“We only heard five days ago,” she explained, once we were sitting at Coleman’s big dining room table eating the fish he’d grilled out on the terrace. “We were sitting in Reykjavik, waiting to go get the gliders, when we heard that a volcano along our route was erupting and sending all this ash into the sky. They decided it was too dangerous to go ahead, so they assigned the rest of us to other expeditions. I got Delilah to pull a few strings with Maggie so I could be on this one. I caught a ride on a cargo airship.”
I’d forgotten how her eyes crinkled up at the edges when she smiled. “I just can’t believe you’re here,” I said.
She grinned. “Me either.”
We sat down to dinner and updated her on everything we’d learned.
“I’m with Papa Madigan,” Coleman told her. “I think it’s crazy, but I know you Explorers. You won’t listen to anyone. It’s dangerous out there. There’s the weather and then there are the pirates.”
“I’m not worried about pirates,” Zander said. “You said all they want is Ribby Fruit.”
“If they’ve heard that you’re going looking for something that’s worth money, they may decide it’s worthwhile to follow along, just in case. There have been rumors about the government wanting to find oil out here. The pirates would like to find it first and charge the government a nice price to get it out.”
“How would they get to the shipwrecks or the oil anyway?” Sukey asked Coleman. “They don’t have diving equipment. They don’t have M.K.”
“They have their ways. Those Neos—” He smiled at Sukey. “They may have technology we don’t know about.” He leaned back in his chair and said, “Do you know what else the fishermen down at the harbor say about the ships that disappeared in King Triton’s Lair?”
We watched Coleman’s face for the answer.
“They say that they were snatched from the sea and taken up into the sky by The Others. That anyone seeking the ships won’t find them because they’re no longer . . .” Coleman put his hands together and leaned forward, widening his eyes and lowering his voice. “On Earth.”
“What, like extraterrestrials?” I asked. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Perhaps.”
“Maybe the extraterrestrials will take the Nackleys away,” M.K. said. “That would be nice.”
I laughed. “Coleman, why did Leo Nackley hate Dad so much?” I asked him.
“Leo always wanted to be the best at everything. The problem was, your dad was always the best. He was the first at everything he tried. Leo hated him for that. But . . .” He hesitated.
“But what?”
“Well, there was always something mysterious about your dad. He would disappear at night sometimes, though he only got caught slipping back into the boys’ cabins once that I can remember. He was good.” He smiled. “I think he was meeting his girlfriend. I considered your father a great friend, but he did like his secrets. I think it drove Leo crazy that he could never figure out what your dad was up to. They were friends once too, but then . . . I never understood it, but then one day they were enemies.”
We were all quiet. We could hear the water lap at the shore below us through the open terrace doors.
Pucci had been drowsing out in the evening air and suddenly he squawked. “Someone there! Someone there!” We rushed out on to the terrace just in time to see a black-suited figure vaulting over the edge of the balcony.
“Stop right there!” Coleman called out, but the figure was gone.
“Who was that?” Sukey asked.
“Who knows,” Coleman said. “A spy, an agent, a pirate. Whoever it was, he was standing right here listening to us. But let’s not talk about such things on your last night. Who wants some more Ribby Fruit cake?”
“You don’t really believe any of that stuff Coleman was saying about extraterrestrials, do you?” Sukey asked me later that night. M.K. was inside watching Coleman and Zander play chess. I’d come out to look at the night sky and Sukey had followed me, bringing one of Coleman’s little carved shell whistles with her. As she tried playing a melody, the notes skipped across the water, which reflected a sky full of stars. There was a nearly full moon, and its image broke apart in the water and danced across the waves. I felt happier than I had felt in a long time.
“No,” I said. “Of course not. I don’t know what’s out there, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t extraterrestrials. What I am sure of is that my dad wanted us to come here.”
“So he can leave you another map?” Sukey asked.
“Maybe.”
She played a quick little “What Will We Do With the Drunken Sailor” on the whistle.
“You’re good at that,” I said. “I had no idea you were so musical.”
“Delilah made me take Deloian flute lessons when I was ten. I didn’t practice enough, but I wasn’t bad. I can still pick out a tune or two.”
She played a few more little songs I didn’t recognize, and then we just stood there in comfortable silence, looking out over the water.
“I don’t think Zander understands,” I said after a few minutes. “We have to do it. We just have to. It’s going to be really hard with Lazlo watching our every move, but we need to do everything we can. At least we’ll be rid of his father.”
The side of Sukey’s face shone in the candlelight through the windows and I watched her profile, the now-familiar shape of her nose and cheekbones, the curve of her neck. “I never met your dad, Kit, but there must be a reason he’s doing this, that he’s leading you to whatever it is,” she said.
“I wish he’d told us what it is.”
“No, I mean you, Kit,” she said softly. “I think he’s trying to lead you somewhere.”
I started to tell her about what the Explorer had said, but for some reason I stopped. I watched her fingers drum out a little rhythm on the railing, and remembered what it had felt like to hold her hand, that cold night in Arizona.
Without really thinking about it, I reached out for her. But she was already stepping away from the railing, and I was left standing there with my hand out as though I was waiting for someone to walk up and shake it. Sukey yawned. “We have to be up early,” she said. “I’m going to bed.”
“Okay, goodnight.”
I stood there for a long time after she left, listening to the tiny splashes of fish jumping out in the silvery ocean, the words I hadn’t said stuffed uncomfortably in my mouth.