57
Cape Canaveral
Sam watched the back of Rush’s head as they climbed off the bus at the Jackson Hole airport, where they would catch a plane for the Orion launch. She couldn’t help remembering how he had looked, how he had felt—a staggering, dead weight across her shoulder that she could barely support—when he had held that same head in his hands and suddenly collapsed.
He had only been unconscious for a few hours, and that had been almost a week ago, but the entire episode had frightened her so badly that seeing him strong and vital again continued to bring her reassurance. She was careful, though, to look away before he turned around, so he wouldn’t catch her at it.
Sam, however, wasn’t the only one worried.
Whereas Sam’s surreptitious glances were reserved for Rush, Mackenzie couldn’t walk three paces without scanning the crowd again, as though she expected a demon to jump out and attack them from behind the ticket counter, or from the back of the gift shop, or from the deli where they picked up a lunch for the plane.
“It will be all right,” Ammu told her. “Try to enjoy the trip. The intention is for you all to relax—to enjoy some time away from the Institute. You have been working very hard this summer, and you have had a lot to process. We want you to have the time and space to do that.”
Mackenzie nodded politely at his words, acknowledging the sentiment, but it didn’t stop her from scrutinizing every plane that came and went while they waited for their turn to board, checking them for any sign of wind elementals, or oversized gargoyles, or any other monster with which their unknown enemy might decide to terrorize them.
Sketch, on the other hand, was ecstatic to be taking yet another flight this summer, the disappearing plane having done nothing whatsoever to curb his enthusiasm for travel. He had not expected to journey outside of his own county ever in his life, let alone across the country. Visiting two different states before he had even entered high school was an impossible dream come true.
Daniel and Kaitlyn were oblivious to all of it, holding hands with a shy, quiet sort of happiness. Rush couldn’t help but look on with at least a small pang of jealousy—not so much over their relationship, but over how carefree Daniel seemed to be, taking each new day as it came, not seeming to carry any worry in the world about what might happen to them next, what dangers they might face, or whether he could protect them all when the time came.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Christina asked him.
“I was just thinking about how different everything is now from when I stepped off that plane… what… almost a month ago? It seems like so much longer than that. So much has happened.”
I’m not even sure what’s strangest, he thought. That I’ve seen real-life gryphons and gargoyles and flying wolves, that I gave up the invitational for a few more weeks in a lodge in the middle of nowhere, or that keeping an eye on a weird, eleven-year-old kid from Alabama feels like the most important thing I could be doing right now.
“Whatcha got there, buddy?” Rush asked. Sketch sat next to him with his art pad in his lap, drawing a picture of a man in a business suit sitting two rows away from them in the waiting area.
“He’s OK,” Sketch replied. “He just has a big clock on his stomach. See?”
The drawing depicted an old-fashioned clock with a droopy, stylized face, not unlike a Salvador Dalí painting, hovering over the man’s midsection.
“Maybe he can do what Tick-Tock can do,” Rush suggested.
“Maybe,” Sketch said, shrugging.
“Hey, is that what Tick-Tock looks like?” Rush asked.
“No,” Sketch said, giggling, but he didn’t say anything else, and soon enough it was time for them to board the plane.
• • •
The trip was uneventful, the brief layover in Denver allowing Sketch to add yet another flight to his running count, and even Mackenzie finally began to relax a bit as they finally touched down without incident at Orlando International Airport.
“Hey, Rush,” Daniel said, suddenly making the mental connection, “didn’t you say you lived in Orlando?”
“Yeah,” Rush confirmed. “This is the airport I just flew out of.”
“Really?” Kaitlyn asked. “Is your family going to be at the launch?”
“I doubt it,” Rush said, failing to elaborate. His father and brother were always too busy for things like that. He couldn’t even remember the last time they had taken a day to do something together as a family. Even living in Orlando, with readily-available season passes to some of the greatest tourist attractions in the world, they just couldn’t be bothered to find the time.
“Too bad,” Kaitlyn said, letting it go, but Sam read the terseness of his answer. Apparently they shared more in common than she had realized.
“We’ll check into the hotel and then get a late dinner,” Christina said, taking charge as she led them toward the exit where the hotel shuttles came and went, spitting out departures and picking up new arrivals like clockwork. “We’re staying in Orlando tonight and driving to Cape Canaveral in the morning.”
As they exited the building, Sketch couldn’t help being reminded of home as well. The warm, humid air was reminiscent of Alabama summers, and he found himself wondering briefly what his mother was doing this evening, whether she was working a dinner shift or had the night off at home with Tony, and whether Shaquiya was hosting one of her tea parties, dressing young Xavious up in funny hats and feeding him cookies to get him to sit still.
He was ashamed to admit, even to himself, that it was the first time he had thought of them since Rush came back, but soon enough the lights and palm trees of Orlando distracted him from his reverie, as he added both to his list of new summer experiences, followed not long afterward by room service, which he scarfed down gratefully before passing out on the couch of the hotel suite.
Ammu was preparing to pick him up and carry him to bed when Rush stopped him. “Let him sleep there,” he said. “He likes couches.” Ammu shrugged and left Sketch where he was, covering him with a light blanket before retiring to one of the two rooms in the expansive suite, Daniel and Rush crashing in the other one, with a huge double bed for each of them.
In the girls’ suite, Kaitlyn took the second bed in Christina’s room, letting Mackenzie and Sam have the other room to themselves. But long after they had turned out the lights, Sam still lay awake restlessly, thinking about how close the summer was to being over.
She dreaded going back to school—to rich suburban kids obsessing over clothes and cars and designer handbags—but even more haunting was the thought of returning to a life that felt like it didn’t matter at all. How could she even begin to bear that again after everything she had seen and done and lived at the ICIC? The faces of all her friends—friends, for the first time in her life—kept swimming through her mind, and Mackenzie had been snoring for a solid hour before Sam finally drifted off to sleep.
• • •
A limousine picked them up early the next morning. The drive to Cape Canaveral took less than an hour, giving them ample time for Ammu to request a very specific detour, so that by 9:30 a.m. Sketch was standing on the beach of Jetty Park, staring out at the ocean for the first time in his life, watching the morning sun as it played over the gentle waves of the calm, summer day. He looked up with the biggest grin Rush thought he had ever seen, and they all stood together, enjoying the moment, letting the waters of the Atlantic wash in and out over their toes.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t stay long, so Ammu gathered them up and handed out their shoes, one pair at a time, ushering them into the limo for the short drive back to Exploration Tower.
The brilliant white building was seven stories tall, with a curved back and graceful, arching latticework that came to a point high above the roof. The glass-fronted edifice was tiered by design, so that every level was slightly smaller than the one below it. The fourth floor had a deck extending outward in the front, facing the launch sites of the Kennedy Space Center, as did the open-air terrace at the top of the building.
“The tower has been rented out for this event,” Ammu explained. “There are exhibits that you may walk through after the launch, but we will spend the time before lift-off on the fourth floor, where various military and Homeland Security personnel will be interested to meet you. Many of them have been influential in acquiring funding for the ICIC, so it is important that we make a good impression.
“Remember, what we have been doing this summer is not common knowledge. The true nature of the project is highly classified, and you must act accordingly. You have been studying Persian mythology through intuitive learning techniques. You are excited to be part of the program. If you are asked a question you do not know how to answer, get my attention or Christina’s. For our purposes today, she is one of your instructors.
“Just before the launch, we will remove ourselves to the seventh-floor observation deck, which has been reserved for us alone, despite the many illustrious guests who are present today. It will provide a magnificent view of the test launch, which I believe you will all enjoy. Do you have any questions before we go in?”
They did not, so Ammu ushered them into the building and led the way up to the fourth floor, which turned out to be a large meeting hall where several dozen men and women had already congregated. Some were dressed in Army uniforms, but most of them wore expensive business suits, as did Christina and Ammu.
Their arrival did not make any great stir among the crowd, much to their collective relief, so they began to mill about idly, Sketch being the first to notice the buffet table that had been set up toward the back of the room.
“I have a question,” Sketch said to Christina.
“Yes, you are welcome to eat at the buffet table,” Christina told him. “It’s free.”
Without another word, Sketch made a beeline for the food.
A kind-faced older woman made her way over to the group and spoke with them for a while. Yes, they all said, the classes had been very interesting. They were very much enjoying their stay at the ICIC. They were excited to be part of the program. Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Smiling, the woman moved on.
This conversation repeated itself with a man in a gray business suit and then again with a man in an Army uniform, whom Mackenzie identified as a “full-bird colonel,” which sounded important even though the others didn’t know what it meant.
As time wore on and no one else approached them, the students drifted apart, Kaitlyn and Mackenzie joining Sketch at the buffet table, and Daniel wandering toward the punch bowl. Sam walked out to the observation deck to take in the view, but it didn’t seem like there was very much to see until she noticed the telescopes along the outer railing. She was heading that way when she saw Rush step outside to join her, so she waited for him to catch up.
“View’s nice,” Rush commented.
“Of the water, I guess,” Sam said. “But the launch pad’s so far away you can hardly see it at all.”
“Yeah, a pamphlet inside says it’s a safety precaution. Even the closest setup at the space center itself is more than two miles away from the pad.”
“Oh. I guess I thought we’d be closer.”
“I was surprised too,” Rush admitted. “It’ll still be cool to watch, though.”
“Yeah, at least they have the telescopes. You want to check them out?”
“Sure,” Rush agreed.
They waited for a rather portly gentleman to finish using the one in front of them. He looked through the eyepiece a few moments longer and then relinquished the device, smiling politely before making his way back toward the meeting room.
“You go ahead,” Rush said, waving Sam forward.
“Thanks.” Sam smiled back at him, bending down a little to look through the eyepiece and then standing up very slowly, turning toward Rush with a haunted look in her eye.
“Tick-Tock? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Houston,” she said, backing away from the device so Rush could look through it for himself, “we have a problem.”
Rush took a quick step forward and looked through the telescope.
The magnification was spectacular. The launch pad filled the optics, giving him a perfect view of the rocket that was about to launch Orion into space—and wrapped around its hull, just as clear as day, the sinister form of an enormous, pitch-black dragon.