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“What you suffer from is quite predictable, Miss Meadows. The serum in your system has been slowly deposited over time via your water.”

Serum? “I thought I had DSI. Are you saying I’ve been poisoned?” I asked.

“No. Controlled through experimental substances is more accurate. But you’ve also built up a tolerance. Which means if you don’t drink some of the tainted water soon, your body will go into withdrawal.”

I didn’t have DSI? “Who’s been manipulating me? Who did this?” I cried.

“Subject wastes valuable time on impertinent information.”

“Who programmed you? Who drugged my water?” I screamed.

“That is classified information.”

I forced myself to breathe, to calm down. “You’re waiting for…waiting for…” I kicked my feet, making me sway as I rotated. I had to clear my head to process this.

“Waiting for the withdrawal symptoms to affect your reasoning, yes. So we will see if you still choose to save Mr. Bennet despite your greatest fear and debilitating physical conditions.”

“He’s okay right now,” I said, more for myself than the computer.

“He believes he’ll be asked to save you.”

The floor began to move. I heard it before I saw it. One quick glance was enough to open a hole in my stomach to match. The water seemed endless, deep. It couldn’t be. It was only an illusion. This was the aquarium. I repeated this information to myself as I swayed and spun.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Candice’s AI voice shared, and if I didn’t know better I’d think it was taunting me. “But it is the ocean. This portion of the resort juts out beyond the engineering deck. What you see around and over you is part of the aquarium, but below. That’s the actual ocean.”

“How is it possible?” I asked, eyes squeezed tight. “It would fill this chamber and we’d drown.”

“No. There is another chamber between, much like the docks for the shuttle pods. But it would be so easy to close the top over someone and then open the bottom, releasing them into the ocean. Now to begin.”

Any more questions I had were drowned in bloodcurdling fear as the rope holding me in mid-air descended toward the water. Screams scraped at my throat. I couldn’t stop it, couldn’t control it as Mason watched, clawing at the glass while I was lowered waist deep into the freezing water.

I flailed, crying, screaming, and scraping rope burns on my wrists and ankles raw in my efforts to escape. The glass case lifted, and Mason ducked beneath it when it was inches off the ground. He slid toward me, pulling the knife from his back pocket. Then he was in the water with me, his body warm behind my hysterical form, cutting free my bonds.

Sobbing, I clutched his shoulders once he finished releasing me. I wanted to stop screaming and warn him, but the best I could manage was a hysterical jumble of generic words of warning. “Test…you…not me…have to get out.”

“Shh,” he kept saying. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

“N…n…no.”

Mason tipped my chin up, but the grin slipped from his face all too fast as something tugged him downward.

My mouth filled with water before he let me go.

“My staff added a mechanism to his shoes that acts like artificial gravity. It’s something new Bennet Systems has been working on,” the computer said as I splashed helplessly at the water.

My body shivered uncontrollably from the frigid ocean. But my head was no more than a background thrumming compared to the debilitating fear and numbness seizing hold from all around.

Mason. He risked everything to save me. I had to get to him. “Focus!” I screamed into the room, and the word echoed back to me, clearing my head. I closed my eyes and pretended I was in the pool. Mason’s drowning, you have to save him. I kept repeating these words to myself as I drew a deep, shaky breath and dove beneath the water.

I forced my eyes open. I had no choice. A large gray fish with bulging eyes hovered inches from my face, and I had to fight not to open up and let the water flood my lungs. Instead, I spun in place, searching the murky depths for a sign.

Mason. He struggled against the unseen force pulling him down. We made eye contact and he stopped, fear etched in every line of his face.

I dove, fighting against the water that strove to push me back to the surface. My lungs burned with the need for air as I got to his feet and worked his ankles from his shoes. My lungs burned. How must he feel? How long had he been down there before I followed?

Relief came as he stopped fighting my efforts and allowed me to slip off his shoes. I tucked my arms beneath his and kicked toward the surface with everything I had. We burst through, sucking in oxygen. Mason coughed, his body rocking against mine as water rushed from his mouth.

I clung to him as he kept us anchored to the slippery edge of the glass with one hand. We both shook violently from the cold.