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I choked on water.I was drowning. I kicked out and met with something solid.

“Ow!”

My eyes snapped open and I found Mason crouched beside me, helping me into a sitting position. Travis knelt near my feet, rubbing his stomach where I’d kicked him, the ruined Poseidon statue behind him.

It took a minute to understand what happened, and when I did, I scrambled to my feet, still panicked.

“You saved us,” I said, staring at Travis. I was so sure he’d been the saboteur. He’d punched Mason, broken the tank. It didn’t make sense.

My eyes traveled down to the empty hydropod skin in his hand and everything came flooding back, including the computer’s confession. Travis saw what I was staring at and held it up nonchalantly.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to make you choke. You were moaning about the pain, and we didn’t know what to do. We thought you should’ve come to by now, so I tried feeding you some water.”

“It’s drugged,” I announced, still staring at the busted remnants like they might explode at any moment. Thank God Mason held me steady from behind, cradling my body against his, or I didn’t know if I could have managed to stay on my feet.

Travis’s thick eyebrows connected as he stared at the thing in his hand.

“The AI admitted it. I was right to start with. DSI is an invented disease. They’ve been drugging our water this whole time with some ‘serum’ as it called it. You probably saved my life because it said I was in withdrawals.” I shivered and hugged myself.

“Fuck!” Travis threw the remnants of the hydropod, which bounced off Poseidon’s head to his left. Mason’s hands tightened on my shoulders, but otherwise he stayed still and quiet as Travis sank into the grass, head in hands.

“I didn’t want to admit it, but I’ve been blacking out too.” He pulled his hands away and faced me with so much anguish my heart broke. “I’m scared that I’m the one doing this.”

I left Mason’s comfort and knelt beside Travis, putting an arm around him. “I know. I feel the same.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Mason said, offering Travis a hand up. “You saved our lives. That was the real you, not the drug. I know neither you nor Sam would ever do this on purpose. Whoever is responsible for tampering with the water is the one who’ll be held accountable. But the key here is survival right now. Thank you for helping us.”

Travis stared at Mason’s offered hand for a minute, the muscles in his jaw working hard. I held my breath, gratitude filling my heart.

“Yeah, well, someone had to save your ass. I mean, besides Super Chick here,” Travis said, accepting Mason’s offered hand and standing to shake it.

Regret filled Mason’s eyes. “I never meant to hurt Lupe,” Mason said, holding tight to that hand.

“I saw what kind of a guy you were,” Travis said. I bit my lip, expecting a fight like what had happened between them in the aquarium. “You were willing to die for Sam. That’s not the kind of guy who gives up on a pregnant woman.”

Mason’s shoulders lowered a full inch.

“Now what?” I asked, standing. “She’ll be looking for us. I don’t even know what time it is. She could have all twenty-six staff members functional again.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Travis said. “I took out the last of them, the final two, when they left the aquarium without you. I had to have something to do while I was looking for you two.”

I threw my arms around him and hugged him.

“If I tell you I’ve disabled most cameras between the statue and the aquarium, do I get a kiss too?” Travis asked.

I backed up, my cheeks burning.

“We need a new plan,” Mason said.

“Why?” I asked, finally ready to relax a little. “There are no more robots to do the computer’s dirty work. We can just restart the escape pod.”

No sooner had the words left my lips than we heard it. The computer’s voice came from all around. With all the cameras Travis took out it wasn’t so easy for the AI to know where we were anymore, so it wasn’t taking a chance on us missing the message. Every speaker in the resort blared.

“I thought it kind to inform anyone who may have evaded the rescue attempts of the staff of Paradise Atlantis, despite our best efforts to protect human life, that these premises will no longer be oxygenated beginning in thirty seconds. All persons should join the other passengers in Engineering if they wish to survive the remainder of the vacation. Bennet Systems cannot be held responsible for any inadvertent casualties at this time.” A countdown began behind the voice, and by the time the computer finished it was down to nineteen seconds.

By that time, we’d scrambled toward the mangled statue.