Safe Harbor, Chapter 1: Bermuda Triangle (excerpt)

The ship banked right and steered into the wind, its eighty-foot masts creaking and groaning as the sails tugged against their rigging. Even so, the ship, which had been traveling at twice its rating of nine knots, picked up speed, cutting effortlessly through the angry surf. Ben squinted. The sails should have billowed towards the bow of the boat—in the direction of the wind’s gusts. Instead they pushed towards the stern.

Struggling to remain upright, Ben gripped the brass rail tightly. “Where are we going?” he shouted telepathically.

Uncle Henry pointed towards the horizon. “There.”

Ben saw nothing out of the ordinary. The waves swelled and surged in an attempt to capsize the boat. Queasy from the violent rocking, Ben hoped the journey would lead back to someplace warm and tropical.

“There where?”

“We’ll be met at the agonic line.”

Ben was growing weary of his uncle’s cosmic mumbo jumbo. He studied a compass on the ship’s console. The dial fluctuated wildly. “I don’t think this thing works.”

“Correct. This is one of two places in the world where the Magnetic North Pole and the Geographic North Poles are in perfect alignment.”

“Where’s the other place?”

“Devil’s Sea off the coast of Japan,” his uncle replied.

Ben was sorry he asked. He longed to be with his friends, safe inside the dry, warm cabin. A quick look from his uncle killed that idea.

“How big is the Bermuda Triangle?”

“Roughly a half million square miles,” his uncle said.

“So if we get lost—,”

“It is unlikely the Coast Guard would find us,” his uncle said.

Ben’s stomach turned sour. He rubbed his arms and was drawn to a disturbance in the distance. A tornado hurled in their direction bringing with it more crashing waves and the sound of a speeding freight train.