Nil Unlocked (20 page)

There was no Jenny. No Karl. No Hui.

Still, I couldn’t stop subconsciously overlapping my uncle’s description of his peers to the people in front of me, trying to make it fit. All the people in front of me wore clothes exactly like those worn on Nil over twenty years ago. Wrap skirts, plain shorts. Chest wraps. All off-white, all simple. All matching.

I was the odd girl out.

Rives was right; I wasn’t the average Nil rookie, but I wasn’t a veteran, either. I was an outsider with inside knowledge. I was an anomaly. And I was dangerous, or at least my gate was. I also hadn’t counted on having to repeat my story to each new group of people; I hadn’t factored that in at all. My plan had ended with Rives.

I needed a new plan.

A plan, I decided quickly, that involved more listening and less talking, until I figured out where I fit.

What are you afraid of?
Rives had asked.

Not an easy question to answer, but near the top of the list was the butterfly effect, the same effect Dad mentioned on the day he’d handed me Uncle Scott’s journal. I didn’t want to be responsible for undoing all the good my uncle had done; I would
not
knowingly throw the island into chaos. Not that I really believed I had the power to do that, but based on my uncle’s journal, Nil shifts happened quickly, and on Nil, anything could happen. The noon free-for-all wasn’t history to be repeated.

I won’t let it
, I vowed.

But just because I wouldn’t talk about the stationary gate didn’t mean I wouldn’t find it. For everyone.

So much had changed since the moment Dad handed me Uncle Scott’s journal; it was as pivotal a moment for me as stepping into that gate.

I gasped.

“What is it?” Rives asked. His body tensed, like he was on high alert.

“I just realized my dad handed me my uncle’s journal at noon. It’s not a big deal. It’s just”—I paused as I dug for the right word—“weird.”

Rives said nothing, at least not at first. “An interesting coincidence,” he said finally.

“Rives!” Dex strode over, a thin, towering figure with an astonishing number of tattoos and stretched earlobes skewered with black shark’s teeth dangling from twine. He grinned at Rives. “I see you took my advice about traveling in pairs?”

British,
I thought, inexplicably surprised. Why his thick accent would surprise me more than a rhino was ridiculous.

As Rives snorted, Dex turned to me.

“I’m Dex. You’ve got quite the island ensemble there. Stella McCartney would be proud. And possibly jealous.”

“Only if she landed here. But she’s too old, right?”

Dex raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Indeed.”

“Dex, meet Skye. Skye, Dex.” Rives’s eyes traced the Cove as he spoke. He wore the same searching look he’d had when he’d strode from the ocean earlier, only without the fury.

“Welcome to Nil, Skye,” Dex said. “It sounds like Rives filled you in on all the crucial details of our lovely resort, yes?”

“No need,” Rives said. “Skye already knew. And she’s got a very interesting story. But first, a few highlights.” He turned to me, his green eyes finding mine. “Cool?”

“Totally.” It occurred to me he was asking for permission I’d already given him, only now he was asking in public. A careful Leader move, I decided. I was curious to see what Rives thought were the highlights. I assumed Charley would be number one.

Rives waited until a small crowd gathered. Ten people, including Rives and me.

“Okay everyone, meet Skye.” He smiled as I raised one hand. “She’s not your average rookie, as you’ll find out soon enough.” He paused. “She met Charley.” Gasps went through the group. One girl with long auburn braids clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

One heartbeat later, Rives continued, his voice steady and reassuring. “Now you know Charley made it. She’s okay. Same for Natalie, and Kevin. And now we have solid confirmation that the gates go both ways.”

A boy with brown hair as wildly curly as mine and freckles across his cheeks and chest raised a hand. “What about Thad?” His deep voice cracked.

“No word. But he followed Charley; I saw him take the next gate. He made it, Jason.” The quiet confidence in Rives’s voice felt practiced; he’d buried the desperation I’d heard a few minutes earlier. No wonder Charley had told me to find Rives. I felt better listening to him too. “He made it,” Rives repeated.

The girl with braids still covered her mouth. Her eyes glistened. She wiped them quickly and looked directly at me, her gaze uncertain and suspicious.

My outsider status had never felt stronger. Worse, I felt like the bearer of bad news, or at least incomplete news. News that wasn’t good enough.

Rives kept going without a break. “But here’s another Nil newsflash: Just because the gates go both ways, they don’t show up in the same place. Charley woke up in France, on Mont Blanc. But she’d been snatched from a parking lot in Georgia. And yeah, she woke up in France naked.”

Groans went through the group.

“A few more things. I’m stealing a little of Skye’s thunder here.” Rives smiled. “But Skye showed up on Nil three days ago.” He paused. “At midnight. And the outbound she took on the other end left at midnight, too. Twelve midnight, not twelve noon.”

Abruptly everyone started talking at once.

Rives held up his hand. “I don’t know what that means, other than Nil has more secrets than ever. Gates still come at noon. Maybe Nil’s giving us more chances. Let’s think positively until we know differently.”

One boy with spiky blond hair stood frowning, arms crossed.

“Last thing. Skye’s uncle came to Nil as a teenager. We have her uncle to thank for the Search system. He created it. Skye can fill you in on what it was like on Nil back then. And speaking of Search, welcome back, Johan.” Rives tipped his head toward the frowning blond boy. “It’s good to see you, although I’d rather you be headed home. And it’s good to see your team intact.”

Rives paused. “Johan, did you fill Dex in on your Search?”

Johan nodded. “Yes.” No inflection, no smile. He looked like he was holding half a breath.

“What about you, Skye?” Dex asked. “See any fun creatures or gates while you were traipsing about?”

I thought for a moment. “I saw an outbound yesterday, a single, at the edge of the northern cliffs.” I didn’t mention I’d run
away
from the gate, not willing to leave when I’d just arrived and had accomplished absolutely nothing. “And I saw an inbound today, with Rives. On North Beach. It brought an alpaca.”

“What’s an alpaca?” a dark-haired boy asked.

“It’s kind of like a llama, only smaller, and their coats are much softer,” the curly-haired boy—
Jason
, I reminded myself—said. “Alpaca fleece is like cashmere. Camels are distant cousins,” he added.

“Whoa,” another boy said. His ragged bleached hair hit his shoulders in a rough island surfer cut. “Nice little Wikipedia moment, man. Who knew?”

Jason shrugged. “The farm next to ours breeds alpacas. They’re pretty cool animals.” He cleared his throat as his voice cracked on the last word. “Make some weird noises though.”

“Right. Well, maybe we can work some alpaca wool into the fall islandwear collection.” Dex rolled his eyes. “We’ll get on that straightaway after we make torches and spears and things to keep us alive. Speaking of staying alive and, well, violent death, did you see anything else out there, like, say, big cats?”

“And by cats, Dex specifically means leopards,” Rives clarified. He was clearly fighting a smile.

“Like snow leopards?” I asked.

Dex’s eyes widened a fraction. “We’ve got bloody snow leopards? As in plural?”

“No! I mean, not that I know of.”

“Dex isn’t a cat fan,” Jason offered.

“Me either,” I said. “They make me sneeze.”

Rives coughed behind his hand, like he was hiding something—like a laugh. I glared at him, knowing full well now he was laughing at
me
, which wasn’t funny. I’d been highly allergic to cats my entire life. Once I touched a neighbor’s cat and rubbed my eye. My entire eye swelled shut, which was the complete opposite of funny. Memorable, horrible, incredibly painful, and unbearably itchy. But not funny. Rives deserved every bit of venom in my stare right now.

Dex cleared his throat, breaking the tight moment. “Back to the big cats, which I’m fairly certain Skye hasn’t gotten close enough to determine an allergy to”—Dex turned to me, eyes wide—“did you or did you not say ‘snow leopards’? Just trying to assess whether we’ve got bloody snow leopards at our island party now, too. As if regular leopards aren’t enough?”

“I didn’t see any snow leopards.” This time I chose my words with care. “My uncle saw them, but that was about twenty years ago.”

“Which means they should be gone by now,” Rives said, winking at me. I narrowed my eyes, unwilling to give an inch.

“Excellent,” Dex said. His crisp accent drew my attention. “I’ll cross snow leopards off my worry list.”

“But—” I paused, thinking of my first night.

“Wait. No buts. Nothing good ever follows the word
but
,” Dex said. “At least not here.”

“But what, Skye?” Rives asked, all humor gone. “We need to know.”

“I did see a tiger on my first night. I’m sure it was a tiger, because I got closer than I’d like.”

“How close?” Dex asked.

I shrugged. “Twenty feet?”

“Bloody hell,” Dex murmured.

“And?” Rives’s eyes stayed on mine.

“He let me go.”

“He let you go,” Rives repeated. His tone was flat, as in
not possible
.

I shifted uncomfortably. “I’d just arrived on the mountain, and I was pretty freaked out because—” I hesitated, unsure whether I should mention the muscle man who’d suggested that I be “dealt with,” and decided to stay mum.
Less is more,
I thought.
Or at least less is best
.

“It was dark,” I finished. “So I ran. And I nearly ran into the tiger.”

“In the meadow?” Jason asked.

I nodded. “At the far edge. I stopped, not sure whether I should run or scream or what. He looked at me, and then he just walked away.” I stopped, knowing it sounded crazy. That
I
sounded crazy. Not the introduction I was hoping for at all. “I can’t explain it,” I admitted. “I guess he wasn’t hungry.” It sounded weak, even to me.

“That is
insane
.” The blond shaggy-haired boy raised his eyebrows in shocked appreciation. “And a little badass. When you look up
badass
in the dictionary, it says ‘stares down tigers.’” He laughed. “Or maybe it says ‘Skye.’ Sweet spear, by the way.” He nodded at my hand, grinning.

Saying nothing, Rives studied me intently.

I shrunk under his gaze. I was definitely not badass. Navy SEALs were badass. Wolverine was badass. The crazy people who swim the English Channel or run hundred-mile road races were badass. Me? I was just a girl in an awkward leaf-kini who caught an early island break.

“Thanks, but I just got lucky,” I said.

“Not if you landed here,” the girl with braids said sharply. She wore a trio of small white shells wrapped around her wrist with twine. “By the way, I’m Jillian. Been here long enough to know.” Under her smile, wariness ran like cool water.

“Nice to meet you.” I smiled.

“Zane.” The blond boy who complimented my spear raised his hand, his easy grin still in place. “Still a rook. And I’m not ashamed to say I run from tigers.”

Jason came up and officially introduced himself, followed by the boy who’d asked about the alpaca, Julio. Both boys had been on Nil for months. A tiny girl with a surprisingly strong handshake and sleek black hair was next. “Miya.” Her voice was soft. “One hundred fifteen days. Welcome to the island.”

After Miya, a thin boy with dark hair and heavy acne came up. “Sy,” he said, offering his hand along with a warm smile. His grip was weak. “I’m one of Rives’s Seconds.”

This revelation surprised me more than Dex’s accent.

“We’re glad you’re here even though we’re sorry you’re here,” Sy said. Then his smile drooped. “But man, you sure picked a bad time to come.”

“Is there ever a good time?” I asked.

“Good point.” His posture reminded me of Paulo’s.

“Skye, got a minute?” Rives called. He stood beside the other blond boy, the one with the spiky hair.

“See you around, Skye,” Jason said. I noticed Miya slide her hand into Jason’s as they walked away.

I turned back toward Rives and the blond boy I hadn’t met.

“Skye, meet Johan. Johan, Skye.”

Johan nodded, his eyes hard on me. They were a piercing shade of blue. “Welcome, Skye,” he said softly. “How strange both you and your uncle landed on Nil. Such an odd coincidence.” He made
coincidence
sound like a dirty word, and I didn’t think it was his accent. His suspicion bordered on hostile.

“I was wondering the same thing,” Jillian said. Her tone was slightly warmer, which wasn’t saying much. “Your family is exceptionally unlucky.”

“I don’t know about the luck part, but it’s not a coincidence, not really.” I kept my tone neutral. “My dad’s obsessed with finding Nil. For the past twenty years, he’s traveled all over the Pacific and Micronesia, searching for Nil, using my uncle’s star charts from his days on Nil as a guide. This time my dad took me. I was in the Pacific, on a very remote island on the edge of Micronesia, when the midnight gate rose up from the ground.”

Johan’s ice-blue eyes instantly thawed. “So you were looking for the island, and the island took you.” He nodded as if it made perfect sense. “Like they say, don’t poke the bear, yes?”

Charley’s warning floated through my head.
Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it, and it might not be what you think.

Nil was everything I expected and nothing I expected.

Johan regarded me thoughtfully, his fingers steepled against his chin. “But the island let your uncle go, yes?” he asked, his tone kind.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“And what does he think of your father’s obsession?” Johan asked.

“I wouldn’t know. My uncle died when he was eighteen. Less than a year after he got back.”