“There is someone out there.”
Con rose and went to her side.“Do you know who it is?”
Stella gave a humorless laugh.“Alastor.He looked like he’s having a bad day, too.”
Stella sounded very happy about that.
Jack had a feeling he and Mel were both doing some serious breath-holding as he activated their first time jump.
When they lifted off from the field near his home, he hadn’t looked back.He wasn’t sure he’d be able to leave if he had.His dad.He hadn’t seen his dad or his mom since he left for England with his squadron.He’d found out later—much later—that they’d both died of pneumonia while he was overseas.
His sister had managed their affairs until some version of him came home.He was a little fuzzy on that.His memory wasn’t as good as Mel’s.But he had been there.His sister hadn’t asked where he’d been all those years so maybe he hadn’t been gone?
The transition from Jack the brother to Jack the nephew had been a little bumpy and sometimes he wondered if she suspected something.She hadn’t asked, so he hadn’t said.She was an old lady.That had been shocking, too.
Along with the knowledge that inside him was the old man he was supposed to be.Part of him kept waiting for the shoe to drop and for him to turn back to his real age.
I keep forgetting how old you really are.Mel’s teasing words came back to him.How ironic that he kept forgetting, too.
Because the jump was a relatively small one—he almost grinned at that small joke—the buffeting was less and theRayhandled it pretty well.
He did a system check anyway.“Preparing for the next jump,” he said.
Mel’s hand touched his arm.“Wait, Jack.Look.”
She pointed at the instrument panel.A sensor that had, until now, never worked, was picking up something.
“That’s…” he stopped.
“Definitely odd.It hasn’t worked before, has it?”
“No.”Jack was definite.It was something Con would have mentioned—was required to mention.“I wonder if Alice did something after the last test flight?”
“It’s possible.Alice is, well, Alice,” Mel said.“Do we follow it?”
Jack hesitated, torn between the need to find Alice and Ty or to follow the signal.
“I think we should follow it,” Mel added when he didn’t speak.
Jack looked at her.
She shrugged.“It feels urgent.”
“It’s a blinking light.”
“An urgent blinking light.”
Jack started to point out that there was no way they could know the level of urgency, since this was the first time they’d seen it, but he didn’t.Mel followed her gut instincts.
Those instincts often led them into trouble but it was usually trouble they needed to find.
“All right, we follow the signal,” and hope that Ty and Alice can sort themselves out, he added silently.
“They know what’s at stake,” Mel said, patting his arm, but her eyes were as troubled as he felt.
He locked on the signal and then activated the jump.
And felt theRayspinning out of control.
