The Spyhopper moved steadily under the tall shadow of the lighthouse, drawing level with the harbor walls before finally coming face-to-face with the open water. Here, the waves became choppier, rising higher with one or two slapping over the bow. Rio’s stomach lurched.

He gripped tighter onto his life jacket and peered downward, through the surface of the waves, to the invisible depths below. At first, he couldn’t see anything except the movement of the water itself. This living, moving thing that pushed and pulled against the hull and sprayed up into his face. The sea salt was making his skin tighten, and his elbows already ached from leaning on the hard wooden hull. It was as if he hadn’t just left the harbor, but had instead entered an entire new universe.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Marina shouted across.

His eyes were already sore, and as the boat dipped, his tummy heaved once again. But to his complete and utter surprise, Rio agreed. “Yes,” he whispered.

And because the ocean was wild, and the wind was whipping their words far out to sea, and because he felt the cry rise up from somewhere deep within, he yelled with every ounce of his being.

“YES!”

As the Spyhopper left the shore behind, Rio felt something inside loosen. Something he didn’t even know had been tied up at all.

16

Out on the Ocean

The Spyhopper headed out into open water, then turned south with the aim of circling back to harbor in an hour. Even though it was uncomfortable resting on his elbows and his knees were starting to ache, Rio kept his eyes glued to the water.

It was only a matter of minutes before he saw his first fish, silver and mercurial, flashing under the surface. Then another—this one bigger, darting through the waves. And there—a splash of water as a fish jumped briefly into the air, before zipping quickly back below. Marina jabbed him in the ribs and pointed out two birds with huge beaks circling in the blue sky.

“Pelicans,” she murmured, fishing in her pockets for her binoculars. “See how the underside of their beak is all saggy? That’s their throat pouch. They use it to scoop up fish. Watch. I think one of them’s about to dive.”

Rio pulled out the binoculars Marina had given him and kept his eye on the pelican. A strange-looking, prehistoric creature. He had seen them before in London in St. James’s Park, but not out on the great ocean. Not like this. The bird circled in the sky before suddenly diving headfirst into the water and landing with a splash, reemerging with a fish hanging out of its bill.

“The ocean is hard,” Marina said, as if sensing his sympathy for the fish. “It’s the hardest, most dangerous place on earth. But in other ways it’s also the most in danger.”

Rio snuck a sideways look at her. Although his own stomach was still rolling, Marina seemed completely at home. As though she were a mermaid carved out of the boat itself and had been born to live on the sea. He didn’t think he had ever felt that same sense of belonging anywhere.