Mohamed looked at Sam, tried to meet his gaze, looking for something: Understanding? Forgiveness?
But Sam wasn’t looking at him. Sam’s face was like stone.
“You would have just gotten yourself killed,” Astrid said.
Mohamed grabbed Sam’s wrist. “But I didn’t even try.”
Sam looked at him as if he had just remembered Mohamed was there. His cold gaze flickered and became human again. “This isn’t your fault, Mo. You couldn’t have stopped Drake. The only one who could have stopped him is me.”
SEVENTEEN
20 HOURS, 19 MINUTES
“SOUND THE ALARM,” Sam ordered.
The alarm was a big brass bell they’d taken from one of the boats and mounted atop the two-story marina office.
Edilio ran to the tower, climbed up and up, and began ringing the bell.
A part of Sam’s mind was curious how well everyone would behave. They had practiced this three times before. When the bell rang certain kids were to run to the fields and alert kids there.
Each tent or trailer had an assigned boat to go to—either to the houseboats or sailboats, or onto smaller boats, anything bigger than a rowboat.
Edilio rang the bell and the few kids standing nearby looked around baffled.
“Hey!” Sam yelled. “This is not a drill; this is the real thing! Do it the way Edilio taught you!”
Brianna appeared in her usual startling way. “What’s up?”
“Drake,” Sam said. “But before you worry about him, make sure we’re getting everyone back from the fields. Go!”
Dekka came at a run. Slower than Brianna. “What is it?”
“Drake.”
Something electric passed between them and Sam had to stop himself from laughing out loud. Drake. Something definite. Something real. An actual, tangible enemy. Not some vague process or mysterious force.
Drake. He could picture him clearly in his mind’s eye.
He knew that Dekka was doing the same.
“He’s been seen with a pack of coyotes. It looks like they killed someone. Howard, most likely.”
“You think he’s on his way here?”
“Probably.”
“How soon?” Dekka asked.
“Don’t know. Don’t even know for sure he’s coming this way. As soon as Brianna’s free I’ll send her to scout.”
“No mercy this time,” Dekka said.
“None,” Sam agreed. “Do your thing.”
Dekka’s “thing” was basically being Dekka. She was respected to the point of awe by younger kids. Everyone knew she had been right up close with the most gruesome kind of death. She’d also been the one who saved the littles when Mary took the poof. And, of course, everyone knew how highly Sam thought of her.
So her place during the drills had been standing by the dock while everyone rushed to the boats. She was the antipanic presence. You just could not freak out when Dekka was eyeballing you.
Kids were just beginning to stream in from the fields, trotting along with all the food they could carry, watched over by a flitting Brianna.
The kids who had been in camp were already emptied out of the trailers and tents and had begun to take their places on the boats at the dock.
As soon as the boats had all their assigned passengers they cast off and rowed or poled or just drifted out onto the lake.
Orc came into view accompanying Sinder and Jezzie, all three weighed down with vegetables. Sam debated sharing his suspicions with Orc and decided against it. He might need Orc’s strength and near indestructibility. He couldn’t have the boy-monster charging off on his own.
In thirty minutes most of the population was in the motley collection of sailboats, motorboats, cabin cruisers, and houseboats that formed the Lake Tramonto armada.
In an hour all eighty-three kids were in seventeen different craft.
Sam looked out at the lake with some satisfaction. They had planned for this day, and amazingly enough, the plan had worked. All his people were on the water. The water they were on was drinkable, so there was no question of thirst. The lake provided a reasonable amount of fish, and all their stores of food were likewise in the boats.
And the kids could quite easily survive out there on the boats for a good week, maybe even two, without much problem.
If you ignored the fact that accidents would happen. And stupidity would happen.
And if you ignored the fact that the whole world might be dark very soon.
And that something was scrambling kids and coyotes together like they were making an omelet.
The only boat that didn’t pull out was the White Houseboat. Sam, Astrid, Dekka, Brianna, Toto, and Edilio met on deck, out where anxious kids peering from the surrounding mismatched watercraft could see them. (Sinder, Jezzie, and Mohamed had been packed off to other boats.) It was important to send the signal that they had things under control. Sam wondered how long that illusion would last.
“Okay, first things first,” Sam said looking at Brianna.
“I got it,” she said. She had her runner’s backpack. The one with a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun sticking through the bottom, turning the pack into a holster.
“Wait!” Sam yelled before she could disappear. “Find. Look.” He pointed his finger at her and leaned forward, making sure she heard. “And come back.”
Brianna made a fake wounded expression and said, “What, you think I would go and pick a fight? Me?”
That earned a laugh from everyone but Dekka, and the sound of that laugh was reassuring to the scared kids in the boats.