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‘Plus,’ she continues, ‘we’re outmatched. Dev wasn’t wrong about that. We’ve got a very old, not fully functional sub … beautiful and amazing though she is …’ She says this last part loudly, addressing the chandelier. ‘And we’re not trained to operate her. Land Institute sent their senior class. They were foolish not to send alumni, or their adult staff, but still … they’ve got Dev. They must have been planning this operation for a long time.’

I wonder again why LI sent only students, even if they sent their best. Maybe it was school culture – fostering self-reliance, like Caleb said – but I have a feeling it had more to do with Dev. I can imagine him putting conditions on his cooperation – that he and only he would be in charge of theAronnax, that LI had to trust him with command to prove they were different than HP. Maybe, in the back of his mind, he was even trying to level the playing field, to give HP a fighting chance …

No. I can’t think like that. I can’t be Dev’s apologist. He made his choices.Vilechoices. And now, if he fails to deliver theNautilus, I imagine his new friends will turn unfriendly fast.

Nelinha scowls at her sandwich. ‘Land Institute killed our friends. They destroyed HP. Now they’re holding Lincoln Base. We can’t run away from that.’

Brigid Salter glumly pushes away her plate. She lost her brother at HP. She knows exactly what Land Institute has done. ‘They want theNautilus, not the island. Maybe theAronnaxleft Lincoln Base to follow us.’

Judging from her tone, she desperately wants that to be true. She wants her chance at a fight.

‘Or,’ Dru suggests, ‘sorry to say this, but they could have already destroyed the base.’

I shake my head. ‘They destroyed HP because it was part of their plan. It spurred us into leading them to theNautilus. Lincoln Base is different. It was Nemo’s final resting place. They’ll want to explore it. They’ll expect to find clues to our location, information about the ships …’

‘They’ll take the island,’ Gem decides. ‘Which means they’ll take prisoners.’

I think about those we left behind: Luca, Ophelia, Dr Hewett, Franklin, Tia. Even Socrates, though I’m not so worried about him being caught.

‘They’ll keep our people alive,’ I say, forcing myself to believe it. ‘Dev will want to interrogate them.’

I’m thinking of him as our enemy now. Not some faceless group of rival students. My own brother. I’ve fallen into a universe I don’t understand and don’t want to.

‘How long do we have?’ Gem asks. I understand his implication:until the prisoners are no longer useful.

I defer to Lee-Ann. She’s our best interrogator. I can no longer tell if her ears turn red, though, because they’re gift-wrapped by a ribbon of gauze around her head.

‘Depends on the captors’ patience level,’ she says. ‘Could be weeks. I imagine Dev – Land Institute ishopingwe’ll comeback. They’ll be waiting. It’ll be useful for them to have live captives.’

I think about the interrogation methods I learned at HP. We were always taught to avoid cruelty. That’s not our way. Still, some psychological techniques can be devastating, and I doubt Land Institute will take a light hand. Every day in captivity will feel like an eternity.

‘We can’t take weeks,’ I decide.

‘Also,’ Ester says, ‘we can’t stay here forever. As long as the reactor is online, we have limitless power, water and air. But in about seven days we’ll run out of food.’

Top rests his head on her thigh. I think he is reminding her that food is important and also it tastes good.

‘One week.’ Nelinha scratches the bandage on her forehead. ‘To do the impossible. Get engines back up and running.’

‘Get some of those torpedoes functioning,’ Dru adds.

‘Clean the slime out of the vents.’ Gem shudders. ‘So is that the plan, Captain? Return to Lincoln Base?’

I stand, trying not to wobble. ‘If anyone thinks we should do the sensible thing – running and hiding – speak now.’

No one advocates for the sensible thing.

I love my crew.

‘Okay, then,’ I say. ‘It’s a good thing we’re the best class Harding-Pencroft has ever seen. We get theNautilusoperational in one week. Then we return to Lincoln Base. And we show Land Institute they’ve messed with the wrong bunch of freshmen.’

After this inspiring speech, I eat cookies in the library.

Ester has ordered me to rest for at least one hour while the aspirin she found on board kicks in. (I think she wants to observe me to see if I actually turn into a fish.) While the rest of the crew scurries around, cleaning and repairing, carrying toolboxes and buckets of goop, I try to relax in a musty armchair, an original French copy of20,000 Leagues Under the Seain my lap.

It feels very meta to be reading a fictional book about theNautiluson board the actualNautilus. I wonder if Nemo read the book before his death, and if the inaccuracies annoyed him. At any rate, it isn’t autographedTo Nemo, Love, Jules.I checked.

Ester sits across from me in a love seat. Top snuggles next to her. Ester uses a library book as a lap desk, jotting down information on each note card, then tossing it onto Top before starting a new one. Judging from Top’s contented snoring, he does not mind being buried in information.