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“Go!”

“Where’s Dustin?” Kyle was sweating and
shaking.

“Get me out of here! We can’t go that way.”

He screeched a U-turn and misjudged; the
car strained to escape the ditch. His hands were trembling on the steering
wheel.

“Are you all right?” he asked, while
watching and speeding down the narrow road.

“Turn here fast, and head back to town!”

“Where’s Dustin?” he repeated, his face
dripping sweat.

“I don’t know. Whirling through time
somewhere.”

“He’s dead?”

“I don’t know. I’m hoping he’s at my
house.”

“How? Why would he be there?

“I put him in a portal--like a wormhole--and
sent him to my house.”

“Seriously? That’s incredible . . . Oh man,
whose blood is that all over you?”

“Mine.”

It wouldn’t be long before they were
searching the area.

“What happened back there? Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” But I wasn’t feeling well at all.

“We’re going to your house, right?

“Uh-huh.”

“What if he’s not there?”

“We head back to the lake. Stop the car,
quick, I’m going to be sick.” I got the car door open before he stopped and
threw up. I was sweating and very cold.

“Man, you look terrible.”

“I’ll be okay.” I closed my eyes, and when I
opened them again we were in my driveway. Kyle was standing outside my door.

“We’re here. Are you gonna make it?”

“Yeah, yeah. How long was I out?”

“Ten minutes.”

“I think that helped. I’m really feeling
better.”

“How long do you think we have before Fitts
shows up here?”

“I don’t know. I wish there’d been time to
think of someplace else to send him. All we can do is hope Fitts wouldn’t dream
I’d be dumb enough to come to my house. And if Dustin’s not here, we’ll be gone
in a few minutes,” I said.

“But if he is, we may not be able to move
him for a while,” Kyle said, worried.

52

I hadn’t been home in two weeks. It felt
foreign, as if I were wandering through an old dream. After checking the ground
floor, we moved upstairs. The steps left me winded, and my shoulder was
bleeding again. We found Dustin slumped in the doorway to his old bedroom, his
eyes open. Kyle was utterly amazed.

“Wormholes are just a fringe theory, and
you just proved--”

“Okay, we’ll publish in a science journal
later, but right now, help me get him into bed.”

“Dustin, can you walk?” I asked. He looked
a little better than when I found him earlier. Maybe the portal helped.
“Dustin?”

He didn’t move.

I got right in front of his face. “Dustin,
are you in there?”

He blinked.

“Was that an answer?”

His lips moved, but no sound.

We carried him to his bed. I glanced out the
window as we laid him down. Crowd, the mystic who burned the money, was
standing on the sidewalk looking up at me. Our eyes met.

“Kyle, we’ve got to go! We’ve got to go
now!”

“What?”

“Fitts is on his way.”

“When?”

“Any minute.” I ran to my room and scooped
up a comforter and some clothes. Kyle had Dustin back in the hall by the time I
got back. Dustin cried out several times as we negotiated him down the stairs
and burst out the front door. Crowd was gone. I held Dustin up while Kyle opened
the hatchback, folded down the backseats, and spread out the comforter. Then we
painfully laid Dustin inside. We made it to Main Street without seeing Fitts.

“I think you both need to be in a
hospital.”

“No!” I was fading again.

The next thing I remember was Linh’s face.
I was on a bed, and she was holding a cold wet washcloth to my forehead. “Where?”
I pulled myself up and pushed her out of the way. “Dustin?”

“It’s okay,” Linh gently grabbed me.
“Dustin is right here.” She pointed to the next bed. Bà was tending him.
We were in a motel room somewhere. I only had boxers on. She eased me back
down.

“Kyle?”

“Kyle insists on watching the parking lot.
He’s out there sitting in his car but asked me to get him when you woke.” She
walked to the window and stuck her hand between the curtains.

“How long?”

“We got here three hours ago. I’m not sure
when you did. It’s around six now.”

“How’s Dustin?” I closed my eyes.

“Not great. Bà’s been getting some
herbs into him, but he has cracked ribs and deep bruises everywhere, a broken
leg and an arm already setting wrong. What happened to you guys?” She touched
my gunshot wound softly.

“I need to make a Lusan.” I tried to sit
up.

Linh pushed me back down. “You can’t do
anything right now.”

Bà dripped some kind of tea or potion
into Dustin’s swollen mouth with an eyedropper. His face was a mess. Spencer
had been right; they hadn’t wanted to kill him, just make me go there.

“I shouldn’t be here. Lightyear always
finds me.”

Kyle came in while I was talking. “The only
people who know we’re here are in this room right now. Lightyear isn’t going to
find us because Amber doesn’t know where you are.”

“What are you talking about Kyle?” Linh
asked.

“Every time Lightyear has found Nate, Amber
has always known where he was.”

“So you think Amber has been helping them?
Why? Why would she do that, Kyle?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know because there is no reason.
She wouldn’t,” Linh said. “She called again today. I told her you and Dustin
were safe, but we couldn’t trust the phones. She was so happy to hear you guys
were all right. She didn’t press for details or anything. Lightyear must have a
million ways to track and find Nate. They don’t need her.”

“That’s why I have to leave. Kyle, take me
away from here. Everyone is in danger as long as I’m here.”

“If you take him anywhere, it should be a
hospital,” Linh said.

“I didn’t risk my life getting Dustin so
they could just come here and finish him off. And Linh, you know they would do
the same to you and Bà just for being here.”

“I’ll take you,” Kyle said.

She ignored me and started assisting
Bà.

Kyle went to get me some clothes while I
tried to make a Lusan. It took a while, and it was only the size of a golf ball,
but it was something. Bà acted as if she’d seen hundreds of them. After
explaining how it works, Linh made slow passes over Dustin’s body,
concentrating on his torso and face. She pulled off the sheet, which showed bruises
every shade of awful. It was agony just looking at the injuries. I kissed his
forehead and whispered, “I love you.”

Between making the Lusan and getting
dressed, I needed to rest again. Bà made me drink some awful tasting
liquid. She had a two-burner hot plate going and a couple of old leather
suitcases open on the dresser filled with glass medicine bottles, pouches, and
even fresh leaves, which made the room smell like a combination of the forest, old
laundry, and manure.

“Take care of him,” Linh told Kyle.

“And you take care of
him
,” I said,
motioning toward Dustin.

Kyle parked behind an old fruit stand just
outside of town. There were four exits routes to three different roads. It made
him feel better, but if Lightyear found us, we weren’t going to win a car chase
no matter how many movies we’d seen. Kyle was fighting his phobias mightily.

He took a worn unused cigarette from his
mouth and replaced it with another, then he told me to meditate. I’m sure he
knew in my condition it would make me sleep almost immediately, and it did.
When I awoke, it was dark outside and we were somewhere else. There was a cold
Coke and a warm twelve-inch sub. I only made it halfway through both but felt
like a living person again. I dialed Josh’s number.

“Hey Josh, is my mom there?”

“Sure. You okay, buddy? We’ve been worried.”

“I’m good. How’s Mom?”

“Much better. Here she is.”

“Nate, that’s a long time between calls.
Our deal was--”

“We’ve got Dustin.”

“Oh, Nate! Oh, Nate, is he all right?”

“He’s pretty beat up.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t want to say anything more over the
phones.”

“We have to go to the FBI. Tonight. I can
call from here.”

“No! Nothing has changed. They can’t
protect us. And we still have to find Rose.”

“But--”

“Promise me. I told you we’d get Dustin
back and we have him. Now keep trusting me.”

“You’re too young to fight all this.”

“I’ll talk to Sam again. His sister will
help. But if you go to the authorities or the media, you’ll get me killed.”

“Don’t say that.”

“You don’t believe me? Ask Dad.”

Silence. “I want to see Dustin.”

“It’s too dangerous right now. You can talk
to him tomorrow.”

“Okay, Nate. I love you.”

“I’ll call tomorrow.” I leaned back in the
seat. “Geez, that was fun. Why doesn’t she get it? She keeps wanting to call
the cops.”

“Nate, I’ve been in this from the beginning
and seen lots of crazy stuff with you, and I don’t get it either. Everyone
thinks when you’re in trouble you call the police.”

“Tell that to Lee Duncan.”

It was after ten p.m. when I woke next.

“I need to take Linh home,” Kyle said. “I
told my uncle enough to get Bà to help but not enough for Linh and I to
stay out all night on a school night. I’ve got the keys to the Shakespeare
Theatre …”

“Perfect.” I’d thought of crashing at
Sam’s, but it was too risky to go near my street.

As we were driving, Kyle asked the question
I’d been struggling with. “Where’s Rose? Why weren’t they holding her at the
same place?”

“I know. I keep thinking they want to force
me to come get her, too, so they’ll have two shots at me. But then, why can’t I
find her on the astral?”

“Maybe, they’re holding her somewhere
surrounded by water,” Kyle said. “Remember when we first met Spencer, he said
the remote viewers had a problem seeing around water.”

“Yeah, you’re right. They must know I’m
searching the astral. They used Dustin as bait. They’ll do the same thing with
Rose and move her somewhere so I can find her. They’ll want another chance to
get me. Why didn’t I think of that? I feel better.”

“You feel better because you may have to go
on another suicide rescue mission? Do you know how lucky you are to still be
alive? Do you know how crazy you sound?”

“Of course I don’t
want
to do it
again, but I’ll have to. No one else is going to save Rose--they have her
listed as a fugitive. The police won’t help us. I have to face Fitts again.”

“Why does he want to destroy your family?
He killed your dad and tried to kill your mom, your brother, and you, and he’s
holding your aunt hostage. This guy seriously hates Ryders.”

“Yeah, well, I’m no fan of him either. I
have to find a way to expose him, or my family will never be safe.”

“It might be easier to kill him,” Kyle
said.

“I thought you were a committed pacifist.”

“Sometimes we either defend ourselves or
die. I don’t want you to die.”

He pulled up to the theater and I grabbed
the other half of the sandwich.

“What about karma?” I asked.

“Occasionally unavoidable . . . unless you
want to die a martyr.”

53

Wednesday, October 1

After a deep sleep in the theater, my
shoulder pain eased. As usual, Kyle was on time, and he and Linh brought
doughnuts. I wasn’t sure I deserved such good friends but stopped worrying
about it to concentrate on eating a second frosted coconut-sprinkled pastry.

“Bà said Dustin had a good night,”
Linh said, but she looked as if she’d been crying.

“What’s wrong?”

We were at a stop sign. Linh got out of the
car and then climbed in the back with me.

“Linh, what’s going on? Is Dustin all
right?”

“Oh, Nate,” she collapsed on me, crying.
“It’s not Dustin.”

“Kyle?” I pleaded to him for an answer. He
looked at me in the rearview mirror.

Linh wiped her eyes and sniffled. “It’s
Rose. She’s dead.”

A lump formed in my throat. “How do you
know?”