“So that he would find me before you.”
“Exactly.”
I looked at him questioningly. “But why did he say Kjertan was Rayk?”
“Maybe because he was afraid that I couldn’t believe Kjertan would do that.” Nathan rubbed his forehead in disbelief. “And I, the idiot, sent him away.”
“Why Troy?” I wanted to know, unable to believe it. “He was the one who was nice to me from the start. He was the only one who always gave me a bit of information.”
“Why do you think? Because he knew you wouldn’t survive, so he could basically tell you almost anything. That’s why. He bought your trust with information, so to speak. And he was only nice so that you would never suspect him if anything went wrong…” Nathan suddenly stopped.
There was a rattling and humming noise in the distance, like an ancient generator. “What is that?”
“A motorboat.”
My heart almost stopped. “Isaac?”
“No, wait…” He put his finger to his lips, listening while I stood there frozen in shock. “It’s moving away… Maybe Noah took our boat so I couldn’t get you off the island.”
“What?”
“He’s clever. He’ll think I asked you about the call history…” He pulled the file from under his belt and pressed it into my hand. “Come with me!”
“To where?” I stared at the tool, hoping he wouldn’t ask me to fight.
“We have to get out of here now,” Nathan said with dark determination. “If Noah did talk to Isaac, he definitely gave him our coordinates. Then it’s only a matter of hours before he shows up here.”
“Isaac is nearby?” His finely chiseled face flashed in my mind with his cold smile.I want you. I want you, body and soul: to possess, destroy, and kill.
Nathan unhooked the door and took my hand. “Isaac knows that there is only one place in the world where I feel truly safeand where I always retreat to.” He looked at me. “He is definitely near the bayous, waiting every day for a message from Noah…but he could search for a hundred years and never find us here. Only if Noah gave him the coordinates…”
I felt like I was going crazy. “How did he get the coordinates…” I stopped, remembering where they were, but Nathan shook his head as if he had read my thoughts.
“Noah never saw the coordinates on my back. I never changed in front of the others. I always made sure of that. And Isaac doesn’t know them by heart. There are fourteen digits, and besides, he would never suspect a hiding place behind them, and the place isn’t directly on the island either. No, he did it in an easier way by quickly switching on the GPS signal on the cell phone and using the compass. He had plenty of time.”
Fearful, I stepped out of the hut behind Nathan. The swamp suddenly seemed hostile, like a place of horror where vicious crimes were committed. Maybe I would be buried here just like Lea. I blinked several times, standing there as if in shock.
“Let’s check to see if the boat is still there,” Nathan said quietly, squeezing my fingers. “If it is gone, we’ll have to walk.”
If he had told me I had to lie down in a snake pit, I would have been less afraid. I thought of the coral snakes, the vulture turtles, the alligators, the giant spiders, and the cold, murky water.
I shuddered. Darkness now lay over the swamp like a gloomy canopy, and as we walked back along the bank under the cover of the bushes and night, we spoke not a word only exchanged glances. I prayed that the boat was still there, but my pleas went unheard.
The dock lay deserted, lonely, as if no one had been there in years. There was no light in the hut, but I spotted a shadow.
“Icarus,” I whispered. “He’s still here.”
Nathan’s lips thinned. “We’re going alone.”
“But we have nothing to eat or drink. We have no fresh clothes. We have nothing.” I stared numbly at our stilt house, which had sheltered us for so long. Somehow, even it seemed threatening now.
“Hey.” Nathan smiled encouragingly at me. “Today, we’ll try to get to our wild boar hut, and tomorrow, we’ll see if we can find other huts and supplies on land, okay?”
I merely nodded and tried to pull myself together since this was all my fault. If I hadn’t taken Nathan’s cell phone, Troy would never have had the opportunity to contact Isaac—because I was almost certain he had.
We hurried back and packed up clothes from the huts on the south end, which were so old and full of holes that we had previously rejected them. Nathan made a makeshift bag out of an old cloth and I even found a bottle of water in our secret hiding place, in a hut where Nathan and I had often met. When we stood on the bank, I was paralyzed. Before us lay the floating forest that seemed so magical and peaceful during the day. Now, the trees were in pitch blackness. Even though the fog had crept away over the Atchafalaya Basin and the half-moon light was pushing through the treetops, you couldn’t see more than ten yards ahead. And ten yards wasn’t that far in a swamp where dangers lurked everywhere in the water.
“Come on, climb on my back!” Nathan ordered, kneeling.
