The dirt road leading to the port appeared and disappeared in the fog. The darkness before dawn made it difficult to find one's bearings, but a faint, irregular light indicated that the pier was nearby. The horses proceeded at a walking pace. Nico's legs and back felt sore.

  The port was little more than a ledge jutting out into the sea: a few piers, a shack on one side, a pile of stacked crates, and a few lanterns blackened with soot.

  Nico dismounted and followed Gareth and the others. Gareth approached the shack alone. Peter started to follow him, but Nico stopped him by grabbing his arm.

  “Let's avoid being recognized,” he said.

  “You worry too much,” replied Peter, his eyes bright and feverish with excitement.

  As dawn broke, the blackness of the night lightened and Nico looked up, searching for something out of place, but the sky seemed normal. It was the ferry that made him wrinkle his nose.

  “But this isn't a normal ship...” said Leo. “It's a floating cart.”

  Nico laughed. The comparison held up. The ferry was a disorderly collection of wood and scrap metal, held together by visible repairs with rust-red iron parts, overlapping pipes, and different pieces adapted as best they could.

  In the light of dawn, as the fog began to lift, Nico could see several people waiting while others arrived in dribs and drabs. There was a wide variety of people: men and women dressed in silk and lace and beggars in worn and dirty clothes.

  “Empty your saddlebags,” said Gareth curtly, looking around. “The horses aren't going up.”

  Someone shouted, “All aboard!” and the ship began to spew black smoke and ash from a funnel.

  The smell of salt mixed with that of ash and hot metal as the noise of the engines grew louder.

  Nico watched the first passengers board, while others arrived in carts or carriages drawn by four or six horses. The port began to fill up and the usual voice shouted, “All aboard!”

  While Gareth settled the horses, Nico and the others lined up to board the gangway.

  No one spoke on the deck. The passengers kept their eyes down or fixed on the dark water, although some glanced sideways. The engines made an uneven, strained metallic noise.

  Gareth was among the last to board, then the ferry pulled away from the pier, enveloped in boiler smoke.

  Once the ferry had departed, people poured inside. Only a few remained outside, staring at the black water, stained with whitish foam, or the gloomy horizon, marked by black smoke, as if a huge fire had broken out where they were headed.

  They were all at the railing, in a deathly silence; they were probably still upset by what had happened, then Leo blurted out:

  “Listen, I'm tired of standing here looking at the sea. Yes, it's beautiful, but who cares. I'm going for a walk. Who's coming with me?”

  Peter laughed. “Better not to split up here.”

  "Oh yeah, why? Is this another one of your usual jokes?" asked Kiah with a smile.

  “Well, let's just say that if you manage to get off the ship with all your limbs intact, you're lucky,” said Peter, staring at them one by one with a feverish, excited look.

  Nico frowned but said nothing.

  Gareth roared, “No lies, Animutant.”

  Peter laughed: “Let's just say that if you're not careful and lose everything, you could end up joining the ship's ghost crew.”

  Nico looked around; the ship was indeed deserted, but he thought everyone was in the engine room.

  Kiah frowned: “What do you mean, ‘lose everything’?”

  Peter nodded, placing a hand on Kiah's shoulder and murmuring, “You'll see.”

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  Leo and Nico laughed, then Leo said, “Come on, no one believes you. And what do you think will happen?”

  “Trust me, kid. People disappear here... that's why I came with you.”

  Then Leo added, looking at Gareth, “By the way, how long is the trip?”

  “One day. We should arrive at our destination tomorrow at dawn.”

  “Sure,” Peter muttered. “As long as you don't disappear first.”

  Nico shook his head. “All right, we'll do as you say. Let's go together.”

  The ship was a wreck: old, rusty iron mixed with wood that smelled damp and rotten, while the engines hummed unnaturally, as if some gears were missing and what remained was forced to compensate.

  But when Nico went below deck, the world changed.

  The doors closed behind him and the sound of water gave way to euphoric cheering, accompanied by clinking and ringing coming from all directions. The air was thick and hot, filled with tobacco smoke and something indefinable and sweet that made it almost unbreathable.

  Nico's eyes widened. Everywhere he turned, he saw gaming tables: cards, roulette, dice and, incredible as it may seem, rows of slot machines lined up. Judging by the pipes running along the ceiling, they were powered by steam and rang every time the player on duty won.

  The machines emitted puffs of steam with every play, and Nico thought that perhaps this was the reason for the heat he was beginning to feel.

  A group of bards on a stage in the corner sang and played cheerful songs. Nico felt himself blush as he watched young men and women smiling as they passed between the tables, wearing tight shorts or skirts and low-cut tank tops, reduced to the essentials and made of a golden fabric, sparkling with sequins.

  Attached to the walls, several signs with peeling paint proclaimed: ‘Here you can have fun.’ 'Fun is guaranteed on board.' 'Here you can forget everything.'

  As the ferry swayed gently, isolated, a young woman with fiery red curly hair, heavy makeup, a chubby face, and voluptuous curves approached them with a stack of wooden cups, one for each of them.

  “Welcome to the Passific. My name is Keily and I will be your contact person for any questions, complaints, or needs,” she said, winking at Nico, who felt himself blush to the tips of his hair. “Don't hesitate to call me. I am at your complete disposal.”

  As the girl skipped away, Nico looked at the wooden cup in his hands. It contained a dozen copper coins and two silver ones.

  “Holy salami,” exclaimed Leo. “They gave us money to gamble with.”

  “Yes, they told me it was included in the ticket,” said Gareth, frowning.

  “Only part of it,” Peter said quietly. “The rest is offered by the Captain himself.”

  “What nonsense are you talking about?” Leo scolded him. “That would be like losing money.”

  “Actually, it's not nonsense,” said Kiah, looking around. “I read something about it: it's a trick to get you to play more and make the casino money. Casinos give out free chips because they always have an advantage and ultimately win. So they get you to start playing, and even though it seems free, you're more likely to use your own money. It's not really a gift: they offer a few chips so that players feel tempted to play.”

  “I'm actually tempted,” Leo exclaimed. Then he turned to Gareth and asked, “How much longer do we have to stay on this tub?”

  “One day...”

  “Well then, let the fun begin,” said Leo, throwing himself into the fray of gaming tables and steam-powered slot machines.

  Peter sighed. “I told you not to split up.”

  Nico laughed. “Come on, relax. What's the big deal? We'll just throw some money at the machines and have a quiet day of fun.”

  Kiah shrugged. “Actually, I wouldn't mind relaxing a bit.” She looked first at Gareth, then at Peter, with imploring eyes. “It's just for fun. We'll stay close by.”

  Gareth nodded. “Go.”

  Like crazy bullets, they all swarmed in every direction, while Gareth and Peter stood there staring at them. Then Peter also walked away, slipping into the crowd.

  Nico sat down in front of a free slot machine. Oil lamps illuminated this strange object, the product of a modern era but with a strange and obsolete mechanism. The machine was made of wood. Behind dirty, opaque glass, three large wooden wheels, with stylized fruit designs, turned on a metal tube that, as far as Nico could tell, was operated by the lever to its right. A set of tubes emerged from the machine and disappeared above the ceiling.

  It was even hotter near the slot machines, but people didn't seem to notice. They were all too absorbed in the game.

  He inserted a coin and pulled the lever. The metallic sound of the spinning wheels gave him a pleasant jolt. He saw apples, pears, and peaches spinning slowly, with difficulty, as the machine puffed and panted. One wheel stopped on an apple, the second on a pear. Then a bell rang. He felt a rush of excitement, and someone nearby screamed. It was Leo. Nico looked at his machine: three different fruits hovered beyond the dirty glass. He laughed.

  As the ferry pulled away from the port and Nico threw the second coin into the slot, he felt a sensation of dizziness, at times pleasant, as if time were expanding.

  Not far from him, waiters and waitresses were setting tables laden with food, and a voice boomed:

  “A big round of applause for Captain Giacomo.”

  The name triggered something in him. Nico had the impression he had heard it before. He remembered Clarissa saying something about being careful. But the thought quickly slipped away.

  He felt light and a little disoriented, but in a pleasant way, as if it wasn't worth stopping to think about it, and he went back to looking at the slot machine in front of him.

  [AUTHOR'S NOTE]

  Log updated: Readers are invited to provide comments and evaluate the behavior of subject N_01.

  [LOG_A.029] will be released on Thursday ET.

  The continuity of the story depends on your increased support.

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  Log closed: The system observes.