Kyle paced the apartment, waiting for a call from Brendan. He told him he was going to pick up Carla and Charlotte. Did something happen? Did Art show up? Kyle’s mind was spinning. There was a knock on the front door. Kyle opened the door to see his three friends standing there. He could see on their faces that something was wrong.
“Where have you guys been?” Kyle asked. “I thought something happened.”
“We were at the house waiting for you,” Brendan said. “You said you were coming over.”
“No, you said you were coming to get me.”
“Stop it, you two,” Carla said. “Did you see the news on GNN today?”
“No. I never watch TV.”
“Oh my God,” Charlotte said. “You mean you don’t know what happened last night? They’ve been reporting non-stop.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Come on then,” Brendan said as he grabbed Kyle by the arm and dragged him out of the door.
“What’s going on?”
Nobody said a word as they walked across the driveway and went to enter the house when Brendan stopped short. Lindsey was sitting on the sectional sofa talking on the phone.
“Shh,” Brendan said to the girls and Kyle, who was still outside the door.
“You’re not going to fire, Jay? Why? He’s a killer.” Lindsey said. “She said Jay killed that priest in cold blood. He’s a murderer, and you’re running around with him like he’s a hero? Marty, you’re crazy. You need to do something about him. He can’t come to this house again.” Lindsey slammed the phone down. She wiped tears from her eyes, then got off the couch and went down the basement stairs.
Kyle’s eyes opened wide. The guy he thought was a rental cop. Then a hero was a killer.
Kyle followed Brendan and the girls into the family room. They sat down on the couch and waited while Brendan pulled the report up from the DVR menu.
“Here, watch the report,” Brendan said. “I recorded it this afternoon.”
Kyle stared at an aerial view of a smoking Saint Patrick’s. “This is Kathleen Amejian reporting from Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Reliable sources confirmed the identity of the shooter at the Cathedral in Boston. He is former Navy SEAL, Jay Mendes. Mendes now works for Maravista Security in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Our source told us Mendes shot the unidentified priest from point-blank range. We also learned the person Mendes was protecting, Bishop Ramirez of Fall River, was also shot. We cannot confirm a rumor that the priest Mendes shot was wearing a suicide vest. We’ve asked FBI officials about Mendes, but they refuse to comment.”
“I can’t believe she’s saying those lies,” Kyle said. “Jay would never shoot anybody in cold blood.”
“Wait,” Carla said. “It gets better.”
“We also learned Mendes’ sister, Jessie Mendes, a journalism student, was injured in the blast at St. Patrick’s today. Mendes was flown to New York by Goddard Aviation President Michelle Goddard. Goddard’s public relations department claims Goddard and Mendes are mere friends. But my sources claim their relationship is more complex. Should one of the richest women in the world be associated with an alleged killer? This is Kathleen Amejian from GNN.”
Brendan turned the television off.
“How did Kathleen find out about Jay being the shooter?” Kyle said to nobody in particular. He looked at his friends, but nobody said a word. “Come on. We were talking about Jay last night.”
“Okay,” Brendan said while he fiddled with the tv remote. “I mentioned to Carla that I overheard my Dad talking to Jay.”
“Then I shared the news with Charlotte,” Carla said. “And I posted it on Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter.”
“My mother read my Snapchat feed this morning,” Charlotte said. “I’m sorry. She told her friends at the ad agency.”
“Who is friends with Kathleen,” Kyle said as he stood up and walked into the kitchen. “What do we do now? Jay is going to kill us. Literally!”
“How will he know we were the source of the news story?” Charlotte said. “We can try to keep it a secret.”
“Yeah, we’re great at keeping secrets,” Kyle said.
“We can tell him the truth,” Carla said. “We didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Okay, that’s a great idea,” Brendan said. “Tell the world’s deadliest man we were the ones responsible for revealing his identity. That should go over with a bang. To our heads!”
“Brendan,” Charlotte said. “Stop it. You’re scaring me.”
“Charlotte, he’s teasing,” Carla said. “Jay wouldn’t hurt us.”
“How do you know?” Kyle said.” “Do you know the man? We know he was capable of shooting that priest, and he’s killed other people before.”
“He was a soldier,” Brendan said. “That was his job!”
Charlotte put her face in her hands, “Exactly my point. He’s a professional killer. What have we got ourselves into?”
Kyle put his hand on Charlotte’s back. “Charlotte, it’s okay. My Uncle Marty and my mother will make sure nothing happens to us. I promise. I don’t believe he’s guilty. We need to do something to prove Jay is innocent.”
“What can we do?” Charlotte said. “We’re kids.”
“Oh my God,” Carla said. “I know what we can do.”
“What’s that?”
“I saw a video on TikTok. A boater spotted four men getting off a small rubber raft on one of the Elizabeth Islands. He thought they looked like military types. There’s an old, abandoned mansion on the island. People online said they were squatters.”
“So, what are you saying?” Brendan said. “What does that have to do with us?”
“We could go out to the island tonight and use your drones to take pictures,” Carla said. “They may have something to do with the attacks.”
“What if they’re like Jay?” Charlotte asked. “They could kidnap us or worse. They could kill us.”
“Or the mansion is a haunted house,” Brendan said. “Charlotte, you could see some ghosts. Whoooo.”
“Stop it, Brendan. I’m serious. We’re not soldiers. Tell your father. Let the police handle it.”
“I agree with Brendan,” Kyle said. “We’ll send in the bots, take pictures and leave. They’ll never know we were there.”
“How are we gonna get there?” Charlotte asked.
“My dad has a boat,” Brendan said.
“Your mother won’t let us go,” Charlotte said.
“Who said we are gonna ask,” Brendan said. “You know the saying the adults always use. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.”
“We have to get home by midnight,” Carla said. “How long will it take us to get to the island?”
Kyle pulled up a Google map on his iPad. They looked at the distance from their home to the island. “It’s about seven miles. The boat travels at twenty knots. We should be there in twenty minutes.”
“It’s eight-thirty now,” Carla said. “If we hurry, we can get there and back in two hours. “We’ll be home by eleven.”
Kyle and Brendan ran across the driveway and into the carriage house. They ran down the stairs into the basement.
The carriage house had a fieldstone foundation and dirt floor. Two bare lightbulbs hung from the ceiling. One side of the basement held boxes and furniture owned by Kyle’s mother. On the other side of the basement, three tables lined the wall. The first table held a laptop computer, two monitors, and a tabletop 3D printer. The second table had a line of small tools and two rows of bins hanging from a pegboard. Three microbots, a large one, and two small ones, sat plugged into a charging station. The third table held two black carrying cases with foam inside. One case was empty, while the other case had three microbots in it.
“Grab the microbots off the charging station and put them in the empty case,” Kyle said. “Then bring the case, VR headsets, and iPad upstairs. I’ll put them in my backpack. I’m going to change. And Brendan, don’t touch anything else.”
While Brendan grabbed the bag with the bots, Kyle ran upstairs. He saw his mother sleeping on their couch in front of the television. If Kyle woke her up, she would tell him they couldn’t go. If he let her sleep, she would be mad he didn’t tell her. He decided to send her a text and say they’re going for a walk and will be back in thirty minutes.
Kathleen Amejian was on television saying how Jay Mendes was a threat to national safety. The FBI should arrest and question him. She wondered if he was part of the terrorist plot instead of a hero. Kyle wanted to throw something at the TV, but he took a deep breath, picked up the remote, and shut the TV off.
Kyle ran down the stairs and yelled, “Let’s go. It’s getting late!”
Brendan ran up the stairs and handed the gear to Kyle, who stuffed it all into his backpack.
“I’m going to change,” said Brendan.
Kyle joined the girls at the fire pit.
Carla wore a black t-shirt featuring eighties, hard-rock band Def Leppard and jeans. Charlotte wore a pink blouse, white shorts, and flip-flops.
“Charlotte, don’t you think you might want to wear something a bit warmer? And darker?” Kyle asked. “It can get pretty chilly on the ocean.”
“I didn’t bring anything else,” she said. “I thought we were hanging out by the fire pit.”
“You can keep her warm,” Carla said, punching Kyle in the arm. Kyle and Charlotte both blushed.
Brendan came out of the house and ran over to the fire pit.
“Shit, Brendan,” Carla said, laughing. “You look like a Starbucks barista.”
“What?” Brendan said, looking at his black shoes, pants, t-shirt, and a black knit cap to cover his blonde hair. “I’m trying to look like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.”
“You guys spend too much time playing with your bots,” Carla said. “Now, let’s get going.”
Brendan led the way to the dock and climbed onto the Boston Whaler. He helped Charlotte and Carla climb on board then asked Kyle to untie the bow and stern lines. Kyle did what he told him to do and jumped onto the boat.
While Brendan searched in the center dashboard for the keys, Kyle and Charlotte sat down on the seat in the bow. Brendan tried to start the engine, but it coughed out a bit of smoke.
“Are you a complete moron?” Carla said. “We’re drifting away from the dock.”
Kyle looked out and saw the dock twenty feet away.
Charlotte grabbed Kyle’s hand. “I’m getting nervous.”
Carla reached down inside the console, turned on the gas pump, then turned the key. The engine roared to life. “You always start the engine before you untie the lines, you idiot,” Carla said.
“I know,” Brendan said. “I forgot.”
“I thought you said your family went boating all the time?”
“We used to. It’s been a while since we’ve taken the boat out, and my dad always drives.”
Brendan took the wheel back and cruised out of the harbor. When they cleared the Nob, he gunned the engine.
The small boat skimmed over the calm evening waters. The blowing wind was chilly, and Charlotte snuggled up close to Kyle. He could tell she was cold, so he pulled off his hoodie and wrapped it around her shoulders. She smiled at him and snuggled even closer. Kyle took the hint and wrapped his arms around her.
“This is fun,” Charlotte said. “I’m glad I came with you. You make me feel safe.”
“There’s no reason to feel scared. There’s nothing on the island, and I’m sure that video was fake. We’ll go out and play with the bots for a few minutes and come back.”
“You’re so nice to me,” Charlotte said, staring into Kyle’s eyes. She closed her eyes and puckered her lips.
Kyle closed his eyes and leaned forward to kiss her. Then the boat jerked, sending Kyle and Charlotte sprawling to the floor.
Kyle found himself lying on his back with Charlotte’s feet in his face. He heard Charlotte screaming. “You’re such a jerk!” Then she jumped up and punched Brendan in the arm. Carla was laughing so hard. She couldn’t breathe.
Kyle realized what happened. When Brendan saw Kyle try to kiss Charlotte, he yanked the wheel to the right, knocking them over. Now it was Kyle’s turn to punch Brendan. But as Kyle got up off the deck, Brendan slowed the boat down. They were approaching the island.
Brendan pulled up to an ancient, rickety-looking boathouse. It had a partially collapsed roof and moss growing on the outside of the rotting shingles. Carla placed one foot on the dock, then gave a thumbs up.
“The boathouse looks like it’s going to fall any moment,” Carla said. “But the dock is safe.”
Brendan maneuvered the small boat closer to the dock, and Carla jumped off.
“Kyle, throw me the bowline,” Carla said.
Kyle threw her the line and watched as she tied it off on a rusty deck cleat.
Brendan handed Kyle the backpack then jumped onto the dock.
“Okay, Charlotte, you can go next,” Kyle said. “Brendan will help you get off.”
Brendan held his hand out to Charlotte, but she didn’t move.
“Charlotte, come on,” Carla said. “It’s getting late.”
“I thought you said the island was empty. I’m… scared,” Charlotte said. “I don’t want to go.”
“What’s the matter?” Kyle said. “I told you I’d take care of you. Nothing’s going to happen.”
“No, you’re playing a practical joke on me. It’s a prank. I’m not going with you. I’m staying on the boat.”
Kyle realized there was something wrong. The cute girl he almost kissed was changing in front of his eyes. Charlotte’s eyes darted back and forth. She wrung her hands and chewed at her fingernails.
“Are you okay? Is something wrong?”
Charlotte backed away from him until she was up against the center console. She swung her head back and forth, looking to escape.
“Kyle, I… I… I want to go home. Take me home.”
Kyle reached out with his hand out to touch her shoulder.
“No!” She screamed, batting his hand away from her. “No! No! Leave me alone. I want to go home. Get me away from here. I can’t stay!”
Charlotte put her hands up against her face and tried to wipe away the tears. She slid down against the center console and pulled her knees up against her chest. Kyle sat down on the deck of the boat with her.
“Can you tell me why you’re so scared?”
Charlotte shook her head.
“Is it the dark?”
She shook her head again.
“Are you scared to get left alone?”
She looked at him. Then nodded.
“I’m here with you. You don’t have to go inside the mansion. We’ll stay outside. My bots will go inside. You’ll get to see what they see. It will be fun.”
“We don’t have to go inside?”
“That’s right. You don’t have to go into the mansion. I’ll stay with you.”
“Okay, I guess. I’ll go.”
Kyle stood up and held out his hands. Charlotte reached out and grabbed them, and pulled herself to her feet.
She walked over to the side of the boat, then stopped.
“What’s the matter?”
“They’re not here.”
“What do you mean they’re not here? Who’s not here?”
“Carla and Brendan.”
Kyle turned towards the dock, and she was right. It was empty. He looked to his right and couldn’t see anybody inside the boathouse.
“Brendan!” Kyle yelled. “Where are you guys?”.
“We’re outside the boathouse. You’ve got to see this!”
Kyle turned to Charlotte. “Are you ready to go?”
Charlotte nodded.
Kyle stood up on the side of the boat and jumped onto the dock, “See, it’s easy.”
Charlotte nodded and put her foot onto the side rail, and jumped off onto the dock to join him.
They walked up the dock and passed through an empty doorway onto a gravel path. Brendan and Carla were standing in front of an iron gate. A twenty-foot-high granite wall faded away into the darkness. An old chain and padlock held the gate shut, but the chain was long enough for the kids to squeeze through. Beyond the gate, Kyle saw rows of overgrown hedges and what appeared to be the remnants of a formal garden.
Carla and Brendan squeezed through and proceeded into the garden.
Charlotte stood staring at the gate.
“We can stay here,” Kyle said.
Charlotte shook her head and walked towards the gate, slipped through the narrow opening, and waited. Kyle squeezed through and joined her.
The silhouette of a massive three-story mansion rose out of the mist. Rotting plywood covered the large windows. The second-floor windows had porches in front of them.
Kyle and his friends continued down the path and stopped at the next hedgerow. Brendan knelt behind a hulking green mess of branches and put the backpack on the ground. He pulled the three microbots out of the black styrofoam packing material. He lifted the larger bot, which was shaped like a soda can with a flared-out bottom. The bot’s top section had a smooth, shiny surface that appeared black in the dim moonlight. Kyle turned the bot upside down and flicked on a power switch. A small green light lit up. He then pulled out the two smaller bots and placed them next to the larger one.
Kyle reached into the backpack and pulled out a remote control handset. The same type of control is used for any hobby-style drone or RC airplane. He then pulled out the VR headset. It looked strange, but the one-hundred-eighty-degree view it provided the operator was phenomenal.
Brendan passed out the other headsets. “Put these on so you can see the video feed.”
Kyle pushed a small button on the base of the large bot to check the battery power. The bots should have had a complete charge, but only two green LED lights lit up.
“Brendan,” Kyle said. “Which set of bots did you bring?”
“Why?”
“Because these only have fifty percent power. These were the ones in the backup case.”
“So, what does that mean?” Brendan said. “We can’t use them?”
“No, but the batteries will only last about ten minutes.”
Kyle pushed the left joystick forward, and the bot lifted off the ground a few feet and hovered. The two small bots started buzzing and lifted to the same level as the big one.
“Why didn’t Kyle move the joystick to move the small bots,” Carla asked. “They lifted on their own.”
“That’s because they mimic what the large bot does,” Brendan said. “The small bots follow the mothership.”
“Wow, that’s so cool.”
Kyle pushed the left joystick again, and the three bots lifted until they were above the hedgerow. He could see the video image in his headset. The picture is split into three frames. He couldn’t see much, though, because the display was in the default daylight mode.
“Brendan, are you ready for the real test?”
“Do it up.”
Kyle pressed the voice control switch and spoke into his microphone, “Bot one, night vision.”
The screen in Brendan’s headset came to life in a ghost-like green image. But now, he could see a sweeping view of the mansion and the island in the distance.
“Wow,” Charlotte said.
“This is so cool,” Carla chimed in.
Kyle smiled. It took him months to develop the night-vision technology, “Let’s go tour the island.”
The bots revealed a grown-over flower garden and crumbling concrete fountain. Green, murky water sat in the basin of the fountain.
As the bots approached the mansion, the three images merged into one wide-angle view. A set of granite stairs led up to a dark, wooden front door.
“No sign of entry here,” Brendan said. “We need to look for an open window or another door.
“Who owns the house?” Charlotte asked.
“A wealthy family from Boston once owned it,” Brendan explained. “They still own most of the islands. My Dad said they built a new home on another island about ten years ago and abandoned this one.”
“They just left it here?” Charlotte said. “Seems like such a waste of a nice home.”
Kyle surveyed the windows on the second floor until he found one with a broken board. It was wide enough for one bot at a time to pass through.
“Bots, single file,” Kyle said. The small bots obeyed and lined up behind the mother. The image on the screen switched to a single view. Kyle moved the bots through the window, careful to avoid the ragged plywood.
The bots entered what appeared to be a large bedroom. Now empty, it had a ten-foot-high ceiling and a large stone fireplace on the center wall. Dark, peeling wallpaper covered parts of the wall. Kyle turned the bot in a 360-degree circle to show the entire room. It seemed that the room’s door was open, so he flew the bots through the door into the hallway.
The bots hovered at the top of a broad, wooden staircase—the treads covered by a threadbare oriental runner. The stairs descended one flight to a landing. Kyle flew down to the landing. At the bottom of the stairs, he could see a wooden floor.
“Wow,” Charlotte said.
A large parlor spread out in front of them. Opposite the stairs was an enormous floor-to-ceiling fieldstone fireplace filling the entire wall. The marble surround wrapped around the base of the fireplace. Large, square pillars stood ten feet apart and rose three stories high to the ceiling. Along the far wall, next to the fireplace, were four military-style folding cots. Backpacks leaned against the cots. In front of each cot sat small Sterno burners, plates, and utensils.
“It looks like somebody is living here,” Carla said.
“Do you think they’re squatters?” Charlotte asked.
“I don’t think they’re squatters,” Brendan said. “Too neat.”
“Who are they then?” Charlotte said. “Are they still here?”
“Let me see if they’ve been cooking,” Kyle said. “I’ll change to infrared mode. It will show any heat in red.”
Kyle switched the screen mode. The Sterno stoves showed small red circles.
“It looks like somebody was here not too long ago. The cans are still hot.
“But where are they now?” Charlotte asked.
“Kyle, you have to turn back,” Brendan said. “The batteries are down to one light.”
Kyle switched back to night vision mode, swiveled the bots around, and flew back up the staircase and into the bedroom. He stopped so they could line up and exit the window in a single file. But when he pulled back on the joystick to increase the altitude, the main bot didn’t respond.
“Something’s wrong,” Kyle said. “I can’t control the main bot. Let me try voice command. Bot One, increase the altitude by three feet.”
“Low battery power,” Brendan said. “You need to get them out of the window.
But before Kyle could say another command, the screen went black.
Kyle stared at the blank screen, “Shit, my bots are dead. What are we going to do now?”
“What the hell?” Carla said. “Where did they go?”
“The battery died,” Kyle said. “They’re stranded in the mansion.”
“We have to go get them,” Brendan said. “We can’t leave them inside. You know the saying the SEALS have, no bot left behind.”
“This isn’t a time for joking, you jerk,” Carla said. “Let’s go!”
Kyle knew they needed to retrieve the bots, but he also knew it could be dangerous.
“You should go in and get your bots,” Charlotte said for the first time. “I’ll stay here while you three go in the house.”
Brendan, Carla, and Kyle all turned to look at Charlotte. “I’m sorry, I can’t go inside. I’m too scared,” she said.
“C’mon, Kyle, let’s get going before it’s too late,” Brendan said. “We have to find a way in.”
“No, Brendan, you and Carla go. I’ll stay here with Charlotte. We can’t leave her alone. We’ll watch you from out here.”
Brendan looked at Carla, who was nodding her head. “Okay, you guys stay here,” Brendan said. “We’ll come back to this spot.”
“Okay,” Kyle said.
“Only one question,” Carla asked. “How do we get inside?”
“That’s the easy part. Follow the bots.”
Carla said, “You mean to climb up to the balcony on a rotting old house that might collapse under our weight at any minute?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. Let’s go.”
Kyle watched Brendan and Carla turn the corner around the hedgerow and disappear.
“Shouldn’t we find someplace where we can watch them?” Charlotte said.
“Right. Why didn’t I think of that? I have an idea. Let’s crawl through the bottom of the hedgerows until we reach the first row. Then we can watch them but stay out of sight.”
“We’ll get dirty. I just bought these shorts.”
“Seriously?”
“No, JK. Just joking.”
“The term is just kidding.”
Kyle pushed his way through the first row of hedges. He went through the far side of the shrubbery to find dead grass and another row of hedges.
“How many of these hedges are there?”
“I don’t know. It seems like some sort of maze. Let’s keep going. You’re not claustrophobic, are you?”
“No. I actually like small spaces. They make me feel safe. My dad made me a secret hiding space in my room in each of our houses. A place where I could play with my dolls and pretend I had a different family.”
“You wished for a different family?” Kyle said.
“I mean, I love my mother and father,” Charlotte said, “but I hate feeling like an only child.”
“Don’t you have a brother or sister?”
“I have an older sister, but I never see her. She’s a scientist and lives in Seattle. How about you?”
“I am an only child. I know how you feel.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything bad.”
“I know you didn’t. I didn’t take it the wrong way.”
Kyle and Charlotte passed through two more hedges until they finally came to the end of the garden. In front of them, they could see the front of the mansion. They stayed inside the hedge and peered through the branches. All Kyle could see was the enormous front door.
“Can you see Brendan or Carla?” Charlotte asked.
“No, but I hear them. Let’s listen.”
Kyle thought he heard noises from above. He heard what sounded like wood scraping. He realized it was the plywood covering the window where the bots flew in.
He heard groaning, and someone say, you hold it, and I’ll crawl through. I’m in. He heard Brendan say.
There was a loud crash as the piece of plywood smashed to the ground right in front of them.
Kyle jumped back as dust filled the bushes.
A minute later, Kyle looked up to see what looked like Brendan’s body lean over the porch rail above.
“Kyle, can you hear me?” Brendan said. “I got them. We’re coming down.”
“We should move back to the spot where we said we would meet them,” Kyle said.
But before they could move, two giant hands grabbed Kyle under the arms and pulled him out of the hedgerow. Kyle could see a second man pull Charlotte out and wrap massive arms around her tiny waist.
She screamed once. Then there was silence.
Kyle screamed, “Charlotte!” but a giant, gloved hand covered his mouth. He struggled to get loose, but the man was too strong. The more he struggled, the tighter the man’s hold got. Kyle stopped resisting when it felt like his ribs would collapse. The giant man picked him up and carried him away.
Brendan scanned the garden from the balcony, but Kyle and Charlotte were gone.
“Where are they?” Carla asked. “I can’t see them.”
“I saw them go around the corner of the house.”
“Let’s go,” Carla said as she scrambled down the side of the mansion. Brendan followed. They ran along the front of the house, then turned the corner. A large fallen tree lay against the siding of the house. Some of the branches broke through the windows, forming a large canopy covering the lawn. Brendan saw movement under the tree branches.
Brendan and Carla stopped in the thick, uncut grass before they reached the tree.
“They went underneath,” Carla said. “I can’t see any movement.”
“We have to go inside.”
“No. We don’t know how many are in there. We need to wait before we rush in.”
They lay down in the grass and peered through the immense tangle of branches. Brendan saw movement. It was the large man, and he was holding Charlotte in front of him. A second man dragged Kyle into the mansion.
“Let’s go,” Brendan said. “They’re going into the house.” Brendan sprung up to his feet and ran towards the tree.
“Brendan, stop,” Carla said as she jumped up and ran after Brendan. She tackled him to the ground as the sound of automatic gunfire erupted from the trees. Bullets whizzed over their heads. A second later, and they both would have been dead.
“You kids, get out of here now,” the man said in a strange accent. “Or you’ll all die.”
Brendan and Carla got up and backed away until they got past the corner of the house. They turned and ran down the path towards the front door. The front door smashed open. The man who grabbed Kyle stood in front of them with a sawed-off shotgun.
Brendan grabbed Carla’s arm, and they took a sharp turn into the garden of overgrown hedgerows. They ran through the maze of branches and thorns for what felt like hours. Men were shouting, but he didn’t look back. They got to the gate and squeezed through, then ran down the path to the boathouse.
“Stop!” Brendan heard the man yell. “Come back here.”
Kyle turned to see the man stuck at the locked gate.
Brendan and Carla ran to the dock at full speed, then jumped on the boat. She started the engine, but the vessel didn’t move.
“Untie the lines!” Brendan said. “Hurry!”
Carla jumped back onto the deck. A loud blast made her jump, and splinters flew from the dock only a foot away. She untied the lines and jumped back onto the boat. Another shot blew the cleat away from the pier.
“Gun it, Brendan,” Carla said as she ducked down below the side rail. “He’s shooting at us!”
Unlike their ride over when the water was calm, the waves were now rough and choppy. The wind picked up, and whitecaps adorned the tops of the waves.
“Brendan put a life vest on,” Carla said. “We may be in for some wet weather. And don’t go too fast, these are dangerous conditions. Keep your eye out for larger ships.”
“Carla, have you seen Kyle’s backpack?” Brendan asked.
“It’s on your back, you idiot,” Carla said with a grin. She pulled the backpack off his shoulders and placed it on the deck.
Carla took the wheel.
Brendan rummaged through Kyle’s backpack. All three bots, VR headsets, and RC control were there. He found Kyle’s cell phone, which still had a little battery power.
“Kyle’s cell phone doesn’t have a signal. We have to call the police.”
Carla pulled out her cell phone and pushed several buttons. “No signal,” she said.
“I didn’t bring my phone,” Brendan said.
“Why wouldn’t you bring your cell phone? Who doesn’t bring their phone everywhere they go? Where’s your boat’s radio?”
“I don’t know. My Dad said something about replacing it with a newer model.”
“So there’s no radio? What else could go wrong?”
As if on cue, Brendan heard the roar of thunder in the distance. He looked at Carla, who shook her head and held on to the wheel.
Brendan put his arm around Carla, “Don’t be scared. I’ll keep you safe.”
Carla smiled, “I don’t need you to keep me safe, but you can keep your arm me. She leaned over and pecked Brendan on the cheek.”
The waves grew, battering the small boat. The fierce wind gusts blew stronger as the lightning flashes got closer. They were in open water, and there was no place to get shelter.
Wood Hole was only seven miles away, but it could have been a thousand miles in this storm. Brendan hoped they could make it to shore before the storm hit.
All hopes faded when the engine died.
“Now, what happened?” Carla screamed into the wind.
Carla stared at the gauges on the dashboard. Then she punched Brendan on the back.
“You idiot! We ran out of gas!”
The small boat bobbed in the ocean as the waves whipped up higher and higher.
“Hold on tight!” Brendan yelled.