She rose and walked to the bed. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

For the first time since the two women had met, there wasn’t an undercurrent of tension in their voices.

Peyton still felt like clearing the air. “Listen, I know you and I haven’t always… seen eye to eye.”

“I applaud your skill at understatement.”

Peyton laughed. “Thank you.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to start over.”

Avery nodded, but said nothing.

“How’re you feeling?”

Avery glanced at the ceiling and opened her mouth, but quickly shut it, biting off a snide remark, Peyton thought. Maybe they really were starting over. Without making eye contact, she mumbled, “I’m okay.” A pause, then she stared at Peyton. “Desmond?”

“We’re searching the island. Haven’t found him yet.”

“You won’t,” Avery said flatly.

“We’re working on the assumption that Yuri and Conner escaped with him in custody.”

“You’re going to go after them.”

“Yes. My mother knows the Citium—and Yuri—better than anyone alive. She’s going to help me. And I’d like your help. No. I want—”

“You want us to be partners?”

“I think there’s no two people in this world who will work harder to find him.”

“You got that right.”

“So what’s it going to be, Avery?”

“Yeah. Count me in, Doc.”

Peyton smiled. “Call me Peyton. There’s one more thing. I need you to make a call for me.”

“What kind of call?”

“An important one. We need the coordinates of the Beagle’s wreckage.”

Ten minutes later, Peyton opened the hatch to her mother’s stateroom.

Lin Shaw looked up from her notebook. “Did you get it?”

Peyton placed the scrap of paper on the desk.

Lin studied the handwritten GPS coordinates as if they were an ancient treasure, thought lost forever.

“You’ve been looking for it for a very long time,” Peyton said.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Her mother exhaled. Peyton knew the reaction well. She was digging in.

“Mom.”

Lin still said nothing.

“We made a deal.”

“Very well. If you want to know, I’ll have to show you.”

Day 20

Day 20

Final Death Toll: 31,000,000

Chapter 137

Chapter 137

On the deck of the US Coast Guard icebreaker, Peyton breathed in the cool morning air. She heard footsteps behind her, and turned to find her mother approaching.

“It’s time.”

Minutes later, they were in a submersible with two research assistants, drifting toward the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. The four of them donned protective suits, docked with the wreckage of the Beagle, and disembarked.

The dark, frigid tomb gave Peyton the creeps. There was so much history here. This was where her parents had met and fallen in love, and, according to her father’s account, where her brother had been conceived.