Gem donates his Leyden rifle to Tia, his Leyden pistol to Franklin, and his remaining grenades to Luca.

Luca beams. “I love grenades! Thank you!”

I hand Ophelia my pistol. This leaves me with just my dive knife and Gem with his SIG Sauers, but that will have to do.

“What about our friends here?” Gem gestures at the four unconscious guards.

“Oh, not to worry.” Tia gets a wicked glint in her eyes. “I’m personally going to give them the pink-ducky treatment. Now get going!”

As Gem and I race through the front corridor, I try the comm on my drysuit collar. “Dakkar to Nautilus, do you read?”

The line hisses. “Nautilus here,” Halimah says. “Are you okay?”

“More or less. Hostiles have the Varuna. They’re making a run for it. They have Dr. Hewett on board. Gem and I will try to intercept. Do you copy?”

“We—Say again—?” The comm goes dead.

“Mine is out, too,” Gem says.

With the amount of abuse our suits have taken today, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Even if Halimah got the gist of my message, the Nautilus is in no shape to give us any assistance. We’re on our own.

We burst onto the dock of the lagoon. The sunlight blinds me. I haven’t been outside in the surface world for over a week. There’s too much sky. The horizons are too wide. The colors are too bright.

The rev of a boat’s engines shakes me from my paralysis. The Varuna is pulling away from the dock.

Gem sprints after it. He takes a flying leap and lands on the transom. My jump is not as graceful. I slam into the aft railing, which doesn’t do wonders for my wounded side. Gem grabs my arm to keep me from falling overboard.

“Thanks,” I grumble.

“Take a gun.” He offers me one of his SIG Sauers. I have never seen him let anyone touch one of his precious twins before.

I start to protest. “Gem—”

“Please,” he says. “Just do it for me.”

I take the gun.

The Varuna picks up speed, heading north for the wide new gap that the Aronnax’s weapons blasted in the atoll’s ring. From where we stand, I can’t see anyone else on board. I hope that means the boat is lightly manned. I like small numbers, like one or two.

“Split up?” Gem asks, gesturing to port and starboard.

“That’s always a mistake in the movies,” I say.

“Fair enough.”

Together, we make our way forward along the port gunwale, me leading, Gem guarding my six.

We reach the middeck. Still no one in sight. This feels wrong. The roar of the engines is deafening. I’d forgotten how loud the upper world can be.

I turn…and my question to Gem devolves into a scream when I see a familiar figure looming behind him.

Too late, Gem pivots. My brother smacks him across the head with a ratchet.