Eight slowly rises out of the water until he’s standing on the surface. It doesn’t look as easy for him this time. He kicks the tip of a slow passing wave, pissed. ‘Damn it! I knew I shouldn’t have tried to teleport with so many people!’

‘But where could she be? How do we find her?’ Ella cries.

‘I don’t know. For all I know, she’s still back at what’s left of the cave.’

My limbs are still coming around slowly, and I’m struggling to just keep my head above water. ‘What! She’ll be killed if she’s still there!’

Ella is also struggling to stay afloat. Eight pulls her over to him so she can get on his back, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. ‘Six could have ended up somewhere else, too,’ Eight says, trying to sound more hopeful. ‘I just don’t know where, exactly.’

‘Where are we?’ I ask.

‘That much I know.’ Eight sounds relieved to have a definitive answer to something. ‘We’re in the Gulf of Aden. And that . . .’ he points at the coastline in the distance that I didn’t see before. ‘That’s Somalia.’

‘How do you know?’ asks Ella.

‘I ended up here once before,’ he says flatly. He doesn’t elaborate, so there must be more to his story.

I don’t know much about Somalia, other than it’s in Africa and is in a perpetual state of brutal tribal and civil war, not to mention the poverty that keeps tempers high. I don’t know if I have the strength to use my telekinesis or even to swim underwater to get to that coastline; I’m even less sure if I want to. I need to think.

‘You know what? I’m going to go under for a bit. I can save some energy down there while we figure out what to do,’ I say. As I go down, I hear Ella call out.

‘Look for Six!’