The Shimmers in the Night

Nine

"I think," said Mrs. M suddenly, pronouncing it Ah thank as usual, "that since none of you have any more races—and since we have Jackson to get home and your hands are injured, Cara—that we should go ahead and take the ferry back this afternoon. We can swing by the hotel first to pick up our things. There are plenty of chaperones; Mr. Abboud has already taken over the other kids on my list. So we'll just scoot to the ferry dock on the T. It goes right there. And I bet your daddy can pick us up in P-town. We can squeeze into y'all's Subi if someone sits in the way-back. OK?"

"That'd be good," said Jax, nodding.

At home we'll have more room to breathe, he thought at Cara. We need some privacy. I texted part of it to Max but not all and so he's kind of freaking out.

"Exactly, privacy," she blurted out.

"What's that, sweetie?" asked Mrs. M.

"Oh, nothing. That sounds great, going home early."

Although she had to admit, her hands felt so much better it was almost as though they hadn't been burned in the first place.

"What was that lotion, Mrs. M?" she asked. "It made my hands feel completely better."

"Just cooling gel!" said Mrs. M, and turned away to beckon to Hayley, whose attention she was having trouble attracting. She stood up on the bleacher to wave her over.

Hayley wouldn't be happy about leaving Boston early, Cara realized. Jaye would; there was a rehearsal for the school play tonight, which she'd complained about having to miss in order to make the trip. Now she wouldn't have to miss it. But Hayley would be mad; she'd been looking forward to tonight, when the team was scheduled to have a social hour in the hotel restaurant with the teams from the other schools. Hayley lived for things like that.

"Should I break it to her?" Cara asked Mrs. M. "Or should you?"

•

Sure enough, Hayley sulked on the ferry. While the others went out on deck, she sat hunched up with a shut-down frown, texting rapidly on her phone.

With Jax on one side and Jaye on the other, Cara stood at the rail and smelled the salty spray.

"So?" asked Cara. "What did Max tell you about Zee?"

"He didn't know anything," said Jax. "He sounded pretty worried."

"It really looked like her!" burst out Cara. "I saw her again when we were stepping into the book, off that oil rig—I could have sworn it was her. Seriously."

"So we think Zee is mixed up in all this, too?" asked Jaye.

"It has to be because of us," said Jax solemnly.

"Like they could have taken her because she knew us, you mean? Like, say she's a hollow. Like you were. And I was, too. So then, maybe they picked her because she knows us. Maybe you're the target they want to aim her at! Or Mom is!" said Cara.

"I guess that wouldn't be such a stretch," said Jax. "If it really was Zee you saw...."

"We have to find out," said Cara. "We have to go and get her! And bring her out of it, like you brought me. Right? You stopped me from being a hollow—you brought me back. If we could find her, you could you do that to her, too, right?"

"But I don't know her that well," he said. "I know you. It works through accessing a memory. Remember?"

"But you do know her," said Cara, though she felt uncertain.

When they'd sent her to find her mother, the teachers at the Institute had assumed that even Cara's memory of Jax, her little brother, wouldn't be enough. So what were the chances her or Jax's memories of Zee would be?