loose, but all he did was cut his hand on one of Felix’s corroded teeth. Pulling back his hand, Dirk noticed he and Felix were getting close to the entrance hatch again. He prepared himself to try to grab it before he shot past. There. Three, two, one … Dirk reached for the hatch and tried to find something to grip. His hands slid across the metal, and he and Felix continued to whoosh through the tube. As the current carried Dirk and Felix forward, Dirk had to face the truth. Like the dogged dogmatist had in Louisa’s novel, Dirk had found what he’d searched for, just as he’d said he would. He’d been right. But no one would ever know it. A wail attempted to exit Dirk’s body, and again, the mouthpiece stopped it. All Dirk could do was scream in his mind as he and Felix continued their entwined and endless journey through the bleak, turbid water.