“Them?”She frowned.“I thought it was just,” she hesitated, “the girl.”She should use her name.She knew it, couldn’t forget it.
“She’s joined forces with a guy,” John admitted.
Stella couldn’t stop her spine from stiffening.“One of them?”Another time traveler?
John shrugged.“At this point, he could be anyone.”
“And now they’re gone.”Stella considered the problem.“I thought we had tracking on her?”
“She found a way to get rid of it.Or block it.”
“You did say she was smart.”Stella leaned back in her chair.“I wonder what spooked her?”John wouldn’t, he couldn’t have been clumsy.
“We wanted to spook her a little,” John pointed out.“And it was working.”
“What went wrong?”
“Time started to ripple.”
He dropped the words between them so quietly it took her a minute to realize what he’d said.
“That’s…” she stopped.If it had happened it was possible, more than possible.
John’s gaze lifted and grabbed hers, the coldness of his gaze chilling her to her core.
“I thought that project was shut down.”
“It was.”Stella rose now and walked around her desk.She wanted to pace.She didn’t.She propped a hip against her desk.“Itisshut down.On our end.”
John walked over to the window and stared out.
“Alastor is dead.”He turned around.“Isn’t he?”
Stella chose her words with care.“As far as we know, he is dead.”
“But time travel,” John said what she hadn’t.
“Time travel,” she agreed.
It was weird to see Con beside the little Pitts Special.Mel tipped her head.It wasn’t exactly like the one Con had flown.It took her a minute.
A two seat.
Well, he’d brought a passenger here with him, and what a passenger she was.Or was she?
No matter who she was—or wasn’t—explanations would need to be made.Security had been breached.They just didn’t know how bad yet.
“At least Con didn’t come back before he left,” Jack said.“That would have been awkward.”
Mel looked at him.“Is that even possible?”
Jack shrugged.“No idea.”
Mel shook her head.She’d busted his chops more than once for doing things without knowing the consequences.There was no point doing it again.
“We need to talk to Con,” Alice said.
“But the girl,” Mel said.“What do we do with her during the debrief?”
