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8

ROSI

Apparently,when Ila had said meet in the morning she’d meant before noon, not at four p.m. standard time. I felt terrible when I showed up to the museum and she was in the middle of one of her craft classes with a handful of kids. I wanted to blame my tardiness on the playground and Austin, but the truth was I hadn’t even woken up in enough time to make it. She’d chastised me in a friendly way and shooed me off to have fun, promising to talk to me tomorrow if I could manage to get up a couple hours earlier.

I guess I had some sleep to make up for last night, but I doubted that would happen again, especially if I set an alarm. Meanwhile, I had to figure out a way to get Austin to talk to me about the expedition sooner than next week. I needed a plan in place and was sure that our almost kiss earlier complicated things for him enough to want to avoid me. I should’ve shaken his hand when he offered it, not burned a bridge. It was just so shocking.

The sound of screams stopped me in my tracks. I glanced up at the bottom of the waterfall to find one of the clear tubes whipping around like an amusement park ride, a figure hanging off the edge as it jerked and twisted in every direction.

Was that…Austin? Shit. I glanced around, looking for something—anything that might help—and came up short.

“It has to be a publicity stunt,” said a man about twenty yards away, crossing his arms over his chest.

But I didn’t think so. Not when there wasn’t a single hovercam in sight or when Austin lost his grip with one hand. The tube flung him around like a kid trying to shake off a spider. Even he couldn’t possibly hold on for long.

The only thing that even hinted at a soft landing was the tank of water at the bottom of the waterfall. But it wasn’t more than five feet deep. Even if he could aim that well, there was no way he’d come out of his fall intact.

My heart stuttered as I scanned the area. Someone nearby screamed as the tube hit against the rocks with a crash that threatened to burst my ear drums.

I spotted a kid wearing hover disks, bobbing about three feet above the ground. I dashed forward and grabbed them off his feet, barely listening to his profane response as I turned back to the mayhem to find Austin finally lose his grip and plummet from the top of the resort.

He rotated into a controlled dive toward the waterfall, and I tossed the hover disks as hard as I could, like frisbees toward him.

“Austin catch!” I screamed.

It was like watching an action star on a holovid. In what felt like slow motion, he twisted in midair, catching a disk beneath each foot and spreading his arms like he was on a balance beam as he skidded through the air just above the water, finally hitting the surface and tumbling inside the frothy soup.

I ran for the clear wall and jumped, lifting myself so I could peer over the edge of the AC glass and search for any signs of life.

The hover disks popped up first like unsinkable pool floaters. As I chewed a mouthful of hair, searching the bubbles and freezing spray with waning hope, up came Austin’s hand, followed by his golden head.

“Here!” I reached out to him, and in moments he’d grasped my arm with one hand and the side of the wall with the other.

Face inches from mine, his chest heaved as water streamed from him. His pupils had dilated so much that the black almost overtook the gray completely. I tried to find words, any words at all, but couldn’t. So silently, I helped him climb over the side as people cheered like it had been some sort of rehearsed show. Water splashed all over me, plastering my clothes to my body, but I didn’t care.

By the time we were both on the ground in front of the fountain, I was as soaked and shivering as he was, and the crowd had gathered around to take vids and snapshots of the moment.

“This isn’t a show. What is wrong with you people?” I yelled, stepping in front of him, arms spread.

Even the kid who lost his hover disks seemed to be enjoying himself. And since no one moved to help, I raised my wristcom and called for medical help.

Austin stayed weirdly still as I shooed away the crowds. He focused on breathing and kept his eyes closed. But having been soaked so thoroughly, he couldn’t hide the trembling in his body. Finally, I too felt the cold I would have expected being near so much snow and ice. But how much was the temperature of the water and how much was trauma, I had no clue for either of us. When the last of the stragglers backed away, I noted a smear of blood across Austin’s knuckles and sat beside him, tentatively placing my hand over his. I wiped it gently with my thumb. He opened his eyes and gave me a grateful and almost shy smile. It was only when the hovercot finally arrived and we’d been transported to the medcenter and given blankets and something for the shock that I found my voice, hoarse as it was.

“What the hell happened?” I asked, interrupting his breathing exercises again.

He looked up at me as though he’d just realized I was still there with him. “I don’t know. I was in a hurry to leave the track, and it just collapsed as I stepped on it.”

I wondered why he’d been in a hurry to leave but thought that might be a strange question considering what happened.

“I can’t believe you survived that. If it had been anyone else…” I let my voice trail off.

Austin swallowed and nodded. “You saved my life. That was quick thinking, Rosi.”

“I couldn’t just stand there and watch you plummet to your death. I’m surprised it worked.” The truth of my words shocked me as much as the actual event.

“I mean, it is what I do,” Austin said with a weak laugh. “But I usually have time to mentally prepare.”

“I was about to look for you when you decided to make your grand entrance,” I said, deciding to go along with his humor. It seemed the best option under the circumstances.