Chapter 3
Ruth dragged me into the house and locked three bolts behind us.
The inside looked nothing like an ordinary home.
Maps covered the walls. Red lines marked beaches from Florida to Cuba. Newspaper clippings filled an entire bookcase. Several photographs showed strange shapes beneath the ocean.
On the kitchen table sat a framed picture of my mother.
Evelyn looked younger than I remembered.
She was standing beside Ruth.
My legs went weak.
“You really are her mother.”
Ruth looked at the photograph.
“She told you I was dead because I asked her to.”
“Why would you do that?”
“To make the lie complete.”
An engine stopped outside.
Ruth moved to the window but stayed beneath the frame.
I held the baby against my chest.
Her legs looked human now, but thin silver lines remained along her ankles. She watched me without blinking.
“What does Vale want with her?”
“The same thing he wanted with you. Blood. Tissue. Answers.”
“Why didn’t he take me years ago?”
“He tried.”
A car door slammed outside.
Then another.
Ruth reached beneath the kitchen table and pulled out an old flare gun.
“That won’t stop them.”
“It might buy us thirty seconds.”
Someone knocked on the front door.
Three slow knocks.
“Ms. Bell,” a man called. “We know Claire is inside.”
I looked at Ruth.
“How does he know me?”
“Vale has always known where you were.”
My stomach twisted.
The man knocked again.
“Claire, my name is Dr. Elias Grant. The infant you’re holding is dangerously ill. We can help her.”
The baby made a soft clicking sound.
Ruth shook her head.
“He’s lying.”
“How do I know you aren’t?”
“You don’t.”
That answer frightened me more than an excuse would have.
Ruth opened a cabinet and pressed something behind a stack of plates. A section of the floor lifted, revealing a narrow staircase.
“Go.”
I didn’t move.
“Where does that lead?”
“To the mangroves.”
The front doorknob turned.
“Claire,” Dr. Grant called, “that child cannot breathe air for long. If she dies, it will be because you trusted the wrong person.”
I looked down.
The baby was breathing quickly.
Her skin felt cold.
“What if he’s telling the truth?”
Ruth’s eyes hardened.
“Evelyn believed him once.”
The front window shattered.
A small canister rolled across the floor.
White gas hissed from it.
Ruth kicked it into the corner.
“Now!”
We rushed down the hidden staircase. Ruth pulled the floor closed above us.
The tunnel below smelled of salt and wet earth. It was barely tall enough to stand in.
The baby coughed.
I covered her mouth loosely with the clean edge of my shirt and followed Ruth through the darkness.
Behind us, heavy footsteps entered the house.
A man shouted, “The passage is open!”
They knew about the tunnel.
Ruth began running.
Light appeared ahead.
We emerged beneath a wooden dock extending over a narrow channel.
A small boat was tied to a post.
Ruth climbed inside and started the motor.
I stepped aboard just as a man appeared at the tunnel entrance.
He raised a tranquilizer weapon.
Ruth pushed the throttle.
The dart struck the side of the boat.
We sped between the mangroves.
The channel was so narrow that branches brushed both sides. Behind us, a second motor roared to life.
“They have a boat,” I said.
“They always come prepared.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the only person Evelyn trusted after I disappeared.”
“Who?”
Ruth looked at me.
“Your father.”
“My father left when I was twelve.”
“No. Thomas was taken.”
Every answer opened another wound.
I remembered waiting beside the living room window for him. I remembered birthdays when no cards came. I remembered convincing myself that he had chosen a new family somewhere far away.
“You’re saying Vale took him too?”
“I don’t know. But three weeks ago, I received a message in Thomas’s code.”
Ruth reached into her pocket and handed me a small metal disk.
One side was carved with a spiral.
The other held three words.
SHE IS RETURNING.
“The baby?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
The pursuing boat appeared behind us.
Two men stood in the bow.
One aimed a weapon.
Ruth swerved.
The dart passed over my shoulder.
The baby began to cry.
Then the water around us changed.
Hundreds of small fish burst from the surface. The boat engine sputtered.
A deep vibration moved through my chest.
The infant’s cry grew louder.
The water beneath the pursuing boat lifted.
Not a wave.
Something enormous rose underneath it.
The boat flipped sideways.
The men fell into the channel.
Ruth stared at the baby.
“She called for help.”
I looked into the brown water.
A silver shape moved beneath us.
The woman from the beach had followed.
She surfaced beside our boat.
Up close, I could see cuts across her shoulder and a dark metal band around her neck.
The baby reached for her.
The woman reached back.
I wanted to hand the child over.
Every instinct told me that a mother belonged with her baby.
Then I saw the metal band flash red.
Ruth fired the flare gun.
The flare struck the water between us.
The woman recoiled with a scream.
“What are you doing?” I shouted.
“That collar is Vale’s.”
The woman grabbed the side of the boat.
Her fingers were webbed, but her grip looked human.
“Child,” she gasped.
“She wants the baby.”
“No,” Ruth said. “Listen to her.”
The woman’s silver eyes fixed on mine.
“Child… run.”
A red light pulsed around her throat.
She suddenly arched backward.
Her hands slipped from the boat.
Then she disappeared beneath the surface.
A second later, something struck our hull hard enough to throw me against the seat.
The baby almost fell from my arms.
I held her tighter.
Ruth drove out of the channel and into open water.
A helicopter appeared over the trees.
The Vale Marine Research logo was painted across its side.
A loudspeaker crackled.
“Claire Bell, stop the boat. You are carrying a protected biological specimen.”
“A specimen?” I shouted. “She’s a baby!”
The helicopter lowered.
Wind whipped the water around us.
A man stood at the open door with a camera.
Beside him was someone I recognized.
My older sister, Natalie.
She looked directly at me.
Then she spoke into the loudspeaker.
“Claire, please stop running.”
I could barely hear my own voice.
“Natalie?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Give them the baby.”
I stared at the sister who had raised me after our parents disappeared.
The sister I had trusted more than anyone.
“Why are you with them?”
May you like
Her answer shattered what remained of my world.
“Because Dr. Vale promised the baby could save my daughter.”
