Mira couldn't keep her reaction off her face. How did he know about the orca? It was such a random detail to fixate on.
In the very back of her head, some of the puzzle pieces were starting to fall together, but they made such a strange shape that she could hardly acknowledge what the puzzle-solving side of her brain was trying to tell her.
She saw the Colonel smiling slightly, and bitterly kicked herself for not being able to keep the truth from him.
It was only a trained orca. Somehow Dane had found it, and it did jobs for him.
That's stupid, and you know it. That's not how trained orcas work. You can train them to jump through hoops in an aquarium, but they're wild animals, not golden retrievers.
She had seen a bear turn into a man. Was it really impossible that Dane could turn into an orca?
Yes!she thought.It is impossible! Things like this don't happen in real life!
Like men turning into bears? Like psychotic dictators running private islands like their own kingdoms?
"I will ask you again," the Colonel said quietly, studying her face. "Where is Dane?"
"I don't know any Dane," Mira said as steadily as she could.
He continued to stare at her with those creepy eyes and then gave a sharp nod. "Very well, so that's how it's going to be. I'll let you think about your situation for a while. But first, let me tell you something about this island. The water around it is full of mines. You cannot leave here in a boat unless they're deactivated—"
"Pretty sure that's illegal," Mira said. "Even in international waters. Peoplereallyfrown on just tossing a bunch of mines everywhere."
The Colonel scowled. It was the first emotion she had seen on his face that seemed genuine. "Do not interrupt me."
"I'm not in your military chain of command, and I'm not part of your little island kingdom. You can't tell me what to do."
She thought she heard a tiny, muffled snort from her guard, but when both she and the Colonel looked quickly around, his face was perfectly impassive as he stood at attention in the doorway.
"Let me make this very clear," the Colonel said in an ice-cold voice. "The only way on or off this island is with my permission. You will stay here until you tell me what I need to know. And I will not be as kind when I have to ask a second time."
He turned on his heel and marched out of the room. The guard followed, with a glance back at her that she wondered whether or not to read as sympathetic.
The door closed, and the lock clicked.
Mira went quickly to the door, tested the knob, and tapped it. It was paneled in wood, but when she rapped it with her knuckles, her heart sank at the sound of a steel core. There was going to be no kicking this door open.
She then tried the window, but it wasn't meant to open. The glass looked thick and sturdy, and when she leaned close, Mira saw a network of tiny metal threads lacing through it. She wondered what those were for. Sensors? Reinforcement?
Breaking it would be difficult, and even if she did, what then?Shewas no shape-changer who could sprout wings and fly away. And she couldn't climb down a hundred-foot sheer concrete cliff, even if there had been anywhere to go when she got to the bottom.
Mira rested a hand on the window pane, then leaned her forehead beside it.
"Dane," she whispered, "I hope you're coming to get me, because I have no idea what I'm going to do next."
DANE
It was nearing eveningwhen Dane reached Black Rock Island. This was the destination he had expected and also the one he had feared.
He was exhausted from his long swim, as well as starving, but his urgent fear for Mira would not let him rest until he managed to learn where she was and whether she was all right.
So he circled the island at a safe distance, careful to avoid the cameras and sea mines that he knew were there. It hadn't changed at all from what he remembered; it was still a forbidding fortress, sheer concrete walls blending into the barren cliffs of the naturally rocky land rising from the sea.
The idea of going inside filled him with claustrophobic dread. It made swimming into the sunken boat's cabin seem like a stroll through a sunlit park. He would have done that cold black dive a thousand times if it meant he didn't have to walk back into the island prison after escaping once.
ButMira was in there.
He had no doubt about that. She wasn't on his island; he had known it in a deep, instinctive way. She was here, in his enemies' hands.
