It’s too close to the ground now to recover if wind shear drives it into the earth like an angry god’s fist. That’s when he realizes how right Scott is—Noah is incredibly valuable, maybe as valuable an investment as Charlotte Rowe, the test subject his more iron-hearted business partners still call Bluebird. Project Bluebird is the name for their collective effort to harness the powers Noah’s drug unleashes in Charlotte’s blood. Still, he’s worried his business partners have come to view her as more of a lab rat than a person. Noah’s drug might be Cole’s passport to changing the world, but changing the world becomes more of a challenge in those moments when it seems like he might have to tear Charlotte’s life apart to do it. Maybe it’s time he extended the same courtesy to Noah, despite their tortured history.

Cole reminds himself that all of Noah’s work at the island this past year has been logged, monitored, and backed up and backed up again. His days of conducting rogue scientific experiments on unsuspecting private citizens like Charlotte Rowe are long over. So if the plane does go down, it won’t be a total loss.

The truth is, when you operate at the level of Graydon Pharmaceuticals, there’s no such thing as a total loss.

A few minutes later, Noah’s the first person to step off the parked jet.

A blush in his cheeks, he descends the staircase with steady steps, ignoring the handrail. There’s no vomit on his windbreaker, either. The security team filing out behind him is another story. The two guys in the lead grip the staircase rails like they’re battling throbbing hangovers, and Cole figures the only reason Noah was able to slip ahead of them is because the terrifying landing has left the men’s stomachs in their throats.

Cole’s been watching Noah’s confident approach so closely he jumps at the sudden whump of Scott opening an umbrella over their heads. Head bowed to hide his embarrassment, Cole starts forward, Scott accompanying him with his customary Secret Service–style attentiveness.

“Well, I knew you wouldn’t pull me from the lab for something that wasn’t important,” Noah says. “I just don’t know what could be so important in South Dakota.”

“Nothing,” Cole tells him. “You’re not in South Dakota.”

“Nebraska, then.”

“Why would you be under the impression that you know where you are?” He directs the question at Noah’s security team, but the recovering men don’t even flinch at their employer’s suggestion they told Noah more than they were supposed to.

“I’ve got a great sense of direction.”

“With blacked-out windows, even?”

“I’ve got a compass in my head.”

“Uh-huh. Welcome to Kansas.”

“It was the storm, then. We were doing more up and down than forward, I guess. Threw me off a bit. How are you, Cole? It’s good to see you in person for a change.”

In their recent past, Noah would have kicked off this type of unexpected meeting with some crude reference to their sexual history designed to embarrass Cole in front of his men. But now that he’s back in his labs at Cole’s expense, he’s been all charm. It’s like he’s baiting Cole into being the dark shadow in the perpetual sunny day in which he now lives.

“Did you get some sleep like I asked?”

“Some, yes,” Noah answers. “I’d like to shower and change if that’s OK.”

“Of course.”

“So, we’re going to be up for a while, I take it.”

“Possibly, yes.”

“More storm chasing?”

“You’re grounded for now, and the storm’s only supposed to last another few hours.”

“Pity. I enjoyed that part.”

“Did you, though?”

“Absolutely. If only you could have been there.” Noah’s acidic smile suggests he knows full well Cole played some hand in his flight’s terrifying final minutes.

“I was,” Cole answers, “in spirit.”

“I always knew you had more than you let on.”

“More what?”

“Spirit.”

“That’s very kind of you. Let’s go to the house.”

“There’s a house?” Noah asks, looking in both directions.

Cole smiles and starts for the car. When Scott touches his shoulder, he turns.

Noah hasn’t moved an inch. The security team has encircled him. Another moment of this and they’ll be reaching for their weapons.

Noah’s expression is blank now, no charming smile, no twinkle in his eye.

“What is it, Noah?” Cole asks.

“I’d like to know if she’s OK.”

“Charley?”

Noah nods.

Cole’s startled not just by the question but by the gentle, unaffected tone with which Noah asked it. Once, Noah endangered Charlotte’s life by making her an unwitting test subject in an experiment that could have killed her. The result was quite the opposite, and now Cole’s company is working to reap the rewards. But Noah’s actions then seemed to show a callous disregard for Charley’s well-being.

And now he’s worried about her? Maybe that makes sense. Whether they like it or not, Noah and Charley are bound by more than just the consequences of Noah’s dangerous experiment; years ago, when they were both too young to remember, their mothers were both brutalized and murdered by the same serial killers, a married couple named Daniel and Abigail Banning. So maybe his concern is natural, if it’s genuine. And Cole’s hoping it is.

“Of course she’s OK,” Cole says. “She’s operational.”

“And the operation’s in Kansas?”

“Not quite, no.”

“Then what am I doing here?”

“I said I would explain at the—”

“I heard you, but first, I have to be driven through the middle of nowhere while I’m hemmed in on all sides by your men with guns. The last time this happened I ended up in an underground cell for a few weeks. Perhaps just a bit more explanation before we—”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, you don’t really think I flew you halfway across the world to shoot you and bury you in some mud, do you?”

“I didn’t say that, but stranger things have happened in our line of work.”

“And you caused most of them.”

“And you paid for them.”

“If I wanted you dead, I could have just crashed your plane.”

“You almost did.”

“Come now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Noah says to the security team surrounding him, all of whom turn to stone in response. “I mean, I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy myself, but plenty of enjoyable things in the world make you feel like you’re about to die.”

“Speak for yourself, special ops.”

“I am, if the faces of these gentlemen are any indication.”

“Get in the car, Dylan,” Cole says, then does everything he can to conceal his frustration at having accidentally used Noah’s old name. The name he used to call him in bed, before he knew his real one. Maybe, Cole thinks, he’ll take my use of his chosen name, the name he still wants to be called, as a sign I’m not about to have him executed.