Page 376 of Hidden Depths

The man’s smile widened.

“Our leader.”

“Where is he?”

“He left before you closed the first gate.”

Ward’s face hardened.

“Where did he go?”

The guard looked directly at me.

“To collect the other four.”

60

WARD

“When the enemy divides your family, remember what the sea teaches every sailor—separate currents can still become one powerful tide.”

— James Sinclair

“To collect the other four.”

The guard’s words turned Storm’s face white.

Then something harder replaced the fear.

“No.”

She crossed the chamber and grabbed the front of his shirt before I could stop her.

“Calle isn’t with the others. She’s at Ke Ala Pier.”

The guard’s smile disappeared.

“What?”

“She carried the journal to the exchange.”

He hadn’t known.

That told me two things.

The leader hadn’t shared his entire plan.

And somewhere outside the mountain, two separate teams were closing in on the Sinclair sisters.

I pulled Storm away from him.

“Ben, get us a route to the surface.”

“Already looking.”

He swept his flashlight across the control room walls.

The passage we had entered was partially flooded. Returning through the lava tunnel would take too long.