No rest for the weary, she thought, yawning as she came out into the early morning Party City parking lot.

Or for sisters slash aunts of the year.

She’d just managed to get the hatchback of her Kia Rio down over the pink blimp when her phone rang. She fished the phone out of her purse and checked the caller ID as she pulled the driver’s door open.

Wally Derwent? she thought, dropping behind the wheel. He was her cubicle buddy from the naval safety office.

“Hey, Wally,” she said.

“Hey, Rube. Sorry to bug you on leave, but I picked up your phone here a minute ago. Some guy is real frantic to get into contact with you. He called yesterday, too.”

“That right?” Ruby said, bleary-eyed, as she slammed her door. “Did he leave a name?”

“No, he wouldn’t say. All he said was he knew you from the Surmount, and he left his number and said he really, really, really needed to get into contact with you.”

The Surmount? she thought.

Then the 5-hour ENERGY started to work.

She remembered.

The Surmount. The coast guard. The crazy plane everyone was being weird about.

Her sneaking off the naval base.

Oh, shit, she thought.

“Guy sounded young,” Wally said. “Don’t tell me you’re robbing the cradle.”

She remembered the cute young diver. What was his name again? Steve. Steve Vance. Fan of deep dives and green shamrock tattoos.

And unauthorized GoPro videos.

Oh, shit, she thought again.

“What’s the number?” Ruby said.

26

“Hello,” said a hushed voice, picking up on the first ring.

“Hi, this is Lieutenant Everett from Naval Safety. My office just called. You wanted to speak to me?”

“Hold up,” the voice said.

Ruby ripped open the second 5-hour ENERGY. It was empty when she placed it down into the Kia’s drink holder.

“Hello?” the voice said.

“Yes? This is Ruby Everett. Is this you, Steve?”

“No, this isn’t Steve. My name is… Screw it, I won’t even say in case they’re listening.”

Listening? Ruby thought.

“Listening? Who’s listening?” she said.

“It doesn’t matter,” the voice said. “We met on the deck of the Surmount. You said to Steve, ‘Can you go deeper?’ and I said like a jackass, ‘You’d be amazed.’”

Ah, yes, the deck ape, Ruby remembered.

“Now listen to me very carefully,” he said. “They took Steve.”

Ruby stared at the steering wheel as she tried to absorb the statement. She glanced at the empty parking lot asphalt, at the traffic going by on Interstate 10.

“Took him?”

“Yes. The government took him. He’s been medically quarantined, they said. Whatever the hell that is. But no one knows where he is. It’s like he’s been swallowed into a black hole.”

Ruby held the phone, silently trying to understand. She was having trouble. She tried to think despite her exhaustion.

“Wait. Slow down. Where are you now?” she finally said. “Still at the base?”

“Yes. They have us in a dormitory now. Tuesday, around five, they started interrogating all of us about the crash. Lie detector tests. They were complete pricks. They threatened us with jail time if we failed the test.”