So far, the ocean had been friendly, showing only its best, most beautiful side. But this was a reminder that it wasn’t always so kind. Was the ocean angry with them? For making such a mess of it?

He let out a long, slow breath, shivering as a stray wave hit the boat, throwing up spray-like spittle. But even though Marina got soaked, she didn’t move away and neither did he.

“I’m scared,” he confessed.

Marina looked over at him, and he knew she understood that he wasn’t just talking about the storm. He was talking about all his other fears, about White Beak, but, most of all, about his mom.

“I’m scared too,” she answered. “Not just about whether we can save White Beak but whether we can truly save all this.” She swept her hand out to indicate the ocean. “It feels so huge sometimes.”

“You must never give up hope,” Rio whispered, thinking not just of his mom. “Not when there’s still a chance.”

There was a silence. Filled only by the waves. Fierce, pulsing, and throbbing.

“My dad says that when you’re afraid, the best thing to do is look down into the ocean. Apparently, it’s a mirror to everything we can be. The first time I did it, all I could see was my reflection.” She paused. “But I guess that was the whole point.”

Even though it was pitch black, Rio peered over the edge of the boat anyway. And in the light of the full moon, he saw himself reflected back. A bigger, bolder version of the boy he’d once been.

It was as if the ocean had crept inside his body and gifted him all its force and power for the adventure ahead. As the storm raged in the far distance and the sky turned from black to blue to mauve and splintered with lightning, he got a jolt. Because Rio hadn’t just come out here to find a missing whale. He had set out to find who he could become.

36

The Search Zone

As soon as dawn broke the following morning, Rio bounded out of bed and ran on deck. Today was the day. Even the air felt different, as if the storm had left behind an aftertaste. Nothing obvious. Just the slightest sense that something had shifted in the atmosphere.

Birch was already awake and gently motored the Spyhopper farther south before cutting the engine. “This is it,” he said. “We’re here.”

Rio hadn’t known what to expect when they reached the search zone, but as he gazed around him, it looked no different to where they had been. Just a huge, unmottled expanse of water that could be hiding anything. If White Beak were out here, she could be anywhere.

But the very least they could do was try to find her.

The four of them positioned themselves at various points on the boat. Rio and Marina on the bow. Birch by the wheel on the starboard side, Fran insistent on keeping lookout on the port side.