2 June
The day of the dive boat incident… Pearson's first shipment was due in 2 weeks, and Fulton is putting his plan into motion.
Arriving at Red Reef near a small chain of unnamed Islands, John brought the boat to a stop and set the anchor. The crew was getting their equipment sorted when they were met with an unusual sight. Coming up behind the boat were two kayaks. Not something that you would expect to see in this area. Stopping what they were doing, the dive crew watched them approach.
"Oi!" Josh called out. "You're a long way from shore!"
The two kayakers pulled up alongside, "We're on an island-hopping camping/kayaking adventure. It's our 10th anniversary we wanted to do something different. I'm Rebecca Monroe, and this is my husband, Martin."
"Do you have a destination in mind?" Marco asked them.
"Penfold Island. That's our final stop. There's supposed to be some WWII relics there." Martin answered.
"Hey, can we take your picture for our journal?" Rebecca asked them.
The team got together on the transom for their photo op, Josh sporting his patented smile and giving a thumbs up.
"Well, we best be off then," Martin says.
"Fairwinds!" Josh calls out as they paddle away.
An hour after they left Josh and the dive team, Rebecca and Martin landed on the first of the islands they would be camping on. Two weeks later they settled in for what would be a week's stay on Penfold Island.
17 June, Penfold Island
The Monroe's had been on the Island for just a day when the Pearson's new dive boat, Pearson Marine II, carrying six men anchored off the coast. Four of the men got into a Zodiac and headed to shore. Landing on the beach, one of the lookouts spotted the two kayaks where Rebecca and Martin had pulled them up to the tree line.
"Oi! Boss! Check this out!"
"Well, isn't that just our luck, campers. Go figure. How often are they're campers on this little shit stain of an island."
"Do you think they found the stash?" Chuck asked.
"Guess we're going to find out. Louie, Chuck, go and scope them out. Tony and I will head up to the bunker and pick up the drugs. Meet us back here in thirty minutes, and then we'll figure out what to do about the campers." Tony and Vick picked up the backpacks and headed for the bunker to retrieve the drugs left there a few days earlier.
Rebecca and Martin were headed to the beach for an early evening swim. Just as they reached the tree line, Martin spotted the dive boat and then the Zodiac carrying four men heading for shore. Lifting his binoculars, he could see automatic weapons slung on their backs.
"Becca, we've got to get away from here, now. Those guys are up to no good, and they've got guns. We need to hurry. Getting back to the campsite, they hid their stuff and then found a place to hide."
At the camp, Rebecca got the pouch that carried their passports and money and then added her camera. She hid the bag in a tree. While she did this, Martin did his best to make the campsite look abandoned stashing the rest of their gear under some fallen trees in the forest.
"Hey! Lou! Looky here!" Chuck called out when they had stumbled into the campsite. "This has got to be where they've been camping, close to the beach and their
kayaks".
"They can't be far," Lou added.
"You go around that way," indicating to the right. "I'll take the other side."
Martin and Becca had found a deep depression in the forest floor, laid down and pulled some forest debris over themselves. After thirty minutes of not hearing anything, they quietly climbed out.
"They must have gone," Martin whispered hopefully. "Let's get back and see if that boat is still there; then we can grab our stuff."
When Louie and Chuck didn't find the Monroe's, Louie agreed to stay at the campsite and wait to see if they would come back meanwhile Chuck went back to the beach to check-in.
Louie was sitting quietly against a tree as the two came wandering into the camp. They didn't see him right away, not until Louie raised his rifle.
"Well, well, there you are! We've been looking for you. Camping here are ya?"
"What'd you want? We don't have anything." Martin responds, trying his best to appear unafraid.
"Oh, we don't want anything from you. We just need you not interfering with our business."
"What business? We don't know anything!" Rebecca says frantically.
"Ahh, but you do. I figure you saw us come in and I bet you saw us unload some bags."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Martin tries.
"Don't matter. You're coming with me down to the beach. We'll let the Boss decide what to do with you." Waving the gun at them, "let's go, move!"
Back at the beach, Louie comes out of the tree line marching Rebecca and Martin forward.
"Well, what do we have here?" Vick says as they approach looking none too happy.
"Chuck was right; they came back to the campsite. What do you want to do with them, Boss?"
"I thought that I told you to observe them, not take them hostage. Now, what're we supposed to do with them?" Vick growled.
"You don't have to do anything. Just let us go," Martin pleaded. "We don't know anything. It'll be a couple of weeks before we would be able to talk to anyone anyway. You'll be long gone. And we won't say anything; we won't. Just leave us here."
Rebecca is crying, "please, please, we won't say anything, we don't know anything."
"Well, you know that we were here. You can recognise us. Now shut up! Gotta, think for a moment." Vick walked away from the group, paced for a few minutes, and then called Fulton, who was waiting on the boat with Danno. They talked a minute, and Fulton told him to bring the Monroe's out to the boat.
"Tony, Chuck, get rid of those kayaks. Don't need to announce that anyone was here should anyone else come stumbling around," Vick orders.
Continuing to hold his gun on them, Louie marched Martin and Rebecca over to the Zodiac. "Get in! Sit down and don't move!" Vick barked.
The sun had fully set by the time the Zodiac reached Pearson Marine II.
"So, what do we have now?" Fulton asks when they get back to the boat and out of the Zodiac with Martin and Rebecca. "Where are you from?"
"Cooktown" Martin answered.
"Long way from home, eh? What are you doing out here?"
"Island hopping, camping holiday.
Turning to Vick, "Was the delivery there?" Fulton asked.
"Yeah, we've got it. It was all there."
"Alright, Tony, Chuck, start putting the packages inside the containers."
"Will do, Boss," Chuck answered.
"Okay, time we get out of here. Danno, take us out about a mile then we'll dump them over for shark food." Fulton said. "Figures our first pick-up and we run into a SNAFU."
As Danno starts the engines, Martin broke away from Vick and rushed Louie who was holding onto Rebecca. Slamming into him, he knocked her overboard. "Swim Becca! Swim!" Then he jumped in himself. The dark, moonless night worked in their favour as they swam away from the boat. Chuck and Tony fired several shots into the water, hitting Martin the leg.
"Bloody hell!" Fulton exclaimed. "Leave, um. It's a long swim. Hopefully, they'll drown or become shark bait. Danno, get us out of here!"
Rebecca stayed underwater for as long as she could. Rolling to her back she let just her face above the water and watched as the boat took off with Martin still onboard, so she thought. Staying on her back, she started kicking her way toward shore when she saw Martin struggling to swim towards her. Changing directions, she swam to meet him and then noticed the blood in the water.
"Martin! You're bleeding!"
"One of the shots got me in the leg," he said in obvious pain. "We gotta get out of the water before it attracts sharks."
Luck was on their side. With the tide coming in, it helped carry them to shore. Fifteen minutes later, they reached the beach. Rebecca stumbled out of the water. Martin tried in vain to stand but was unable to. Going back into the water and grabbing him under his arms, Rebecca dragged him onto the beach then collapsed next to him and passed out.
The morning sun was bright and warm, hitting her face. Moaning she rolled over and sat up, then remembering what had happened, she began to panic.
"Martin! Martin!"
He was still near the water's edge where they collapsed gentle waves rolling over his lower legs. Crawling over to him, "Oh God…please be alive…please!" she cried as she rolled him onto his back. He moaned. Embracing him and kissing his face, she remembered that he had been shot.
Slightly more alert, Martin tried to get up but immediately fell back as the pain in his leg overwhelmed him. "They shot at us as we were getting away, you've been hit in your leg. Do you remember?" Rebecca asked him. "Rest a bit then I need to move you up further on the beach."
After ten minutes or so, Rebecca grabbed him under his arms and slowly dragged him away from the waterline. He passed out again. Setting him down, she inspected his leg.
"Martin… Martin, can you hear me?" gently tapping his cheeks. He opens his eyes. "I'm going to look at your leg... looks like the bleeding has mostly stopped. We need to get you back to the campsite so I can take care of that wound."
While he became more alert, Rebecca went to find something to help him to walk. Going further into the trees, she found the kayaks where the drug gang hid them. The kayaks were intact, but they had destroyed the paddles. One half of one remained usable, and she took it back to the beach. Using the broken paddle for leverage; Martin was able to lift himself to standing with Rebecca's help. Then after standing a moment, he took a few tentative steps. He was lightheaded at first and needed to rest a moment before continuing.
It was slow going. Once they reached their campsite, Rebecca helped him under their makeshift shelter where he laid down passing out again from the blood loss, pain and exhaustion. She made him comfortable then went to retrieve their packs, hoping… praying, that they were still there.
Ten days later, Martin was dead from the infection that had settled into his leg and then into his bloodstream. Now utterly alone and crippled with grief, she did nothing more than lay next to his body for two days. On the third day, she took their camp shovel and dug a grave on the beach, covering the mound with beach rocks.
When they started their journey, they had brought five weeks of provisions with them. They were planning on their adventure taking them about a month but packed an extra weeks' worth of food to be safe. It was now approaching the fourth week. And as Martin hadn't eaten for a week, and now with her being alone, her rations could be stretched to three more weeks if she were careful.
Rebecca's grief was crippling, and she was struggling to keep going, barely getting by. She spent hours just sitting on the beach next to Martin's grave staring at the surf.
Another week went by, and she finally started to come back into herself. She realised that she wanted to live even if only to get justice. If she had any chance at all, she needed to get off the Island. She dragged the two kayaks to the beach. In one of the kayaks, she loaded all her gear; in the other, she stored food and water under the deck in front of her feet. She tethered the second kayak to hers intending to tow it behind her. She would island-hop back the way they came. If she got lucky maybe she would cross paths with a fishing boat of something. Rebecca planned to leave the next day with the tide going out to help carry her to open water and hopefully into a shipping lane.
It was time to leave; she pulled the boats into the water, climbed into hers and started to paddle out using the only paddle that she had, the broken one, and paddling the kayak like a canoe. It proved to be too much; she couldn't get past the breakers almost swamping twice. She had to turn back.
Her next attempt would be with only the one kayak adding as many of the extra supplies that she could. That night she slept on the beach planning to leave at first light.
The kayak was heavy with the extra weight, and she struggled with only the one broken paddle, but she was finally able to make it past the breakers and into open water.
7 August
Hammersley's maintenance shore leave was over, and they were scheduled to leave port at 0900. Josh drove Nikki to the quay at 0730 before heading off to the maintenance shed. There was a flurry of activity around the ship as the supplies for their patrol were being loaded.
Kate and Buffer were supervising the loading of their provisions for their patrol when they noticed them and waved.
"I'm going to miss you. I love your two-week shore leaves." Josh said, pulling her close.
"Me too. It was sweet. I'll message you later."
"Love you, Nik," giving her a long kiss goodbye.
She kissed him back and nibbled on his neck, one of his favourite things. "You had better be going before your late."
"Right you are."
With another hug and kiss, Nikki walked away and toward the ship stopping to say hello to Kate and Buffer before heading up the gangway. Josh watched her as she went aboard. Knowing that he would be watching, Nikki went to the rail and waved one last time.
Wishing that he could stay until they left port, Josh begrudgingly got it the car and drove to the maintenance docks.
10 August Hammersley is patrolling near the Timor Sea and Red Reef
So far it's been a quiet cruise with not even so much as a mayday. The day started gloriously with a spectacular sunrise and now a clear azure sky. Nikki was standing on the forecastle with a brew. It was days like this that reminded her of why she loved being on the boats, but still, she was missing Josh. They would often share a morning brew out here on the bow.
Several hours later... "Boss! There's something in the water! Red 4-5 far!" Spider called out from his watch position.
"Nav, EOD."
"Getting to it, Sir. It's…it's a kayak! There is someone in it."
"Alive?"
"Can't say, Sir. They're slumped over."
"X, dispatch a RHIB, bring it in."
"Yes, Sir. Now hear this! Rescue Party, Buffer, Swain, Two Dads, Spider to the RHIB."
Charge and his crew lowered the RHIB into the water, and they took off for the kayak.
Mike, Kate, and Nikki watched the action through binoculars from the port quarter deck.
Halfy piloted the RHIB in close to the kayak, then Buffer used a hook to pull the little boat over to them.
"Boss, it's a woman!" Swain called in.
"Is she alive?" Turning to Kate and Nikki, "what in blazes is she doing out here?"
"She's alive but unconscious," Swain reported. "I'm sure she's dehydrated. Could you have Bomber ready the wardroom, Sir?"
"Will do, Swain."
Buffer and Two Dads steadied the kayak while Swain tried to pull her from the little boat's cockpit, almost falling in. Once he managed to drag her into the RHIB, they fastened the kayak to the RHIB and towed it back to the ship with them.
Rebecca had started to come around as they were heading back to Hammersley; confused and disoriented, calling for Martin.
"It's alright, Ma'am. We've got you now," Swain tried to comfort her.
"Martin! Where's Martin!"
"You were alone, Ma'am. Who's Martin?"
"My husband! You've got to find him. We were together!"
"Alright, we'll tell the captain. Meantime we need to get you taken care of."
Rebecca was sunburned and dehydrated. She had been rationing her water but was running low, and she was lucky that Hammersley happened upon her when they did. She only had maybe a day's ration left. Swain started and IV and applied some salve to her dry, cracked lips and face.
"Bomber, grab her an overall. We need to get her out of these clothes."
On the bridge, "Looks like we'll be heading back to Cairns, Nav. Plot us a course."
"Yes, Sir." (Maybe I'll get to see Josh, even if it's only for a few hours.)
"RO, get on to Coast Watch. She said that her husband was with her. Have them do an air search. And see if there are any missing person reports."
"Aye, Sir."
After receiving fluids, the stranded woman slowly came around once again.
"Where…where…am I? Where is this? Martin? Is Martin here?"
"Ma'am," Swain started calmly. "You're on an Australian Navy ship. We found you floating in your kayak. You were alone. Can you tell me your name?"
"Where's Martin? Did you find Martin?"
"You were alone, Ma'am. Was Martin with you? Who is Martin?"
"He's my husband…" she started to sob.
Swain is trying to comfort her by speaking softly and putting an arm around her shoulders. "Now, can you tell me your name?"
"Rebecca, Rebecca Monroe," was all that she managed before closing her eyes again.
Two hours later she woke, to find Bomber sitting with her. "Where am I?"
"You're on a Navy ship Ma'am. My name is Bomber. Can I get you anything? Juice may be, and a sandwich? I brought this overall for you to put on. We had to get rid of your clothes. Why don't you change while I get you something from the galley."
Swain arrived on the bridge to speak with Mike about what he knew of the woman so far just as the missing person report came through. RO handed the report to Mike.
"Her name is Rebecca Monroe; she and her husband Martin were reported missing almost a month ago when they were due back from their kayak trip."
"She's out here a month?" Nikki exclaimed.
"Swain, has she said anything?"
"They were island hopping, and she insists that her husband, Martin, was with her."
"How is she doing?"
"She's stable, suffering from exposure and dehydration, but otherwise remarkably fine."
"Maybe we should initiate and search for her husband. Martin is it? Nav, new orders. Plot a search grid around the area where we found the kayak."
"Yes, Sir."
"I want to talk to her, see if she can tell us why she is floating around out there in a kayak."
They ran the search grid for about two hours when Swain called the bridge to let the Captain know that Rebecca was alert enough for him to ask her some questions.
Rebecca was sitting at the table in the senior's mess with a sandwich and some orange juice when Mike walked in.
"I'm Mike Flynn, the ship's Captain. Your name is Rebecca?"
"Yes, Rebecca Monroe. Are you looking for Martin?"
"We are. Now, tell me how you came to be floating out here in a kayak."
"We were Island hopping in our kayaks. Our tenth-anniversary big adventure. We were camped on an island when pirates attacked us."
"Pirates?"
Nikki and Kate exchanged glances.
"Mrs Monroe, there aren't pirates in these waters. Because of the oil fields that are nearby, there is increased security." Mike explains.
"They were pirates! "she insisted. "They had guns, knives, that's what I call pirates. They kidnapped us and brought us to their boat. There were a lot of containers on the deck. I don't remember what happened after that. I remember waking up on the beach. But Martin… You must find Martin!" confused, she had the delusion the Martin was still alive.
"We're working a search. Nav, have RO call NAVCOM and see if there are any reports of piracy in the area."
"Yes, Boss."
Later, Nikki was going to the galley for SCRAN when Swain looked out of the wardroom hoping to catch one of the female sailors nearby.
"Nav, could you help Rebecca to the head? She's still a bit unsteady on her feet."
"Sure, no problem."
Steadying her by taking her elbow, Nikki guided her down the passageway towards the toilet. Rebecca stopped short in front of the crew's notice board.
"Him! I recognise him! I've seen him before. He's one of them!"
She was looking at the picture of Josh and Swain holding a huge marlin that they had caught. "Well, yeah. That's Swain; he's taking care of you."
"No, not him the other one! He's one of the pirates!"
Nikki shakes her head. "No, that's ET, he's one of us."
"What, you think that just because he's in the Navy, because he wears a uniform, he can't be dirty? I saw him! I have proof!"
"What proof, Rebecca.?"
" Pictures, I have pictures!"
"Where are these pictures?"
"Hidden on the island."
Nikki got Rebecca to the head and back to the wardroom, then went to find Mike.
"Boss, Rebecca saw ET's picture with Swain, and she's insisting that he's one of the Pirates. Says that she has proof on the island that they were on."
"I'll go talk to her again."
Mike and Nikki walk into the wardroom, and Mike sits down in front of Rebecca.
"Do you remember any more about the island you were on?" Mike asks her. "Do you remember the name of it?"
Rebecca thought for a moment, then, "Penfold. Penfold Island. It was to be our last stop."
"And that is where you were attacked?"
"Yes."
"Alright, we'll head there, and you can show us what happened. Nav, a course to Penfold Island, please."
"Sir," she said and left the wardroom to go to the bridge.
Later, in her cabin, Nikki boots up her laptop and sends a message to Josh. It's 1900, and he should be home.
* Hey Luv, how was your day? *
Josh's was in his cabin when his laptop pinged with a received message, excited knowing that it would be Nikki, he opened the Messenger app.
*Hey Babe had a good day; did some work on Bendigo. I'm actually on her now for a two-day shakedown cruise."
* You must be enjoying that."
*I am. I do miss being on the water sometimes. *
*Do you want to go back on the ships? *
* No, I like what we have, and I still like not getting shot at. 😉 What did you guys get up too? *
* You won't believe it. We rescued this woman who was floating around out there in a kayak. She had been on the water for a while. Here's the best part. She said that pirates attacked her and that you were one of them. *
* Huh? How does she figure? How does she even know me? *
* She saw that picture of you and Swain with that huge fish and insisted that you were one of the men that attacked her and her husband. *
* Huh… you said kayaks? And she was with her husband? *
*Just the one… she was alone. *
*Nikki, one of the last things that I remember from that day was meeting this couple who were on some sort of island kayaking holiday. That was like nine weeks ago.
Could that be? *
* Wow, I don't know, sounds crazy. *
*How many kayak island hoppers can there be? *
*Would you recognise her if I sent you a picture? *
*I don't know, maybe. *
*I'll try and do that then. Give me an hour, and I'll get back to you."
"Okay, Love you."
"Love you too, one hour. 😊"
Nikki closed her laptop and went to find Mike to tell him what Josh had told her.
"Do you think ET would do a video call with her? Maybe he could convince her if she could see him, talk to him."
"I'm sure that he would. Let me set it up."
Nikki and Mike spoke with Rebecca, and she agreed to the video call if only to prove that she was right. Then Nikki contacted Josh and set it up. RO set up the call in the ships conference room.
Mike and Swain led Rebecca to the conference room where Nikki was already there setting up the call with Josh. The call went through, and Josh answered.
"Hi Luv, good to see you, Captain, Sir…"
"Hey, ET, I understand that you're slumming on Bendigo." Mike chuckled, and Josh joined in. "Thanks for doing this."
"No worries."
Nikki had Rebecca sit in front of the computer's camera. "Rebecca, this is ET, Josh, he's who you saw in the picture on the notice board."
"It's him! I told you it was him! You bastard! What did you do with Martin?"
Josh remained calm, "Hello, Rebecca. I remember you. You came by our dive boat in a kayak with your husband. You told us that you were on an island-hopping adventure. Do you remember?"
"I…I…remember…you were diving. There was a bunch of you. You were pirates!"
"No, Rebecca, we were divers. You paddled up to our boat, and we talked for a moment."
Rebecca turns toward Mike, "You need to call the police! He needs to be arrested!"
(Whoa… this isn't how this was supposed to go…) Nikki thinks.
Calmly, Josh continues to talk to her. "Rebecca? Rebecca… that same day, our dive boat had an accident. All my mates were killed. I spent almost three weeks in hospital, two of those weeks in a coma. It wasn't me… us… who attacked you. I hope that they can find who did."
Rebecca is now clearly confused, "I was so sure… when I saw your picture…"
"It's alright, you've been through a lot. It's no wonder that things are a little jumbled up."
"I was so sure…they came to the Island. They had guns. They took us to their boat…"
"It's okay."
"Martin, Martin is missing…"
"I hope that you find him."
Swain took her back to the wardroom, and Mike spoke to Josh.
"ET, thanks. I think that you helped to calm her a little. She said that she remembered being on Penfold Island. We're steaming there now. Hopefully, we'll find some answers."
"Poor woman. They were so excited about their holiday."
"Yeah. I'll leave you with Nikki. See you in port."
"Yes, Sir."
"Josh, you remembered! I wasn't sure that you would." Nikki said.
"Yeah, it just sort of came back. Strange."
"Do you remember anything else?"
"No…"
They continued to chat for a bit and then said goodnight.
At 2200 the next day they anchored off Penfold Island. In the morning, Mike would send a shore party over to the Island with Rebecca to see if they could make sense of what she was saying.
The RHIB was readied at 0800, and the shore party, Kate, Bomber, Swain and Buffer with Rebecca headed to the Island. Landing on the beach, the first thing they saw was where Rebecca had buried her husband.
"Oh My God!" she let out a scream. "Martin!" Sobbing as all that had happened came back to her. "I buried him…" She was crying so hard that she couldn't talk. Kate sat in the sand and held her. "How could I not remember? How?"
Swain was stooping next to her on the other side. "It was your brain's way of protecting you. You weren't able to cope with everything that had happened, so you put it away until you could."
"Can you remember any more about what happened?" Kate asked her.
Rebecca told them about being taken hostage and Martin getting shot. "It was so horrible. I couldn't do anything for him. His wound got infected then he got really sick…"
"Sepsis," Swain offered.
"He was burning up, all I had was some paracetamol. Then he lost consciousness, then… I buried him."
"Rebecca," Kate says softly. "That's too much for anyone to bear. And yet you managed to survive for weeks."
"I changed camps. I was afraid that they would come back."
"Did they?"
"Not that I saw."
"I have to ask. Do you want to bring Martin back with you? I'll be honest; it won't be pleasant." Kate said.
"No…he should stay here."
Rebecca stayed sitting next to Martin's grave. Kate stood and walked over to Buffer and Bomber. "I want you two to go up to the campsite and have a look around. She said that she hid a pouch with their passports and her camera."
Rebecca stood, "I'll go," as she took a deep breath finally somewhat under control. I'll show you where it is."
They reached the campsite and Rebecca went to the tree where she had hidden her passports and other personal items along with the camera. While Buffer, Bomber and Rebecca were going to the campsite, Swain and Kate went exploring, trying to figure out what it was that the bad guys were interested in, assuming that it had something to do with drugs or maybe guns. Almost to the top of the Island, they stumbled onto the WWII bunker.
"X: Check this out!" Swain called to her. "It looks like there was something stored here; drugs maybe? Maybe that was what they were after."
"Huh, maybe. I'll call it in." Kate replied. "We should get going back to the ship."
Kate recalled everyone to the beach. Rebecca said a final goodbye to her husband, and the RHIB took off for Hammersley.
Once they were back on board, Mike asked her about the pictures that she said she had. Removing the memory card from the camera, Rebecca handed it over to Mike.
"RO, let's get this loaded up and see what we have."
"Yes, Sir." RO brought a laptop over to the chart table and inserted the card.
Rebecca's pictures came up on the screen. They really were only pictures from their journey, but one image stood out. It was a picture of ET and his dive mates with ET's big smile and a thumbs up. Nikki's breath hitched, seeing his picture. ( God, I love this man…)
"He looks so happy," she said softly, knowing what was to happen shortly after the picture was taken.
Rebecca sees the picture of Josh, "See! See! I told you I had a picture! That's him!"
RO looking over everyone's shoulder notices the date attached to ET's picture, and he points it out to Mike.
"Look at the date, Mrs Monroe, it's the day of the dive boat incident," Mike says as he steps over to her. "You took that picture the same day that the dive boat was attacked. They all died, except for ET. They're not your pirates. When we get back to Cairns, the Federal Police will be looking into what happened. I'm sure that it will all be sorted out."
"I'm so sorry," she sniffed. "I was so sure."
"That's okay, no worries," Nikki said to her. "With all that you've been through, it's understandable."
"Nav, take us home," Mike said.
"Yes, Sir."