Page 370 of Hidden Depths

“And if one of you refused to play?”

“We all lost.”

Mom pressed a hand over her mouth.

“He trained you.”

The realization hurt more than it should have.

All those afternoons with Grandpa.

All those hours on the water.

We had thought he was playing with us.

But Grandpa had been preparing us for the day his secrets returned.

“Why didn’t he tell us the truth?” I whispered.

Nathan stood beside me.

“Because you were children.”

“We weren’t children when he died.”

“No. But by then, he may have believed the secret was safer buried.”

Ward walked toward the old control console.

“Someone disagreed.”

A green light blinked near the center of the panel.

Ben leaned closer.

“This system was activated before we arrived.”

“The key opened the first gate,” Mom said.

“No. This is separate.”

“What does it control?”

Ben wiped grime from a small glass screen.

Letters appeared beneath it.

SEQUENCE INCOMPLETE.

Below them were five empty boxes.

Ward studied the display.

“They tried to open the second gate.”

“They couldn’t,” I said. “They didn’t have all five of us.”

Nathan’s face changed.