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That one remains locked inside the Coast Guard command center beneath the protection of two federal agents. The object in my hand is the copy Simon already rejected, but Agent Marquez has opened the back and placed a small tracking device inside it.
Simon wants me to bring him the real compass.
Ben wants me to bring Simon to him.
I intend to do both.
Agent Marquez fastens a transmitter beneath the collar of my life jacket.
“Everything you say will be heard by the tactical team.”
“And everything Simon says?”
“Recorded.”
She steps back and looks at me.
The agent is in control again, but I can see the daughter behind her eyes.
Her father is aboard that ship.
She has spent four days believing he drowned alone in the bay. Now she knows he was taken because he helped Dad escape Blackwater twenty-three years ago.
“Are you sure you can do this?” she asks.
“No.”
Her eyebrows lift.
“I’m terrified,” I admit. “But I’m still doing it.”
“That’s usually what courage looks like.”
Mom catches my hand.
“No.”
The word is quiet.
It still stops me.
She stands between Storm and Willow, pale beneath the command center lights. Ivy is near the monitor with Hazel and Thomas. Ward remains behind them, one hand resting on Storm’s shoulder.
Mom looks at the compass.
“I lost Daniel because of those men.”
“You didn’t lose him because of a compass.”
“I lost him because he tried to protect us from what he discovered.”
“And now we know what he discovered.”
“Not all of it.”
“We will.”
Her fingers tighten around mine.
