"Mick, what's wrong?" I asked the man who looked like he had seen a ghost. Approaching him, I shook his shoulders. "Hey, dude, what happened?"

Our eyes met. Even my coming out as a spy hadn't flustered him, but now he seemed so out of it. Why?

"Rob, the list is not complete; Miles knew our hideout!"

"Oh. Okay. Alright." I had purposely left Miles out of the list. He was Mick's weakness, after all. But I guess there was no avoiding it now. 

"In fact,"—Mick knotted his fingers. Why was he so fidgety? — "Just before the explosion, I received a call from an unknown number. It looked familiar, but I couldn't place it then. It was Miles."

"What did you guys talk about?" 

"It didn't sound like he was in the mood to chat. He just asked me where I was, and after I answered him, he hung up on me!"

I wanted to chuckle at Mick throwing a tantrum over being hung up on, but then it hit me. "Did you tell him that you had reached or—"

"No. I told him I was in my bedroom!" From the expression on Mick's face, it was clear that we were on the same page. "And, guess what?"

"What?"

"The number I received the message from, you know, the one asking me not to trust you, was the same number Miles used to call me from!"

"What the hell!?" It didn't make any sense. In his own fucked-up way, Miles loved Mick; I was sure of it. Before he cheated on Mick, I thought Miles was a pretty decent guy. He certainly made the man I loved happy. 

"Could he be the one responsible for the ship incident too?" Mick asked, searching my eyes. 

I wanted to lie and say that what Mick was thinking was impossible, but I couldn't afford to. "He could be, but let's not jump to any conclusion."

"I loved Miles. How could he do this to me?"

Too late. I took my charge's hands in mine. "The call could be a coincidence. Maybe Miles was trying to warn you, but he got captured before he could tell you to get out," I offered, hoping it would control the growing distress in Mick's eyes. 

He blinked.

Did he actually buy it!? Glad I was on the right track filled me with amusement and relief. "Also, if you think about it, the message wasn't untrue. So, he probably wanted to protect you from me."

Mick bobbed his head. "Yeah, that makes sense." Smiling, he squeezed my hand. "Thanks!"

"No problem," I replied before falling silent. There was a lot to think about. Most importantly, we had to get out of this place. After making sure that both Freya and the Carltons were safe, I had to let Jora know that the Watchtower was barking up the wrong tree. The Carltons had nothing to do with the drug cartel operating in the east and north of Crimson Bay. Lastly, I had to confess to Mr. Carlton about the lies I had told him and the truth about my identity. 

"Rob?" Mick's excited voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Do you still have that locket? The pyramid?"

"Yes. Why?" I reached for the accessory and retrieved it from under my shirt. 

"What if this is the key that opens all secret doors?"

"Like a master key?"

Mick nodded. "Exactly!"

There was next to no chance of that being the case, but I kept skepticism at bay and agreed. 

Soon we split up and started looking for the keyhole, or in this case, an inconspicuously placed square that could get us out of here. As expected, however, even after looking for it for a good half hour, we found nothing. 

"Shit,"—Mick sat back in his spot—"where the hell is it?" 

I took my place opposite him and removed the chain from around my neck. It belonged to the real Robert, my brother, or so I was told. Mr. Carlton was happy when he saw it around my neck soon after he found me. I was advised to never take it off, both by Jora, when he had strung it around my neck, and by Mr. Carlton, when he brought me home. Thank fuck I had taken that advice to heart. Without it, we would have died on the ship. 

"It's a gift my wife gave Maria. Only two of them were crafted. Mick lost his when he was six. We never found it." Mr. Carlton had reminisced when he had seen it around my neck. 

"You can give it to Mick. I don't mind." I had said without giving it much thought. The pendant meant nothing to me anyway. But Mr. Carlton had refused. None of us had mentioned it until a day before leaving for the vacation, when he had called me into his office and told me where and how to use it. "Every part of it was meticulously crafted." Winking, he had added, "Even I don't know all its secrets."

I mulled over Mr. Carlton's parting words, moving my fingers over the pendant's surface. He was a man of few words, Mick's dad. Shrouded in mystery, he never spoke unless necessary. Yet, he had made it a point to meet with me and share the pendant's secret. Oh, shit! He knew we were headed for trouble. But if that was the case, why didn't he warn me? 

"Rob, I just remembered something!" 

My eyes snapped up. "What?"

"I had one of these as a child. But I lost it."

I gestured to him to go on. "And?"

"I think the pendant is our way out of this place; we just need to look for a triangle!"

"Mick"—I got to my feet. As it happened, I had found a triangle while searching for a square. I had just ignored it at the time—"I know where that is!" Leading Mick to the farthest end in front of the door that had deposited us here, I crouched next to the symbol. 

"Amazeballs!" The love of my life! she exclaimed. But when I tried to place the pendant on the spot, he stopped me. "Wait, we don't know what's on the other side. Let's be prepared to make a run for it if need be," he said and dashed to where my backpack and my jacket lay. " Stuffing the items in the jacket into my backpack, zipping it up, and throwing it over his shoulder, he returned to me. "Here." He threw my jacket at me. "I order you not to get your switches ripped again, or else you are fired."

"Aha!" I said, dramatically covering my face. "After taking away my first kisses, you threaten to abandon me. Mick Carlton, you are a very bad man!"

Mick snorted; offering a smug smile, he said, "That's what you get for falling for a mafia, darling."

*****

[Chapter word count: 1132]