He noticed that on one door, the screen simply displayed a black background with the word “Occupied”. Given how deserted the ship was at this time of the morning, he thought it strange that people would be in here already. He put his ear to the door, and could hear very faint murmurings, but he wasn’t sure if they were voices. He touched the switch to open the door.
The word brightened momentarily. It was locked.
It was going to be a long morning. His attention quickly turned back to food.
‘Mum?’ he said.
He was put through to his parents’ cabin. There was a significant pause.
‘Uh. What do you want? We’re not up yet.’
‘Money for breakfast,’ said Zak.
‘Okay,’ said Mum irritably. ‘You know you could use your own money and claim it back later.’
Zak’s SpendCard ticked up S100.
‘Great,’ he said. ‘Red Planet Bar it is then.’
He spent the rest of the morning exploring the remaining slices of the ship, but failed to spot either of the two men, or any other suspicious behaviour, despite the ship becoming busier as the morning wore on.
To ensure he would avoid it in future, he made a mental note of the swimming pool’s location - the outer rings of slices 24 and 25.
His last port of call was the cargo hold, to pay Rover a visit. This time, Rover greeted him by jumping up at the cage door and barking. He needed the toilet.
Zak took him through the back of the kennels into a very small park, consisting of a strip of grass bordered by a path and a single lamppost.
‘If they’ve got room for a swimming pool then this is disgraceful,’ muttered Zak.
Zak was happy that he had obtained a complete knowledge of the ship, but evidently the two men he was looking for were keeping a low profile. Of course they could just remain in their cabins. He needed to think about how he was going to flush them out.
