Sarita glanced to the outcropping he was talking about and nodded her head. "I think so."
"Then I think we should go ashore here and move through the trees instead of approaching by water."
Sarita glanced along the beach. There might be someone in the trees inside the jungle, but it was easy to see that the beach at least was empty. The same couldn't be said for the water around them. There could be a dozen gilled creatures hovering nearby under the surface, watching them, and they wouldn't know it until they were attacked. She nodded.
"I will follow you," Domitian said, glancing around the calm surface of the ocean.
Turning, Sarita struck out for shore, actually relieved to be able to do so. She stayed fit for her job, but while she hadn't had to swim the entire way like Domitian had tonight, it was obvious to her that she wouldn't have been able to. By her guess, she'd only been swimming for an hour or a little more since they'd left the mattress, and not quickly, yet was trembling from the effort. Those nanos obviously made Domitian and others of his kind superhuman.
The thought made her worry about how he was doing on that count. Were his nanos using up blood like crazy to keep up his speed and stamina? Was he now in need of blood? She had no idea what they would do if that was the case. They'd left the blood supply back on the island. Although, she knew there was a large refrigerator full of it in Dressler's lab. The problem was getting to it.
The first scrape of sand against her fingertips as she performed her next stroke made Sarita push those worries from her mind and lift her head from the water to look around. They were still quite a distance from where the water lapped at the beach, but it seemed it was shallow here, she realized as her feet drifted down to touch the sand her fingers just had.
Sarita stood up in the water and staggered to the side before catching herself. Sighing, she stood still for a minute, surveying the trees as she gave her legs a moment of rest before forcing them to move.
"Are you all right?" Domitian asked in a voice that was almost a whisper as he waded up beside her.
Sarita nodded. "Just checking to be sure there's no one in the trees," she said softly.
Nodding, Domitian surveyed them himself. When he let out a little breath and relaxed a moment later, she knew that he hadn't seen anything. Since his eyes were undoubtedly better than hers thanks to those nanos, Sarita gave up looking as well and started forward. With every step she took she was sure her legs were going to give out, but they held her up and carried her to shore.
"Let us move up by the trees and sit down," Domitian suggested, taking her arm to urge her forward. "I think we should rest for a minute before we continue on. I want you able to run if there is trouble when we get to the house."
"What kind of trouble are you thinking there might be?" Sarita asked with a frown, briefly forgetting her shaky legs.
Domitian shook his head. "Could be anything-guards on the house, guards inside the house. Or your grandmother might not even be here. Dressler might have given the house to his head of security as part of his income."
Sarita considered the possibility, but shook her head. "That can't be. My grandmother and Mrs. Dressler have to live somewhere here on the island. And other than this house and the big house, all there is are the labs."
"I am sure you are right," Domitian said mildly. "I just want to be sure you can move fast if you have to. Now sit down and rest your muscles."
Sarita glanced around to see that they'd walked all the way to the edge of the jungle while she was distracted. Relieved, she dropped to sit in the sand facing the water and drew her knees up to rest her arms on top of them. Resting her chin on her crossed arms, she peered out toward the horizon, noting that it was lightening. Dawn wasn't that far away. They couldn't rest long and should be inside before the sun brightened the sky and made them easily visible. There might be guards here.
"I will be right back."
Sarita glanced up with a start, but before she could ask where he was going, Domitian had slipped into the trees and disappeared.
"Probably going to the bathroom," she told herself in a mutter and glanced nervously along the shore, watching for anything moving. There was nothing that she could see.
Sighing, Sarita turned to scan the spot where Domitian had disappeared. Not seeing anything, she shifted her gaze back along the shore again to give it another quick once-over and then repeated the two actions, looking for Domitian, then checking the silent beach. Sarita had just done that for about the twentieth time and was looking along the shore when a crackling sound brought her head sharply around toward the trees behind her.