Fragment

8:59 P.M.

“So they might not want us to get off the island, Captain Sol,” Andy said. “Do you get it now, what we’re trying to say?” “Yes, Andy,” the captain said. “I think I get it!” “Can’t we launch the mini-sub?” Cynthea asked. “With two Sea-Wolf anti-sub attack submarines listening for exactly that? Christ, they can probably hear what we’re saying right through the hull of this ship.”

“We gotta do something, man,” Peach said.

Captain Sol nodded, stroking his beard. “Maybe we can let out the winch on the Zodiac and let the tide carry it in closer…But how the heck can you get down to us?”

Everyone in the B-29 cockpit turned to the right to look at the basket hanging from the branch of Hender’s tree.

“Hender,” Geoffrey pointed. “Exit?”

“Water hazar-doo-us. Hender no water.”

“Of course, they go at low tide!” Nell said.

“Exit OK Hender,” Geoffrey said. “Exit safety OK?”

“Dane-jer! Dane-jer!” Hender shouted, pointing down.

“Humans below help,” Nell said. “Safety. Raft. Safe!” She pointed down and nodded.

“Rescue, raft!” Geoffrey added. “Safety!”

“Raft.” Hender nodded at Nell with what she could have sworn was skepticism. He closed his eyelids for a moment, then looked at Nell with both eyes. “OK. Safety.”

Hender turned and spoke to the other hendropods.

“OK, Captain Sol,” Andy said. “We’re going to be coming down in a basket sort of elevator thing…”

“What?” Captain Sol said.

“Go on deck and look up at the cliff. We’ll wave some lights so you can see us.”

Geoffrey motioned to the other humans, and they each scooped up some bug-jars.

They waved them in the window of the cockpit.

Thatcher glanced over his shoulder at the others as he slipped out the door.

He checked his Timex Indiglo watch, pressing the crown to light up its face, and peered down the hillside. He heard the engine of the Humvee and saw headlights beaming from behind the B-29’s rotting wing farther down the slope. He sighed as a wave of relief washed over him. Then he ran toward the lights.

In the control room aboard the Trident the video started to fizzle and fade.

“We’re losing you, Zero,” Peach said.

They heard the cameraman’s voice as the transmission died: “Look up… for us!”

Moments later, they saw the Trident’s deck lights flick on and off twice. “They spotted us,” Geoffrey said.

“Come on, Andy,” Nell said. “Let’s pack their stuff in those specimen cases.”

Nell and Andy ran to the other end of the fuselage to start packing the hendropods’ possessions into the aluminum cases. The other hendros ran past them and climbed into the hole to the spiral stairs that led to Hender’s elevator. But Hender paused beside Nell, watching her place his things inside one of the cases.

“Go now, Hender. Exit,” Geoffrey said, behind him. “Nell will come with us.”

Hender twisted his head around and looked at Geoffrey. “Nell will come with us,” Hender repeated, nodding. He turned to Nell and both his eyes bent down and looked into hers. Suddenly, without warning, he embraced her, wrapping four arms around her.

Nell was alarmed as his four hands pressed against her back- but his touch was surprisingly gentle, and as her fingertips reluctantly touched the smooth fur on his belly colors expanded like petals blossoming. Pink and orange blooms of light opened all over his silvery body, along with shifting stripes and dots of green, and without warning she was laughing. Tears spilled over her eyelids as she realized that she had found her flower, after all.

“Thank you, Nell.” She felt his voice hum through her like an oboe.

She ran her fingers gently over the thick, glossy coat. “Hender go now,” she said. “OK?” “OK, Nell. Hender go now.”

As Thatcher ran down the slope, he dodged weird transparent fern-like growths that sprouted over the clover fields in the gloom. Down the slope about a hundred feet, the headlights went dark. Thatcher could hear the idling engine cut off as he finally reached the Hummer.