I would tell them; I just wanted the magic of it all to myself for a little while longer, while I figured out exactly whatitwas.
“That’s good to hear,” he smirked.
“Yeah.” I leaned back in the chair, briefly glancing round at Cody to see if it looked like he’d found anything, but he was concentrating on the giant screens on the wall behind me. “And she’s so eager to learn about baseball, I nearly fell in love all over again. I went to watch some practice and found her later in the archives, surrounded by dusty books and loads of plans for the new season - new logo, fresh look, three year plan, that kind of thing. She’s good.”
“Three-year plan, eh? So who’s next on your list?”
“I’m thinking August Chase. I need a decent manager.”
“You have always loved that guy. Have you ever emailed him? Does he know what’s coming?”
I shook my head slowly. “No, I don’t think he’s ever been a recipient, but I’d need to check to be sure.”
That earned me an eye roll. “Pennington, have you thought how you’re going to keep all this quiet? You’re not exactly subtle.”
I’d been thinking about this one on the way over, and whether I should announce earlier than planned, especially after this morning. I wanted to be over at the stadium, I wantedto meet people, and I couldn’t do that if they thought I was wandering around as Chet Michaelson from Ohio, no matter how much I nailed that role.
I picked up the bottle of water that had been sitting on the desk and swigged it. “Do you think I should do it sooner?”
“It’s not a bad idea,”
“I need to get Reeves to sign before I do. He’s the lynchpin.”
Rafe peered around me at Cody. “Code, how’re you getting on?”
Cody nodded up to the giant screens where an official looking image of a woman stared down at us, the type of image you’d find on an access badge.
“Meet Marnie Matthews.”
So that was Marnie Matthews, the woman who had Jupiter Reeves losing his shit. And his cool. Not that I’d ever seen Jupiter with a woman, but I had imagined her being a little less… science-y than her photo suggested she was. Though given she was employed by N.A.S.A., it was hardly surprising. You probably weren’t allowed to be hot and study the wonders of the universe at the same time.
“Huh.” Rafe summed my thoughts up perfectly. “You sure you’ve got the right person? She looks like the woman who used to run the library at school.”
“There’s only one Marnie Matthews at N.A.S.A.” Cody replied with a shrug. “According to her history, she was at Santa Monica High School the same time as Jupiter Reeves, so I assume it’s the right one.”
“Okay, cool. So, we got her… what else did you find? Is she there right now? What does she do? Who is she?”
“Hey, Pennington?”
I spun round to face Rafe.
“Wanna ask any more questions? You might have forgotten some there…”
I flipped him off then turned back to the screen and ignored anything else he had to say while waiting for Cody to continue.
“According to what I can see, she’s tagged in the engineering department, but that’s all I can see. I don’t know what she’s working on right now, but I found a paper she co-authored from a couple of years ago. Looks like she’s a junior physicist specializing in aerospace and flight technology.”
Linking my fingers behind me, I pulled down hard on my neck and stared at her picture. It wasn’t often I felt out of my depth - if ever - but even for me this was a stretch. I’d expected her to be smart, possibly work in administration, but this… this was serious shit.
“She’s an actual rocket scientist? What the fuck do I do with that?”
I could hear Rafe chuckling quietly behind me.
“Yeah, seems that way.” Cody continued bashing the keys on his keyboard, and I watched the main screen change from Marnie’s image to a series of folders with ACCESS DENIED marked across them all. “It’ll take me a bit of time to get further into her file. Nothing I’ve tried so far works.”
Rafe’s laughter got louder. “Oh, man, what have you gotten yourself into? If Cody can’t get in, that means it’s really top secret and you should be staying well away from it.”
Huh. Jupiter and a rocket scientist. Never in a million years did I think this was where I’d end up.
