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A long pause. Then, "He can't help you, Maya."
My heart thudded. This was Mitchell's number. "Can I speak to him? Please?"
"Not without a--" She stopped herself. "He died six months ago. I'm his daughter."
I took a deep breath. Tried not to panic. "Okay. Can you help? Or can you give us the name of someone who can? Please?"
"No." A pause. "I'm sorry."
She hung up.
TWO
WE SPENT AN HOUR trying to call back. We even used different pay phones. She wasn't answering and she'd turned off the voice mail.
We took refuge in a half-constructed condo building. There were plenty of them around. Vancouver had been booming a few years ago, insanely priced condos popping up everywhere, eyes fixed on the Olympics. Then the economic crisis hit and developers fled.
We hadn't said much since our last attempt to call Mitchell's daughter. There was nothing to say except "What now?" and no one dared ask that. When the silence got too heavy, I snuck off to the highest level with a solid floor--seven floors up. I perched on the edge, letting my legs hang over as I stared toward the distant ocean. Toward my island.
I ran my fingers over the worn leather bracelet on my wrist, over the cat's eye stone. Rafe's bracelet, the one he'd given me.
A few minutes later I heard footsteps. Daniel.
He didn't come over and I didn't turn, in case he was just checking on me. I heard him settle behind me. Then silence, broken only by the soft sound of his breathing.
"You going to stay back there?"
His sneakers scuffed the floor as he rose. "I didn't want to disturb you."
I held my hand up behind me, and his fingers closed around mine. I clasped his hand, feeling the heat of it chase away the October chill. He sat beside me, his legs dangling, too.
"We need to find these other subjects," I said. "Project Genesis."
"I know, but . . . At the library, I searched on all kinds of words from those pages Rafe gave us. There's nothing. It's a dead end."
Silence thudded down again. I stared out at the city and tried to rouse myself. We had to move. We had to do something. The thoughts would skitter through my brain, only to be swallowed by a yawning black pit. Move where? Do what? Our only lead was gone and I felt lost. Too beat down to even look up for a spot of light.
"I think we should go to Skidegate and try to contact your grandma," Daniel said.
I looked at him. I wanted to shout for joy and throw my arms around his neck and thank him for giving me exactly what I wanted--contact with my family. But I only had to look at him, his eyes anxious, his face drawn, holding himself still as he awaited my response, and I knew this wasn't about choosing the right path. It was about making me happy. Or making one of us happy. Lifting the dark cloud for one so we could all breathe a little easier. He knew I wanted this more than anything. So he was giving it to me, caution be damned.
"I . . . don't think that would be safe," I said slowly.
"We could make it safe. We'd go over to the Queen Charlotte Islands and make contact with one of her friends, ask them to take her a note. She's a smart lady. If she knows what's going on, she'll find a way to meet us without being followed."
"You've thought this through."
"I've gone over all the options. There's my brothers, but they're too far away and I'm not sure how much help they'd be." His two older brothers were at university in Toronto and Montreal--clear across the country. "Corey's grandparents are in Alberta, but he said they wouldn't understand--they'd call his mom right away."
We couldn't let that happen--if our parents found out we were alive--and we weren't there to warn them--they'd confront the Cabals, not knowing how dangerous they were.
Daniel continued, "I've never met Corey's grandparents, anyway. I've met your grandma. So has Corey. He's good with it."
I looked out over the city.
"It's not like we have a lot of choice, Maya," Daniel murmured. "Either we sit here waiting for divine intervention or we take a risk."
"It's not a short trip," I said. "We'd need to take the train to Prince Rupert and the ferry over. We wouldn't have much money left."
