“Overtakers,” Finn said softly.
“Whatever,” she said.
“To do what?”
“It’s unclear. There’s a truck involved.”
“A truck.”
“But I don’t know what for.”
“Okay,” he said.
“I thought you should know. It’s something I thought you should know.”
“How many of you?” he repeated.
Sally stood from the bench and left, her hologram disappearing into the thick lunch crowd. Then she was gone.
Finn considered following her, but he had the phones to give back. He checked the time. So unlike the girls to be late. Maybeck, sure; Maybeck liked to be the last to arrive to anything; he liked to keep people waiting just long enough that they took notice of him. But Willa and Charlene were punctual.
Fifteen minutes. Twenty…
He stopped counting. No one was coming.
“We’re lost,” Charlene said, “aren’t we?”
“And then some,” said Willa.
They’d been wandering the narrow trails for more than two hours, the mangrove and swamp marsh grasses like walls on either side, leaving them in open-air tunnels. The spongy sand underfoot revealed nothing; if you closed your eyes and spun around, the trail gave no indication of which direction you’d just been headed.
“You remember the maze in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?”
“Shut up.”
“You know that was Robert Pattinson…the boy who died?”
“Charlie, everyone knows it was Robert Pattinson.”
“I’m just trying to change the subject, get our minds off of never finding our way out of here and being eaten by snakes, or starving to death, or missing the boat. It’s going to leave at five o’clock.”
“Ship. And it’s not even noon yet.”
“I’m just saying…”
“You’re saying too much. We need to think more, talk less,” Willa said.
“Way to establish a sense of teamwork. Thanks for the confidence boost. I happen to talk a lot when I’m nervous.” Charlene had been told she talked a lot—as in too much—nervous or not. But only by all of her teachers, her coach, and her parents. Needless to say, they were all crazy.
“Wish I had my iPhone,” Charlene said. “I could map our position and—”
“No you couldn’t. There’s no cell service here. No GPS. Your phone would just stare back at you.”
“You’re such a dark cloud today. Lighten up!”
“You’re starting to sound like a Disney character,” Willa said. “I wouldn’t take the role so much to heart.”
Charlene made a sudden move at Willa, invading her space. Willa jumped back out of the way, clearly frightened. The two girls stood facing each other, breathing pent-up violence.
“Look at us,” Willa said.
“Oh, I’m looking…believe me, I’m looking.” Charlene had yet to flinch, dialed in to Willa and working to stare her down into submission. “And I don’t like what I see.”
“Truce?” Willa proposed.
“What is with you?” Charlene asked. However small, Willa’s capitulation gave her a sense of victory.
“Boy stuff.”
“Philby?”
Willa hesitated. “I know…how stupid can I get, right?”
“You’re not stupid. No one would accuse you of that.”
“You weren’t really going to hit me. Right?”
Charlene answered with another stare-down.
“You freak me out sometimes.”
“Good.” That made Charlene feel even better. “Now…how do we find our way out of here?”
“Well, for starters, you see the way all the plants are leaning?”
“Yeah.”
“Wind,” Willa said. “All we have to figure out is if it’s an onshore breeze or an offshore breeze.”
“I have no idea what you just said.”
“The wind blows so constantly from a single direction that plants growing up in the wind bend away from it. Permanently. But is it coming off the water or blowing out to the water—onshore or offshore?”
Willa kneeled, took up a stick, and drew the island, a long, narrow finger. Then, to the left, the ship at the pier perpendicular to the shore. She drew a line down the center of the island to represent the road the shuttle followed and three lines pointing at the island to represent the steady breeze. She drew two Xs to represent her and Charlene.
She leaned back, squatting over her work.
“It’s both,” she said. “Of course it is! I’m not used to islands. On the mainland it has to be one or the other. Here, it’s different.”