“We don’t need anyone else,” she said.
Alistair laughed. “You’re right. We don’t. It will be much harder, and this isn’t how I wanted it, but my people can get us there. We have the pieces of the map.”
“I won’t let you do this,” said Catherine. Evie looked over and saw the woman stand. She was intimidating, not just because of her height but because of her expression. Even Doris seemed a little afraid.
Alistair looked at Evie and brushed away one last tear on her face before rising and looking at the animal expert. “This isn’t about me. It’s about her. It’s what she wants. And it happens to also be what I want. And you can’t forbid this.”
They stared each other down. Evie was getting frustrated. Here was Catherine, again, trying to decide what was best for her when she had no right to. Hadn’t Evie proved more than capable? What more did Catherine want from her?
“I want to do this. Stop getting in my way,” Evie said angrily. Yes, maybe it was a bit mean, but it was the truth. And what did Catherine really care anyway? She just wanted to prove a point to Alistair. To get back at him. Even though Catherine was the one who’d done the bad thing, even if it hadn’t been on purpose.
Catherine looked at Evie, then at Alistair.
“Fine. Then I’ll come too,” she said, her jaw tight and her chin held high.
“You will?” said Evie, stunned.
Catherine nodded, not breaking eye contact with Alistair.
“She’s not some helpless creature you have to protect,” said Alistair.
“Do you want me on the mission or not?” asked Catherine.
Alistair nodded, and as he did, Doris spoke up. “Well, then obviously I’m coming too.”
“Me too,” said the Kid.
Evie looked around the room at all of them. She was confused. Were they doing this for her grandfather? Or for her? If they were doing it for her…why?
Everyone looked to Benedict now. It was his turn to speak. He sat for a long time, his calm expression telling them nothing. Then finally: “Okay.”
It was all he said, but Evie knew it meant he was coming too. She turned excitedly toward Sebastian to celebrate. But he had a peculiar expression.
“What is it?” she asked. It was strange. She should have been the one angry at him, not the other way around. If that was what was going on.
“I can’t go,” he said in a monotone. His shoulders sagged, his expression both sad and almost scared, it seemed to her.
“You can’t?” she asked.
“No.” He didn’t look at her.
“Or…or do you mean you don’t want to?” She was starting to freak out a little bit.
“I don’t think I can do any more adventures. It’s getting too hard and scary. And all of this, it’s…too much. And anyway, I have to go home, to my parents. They’ve got to be terrified about me by now.” He still didn’t look up.
“Why? They know you’re here. They knew the risks,” she said.
Finally, finally he looked up at her. He looked really sad and also really, really tired.
“No. They didn’t. I never called them.”
Evie stared. What? That made no sense.
“But you did, many times,” she said.
Sebastian shook his head. “I didn’t. I pretended to. I didn’t know what I wanted, and I knew they’d convince me to…make me go home. And I didn’t know if I wanted that. But now I know what I want. I want to go home.”
It was like the words didn’t really reach Evie until a moment after they’d been said. She had been right about her earlier suspicion that he’d been keeping something from her. But she had been oh so wrong in another way. She had never ever thought that he would actually lie to her. Like, tell her one thing but mean another. Maybe he wouldn’t tell her everything—everyone has secrets. But to lie! To lie to her!
It was too much. It was one too many feelings for a very confusing afternoon, and she just couldn’t take it. Not Sebastian. Not him. Out of everyone. It had hurt enough when Catherine had seemed to favor adults over Evie in LA. But Sebastian? All this time.
The pain swirled around inside her.
“You lied to me,” she said. It was the only thing she could say.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“You lied to me. How horrible! What kind of person are you? You pretend like you’re all logical and what you see is what you get, but no. You lie to people. That’s not what a real friend does. You’re not my friend!” She’d never felt this angry before in her life. Her whole body was hot and buzzing. Her brain was hot and buzzing.
Sebastian stared at her, wide-eyed. “That’s not true! I was confused.”
“Then you tell me about it! You talk to me. You don’t do this. You’re supposed to be my friend! You are a liar!”
“You don’t mean that,” he said, his voice shaking now like her whole body.
“I do! I really think I do. I never want to see you again!”
“This makes no sense!” His voice was cracking and getting louder. Maybe for once he would actually get emotional. For once. “He lied to you way worse.” Sebastian pointed to Alistair. “Way worse! He’s still lying to you! But I’m the one you can’t stand? Me? I helped you when I didn’t need to. I’ve been there for you the whole time. I did things I would never normally do. I have almost died so many times, or at least been seriously injured, and you hate me? Me?”
“It’s different,” said Evie. She didn’t know how or why, but it just was. Her gut told her so. She felt out of breath, like she was running a race or something.
“It’s not.”
“It is. He’s my family! You’re not my family. You’re not my friend; you’re no one!” The last bit seemed to hang in the air, and she could feel that everyone in the room was practically staring at the words as if they were printed on the wall or something. It wasn’t true, of course. She regretted them instantly, wishing she could pull the words back inside her. But she was still wildly upset, and saying “I’m sorry” didn’t feel right either.
“Oh,” said Sebastian.
He was hurt. She knew he was hurt. She hated that he was hurt. But she was hurt too.
“Now, Evie, that’s not true,” said Alistair, placing a hand on her shoulder. It felt nice, though she was in no mood to be calmed down. “He’s not no one.”
He was right, of course. Sebastian was so much more than no one. He was her best friend. She should apologize. She should fix it. Even if he’d lied and was deserting her now. He didn’t deserve what she’d said. She’d gone too far. Her grandfather was right.
But before she could say she was sorry, Alistair spoke again. “He’s the key.”
It was the first time that Sebastian truly understood the meaning of the word “ominous.” Considering he’d been in some pretty scary situations with scary people a lot lately, he’d never really realized up until this point that he hadn’t. But the way in which Alistair had said that Sebastian was the key, and the way in which Alistair was looking at him right now, made Sebastian’s insides feel more concerned for his outsides than they had been in a very long time.
“What do you mean?” Sebastian asked, because he didn’t understand. That is to say, he did understand, but he couldn’t really process what was happening. Yes. He was the key, or at least knew what the key looked like in his memory. And also yes, he was not no one. Obviously. He was a person. With bones and skin and stuff. But still…everything was happening so fast and things were being said to him and about him that he didn’t really like and his gut was all clenched and stuff, so the question was the only thing he could really think to say.
“I mean, unfortunately, despite what you wish to do, I’m afraid I cannot allow you to do it,” said Alistair.
“You mean…go home?” Sebastian was starting to get it
now.
“Exactly. We need you, Sebastian. We need you most of all.”
Sebastian glanced around at everyone else in the room and saw expressions he didn’t fully understand. There were too many different people looking at him, too many owners of individual brains and opinions and emotions being communicated to him with eyebrow raises and frowns and muscle twitches.
“But you don’t. I’ll just write it down for you,” he said. Easy enough to do. That had been his plan since he’d decided last night that it was time to return to his parents.
Alistair shook his head and smiled sadly. “I’m afraid I don’t trust you, Sebastian. Not after everything you said. Not after you betrayed my Evie this way.”
That made Sebastian mad. She wasn’t his Evie. She was herself. She didn’t belong to anyone.
“This is ridiculous,” he said.
“You said it yourself, Sebastian. You have to judge someone by their history. From everything I’ve heard, you’ve made the lives of my assistants very difficult,” said Alistair. Sebastian turned to the men in black. Mr. K nodded enthusiastically.
“But they kidnapped me!” said Sebastian.
“And then you lied to my granddaughter, the person you were supposed to help. No. I think I need you to come along with us. It’s the only way.” Alistair thought for a moment, then nodded. Like he was agreeing with himself.
“We can trust Sebastian,” said Catherine.
Alistair shook his head. “At this point I trust no one. Except my own blood.” He looked down at Evie and smiled. She looked up. Sebastian could tell she was feeling confused. He knew it. He knew it and Alistair did not. Take that, Alistair! he thought.
“You can’t kidnap a child like this,” said Doris.
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Sure looks like it,” said the Kid, peering over his sunglasses.
Alistair snapped his fingers in the air suddenly. And in a flash Sebastian was experiencing the very familiar feeling of being grabbed hard by Mr. I. “For everyone’s sake, especially the boy’s, I hope we all can agree…that is not what I’m doing.”
It was what he was doing. And what he was doing now was making a threat. At Sebastian’s expense. And Sebastian didn’t like it one bit. Neither did the other explorers.
“Evie,” said Sebastian. But she quickly stared at her feet.
“None of us agrees with you, Alistair,” said Catherine through a clenched jaw. “But we understand your meaning.” She turned to Sebastian. “Don’t worry, Sebastian. We’ll protect you.”
“Well, what a noble and completely unnecessary thing to promise,” Alistair said. “Now, I don’t think we should waste any more time. Time to head to the submarine. Time to restore our good names.” He smiled widely at the group.
No one smiled back.
They were retracing their underwater cruise from Portugal. London was far behind them, and all that surrounded them was the darkness. The mood on the submarine was just as dark.
Sebastian stood beside Benedict, studying the pieced-together map. He didn’t dare say anything about the situation. Mr. I was sitting on the couch opposite, glaring at him in that usual glaring way of his. Instead Sebastian thought he’d simply talk maps. Or something. Anything to take his mind off the fact that Evie didn’t think he was her friend anymore and that he’d been kidnapped again.
“So, we’re going to the Mariana Trench,” he said, knowing that the answer was yes.
Benedict nodded.
Well, he was now out of conversation topics.
“The EM-7056 has been installed, Jason. Would you mind testing it out?” asked Doris, reappearing at her hatch in the floor and climbing up onto the platform next to the Kid. The Kid nodded and pushed a button. Nothing happened. Or nothing seemed to happen. Clearly something did, though, because Doris said, “Good. We’re set to go once we get there.” She looked at Alistair, placing her hands on her hips. “You ready?”
Alistair nodded. Doris gave a sharp nod and disappeared through the hatch once more, closing the trapdoor loudly. More loudly than she had before, Sebastian noted.
“What was that all about?” asked Sebastian, returning his attention to Benedict.
The cartographer and photographer gave him a sideways glance and then faced him. “You like maps, correct?”
“Yes,” replied Sebastian.
“Do you know where the Mariana Trench is located?”
Sebastian thought for a moment, mentally recalling the maps at home on his bedroom walls. Then: “South of Japan. East of the Philippines.”
“Very good.”
The reality of the situation dawned on him. “But…we’re in a submarine.”
“Exactly.”
“It’s going to take us a long time to get there!” He could feel panic rising within him. Not only had he been kidnapped again, but now it would be weeks before he could even possibly think of going home. “We have to go around continents.” The thought was overwhelming.
“In a submarine, yes,” replied Benedict.
Suddenly, as if on cue, the entire ship started to shake. At first Sebastian worried that they were in the middle of a tsunami or earthquake, but then he noticed that none of the explorers seemed the least bit worried. He did see Evie briefly look over at him. She clearly didn’t know what was going on either. But she quickly looked away. She’d been avoiding making eye contact with him and the others since they’d boarded the ship. To be fair, he hadn’t been that keen on trying to communicate with her either. Still, seeing that she was concerned too about the shaking reminded him of their being a team, the Daring Duo or whatever they had called it. And how they weren’t a team anymore. She didn’t like him anymore. She thought he was no one.
“Come, boy,” said Alistair, motioning to Sebastian from his chair on the platform, the one with the compass imprinted on it. Sebastian really didn’t like that man, for many obvious reasons—how he treated Evie, how he had been responsible for kidnapping him three times. But he was also very curious about what was going on. And it wasn’t like there was anything else to do or anywhere else he could go. He reluctantly went over to Alistair.
“What’s happening?” asked Sebastian as the shaking got more intense.
“Watch,” replied Alistair, examining their world closely out the front curved window. If Sebastian hadn’t already decided that he didn’t like the man very much, this would absolutely have been the tipping point for Sebastian. When people are scared about the unknown, not telling them what’s going on in order to be dramatic is really the last thing anyone should do. It was selfish.
Sebastian glanced across to the couch on the other side of the room where Evie sat buckled in. This would have been the time to exchange a look, and he was getting very pleased with himself that he understood that to be the case. But she was staring intently toward the front of the ship. Almost too intently. As if her not looking at him was a message.
His heart sank.
It was a message.
Sebastian turned so that he could more comfortably join everyone else in staring out front. He wondered what Doris was doing belowdecks. He wondered what all the rumbling was. He wondered if everyone else except Alistair and maybe Evie was feeling as low as he was. But all he could see were the backs of their heads.
Sebastian had no idea. No idea about anything. He used to think he knew pretty much everything there was to know, and that the things he didn’t know he would learn easily enough. But now he knew: he didn’t understand anything about people, about the way the world worked. And knowing facts and figures evidently wasn’t enough. You needed to know those people-and-world things.
It was a scary feeling, not knowing.
The rumbling got more intense; the shaking as well. Bubbles were raging outside the window, hiding the rest of the sea from view. Every
thing was frothy and quaking, and it didn’t feel safe.
Then it felt like the submarine was moving forward, but he couldn’t see out the window and had no clue how the Kid could either. Sebastian supposed that the Kid had to be using radar to see where he was going. That would have to be it.
The water outside the window seemed to be getting brighter, the white frothy bubbles getting more white, the blue less black.
What?
They were going forward…and up?
“We’re going up,” he said out loud. He said it so Evie would hear him. He said it so that she’d look at him.
She didn’t.
The ship kept ascending.
Why? How would that get them to the Mariana Trench faster? They’d still have to go through the waterways and around the continents and…
Oh.
Oh my goodness.
We are going up.
As in…
Up.
Sebastian held his breath as the water rushed away from the window. He could see the line between water and air as they rose. He could see the North Sea and England in the distance. There was a louder rumble, and the shaking was getting more intense. They continued rising. The water got lower and lower against the window. The submarine was now on top of the water like a regular ship. So they were going to go along the surface now?
No.
Because they didn’t stop. They kept going…climbing out of the water.
“Are we…going into the sky?” asked Evie.
“You betcha,” said the Kid, not turning around but sounding pretty thrilled at the prospect.
“If we can fly, why didn’t we do it from Portugal?” asked Sebastian in awe, utterly flummoxed.
“Because it’s extremely risky,” replied Benedict. “Because it can harm the integrity of the ship and is only ever meant to be used as a last resort. And because flying over Europe is a lot more noticeable than flying over wide bodies of water.”
Alistair swiveled in his chair, seeming not to hear any of that. “Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked his granddaughter with a smile.
The Quest for the Kid Page 24
