Fusion (30 page)

“You okay?” Kellan pulled me closer.

“I think so.” I opened my eyes and looked into his. “I can’t shake the images from the ice rink.”

“That sounds horrible, like a slasher movie scene. Are you going to tell your mom about it?”

“Tell her that I dimension-hopped? No way! I am in enough trouble as it is. I’m still trying to decide whether to tell her that I saw my doppelganger.”

“I think you should. But it would probably be best to keep the wander to yourself.” He stretched back in his seat, opening his mouth as if to say something but then closed it again.

“What?”

“I was going to ask you if you’d remembered anything. You know, like did you remember anything about our last trip here?”

“Yeah.”

“What?” His eyes gleamed with hope.

“I want to say everything, but I don’t know that for sure. I didn’t say anything before because I am still trying to process it all. At the rink, just before David wandered me, when I looked at
A
, a lot of pictures swam through my head—seeing you in physics class, playing hockey, dancing with you at the Ball, walking about Paris with Luna. I remembered it, but it was like I was looking at it all through
A
’s eyes.”

“That’s awesome, Shrimp.” He beamed.

“It’s not at all clear though, just a muddle of memories. I’m not sure what happened when and can’t put the memories in context. They’re still random images.”

Kellan rubbed my hand. “Don’t worry about that. I can help you sort through those.” He hesitated again.

I nudged him. “What?”

“How do you feel? About me? Us? Are you sad to let David go?”

“No,” I said without hesitation or regret. It was like David belonged with a part of me that was no longer attached. “I love
you
.”

“Good grief!” Ariele muttered. “You’re going to make me hurl. If any of your gooey crap has somehow transmitted to
A
, I will personally come back and haunt the bejeezus out of you.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Aren’t you going to miss Ingrid?” I smiled.

“Pffft! No! Broke up with her.”

“Oh?”

“Too much of a drama queen.”

“So you’re not going to miss any of us at all?” Kellan asked.

She hesitated, looking over at Kellan. “You know I will. I’ll miss all of you. Even you, Arizona, though I get
A
back. I am going to miss your mushy crap, lip gloss, and all that girly stuff. I enjoyed it, but I’ll be glad to be back with Mon and
A
.”

I squeezed her arm.

“Here we are,” she said as the cab arrived at the airport.

We walked into the terminal, following Ariele as we’d gotten used to doing.

“Let’s go over to information to ask where we’re supposed to pick up our tickets.” She confidently strode through the teeming mass of travelers.

I mindlessly trailed her, exhausted and wanting the day to be over. I couldn’t wait to get on the flight and drift off to the hum of the engine. Just thinking about it made my eyelids feel like paperweights.

Kellan put his arm around my shoulder and steered me along. “Tired?” he whispered as we marched along.

“Beyond.” The weight of this adventure suddenly came crashing down on me.

Thankfully, the security line wasn’t too long, with only a few people ahead of us. I rested my head against Kellan as we waited, listening to Ariele’s excited chatter.

“Next!”

Ariele turned around and walked up to the TSA agent, her ticket and license ready in her hand, a smile plastered across her face.

The agent, a woman this time, looked up at her, seemingly resistant to Ariele’s charm. She peered through her glasses, her face set in a stern mask. Then she glanced down at the driver’s license, her mouth forming into a smile.

Kellan thrust me behind his back and whispered, “Go, now. Call your mom or my dad.”

I didn’t move, transfixed by what was going on at the officer’s station.

The agent’s face beamed as she looked up at Ariele again. “Ariele Moreau! I bet you don’t remember me. I’m Jill’s mom—remember Jill from the lacrosse team? Wow. Where on earth have you been hiding, honey? You’ve been missing for a long time.”

“Jill’s mom! How is she?”

“Great. I am sure she’d love to know you’re back in town, but I see you’re leaving again?”

“Yes, just for a while. I’ll be back soon.”

“Got it.” The agent paused, looking pensive. “Could you come with me? We’re holding up the line, and I just want to make sure you’re okay. After all, no one has seen you for a long time. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Well, actually, we have a plane to—”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take too much of your time.” She signaled another agent. “Bill, can you take over for a while?”

He nodded as Jill’s mom grabbed Ariele’s elbow. “Is he with you?” she asked, nodding at Kellan.

“Go now,” Kellan muttered through clenched teeth. He smiled at the agent.

“Both of you follow me, please.”

I felt my breath leave me completely, and both of my feet were incapacitated, like they had been cemented to the spot. Kellan prodded me sharply, bringing his elbow down on my shoulder as he started moving forward. He threw me a glance over his shoulder, and I reacted, almost on autopilot, turning around and casually walking in the opposite direction, pushing through the line, whispering, “Sorry, I need to use the restroom.”

And that’s where I headed, hoping for some privacy. I barely managed to close the stall door before I vomited. I kept going until I was just retching air and sobbing.

“Hey, are you okay in there?” a lady asked from the other side of the stall.

I blew my nose and answered, “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

She paused, but then replied, “Alrighty, then.”

Sure, I’d be fine, but what about Ariele and Kell? I took out my cell and called Mom.

“Hi! Did you get the tickets okay?” she asked. I could tell that she wanted to yell at me, but was biding her time.

“Mom, we’re in so much trouble,” I began.

“No kidding,” she replied more sternly. “But we’ll talk about that when you get back.”

“I need you to fly out here.”

“Why? I thought you said you got the tickets. Just get on the flight, and I’ll see you at this end. I am at SFO, and I’ll wait right here for you.”

“We can’t get on the flight!”

I could hear her whisper something to someone. Hopefully Kellan’s dad was there too.

“Why?” she said, back on her cell.

“Ariele got spotted at the TSA checkpoint and was told to go with an agent. Kellan went with her.”

“What do you mean
got spotted
?”

“The woman who was checking out the tickets seemed to know her.”

“Do you know where they were taken?”

“No.”

“Where are you?”

“Still at the airport, in the restroom.”

“Hold on.” I heard muffled whisperings—probably her updating Dr. Fox.

“Okay, Arizona. I’ll check you into a hotel nearby, one with a shuttle service, and you can wait there. Does that sound okay?”

I didn’t want to leave the airport, not while Kellan and Ariele were still there. However, knowing that Mom wouldn’t let me just hang around here on my own, I said I would, and she said she would text me the details of the hotel.

“And don’t disappear anywhere else,” she said sharply. “We—I am bringing Larry, Glenda, and Pierre—will be there as soon as we can get a flight out.”

“Okay. Text me the details.”

As soon as she cut the call, I touched David’s number.

“Hey! What’s up? Thought you’d be on your flight by now.”

I explained what had happened.

“Sit tight, I’m on my way.”

Sitting tight on that toilet was the last thing I wanted to do. The whole place reeked, no thanks to me. I made sure to clean myself up and get decent before I exited back into the terminal. I walked back over to the security line, which had gotten much longer and busier, and I couldn’t see the TSA agents through the crowd. I walked over to the nearest bench and sat down, my eyes glued to the security line, wondering where Kellan and Ariele had been taken.

I looked down at my cell phone when the text tone sounded. It was Mom telling me that Kellan had called Larry, and Glenda had spoken with Ariele.

I called her. “Just got your text. What’s happening with them?”

“Thankfully, Kellan had the presence of mind to remind them that he and Ariele are minors and that they needed to call their parents before they would answer any questions. Ariele followed suit. They were both allowed to call their parents and are now waiting for them to arrive. Our flight leaves in forty minutes.”

“Are they just going to wait in the TSA office or wherever they’re being held until you guys get here, in like six hours?”

“I guess. There is only so much I can do from here,” Mom said. “I do wish your dad was here. I have no idea how to get in touch with him.”

“Yeah. He could wander them both out of there.” Maybe David would know how to get a word to the Elders in Mountain View and have them get in touch with Dad.

“Okay, we’re boarding. I’ll call you when we land. Get some sleep. There isn’t much you can do.”

I sat and waited for David, hunching over to hide my face when I noticed a couple of hovering reporters. As time went by, more of them seemed to appear, all hanging around, killing time.

“Hey, Poppet.” David slid down on the bench next to me. “Never a dull moment with you guys.”

“I can do with a bit of dull right about now.”

“Let’s get out of here while you update me. Is the press here for Ariele?”

“Sheesh, I hope not!” I kept my face lowered as we walked out to his Harley, which was parked right outside.

“Move along!” a traffic cop shouted, as we scrambled on and rode away. David pulled off ten minutes later into a hotel parking lot. We didn’t go inside but sat facing each other on his bike.

“I could contact my mom and have her find your dad, but your mom will probably get here first. She’s already on her way, right?”

I nodded.

“In that case, I think we should wait for her. If she still wants me to get your dad when she arrives, I will.”

“But what if something terrible happens to Ariele and Kellan in the meantime?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know! Torture?” I threw that out at him. It wasn’t like that never happened.

“I seriously doubt that’s even a remote possibility. You said that the TSA agent knew Ariele… so they are probably just holding them until their parents arrive. It’s not like they’ve broken any laws.”

“No, but Kell’s driver’s license isn’t going to check out.”

“That’s true. All the same, they’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure you’re right. I just keep imagining them sitting in a small, dark cell with no food or water and one of those metal toilets.”

“That’s what a trip to Alcatraz does to you.” He smiled. “The bigger worry is what excuse Ariele and her parents will come up with to explain their disappearance. I am sure they thought they’d have much longer to come up with a plan, and now they suddenly have only five hours or so to come up with something.”

“I know, right? And what about Kellan? I wish he hadn’t gone in with her.”

David shook his head. “It’s a mess. I can’t even wander them away. There is no way I could get in there. We’d need a Sigma-W.”

“You rang?”

I gasped as Stan appeared.

“Where did you come from? How did you know I was here?”

“Who is this?” David put his hand on my shoulder, probably ready to wander me off.

“Keep your shirt on. I’m a friend of Arizona’s.”

“It’s okay, David. I know him.” I turned to Stan. “So? What are you doing here? In the middle of nowhere, New Jersey?”

“Stalking you. I was bored, and you do seem to live to keep me entertained—like David here said, never a dull moment.”

“Sheesh, you need to get a life! Want me to talk to Dad and see if you can go back to work with the Sigma-Ws?”

“Maybe. Not right now, though. I don’t want to be a part of the war going on in the other dimension. And once it’s over, I’d like to go back to university, if there’s still one standing. If not, I may switch to this dimension. I’ve got to say it’s boring here, though, with no paranormals around. Anyhow, it seems you need me? You want me to break your boyfriend out? And that girl, Ariele?”

“You can do that?”

“Yep, no problem.”

“Wait,” David said. “Let’s just think this through.”

“What’s to think about?” I asked. “Seems like the obvious thing to do since Stan offered so nicely. I might even ignore his whole stalking problem.” I rolled my eyes at Stan.

“Just say the word,” Stan said.

“What if Ariele’s parents have come up with a plan that fits in with what’s happening? Just having her disappear from a TSA office will make it even more difficult for them to come back and live here.”

“But just like ten minutes ago, you said that there was no way they could have come up with a plan,” I protested.

“Point is,” David continued, “we don’t know what they want to do. Maybe they will come up with a plan. Don’t you think it’s better to wait for them? Let them decide if they want to have Stan rescue Ariele. I just think you—we—need to stop meddling.”

“That’s not going to work for me.” Stan put his hands up.

“Why not?” David asked.

“I don’t want to reveal my identity to Ariele’s folks and certainly not to Arizona’s mom. Being Potomal’s son and all that…”

“Hey, is your dad responsible for the bloodbath at the ice rink? I take it you saw that if you’ve been stalking me.”

He shrugged.

“Is that all you’re
not
going to say?”

He nodded.

I couldn’t blame him for wanting to stay out of it. “Can you just rescue Kellan, then? He’s not going to move here, so his disappearance won’t cause him any problems.”

“Think it through, Poppet. The consequences won’t matter to him, but they will affect Ariele,” David pointed out.

He was right. Just vanishing Kellan away would call even more attention to Ariele.

“I take it that’s a no?” Stan yawned.

“No, that’s not it at all. We do have to break Kell out, but I guess we need to wait for our parents to arrive and decide the best strategy. Can you like… hover? Is there a way I can message you to let you know when to do it?”