Page 54 of Flight of the Omega

Amanda got out of the truck, slamming the door. “Is everything okay?” she hollered over the sound of her shoes on gravel. “I thought you were just getting your things.”

Jack held up a hand. Burr quirked a brow. “Getting your things, huh?”

“Yeah. I took off for a month. You already told me, I can’t be running off, disappearing whenever I feel like it. So I suppose I ain’t got a job now.”

“You’d be right about that,” Burr huffed. He looked away, then back at Jack. “You really ain’t seen him?”

Jack shook his head. “Not a feather.”

“Huh.” Burr had his phone out. “That’s interesting—considering Duckie saw you and the good doctor there dragging him into the barn.”

He turned the screen to Jack, and sure as shit, there were pictures of him and Amanda with JP slung between them. He gritted his teeth.

“That could be any bird. Those people could be anybody,” he said, waving a hand. “You can’t see faces, nothing—”

The phone started ringing. Burr turned the screen back to himself, then grinned. “Oh, here’s Mr. Crane now. I sent him down to Vogel’s to have a boo around while we were chatting—what do you think he found?”

Jack clenched his fists. “Burr …”

Burr tapped the screen. “Mr. Crane? Ah, hello there. I’m standing out here with Jack and Dr. Vogel—oh, you’re at Dr. Vogel’s? What ashameyou missed each other. Tell me, did you find anything interesting in the barn?”

“Burr,” Mr. Crane huffed, “what the hell is all of this about? You sent me down here on a wild goose chase.”

Burr’s face dropped. “Huh?”

“There’s nothing here!” Mr. Crane barked. “Nothing at all—just one green bird with a broken wing. The barn’s completely empty otherwise.”

Burr’s eyes went wide. “That can’t be right, Duckie said—”

“To hell with Duckie!” Mr. Crane roared. “That gossip will tell you anything! I thought you had something.”

“Mr. Crane—”

“I thought you were better than this, Burritt,” Mr. Crane continued, “playing with an old man’s feelings—you told me my son would be here! I thought!”

The rest was garbled static as the reception cut out. Then they heard the old man wail, “Where is my son?!”

Burr hit end on the conversation. He charged Jack, jamming a finger against his chest. “What did you do?!” he snapped.

“Nothing!” Jack cried. “I swear, I haven’t seen the kid and I don’t know where he is!”

Burr sneered at him, then shoved him across the porch. “You lying sack of shit!” he thundered. “I know you took off with him, I know you’ve been fucking him!”

“What the hell do you care anyway?!” Jack cried. “It’s a free country, he can fuck who he wants!” He paused, staring at Burr. “The hell do you know what he smells like anyway?!”

Burr gave him a startled look, and the horrible truth dawned on Jack. He thought about that morning, Burr jaunting in from the woods, smirking, and JP drifting back up the path like a ghost.

“You sonuvabitch!” Jack roared, then shoved Burr right off the porch. The lead hand stumbled. Then there was a sickening crunch as he toppled over, landing awkwardly on his arm with a yowl of pain.

Gravel crunching made Amanda and Jack look up the laneway, to find a shiny black pickup bouncing down the drive. Hank stopped short. “Sorry,” he said. “I drove as fast as I could. Old Man Crane—”

“We know,” Dr. Vogel said.

Hank jumped down from the running board. He looked at Burr. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” he muttered. “His arm’s broke.”

“Help me get him to the truck,” Dr. Vogel said. She nodded at Jack. “Go get your things.”

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. He raced to his chambers, dodging the kitchen and avoiding Teal, who was trundling down one of the corridors. He barreled into his old apartment, then hastily started packing up clothes and other stuff. He definitely wasn’t coming back, so he tried to grab anything personal and sentimental—not that he had many trinkets and not that he could carry much.