CHAPTER ONE

1

The Zodiac FC-530 combat rubber raiding craft is not a lifeboat. Nor was it designed to be. It isn't even the standard issue commonly used by Special Forces, the FC-470. It is two feet longer, nine inches wider, seventy-five pounds heavier, and can carry a maximum of twelve people—if you go by the technical specifications.

The Zodiac FC-530 is not a lifeboat.

But it was all that was keeping them alive.

2

"Well, that's the last of that."

Freya looked up from where she sat at the prow of the raft, knees folded to her chest, to watch Emmett toss the metal canteen lid to the floor. It took her a moment to focus her eyes, to blink through the gunk, and even longer for her brain to register that the lid had, until now, contained their water rations.

How many days had it been?

Four?

Five?

An eternity was more like it.

And now, their meager water supply, doled out and sparingly consumed, was gone.

She shrugged and settled closer to the raft wall. No food, no water. They were free, they were helpless. As she settled back, she glanced about the raft. The hot sun had left most of them inert in their attempt to hide from its burning visage. Ajani hung over the side of the raft, his fingers trailing just above the water line. Emmett sprawled at the aft with his feet kicked up against the inactive motor, gas sloshed to the rhythm of the waves. Nicholas lounged across the raft, feet elevated on the gunwale. Of all of them, he looked the least concerned and despondent, the most relaxed.

Of course he did.

Freya looked about for Branwen and saw nothing. She had half hoped the strange girl had returned while she had slept, but no such luck.

Xiaofan muttered incoherently in a small fetal pile. She snorted once, raised her head—eyes dazed and panicked. Unthinking and without invitation, she crawled over and lay her head in Freya's lap.

Xiaofan drifted back into uneasy slumber.

Freya took a moment to brush away the salt crystals forming on the little girl's skin away from the sores created by that very salt.

Movement caught her eye.

Stanley crossed from his side of the raft and picked up the canteen lid. He flicked it a couple times and listened to the tink, tink, tink in a curious, studious manner. He nodded once to himself and returned to his place on the raft. As he sat, their eyes met. Though no words passed between them, Freya understood him: 'I know. I'm working on it.'

He set the cup next to his leg and picked up the project that had consumed him for the past day or so. He had meticulously dissected the scavenged equipment from the beached rafts, deliberately taking inventory in a manner that had driven Xiaofan into a fit. He said little and when he did, he stuttered. Embarrassed by this, he sat in silence as he cut strips of duct tape from the roll and added it to the evolving mess.

Freya sighed.

When he was ready, he'd tell them what it was.

She settled back and Xiaofan whined incoherently in her sleep. With the merciless sun overhead flaying them, she closed her eyes again and followed Xiaofan into an uneasy, disconcerting land of slumber.

3

Freya's ear twitched.

The lulling sounds of wind and waves carried her like so much flotsam to the shores of slumber. Few other sounds braved the desolate oceanic desert. But her ears caught this.

Wings flapped.

She did not fully rouse herself, just alert enough to be unstartled when the raven circled once and then cautiously landed near the prow, close to Freya's head.

Freya opened her eyes and watched the raven pace a step or two towards the boys on the other side.

"C'mon, X," Freya said. "Time to get up."

Xiaofan whined and grumbled, but eventually sat up—her eyes clotted with sleep. She scooted a space from Freya and lay against the gunwale.

The raven blatted at the boys. Wordlessly, Stanley turned his back and resumed his tinkering. Emmett twisted around and mimicked Ajani who remained draped over the side.

"What?" Nicholas asked. "It's not like we haven't seen you before."

The raven cried harshly at him.

"Okay, okay. If it makes you happy." He shifted about and turned his back on the girls. "Is that good enough for ya? I don't see what the big deal is."

The raven blatted again, hopped into the boat, and ambled between Freya and Xiaofan. Expectantly, the bird looked from one girl to the next and then stared at the sleeping Xiaofan.

Freya reached over and gave her a light push. "Wake up. I need your help with this."

Xiaofan muttered and flapped her arm about until Freya put a corner of the tarp in her hand. Together they held it up as a screen.

Satisfied with the privacy, the raven began to morph. Her black feathers melted into pink flesh; her beak diminished from a sharp, pointed spear into a rounded nose and soft lips. As she shed the raven form, she grew until the raven was gone and a naked blonde girl remained.

"I really don't get it, Branwen," Nicholas said. "You can get into our heads and see us in our full nakedness, yet you don't want us to see you when you're physically naked? The mind, it boggles."

"Drop it, Nick." Freya said.

"No, you drop it. And then we'll all see her as she sees us." Nicholas sighed. "Like I said, I just don't get it."

Freya rolled her eyes and turned to Branwen who was shimmying into fraying clothing, her face red, but not from the sun.

"Ignore him." Freya said. And then, in spite of already seeing the answer on Branwen's face, she asked, "See anything?"

"Do we have any water?" Branwen asked.

"This jerk-wad finished the last of it off." Nicholas said as he made a rude gesture in Emmett's direction.

Branwen's face dropped and she looked as if she might cry—if she had enough moisture in her to do just that. The unvoiced question 'why couldn't you save at least a drop for me' read plainly in her eyes.

She had done her best to conserve energy and not sweat it out by riding the thermals up and then climbing higher, above where the warm air would suck the moisture right out of her. Even that was not enough to prevent the inexorable march of dehydration, of death.

She dropped her head on Freya's shoulder.

"It's not my fault we're out of water." Emmett said. "That was my ration and—"

"Your ration?" Nicholas cut in. "She's up there, flying about looking for something, hell, anything to save you guys and all you're concerned about is your ration?"

"I'm sorry. I just—"

"Stupid pig." Nicholas said.

"Oh, bite me." Emmett responded.

"That's it." Nick jumped to his feet, rocking the raft and jostling the passengers. He lunged at Emmett, his face twisted in a snarl. Ajani, acting purely on instinct, rose and caught Nick before he could dive into Emmett.

"Let me go!"

Emmett tried to rise from where he sat against the transom and only managed to make the raft rock even more.

Nick kicked out and struck Emmett in his broad chest and launched him into the open ocean.

"Stop it!" Freya clung to the sides of the prow as it rocked in the water. Xiaofan and Branwen clung to her preventing her from rising up and adding to the commotion.

Emmett rose to the surface and sputtered out several profanities before paddling his way back to the raft. Nick spat at him as he climbed over the transom and grinned tightly. Ajani held him back. Emmett glared at him, his eyes narrowed. Then he lunged at Nick. He threw a right hook and hit him in the face.

Nick staggered back pulling Ajani with him. Before anybody could do anything, Emmett batted Ajani out of the way and punched again.

"Stop!" Freya cried as she shed Xiaofan and Branwen from her arms.

Emmett grabbed Nick's arm, right on the bandage, and squeezed.

Nick cried out in pain and the next thing he knew he was being lifted up into the air and tossed overboard.

He didn't go far.

Emmett had a handful of his hair and held him under.

Freya rose from the prow and leapt over Ajani as he struggled to rise.

"Let him go!" Freya growled.

"No." Emmett said. "He deserves this."

Freya grabbed Emmett by his scalp and pulled his face up to meet hers. Her other hand sprouted claws and she held them to his throat.

Through clenched teeth, Freya spoke softly. "I said, let him go."

Emmett glared at her for a moment and then let go of Nick's hair. He slid back to his position at the transom and crossed his arms over his barrel chest.

Nick rose slowly and spat a stream of water to the side. He hooked his good arm over the gunwale and sat there bobbing along in the ocean. He glared at Emmett before taking Ajani's hand and sliding into the raft.

The raft settled into an uneasy silence that stretched on for hours and, eventually, everyone settled back into their accustomed places on the raft.

With only the breeze and the ocean lapping at the sides of the raft for noise, Freya found herself drifting back toward sleep. She didn't understand it, the lethargy, but with nothing to do, noting to eat, nothing to drink, there wasn't anything else to do. And as she drifted something blinked at her—a flash of light struck her in an instant and then it was gone.

"Hey," Ajani stirred from where he draped himself. "You see that?"

Freya blinked and pulled herself forward. She paused to wipe a line of salt from Xiaofan's face as she slept. As she leaned against the gunwale, she caught the light again—another wink—rolling on the waves.

"There it is again. Freya, did you see it too?" Ajani asked, the unknown object giving rise to excitement, the first real excitement they'd had since they'd left the island.

She nodded.

Maybe fifty meters out, just a blink of light.

They waited.

Again, they were flashed, this time it was closer. Watching the rise and fall of waves, they strained to catch a glimpse of whatever was creating that flash that had captured their fascination.

"It's getting closer." Ajani said and indeed it was. "Just a little bit more... and..." Ajani stretched out his arm and caught hold of it and in a second he settled himself back in the raft holding it in one hand.

"A bottle." Ajani sighed as he sloshed the blackened contents about, then he laughed sardonically to himself. "All that time just sittin' and waitin' and watchin'. All for a stupid, ordinary bottle."

Freya sat back and welcomed Branwen and Xiaofan back into her lap. Funny, she thought, that these two would cling to her so. She shook her head. Ajani was right. What little excitement they had experienced had come from a stupid glass canning jar lost carelessly in the ocean.

"Look at what's left of the crap left in here. Blech." Ajani grimaced as he swished the moldy remains around. "No doubt someone got sick of it and just tossed it overboard. Stupid litterbug. What a waste." With a look of complete disgust, he cocked his arm back to throw.

"Nnnn-no!" Stanley rose from where he sat tinkering a panicked look on his face.

Ajani lowered his arm, confusion paraded across his face.

Stanley crossed over and took the glass bottle from Ajani, his eyes intent on it. With a little grunting he twisted the cap off, then nearly retched as the smell of the decaying contents washed over him. Quickly and carefully he poured the contents over the side and then rinsed it out in the ocean water. He held it up again for closer inspection.

After a moment, he smiled.

Freya cleared her throat. "What is it, Stan? What do you see?"

Stanley's eyes shone and his grin spread slowly, almost calculatingly, from ear to ear.

"Ssss-sss-ssalvation."

Life.

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