Page 62 of Night's Reckoning
He found his mind tripping to Tenzin. She didn’t sleep. Where was she? Did she have space to fly around, or was she stuck in a tiny cabin and going crazy? He hoped she’d been meditating, but something about her demeanor didn’t reassure him.
Not your problem.
He had to stop obsessing over her mental state. Tenzin didn’t need him hovering over her, nor would she welcome it. She’d survived for thousands of years without him. She’d be fine.
“Fabia, can I talk to you for a minute?” He nodded to the back where a broad balcony looked over the stern of the ship.
“Yes, of course.” She dragged herself away from the other scientists, her eyes still glued to the sonar screen.
Ben ushered her outside.
“What’s up?” she asked.
He kept his voice low. “Can you tell how much they know about… all this?”
Fabia wrinkled her nose. “It’s so hard for me to tell because I don’t speak Mandarin. As far as I can tell, they think Cheng is an eccentric rich man. I don’t know if they think he’s a treasure hunter or a benefactor. They know I’m working with him, so they might be cautious around me.”
“Right.” Ben nodded. “I mostly want to figure out how forthcoming they’ll be with us. I don’t want anyone hiding information that we might need because they think we’re looters wearing suits.”
“I don’t get that impression from them, but again, I don’t speak the language. They’ve been pretty open with me, as much as language permits, and they seem to accept my credentials. They know I’m an archaeologist and art historian—I’ve been showing them pictures from my previous jobs—so they’ve mostly asked about that.”
“Got it.” Ben needed to keep an eye on the humans. He didn’t need curious scientists poking around a ship full of vampires, and he also didn’t need them getting scared off. “I’m starting to understand why Tenzin wanted me on this job.”
“Why?”
“Because she needed a professional juggler,” he muttered. “Keep the vampires hidden. Assuage the humans’ curiosity. Keep the job on track and make sure no one gets exposed or eaten.”
Fabia nodded. “Those are all very necessary tasks, and I’m sure you’ll be successful.”
She was tapping her foot.
Ben smiled. “You really want to go back to the archaeology-nerd room, don’t you?”
“Please.”
He waved her toward the door. “Go. Keep your ears open for anything a professional juggler might need to be concerned about. I’m going to go check with Cheng’s human crew on the bridge.”
“Okay!” Fabia ran inside and immediately back to the sonar screen where another groupOoooh!had just arisen.
Ben walked around the top-deck conference room and back toward the bridge to check in with Kadek’s first mate. The man had been introduced as Mr. Lu, and that’s how Ben addressed him.
“Anything I need to know about?”
Mr. Lu answered in English. “I mapped out a search grid with the captain before sunrise, and we are sticking to it. The team from the university seems to think they have already identified the wreck site, but we will cover the whole grid before we return.”
“Have you been on salvage operations before?”
Mr. Lu nodded.
“So… do you agree with the university team?”
Mr. Lu shrugged. “I am not an archaeologist.”
Ben lowered his voice. “No, but I’m guessing you probably know what you’re doing as well as they do, or maybe more.”
The corner of Mr. Lu’s mouth turned up. “The site they identified was one I noticed as well.” He pointed to a monitor near the wheel. “The resolution on this isn’t as good as theirs, but I agree with them.”
“Could you tell anything about the condition?”
