Doorways to Infinity (33 page)

“Are you going to see the Hale’s again while you’re here?” Melanie asked Dr. Tindall.

“I’ll have to wait until after Christmas. They want me to have dinner with them.”

“That’s awesome,” Nova said. “You’ve only just come to this town, and already you’re the social butterfly.”

They sat around the fire and talked, and again the conversation was spirited and wide-ranging. They discussed all kinds of environmental disasters: the rapid shrinking of tropical rainforests. Masses of plastic trash the size of Texas, floating in the Pacific Ocean. Famine in Sudan. Oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Each topic seemed to weigh more heavily on Jamie than the next. The longer they talked, the more depressed he got.

At one point, Dr. Tindall excused herself to go to the bathroom, and Jamie’s chin dropped to his chest and he stared at nothing. He felt as if all of the Earth’s problems were beginning to stack up on his shoulders, and he would soon collapse under the weight.

“What’s buggin’ you, Jamie?” Bryce said.

Jamie didn’t answer.

“Something is. I can tell.”

“He thinks all of these problems we’re talking about are his responsibility,” Fred said. “Which is ridiculous, of course.”

Jamie raised his head and said, “But I can do something about most of them.”

“What could you do about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforests?” Nova said.

“I could make the trees and vegetation grow back.” He snapped his fingers. “Like that.”

“Dude,” Rollie said, “it’s not your job. We’ve been able to stumble along okay for thousands of years without your help, so don’t worry about it.”

“I still feel like I should do something. Problem is, I don’t know how to do it without exposing us.”

“Jamie,” Melanie said, “if you fix things, mankind won’t have to figure out solutions on its own. Then Earth will become just like Eddan’s world, having to depend on sorcerers and witches to solve its problems. Isn’t that why you built a school here in Rivershire? So they can learn to do things for themselves?”

Jamie sighed and stared at the fire, still burning brightly in the fireplace. “I suppose. It just tears me up inside, though, watching all of these huge problems get worse and worse and me not doing anything about it. I could, you know.”

“Like I said,” Rollie added, “it’s not your job.” Then he spread his arms wide and nodded firmly. “Earth abides, dude. Earth abides.”

Chapter 14

Early on Christmas morning, Fred’s family opened their presents. Sammi didn’t want hers yet, though there was a huge pile for her under the tree, the largest Fred had seen in years. Fred knew what many of them were. She had helped wrap them: the mega-art kit with stacks of drawing tablets. The clothes, shiny and sparkly (Fred was a little jealous about those). The DVDs of Sammi’s favorite Disney movies.

Sammi insisted that her parents open their gift from her first. She pulled it from the stack under the tree and ceremoniously handed it to Lisa and Larry, who sat together on the gold couch in the living room, rumpled in their robes and slippers, Lisa’s hair a disheveled mess and Larry unshaven and sleepy-eyed.

“What is it?” Lisa said as she accepted it.

“Open it!” Sammi began bouncing on the balls of her feet and patting her hands together. “I wrapped it myself.”

“I can see that.” Lisa managed a feeble smile. “You did a fine job.” The bright green paper was cut only slightly crooked and was held together by less than 50 little strips of clear tape.

Lisa turned and offered it to Larry. “Let’s do it together. You first.” Larry pulled the red ribbon from the gift and motioned for Lisa to finish. Lisa carefully slipped a finger under the edge of the wrapping paper while Sammi’s bouncing became more extreme.

“Hurry up, Mom,” Fred said, “before Sammi explodes.”

Lisa ripped the present open to reveal the framed picture of the young Native American couple. “Oh, it’s beautiful Sammi.”

“They’re Cherokee.” Sammi beamed. “I got it at Annie’s shop. I picked that one because you can tell that they’re in love, like you and Daddy are.”

“It’s just…wonderful. Don’t you think so, Larry?” She turned to him and the dullness in his eyes vanished.

“That’s beautiful,” Larry said and sat up straight. “Where do you think we should put it, Sammi?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, her arms drooped at her sides and her face became slack.

Lisa put a hand on Sammi’s cheek and frowned. “Uh, oh. Is she having a vision, Fred?”

“Looks like it. Give her a sec and she’ll come out of it.”

After a few moments of tense silence, Sammi blinked and gave her head a tight shake.

“What happened?” Larry said. “Did you just hear something with your magic?”

Sammi nodded. “It was Mr. Cage.”

“Are you sure?” Fred said.

Sammi nodded again. “He sounded like he was talking on the phone, and he was mad. He was shouting.”

Fred gestured with one hand, a rolling motion. “Well, what did he say?”

Sammi’s dark eyebrows fell and she frowned. “He used some bad words.”

“Just work around those.”

Sammi nodded one more time and took a short breath. “It wasn’t much. He said, ‘I don’t care if it’s Christmas or not. If you don’t get my gosh-darned runway fixed by tomorrow afternoon, there will be heck to pay.’ Then it sounded like something smashed on the floor, like the phone.”

“I bet he didn’t say gosh-darned or heck, did he?”

“No.” Sammi’s brow dropped even lower.

“What should we do, Fred?” Lisa asked. “Should we tell Jamie or one of those two agents?”

“Terry said not to call or text them unless it was an emergency because it would be suspicious. We should tell Jamie, but we’ll have to wait until he gets up. It’s still way too early for civilized people to be awake.”

Fred called Jamie to come over around ten thirty, and Sammi repeated what she’d heard from Phillip Cage. Jamie stood near her with his faceo thoughtful and calculating, and when she finished he said, “I guess I’m going to have to go up to Langley and try to get hold of Eric or Terry so I can tell them in person. Wish I could just send them a text, instead.”

“But it’s Christmas, Jamie,” Lisa said. “Don’t you think you should wait until tomorrow so you won’t disturb their time with their families?”

“They told me to contact them immediately if we learn anything important, and this is important. Cage must be planning to go do a hit somewhere.”

“How are you going to contact them if you can’t use your cell phone or email?” Larry said.

“Eric and I worked something out. It’s a spot on the outskirts of Langley where I can call them from a payphone, and one of them can meet me. A local call won’t be noticed. All I have to do is make a doorway there, and I already got it in my magic sense of space.”

“You should at least wait until after lunch,” Fred said. “Just to be nice.”

A few hours later, Jamie stepped through a portal back into Fred’s living room, where Fred waited on the couch, watching Disney’s
Snow White
with Sammi.

Fred picked up the DVD remote from the coffee table and pressed pause. “Did you get hold of either of them?”

“Just Terry. She met me at this dumpy little laundromat that has a payphone outside, and I repeated what Sammi told me. Terry said that they’ve been expecting Cage to start repairs, but the weather’s been really bad in that part of Romania, and there’s been too much snow for anybody to work on his runway or his road.”

“Do they know who Cage’s next target is?”

“Still working on that.”

“At least Terry and Eric got to spend Christmas with their families. Did you get a chance to ask her about her daughter?”

“Of course not.”

Sammi’s eyebrows shot up. “What about her daughter?”

“Nothing, Sammi.” Fred patted her gently on the arm.

“It’s not nothing, it’s something. I can tell.”

Fred took her time considering what to say. “It’s…Terry doesn’t like to talk about her, which is odd, because all moms like to talk about their kids. So something’s going on, and we want to know what it is.”

“What do you mean,
we?
” Jamie said. “I don’t. It’s none of my business.”

“Well, me and Melanie and Nova do. We care about Terry.”

“What? You wanted to throttle her at one time, as I recall.”

Sammi’s mouth formed an alarmed
oh,
and Fred quickly said, “That’s just an expression, Sammi. I didn’t really want to do that. I was just jealous because I thought she was flirting with Jamie, but she wasn’t. It was just a misunderstanding. I like Terry now. That’s why I’m concerned about her and her daughter.”

Sammi seemed to believe her and said, “Do you want me to ask her next time I see her? She might tell me.”

Fred patted her on the arm again and smiled. “I’m sure she will, Sammi. She won’t be able to help herself.”

* * *

Friday morning, Sammi came over to stay with Rachel for the day, since everyone at Fred’s house had to go to work. Sammi’s two neighborhood friends, Ariana and Britney, showed up about an hour later, then all three girls went to play in the clubhouse in the yard.

Rachel was carrying a load of dirty clothes to the laundry room when Ariana flung open the back door and said, “Mrs. Sikes, come quick! Sammi’s having one of her vision thingies.”

Rachel dropped the clothes on the floor and rushed outside, with Ariana right behind her. Rachel found Sammi sitting on one of the swings, limp and unmoving, her lips parted and her eyes vacant. Even though Rachel knew what was happening, it still worried her whenever she saw her like that. Britney stood several feet away, her small hand over her mouth and her brow drawn down low.

“How long has this been going on?” Rachel asked when she reached the playset.

“A long time,” Ariana said.

Rachel checked Sammi carefully before saying, “You girls know it’s okay, right? Sammi is just using her talent.”

“Yes ma’am,” Britney said unconvincingly.

I’m glad these girls already know about the magic. I’d hate to have to explain this right now
. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. She’ll come out of it soon.”

They waited for several minutes, and Rachel began to shiver, wishing she had put on a coat. The air was chilly, and the sky was overcast. The winter wind prickled her skin. She clutched her arms across her chest and watched Sammi. Rachel’s teeth chattered. Sammi was deathly still.

Finally, Sammi shook her head and her eyes refocused, and she moaned while Rachel knelt and wrapped her arms around her. “What was it?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know,” Sammi said in a quivering voice. “I didn’t understand the words.”

“Was it another language?”

Sammi nodded. “It was two men, and they talked for a long time.”

Rachel stood. “Well,” she said, “we can’t do anything about it right now because Jamie’s at work. I’ll send him a text and tell him we need to talk, and maybe he’ll come home on his lunch break.” She turned to the other two girls, who stood nearby, visibly unnerved. “It’s a little too cold to be outside right now. Let’s go inside and make cookies.”

Jamie returned right after Ariana and Britney had gone home for lunch. He listened attentively while Sammi repeated the extended conversation she’d overheard with her magic.

“Boy, that’s a long one.” He checked his watch when she finished. “Almost fourteen minutes. Sounds like an Asian language, but I have no idea which one.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Rachel asked.

Jamie puffed out his cheeks and stared at the floor for a moment. “I think I should go up to Langley and call Eric and Terry. This may be related to Cage.”

“Don’t you think you should get Sammi to repeat it and record it with your phone or your magic spell? They’ll need to hear it, won’t they?”

“I think they should hear it directly from Sammi, and they may have some questions for her.”

Jamie’s family room was crowded late that afternoon after the two CIA agents arrived to talk with Sammi. Jamie’s parents were there, and so were Fred’s. Terry sat on the couch next to an anxious-looking Sammi and squeezed her knee with one hand. “I’m going to help you with this. You’re not nervous, are you?”

Sammi frowned and pointed at the silver, candy-bar sized electronic device that Eric placed on the coffee table in front of her. “What’s that?”

“It’s just a recorder, a good one. We’ll use it to copy what you tell us and then we’ll take it to a translator, once we figure out what language it is.”

Sammi’s frown deepened as Eric adjusted the controls on the small gadget, his expression intense.

Fred frowned, too. “What are you going to tell the translator if they ask where you got the recording?”

Eric spoke without looking up, still bent over the coffee table, eyes on the device. “I’ll tell them we got it from a wiretap, and that it’s of a girl reading a transcript. They probably won’t ask, anyway. Those translators get recordings all the time. They’re too busy to care.” Eric glanced at Sammi. “Okay, it’s set. Whenever you’re ready, just start talking and repeat it exactly as you heard it. You can do that, can’t you?”

“I remember every single word. I don’t know what they mean, though.”

“Doesn’t matter, as long as you say them right.”

Terry gave her a reassuring smile. “I think this is so cool that you can do this. You are an amazing kid. I’m a little jealous.” Her smile broadened to a grin.

Sammi’s anxiety seemed to fade a little as she looked at Terry, and she managed a fragile smile in return.

“I’ll sit with you, too.” Rachel joined them, settling on Sammi’s other side.

Eric tapped a button on the recorder and gestured for Sammi to start. The room fell silent as Sammi closed her eyes, then began repeating the long conversation that she’d overheard that morning, every word harsh and unfamiliar to Jamie.

She is amazing,
he thought as she spoke.
I bet she’s even got the accents right
.

When she finished, Eric picked up the recorder and shut it off. “I think it’s Korean, and I heard her say Phillip Cage once. Anybody else catch that?”

Jamie nodded. “I didn’t hear it the first time Sammi repeated it to me, but I did just now. Guess that means it’s important.”