Part 24 (1/2)

The two exchanged a look I couldn't decipher, and Dr. Clarke's brows raised. ”We'll need to debrief you,” she stated, all Bad Cop. ”We need to go over your timeline, every second of your mission.”

My mission, is that what they were calling this? Was that typical, to do a debriefing, just routine stuff?

Good Cop put her arm around my shoulder and led me toward the door. ”Come on. We can do that later. For now, let's get you upstairs so you can see for yourself that everything's A-OK. Then when you're feeling better we can do that debrief. Sound good?”

Dr. Clarke wasn't thrilled by Molly's suggestion, but I, for one, was happy to see the door shut behind us. I was in no hurry to be interrogated by Dr. Clarke.

I was already a.s.sembling a list. A people-not-to-trust list. After my brief encounter back there, Dr. Clarke was at the very top.

I wondered how much she knew about all this. How deep her involvement ran. How dirty her hands had gotten.

The sooner we got the h.e.l.l outta here, the better.

But things were never that simple.

I'd learned too much, and we were past the point of just making a run for it and hoping for the best.

The Interstellar s.p.a.ce Agency was nothing they claimed to be-the peace-seeking scientists who worked selflessly to establish interplanetary contact.

We'd been duped.

From here on out, I had to proceed carefully . . . calculate every word that came out of my mouth, watch every step I made. If I didn't, not only would my dad and my friends pay the price . . . but possibly all of mankind.

Blondie had been wrong. It wasn't just a probability they were on their way. They were already here.

And our entire planet, along with everyone and everything on it, was at stake.

The Earth.

But there was a way I could stop it. It was a huge burden, and I had no intention of taking that burden lightly.

”Sorry about all that . . . back there,” Molly said when we reached the door to where we'd been staying . . . where my dad and the others were a.s.sembled now. ”Dr. Clarke's not a bad person, just a little intense.” She shrugged.

She was intense all right.

I waited while Molly entered the code on the keypad, and I wondered when that had been inst.i.tuted. ”What's with the security? I thought we were free to come and go. Are we being kept prisoner now?”

She paused, right before hitting Enter. ”This is for your own good.” Then she pressed the last b.u.t.ton.

I averted my gaze because none of this-the secrets, the security, the debriefings-were for our good. Whether she admitted it or not, I knew the truth. I bit my tongue-it was the smart thing to do, to just shut up. But seriously?

The door clicked open and for a moment I stopped thinking about Molly and Dr. Clarke, and about whether we were really safe or not. The people I loved, the people I knew I could trust, were all around me.

Simon only said, ”Where the h.e.l.l . . .” before Jett added, ”. . . they made us leave . . . locked us in . . .” and hugged me hard.

It was rea.s.suring to be surrounded by them, even Willow, who wrapped her arms around me. It was kind of like being mauled by a bear and my instinct was to go limp so she'd stop pawing me.

Simon shoved Willow aside, then clung to me in a way that made me feel like he'd just won some huge trophy-something to be treasured, but also something to gloat over.

Tyler came next, and while he was more restrained than Simon, there was something gentle in his touch, something sweet that made me feel cherished. ”I have so many things to say to you.” He said it so silently it was more like listening to a memory . . . a whisper from the past. The low timbre of his voice, and the feel of him against me, made me wish it were just the two of us . . . alone together, for a very long time.

Griffin sat hunched over a table in the corner, scribbling furiously on a sc.r.a.p of paper as she poured every ounce of concentration she could muster into whatever she was writing or drawing. Her pen stilled only once, and that was when Tyler reached for me. From where I stood, I couldn't tell if she was concentrating to keep her distance from her dad, or to stay away from me.

”I was worried sick,” my dad breathed into my hair when he finally got his turn, and suddenly I was seven and hadn't heard him when he'd called me in for dinner. ”When they brought the boys back, no one would tell us when you would return. Jesus, Kyr, I don't know how much more my old heart can take.”

I wanted to tell them everything, right then and there, but Molly hovered too, watching our every move, hanging on our every word. ”Your heart's fine and you know it.” I shoved him away playfully, and then glared at Tyler and Simon. ”Why didn't you tell him?”

Simon c.o.c.ked his head to the side. ”It's not like you took a quick detour into outer s.p.a.ce.” He laughed, shrugging it off.

But I frowned at him again. At them. ”You heard me when I said five minutes. I mean, yeah, I didn't realize I was in for the full decontamination treatment when I came back. But it didn't take that much longer than I'd said.”

Simon looked at Tyler, and then glanced warily at Molly, and I couldn't help noticing the way her brow puckered.

”What?” I insisted, feeling out of the loop all over again.

”Kyra, how long do you think you were gone?” Tyler asked.

”I don't know . . .” My eyes s.h.i.+fted to the clock on the wall and I did the math in my head. It had been about 2:45, last I'd checked, right before I'd boarded the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Now it was right at 4:37. ”Even with decontamination, it's only been a couple hours . . .”

But I stopped talking. From the reactions on their faces, I already knew I'd figured wrong. Like . . . way wrong.

My heart thumped once, really hard. And then about a thousand times more. ”Not even close . . . ?” It came out as a question, but I already had my answer. Before anyone could respond, I managed a tight, ”How long?”

Tyler grimaced. ”Since yesterday.” He took a step closer, his forehead creasing. ”You really didn't know? No one told you?”

I shook my head because that couldn't be right. ”I was only gone”-I looked to where Molly's eyes were fastened to me, and I amended what I almost said-”a few minutes. I only flew that thing a few minutes . . . maybe half an hour.”

This time it was Simon who was shaking his head. ”No. We waited for you to come back.” Still shaking his head, more slowly now. ”You fell off the radar, for like, thirty seconds. Then, when they turned your tracking device on . . . they saw you . . .”

”Tracking device?” So even after I'd turned off the s.h.i.+p's radar, they'd still been able to see me?

Molly waved it off. ”It was harmless. A fail-safe in case anything happened. We put it in your headset.”

My stomach sank. How was I going to explain this-where I'd been and who I'd been with, especially since now I realized I had no idea how long I'd even been gone?

”We saw you up on that screen . . . in s.p.a.ce,” Jett finished, and I wondered how much more they knew. ”Then Dr. Clarke said they took you.”

”They?” I asked numbly.

Simon looked to Molly. ”She and Dr. Clarke wouldn't let us stay. Said they'd keep us posted,” he added bitterly. ”That was last night. We've been locked in here ever since.”

Tyler stood in front of me. ”Where were you all this time? Do you remember what happened out there? Anything?”

An entire day . . .

Had I really been up there that long? I searched my memory for the missing piece of time, trying to fill it in with tangible things that made sense-sounds, tastes, colors, anything to plug the gaps.

But they weren't there.

There was just a missing chunk where the time should be.