I was glad Eddy and Lexie were getting along. Despite Eddy blaming it on his own feelings, I knew the rift between them was mainly my fault. Lex and I were a lot closer than we’d ever been before we went in the Compound. Back then, she had been more of an enemy than a sister to the both of us. I could totally see how it was probably hard for Eddy to see such a change and not be part of it. So it was a relief to see him be completely different overnight, making an effort to get along.
I plugged my phone in. While I waited for it to charge all the way, I remembered the hot tub at the Colorado house and added swim shorts to my bag. At eleven thirty, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer to leave. I had just unplugged the phone from the charger when it rang.
I answered.
Dr. Barkley sounded very happy to hear from me. “YK has renewed the funding! I don’t know how much you had to do with that, but I wanted to thank you.” He rattled on a bit more.
Finally, I managed to get a word in.
“Dr. Barkley, I wanted to ask you a few questions.”
“Of course, anything.”
“I have a question about the fire? The one that destroyed your research?”
He sounded a bit deflated. “Yes?”
I said, “You said you’d figured out what turned on aging.”
“We’d isolated the compounds that caused aging, yes.”
I wasn’t sure what I needed to ask, so I just kept going. “And you said that could lead to a potential cure for progeria?”
“Yes,” he said. “Which is why it was so magnificent that Mr. Yanakakis came through so quickly to provide the funds to start over. He was such a great man. It’s a shame you’ll never have the chance to meet him.”
I stifled a groan. I really wanted him to stop talking about my dad and the stupid funding. “Dr. Barkley. Could that discovery, the isolation of those compounds, have had any other … ramifications? Besides a cure?” I needed to know what else that discovery could have meant. What interest my dad might have had in it.
Dr. Barkley chuckled a bit. “Well, I suppose that…” He trailed off.
“Dr. Barkley? Were there other ramifications?”
“In the right hands.”
“What?” I asked. “In the right hands … what?”
He breathed loudly into the phone. “In the right hands … that discovery could have led to the fountain of youth.”
My hand tightened on the phone. Holy crap. So that discovery was not just a potential cure for a rare childhood disease. That discovery could have led to …
“Dr. Barkley, one more question. What was the date of the fire? Do you remember?”
He sighed. “Of course I remember. One of the worst days of my life.” And he uttered the date with more than a trace of contempt. I thanked him and hung up. I worked at the date in my head. That date was …
That date was mere weeks before my ninth birthday. Mere weeks before that night when we entered the Compound. I quickly printed out all the pages from the PDL file. Again, it was just a bunch of research, but I checked the date. The date was before we went into the Compound.
My heart started pounding.
Was I looking at Barkley’s research?
The research that had been destroyed by fire so many years before?
And if so, how did that research end up on a flash drive belonging to Phil?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lexie came in. “You ready?”
I stuffed my tablet computer into my bag, along with my phone, the flash drive, and the PDL printout. I was still reeling from the phone call and walked downstairs in a daze. I hugged everyone good-bye and was glad to get out in the fresh air. Lexie climbed in the front of the SUV and I got in the back.
I pulled out my tablet. But I didn’t even know what to search for. No search engine was going to answer the questions I had.
Had Dad known about the research? When Barkley applied for funding, he could have mentioned his recent discovery. Did Dad have something to do with the fire? Did he steal Barkley’s research and then start the fire as a cover-up?
No. Dad never got his hands dirty. I knew that. He would have had someone else do it. Steal the research. Start the fire.
But why? To find a cure to progeria?
There had to be more to it. Dad could have just funded the research and had Barkley continue.
The discovery must have had more meaning than the cure alone.
I slipped the printed pages of the PDL file out of my bag and scanned them. Barkley had talked about the ramifications of the discovery I held in my hands. A cure for progeria, yes. But also the fountain of youth. What would Dad want with that?
I glanced at the top again.
PDL.
Fountain of youth.
PDL.
I gasped.
Ponce de León?
The fountain of youth. PDL had to stand for Ponce de León. It had to be.
The Ponce de León Project.
What had Dad been up to? Had he considered a vaccine to stop aging? If it was even possible, whoever did that would be the wealthiest person on the planet.
I leaned back against the seat and looked out the window.
Did any of it even matter? Dad was gone. Phil was gone. I couldn’t believe anyone else had been involved. I could just give the contents of the PDL file back to Dr. Barkley. Except, if they were the lost research from the fire, what would I tell him? How would I explain that an exceptional high school student/intern somehow happened to have research that had been destroyed years before?
I couldn’t. It would have to be my secret to keep.
We reached the private airstrip and pulled up to the jet. Lexie said, “Will you take my bag on board?” She pointed at the office building. “I want to pee inside before we leave. I hate going on the plane.”
I nodded and got out, grabbing both our bags. I climbed the short flight of steps onto the jet. Tony was standing in the back, near the small kitchen area.
Eddy was stretched out on a seat, already napping from the looks of it.
Tony waved at me. “Want some juice?”
I nodded. “Yeah, thanks.” I sat down behind Eddy, in the second row of leather reclining seats, and stuffed Lexie’s bag under the seat next to mine. I started to shove mine under when my phone and the flash drive fell out. I picked up the flash drive and noticed the tiny P.A.W. on the edge. Did Phil put his initials on everything? I shoved it into my pocket.
Tony handed me a glass and I downed half of it. “Thanks,” I said. “I was thirsty.”
“Guess so,” he said.
“Hey, if you could not mention our … outing the other night, I’d appreciate it.”
He nodded. “I kinda figured you didn’t want Eddy to know you were posing as him.”
“Thanks.” I took another drink and finished the juice.
Phil’s middle name was still bugging me. What was it anyway?
I got out my tablet, went online, and Googled Philip A. Whitaker. The connection was slow, probably because I was on board the jet. Finally it popped up. The A stood for Anthony.
As I started to read more, my vision grew blurry. I rubbed my eyes, but it got worse. I stood up, but immediately felt dizzy and collapsed back into the seat.
“Whoa.” Was I sick?
Then Tony’s face was inches from mine. “Eli?”
“I don’t feel well,” I said. My words were marbles in my mouth. “Something’s wrong.”
“You’ll be fine.” Tony smiled. “Just be a good boy and take a nap like your brother.”
“What?” I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t. My fingers fumbled and my tablet slid off my lap onto the seat next to me. The screen blurred, but I could still see Phil’s name.
“Let me go,” I said.
I struggled, tried to stand, tried to push him away. But my limbs wouldn’t do anything I wanted them to.
Tony laughed. But then he stopped. “Do you know how painful this has been? To be nice to you al
l and pretend to be your little family friend? I’m so glad this is almost over.”
What? What’s almost over?
“I’ll tell the pilot.” I tried to stand up.
He simply pushed me back down and buckled my seat belt around me, cinching it tightly. “Just sit there and enjoy the ride.”
He lowered his head so he could look out the window toward the office building. “And here comes your pretty sister.”
I could no longer speak, but in my mind, I screamed at Lexie.
Run!
Get help!
Do not get on this plane!
But then my sister stepped on board and smiled at Tony, who handed her a glass of juice.
Nooo!
She took a drink, and then noticed me.
Her smile faded as she saw me and then Eddy.
She said something to Tony.
And just as Tony reached for her, everything went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I smiled.
What was that smell?
Lovely. So lovely.
Almost like perfume. But it was some kind of flower.
A tropical flower.
Plumeria?
Yes.
Gram’s plumeria trees in her front yard in Hawaii.
Reese made leis for the little kids one day. Pink and yellow plumerias.
I loved the smell.
My eyes fluttered. Blurry.
I could smell, but I couldn’t see?
I tried to reach up and rub my eyes, but my arms were heavy. So heavy.
I forced myself to hold up my head, but it lolled, a bowling ball on my neck.
I blinked and blinked, finally clearing my vision.
I was still on the jet.
Hadn’t we left yet?
“Eddy? Lexie?”
I heard a groan, but no one said anything.
And then I remembered.
Tony. Tony drugged me.
I had to find my brother and sister.
I tried to stand, but something held me down.
My seat belt. Still fastened.
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, shake off the cobwebs in my brain. “Get a grip, dude.” My mouth was dry and tasted awful.
With a loud click, the seat belt opened easily for me, and I held on to the seat in front of me and got to my feet. My legs threatened to give out, but they held as I walked to the front of the jet, grasping seats on my way to steady myself.
Eddy was in the same seat he’d been in when I boarded the plane. He opened his eyes, then squinted and held his head. Lexie was next to him, but she was still out cold.
I found a bottle of water and drank about half of it. Then I took another to Eddy and he downed most of it before stopping to take a breath. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
I walked to the front of the jet and stepped into the open doorway. I squinted at the bright sunshine and had to hold my hand above my eyes.
A breeze hit me then. A distinctly warm, tropical breeze that held the scent of flowers. I chugged the rest of my water and set the empty bottle on the counter. Then I held on to the rail and, still feeling wobbly, went down the steps and onto the tarmac. A tarmac lined by coconut palms and plumeria trees laden with pink blooms.
Through the trees, I caught a glimpse of water. The ocean. Was it real? Could I smell it?
Yes. There. The scent of salt was faint, almost covered completely by the plumerias.
The jet had left Seattle, because I was most definitely on an island.
My legs gave out and I fell to the hot tarmac.
“You okay?” Eddy was behind me, and squatted beside me. He put a hand on my shoulder. “Dude?”
I tried to stretch my arms and legs, then shook them. I also slapped myself on the cheeks a couple times. Finally, when I felt strong enough, I got to my feet, still a bit woozy. “I feel like crap.”
Eddy slowly stood up, and staggered into me. “Me too.” We held each other up.
I said, “Something was in the juice. Tony drugged us.”
Eddy spit on the ground. “I can’t believe he’d do that. I trusted him.”
“Do you think it’s a kidnapping? Did he drug us and let someone fly us here?” Wherever here was.
“I don’t know.” Eddy scrunched his eyes shut and rubbed them. “My vision is so blurry.”
We heard a scream from inside the plane.
Lexie.
We got back up the stairs as quickly as we could, and found Lexie still strapped into her seat, eyes wide. She looked relieved when she saw us. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” I got a bottle of water and handed it to her.
She drank almost the whole thing. “Where’s Tony?”
Eddy and I looked at each other. He said, “I don’t know. We think maybe—”
“Maybe what?” she asked.
Eddy paused before saying, “We think it might be a kidnapping of some sort.”
“But it’s a YK jet!” Lexie tried to stand up, but fell back into the seat. “Help me up!”
Eddy grasped her arm and pulled, and when she got out into the aisle, I got on her other side for support. We headed for the door and slowly made our way down the stairs and onto the runway.
“Where are we?” asked Lexie.
Straight ahead and straight behind lay nothing but runway, each option ending in what looked like blue water. So I pointed at the trees. “I think we should head that way.” They both seemed to agree, because neither said anything. We started walking, and my head cleared more as the blood got flowing. By the time we reached the trees, I felt almost back to normal.
Eddy said, “I feel better.”
But the sun was so hot that my shirt was nearly soaked through with perspiration. Eddy’s and Lexie’s faces were beet red and sweaty, just like mine felt.
An opening lay between two particularly large coconut palms, and I led the way through, finding myself steps away from a wooden boardwalk. I stepped onto it, and Lex and Eddy followed, our footsteps clunky and loud as we made our way along.
Lush vegetation was abundant alongside the man-made trail, growing so tightly together that I couldn’t see anything besides the path and the green. I certainly couldn’t see far enough ahead to get an idea of our destination.
“Shh.” I held up my hand and we stopped for a second. I wanted to listen, see if I could hear anything.
I froze. Was that—
“Dripping water,” said Eddy.
We headed toward the sound.
The boardwalk went on neatly through the tropical foliage, until it ended at a wall. I knew the wall had to be concrete of some kind, but it was laden with a large relief, taller than I was, of a man kneeling by a pond, sipping from his cupped hands. A constant but light flow of water rippled down the wall into a catchment basin below, making the entire thing seem more like a piece of art than a barrier.
At first I couldn’t see any way to get by the wall. Lexie said, “Look.” There was a slight crack behind the figure of the man. It was a door, almost hidden. I should have noticed the narrow walkway over the water that led right to the door.
Eddy and I stepped over it and ran our hands along the wall, which was cool and wet. Together, we pushed on the outline of the door and it opened.
I hesitated. “Maybe we’re being stupid to walk right in.”
I shot a glance behind me.
Lexie said, “The only thing back that way is the jet.”
I froze. Faint strains of classical music drifted toward me.
Lexie asked, “Is that Vivaldi?”
Eddy said, “Only one way to find out.”
I took a deep breath and stepped through the door.
The first thing I saw was a glass house.
We stopped.
The house wasn’t entirely glass, but the wood and concrete supports were so sparse that the structure did seem, at first glance, to be made all of glass. Marble steps led u
p to a large, wide veranda, and Eddy walked up them slowly. Lexie followed, then I brought up the rear.
Once on the veranda, Eddy aimed for a pair of glass doors. We all peered inside, but saw no one.
Eddy pointed around the side of the house. “I don’t see another way in.”
I took a deep breath and quietly slid open the glass doors. Cool air blew out and felt refreshing on my sweaty skin. I stepped inside, then closed the doors shut as soon as the others were inside with me.
The Vivaldi was much louder inside, but I still couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Shiny bamboo flooring lay under our feet, and we tiptoed across the huge foyer. We all stopped before a massive floor-to-ceiling cylindrical aquarium, with a circumference of about twenty feet. I stepped closer to it and gazed at the thousands of tiny creatures inside. Some kind of jellyfish.
“They’re all the same,” whispered Lexie.
The water in the glass shone with a blue light, which made the jellyfish inside look eerie, alien, as they glowed an artificially bright turquoise. Their tops looked a bit like an oblong globe, with a bright orange spot inside. Their tendrils also appeared blue as they floated like flimsy spiderwebs beneath.
Eddy whispered, “Let’s keep going.”
We walked across the foyer until we reached a hallway. A tall archway lay to the left. We walked under it and into a massive glass room with bamboo end tables and two fans whirling from the ceiling a good fifteen feet over my head. Vases of orange orchids and plumerias sat on every possible surface, making the room smell heavenly. A large lava stone fireplace took up one entire wall and a white sectional sat in front of it.
“It’s beautiful,” said Lexie.
“What is this place?” I asked.
Eddy turned around to face me and started to say something else, then his gaze, and Lexie’s, wandered behind me to my left. Their eyes widened and their mouths dropped.
“Eddy. Lexie. Eli.”
Goose bumps sprouted on my arms.
That voice. There was no way. No way in—
I turned around.
Our father stood there, smiling at us. He said, “Welcome to the Yanakakis island. I’ve been waiting.”