Page 19 of Ace

Dex looked back curiously at Gianna but then followed Rosamie.

As soon as Gianna was inside the forest, she noticed how quiet everything was. The light was filtered green. The plants were still. Only the hum of mosquitos continued.

Rosamie turned them left toward the ocean, and within a few feet, they were in a clearing that hid a fishing boat. It was more a canoe than anything, a large canoe with two pontoon floats on each side. But it looked beautiful. The setting sun shone in through the low cover of trees and bushes between the canoe and open water.

Dex jumped in. “This is fantastic. How can we thank you?”

“You already have.” Rosamie’s eyes filled with tears. “We will miss you, Gi.”

“You know what to do.”

“Yes, the children will be safe with us.”

“And now I will be your biggest supporter from the outside, which is more what you might need. If the Mantukese come, hide. They have no use for the village and the villagers. If they come, hide.”

“We will. Godspeed.”

Gianna hugged her back, squeezing all her hope that things would be well into the woman.

“Okay, I have to breathe.” She pushed Gi away gently. “Now go.”

She climbed into the boat, and Dex held the vines aside and pushed back the bushes as Rosamie untied the boat and gave it a push out into the water.

Dex handed a paddle to Gi. “Here we go.”

The sun was below the horizon, but the sky still glowed a brilliant purple and orange. She drank it in as they paddled out into the calm water.

“Where will we go?”

He pulled out his phone. “Hopefully to somewhere out there with an easy GPS location.”

She nodded.

His call in to get an extraction went quicker than she would have expected, having heard the last one.

“They coming?”

“Yep.”

She eyed him.

“What? They’re coming. Begrudgingly.”

They pushed further out into the water. As soon as they were out from under the cover of the island, she felt exposed. “Wouldn’t it be better if we were hidden?”

“Normally, I suppose. But we have to be far enough out that we are no longer considered to be in Panau.”

So, until they paddled far enough out into the middle of the ocean, they were at risk.

She dug in harder.

And for about ten minutes, neither of them said anything. They battled the waves coming in. Most were small. They battled the greater waves and a new burst of wind out in the more open water. After a time, they found a current moving in their direction and glided for a moment.

The stars started to come out, and she saw more of the boat she sat in. It was a typical fishing boat with a larger section in the middle, larger than they needed, but she was grateful for the extra stability. And two pontoon floats as long as the canoe itself jutted out on either side.

She’d always wondered about the stability of these boats in the open ocean, but they were surprisingly light and fast and cut through the waves with less bouncing than she would have thought. “How far do we need to go?”

“They’re monitoring our position. As soon as we cross over into international waters, they’ll be here.” His paddle dipped twice more before he said, “I’m not sure how much farther that will be.”

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