Ryan Shaunessy was restless. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, except that he was missing Dema. He had tried to ease the loss of her by swimming with the seals, but after all the nights when she had been swimming at his side, that only made him miss her more. So now he did not swim at all. He just did his job, captaining the ferry, and returned home to wonder what he would do with his life, now that Dema had opened previously undreamed of possibilities to him.

He started to think that he needed a vacation. He had certainly earned it, and had weeks if not months coming to him. He recalled an old interest in captaining a cruise ship in the Caribbean, and decided that he should take a cruise and get a first hand look at what it was like.

He went to a travel agency and picked up a handful of brochures. He zeroed in on a cruise line that had its home port in Veracruz. That was where Dema had gone, maybe he would run into her there. That would be nice.

There was a cruise embarking in just a week. He immediately announced his vacation plans and made his airline and cruise reservations. The personnel manager at the ferry line thought it was a little unusual to fly off on such short notice, but Ryan certainly had the vacation time coming, his record was impeccable, and the other ferry captains could cover for him.

Ryan left the next day. It would put him in Veracruz almost a week early, but he didn't mind. He could play tourist in Veracruz for a few days. Maybe he would run into Dema.

His flight arrived very late. As he was going through customs, he started thinking about the hotel he would be staying at. He had considered taking a room in one of the fancy tourist hotels by the beach. That would have been pleasant. But he ended up choosing one downtown. It was less expensive, and would be closer to the colorful shops and markets.

He took a taxi to the hotel, and on the way he noticed that the moon was nearly full. When he got there he realized that the hotel was in the medical district, and idly recalled that this was where Dema would be doing her investigation.

In the morning he woke early, and decided to go out for a walk before breakfast. He was sitting on a bench in a little plaza when a bus arrived, full of people going to work in a nearby medical research center. He watched them get off the bus. One of them was Dema.