Page 74 of Daughter of the Deep

The bridge crew stares back at me. They look shocked, confused … hurt. They need answers. Once again, I have none.

‘It – it has to be a fake,’ I say. ‘A voice synthesizer –’

‘That’s his voice, Ana.’ Ester frowns at the floor. ‘He’s alive.’

‘But –’

‘Nautilus,’ Dev says. ‘Ana, you’re out of time. I need to hear that you surrender. Otherwise, we fire.’

‘He wouldn’t,’ says Lee-Ann.

‘He did,’ Halimah counters. ‘He’s the one who destroyed HP.’

No, I think.Not my brother.

Then I remember what Dev said on our last day, when he gave me my early birthday present.You’re leaving for your freshman trials today.

He knew I would be off campus when the attack happened. He played down my concerns about the grid. Land Institute had to have inside help to sabotage the security system. All this time, I’ve been suspecting my classmates, or Dr Hewett …

The intercom crackles. Nelinha’s voice breaks through my stupor. ‘Uh, did everyone else hear that? Orders, Captain?’

Orders … I almost want to laugh. Why would anyone take orders from me? I’m a stupid little girl who has been duped by her own brother.

‘You okay, Ana?’ Gem asks. His expression is concerned, expectant, like he’s waiting for me to grab a lifeline.

I force myself to breathe. I can’t spiral into this emotional vacuum right now … not when it would mean abandoning my friends. ‘Engine room, stand by.’ I turn to Virgil. ‘Can they hear us?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘One-way transmission. Pretty sure. Almost positive.’

‘Their position?’

Gem checks his panels. ‘Half a kilometre out. Holding at our six o’clock.’

How did they find us, despite all our precautions? They were never following theVaruna. They were followingme…

I wanted you to have the pearl for luck, Dev said,just in case, you know, you fail spectacularly or something.

I stand. My fingers close around my mother’s black-pearl pendant. I yank it from my neck, breaking the chain. Dev had it reset, just for me. The pearl comes away easily from its newsetting. Underneath, glued to the gold base, is a tiny alt-tech receptor.

‘Ana, I’m so sorry.’ Ester’s lower lip quivers. She understands how I feel. She knows about being used, being treated like a commodity even by her own family.

‘Can I borrow your Leyden gun?’ I ask.

She doesn’t hesitate. She hands me her pistol.

I set the broken pieces of the necklace on the floor – chain, setting, even the pearl. I can’t take any chances. I step back and fire.

Blue tendrils of electricity arc down the length of the chain. The alt-tech receptor pops and burns like a tiny emergency flare. White curlicues of smoke wreath my mother’s pearl.

An acrid tang fills the back of my mouth. I’m not sure if it’s from the melting tracker or the bitterness welling up in my throat.

Back on theVaruna, Land Institute’s assault team went out of their way not to hit me with a Leyden gun. They used poison instead. They were hoping to take the whole ship: me, Dr Hewett’s map, the DNA-reader, everything. But if something went wrong they didn’t want to risk damaging their tracking device. I was their insurance policy. I led them – I ledDevright to theNautilus.

My brother’s voice booms through the ship. His tone is intimate and pleading, just for me. ‘I warned the school, Ana. I told them to evacuate. I didn’t want them to die. I don’t want anyone else to die now, especially you.’

Oh, god. That garbled audio recording of Dev hadn’t come from the school’s intercom. He’d been broadcasting from on board theAronnax.

I want to scream at him. I want to demand explanations. But there is no way I will open communications.

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