​     It was Tana who helped him out in the end. ​Rather than dance with some stranger, she got in Adam and Valtair's way to block their exit. "Guys, I really do think you might be a bit hasty. Couldn't we just..."

     Valtair walked right into her rather than cut his pace.

     "Hey!" Tana yelped. "You're hurting me!"

​     That got everyone's attention. This was supposed to be fun, like a holiday. Everyone was supposed to, literally, be having the time of their lives, and here, before the sky was even completely black, someone was being manhandled?

​     "I say, what are you gentlemen doing?" Gaylord Farquard, aged ninety-one, demanded. He was, by far, the oldest man on the vessel...with the oldest money. His fortune went back for generations, for hundreds of years. "This is supposed to be a pleasure cruise! What is the meaning of this outrage?" 

​     "Yes," someone chimed in. "What's going on here?" 

​     It was all the diversion Adam needed. 


                                                  CONTINUE