Payback: Chapters 19–27

By the time the cab jounces across the broken parking lot, Shanahan and Brutus have flown off into the sunset and we’re draped across concrete benches in the long shadow of the hangar.

“Why didn’t you transfer out a few mil for us while you were in there? She never would have missed it. That’s chump change to a billionaire.”
“Because we’re not our DNA,” Amber says staunchly.

It’s almost dark when we get to the marina, and the taxi drives off with a substantial amount of our dwindling money.

It’s almost dark when we get to the marina, and the taxi drives off with a substantial amount of our dwindling money.

For a fleeting moment, I actually long for my house in Serenity, with its attic studio—so not a possibility, obviously.

Malik and Eli step aboard each craft, hoping to find helm controls similar to a car’s. That way, they know they’ll have half a chance of being able to drive.

By trial and error, Eli realizes that speeding up will send us cutting over the top of the waves, rather than descending into the trough of every single one.

At last we come to a stretch of undeveloped coast, with a narrow strip of sandy beach overgrown by tropical plants. Hibiscus and mangrove, Torific supplies.

What matters is it’s the perfect spot—far enough from the busy resort, and bushy enough to hide our boat.
Give Frieden credit—he actually seems halfway nautical as we maneuver closer to the trees.

The heavy anchor falls from my hands and takes a divot out of the deck, missing my foot by millimeters.

Miles of lazy river meander around the grounds, snaking between the hotel buildings, the amphitheaters, and the shops and food kiosks.

I clamber onto the third-floor terrace, only to find no suits up there.

Desperately, I try to sink behind the stucco of the façade, pressing my face into the window.

I descend very carefully, and when I make it to the bottom, I get a big reception. I guess they’re glad to see me in one piece.

As the time ticks down to nine a.m., the walkways bustle, mostly with kids.

He doesn’t scream, but his face is full of apprehension, his mouth wide open, so he looks like a screamer on mute.

No, we contracted some plague halfway through the Serenity Day fireworks and had to be hauled off to the hospital to keep everybody else from catching it too.

Robbie is ecstatic. “This is awesome! We knew Hector was cured. But when you guys didn’t come back, we got really worried. It had to be serious if Dr. Bruder couldn’t help you!”

After everything I’ve been through, I’m the same pathetic mama’s boy as Robbie. Just a little more used to it, and resigned to my fate.

Out of all of us, Tori had the closest thing to a real family. I experience a rush of resentment—mostly jealousy. To my own parents, I was only valuable as a lab specimen.

We’re just about to splash into the water when Tori herds us suddenly into a pool cabana.

When we climb up on the deck, I can see that the undulating arms and legs in the wreckage of Rump’s cabana are close to escape.

In a Herculean effort, Malik lifts both girls clean out of their tubes and is about to topple into the water himself when Tori grabs him around the midsection.

We burst out of the trees and stand on the beach, staring at our boat—or at least what we can see of it. Only the wheelhouse and the light at the top of the mast are above water.

“It sank!”
“How?” Malik demands.
Eli’s face is ashen.

“We must have put a hole in the bottom when we ran it aground on that sandbar,” he moans. “All day long, while we’ve been running around saving people, our only way out has been sinking!”

The shocked silence is shattered by a staccato peal of laughter.

The shocked silence is shattered by a staccato peal of laughter.

In spite of our dire situation, I can’t help smiling.

Just around the bend from the sunken Gemini, the beach ends, to be replaced by an outcropping of rocky coral.

“Can we climb it?” I suggest.
“If you’re a mountain goat,” grumbles Malik, peering up at the jagged, inhospitable rocks without much enthusiasm.

We slog along over rough terrain, finally breaking through to another sandy cove.

A cacophony of sound reaches us—laughter, excitement, screams.

I’m in the lead, so I see him first, blocking my way, flanked by two Purple People Eaters.

He’s wearing a sport jacket and no tie, his only concession to the casual resort surroundings.

Shards of broken glass rain down on us, followed by a deluge of water.

But one call to the US Embassy in Nassau and the deputy ambassador is on a plane to come straighten it out for us.

THINGS TO DO TODAY (UNPRIORITIZED)
•Buy new boat for owner of the Gemini

•Reimburse Poseidon guests for stolen swimsuits/hats

•Replace motorcycles (2) taken from Boss Hawg’s roadhouse

•Pay for damages to New Hope Soup Kitchen

•Compensate Girl Scouts of America for 94 boxes of cookies

I start to laugh, not just a chuckle, but loud, barking guffaws.

My laughter has a mind of its own. Tears of mirth stream down my cheeks.