Ward
— James Sinclair
Thomas’s blood ran between Nathan’s fingers.
Elanore dropped beside them.
“Let me see.”
“It went through his side,” Nathan said. “I don’t think it hit anything vital.”
Thomas grimaced.
“Stop discussing me as if I’m not here.”
“You’ve been shot,” Elanore snapped.
“I noticed.”
“Then be quiet.”
Thomas looked toward Nathan.
“She was bossy when she was a young woman, too.”
“She still is.”
Elanore glared at both of them.
Under any other circumstances, I might have found the exchange amusing.
But the timer on my vest continued to fall.
00:08:34
00:08:33
00:08:32
And August Ross waited beneath us.
The Coast Guard entered the lighthouse.
Two medics moved toward Thomas.
He pushed their hands away.
“Later.”
“You’re bleeding,” one medic said.
“I’ve been bleeding longer than you’ve been alive.”
Nathan caught Thomas’s shoulders.
“Let them help you.”
“James didn’t leave me when I was bleeding.”
“James isn’t here.”
Thomas looked at Storm.
“Yes, he is.”
The words silenced everyone.
Storm stood in the center of the lighthouse holding the old chart.
Calle remained beside Ben.
The cracked screen of her camera glowed between them.
Three more voices came through the radio.
Ivy.
Willow.
Hazel.
All five Sinclair sisters were connected.
Not in one place.
But together.
Exactly as James had intended.
Hazel’s voice came through first.
“There’s a switch beneath Grandpa’s chart table.”
“Don’t touch it yet,” Storm said.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You already touched it, didn’t you?”
A pause followed.
“Maybe.”
Ivy spoke in the background.
“It turned on an old transmitter.”
Willow interrupted.
“And something is clicking behind the engine-room wall.”
Storm looked at Thomas.
“What did Grandpa build into Sea Whisper?”
“More than a yacht.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Storm’s expression hardened.
“Thomas.”
He finally sighed.
“James began building Sea Whisper after Daniel died. Every wire, every radio, every navigation system passed through his hands.”
“He used her as part of Blackwater’s controls?”
“He used her to make certain the gate could be closed even if you girls were scattered across the ocean.”
I looked at the radio.
“The yacht is the fifth position.”
“Home,” Hazel whispered.
The timer reached seven minutes.
Storm opened Grandpa’s chart on the lighthouse floor.
Five lines crossed Blackwater Cove.
North ran through the lighthouse.
East ended at a symbol shaped like an eye.
South crossed an old bell.
West pointed toward a heart carved into the cliff.
The fifth line led into the sea.
Toward Sea Whisper.
Storm touched the northern line.
“I’m North.”
Calle knelt beside her.
“I’m East. The eye.”
Ivy spoke through the radio.
“Grandpa always gave me South.”
Willow laughed softly.
“I was West.”
“And I’m Home,” Hazel said.
Storm closed her eyes.
For one second, she wasn’t a captain standing inside a ruined lighthouse.
She was a little girl remembering her grandfather.
Then her eyes opened.
“What did he make us say when we started the game?”
The sisters answered together.
“No one sails alone.”
A loud click came from inside the lighthouse wall.
An iron plate opened beneath the staircase.
Behind it waited an old brass wheel.
Five symbols surrounded its center.
One began glowing.
NORTH POSITION DETECTED.
Storm crossed the room.
She placed her hand on the wheel.
“Tell me what you see aboard Sea Whisper.”
Hazel answered.
“Five switches beneath the chart table.”
“Are they labeled?”
“No. They have symbols.”
“Which ones?”
“A wave. A compass. A camera. A bell. And a heart.”
Calle looked at the camera.
“The same symbols on the photograph.”
Storm studied the cracked screen.
“Calle, can you enlarge it?”
She did.
Five points surrounded the Sinclair emblem.
Each point contained one symbol.
“It’s a sequence,” Calle said.
“What order?”
“The compass first.”
Storm gripped the brass wheel.
“North.”
She turned it.
The lighthouse groaned.
A light illuminated beneath the compass symbol.
NORTH CONFIRMED.
The lower passage shook.
Ross fired from the darkness.
The bullet struck the stone above Storm’s head.
I pulled her behind the staircase.
Ben fired toward the passage.
“Ross is moving!”
“I’ll take him,” I said.
Storm grabbed my arm.
“You need me.”
“I need you alive.”
“You need me to finish the sequence.”
“Finish it here.”
“What if there are controls below?”
“I’ll handle them.”
“You don’t know what Grandpa taught us.”
“No.”
I cupped the back of her neck.
“But I know Ross is drawing us into that tunnel because he wants you.”
Her eyes held mine.
“Then don’t let him take me.”
It wasn’t permission.
It wasn’t a plea.
It was trust.
Complete and terrifying.
I released her.
“You stay behind me.”
“I will.”
Ben glanced at Calle.
“You stay here.”
Calle lifted one eyebrow.
Ben’s jaw tightened.
“Please.”
Her expression changed.
The single word had cost him more than an order would have.
“Go,” she whispered. “I’ll finish the sequence.”
Nathan stayed with Thomas and Elanore.
The Coast Guard secured the lighthouse.
Ben followed Storm and me into the lower passage.
His shoulder continued to bleed.
He didn’t seem to feel it.
We descended the narrow stone steps.
Ross’s flashlight moved below us.
He knew we were following.
He wanted us close.
The timer continued.
00:05:41
00:05:40
00:05:39
Calle’s voice came through the radio.
“The second symbol is the eye.”
Storm answered.
“Camera.”
“What do I do with it?”
“Grandpa made you flash signals.”
Calle examined the photograph.
“There are three marks beneath the eye.”
“Three flashes,” Storm said.
The lighthouse above us lit.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
A bell sounded deep beneath the mountain.
EAST CONFIRMED.
The passage opened into a cavern.
An enormous metal gate stood across the far wall.
Unlike the first gate, this one had never opened.
Black volcanic rock covered its edges.
Five empty circles formed an arch across its surface.
Two now glowed.
North.
East.
Ross stood on a narrow ledge above the water.
Blood covered his side.
His pistol remained steady.
Behind him, an iron box had been pulled halfway from a cavity in the rock.
Elias Ross’s records.
And beside it lay human bones.
Storm stopped.
“Elias.”
Ross smiled.
“My father waited a long time for James to show up. I knew what was in his plans.
“He tried to stop you.”
“He was weak.”
“He was your father.”
“He chose James over his own son.”
“No. He chose what was right.”
Ross’s eyes became empty.
“You sound like your grandfather.”
“Good.”
“He died believing he had protected you.”
“He did.”
“I killed him.”
The words struck the cavern like a bullet.
Storm swayed.
I caught her arm.
Ross’s smile widened.
“He knew I’d found him aboard Nathan’s trawler. He tried to get home before the poison reached his heart.”
Nathan’s voice came through my radio.
“You poisoned James?”
Ross glanced toward the speaker.
“Your captain arrived too late to save him.”
Storm lifted her chin.
“You murdered my grandfather.”
“He should have told me where he hid the records.”
“And my father?”
For the first time, Ross’s smile faded.
“Daniel was more difficult.”
Storm’s fingers closed around my arm.
“What did you do to him?”
“He found the passage beneath Keawe Cannery.”
“You killed him.”
“He refused to tell me what James had changed inside Blackwater.”
“How?”
I wanted to stop her from asking.
But she deserved the truth.
Ross looked toward the churning water.
“I chained him to his boat and opened the first gate.”
Storm made a broken sound.
The sea had taken her father.
But not in a storm.
Ross had used Blackwater to murder him.
I raised my weapon.
Ross pressed his boot against the metal case.
“If I fall, the records go into the water.”
“I don’t care about the records,” Storm said.
“You should. They contain the names of every person who helped me destroy your family.”
“Then move away from them.”
“You won’t shoot.”
“I might.”
“You aren’t a killer.”
“No.”
Her voice became quiet.
“But Ward is.”
Ross looked at me.
He finally understood that Storm wasn’t the threat he could control.
I was.
Willow’s voice came through the radio.
“The third symbol is the bell.”
A steady clicking sounded behind her.
“Grandpa’s engine telegraph,” Storm said.
“What do I do?”
“Listen to the pattern.”
Everyone fell silent.
Even Ross.
The clicks traveled through the radio.
Two.
Pause.
One.
Pause.
Four.
Willow repeated the pattern.
Then pulled the corresponding levers aboard Sea Whisper.
A third circle glowed across the gate.
SOUTH CONFIRMED.
The timer reached three minutes.
Ross kicked the case closer to the edge.
“You’re going to let me leave.”
“No,” Storm said.
“I know where James hid everything.”
“So does Thomas.”
“Thomas will die from that bullet.”
Rage flashed across Storm’s face.
I stepped in front of her.
“Don’t.”
Ross smiled.
“Still protecting her.”
“Always.”
The word left me without hesitation.
Storm looked at me.
There was no time to take it back.
I didn’t want to.
Ivy’s voice came through the radio.
“The fourth symbol is the heart.”
Willow spoke behind her.
“There’s a heart carved into the engine-room wall.”
“What’s inside it?” Storm asked.
Ivy struck something metal.
“A keyhole.”
“Do you have a key?”
“No.”
Hazel gasped.
“Grandpa’s compass.”
“What about it?”
“The chain broke when the men found me, but the compass is still inside his compartment.”
Footsteps moved over the radio.
The timer fell beneath two minutes.
Ross laughed.
“You won’t make it.”
Hazel returned, breathing hard.
“I have it.”
“Put it in the heart,” Storm ordered.
Metal scraped.
Then turned.
The fourth circle illuminated.
WEST CONFIRMED.
One remained.
Home.
The cavern began to tremble.
Water rose along the gate.
The resetting sequence had started.
Hazel’s voice shook.
“The last switch won’t move.”
“What’s blocking it?” Storm asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t force it.”
“We’re out of time.”
“Hazel, listen to me. Grandpa never forced a mechanism. What did he teach you?”
Hazel began crying.
“I can’t remember.”
“Yes, you can.”
The timer reached one minute.
00:00:59
00:00:58
00:00:57
Storm held the radio with both hands.