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will have to blow him off the water.” He took his seat. His hands moved to the controls.
    Doctor Becker looked to the screen. What had she done?
    * * *
    THE LAST OF THE KIDS ran to the west dome to join the gathering crowd. The siren wailed in their ears and yet they remained dumbstruck with awe. It was a sight they had never even dreamed, a boat out on their own lonely patch of sea.
    Gen and Tuna stood among them, their initial wonder having turned to concern. They knew Doctor Hossler was making his escape.
    Above them on the lookout deck, Milo and Isaac sat working the security cameras. Adam stepped to the glass. His mouth formed a slight smile as he watched Doctor Hossler leaving the island behind.
    Then it changed. A sudden jolt of doom overtook him.
    A red light started flashing on the bridge of the boat. Doctor Hossler stopped working the sail and stared at the light. Inside the dome the kids turned to each other. No one understood the meaning of the flashing light.
    It came to Gen first as a feeling, a devastating sense of certainty. No one would ever be allowed off this island, not before the 117 pure born were safely launched and outside the earth’s atmosphere.
    Doctor Hossler would not be allowed to sail away. That red light could only mean one thing. All threats must be eliminated. The feeling was an idea now, one too big for her to carry.
    She considered the line of kids pressed against the glass. What was about to happen? What would even those eight year olds have to witness and remember?
    The red light flashed and Doctor Hossler ignored it. He sailed further out into the unknown. Gen realized they would have to prevent his escape. She knew the kids would have to see it done.
    The alarm siren changed, it pulsed faster and with horrible urgency, the red light on the boat pulsed faster as well. They were connected, to each other and to Doctor Hossler’s fate.
    “Adam!” Gen screamed. She had formed the word, his name, without a plan, just some primitive impulse. “Adam!” she screamed again.
    Everyone turned to her. Adam glanced down from above. She stared up into his eyes. He opened his hands to her and when he did it, her mind received the answer.
    “Show them the dome! Show them us!” She said while Adam tried desperately to figure her out. “Show them! Show them all of us.”
    He surveyed the floor below, all those young faces. He understood and spun around to Milo.
    “Milo, now! Show the control room the dome, the kids’ faces. They need to see them.” Milo looked up at Adam defiantly. He had zero tolerance for any more of Adam’s manipulative tricks.
    “And why would I do anything you say?”
    “Milo, forget me. You know what they have to do. They have to blow up that boat.” Adam pointed down to where the others kids watched the red light flashing on Doctor Hossler’s boat. “He’ll be out of range soon. They have no choice. They have to blow up that boat. All those kids, even the little ones, will watch them do that, Milo.”
    Milo turned to Isaac looking for courage. Instead, he could see dread overtaking Isaac. Adam’s words had taken effect and Isaac was not even one of the little ones.
    “Show them. Show the doctors. Show them all those innocent faces. Now, Milo!”
    Milo peered into Adam’s eyes trying to find his own answer. He gave up, spun back to the controls and hit a few quick buttons. Adam saw all screens change to the floor of the dome.
    * * *
    DOCTOR QUARNA WATCHED the boat distance itself from the island. The pulsing siren blared from above him. He shook his head. Claudia and Doctor Becker stood behind him mortified. He clicked on his keyboard to pull up a red control module on another screen.
    A few more clicks started a high-pitched hum and then, finally, the word ARMED appeared on the screen.
    “He’s given me no choice.” Doctor Quarna opened a code box on the screen asking for a sequence number.
    “Nathan, stop! Think about what you’re doing. You are not