A great whoosh happened then. It was watery. It was shark-y. And it was explorer-y. All three tumbled into the cove in a wave, and it was hard to observe what happened next. It was all swirls of water and waves of foam. Finally things got less messy. A little fin could be seen swimming toward a larger fin as the larger fin swam toward the smaller. But more than that, a moment later a redhead could be seen being pulled under the surf.
“It’s got her!” said Evie in terror, and she ran toward the water.
“Evie, no!” Ruby cried out.
But Evie didn’t listen. She knew somewhere deep down that there was pretty much nothing she could do to fight off a shark, but she couldn’t believe that there was nothing she could do to help. Just as she arrived at the shoreline, the redhead bobbed up above the water again, this time much farther out. Catherine waved her arms for a moment above the waves, and then she went under again. Evie felt an uncontrollable urge to dive into the water.
Ruby’s firm hand restrained her.
Evie turned and looked at her. “We have to help!”
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Ruby. She was staring hard out into the water. “And besides, look!” Evie turned and watched as Catherine’s head reappeared above the waves even farther out now. She was still flailing, but it didn’t quite look like she was being eaten by a giant beast in the sea, really. Maybe she wasn’t injured. Maybe it was simply the waves being too strong.
That was it!
Catherine hadn’t been pulled out by the shark; she’d been pulled out by the strong undertow of the waves.
“We should swim out, save her,” said Evie.
Ruby nodded. “Not we. I’ll do it.” She quickly removed her shoes, but as she did, Evie noticed something out in the water. Something horrifying.
A large dark gray fin.
Heading directly toward the red bobbing head.
“Ruby, look!” cried Evie.
Steve was making a beeline right for Catherine. He was coming so fast, he was almost there. Evie wanted to look away, but something rooted her to the spot. She stared, too shocked to move, too shocked to close her eyes, too shocked to do anything but watch the demise of Catherine Lind. One of the greatest animal experts in the history of the world.
The shark attacked and pushed Catherine’s body up out of the water. It continued to push so hard that Catherine fell over the top of it and landed on the shark’s back. That was kind of weird. Why hadn’t it taken a bite out of her? They watched as the shark dipped back underwater and Catherine turned around to hold on to its fin. Then it swam. It swam…right…for them.
“Move, move, move!” said Ruby, grabbing Evie by her shirtsleeve and dragging her up the beach.
The shark approached as fast as their truck, and it looked like it was going to barrel right into them, up the beach and everything. Suddenly it turned sharply in the shallows, Catherine rolling off its back abruptly into the water. And then it swam back into the deep. Evie noticed a little fin making small circles off in the distance waiting for Steve’s return.
This time Ruby and Evie ran toward the water and into it. They each grabbed an arm and helped Catherine as she crawled onto the sand, coughing and breathing hard.
When they were safely out of the water, Catherine rolled over onto her back.
“What was that?” asked Evie, collapsing into the sand beside her.
Catherine lay still, catching her breath. Everything seemed to calm down. Even the waves seemed less violent in that moment.
“That,” wheezed Catherine, “was a thank-you.” She propped herself up onto her elbows and looked out into the water. Evie did likewise, and they watched as a big fin approached a little fin, and then both sharks swam out toward the edge of the cove until they seemed to disappear over the horizon, heading off—well, who knew where—but heading off that way. Together.
The journey to the airport felt longer than the journey from it. Of course, that might have had something to do with the chase sequence that had been quite a distraction from the passing of time. Still, all the day’s events weighed heavily on Sebastian’s shoulders, and he didn’t mind the slightly longer ride, just to rest his eyes for a moment. But eventually he was passing under the inverted Y towers of the Incheon Bridge and saw the spaceship-looking airport in the distance, that brightly lit beacon unchanged from two days ago. It was a most welcome sight. Now all he had to do was get inside, call his parents, get them to buy him a ticket on the next flight out, overnight his passport or something, and then he’d be home. He’d be home. Safe. With his family.
And then, of course, he’d have to decide whether he really wanted to go in search of Alistair Drake after all this. It seemed an exhausting prospect, but it wasn’t entirely unwelcome. After all, as weird and scary as his two days in South Korea had been, at times he had also had some amazing experiences. And met some pretty amazing people as well.
“Just drop me off at departures,” said Sebastian.
The cabbie didn’t reply, but that was okay. Even if he dropped Sebastian off at arrivals, Sebastian would find his way.
Except the cabbie didn’t actually seem to be heading toward departures or arrivals. He seemed, in fact, to be taking a different route entirely into the airport complex.
“Um, sir?” asked Sebastian. He leaned forward and noticed that his cabdriver wasn’t a man after all. She also wasn’t Korean. “Oh, sorry. Um, ma’am, I guess. Um, where are we going?”
But the cabbie still said nothing.
And at this point Sebastian began to feel his breath get short again. And the knots in his stomach that had just untied themselves glanced up and said, Again? before retying themselves even tighter.
Even though they were moving fast, Sebastian tried the door handle. He feared it wasn’t a risk to do so, and he was right: the door was locked. He sat there, helpless, panic rising up from his toes and filling his body. Soon the cab turned a corner, and Sebastian found himself on the tarmac. But not just any tarmac, no, the tarmac where the private planes loaded and unloaded. The cab pulled up in front of a plane. But even worse than that, the cab pulled up in front of three men standing sentinel: one whose jaw was wired shut, one whose face was half-melted, and one wearing an eye patch.
They surrounded the car, and Sebastian felt completely helpless. The woman in the front seat turned around. “This is your captain speaking. We hope you’ve enjoyed your time sightseeing in Seoul. We’ll be taking off shortly. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.”
And with that, his door was yanked open by a grinning Mr. M, and Sebastian was pulled rather unceremoniously out of the cab.
It was a very quiet dinner. The sky was turning a rich blue over the cove, and the trees were falling into shadow. The air hummed with the sound of a thousand cicadas. It sounded like the insects were singing a song of victory in Evie and Catherine’s honor. Evie thought it was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever heard. A cool breeze picked up, and she wrapped the thin blanket around her shoulders tightly as she bent over and helped herself to a second helping of stew.
“My favorite dinner,” said Thom when she did.
“But two nights in a row, Dad?” said Ruby, leaning back in her seat and bringing her legs up under her.
“Hey, you don’t know. It could even be more than that.” Thom smiled, and Evie could see then the family resemblance between father and daughter. “So,” he said, “what time do you want to leave tomorrow?”
“Well, the flight’s at noon, and it’ll take a couple of hours to get to Cairns…,” said Catherine.
“Let’s say we’ll leave at eight, just to be on the safe side,” concluded Thom.
Catherine nodded. “Thank you again for this,” she said.
“It’s the least I can do,” Thom said. “You saved the town. More important, you saved my little girl’s bu
siness. And if there’s one thing that Steve taught us, it’s that family is the most important thing.”
“Though, you did say no more exceptions,” said Evie.
“Well, I guess this is an exceptional exception, then,” said Thom, smiling again.
Evie smiled back. It seemed like the end of something even though it was only just the beginning. But it felt good, it felt hopeful and right. Tomorrow they would be off to Newish Isle. Tomorrow they would find the town and the volcano. Tomorrow they would find Benedict. And if they had been right in their educated guess, most important of all, they would find Sebastian. Help him. Save him.
And everything would be as it was supposed to be. And then they could finally, after all this time, begin their hunt for her grandfather.
It was all coming together.
And even though it was hardly the polite thing to do while still with company, Evie closed her eyes. And fell into a deep and restful sleep.
“This is our stop,” said Thom, rising and slowly maneuvering his way into the aisle of the bus.
“It is?” asked Evie. She looked out the window. They were on a narrow two-lane highway, with jungle stretching out on either side of them. It really didn’t look like they had arrived anywhere. Though, of course, technically, everywhere was an anywhere. Still. It confused her.
“Come on, Evie,” said Catherine. She was already following Thom to the front of the bus, and so Evie quickly jumped up and slipped out into the aisle herself.
The bus they were on was much smaller than the one they’d taken to Creaky Cove in Australia. This was more like an overly large van. And also unlike the bus to the cove, which had been practically empty, this one was full of passengers, some talking happily with each other, others getting a few extra moments of sleep. It was tricky getting to the front of the bus without bumping into someone or something. Evie apologized when she accidently fell against a woman’s shoulder as the bus came to a sudden stop, but the woman just smiled back at her and shook her head.
Evie made her way to the exit and stepped out into the thick, humid air.
The bus charged off the moment Evie’s foot had left the last step but before it had even made it to the ground to join the other one. She stumbled forward and turned in surprise, and watched as the bus vanished quickly around a bend.
“No time to waste, I guess,” said Thom.
Evie joined him and Catherine standing at the edge of the jungle. They had already journeyed quite a distance since landing on Newish Isle. This was their third bus and, Evie fervently hoped, their last. Though, looking around, she feared it wasn’t.
“Are we waiting for another bus now?” she asked, feeling quite dejected.
Thom shook his head and smiled brightly. “No! We’re almost there.”
“We are?”
“How skeptical you look! And yet you worked so hard to get me to take you all this way. Remember, you could be back in Cairns trying to find someone else,” said Thom.
“Oh! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful! I’m sorry.” That was the last thing Evie had intended.
Thom laughed. “No, of course. You’re tired. It’s been a very long journey. But we are, in fact, here.”
Thom turned and then walked straight into the thick brush, vanishing almost instantly in the dense, dark foliage.
Evie looked at Catherine for a moment, and then, shrugging in unison, they followed him.
The temperature dropped a full ten degrees in the shade of the dripping jungle, and it was so dark that Evie almost longed for a flashlight. She also could really have used a towel. She was seriously not used to all this humidity.
What she also wanted to do was ask Thom just how much farther they had to go and what came next, but the man was so determined to keep everything secret that she had stopped bothering to ask after bus number two. She supposed she should be grateful. He could have decided to blindfold them or something.
She followed behind Catherine, nervously, worried some beast might suddenly jump out at her, but then she realized that Catherine was a marvelous shield to travel behind. The explorer had clearly spent a lot of time in the jungle, and she knew exactly where to place a foot, when to duck, what to climb over. Evie copied her footsteps precisely. And of course if any beast did come and jump out at them, Evie was pretty sure she’d just have to cry out and Catherine would be able to save her. And then maybe adopt the beast as a pet or something.
They kept going and going, trudging along in what was—there was no other word for it—a tedious fashion. Evie’s feet were completely drenched, her shoes soaked through, and just when she could resist it no longer, when she felt the bubbling and rising of an “Are we there yet?” in her throat, they stopped.
“We’re here!” said Thom, grinning at them both, and then he pulled back a large palm frond, revealing…a small house.
That was it.
A small house sitting in a clearing maybe a hundred yards away, situated behind a little manicured garden. It sat on its own, with brush growing tall and thick beyond it.
“This…isn’t a town,” said Catherine, and Evie was grateful that Catherine was just as confused as she was.
Thom laughed as if she’d said the silliest thing that could have been said, and he walked up to the front of the low wooden bungalow. A chicken ran by as if to warn the owners of the arrival of strangers. Then Thom turned abruptly and walked to the far left-hand side of the house, its very edge, as it were, completely avoiding the front door. Evie now wondered if he planned on going around to the back, as she and Catherine had done at Erik’s.
No. No, that wasn’t his plan, it turned out.
His plan was…Well, his plan was to grab the side of the house and push, heaving the entire house to the side as if it was a sliding closet door or something, until a large gap in the foliage behind was revealed. Not just a gap but what looked to be an alley, at the end of which were houses and a dirt street, even, and, my goodness, the possibility of an entire town.
Cautiously Evie approached the gap, and even though she was dying to get a closer look at the town, she turned to have a closer look at the house. From her new angle she could see that it wasn’t a house at all. It was a “flat,” like a set piece for a play or film. It was two-dimensional but painted to appear three-dimensional from afar. She looked down and saw beneath her feet a deep groove out of which the “house” was protruding upward. How far into the earth it went, she had no idea, but it was deep enough so that the “house” could slide along inside the track and not be top heavy and fall over.
It was the strangest secret entrance she’d ever seen.
Then again, she hadn’t seen all that many secret entrances, so who was she to judge?
She turned and looked into the jungle on the right, examining it, and took a step in its direction.
“Careful,” said Thom. Evie looked at him, confused. “The house is on a natural bridge into the town. There’s a deep trench that encircles the rest of town and its surrounds, just hidden beyond those trees.”
“Oh!” said Evie, quickly taking a step back as if the earth below her might give way at any moment.
“Step on through, Evie,” said Thom with a smile. “I have to close the house behind you.”
Evie looked up and saw that Catherine had already passed through the opening and was now standing, her back to the town, waiting for Evie to follow.
“Oh, okay,” Evie said, and took a large exaggerated step over the groove. Then she turned back to Thom. He was standing behind her, on the front side of the house, and with one of his classic smiles, he began to slide the house back into place. “Wait!” cried Evie.
He stopped short. “Yes?”
“You’re not coming with us?”
“No. No, I need to get back home.” He looked quite comfortable with the idea.
&n
bsp; “But…” Evie was quiet for a moment.
Thom let go of the side of the building and walked up to her. Crouching down, he said, “But what?”
“But…” She didn’t know what to say. She felt nervous, even though she was with Catherine. When Thom left, the two of them would be alone for really the first time in a strange country, in a very strange town. Maybe she’d gotten too used to Ruby’s and Thom’s helpfulness.
“We’ll be fine, Evie,” said Catherine, coming up from behind. “We’ve got each other.” Evie was feeling a little frustrated with herself now. She hated when she sounded like a kid, and here she was, framed by two adults reassuring her that someone would take care of her. She’d been taking care of herself just fine for the last two years, thank you very much. And she’d more than held her own with Sebastian and their adventures around the city.
She gave a sharp nod and smiled. “Of course! I’m just being silly. Thank you, Thom!” She stuck out her hand. Thom stood up straight and took her hand in his, shaking it warmly.
“Yes, thank you,” said Catherine.
“My pleasure. I owed you. But I swear, you are the very last. That’s it! No more exceptions. Not even exceptional exceptions.” He held his finger up in the air as if making a grand proclamation. Which he kind of was.
Evie laughed.
And then Thom went back to his position at the edge of the house, and heaved it closed along the track. And soon he was out of sight, hidden behind the façade of a fake house. Or they were. Or all three were.
The house was painted on Evie’s side also, but it looked fresher, a little happier. Almost more three-dimensional, in a way. It was an impressive work of art, that was for sure.
“Come on, Evie,” said Catherine with a rare small smile, and Evie turned to follow her down the narrow alley. She glanced back over her shoulder and marveled at how the fake house was barely noticeable. Why the entrance needed to be concealed on this side, Evie had no idea, but it likely was as simple as someone wanting it to blend in with the surroundings.
The Reckless Rescue Page 17