I give the throttle more gas. We have to get this over with as soon as possible or we’re all going to die. But the barge is so huge and the towboat can only respond so fast, and my speed increases with agonizing slowness.

Tanq spots the dragonflies, too, and she rips through the waves toward the Tardis. I know she’ll try to distract them, split their target, and I’m agape that the same girl who was nearly catatonic after the RAV4 was destroyed is capable of such courage now.

The Tardis is jetting away, drawing the dragonflies. Our distraction tactic is going to work; my path is clear. But maybe at the cost of my friends’ lives, because those drones are closing the gap fast.

A rat-tat-tat sound wafts toward me on the breeze. Wyatt is pointing his rifle to the sky, trying to hit the dragonflies.

“More throttle,” I murmur, but it’s already as far forward as it will go. This barge won’t go any faster.

One of the dragonflies jerks, spins on an invisible axis, spews green smoke as it plunges into the lake. A yell of triumph bursts from me, startling Emmaline.

That’s one down.

But the other two are turning around for another pass at the Tardis. I watch in horror as they skim low. Wyatt shoots at them, and I’m too far away to see if any of the bullets are hitting. All I know is that it’s really hard to hit a moving target, Wyatt must be a hell of a marksman to have taken one down, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to do it again.

One dragonfly swoops so close it obscures my view of the boat. It releases something, not a laser or projectile, but more like a wave of energy that distorts the air around it, making it shimmer like a desert mirage.

Trey and Wyatt leap from the boat and disappear into the water.

The Tardis implodes on itself, becomes raw matter that spins around like a tiny hurricane, coalescing into a single point of space-time that suddenly winks out of existence. An impact crater lasts only a second before it’s swamped, and the surface of the water appears as though the Tardis was never there at all.

“Trey,” I whisper. I scan the surface of the lake for the telltale orange of life vests. Trey and Wyatt could have so easily been caught in that energy beam. . . .

It’s like all the breath leaves my body when I spot one, then two, orange motes bobbing in the water. From here, I can’t tell if they’re alive, but at least they’re not . . . gone.

A dragonfly darts back and forth across the water, perhaps looking for them. Only one dragonfly. The boys must have shot down another one, and I was so preoccupied with the Tardis that I missed it.