Stones: Experiment (Stones #3) (8 page)

Smiling at the little girl, Matt catches her eyes with his. “What am I thinking, Yarah?”

She brings two tiny fists up to her eyes and squeezes out the tears. Then she puts her hands together and looks at Matt like she is reading the headlines on a slate newsfeed.

“You want me to be safe. You want me to be happy. You want to be my daddy. But you have to go. You need to help other people, too. You want me to be a big girl and take care of Leo.”

“That’s right,” Matt says. “Do you understand?”

Yarah nods her head up and down, big tears beginning to well up again. Her eyelids drop shut like tiny trap doors. Two wet lines race down her cheeks on parallel tracks and splash onto floor.

Without saying a word, Yarah slips out of Jessica’s embrace, walks over to Leo and wraps her arms around him from behind.

As he stands up from the chair, Matt glances at Jessica and walks across the room to Yarah and Leo, bending and engulfing both of them in his arms.

“I know it’s hard,” Matt says. “But you’ve got a whole planet to play with here. You’ll be safe. Build me a ten thousand–mile-long mountain range with lots of snow. When we get back, I’ll teach you both how to ski.”

Jessica moves to the opposite side of Yarah and Leo and wraps her arms around them. “Just remember to be careful.” Her hands reach up to pat Leo on the head. “And patient.”

Leo’s body stiffens and his eyes drop to the floor. “How long will you be gone? Will it really be just a few hours?”

Matt drops his arms and doesn’t say anything. Jessica glares at him, moving her lips.

Tell him. Be honest.

“Leo, here’s the deal.” Matt reaches out for the boy’s shoulders and slowly turns him so they are looking eye to eye, man to man. “Time passes differently back on Earth. A day there might be a week here. Or vice versa. I just don’t know. Jessica and I are going there to have a quick look, figure out what’s going on. We’ll jump back as soon as we can. We could be back in a couple of days or a couple of . . .”

Leo raises his eyes from the floor. “Weeks? Months? What about Ryzaard?”

“That’s exactly why we can’t take you and Yarah with us. We just don’t know what we’ll run into.” Matt tries to look as matter-of-fact about it as he can so Leo won’t sense his fear. “Ryzaard doesn’t know about this world, so he can’t come here. This is the only place you and Yarah are safe. That’s why you have to stay. Jessica and I will get back here as soon as we can.”

“What if he’s waiting for you?” Leo’s face moves from Matt to Jessica. “You may
never
come back. What then?”

Matt’s jaw goes taut. “That’s not going to happen.”

Leo shakes his head. “You can’t be sure.” His gaze drops to the floor again. “I could lose you and Jessica just like I lost my mom and dad.”

“We’re going to be careful.” Matt touches Leo’s chin and pulls it back, bringing the boy’s gaze up from the floor and doing his best to smile.

“But no guarantees, right?” Leo’s jaw comes together. A lone tear streaks down his face.

Matt tries to speak. He turns to Jessica for help. Her lips move silently

Be honest.

“No guarantees in life, Leo.” Matt turns his face back to the boy. “We all just do the best we can.”

“We’ll wait one moon cycle, but no longer.” Leo swallows hard.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if you don’t come back for a whole month, Yarah and I are coming after you.”

“But Leo, we can’t be sure about the differences in the passage of time. You can’t—”

“One month.” Leo’s jaw tightens. “Period.” He looks up at Matt and stretches out his hand. “Deal?”

Matt looks over at Jessica again. She nods.

“OK. Deal.” He reaches his hand out to Leo and shakes in a tight grip. “One month.”

Yarah stands between Matt and Leo, looking back and forth between their faces. A smile spreads across her face. She reaches for Leo’s hand.

“Where will you be going?” Leo says.

Matt puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out the Stone, tossing it up and down, judging its weight. “Stanley Park.” He moves his arm out for Jessica and pulls her close. “Vancouver, British Columbia. Near the ocean. Just like Little John told you. They’ll be expecting us, right?”

Leo nods his head. “Little John promised Yarah and I that he’d find a way to send a message to the freedom camp there, to let them know we were coming.”

“Good,” Matt says. “I know it’s been a few months, but hopefully they haven’t forgotten about us. Now if I just knew what a freedom camp was.”

“Do you have the coordinates?” Leo says.

Matt sweeps the room with his eyes. “I wrote them down right after you told me. It should be here somewhere.” He walks to the mantel over the fireplace, and then over to the dresser by the window. “I just have to remember.”

“Got it.” Jessica walks in from an adjoining room. “It’s where you always leave important stuff. On the floor next to the toilet.” She hands a piece of paper to Matt.

He goes to the door and picks up his old backpack, swinging it over one shoulder.

Jessica joins him on the other side.

“See you kids later,” Matt says.

Slipping her fingers into Matt’s, Jessica turns to the two children. “Enjoy the dragon.”

“Be good.” Leo reaches out for Yarah and drops his hand onto her shoulders. “See you in a few days.”

Matt grins, and the air flashes white.

“O
K,” Ryzaard says. “Time to move on to the last topic.” He turns to Diego Lopez on his immediate left. “What’s the latest on your work with the location algorithm?”

Diego exchanges smiles across the table with Jerek and Jing-wei to his left. He faces in the direction of Ryzaard as he speaks.

“First of all, I’d like to thank our science whiz kid for boosting the power of the Stones.” Diego turns to his left. “And I also need to thank Jing-wei for her efforts in acquiring an array of thirty-six new geostationary satellites now orbiting the planet. We are close to having the capability to locate Stones anywhere on the planet in real time.”

“How close?” Ryzaard says.

Diego picks up a slate on the table and swivels to face the wall directly behind him. The wall screen shows the image of Earth as a blue planet covered with white wisps of clouds. As the planet rotates, a few scattered red dots appear above its surface.

“The current state of our technology allows us to track targets on a global basis within a window of thirty minutes. If we limit our focus to only one target, we can narrow that window to five minutes. We hope to reduce the time even fur—”

A sharp object pricks Diego’s palm, and his fingers automatically open, releasing the slate.

Kalani grabs it before it hits the floor and crouches directly in front of its holo screen holding his club in the other hand.

Diego sees the blood on his palm and lunges to grab his slate, yelling with a mixture of surprise and annoyance. “Hey, what are you do—”

Kalani’s shark tooth club comes swiftly up to Diego’s face, drops down and presses against his chest until he sits back into his chair.

“Easy, my friend,” Kalani says. “Just want to have a quick look.” He turns and faces the wall, still crouching on the floor, fingers dancing over the slate as he stares at its screen. “I can’t believe you already know where all the Stones are.” Kalani turns the globe with a flick of his hand and counts the red dots. “Egypt, Greece, Russia, Congo, Nunavut. Let’s have a look at Egypt.”

Kalani zooms in until the city of Alexandria fills the screen. The buildings, mostly drab greens and browns, clump together between the main streets like the cells of a honeycomb, with almost no space between them. A red dot rests on the still image of a person moving along the sidewalk.

Kalani stares in silence with rapt attention. “Behold, a Stone Holder.” The slate slips from his fingers to the floor.

Diego quickly scoops it up. “That was a half hour ago. Someone with a Stone was walking the street.” He brushes his finger across the slate, and the image fades.

“Hey, hold on.” Kalani jumps up. “I’m not done—”

“Thank you, Kalani.” Ryzaard puts a hint of firmness in his voice. “We all appreciate your enthusiasm. You can take your seat now and leave the demonstration up to Diego.”

Kalani grabs his club and shrugs back to his seat, flopping in it with his head resting on the table.

Ryzaard nods to Diego and motions with his hands for him to continue.

“As you can see,” Diego says. “We know the locations of the Stones, at least within the last half hour.”

“How long have you known the locations?” Elsa’s eyes narrow, and she leans forward with her elbows on the table.

Diego glances at Ryzaard and then back at Elsa. “The new location algorithm became operational as soon as the satellite array was in place, about two weeks ago.”

“Two weeks ago?” Elsa stands on her feet, palms on the table. “You mean to tell me that you’ve known where the Stones are for two weeks and you haven’t collected them?” She shoots a glance at Ryzaard.

“No,” Ryzaard says. “Actually, I’ve known where the Stones are for the last
six
months. Diego’s work has simply made it much easier to keep track of them.”

Elsa raises her hands, palms to the ceiling. “Then why haven’t we—”

“It’s simple,” Ryzaard says. “We’re waiting for the other Stones to appear.”

“Other Stones?” Kalani stands next to Elsa.

Ryzaard rises to his feet. “Yes. The three other Stones.” He puts his hands behind his back and begins to pace the circumference of the table. “Based on the events of the recent past, I think you all know the three Stone Holders I speak of.”

Elsa drops her hands to her hips. “It’s all too clear
who
they are.” Her gaze moves to the floor. “And how they got away.”

Ryzaard glares at her. For a moment, the room freezes in anticipation of a confrontation.

Jing-wei clears her throat and leans into the conversation, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Any idea
where
they are?”

Alexa looks up and shifts in her chair.

“I have an
idea
.” Ryzaard eases back into his seat, releasing the tension in the room. “They’ve gone off-planet.”

“Off-planet? I don’t understand.” Jerek squints his eyes. “Are you saying Matt and the two kids have jumped to another planet?”

“Precisely,” Ryzaard says. “And I assume his girlfriend is with him as well. That’s why we haven’t been able to locate them.” He reaches and pulls out a cigarette from the black pack on the table.

“What are we going to do?” Elsa says.

“They’ll come back,” Ryzaard says. “Eventually, they’ll try to find the other Stones. I’m sure of it. It’s the only way. Just a matter of time. All we have to do is wait. And be ready.”

Elsa relaxes back into her chair. “I get it. The other Stones are a trap.” A smile crosses her lips as she nods her head in understanding. “That’s why you haven’t gone after them yet. You’re waiting for Matt to come back.”

“He already has,” Alexa says.

“What did you say?” Ryzaard turns to Alexa.

The room is instantly silent.

“I saw him, briefly, last night.” Alexa leans back in her chair, arms at her side, legs comfortably out in front, looking like the holder of a great secret. “I tried to kill him, but he got away.”

“Where!” Ryzaard demands.

Alexa’s eyes drop to the table. “In your office.”

“Why didn’t you tell me immediately?”

“You were gone.” Alexa folds her hands in her lap. “Besides, I did my best to send him into one of your traps. Told him there were still Stones waiting out there for him to take. Encouraged him to make a move. From the look in his eyes, I’d say he took the bait. But he jumped away before I could do anything.”

Settling back into his chair, Ryzaard strokes his goatee in deep contemplation. “Did he look afraid?”

“I would say
consumed with fear
is an understatement.”

“Good.” Ryzaard nods. “You should have told me immediately. But you were right to push him to make a move. When he does, we’ll be ready.”

“But now the stupid kid knows about the other Stones!” Kalani bursts as though he’s holding back a tidal wave of emotion.

Ryzaard dismisses Kalani’s outburst with a wave of his hand. “He already knew about them. From Naganuma.”

Kalani’s knuckles are white on the shark-tooth club. “You can’t just sit here! You have to go after them. So much power, just waiting for you. Or anyone. If you won’t go after them, then—”

“Then what?” Ryzaard says, eyes narrowing.

Looking at the table and relaxing his grip on the club, Kalani sinks back into his chair. “It’s just a waste.”

“Don’t worry.” Ryzaard’s face relaxes, and the tension in the room subsides. “I’ll go after the five Stones when the time is right. I’m not concerned about them. Gathering them will be easy. But if there’s a chance, even a slight chance, that we can use them to catch the boy and the two children, the source of so much trouble, then I’m willing to wait a bit longer. He’s dangerous, and I intend to see him dead the minute he sets a foot back on the Earth.”

“
If
he comes back,” Kalani says.