“Bank!” I yelled, yanking Nudge’s arm right as the firework exploded with a pop of dazzling red.
26
“OOF,” I SAID as my body bounced and then sank against the woven rope net held taut by dozens of hands.
They saved us! was my first thought.
They shot us! was my second.
Remembering the rocket, I wiggled my fingers, making sure I hadn’t lost any digits. Other than a ringing in my ears that was going to lead to a whopping migraine, I was in one piece.
I peered at my attackers through the rope. Some of them had webbed toes, and others had legs that were fused together to the knees, so that they sort of hopped.
Mutants.
They turned their heads as someone approached, and I saw that all of them had little slits behind their ears, opening and closing as they sucked in air. Gills. Just like ours.
“Release them,” a male voice ordered, and they all let go at once.
Nudge, Total, and I tumbled into one another on the ground. “Hey, easy!” I said, and looked up at the mutants’ apparent leader. “And you are…?”
“Rizal.” He was short and muscular with brown, deeply tanned skin and hair that hung down into his eyes. From the way the other kids were looking at him, he was clearly in charge.
“So, Rizal.” I shook the netting free from my shoulders and stood up, matching his even gaze. “Do you mind telling me why you shot a rocket at us and trapped us in nets?”
“That was a defense mechanism Jonny Diamond has been working on for months.” Rizal nodded to a skinny kid with glasses. “He calls it the Jeweled Star.”
“I don’t care what it’s called,” I said. “Why did you shoot us out of the sky?”
“It was a warning. To stay away from our island.”
Say what?
My eyes narrowed. “Um, I’m pretty sure this is our island,” I said, suddenly feeling very territorial about this unlivable piece of volcanic rock.
“Hang on.” Nudge cut in. “I know some of these kids. Hey, Angela!” She waved. “And Barry!” The fish kids didn’t wave back, but Nudge didn’t seem to mind. “We all swam together at the waterfall the first day Nino Pierpont brought us here! Remember? We thought everyone else had died! Where have you been the last three months?”
“So you were part of the original people?” I asked. “I guess we all belong here, then.”
“Not anymore,” Rizal said. “We’re an exclusive community now.”
The two kids flanking him leveled the sharp-arrowed ends of their spearguns at us, and others used the nets to bind our hands.
What did I tell you? You can’t trust anyone.
27
I STARED AT the bare feet with their webbed toes approaching us. I was already cranky from the night we’d spent tied up in an oversized lobster cage—just ask me how much I love cages—and the new day wasn’t looking much better.
Now that I’d lost my freedom, I was starting to see how shortsighted my argument for taking things slow really was. I wanted to know who was behind this, and I wanted to know now.
“Who’s in charge?” I shouted at the fish kids as they passed
by. “What happened the day the sky caught fire? Are the caves still accessible?”
None of the fish kids would so much as look at us, though, and every one of them was heavily armed this time, with spearguns strapped over their shoulders and knives hugging their ankles and thighs.
“The full battalion, eh?” I observed dryly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were afraid of us.”