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“Hi, Miranda.”
She spun around.
Holly!
And Mike!
Holly and Mike!
Standing here on theMahligai Barge.
Miranda didn’t care about what rules might or might not apply, she pushed out of her chair and threw herself at them.
Together they held her tightly and she could feel theedgecreeping back toward the darkness it lived in. Andi was still acting strangely since she’d beaten up Zhang Ru. Drake, Zuocheng, and Clarissa were still in some sparring match she didn’t understand.
Susan stepped in when…she was needed?
Miranda didn’t know how she chose when to intervene but she appeared to know. That had left Miranda with nothing to do but sit and cringe as the Chinese satellite had crossed overhead. She’d felt the target creeping to a flatter and flatter angle on her back until it had finally sunk low enough that the atmosphere would be too thick to shoot through reliably.
“I think she missed us,” Holly kept the hug tight.
All Miranda could do was hold on and nod.
“Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn’t it?” Mike asked.
“It does, matey. It definitely does.”
Again, all Miranda could manage to do was nod as the weight dropped off her in layers.
When she finally felt she could stand tall again—though not too tall as Holly and Mike were both six inches taller than she was—she started thinking again. It was as if her brain had shut down the more her team was scattered about. Now that they were coming back, so could she.
“We were asked to bring you this personally.” Holly pulled out her phone and turned it for Miranda to see. “Any idea what it means?”
Miranda knew exactly what it meant. But it was too unlikely.
She went to her own computer, and keyed in the information.
Checking the numbers didn’t change anything.
“Everything okay, Miranda?” Susan asked. The others were watching her.
“I’m not sure.” She didn’t like to lie but it was the safest path at the moment. She was sure about what the data showed, but really hoped that she was wrong anyway.
She shut down her computer, picked up her phone and walked out into the direct sunlight. Nine-fifteen in the morning and it was already punching down hard. She’d be happier if she was in Alaska or at the team house. No, not the team house with its empty bedroom where Jeremy was supposed to be. Nor the hangar office with the long empty workbench.
Her house, her island home. With or without Andi. She hoped it was with, but she didn’t understand what had happened to Andi. She wasn’t the one who’d been hit yet she was acting as if Zhang Ru had beaten her.
Miranda dialed her phone.
