We had a plan. I’m supposed to stick to it. I’m supposed to wait until either I don’t hear anything else or it’s dark, or until they push the compressed air blast telling me to come in. Still fucking hate it.
There’s a gunshot. It’s the first thing I’ve heard over the water in an hour—maybe ninety minutes. I have no idea how long I’ve been here. I can’t get a good read on the time of day through the tightly packed vegetation. I strain, listening for anything else, but there’s nothing. I reposition myself. Maybe I should move to another spot, but no, I stay put. I stretch out my muscles.
Five minutes pass, ten, and then I hear something. Is it a boar? There’s rustling. It’s not loud enough to be a person.
Then I see it—a flash of white, low to the ground, behind a clump of ferns to the north of my thicket. A brown nose pokes in at me.
“What are you doing here, girl?” I ask.
She pushes at me. If ever there was a dog that wanted me to go, it’s this one right now.
“You want me to follow, Penny?”
She sneezes.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Okay, okay, yeah, take me. Where do I need to go? Let’s go.”
Somehow, the dog is walking silently through the woods, and I practice all the things that Green taught me—around the thicket, around the side, near the rocks of the bluff on the southern side. Why the hell didn’t I study this part of the island better? I should have explored more. Damn, I hope the dog knows where she’s going, but her nose is to the ground.
We’re moving and moving. I’m going as fast as she can, staying with her, stepping carefully. My eyes scan the horizon as best I can.
This area of the jungle is so dense, but I can still hear the ocean to my right. We’re heading toward Pomelo Beach, toward the waterfall. We go and go and go. Penny darts forward, around a tree.
“Oh my, Penny, I could have shot you.” It’s Haley.
“Haley, it’s me,” I say, coming around the edge of the tree.
Haley’s holding a gun. “Easton.” She puts the gun down on the pack next to her and throws her arms around my neck. “It’s horrible. They took Calvin, but I knew I should stay here because they didn’t know I was here.”
“They took Calvin?”
“Yes, there was a pirate, and he had a gun. I didn’t want to look too much because the pirate hadn’t seen me, but I think with the two of us, we should go after him.”
I take the gun from the pack and swing the pack over my shoulder. “Good girl, Penny,” I say. “Yeah, let’s go after them. But silently. I think I know just the way.”
We walk back through my thicket, past the Bird of Paradise field, close to where the other pit was. The bamboo is all broken—someone has fallen into the pit. We look down. There’s no one.
Twenty minutes later, we’re close to camp.
“Stay here,” I say.
“I’m not staying here.”
“Okay, all right. Together. We’ll do it together. No more splitting up.”
“Exactly,” Haley nods and whispers to me. “That’s what I said all along.”
“Stay here, Penny,” I say. Penny cocks her head, then lies down.
“Good girl,” Haley praises her quietly.
I can’t help but wink at Haley when she says it, and her eyes widen. This isn’t the time for flirting, but with Haley, I can’t stop myself.
The best way to see what’s going on in camp is to go around the back, underneath the treehouse, near the ramp that Zane and Calvin installed for Penny. Haley and I move with stealth. I have the gun raised, and Haley’s behind me—at least she’s letting me go first.
It’s quiet, though—quieter than it’s ever been here. I can hear the ocean, but the jungle is silent. There are no birds, and the wind has stopped with the rain and storm passing. I peek around the banyan map tree. There’s no one in camp, but the net we had hanging over the trail to the waterfall has definitely been deployed. The rope hangs silent, still, from the tree.
I cock my head at Haley and motion for her to stay put, to run if something happens. She nods. I move into the kitchen, crouching low, keeping myself out of view. The table has beenknocked over, and when I round it, that’s when I see there’s a body underneath the rubble of rocks. But there’s no one else here.
