We walked the boats to knee-high water and clambered aboard with varying degrees of ease. Rivera was drenched by the time she got the kayak steady and her paddle balanced across the gunwales. But soon she sprouted a relieved look of recognition, like when you meet an old friend. From there, it went along. She took the lead.

The inflatable was sturdy and stable, easy to get into. Poppy knew the basics of using the tall paddle as a rudder. Jenn and Gracie would switch off between the remaining paddle and the dead girl’s rifle. Once they were afloat, Jenn brought their tow canoe alongside to clear the stern wash for steering. Despite her earlier shakes, she was settling right in. I had a feeling the dead girl’s gun might be going home with her. How could Rousseau object now, with Smith weapons all over the den? Of all of us, Gracie looked the least comfortable out on the open water, even with buildings rising tall on all sides. Well, Rubio’d never said if the Amazons were sailors.

I swiveled my butt over the dinghy’s transom and stepped to the center seat. Breakers waited till I’d set the oars, then shoved us off and hopped in, neatly wrangling the two tow lines as I dipped my oars and made my first pull.

Again, my muscles knew what to do. It was strength I’d be lacking for the long run, so I was glad to feel the boat catch in the current and make its own way downtown.

“Tide’s strong today.” Rattled nerves made me talkative.

Breakers nodded. “Less work for you.” Hunched in the stern, rifle balanced on thin knees, she watched me steer with little twists of the oar blades. The faint sun made a dusky curtain of the hair escaping her den cap, faded black like the rest of her clothing. No wonder she got on Poppy for wearing bright yellow. But the Smiths didn’t seem to care about blending into the mud-washed colors of the city, like us Joes were taught. Was it ’cause they carried weapons?

“You grew up on boats?” Breakers watched the rooftops while she talked.

“Don’t know. Can’t remember.”

“Can’t remember what?”

“Anything, before Abel.”

“Ah. One of those.”

“I know most words and things, but the events are all gone. And my place in them.”

“Weird.”

I laughed. “That’s one way to look at it.”

People usually got all sad and sympathetic about my memory loss. Breakers’ response was, like, shit happens. Kind of a relief. Maybe it was time to see my predicament in a different way. Especially if entire vocabularies were going to flood my brain like today, given the right trigger.

“How’s Rivera doing?” Facing sternward, I couldn’t see.

“Kayak?”

“Right.”