“That’s what we need to figure out. Exactly what we’re sailing into—before we get there.”
* * *
We stayed quiet as the Mariner pushed out from the channel and into open water. The shoreline shrank behind us, the aquarium building shrinking to a small gray shape against the coast.
Jeff guided the boat about a quarter mile offshore before nodding to Ethan, who throttled the engine down. The sudden quiet hit strangely after everything. The engine idled for a few seconds, then Ethan killed it completely.
The ocean rolled beneath us, the boat rocking with the slow rhythm of the swells.
Jeff stepped out of the wheelhouse and sat on the bench along the deck. Ethan followed, dropping down beside his dad.
Callan and I were already sitting across from them.He had his injured leg stretched out, the ankle swelling visibly through the damp fabric. His hand rested loosely around mine.
I noticed it before he did.
When he realized, he gave my hand a small squeeze instead of pulling away.
Jeff leaned forward, forearms on his knees.
“Alright. What’s the plan?”
Callan looked at him, then glanced at me. His grip tightened slightly before he spoke.
“Marina.”
Jeff nodded slowly.
“It’s big,” Callan said, looking around the group.
Ethan frowned. “How big?”
“Hundreds of slips. Maybe more.” He paused. “And the fuel pump sits at the end of the interior docks.”
My stomach dropped. Inside the slips.
Jeff leaned back and exhaled through his nose. “So we’d be boxed in.”
“Yeah.”
Callan let that sit for a second.
“If those things are there, they could be on every dock around us. Every direction.”
The wind pushed my hair across my face. I didn’t bother to fix it.
“Well, if it helps, they can’t swim, so as long as we don’t get close enough for them to jump, we should be fine. The pump is an old crank system,” Callan continued.
Jeff’s eyebrows lifted. “Manual?”
“Never upgraded it. Old marina.”
“How long to fill?”
Callan shrugged. “About ten minutes of cranking for a three-hundred-mile run.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. “Ten minutes? Out in the open?”
Callan nodded. “I’ll do the pumping.”