It took Dad’s boss—the army, technically—almost two fully days to find Dad and Evie, and four to find Abel. For the majority of that time, Wes sat in the recovery room, alone. Never in his life had he been as terrified and apprehensive as he was in that room. Unable to get in touch with Dad, he had risked getting out of bed and messing around with the communications equipment some of the team had left, and was able to contact a few people Dad had worked with before. They sent someone to stay with him while they hunted for the rest of his family.
It was a hellish wait.
The whole time he was alone, and even after they sent someone to guard him, Wes felt he was going insane. The small voice he kept hearing inside his head didn’t go away. It spoke a lot, almost all the time now that he was off the pain medications, but most of the words were muffled and distorted. For a while, he wondered if it was a brain-injury side effect of getting knocked unconscious from the car crash, but eventually, he had a suspicion...
And then they found Dad and Evie, and the sheer joy eclipsed everything else—except for the fear that Abel was still out there. They put together a search party to comb the surrounding areas, and Wes demanded he help, now that he could walk again. Dad didn’t fight him at all. They just went out and searched.
They found Abel in a small hospital on the far side of the city. Someone had dragged him from the escape pod and taken him there almost as soon as he had crashed, but he had remained unconscious for two whole days before the staff managed to revive him. By the time Dad got there, Abel couldn’t remember much about what had happened in space. He seemed happy enough just to be reunited with his family. As soon as they were all together in one room, hugging each other in a mass of sobs and laughter, Wes felt like he could die of happiness and never have to worry again.
Of course, that didn’t last long.
Evie was still hurt. The car crash had injured her back and paralyzed her from the waist down, just as she suspected. None of the doctors knew if she would walk again. Dad had her scheduled for some surgeries, but nobody said much on the subject, as if they were afraid to even discuss it. She was handling it well. She was glad to have Dad back. Ever since they were all together, she just sat in a wheelchair at Dad’s side and talked.
Dad was a little distant. Most of his team was gone. He had almost lost his children. There was still no sign of Mom. The only bright spot came one day soon after they were reunited, when one of his superiors visited—a tall, uniformed man with a formidable aura and a blank expression. Dad had gone into the hall and closed the door to speak to him. Wes couldn’t hear what they said. When Dad came back in, however, he looked relieved.
“It looks like I’m staying for good this time,” Dad said, gathering them all in his arms. “I promise.”
After a few moments, Abel broke the hug. “You know, Dad, I’ve been wanting to ask you… why did you email me after you got reassigned? Wouldn’t that have put you in more danger? Or gotten you in trouble with someone higher up?”
“Possibly,” Dad said. “But I wanted you to know. In case I… couldn’t make it home.”
“But in the email, you promised you’d come back,” Abel said.
“I didn’t want you to be afraid.”
“Why didn’t you tell Mom?” Wes asked.
“I did. Just… in a different way. She knew about it, even if she didn’t know exactly where I was reassigned. We worked it out that she would keep you safe. Which she did, at least… look, it doesn’t matter now. I’m going to take you home, where we’ll be together again.”
“I don’t want to go home,” Evie said.
“You don’t?” Dad asked.
“Me either,” Wes murmured.
Dad looked between them. “I understand. I’ll find somewhere for us, don’t you worry.”
“But we have to find Mom first,” Abel said.
“We will,” Dad said. “My supervisors are looking for her now… but for the moment, I just want to be with you. Where you’re safe.”
“Where would Mom go if she ran?” Abel asked.
Dad looked at the floor. “I don’t know. We’ve already looked for her in all the places we previously agreed on, so… there’s no telling where she is now. But I promise we’ll find her. And if she comes back here, my people will be waiting for her. They will get her back to us.”
Wes paused, nervousness welling in his throat. He knew he had to say something, but he also knew that once he did, the others wouldn’t be able to look at him the same way. It frightened him, but not as much as the alternative.
“Um, Dad,” Wes said, his mouth dry as a desert. “I… think I might know where Mom is.”
Everyone looked at him.
“What?” Dad asked. “How? Did she get in contact with you?”
Wes wrung his fingers. “I… I think so. But I don’t know for sure, and I might be imagining all of it, so I have no real idea. But I feel like it’s her.”
“What are you talking about?” Abel asked. “If she’s gotten in touch with you, just tell us.”
“I know, but it’s not very straightforward…”
“What do you mean?” Evie asked.
Oh boy, Wes thought. “Well,” he said, “ever since the crash, I’ve been, um, hearing her? In my head. I think. At first she just kept saying a name, and after a while, I looked it up. It’s a city called Amber Waite.”
Abel and Evie both looked like they’d just swallowed big mouthfuls of sour candy, although Abel sort of looked worried, too. Dad just stared blankly.
“In your head?” Dad asked slowly.
“Yes,” Wes said, swallowing. “I didn’t think it was Mom at first, but then I realized it had to be. It sounds like her. And she’s alive, in that place… I believe she is, anyway.”
“Dad, did Wes go insane?” Evie whispered.
“Hey,” Wes said.
Dad waved his hand at her. “Hang on. Wes, are you certain it was her?”
“I… I guess… I can technically hear her now, but I don’t know what she’s saying.”
Abel looked between them. “Uh, you don’t find this disturbing, Dad? That Wes is hearing voices?”
“No,” Dad said, standing up. “No, I don’t. Because this sounds familiar. Carmen DiVazzo and her Apex Genetics researches had a lot more going on than just distributing bio-metal, and I know for a fact they have affiliates in Amber Waite. I spent some time there early on in the investigation. There was an abandoned factory… Argh! If only Samir was… he was the one who actually went there…”
Dad started pacing, rubbing his chin and muttering under his breath about accessing reports and evidence lockers. Abel and Evie watched him for a moment, then turned their attention back to Wes, who squirmed in his seat.
“You really hear Mom?” Evie asked. “Like inside your brain, like a crazy person?”
“Kinda, yeah,” Wes said. “It’s weird.”
Abel bit his lip. “If that’s at all possible, even the tiniest bit for some reason, which I don’t really believe, no offense, what would we even do next? Go there?”
“Yes,” Dad said, coming back over. “She’s trying to send a message, and I think she knows that I can help pinpoint her once we’re there.”
“And you just believe this?” Abel asked.
“I told you,” Dad said. “This is entering territory I barely even touched on before I focused on the bio-metal scandal. We don’t know what these people are capable of, or how they’re able to make it work, but I know your Mom is an extremely intelligent person, and she works with what she has. If she’s still out there and needs our help, she’s going to reach out any way she can.”
“But… how?” Wes asked, motioning at his head.
“I don’t know right now, but I do know what we can do next,” Dad said.
“Follow her,” Wes said.
Dad nodded.
“This is spooky,” Evie said, sounding on the verge of giggling. “Wes and Mom have a psychic connection? And Dad actually believes him, which means it’s real? And we can find Mom through him?”
Dad patted her shoulder. “I hope so. But you’ll all be staying here. If your mom really is in Amber Waite, then I can’t possibly risk taking any of you with me. It’s one of the most dangerous cities I can think of, and not just because it’s been linked to illegal experiments.”
“What? You can’t leave us!” Wes blurted. “We just got you back.”
Abel stood up. “He’s right. I’ve already been to space and back with you. I can handle going to another city to help you find Mom.”
“This is different,” Dad said. “I have proper backups now, and I’m absolutely not letting any of you get into any more danger. I came too close to losing you already.”
Wes stood up as well. “At least take me with you. I’m the one who can tell you where she is.”
“Wes, you don’t know that…”
“And you can’t leave me!” Evie cried. “Dad, please don’t leave us again. Please. We stayed away from those men for a long time before they finally caught us. We know how to take care of ourselves, and if you’re with us this time, then nothing can happen.”
Dad rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know…”
“I do,” Wes said. He grabbed Dad’s sleeve. “Please, Dad. At least think about it. If Mom is out there and needs our help, she’s going to need all our help.”
Dad sighed. “I won’t make this decision right now… not until I’ve talked to some others. The only thing I want is to see you three safe. I’ll never let anything like this happen again. I am so sorry it had to happen at all.”
“It’s not your fault,” Abel said.
Dad squeezed Abel’s shoulder. “Thank you.” He let out a long sigh and let his shoulders droop. “You know, I thought that this would be long over by now. I had so many plans to get you into college for cybertech studies, Abel. And Evie and Wes, you two can finish school wherever you want and then go to college, or not, it’s up to you. We have the money to do whatever you want to, now.”
“I don’t care about money,” Wes said. “I’m just glad we have you.”
“We love you,” Evie said.
Dad smiled, tears in his eyes. “I love you all, too.”
He hugged them all again, kneeling to include Evie, and this time, Wes knew that no matter what had already changed or what would change from now on, they would be all right. Their old life might be in shambles, and Mom might still be lost in a place so dangerous that Dad didn’t even want to tell them the full extent of it, but they were almost all together. They had Dad. They were strong again.
The muffled voice that had been droning in the back of Wes’s brain this whole time strengthened for a moment.
Foll… e….
He listened carefully, squished between Dad and his two siblings and hearing their heartbeats on either side of his head.
Mom? He thought.
He only got one clear response:
Follow me.
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