“I told you, nothing.”

“Then why do you have to get off the island?”

“Because people are getting killed here!” he snapped.

“You’re trying to get away before they catch you,” Katie said. “You have to get off Garrett Island before the army or whoever arrives.” She shook her head. “They’re probably on the ferry. You’re basically going to hand yourself over to them.”

That gave Kyle something to think about. “No . . .” he said slowly. “We won’t be the only ones heading to the ferry. There’ll be others. Dozens, maybe hundreds. When the ferry arrives, they’ll evacuate us. They won’t be stopping to ask questions. If—if the National Guard’s on the ferry, they’ll charge off, and islanders, they’ll get on. That’s how it’ll work.”

“You better hope,” Katie said. “But what if we—”

“Katie,” Bruce said.

“Huh?”

Bruce did a tiny shake of his head, a subtle warning. Don’t go there.

“What if you what?” Kyle asked.

“Nothing,” she said. Katie had gotten Bruce’s message.

“What if you tell? Is that what you were going to say? When we get to the ferry, you’ll point me out? Is that your idea?”

“No,” Katie said. “That’s not what I was going to say.”

Bruce slowed. There was a stop sign ahead, and an arrowed sign reading ferry 2 mi, pointing to the right. Bruce rolled through the stop and cranked the wheel. “Soon,” he said, turning his head so Kyle would be sure to hear him.

“We’ve been lucky so far,” Katie said. “We haven’t seen any more of them.”

Bruce said, “Hmm.”

“What?” she asked.

“I’m kind of wondering why we haven’t.”

They’d left the forested part of the island behind them and were now driving parallel to the shore. Beach houses and a strip of sand were the only things separating them from the sea.

“Ha!” Kyle shouted, pointing. “There it is! I told you! Didn’t I tell you?”

What Kyle was looking at was, at first, hard to see. There was a growing cloud cover, and about a mile out, a haziness that signaled a thickening fog. Coming through it, a vague, looming shape.

“The ferry!” Kyle said.

He was right. The ferry was only a hundred yards or so out from the island. The docking facilities were beyond the oncoming hill that was little more than a shallow rise in the landscape.

Katie shifted in her seat so that she was now looking forward. Bruce reached over and touched her shoulder, a gesture meant to reassure and comfort. “It’s going to be okay,” he told her. “We drop him off, we turn around and head for the mall.”

She nodded, head up, jaw forward, trying to look strong.