Page 31 of Dark Voyage Matters of the Soul

"Get ready for a storm," Dalhu said. "Amanda will not find this funny."

Grinning like a fiend, Kalugal recorded the message and sent it to Amanda.

A moment later, his phone rang, and as he answered it, everyone braced for Amanda's outrage.

"What the hell, Kalugal? That's the cruelest prank ever. What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry. We were testing a theory, and apparently, my compulsion power lost its potency when recorded and played back. And by the way, it was your brother's idea, not mine. I needed to ask you to do something you would never do unless you were under compulsion."

"You could have asked me to wear a dress made from polyester and come model it for you. Kian knows I would rather go naked than wear that. It gives me hives."

Kian chuckled. "And where would you have found such a dress on short notice? We needed to know right away."

"You have a point." She huffed out a breath. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that's it," Kalugal said. "Please accept my apology for causing you distress."

"Apology accepted." She ended the call.

"Well, that idea crashed and burned." Kalugal put his phone back in his pocket. "We need to find some other angle. What if I can call and ask if anyone found a forgotten pair of sunglasses in one of the trucks?" He turned to William. "I'm sure you can reroute the call so it would appear as if it was coming from an Acapulco hotel. Not all the tourists arrive by ship. Some fly in, so there is no reason for the Doomers to suspect that their cargo is on a ship." He straightened in his chair. "We can have Roni hackinto the hotel's surveillance cameras, and if Doomers show up asking questions, we will know that they found the bodies."

As all eyes turned to William, he shifted in his chair. "It's going to be difficult to do with the equipment I have on board, and if the hotel's camera feeds are not online, it's not going to work. The first thing Roni needs to do is find out which hotels have their security on the cloud, and then we will make that call appear as if it's coming from one of them."

Kian wasn't sure that it was worth the effort, given that they could easily overpower the Doomers and their hired monsters, but Kalugal seemed adamant about getting more information, and there was something to be said for that as well.

"Let's do it." He turned to William. "Call Roni and tell him what we need. I'm going to call Aru and ask him to join us."

Wonder

"What was that all about?" Syssi asked when Amanda ended the call.

With everyone talking about the ship turning around and going back to Acapulco, Wonder had been distracted and only heard snippets of the conversation. Amanda had said something about a cruel prank and polyester, which didn't make much sense.

"I can't believe these guys." Amanda snatched yet another margarita from Onidu's tray, her fourth if Wonder's count was correct. "Kalugal wanted to test whether his compulsion worked through a recording. Kian suggested me as the test subject, and Kalugal sent me a recorded message, commanding me to tell Anandur that Wonder got cold feet and didn't want to go ahead with the wedding."

Wonder laughed. "Anandur would have never believed it. He knows how much I love him."

"I know, but if that wasn't a recording, I would have been forced to make that call and sound like an idiot." Amanda plopped on the couch next to Wonder.

"What did polyester have to do with it?" Annani asked.

"I told him that he could have tested his hypothesis by telling me to wear a polyester dress and model it for the guys. There's no way I would have done it unless I was under compulsion." She smiled at Wonder. "Speaking of dresses, I'm dying to see your wedding gown. What did you end up doing?"

They had discussed incorporating Wonder Woman elements in the design, and Amanda had given her some pointers, but the dress was one of the few things that Wonder wanted full control over, and she had communicated with the designer herself. Most of the other decisions she had left in Amanda's capable hands.

In fact, Amanda had designed the dining hall decorations for all ten weddings and coordinated the menu with the kitchen staff. The female was a force of nature. Wonder had no idea how she'd managed all that on top of planning her own wedding.

"It's a very subtle nod to Wonder Woman. I have a gold tiara, and Callie is going to curl my hair and tease it so it looks like Wonder Woman's. I also have gold cuffs, and the dress has a gold bodice that looks a little like armor. And before you ask, I have no idea what fabric it's made from. It could just as well be polyester."

Amanda shivered. "I hope not."

"Real gold?" Syssi asked.

"Yep." Wonder took a sip from her margarita. "I wanted to get them at a costume shop, but Anandur wouldn't hear of it. He ordered real ones made for me."

"What about the dress itself?" Sari asked. "Any gold, red, and blue in it?"

Wonder shook her head. "As I said, the bodice is gold. That's as far as I was willing to go. Anandur wanted me to get a blue and red cape to put over the dress, but given how hot it is down here, a cape would have looked ridiculous."