Zara covered his knee with her hand. “He’s all right. He’s here now.”
Alon pressed his lips together against caustic accusations. Why Danilo? Because Alon shared his DNA? Alon had moved beyond any meaningful biological connection with his father twenty years ago. “How can they think we’ll just let them in? How can they keep coming here, as if . . .”
“Because we take them.” Zara’s nictating membranes hooded her eyes. “If we can.”
Alon waved one hand, helpless. “I know.” Zara wanted to believe saving lives was worth the hardship it caused. “You left fifty on the surface?”
Zara sagged back on the chaise beside him. “Or more. Seven boats, and the remains of others.”
Castaways searched for Earlehab’s sat-buoy like a lodestar. More died in typhoons than ever arrived. Those who chanced upon
