A/N: Robin get in a bit of trouble, and then Slade gets in a bit of trouble and… well, it's a normal day, really… 😉
Chapter 5: Let it Flow
Robin woke up at just before four in the morning and was wide awake. He had slept very well indeed and with the nap yesterday gotten more rest than he was used to. There was no way he was going to fall back to sleep and his whole body itched to move. He worked himself out from under Slade's arm. The man of course woke up but, funnily enough, just grunted something, rolled over, and fell back asleep. Robin stifled a laugh. Seemed the Great Deathstroke might need his naps after all.
Bringing only his key card, he slipped on the same shorts and shirt he had worn yesterday. He preferred changing after showering, and he doubted many people would be around to see his crumpled clothes anyway.
He followed the corridor and then went outside to the pool area. The air was a chilly and he shivered slightly, but the sun was slowly brightening the horizon, beautiful hues of gold and purple starting to appear. Robin admired it for a bit. He loved sunrises. After all, it meant you had survived another night.
The ship cut perfectly through the calm sea, it's engines not exactly creating a sound, not this high up at least, but there was always… something… a hum? A vibration? At least he had noticed the difference between before and after leaving the island yesterday.
Suddenly there was a movement on the other side of the deck. Robin used all his bat-skills and practically melted back into the shadows, to watch. It was probably a staff member, perhaps cleaning crew, or maybe a passenger who had been partying too long, but there was something about how the shadow had moved that had alerted the teen.
There it was again. It was definitely trying to stay out of sight as it was closing in on one of the doors that led into the interior of the ship, where, as far as Robin knew, there were only cabins. The teen had come from the door on this side of the ship, and the shadow now slipped into the one on the opposite side.
It didn't take long for the teen to decide to act, he was already moving. He slipped through the same door, but didn't see anyone down the hall. The corridor on this deck ran in a large U-shape at the very front of the ship, so the man or woman must have been quick. Robin hurried quietly down the hall. He had just realized that there was no way the shadow could have made it this far down when there was the faintest of sounds behind him. He was about to spin around when something hit him in the head and everything turned black.
He wasn't out long but when he came to, he was still not able to move. One set of hands was grabbing him, stroking his whole body, and the thought 'rape!' appeared in the teen's mind before he understood that the hands were patting him down. He decided to 'play dead' just for a bit longer, more so because the darkness was still washing over him, trying to drag him under again. He felt one of his pockets turn inside out and heard the crinkle of paper but then the darkness won again.
"Robin!" it was a mix between a call and a hiss and the teen groaned.
"Owww…" he mumbled.
"What happened?" It was Slade's voice, and the man sounded both concerned and furious.
"… jumped…" the teen muttered. "…head's…. killing me… help?"
But Slade felt his neck and spine carefully first before moving him. When he finally, gingerly, lifted the teen up Robin was close to throwing up on him.
Soon after they were back in their cabin and the man laid him down onto the bed. The teen grinned weakly at the realization that this was the first time Slade hadn't thrown him onto it. He got a cold, damp towel for the back of his head, but then the man was impatient to hear what had happened. Robin explained and then asked.
"What time is it?"
"Only just after half past four. You can't have been lying there long."
"How did you even find me?"
"I thought you were just going to the bathroom. When you didn't return, I noticed that you'd left. I decided to check up on you."
"Worried?" Robin smiled.
"I obviously had cause to! It was lucky I decided to check the other corridor first."
"Why did you?"
"I don't know… instinct? Maybe I actually heard you, just not consciously. You were whimpering." Slade said that in a tone that indicated that it was the hero's fault. "How are you feeling?"
"I'll be fine in an hour or so. Where they robbers, do you think?"
"If so, they were stupid, desperate or both. What did they take from your pocket?"
"I have no idea. I didn't have my phone or my wallet, after all… sounded like paper but it wasn't money- Oh! Ow." Robin amended as him almost sitting up as he got the idea had hurt.
"What?" the man wanted to know.
"It was a note. The paper note with the German's cabin number… or, well... the badly scribbled one."
"And they took it?"
"Don't know, did you see it on the floor?"
"No, not as far as I can remember. I'm taking a look through the hallway; will you be alright for a while?"
Ninety nine percent of Robin just snorted and said he would be fine. One percent secretly wanted to clutch Slade's hand and beg him to stay.
The man returned not long after.
"I checked the whole hallway as well as the trashcans to see if your attacker threw the note away. He or she didn't."
"He. I'm pretty sure."
"Yes. At least someone tall with a good arm and skills. You weren't hit with anything laying around, you were hit with something designed for that purpose, I'd bet. The guy knew what he was doing."
"But why?"
"Wrong time, wrong place? Or he knew you were following him?"
"What the hell do we do now? Whoever hit me probably got a good look at me, he will be watching us now… and if we don't call security it will be suspicious, won't it?"
"Dammit…" Slade said. "Yes, it will. Normal passengers would have cried for blood by now. I'm making the call."
Robin nodded but then held up his hand. "No! Stupid!"
"I don't think you get to call me that," Slade snorted.
"But you are! We are!" Robin said and then groaned, holding his head. "Just give me a sec." he waited a bit until the throbbing in his head died down a smidge. "Okay, so we call security, what do they do? They check the surveillance tapes."
"I assume so… ah, of course, we need to check the tapes! You're right, we're stupid," the man grunted, looking ashamed of himself.
"Not just that, but good point," the teen smiled weakly. "But if they check the tapes and it turns out to be someone on our suspect list or the CIA… that will things very complicated for us, won't it? The CIA would have to come clean with who they are and the suspects, well… there's no telling what they might do… it might turn into a blood bath!"
"Alright. Again, you're right. It's late, or rather, early, but I'll see if Bruce is available. It's easier for him to check the surveillance and, as we're practically working for him, he gets to decide what to do."
"It's nice to have a boss, isn't it?"
"Shut up and heal."
"You actually have two bosses…" Robin grinned.
"No, two customers," the man said and smirked. "Bruce? Looking tired?" he said to the screen, having used the video call.
"I was just about to go to bed," the man yawned. "What happened?"
"Your boy was knocked out."
"Just wait until he gets kidnapped," Bruce muttered.
"Hey!" Robin objected.
"Well, I hear he's conscious, at least. Is it serious?"
Slade explained the situation and Bruce started going through the video feed.
"This is strange…" he said after a bit. "I've fast forwarded through the feeds in that hallway but there is nothing to see… Nor is there anything from the pool area or any record of Robin leaving the room."
"Dammit, they have hacked the video feed as well," Slade growled.
"Can you like… unhack it…?" Robin asked.
"Robin, if the cameras aren't recording there's no recording to be found," Bruce told him, almost kindly.
"Sorry… sorry… hit in the head…" the teen muttered.
"Did you drink last night?" Batman wanted to know.
"I'm not drunk!" he objected.
"No, but did you? Is there any alcohol still in your blood you think? Did anyone see you drink?"
"We had a few drinks with the CIA," Slade admitted. "They were lonely or something."
"Probably checking you out, be careful. People in that business might have access to your profile and a fake eye and some lovey-doveyness might not be enough to fool them," Bruce said seriously. "But good, Robin, drink just a little bit extra, enough to smell. Call the doctors. You hit your head, but you can't remember how. Play it down so security doesn't get involved, that will just create a huge mess. Alright?"
"Sounds good, boss!" Robin grinned, and glanced at a Slade who looked like he wanted to pout.
Not long after the ship's physician was called and, after checking the teen over and having him do lots of vision and eye-hand-coordination tests left the boy with orders to rest, have a headache pill and to call for him if he experienced anything worse than a throbbing headache. He asked a few questions about how much he had had to drink and urged him to be more careful in the future.
They didn't go down to breakfast until almost nine, and Robin, wearing sunglasses, decided to act worse than he actually felt, just to see if they got any reactions and practically hung off Slade's arm. Slade in turn doted on him until Robin whispered that he couldn't keep a straight face for much longer and the man toned it down a bit.
People did notice that Robin wasn't feeling well, though and they got all kinds of reactions, from jokes about late nights to a few actual questions from people they knew a bit better. They ran into the Swedes and the Germans at almost the same time.
"I must have slipped," Robin told them. "Slade found me in the hallway, but it was the one furthest from us, so I think I slipped, hit my head and then passed out after a while… can't even remember leaving the cabin…"
"Very scary!" One of the Swede's exclaimed. "You could have fallen in the pool and drowned!"
At that point they got a full score as the CIA joined them as well. "You didn't have that much to drink last night, did you?" the teen was asked.
They told the story again, and got similar, concerned reactions. Robin tried to watch everyone closely, but no one gave any indication that they knew more than they pretended.
"Well, I'm gonna be fine," Robin shrugged in the end. "So what are all of you up to today?"
The big group chatted about different ideas, like gambling, shopping, relaxing by the pool, watching a movie in the cinema later in the evening, going to the gym and so on and so forth.
"We spent a lot of time by the pool yesterday," Robin said. "When I feel a bit more up for it, I think I want to explore the ship some more… meet some more people…. Not that present company isn't great, of course!" he added with a laugh.
"Well, you're not going to do any more drinking, at least, that's for sure," Slade told him dryly.
"You don't love me," Robin muttered.
"Not true. I love you very much," the man said which such warmth in his voice that it brought unwanted tears to the teen's eyes.
"Don't make me cry! Kiss me instead!" he objected, and got his wish.
"I wanted a sugar free breakfast," Derek from the CIA team drawled.
"We were never that disgustingly sweet, where we?" Victor on 'team German' asked his partner, who just chuckled.
The Swedish newlyweds just grinned and kissed as well, adding to the sweetness level.
Slade and Robin had a job to do, though, and they slowly started to go through the list of couples they had to try to find and identify. It was more difficult than Robin had hoped, they both knocked on a few doors, they had some captured pictures with no names to that that the computer had sent back to search for, but it was slow going.
"Lunch!" Robin exclaimed after hours of searching. "We found like…ten?"
"Six."
"We can't round up?"
"Don't think Bruce would allow that, no."
"Dammit. Oh well. Still: lunch."
"Well, we might meet people there. What do you want?"
"All work and no play makes Slade a dull boy," Robin snorted.
"Ah, so you want to stay in and order room service?" the man leered.
"Yes, but your work ethics will get in the way of that, so let's just go to the Italian place."
"Dammit," it was Slade's turn to say.
Robin's phone rang on the way there. The teen listened but said very little. When the call was over, he pulled Slade to the side for a 'make out session' while he relayed the information to him.
"Bruce has come up with a new thing to help us out. As soon as the computer 'sees' a face it doesn't recognize from our live feeds, it will send a message to us, only one per face, so we should make sure to have a signal on. Vibration will screw with the video feed."
"Sounds good," the man said, and they set up their phones. "Why didn't he think of this before?"
"He did, but at that point there were too many question marks, we would get constant messages. This can help us relax and just move through the ship, though. After lunch."
"You're hungry today."
"You have no idea," the teen leered, making the man look rather wistful.
At lunch the phone dinged once and Robin had to go be social for a bit again. He found it easy, which Slade tended to look like he was calculating how hard people he met would be to kill. The man always acted better if he had his hand on the teen's ass, though, a place it seldom left anyway. Robin was surprised, but secretly very pleased, about how loving and tender the man could act. It was extra tantalizing now when the flirting and innuendoes actually could end up coming true… but that also made things more confusing. Robin knew there were no feelings involved from the man's side, but it was hard to tell where the acting ended and the desire began, so to speak. But maybe, he considered, it didn't matter so much, because it was more important that he, Robin, knew where the limits were, and he had no problem with that.
"Lost in thought?"
"Huh?"
"You were smiling at me with a slightly emptier expression in your eyes than usual," the man smirked.
"Oh. Sorry. Just… planning."
"Mm-hmm? Seemed like you were planning something I really want to be a part of," the man smirked.
"Yes, that wedding," Robin smiled back sweetly.
"And to change the subject," Slade hurriedly said, looking around, "maybe splitting up and browsing the decks is a good idea?"
"There's a wedding chapel on the boat, you know?" Robin smiled wider. "Just… random piece on information… like that thing about the morgue."
"Let's discuss where we would prefer to be later," the man muttered. "You take this deck and move up, I'll move down. Alright?"
"Yes, dear," Robin grinned. "You are fun to torture, you know?"
The man gave him an evil grin. "I'm sure you are too, and I'll get you all to myself tonight."
Robin's grin wavered nervously. "Heh… funny man," he said uncertainly.
"Not joking," Slade claimed and left.
Robin took a breath, composed himself, and got to work.
He didn't get far, however, before his phone rang.
"What did he mean by that?" Bruce asked.
"By what?" Robin couldn't put two and two together.
"By 'I'll get you all to myself tonight'?" the man clarified.
"Oh, fuck, we forgot to turn the phones off," the teen groaned.
"Robin. Talk to me. Now."
"He was joking!" the younger hero clamed.
"Really?" Bruce's voice dripped of doubt.
"Yes. Everything is fine."
"You have to call me if anything makes you uncomfortable," the man insisted, and Robin was close to making another girth joke.
"Yes, sure, I'm a big boy, though, I can take care of myself. I can make decisions for myself too."
"Usually poor ones."
"It's your fault he's even here!" Robin hissed.
"I just wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Okay. Good. Thank you. I need to go now."
"And why that talk about weddings?"
"Really gotta go, see you!" Robin said and hung up.
The new tech was incredibly good. Robin tried to move furtively around so it didn't look like he was walking up to everyone he saw, and it was slow going but effective.
"Hi, have you been abandoned?"
The teen turned around to see Victor on 'Team German' standing there. As one of the top suspects the hero would normally treasure some time to speak with him, especially as he made the first move, but now he felt slightly frustrated instead, as he had a lot of people to film.
"Hi, yeah, looks like it, doesn't it?" he grinned without giving any more information.
"Are you okay, though? Your head?"
"Yeah, I mean… I'm glad we are out to sea all day so I can just go back to the cabin and rest, but I'll be fine."
"You slipped, you said?"
"I just assume so… I still can't remember," the teen explained. "That's the really scary part, actually, but the doctor said it wasn't that uncommon. Where is Carl, by the way?"
"Buying more sun screen. He fries quickly, poor guy," the man chuckled. "We'll probably be boring and hang out at the pool later, come join us if you feel lonely."
"I will!" Robin smiled, liking the invitation. "I'm gonna explore for a bit, maybe hunt down that husband of mine. Good thing we have phones or we'd never be able to find each other, this ship is huge!" the teen grinned.
"That it is. Have a good time!" the 'German' said and raised his hand in a farewell before walking away.
Robin continued browsing the deck and had several hits. It was stimulating, a little bit like actual hunting, and he moved through the decks with a sense of excitement pushing him on. Three hours later he had done a thorough first sweep. The people were moving around, of course, so his work wasn't exactly done, but he decided a break was in order, He sent Slade a message, and headed to their cabin to change into swimwear. On the way there, however, in a small, dark inner corridor he passed on the way to the elevators, he heard a groan. Around the corner, in a short hallway that just lead to cleaning supply closets and the like, a man was on his knees.
"Shit, are you ok?" Robin called out and rushed forward. At the last second, he remembered that it might be a possible poison attack and stopped a little bit away. The man staggered to his feet, a red mark covering his jaw and cheek.
"Carl?!" Robin exclaimed when he saw who it was. "What happened?"
"Nothing… got in a fight," the man muttered, and somehow the teen thought his accent was heavier now.
"Ok, I'm calling security!" Robin said just to see how the man would react. He wasn't disappointed. The man's hand shot out and grabbed his arm.
"No! Don't… I- look, I might get in trouble myself, ok? It was just a stupid disagreement, it wasn't serious."
"Was… was it… Victor?" Robin asked.
When the man's younger companion was mentioned the man actually chuckled. "No. Nothing domestic."
"But who was it, then? Can't you warn me? I don't want to hang out with psychos..."
the man gave him a strange look and laughed shortly. "You don't, huh? No, I don't want to say, sorry, I don't want any rumors, hope you understand."
"But I wouldn't- the teen began and then sighed. "Ok, yeah… but are you alright? I was heading down to our cabin, let's go back together?"
The man agreed and Robin offered his arm as support. The 'German' waved that away though, and joined the teen in the elevator, rubbing his jaw.
"And I was afraid it was going to be a bit boring on a ship," the young hero grinned and rubbed his own head. The throbbing had died down and he was now mainly just sore.
"Oh, it seldom is," the man smirked at him.
The hero studied the suspect furtively for the rest of the way down. Carl had that rounder, softish face that didn't look threatening at all, but his eyes and voice sometimes became harder. Robin didn't think he was quite as harmless as he looked, but he had no proof of anything, of course.
"I could come to your cabin if you want to… help patch you up?" Robin offered, desperate to see the place again, and if he could get the man to lie down with a cold cloth over his face, then maybe, just maybe, he could find something.
"What exactly are you offering?" the man leered and Robin's face exploded in red hues.
"I… I… no, I… I'm married!" the teen objected. "I just wanted to help!"
"Some people treat these trips as a swinger's party," the man shrugged. "You never know. Doesn't hurt to ask."
"I'm just going to assume you don't need any help, then," the teen muttered just as the elevator doors open. "I'll see you later," he said and fled.
"Idiot," Slade commented when Robin told him of the embarrassing elevator misunderstanding.
"What?" the teen blinked. "I mean, if people really sleep around, it wasn't strange that he misunderstood-"
"I meant you. You should have gone back with him and sent him into the shower while you looked around."
"And when he came out?" Robin growled.
"Fuck him and then ask to borrow the bathroom and search it while you were in there."
"We are supposed to be on honeymoon! A loving couple!" Robin objected.
"We are supposed to do our job."
"Sleeping with strangers is not my job!"
"Oh, just a hobby then?" the man smirked.
Robin closed his fist, longing to plant it smack in the middle of the man's stupid smirk. Instead he took a deep breath, turned around, grabbed his swim gear and disappeared into the bathroom to change. He did so quickly and left the cabin without so much as looking at the man and headed to the pool. It was much more crowded than yesterday, of course, but he found a lounge chair, threw his stuff onto it and then dove into the water. The pool wasn't big but had a jet stream on one side, and Robin swum furiously against it until he felt that he had calmed down enough not to kill a certain mercenary. He left the water and only then remembered the sun block. He hadn't been in the water that long so figured that no harm was done as he applied it.
"Need help?" the offer came from one of the Swedes, who, the teen only now discovered, had occupied the sun beds next to his.
"If you wouldn't mind helping me with my back?" the teen asked, glancing at the other swede as well, making sure it was alright with him. The other man just smiled and nodded, though, and soon his back was being expertly covered. The man's touch felt a little strange, but it was all completely professional, no lingering touches, no Slade-like molesting moves. "Thank you," Robin smiled as it was done. He continued with his own legs and chest, having already done his arms.
"You are late to the pool," one of the Swedes said. "The sun is about to start setting soon."
"I spent time here yesterday," Robin shrugged. "I've been mostly exploring the ship today."
"You looked like a…. a dark cloud when you arrived?" the other blond said, hesitating a bit over the choice of words.
"Slade was an asshole."
Robin almost laughed as he saw two pair of warm blue eyes suddenly look concerned.
"Were you argumenti- arguing?"
"A bit."
"You should go talk to him. Maybe it was a misunderstanding?"
"I will. Later," Robin said, not looking forwards to seeing the man again. "It was nothing, really."
"If you say so…" the words showed reluctance to let the subject go, but Robin put on his sunglasses and laid down, clearly showing that he was done talking. He kept watching people around him, though. His phone's camera was turned off now, but he could still study people. He saw several well-known faces, the Stefans, for example, seemed to have made up and were playing the married couple again. The CIA were by the bar and soon the Germans arrived as well. Robin felt annoyance well up in him again as he had wanted to discuss that case in depth with Slade, but the bastard had ruined that. And speaking of the devil…
Robin had never really had the opportunity to watch Slade, as a civilian that was, from afar, and especially not the reactions the man got from the people around him. Now he came swaggering towards the pool, dressed in swim shorts and with a towel over one shoulder. As Robin watched behind black lenses, he saw many eyes turn towards him, eyes that were roaming over his body and didn't have a single pure thought attached to them. The teen snorted. No wonder the man was so full of himself.
On his way over, Slade took a detour to the bar, drawing more looks, and then walked up to Robin, holding out a drink.
"Forgive me?" he said.
"That you better fucking really mean," Robin growled, intonation making it clear to the man that it shouldn't be an act.
"I do," Slade claimed and Robin took the drink, a bit grudgingly.
"Can we go back to our cabin and talk?" the man asked, almost humbly.
"Are you allowed to have whores in the room?" the teen growled, and there were a few gasps around him. People were listening. More people than he even suspected. Damn drama-loving leeches.
"What I said… it was supposed to be a joke of sorts… on my behalf," Slade tried. "Please, you know I love you! I would never actually mean what I said!"
Robin smirked. Loving watching the man crawl in the dirt, even though it was just an act. Then he sighed.
"Fine… fine, I'm sorry too… my headache… I've had a short temper all day."
Slade helped him up, but Robin intentionally moved away when he sensed that Slade was about to pull him in for a kiss. He was nowhere close to that good of an actor. Instead he gathered up his things and walked ahead of the man, trying to tell himself to handle this professionally.
As they entered their cabin, Robin put his things away quietly and then turned to the man who had sat down on the small couch.
"Was any part of that apology sincere?"
"Somewhat," the man shrugged. "I should have known you had limits to what you would do."
"Um. Yes. Like, you know, kill someone, have sex with random people I'm not attracted to…"
"So, if it had been Victor instead? He's more attractive, isn't he?" Slade asked.
"Yes, but no. I chose to have sex with you because I thought it would be an interesting experience. I have no interest in doing it with just anybody! I'm not like you."
"It might have helped our mission along."
"Yes, then you go. Would you do it if he insisted on topping, though?" Robin smirked evilly. "For the mission?" he added sarcastically.
The man snorted but didn't answer and the teen felt like he had won an important point.
"I called Bruce, no records of anyone in that hallway at that time," Slade said instead.
"So cameras manipulated again," Robin sighed. "Can we remove their program somehow?"
"Possibly, but it's risky. The Bat was going to look into it."
"Good. Carl definitely knows who did it. He was hit from the front and he had a cut on his neck-"
"You didn't mention that before."
"You interrupted me by being an asshole."
"Oh, well…" the man shrugged again. "So… cut?"
"Just a nick, but I know that look. Someone held a knife to his throat. I think he was confronted and warned about something."
"Well, we are not believing the random fight explanation, but I wonder who threatened him…"
"I guess killing someone would lead to too much trouble," Robin said. "Not a risk worth taking unless it's the actual mission or very, very important. Which is good, because I could have woken up dead. But if it was the CIA, why not arrest them?"
"Might not have been them at all. We have two parties here, the CIA, who we have identified, and the agents, who we aren't sure that we've even seen yet…. There might be more parties here, though. We don't know if the CIA is after our people or someone else."
"It would be nice to find a mission statement from them clarifying that," Robin muttered.
"Again, Bruce has tried. Found nothing. Whatever this is, it's not a run-of-the mill mission, it's probably need-to-know."
Robin sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay… Okay… it's only day two, the list must be shorter after today's hunt, no need to panic yet."
"Who's panicking?" Slade asked dryly.
"Me. A little. We need to find these people, Slade, and we need proof. It's just that the proof is one of the most dangerous poisons in the world. Makes me a bit nervous."
"Awww… come here, I'll make you forget your worries," the man grinned and patted his own lap.
"No thank you, I'm not that into you anymore. It will be difficult enough to act like I've forgiven you out there," he said and gestured to the door. "I'm gonna rinse the pool water off and then I'm going to take another stroll hunting 'unknowns' before dinner."
"I think you're being unreasonable," the man growled.
"Because I don't want your cock inside me anymore?" the teen said sweetly.
"I obviously hurt your feelings-"
"Yes!" Robin heard himself yell all of a sudden. "Yes, you fucking did! And I hate it because I didn't want to have any, ok? It was supposed to be just sex, like it is for you! You have nothing to lose here, because you don't give a shit about me outside of work and that you like fucking me! You wouldn't even bat an eye if I slept with someone else, and you'd fuck anyone too, no problem! I would love to be that cold, Slade, but I'm obviously not! I don't want to sleep with anyone else and I don't like the thought of you doing that either! So I guess you fucking won or something, you're gonna strut around looking so fucking smug because a little stupid hero wants-" here Robin finally managed to stop himself, though he couldn't stop the tears running down his cheeks. Tears of anger, frustration and shame.
"Wants what?" Slade asked calmly. He had stood up during Robin's rant, but not come any closer.
"I DON'T KNOW!" Robin yelled and fled into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it. He took a shower, a longer one than he had planned, and dried off carefully. He had of course forgotten to bring any clothes with him, which he cursed about as he wrapped a towel around himself. After taking a deep breath he opened the door. He had almost plotted out the route to the wardrobe in his mind, including where the clothes he wanted were and every step to get him out the door as quickly as possible. It wasn't needed, though, because Slade wasn't there. His swim trunks had been thrown on the bed but, other than that, there was no trace of him. Apart from a note. It was a white post it with the ship's logo on the wardrobe door.
"I went ahead, will go through upper levels this time. We need to talk. /S"
Robin took the note and tore it up, telling himself he was destroying evidence. He didn't want to "talk", no matter how much the man was correct in his claim that they had to. Well, he could postpone it for a while longer, at least.
He dressed, activated his phone's camera, put it in his breast pocket and left. He went down as far as he as a passenger could go, deck four. The only area there where passengers had access was the medical center and there were no one else there at the moment, so Robin travelled up again to deck five. Here it was more active, a fine arts gallery, a library, cafés… still not a lot of people, as most of them probably wanted to enjoy the fresh air. The dining rooms on deck six had just opened for the early birds, and there were a few that apparently felt hungry. Robin managed to get one 'hit' here, and introduced himself to an elderly person who had had so many facelifts that Robin wasn't quite sure where to look. He was pretty sure he, or she, wasn't their suspect, though.
Deck seven was the promenade deck and there was a lot to explore here but the eight deck through fourteen were only living quarters and Robin almost got lost in long, slightly spooky, hallways, where he didn't meet anyone of interest. Deck fourteen had a small terrace pool and people had gathered there, but the phone kept quiet…
To be Continued…
A/N: is Robin overreacting or is Slade an idiot? Or both? Neither? Which team are we on here?
Next chapter makes me very nervous, because they arrive at St Thomas, and, as it turns out, one of you actually LIVES there… I'm very nervous about fucking that up completely… I've watched you-tube videos and read wiki-pages and such for research but never, of course, been there myself, so… yeah… I hope there's not TOO many misunderstandings (the tourist videos were not always saying the same thing)… Breathe… breathe… 😉