AFTER THEY’D PICKED UP HIS CLOTHES AND APOLLO’S food and returned to the Geauxs’ home, Emmet switched on his laptop. The video of his dad was everywhere. He nearly lost it. He realized Dr. Geaux was trying to protect him, but he was still mad. With the laptop in his hand, he stormed into the kitchen and interrupted Dr. Geaux and Calvin, who were talking at the counter.

“I don’t blame you, Emmet,” she said, when he confronted her. Her voice sounded full of remorse. “I was trying to spare you and I was wrong. I should have let you know. There are several websites running the feed continuously, but Dr. Catalyst clearly knows his way around a computer. We can’t trace the transmission back to the source.”

Emmet tried not to let his disappointment show. Dr. Geaux was exhausted, and he knew she had been working nonstop since his dad had been taken earlier that day. “I know you’re worried, Emmet.”

“I wish you’d stop saying that,” Emmet muttered. He looked at the suitcase in the hallway.

“Emmet, come with me, please,” she said. They left Calvin in the kitchen, cleaning. He was rubbing the same spot on the counter with a damp rag and trying to look useful. They stepped through the French doors into the backyard. It was cooler now, and completely dark out.

There was a redwood bench underneath one of the cypress trees and she motioned for Emmet to sit next to her. She leaned back against the tree, still in uniform; her boots and pants were splattered with mud. Her sidearm was attached to her belt. Before his dad disappeared that morning, he’d never seen her wear it.

“Emmet, I like you. And I like and respect your father. He’s really quite a brilliant man. And I feel responsible that he … that you both were caught up in this. But when I asked every agency in the government for the best avian biologist out there, his was the only name that came back. When we found that first hybrid, and the test results came back …” She stopped and massaged her shoulders with her hands.

“Then you and Calvin met up with those creatures on the island that day. When we went back there and found the partially eaten python … it all sort of slipped into place. I didn’t know everything, but I had an idea then what someone was trying to do. That what we’d found wasn’t some new mutated or transplanted species. Someone was playing with nature. And it had the potential to be very bad. Now it is. I can’t change that. The only thing I can do is find your dad. And I will. I swear to you,” she said.

“But I do know how you’re feeling, Emmet. When Calvin’s dad … my husband … disappeared … I —”

Emmet interrupted her, “What do you mean ‘disappeared’? I thought you said he died in an accident?”

She looked up at the dark sky. Emmet realized it was painful for her to talk about. But he was also angry, no matter how bad he felt about it. Once, his dad took him fly-fishing on the Yellowstone River. After his first couple of casts, his line was hopelessly tangled into an orange-sized knot. He’d thought his dad would be angry, but he just laughed until they were both laughing.

He felt like that knot. Like if his dad didn’t come back he’d never get untied. And it felt even worse because he couldn’t do anything about it.

“No, officially he was declared dead. His airboat crashed on a night hunt. It caught fire and spun into a hillock and collided with a mangrove tree. Knowing Lucas, he tried to save the stupid boat, and may have been burned or overcome by heat and smoke. They dragged the area around the crash site but couldn’t find his body.

“We waited weeks for news,” she went on. “It was worse not knowing. It’s changed Calvin. But the thing is, Lucas loved the Everglades. I think Calvin probably told you his father was a Seminole. If he was going to die, he would have wanted to be returned to his beloved swamp. That made finally accepting it a little easier.”

Emmet was quiet, his head down. He felt Dr. Geaux’s hand fall gently on the back of his neck. It was comforting, in a way.

“But like I said, Lucas’s death was an accident. Your father is still alive and we are going to find him, Emmet. I know I keep swearing to you, but it doesn’t make it less true. And when I say I know a little about how you feel, I do. And so does Calvin. Even if he doesn’t always know how to show it.”

Emmet felt like there was nothing else to say. He was worn out. And he believed Dr. Geaux was telling the truth. They were doing everything they could to find his dad.

But he needed to do something. If he didn’t, he was never going to untangle the knot inside him.