The Serophim Breach (The Serophim Breach Series) (47 page)

They shuffled out of the room and were gone, leaving Sarah alone with her thoughts. She clung to the wheel, gripping it tightly whenever a gruesome image bubbled up from the depths of her brain, the now familiar tendrils of fear unfolding in her stomach. But she refused to think of Mike as one of them. It couldn’t happen.

Heather returned a short while later, her face drawn and tired. Without a word, she took back her place at the wheel, and Sarah moved away quietly to sit in Mike’s vacant chair.

She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until a change in the rhythm of the engine woke her. She sat up, disoriented by the different light; the angle of the shadows suggested late afternoon.

“What happened?” she croaked, her throat dry.

Heather was still standing at the wheel, looking out the window.

“I stopped the boat,” she answered, a new kind of tension lacing her voice.

“Why?” Sarah pressed, moving forward to stand next to the wheel. And immediately, she saw.

The coast of Maui was visible out before them, the lush island rising gracefully from the pristine waters. All around them, the choppy waves signaled another impending storm. But the gray cloud that covered half the island was not laden with rain; instead, it was being fed by billowing spires of smoke, rising from the coastal city of Moanaloa.

To be continued
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