Nelinha says what I’m thinking: “We have to help Lincoln Base.”

Kiya Jensen shifts her broken arm in her sling. I can tell she doesn’t like what she’s about to say.

“I’m just going to put this out there,” she says. “Our duty is to make sure the Nautilus doesn’t fall into anyone else’s hands, right? Wouldn’t Luca and Ophelia tell us not to try helping them if there’s any chance LI could capture the sub?”

She’s right, of course. We’re riding in the most destabilizing technological breakthrough ever: a leap forward as dramatic as iron weapons or gunpowder were. And hearing a Shark like Kiya suggest running away hits me like ice water in the face.

“Plus,” she continues, “we’re outmatched. Dev wasn’t wrong about that. We’ve got a very old, not fully functional sub…beautiful and amazing though she is…” She says this last part loudly, addressing the chandelier. “And we’re not trained to operate her. Land Institute sent their senior class. They were foolish not to send alumni, or their adult staff, but still…they’ve got Dev. They must have been planning this operation for a long time.”

I wonder again why LI sent only students, even if they sent their best. Maybe it was school culture—fostering self-reliance, like Caleb said—but I have a feeling it had more to do with Dev. I can imagine him putting conditions on his cooperation—that he and only he would be in charge of the Aronnax, that LI had to trust him with command to prove they were different than HP. Maybe, in the back of his mind, he was even trying to level the playing field, to give HP a fighting chance….

No. I can’t think like that. I can’t be Dev’s apologist. He made his choices. Vile choices. And now, if he fails to deliver the Nautilus, I imagine his new friends will turn unfriendly fast.

Nelinha scowls at her sandwich. “Land Institute killed our friends. They destroyed HP. Now they’re holding Lincoln Base. We can’t run away from that.”

Brigid Salter glumly pushes away her plate. She lost her brother at HP. She knows exactly what Land Institute has done. “They want the Nautilus, not the island. Maybe the Aronnax left Lincoln Base to follow us.”

Judging from her tone, she desperately wants that to be true. She wants her chance at a fight.

“Or,” Dru suggests, “sorry to say this, but they could have already destroyed the base.”

I shake my head. “They destroyed HP because it was part of their plan. It spurred us into leading them to the Nautilus. Lincoln Base is different. It was Nemo’s final resting place. They’ll want to explore it. They’ll expect to find clues to our location, information about the ship….”

“They’ll take the island,” Gem decides. “Which means they’ll take prisoners.”

I think about those we left behind: Luca, Ophelia, Dr. Hewett, Franklin, Tia. Even Socrates, though I’m not so worried about him being caught.

“They’ll keep our people alive,” I say, forcing myself to believe it. “Dev will want to interrogate them.”