“Sage!” he called to someone in the hall. “Would you remove Charlie’s IV? She’s recovering just fine, but have the kitchen hold her meals. She doesn’t seem to have her appetite yet.”
And with that, he was gone. A girl’s small frame replaced him in the doorway. Sage, Charlie guessed. The light caught her glazed eyes—she was blind. Despite this, she expertly navigated the room.
“Arm, please,” Sage ordered. Charlie held out her arm, and the girl withdrew the needle.
“Thanks,” Charlie said. Sage pursed her lips and nodded. Charlie admired the girl’s soft, straight hair. “Your hair’s a lovely shade of brown.” She watched the girl’s body tense. “I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong? I wasn’t even thinking.”
Sage wrapped the IV tubing around her wrist. “It’s all right,” she said.
Charlie watched as Sage straightened the sheets at the end of her bed. From the speed with which she did it, it looked like she’d been doing this job for quite a while.
“How long have you been blind?” Charlie asked.
“As long as I’ve been working here.”
“And how long’s that?”
Sage’s jaw tightened. “Four years.”
Charlie stared at the girl’s clothes. She looked like a maid of sorts. She wore a simple baby blue dress and a navy coat. Her straight hair hit her shoulders, framing her round face and accentuating her almond-shaped eyes.
“How’d it happened?” asked Charlie.
Sage shook her head. “We shouldn’t be talking. I shouldn’t have said anything at all.”
“Your hair really is a lovely chestnut,” said Charlie from her bed. “It’s the shade you get when you mix coffee with just the right amount of cream. My mom and dad used to drink coffee that color.”
Sage smiled faintly. “People used to say my mother’s hair was a lovely shade of chestnut. Like caramel mixed with coffee.” She rubbed her eyes. “My hair was blond when I came here. That was the last time I saw it. I guess my eyesight’s not the only thing that’s changed.”
“No,” Charlie said quietly. “I guess it’s not.” She breathed in deeply and asked the question that had plagued her mind since she’d spoken to Mrs. Bradbury. “Am I going to die in here?”
Sage stared at the floor, and wrapped several strands of chestnut hair around a finger before nodding slightly. “I—I think so, Miss Minos.”
Charlie lay back in her bed. “Oh,” she said, wondering if the same fate awaited Mrs. B and Kai too.
Sage walked toward the door, then turned. “Miss Minos?”
Charlie sat up slightly. “Yes?”
“Don’t believe everything you see, and don’t believe anything you hear.”
“Why’s that?”
The girl chewed her lip. “They—they’ve been putting hallucinogens in your fluids for the past week. Pumping you full of them while you slept.” And with that she left, closing the door behind her.
A pit formed in Charlie’s stomach. She called for Mrs. Bradbury.
Nothing.
She called again.
No response.
Mrs. Bradbury was no longer there. Charlie wondered if she’d ever been there at all.
For the first time since she’d woken, Charlie realized she was truly alone.
Chapter 6
The blond boy yanked me from the sand and threw me toward the building.
“CODE WHITE!” he yelled to its concrete walls. “WE HAVE A CODE WHITE ON THE SOUTH END OF THE ISLAND!”
I tried to remember what Mom had taught me about her research. She and Dad were the leading experts on megalodon behavior, and now I wished I hadn’t zoned out when she’d talked about work. The doodles I’d made in my notebooks instead wouldn’t help me now.
The thrashing in the water worsened as more megalodons arrived and tore the floating island into pieces. Kindred, Dove, and Sparky climbed out of the broken window and ran toward the beach, guns across their chests. Sparky tossed me one, but the blond boy intercepted it. He pulled another from his pocket, and pointed one at me and one at the monsters.
“We got enough ammo, Sparks?” he asked.
“Negative,” said Sparky, “though I admit I’m fairly conservative with my estimates.”
Tim wrapped a claw around Sparky’s gun and yawned. Apparently the action was a bit much for him.
Phoenix scratched his head. “How is that possible? Meels was supposed to get another shipment from the Tube.”
Sparky shook his head. “No, Phoenix. That was Bugsy’s job…”
So, the boy with the bulging muscles was named Phoenix. I thought of the bird on the strange woman’s fan in the Tube. It had been a Phoenix. I thought back to signs they’d hung at Buster’s Burgers in recent months. Pictures taken from security footage showing a blond-haired boy. PHOENIX McGANN, the words beneath the images read. THE FEDERATION’s #1 MOST WANTED.
Phoenix stared at his gun and sighed. The crunch of glass and plastic grew louder. He had to shout to be heard over it. “We have enough to tranquilize at least one.”
Sparky shook his head. “Negative. We have enough to maybe make one drowsy, but that’s it, boss. The cartridges we do have are expired. If they were people, well, then maybe we could down ten or twelve of them.”
“They’re not remotely people, Sparks. Where’s Big Bertha? She’ll have something for this. The tranquilizers aren’t enough.”
Big Bertha? There was a Lost Boy called Big Bertha? I glanced back at the building, imagining the arrival of a seven-foot she-woman with a blond Viking braid and bosoms the size of Mt. Mauna Loa.
“FOR CHRIST’S SAKE,” shouted a voice from the building, “CODE WHITE AT NINE IN THE FRICKIN’ MORNING?”
I guessed Big Bertha was near.
“Prepare yourself,” muttered Phoenix.
A black leather boot kicked down one of the building’s doors.
A petite girl not taller than five feet stood where the door had been knocked from its hinges. She had dark brown skin and eyes, and her lips were curled into a growl. Her short, cropped hair had been spun into braided balls, and her mouth was fixed in a frown, making her look a little like a trout.
Phoenix smiled. “What do you have for us, Big Bertha?”
This was Big Bertha? Five-foot-nothing was Big Bertha? Braided balls of fury? A light gust of wind could’ve blown her away. She rolled her eyes and gave Phoenix the finger.
“Real nice,” he said.
She slowly dragged a large black bag through the doorway.
“Perhaps,” said Phoenix, “it might be possible for you to hasten your pace a smidge? We do have megalodons swarming the island…”
“PATIENCE!” she shouted.
I had half a mind to run into the water right then. The megalodons might’ve had teeth, but the Lost Boys had guns. And likely torture. With the megalodons, at least it would be over quick.
I stared at the gun Phoenix still pointed in my direction. I couldn’t run, not yet. I had to wait for the perfect moment. Bertha still sorted through the bag. Her black braid balls stuck out from its depths.
I turned to Kindred. “That’s Big Bertha?”
She nodded.
“And the ‘big’ comes from where exactly?”
Bertha pulled out a gun the size of a lawnmower. She yanked the trigger and yelled. “CLEAR!” A ball of static electricity fired fifteen feet into the air.
“Oh,” I said quietly.
Kindred nodded, smiling like a proud mom. “She makes most of our guns, dear. The rest we borrow from the Federation.”