“Only by asking them to house us for however long it takes. I’m hoping it won’t be long, but we need a base of operations that’s off the grid.”
“And how are we going to get involved ourselves?” Miguel asked.
“That’s what I hope you’ll all figure out before you leave,” Gabriella said.
Antonio held up one hand. “If any of you have reservations about this, you’re not obligated to go. We can’t fly that far that fast, so we’ll need to take a plane to Brazil, then meet up with our relatives. From there, we’ll go hunting for this group.”
“I’m in,” Ryan said.
“So am I,” Jayce said.
“And me.”
“Ditto.”
One more yes would make it unanimous.
“So I guess we’re going to Brazil,” Luca said. “Cool. I’d love to see the beaches near Rio. Oh, but it will be my graduation gift, right?”
Antonio chuckled. “Don’t worry. No one has to pay for this trip. It’s on me. Noah can pay me back later, with installment plans.”
The two birds hopped up and down in their cage, squawking.
“I don’t think Noah’s objecting to your payment plan. I think the two of them want to go with us,” Gabe observed.
“And that would be fine if they were fully mature,” Antonio said. “But they’re about fourteen right now. Not a good age if restraint is needed.” As if to illustrate the point, Noah squawked loudly and flapped his wings. Dante flew over him and pecked him on the head until he stopped.
“See what I mean?”
“I do,” Gabe said. “At fifteen, I made a stupid mistake that messed me up for about a decade.”
Then Dante squawked as if to disagree. Noah began hopping up and down again.
“Knock it off, you two. You’re staying here with your mother, and that’s final.” Antonio huffed. “Now, does anyone know how to reach this Kizzy Samuels?”
