Aunt Esther, who hadn’t seemed to be listening to the earlier part of the conversation, heard Theo. She said, “No one’s going back to that island. I don’t know what we stumbled onto, but it’s very dangerous.”

“That woman, though—” Theo began.

“That woman saved us from being killed by that . . . that . . . thing,” Jaime said. “What did you say it was?”

“A giraffe-owary,” Theo said. “Cassowary and giraffe.”

“She might have saved us from something worse,” Tess said.

Theo stuck his hand in his spray-dampened curls, tugged to remind himself he wasn’t in a dream. “What could be worse than being killed by a giraffe-owary?”

“I could think of a lot of things,” Tess muttered.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Aunt Esther said, “that woman was a very helpful person who escorted you safely to the beach and out of harm’s way.”

“She called to something in the water!” Theo said. “Some kind of . . .” He trailed off. He didn’t know what was in the water. A shark-owary. A tiger-phin. A dolph-bear. Your garden-variety giant squid with eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Did she call to something?” Aunt Esther said. “Well. That is quite unlikely, but even if she did, it worked out for us. Those people aren’t following our boat, and it doesn’t seem as if the authorities have been called. Whoever is on that island, they want to keep what they’re doing a secret.”

“But what if they recognized us?” Theo said.

Aunt Esther frowned. “Why would they recognize you?”

Theo stuttered, searching for a reason. Tess filled it in.

“Because of the video with Nine. That lady who said Nine bit her,” she said. “They could figure out who we are. We could get in trouble. You could get in trouble.”

“Hmmm,” Aunt Esther growled. “Then we will have to keep an eye out, won’t we?”

“How?” said Theo.

“We’ll call in our own reinforcements.”

“What reinforcements?” Jaime asked.

Aunt Esther raised a brow. “You’re not the only one who knows a few superheroes.”

Aunt Esther returned the boat to her friend’s boat slip in Flushing, anchored it. Then, she herded Theo, Tess, and Jaime onto the Underway to Astoria. Back at Aunt Esther’s house, they found Theo and Tess’s parents sitting in the living room, eating oatmeal cookies.

Theo’s dad smiled. “Lance seems to be broken, Esther. He won’t stop baking.” He stood when he got a better look at them. “What happened to you?”

“Oh,” said Aunt Esther, waving her hand breezily. “It was such a nice day, so I took the kids boating. Wouldn’t you know it, everyone got a little bit seasick. So we cut our trip short.”

“Seasick?” said Theo’s mom. “You two never get seasick.”

“It’s mostly me, Mrs. Biedermann,” said Jaime. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on a boat.”