Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
When I went back to the underwater pod that would serve as my bedroom for the rest of the week, I fully intended on falling asleep watching the coral reef through the wall of glass that was my window.
But once I returned to the room, I couldn’t stop looking at the quill.
According to it, I was less than two miles from the book. Suddenly, I couldn’t wait any longer.
After slipping the quill into a dry bag I found in the room, I stepped out of my pod, closing the door softly behind me. When I turned, Nevah was poking her head out of her door.
“I had a feeling you might not be able to wait until morning,” she said with a knowing smile.
“Guilty.” I tried to shrug casually.
“I’m not going to make you wait, but I’m also not going to let you go without backup from people who know the area. Let’s go see if Kai is still awake.”
When Kai opened his door, he scratched the side of his neck and glanced at a watch on his wrist. “I take it we’re going somewhere?”
“Yes, if you’re up for it.”
Kai stretched. “I’m always up for a late-night mission. Just a sec.” He turned back into his room and reemerged with a kit, including waterproof headlamps for each of us.
We knocked on Nalin’s door, and he opened it, looking groggy. But his eyes cleared quickly when he saw us. “Is the mission happening tonight?” When we nodded, he said, “Meet you by the entrance in five.”
Once we had all gathered, Nevah said, “We’ll swim out then take a boat.”
When we got in the water, Nevah and Kai took off like two fish in a race.
Nalin and I were left in their literal bubbles, but I couldn’t help smiling when I saw the light from their headlamps swimming circles around each other.
Without going all the way back to shore, they shot upward, following a rope.
As I approached the surface, the familiar shape of a boat came into view overhead. Once inside, I pulled out the quill.
“Where are we headed?” Kai asked.
I held the quill flat in my palm. “It looks like a little less than two miles, straight north.”
Kai angled the boat north, and we sped along the coastline. I wanted to look around at the beauty of the surrounding Everglades, but it was dark, and I was focused on watching for changes to the quill. “The distance meter is changing,” I said after a few minutes. “Less than a mile now.”
“Still directly north?” Kai asked.
“Swing it a little to the west,” Nevah directed.
“Toward the shoreline?”
“Looks like it,” I agreed, anticipation kicking up. Maybe the book really was buried along the beach somewhere.
A few minutes later, the boat slowed. Kai cut the engine and pointed straight ahead. “This area leads us deep into a dense patch of water hemlock. We don’t go anywhere near that if we can help it.”
I envisioned the cicutoxin that made water hemlock one of the most poisonous plants in North America. No wonder the aquatics botanists gave it a wide berth.
“We have some barrier cream for it, but it’s back at the conservatory. With my trailing defensive affinity, I might be able to ward it off, but Kai and Nalin would be in for a rough night,” Nevah said. “Let me see the quill.” She examined it and frowned. “It’s pointing directly in there.”
“You think someone hid the book in a patch of water hemlock? If so, it’s long ruined.
This is one of the biggest patches of this stuff on record,” Kai said, angling his headlamp toward the mass of green-and-white plants.
“Plus, the inland area is oddly low in nitrogen and phosphorus levels. We did a survey of it a while back. Not very conducive to plant life.”
Something in his words tugged at me. The quill was pointing directly into a patch of water hemlock, an extremely deadly plant. A defensive plant. Immediately, an idea clicked into place.
“I think I need to go in there,” I said.
Nevah looked at me curiously but then nodded. “I’ll go with you. Kai and Nalin can wait here with the boat.”
“I don’t like this,” Kai said, still staring at the green-and-white snowdrop-like plants flanking the shoreline.
I turned to them, clutching the quill gently between my hands. “I don’t think we have any other choice.” I swallowed, anticipation and a twinge of nerves simmering at the suspicion that had formed. “I think this might be the entrance to the defensives conservatory.”