Page 176 of Under Story

“I can’t believe this,” he shouts, as the platform lowers.

Laurel hears harried splashing. She turns to see a flat-bottomed black boat that curves to a point at each end. Its bow is ornately engraved, and the seats are upholstered in velvet. Louis struggles to balance on the stern.

“You said gondola,” he tells Eli. The others are dressed in the zippered bunny suits that Eli described, but Louis wears a striped T-shirt and a ribboned hat.

Eli points to the platform. “This is the gondola.”

“Well, can someone else take my boat? I’m not cut out for this,” says Louis.

Jules volunteers for the challenge. Charlie and Maisie join him. Louis wedges between Nita and Laurel.

“So what do we do now?” asks Jules.

Laurel gazes up at the bulbs. “We look for a clue.”

“I bet it’s underwater,” Nita says. “Anyone want to go diving?”

“Nita, please don’t,” says Eli. “This water is incredibly pure.”

“It’s imaginary, Eli. What would you suggest instead?”

“If I wanted to hide something,” says Eli, “I’d put it in one of these bulbs.”

“But…there are thousands,” says Jules. “We won’t have time to look through all of them.”

“Guys?” says Noah, whose right leg has vanished. “I think I’m starting to wake up.”

“Stop that. We just got here,” says Maisie.

A deafening whirr drowns Noah’s reply. Laurel covers her ears, and Louis cowers. The source of the noise is invisible. They can only see what happens in response: one by one, certain bulbs begin to glow a brilliant cobalt.

“What was that?” shouts Riordan.

Eli looks triumphant. “That was a neutrino. And I think these are our clues.”

Cast at an angle, the ring tilts from floor to wall.

“They won’t stay lit for long,” says Eli. “The sensors unscrew from the back. Jules, let’s have your boat take the group on the left. Riordan, Noah, Zachary: you target the ones underwater. Laurel, Nita, and Louis, can you handle the right side of the circle?”

They disperse with their instructions. Some retrievals proceed more smoothly than others: Jules, Charlie, and Maisie work so quickly that Eli dispatches them to help Riordan, whose paddle has become stuck. Nita rows Laurel and Louis deftly to the wall, where they manage—much less deftly—to unscrew and hoist the sensors. At last, the entire ring has been removed. Each bulb sits in a case, secured with bolts. Eli hands out screwdrivers.

“Wait!” cries Charlie. “How can we remember what we find? I always forget my dreams.”

“Write it down as soon as you wake up,” Maisie says. “As soon as you open your eyes…”

But her voice is fading, and so is her body. Noah and Maisie evaporate at the same time. Next Zachary and Jules vanish. Nita’s body leaves before her face, which lags behind, its eyebrows lifted.

Laurel calls for Eli, but no sound comes out. The green gondola is empty. When Louis departs, his straw hat falls, the ribbon flapping like a flag.

“And then there were three,” says Riordan, in a superior tone. He disintegrates as if in punishment.

Charlie goes last, though her voice stays a little longer.

“Laurel,” it says, urgently, “don’t forget to open your bulb.”

Hurrying, Laurel looks inside. Inside the sensor is a letter. She sets it down in the dinghy, whose paddles have begun to melt. All around is the sound of bubble wrap popping: the bulbs burst one by one, leaving ragged-looking holes.

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