Armande. He was a spoiled sulky boy who had grown into a spoiled sulky man. The only one he seemed to love was his sister. He could look past himself long enough to see her and for a few minutes get out of his very self-centered world. Saria honestly doubted if he was intelligent enough to pull off such an operation. Charisse had the brains, but she was too childlike in a lot of ways. Armande . . . She sighed. Armande was a selfish brat, but everyone liked him. He had charm when he wanted.

“How do you plan on findin’ out?”

“We’re going to follow them through the swamp to see where our drug smugglers go. Whoever is supplying is supplying to a local,” Elijah said.

“The swamp?” Saria echoed faintly. “Are you crazy? The swamp isn’t like your rain forest. Scent isn’t goin’ to do you much good if you sink into a marsh. Snakes, alligators, you name it, the hazards are everywhere.” She brought the boat around to the edge of the reeds. “Even gettin’ onto land at night is extremely dangerous.”

“That’s why we have a secret weapon,” Drake said.

She jumped onto the land, splashing a little in the reeds to tie up her boat. “What’s that?” She poured sarcasm into her voice.

“You. You’re going to guide us.”

“Now I know you’re crazy.”

“They’ll hear a boat, but you know how to move from one strip of land to the next and you probably know shortcuts.”

“You want to run through the swamps at night?” Saria looked around for a place to sit down. She was feeling a little faint. They had no idea what it was like to travel in the swamp. “The land is a bog. There are pockets of quicksand. There’s actually water under us with a thin layer of dirt and growth. You just don’ understand.” In agitation she ran her fingers through her hair, making it spiky and disheveled, but she didn’t care. She felt like yanking it out by the roots. They were all crazy.

“We’re well aware of that.”

“You can step through in places and just sink down. And have you ever heard of water moccasins? Because we have those too.”

“You hunt and trap and fish all through here. And you take photographs. You’ve been running wild in the swamp since you were a little girl, Saria,” Drake pointed out. “You can do this and you know it.”

“I can do it, but not guidin’ all of you. Drake, you can’t ask me to be responsible for six people. There are at least three places we’ll have to wade in reed-choked water where alligators are huntin’.”

“We have guns,” Joshua pointed out.