Chapter 73

I had thrown the Jo into reverse and attempted desperately to evade the rocket, but it had been a futile maneuver. Just before the explosive connected with the vulnerable side of my boat, Ric appeared. As the explosion shattered the quiet of the river, his broad shoulder caught me in the ribs, fracturing them, and the two of us flew over the side and into the murky water.

He had been badly burned and cut by flying debris, while my broken ribs drove into my lungs and missed my heart by a fraction. It fell to Maggie, who’d arrived in the nick of time, to get the two of us back to shore. Somehow it managed to make it back to our home and get both of us into the regeneration chamber. Maggie followed the boat where it had last seen Da’ as best it could, but its body remembered what had been done to it and its parent, and try as it might, it just hadn’t been able to rescue its sibling.