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Aunt Bibi winced when the spit hit her clean deck.

“How would a woman like you come upon scuba gear?” Laila asked.

The woman looked down, as if she were thinking up a lie. Which she probably was. “A man who visits with me. For money. He give it to me and say I can use it to swim out to catch a boat to America. I do, and I hide away. When the boat stop, I think we are in Boston, and I climb over the side. I see no city light. I try to get back aboard, but you chase me. I swim away at first. But there is nowhere to go, so I come back.”

Unfortunate if true, Laila had to concede. The woman had terrible luck, because Laila would not let her live.

Aunt Bibi looked at Laila and spoke in Arabic. “We cannot let her go in Boston. She has seen the submarine, and she can link it to me. The family lets me be free, but if they knew I was connected to your plans, that would change. All my crew would be at risk.”

“Agreed.” Laila waited, readying her argument.

“After you leave, Jin will kill her.” Aunt Bibi looked sad.

Argument forgotten, Laila gaped. She hadn’t expected it to be this easy. “You’d have to strip her naked, throw her overboard, then put her gear in a bag with weights and dump that a few kilometers after so it won’t be connected to her.”

“I know my business,” Jin said.

What was Jin’s business? Laila wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.

“No,” said Ambra, also in Arabic. “She’s innocent, and we don’t need to kill her. After tomorrow, this is all over. Why can’t we release her then? She doesn’t know anything—”

“She’s seen the Siren!” Laila said. “And the Pearl. And all of us.”

“What can she do with the information? She’s a Mexican prostitute. No one will listen to her.” Ambra folded her arms.

“Perhaps Ambra is correct.” Aunt Bibi looked at the woman uncertainly. “Perhaps there is another way.”

Elena Torres couldn’t understand what they were saying, but her eyes brimmed with tears. She knew they were determining her fate.

“Please don’t take me back to Canada,” she said. “Mr. McKay will be very angry.”

Going back to Canada was the least of her problems.

“Maybe we should take her back to Canada,” Aunt Bibi said in Arabic. “We could dump her in the water about a mile offshore from Halifax and let her take her chances on swimming to land.”

Laila had reached a decision. “Or we could do that in the Siren.”

Ambra’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Laila couldn’t leave the woman with Aunt Bibi if there was even a small chance Aunt Bibi would let her go. She had to take Elena Torres with them. Tomorrow, after they were finished and Ambra left the sub, she’d kill this Elena Torres herself and dump her body in the sea. “Yes, Ambra. You’re right: She’s probably an innocent. We can release her after we’ve completed our mission, when she’s no longer a threat to us.”

Aunt Bibi studied Laila’s face as if deciding whether to trust her. She must have, because she turned to Jin. “Escort this woman to the submarine and make sure she is suitably restrained.”

To the woman, she said in English, “They will take you to America, but you must swim ashore yourself.”

“Yes, señora,” the woman said. “Gracias. Thank you. You are so kind to me.”

Ambra gave Laila a long look, then took the prisoner’s arm and led her across the deck. Jin followed at a distance, as if she worried Torres might attack her.

A good policy.

Chapter 41

Vivian stumbled across the yacht’s pitching deck. She didn’t like her odds. As part of her Army training, she’d taken a class to learn Arabic. Her Arabic wasn’t as good as her Pashto, but she didn’t need to be a linguistic genius to know they’d been talking about how and when to kill her. The one with the gun, Jin, looked like someone who’d pull the trigger without hesitation. The guards looked pretty serious, too. The three women who’d argued over her she wasn’t so sure about.

Jin and the guards seemed to work for the woman who owned the yacht, and Plan A was to get the hell away from Jin. The chubby one, Ambra, had seemed to be arguing for letting her go. She might become an ally. So, going with her was Plan B.

No one had questioned Vivian’s scared-prostitute act, but that might be because they didn’t really care where she came from because they planned to kill her anyway. Or, she was a fantastic actress, she’d tugged at their heartstrings, and they intended to let her go. That wasn’t much to bet her life on.

Glascoe and Tesla would send the Navy for her. She still had a transponder tucked into the top of her dive bootie. They’d find her. She was glad she’d sent Tesla out. He’d do whatever it took to get her back. Plus, he would have made a terrible hostage.

Jin poked her hard in the ribs with a gun barrel. “Walk.”

Vivian walked. She assumed they were taking her to a stateroom where they’d lock her in. She’d sit tight and wait for rescue, escape if she got close to shore. Not great options, but she’d work with what she had. At least she had regular air to breathe.

The white cabin of the yacht towered over her head. Everything was immaculate — freshly painted, spotless, and shiny. The captain ran a tight ship. So long as Vivian stayed in her good graces, maybe she’d get out of this alive.

Then she saw the sub.

The rounded hull rode above the waves, blacker than the water, blacker than the sky. Three women stood on the deck holding assault rifles. Their postures weren’t as precise as the guards on the yacht, but they still looked like they knew how to use the weapons.

“Go onto the deck.” Jin pointed at the submarine.

“No.” If she went onto the sub, she’d lose a lot of control. She wouldn’t be able to see if she was close to land. If she was able to escape, she’d have no idea if she was stranding herself in the middle of the ocean. She looked at the lit windows of the yacht. “I stay here.”

Jin prodded her hard enough to leave a bruise. “Go.”

The four women behind Jin glared at Vivian and raised their guns.

“What is that thing? I don’t want to go there,” Vivian said. “It doesn’t look safe.”

She did a quick scan of the horizon. No ships. No sign of shore. Not that she’d expected any. The remoteness of the location was why everyone had picked it.

“You go on that ship, or you go in the water with a bullet in your back,” said Jin.

Not much of a conversationalist, Jin. But she did get her point across.

“Please. Let me speak to the nice lady.” Any of the other ladies were nicer than Jin.

Jin leveled her gun at Vivian’s head. “You’re speaking to me. I say get on the other ship, or die right here. We can roll your body right into the water. No problem.”

The woman wasn’t bluffing.

Chapter 42

Laila and Ambra climbed onto the Siren ahead of the prisoner. Laila just wanted to get away from the Pearl and complete her mission before something else went wrong.

“You first.” Jin gestured to one of her guards. The woman looked like a bodybuilder. She was so huge Laila worried she might get stuck in the tube leading down from the sail.

“No one comes aboard my ship but my own crew,” Laila said.

“I do. And so does one of my guards. We will secure the prisoner in your brig, and then she is your responsibility.”

“She’s my responsibility now,” Laila said.

“My orders are clear.” Jin looked at one of her hulking Amazons, and the woman trained her gun on Torres. Jin swung her gun until the barrel was pointed straight at Laila. “Personally secure the prisoner on your vessel. Not have you do so in my place.”