Page 373 of Hidden Depths
Then he smiled.
“Yet.”
Nathan caught the man by the front of his shirt.
“What does that mean?”
“The key was supposed to give us access. The old woman said James left five parts, so they thought he separated the mechanism.”
Mom stiffened at being called an old woman.
Even bruised and exhausted, her eyes flashed with anger.
“I’m fifty-six, I am not an old woman.”
The guard blinked.
Nathan tightened his grip.
“And she looks younger than you. Answer the question.”
“The first gate opened,” the man said. “But the second system rejected the key.”
“Because it requires all five sisters,” Ward said.
“We know that now.”
“How?”
The man looked at the initials.
“There’s another inscription on the other side of the second gate.”
“What does it say?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan shoved him against the wall.
“Try again.”
“Our leader read it. James Sinclair left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“I only heard part of it over the radio.”
“Tell us.”
The man’s eyes found mine.
“When the five daughters of the storm stand together, Blackwater will surrender what it stole.”
No one spoke.
My skin prickled.
“They aren’t daughters,” I said. “We’re his granddaughters.”
