Eva stiffened. “Why are you doubting me?”
“I’m not!” Aaron said in a harsh whisper. “I’m doubting me. I don’t think we have enough weapons or people yet to make this successful. But we’re certainly messed up if the old man survives.”
Eva didn’t much care for Aaron’s continual negative remarks about Marcus’s age, seeing as she was a year or two older than Marcus herself. But now was not the time to quibble. “It’s all part of the plan,” she said. “I’ll take care of him.”
“You keep saying that. You’ll . . . take care of him.” Aaron averted his eyes and wondered if he could really trust her to do the dirtiest of all deeds. “You mean you’ll kill him. Right?”
Paradise
We probably shouldn’t stay long,” Samheed said. He slipped out of his sandals and took off his component vest, and then he hesitated, looking at it. “Should we wear these?”
Lani, who’d been intent on studying the island for several minutes, knew instinctively what Samheed was talking about without having to avert her gaze. She’d thought of the same thing a moment earlier, and thus had time to think. “The paper components will be ruined, and the clay components will melt in the water and make a mess in our pockets.” She turned her gaze to her friends. “Besides, I don’t think there’s anybody living on this island anymore. I haven’t seen or heard a single thing.”
“We could bring just the metal and rubber components with us in case we need them,” Meghan said. “And leave the vests here.”
Samheed nodded. “That sounds good.” He took out a few scatterclips and dementia spells and slid them into his pants pocket, leaving his vest on the boat seat. The others did the same.
Lani cast the magical anchor spell, as was laid out in the instructions by the captain’s wheel, and felt a slight tug of the boat when the waves tried to wash them closer in. Satisfied, she slipped off her shoes as well. “I wish we’d thought to bring swimsuits, or at least other clothes to change into later.”
Meghan shrugged and climbed over the side of the boat. “We’ll dry.” She jumped in with a big splash and when she surfaced, she said, “It’s all part of the adventure! Come on, you guys!”
Samheed and Lani needed no more urging. They joined Meghan in the water, forgetting to be quiet now and striking out in the cool water toward the shore. When they could reach the bottom, they began wading toward the beautiful sand that sparkled before them. As they neared they began to run, splashing in the shallow water. Meghan collapsed on the wet sand, and Lani fell next to her, causing Samheed to trip over her leg and fall down too.
“Ahhh,” Meghan said, the waves lapping at her feet. “This feels good.” Little ocean bugs scurried about on the sand, being water-lifted to other places without a moment’s notice.
Lani wrung her long hair out and playfully slapped Samheed in the face with the ends of it.
“Watch it,” Samheed growled, but he had to admit getting to hang around with two creative, smart, talented girls on a beautiful beach was not his idea of a bad time at all.
The three of them lounged on the shore, eyes closed. It wasn’t much different from lying on the beach of Artimé, but when they thought of the adventure they’d taken to get here, it seemed somehow very special.
Suddenly Lani sat up. “Something’s weird,” she said.
Meghan shielded her eyes with her hand. “What’s weird?”
Samheed sat up too. “I was just thinking that same thing.”
“It’s too quiet,” Lani said. “I mean, there’s no sound at all since we reached the shore except for our own voices.”
“No birds, no tree frogs . . . I can understand. But no noise from the waves? That’s strange.” Samheed knitted his brows. “I’m not sure about this place.”
Lani looked at him, concerned. She glanced at Meghan, who had risen to an elbow now. “Huh,” Meghan said.
As the three of them looked at one another, they wondered if they should perhaps heed the worrisome grip of fear in their chests and run at their highest speed away from the strangely quiet island. But there was no time to process the thought, for a moment later they each felt a sharp, severe poke between their shoulder blades. Without even a chance to cry out or see what had hit them, Meghan, Lani, and Samheed exchanged an identical look of terror before their bodies went limp and they dropped back to the sand, unconscious.
Missing
Once the meeting adjourned and Mr. Today went back inside to prepare his notes for the peace meeting, Alex set off to find his friends, at first methodical and measured in his motions. But then, when it became apparent that they were not in their rooms, the lounge, the dining hall, or the third floor of the library, he moved hurriedly, to no avail.
“Why arrre you rrrunning arrround like that?” asked Simber from his usual post inside the mansion, slightly annoyed by the boy’s constant slamming of the front door and whisking about through nearby tubes and flying up and down stairs. “I’m trrrying to catch up on my sleep now that the gate is up again.”
“Have you seen Samheed, Meg, and Lani?” He said it so quickly that it sounded like one word, SammyMeghanLani. “Did they go into Quill? Did we lock them out by mistake?” He was frantic and sweaty, his hair sticking to his forehead as he ran around.
“Calm down,” Simber said. “I’m sure Marrrcus made arrrangements forrr that. Did you check with the girrrinos?”