” Octavio asked.

Corey Byrd looked down. Dr. Rice started to pick at her nails. Liberty looked at Octavio, and he knew what happened.

“What?” He asked. “No, that can’t – no, we saw him last night, and he was okay, he has to be okay, right?”

Agent Byrd shook his head. “His body was found in his room earlier this morning.” He said. “He’s gone.”

“But – “

“We can still make his death worth it.” Dr. Rice said. “We still have time to catch the unsub.”

Agent Byrd nodded. “And this means that we don’t have time to grieve, at least, not yet.”

Octavio didn’t know what to think. Milo Chang had died? He couldn’t believe it. He was a trained FBI agent. Yet he had died!

“We’ll start with victimology.” Corey Byrd said. “Where was Milo, what could have made the unsub kill him, and so forth. We need to think like Milo, and then the unsub.”

“So, Milo was with us at 6:00.” Dr. Rice said.

“And he left around 7:30.” Octavio added.

“He probably went straight to his room.” Corey said. “He might look over the case for a couple of hours, and then go to bed.”

“So the unsub went in while he was sleeping.” Liberty said.

Corey Byrd nodded.

“Milo was saying that he was going to have the technical analyst run a background check on Xina Pike, right?” Octavio said.

“Yeah.” Liberty agreed. “Maybe she really is the unsub, and when he said that she uh, killed him.”

Corey nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He cast a nervous look at Dr. Rice. “I think that Xina is starting to seem a lot more suspicious.”

“So, what are we going to do about it?” Liberty asked.

“I can try and get a warrant.” Corey suggested. “Then Xina would have to let us come into her room.”

Dr. Rice shrugged. “That just seems like a whole lot more work to me.” She said. “Why don’t we just go in?”

Octavio nodded. “You’re undercover anyway. If you say you have a warrant, she could easily know who you are.”

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“Then it’s settled.” Corey Byrd said. “We’ll meet up again at 1:00 PM.” He looked at Octavio and Liberty. “And just FYI, you guys probably aren’t going to be able to help with this. You know, just for your safety.”

Dr. Juniper Rice

After the two kids left, Juniper Rice looked at Corey. “This is all my fault, isn’t it?” She said.

“Woah.” Corey said. “No, it’s not.”

“Are you sure?” Juniper said. “Because it certainly seems that way.” Juniper really felt guilty. They had found a new suspect, Juniper had interviewed her, and Milo decided to run a background check on her. The next day, he was found in his room, stabbed to death, just like Henry Clark.

“I mean, maybe it could be a little bit of your fault.” Corey said. Juniper glared at him. “What?” he said. “You said it yourself!” Juniper loved it when Corey got nervous. It told her that everybody has another side of themselves. Corey Byrd always tried to seem brave in some way, but Juniper saw right through that. Corey looked into Juniper’s eyes. “You know that none of us could have known that what happened to Milo would happen to him.”

“I should’ve known.” Juniper said. “I should have known, and I should have been there to help him.”

“You can’t get hung up on what has already happened.” Corey said. “Focus on what’s happening now. What can you do to help him at this moment?”

Juniper shrugged. She felt like a little kid again, getting lectured by an adult.

“Well, sitting here moping isn’t going to help him, that’s for sure.” Corey started to stand up.

“Wait.” Juniper looked around the lounge. She looked at the few people there. It was wrong. This was a cruise! A place of happiness. And here, people were afraid to come out of their rooms. She looked at Corey. “We’re going to catch this unsub, whether or not it’s Xina, or somebody else.”

Corey smiled. “That’s the attitude.”

“Wait, excuse me, did I hear that right?” Juniper turned and saw Ocean Wise, the reporter. Great.

“Hear what?” Juniper asked.

“Somebody named Xina?” Wise asked. “And, is an unsub what you call a killer?”

Corey did something close to a facepalm. “I can’t answer that right now.”

“Wait a second.” Wise said. “Where’s the other guy?”

Juniper looked down. Corey looked everywhere except Ocean Wise.

“He’s – not going to be here anymore.” Juniper said.

“Okay, I guess.” Ocean didn’t question Juniper, which she found odd. Reporters were always nosy. “Is there anything I can write about?”

Corey looked at her. “Didn’t we give you some pointers yesterday?”

“Um, maybe?”

“That wasn’t a question.” Corey sighed.

“So,” Ocean Wise said.

“That’s a no.” Juniper said.

Liberty Gray

It was 1:00 PM. Me and Otto were in the lounge, waiting for Agent Byrd and Juniper. I knew that Byrd had said that me and Octavio wouldn’t be able to help, but I still had high hopes. I wanted to be a part of taking this person down. I didn’t say this to anybody, but I think that it would make me feel better about my mother.

“Hello, guys.” I turned and saw Juniper and Agent Byrd. Juniper had a smile on her face.

Corey Byrd seemed a bit more serious. I think that he felt that he needed to fill in for Agent Milo in some way. I understood that. My dad was that way for a while.

“Hi.” I said.

“So,” Juniper suddenly had a very mischievous look on her face. “Are you guys ready to do this?”

I nodded. Otto shrugged.

“All right.” Corey said. “Here’s the plan.”

-

The next chain of events are going to be extremely complicated and hard to follow. In order to understand what is going to happen, you must listen very carefully. First, we are going to see what is going on in Dr. Rice’s mind.

Juniper didn’t think much of the plan. It was a bit odd, but Corey had made it, so she didn’t think any more of him. Juniper was sure that this would catch the unsub. If it didn’t, well, it was best not to think of that. The first part of the plan was up to Juniper. She had to get into Xina’s room. Corey was going to put a listening device on her. Juniper was going to have to talk to Xina about the case, and Corey would be listening to their conversation for a confession.

After Agent Byrd had given everybody the plan, the two kids had asked for something to do.

“Please?” Liberty Gray asked. “Anything?”

“We’re good at what we do, which is whatever you tell us to do.” Octavio Jordan, Jr. added.

“I don’t know what you just said, but fine.” Corey Byrd said.

Agent Byrd had the kids contact the security on the cruise. Corey did not know how they would get them to come and make an arrest, but as they had said, they were good at what they did.

All right, now is the time to listen carefully. Are you listening? Is your undivided attention on the text that is in front of your eyes? Yes? Good.

While the kids were getting the law enforcement on the ship, Corey Byrd was putting the device on Juniper. The device was a wire that went into her ear, so she could communicate with Corey. The wire went down into her shirt, and Juniper’s long hair would obscure it from Xina’s view.

“Are you ready?” Corey asked.

Juniper nodded. “Yeah.”

“All right.” Corey looked at Juniper. “You got this.” He said. “Let’s go catch a killer.”

Meanwhile, the two kids were having trouble getting the law enforcement. They had tried many different strategies, ranging from a dangerous banana peel to somebody drowning in a pool. Nothing seemed to faze those people.

“Look,” Octavio said. “You might not believe us, but there is a murderer on this ship. We just want this person behind bars, so if you can please come with us, that would be great.”

The man that Octavio and Liberty were talking to looked a bit taken aback.

“Yeah, uh, what he said.” Liberty said.