They rowed through the harbor, searching for a boat they could handle, and finally found one docked on the side of a much larger yacht—a lifeboat, maybe, or a backup designed for emergencies. Samm climbed aboard, peeled off the cracking canvas cover, and fired up the motor. It started on the fourth try and purred much more evenly than their first boat. He and Marcus and Jayden managed to unhook it from the yacht and dump it into the water, and then the five travelers transferred their gear from one boat to the next. It was much smaller—a rowboat with a motor, not the fancy motorboat they’d been riding in thus far—but it held them, and the engine worked, and Marcus steered them back out of the harbor and north toward D Company.

“Farther out from the shore,” said Samm. Marcus steered away from land, deeper into the sound, and Samm watched the shore with nervous eyes. “Farther.”

“Too much farther and we can’t see the shore at all anymore,” said Marcus. “We’ll get lost again.”

“I can see the shore just fine,” said Samm. “Which means anyone on the shore can see us. Go farther.”

Marcus frowned and glanced at Kira, but steered farther out into the water. The mainland was a distant line on the horizon now, barely even visible. Samm watched it intently, giving Marcus minor course corrections when necessary. Kira and Xochi and Jayden lay in the bow, draped uncomfortably over the fiberglass benches, trying to get some sleep.

It was Marcus who first spotted the storm.

“How long have we been out here?” he asked, his hand still guiding the rudder. “Is the sky supposed to be that dark this early in the morning?”

“Wind’s picked up as well,” said Samm. “It’s cooler than it was a few minutes ago.”

“I’ve seen a few of these sound storms from the shore,” said Jayden, sitting up. He looked worried. “They get pretty heavy out here, or at least it always looks that way.”

“I’ll turn toward shore,” said Marcus, but Samm stopped him.

“We’re passing rebel territory right now,” he said, looking at the map and then peering back out to the north. “It’s not safe.”

“Have you seen the sky?” asked Marcus, pointing to the thick gray clouds. “That’s not exactly safe either.”

“This boat barely fits us,” said Kira. The water was choppy now, bucking the boat gently as they plowed forward through the waves. “If it gets too rough out here, we’ll flip right over.”

“We can’t go in,” Samm insisted. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Then everybody hold on,” said Marcus. “This is about to get a lot more exciting than we’d planned for.”