Page 57 of Leveling

Chapter 38

The storm wasbig and violent. Beckett’s boat was hit with the brunt force. The boat swept nose up and nose down over the waves. Rebecca, Dr. Mags, Jeffrey, Sarah, and Dan stayed on deck for a while, Captain Aria and her crew stayed on the bridge.

Beckett sat alone in the galley at a booth trying to concentrate on something other than his careening stomach or his certainty that the boat would capsize.

It seemed a fact.

After a while he went, stumbling and falling, to his bunk and lay there, wondering if Anna was in this storm.

Was she?

Could she be?

And would she be okay?

Or had she found a safe place?

And would he ever see her again?

Could an army guy with a barely tolerable interest in being on the ocean find a Nomad girl traveling alone?

He couldn’t even bring himself to get in a boat and ride a hundred feet to the Outpost. What a coward.

Of course, as Anna had said, hevolunteered, and look at him now. He had volunteeredagain.This foolish mission. He hadn’t even seen a Nomad and had barely been on deck. He was the worst at this.

He probably should have offered a reward—to someone who wascompetentto find her—sat back and waited. Of course, that was the stupidest idea so far. A reward? Who would look for a Nomad girl? A Nomad girl that was supposed to go east and instead went north.

She probably didn’t even want to see him. She definitely wasn’t interested, but—I love you Beckett. She had said, “We.”

He didn’t believe she had made that all up.

---