“Her!” Chief Dunn barks, pointing at Ren’s shape as she glides through the water. He races off the Historic Star and follows Ren along the coast. “Get her!”
The inside of my mask grows wet around the eyes, but I can’t cry—I won’t give myself away so easily. I glance around, panic building in my stomach. I’m torn between worrying about myself and worrying about Ren, but she’s the one who always makes it out alive. Scrape by, barely making it out at all.
Everyone runs to the side of the boat.
I’m left here, looking around stupidly.
I have to do something—now’s my chance.
Holding both bags of water, I stand and walk to the back of the boat. Here, the girl Mirabel is clipping her nails over the rail, somehow bored despite the commotion. I can barely swallow.
Can I do this?
I tried to escape from the lab and I failed. The water is heavy in my arms. I have the cure, I realize. I have no choice.
When no one’s watching, I go for it—like I’m escaping the first gate of hell, I scurry down the stairs. I jump from the docking ramp onto the rocky shore. The sign for Sybil’s Cave points left, down a narrow path that circles the islet. I follow it, sand kicking up as I run.
In the distance, I hear a mobile engine getting closer. Its propellers smash the water. Don’t look back.
“Stop where you are!” a voice commands through a megaphone.
Aven, you don’t even hear it. I pretend my feet are made of motors, big ones, like the ones the Blues have in their mobiles. They move so fast—I move so fast—I’m actually invisible.
About fifty feet away, hidden in the brush, I spot a second sign—a white arrow pointing to an obstacle course of gray fanged rocks.
They jut out at every angle, trying to stop me. Nothing can stop me. I skip over one, then two. I slip—their edges bite at my ankles, so I crab-slide the rest of the way. At the bottom, greenish-brown mud sticks to my calves; I’m knee-deep in a tidal pond.
To my right is Sybil’s Cave, its mouth so black, it could be a gateway to outer space.
“Ter?” I call, and wade out into the water.
First, I see bubbles. Next, the shiny red paint of an underwater mobile breaks the surface. Its moonroof opens and out pops Ter’s head. “Get in!” he shouts, waving me over.
Seeing him . . . I’m so happy I want to cry. “Ter!” I shout, clobbering through the water. I reach his mobile and throw both bags into the moonroof.
Ter taps his comm. “Say hi to Benny,” he says. When he grins, I get to see his perfect, smiling teeth. “He’s listening on the DI channels, giving me alternate routes so I can avoid border patrol and islet security. Couldn’t have made it here otherwise.”
As he looks out onto the strait, his smile drops, hiding his perfect teeth.
“What is it, Ter?” I turn, following his gaze.
Racing toward the cave, three metal sharks. Their engines groan as they splash through the waves. They’ve found me. I wasn’t invisible after all, and now I’ve put Ter in danger. I grip the moonroof, watching the world crack like glass. It takes just one tiny nick. Each fracture starts with me—it webs off in a dozen different directions, like everyone who’s risked their life to get me to here . . . Ren, Ter, Derek. Eventually it has to shatter.
The third shark swims into the cove. It faces directly toward us.
Is this how everything goes to pieces?
The Omni surfaces. Its blue hull and its DI emblem—a white shield—reflect the sun. The roof slides open.
“Benny, what do I do?” I hear Ter ask, half inside the pit.
My other half is still outside the mobile. I can’t help but watch. Something feels off. . . . It’s just sitting there. This isn’t how “getting nabbed” is supposed to look. Not according to Ren, anyway. It was always, “Shoot the net, drag ’em off.”
The DI Omni sways with the tide.
“Are you guys stupid?” a voice yells, and a girl emerges from the Omni. She doesn’t sound like DI, and she doesn’t look like DI; she’s no older than I am.
“You’ll never make it past them.” The girl shakes her head. Her dyed blond bob catches the sun, looking white like mine. Even whiter, because she isn’t so pale.
“Who the hell are you?” Ter asks, his head now out of the moonroof.
Comparing mobiles, the girl is probably right—hers looks exactly like DI property.
“I’m a friend of Derek’s,” she says, waving us into her mobile. “Comm him if you don’t believe me. I’d suggest being fast, though.”
Out over the strait, the white trails of two DI Omnis speed closer.
Terrence looks at me. “Derek doesn’t have friends—he has family. And last I checked, his family had a hit list with our names on it. I don’t trust her.”
I glance back at the girl. She’s anxious, rapping against the side of her mobile, watching the water. She seems genuinely worried about us being caught, but there’s something else—I can’t put my finger on it. I want to believe her.
“We are trapped,” I say aloud, weighing both sides. “Could she be worse than the Blues?”
Ter’s silence makes me wonder.
“Let’s get a move on,” the girl says, and the conversation is over—Ter squeezes through the moonroof with me. Together, we hustle aboard her Omni.
The roof slides closed over our heads. Inside, the mobile is aglow with as many buttons and screens as the space allows. Ter and I settle into the seat behind her, and she lowers the mobile underwater.
“My name is Sipu.” She doesn’t shake our hands. She’s too busy flipping on that thermal visor thing. “You’re Aven, you’re Terrence,” she says, finishing the introductions for us.
“Can you take us back to the Ward?” Ter asks.
Sipu’s eyeball sockets go really wide. He must’ve asked something crazy. “Do you see what’s between us and the Ward? I’ll take you someplace else. Somewhere safe.”
Where is it safe?
Everywhere we go, Voss follows.