Isaac didn’t bother responding. Someone was definitely alive on that boat, and maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to stay close to it after all. But he wanted to. He really wanted to.

“Let’s just keep a good distance,” he said. “They’re obviously heading for the beachhead down there. It’s a gradual slope. Probably the best place on the island to wreck a ship if you gotta wreck a ship.”

Miyoko agreed. “Yeah, whoever’s on there must only have a drop or two of fuel left. Saving it for emergencies.”

The boat drifted on, bobbing like a toy. Isaac and Miyoko followed, staying roughly thirty meters behind the vessel’s back end. Drifting. Drifting. Walking. Walking. The air so full of tension that it buzzed in Isaac’s ears.

Finally, they descended from the peninsula’s black wall of rock and approached the sandy beaches on the north side of the island’s main body, which formed a right angle to the cliff. Nobody was in sight—people didn’t really come up here except for holidays in the summer. It was harvest season, and it wasn’t easy running a civilization on an isolated chunk of land in the middle of nowhere. Everyone else was hard at work.

“I hope that thing doesn’t flip over,” Miyoko said.

Isaac understood her meaning. Once you crossed the threshold from the peninsula to the beaches, it was like a magical barrier. The deep, deep waters in front of the wall of rocks prevented huge waves from forming. But the geographic terrain from there to the beach changed at a tipping point where waves as tall as five meters rolled up like charging horses and crashed in a violent display of white, watery power. However, there was a small section within the transition from rock wall to sandy beaches that just might give the ship a chance to ground itself. Almost as if . . .

“They knew,” he whispered. “She. He. They. Whoever. They knew.”

“Knew what?” Miyoko asked.

“Enough about the island to land their boat. It’s the perfect place as long as they—”

A sudden rev of engines cut him off. The ship was just passing the tipping point and it now turned sharply to the right, giant bubbles of water boiling from the back. With perhaps its last burst of energy, the boat sped toward the firmer, deeper sand nestled in the geological corner. The engines sputtered out but the ship had all the momentum it needed. With a grinding, hissing sound, it slammed into a bank of sand and stuck there, the current from the east and the dwindling waves from the north enough to keep it locked into position. Isaac didn’t know much about the old world, but he knew his island like he knew his own face, and he was certain he’d just seen someone pull off a masterful job of landing that boat in dire circumstances.