“Excuse me.” I move around her.
“Jared Lorn, I presume.”
I stop cold.
Probably in her mid-thirties, she’s slim and regal, with large dark eyes and hair swept into a complex twist. I don’t know her.
“I’m so glad I ran into you.” She keeps her hand on the door to block my path. “I have a message for you.”
Grace steps in front of me. “You’ve made a mistake. Would you excuse us, please? We’re in a hurry.”
The woman ignores Grace and continues to stare at me. “Please don’t be alarmed. I won’t expose you or ask for your autograph. But I have a close associate who is anxious to speak to you.” She holds out a business card—black with a golden spear emblem above a name and phone number. Darwin Speer. “Call as soon as you can. He is available anytime you are. He asked me to tell you that it is a matter of life and death.”
I take the card. The woman spins and disappears into a black limo idling at the curb. The car pulls away without a sound. Electric.
“Darwin Speer?” Grace takes the card and reads the name. “The Mars guy? This must be a joke.”
“I don’t think so.”
Music starts up in the hall. People begin to stream into the lobby. I take Grace by the arm and pull her outside, walking fast.
“What about Bree and Ethan?” she asks. “They’ll wonder—”
“Send a text. We’ll meet them at the hotel.”
4: Poison in the Water
Grace
I take off my makeup, change into sweats and go to Jared’s room. He’s agitated, pacing up and down like a panther in a cage. His costume is strewn on the bed, his mask crumpled in the trash can. Ethan’s laptop sits on the desk, open to the Wikipedia page for Darwin Speer. I slide into the chair and read, digesting the highlights of the piece.
Darwin Speer was born in Switzerland and emigrated to America as a teenager, leaving his widowed mother behind. He received a scholarship to UCLA, dropped out after a year and took a job at a tech startup. When only twenty-one, he developed online financial software for self-service investors and sold the company for millions. He’s started several companies involving space travel, electric cars, solar heating, medical research, and nanotechnologies. His stated interest is ‘reducing the risk of human extinction’ by fighting global warming and colonizing Mars. He’s also reclusive, rarely appears in public, and often uses a cartoon version of himself rather than an actual photo on websites and social media. When I do find a photo, it’s of an awkward looking thirty-something man with thinning hair and prominent ears.
“Have you read this?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t see any connection to you. What do you think he wants?”
“I don’t know. I need to talk to Ralph.”
I dial the number on my cell phone and put it on speaker. When Ralph answers, Jared tells him everything that happened at the launch. Ralph is quiet for a moment, and I wonder if we’ve lost the connection.
“Ralph?” I say. “What do you think?”
“Hmmm, I’m not entirely sure. The only way to find out what he’s after is to ask him.”
“You want me to call him?” Jared is as surprised as I am.
“He obviously knows something, either who you are or what you are, or he wouldn’t want to speak to you personally. And there’s another thing. I’m not sure of this, but Darwin Speer might be a distant relation of ours.”
“What?”
“I remember my mother mentioning a branch of the family with that name in Switzerland.”
“If he’s in the family, then he could be…like Jared?” I ask.
“I doubt he is quite like Jared, but he could be a carrier. Most of our family members are. I need to look into this further. In the meantime, call the man and see what he wants. But don’t tell him anything.”
“What if he wants to meet?” Jared asks.
“Then meet with him. But keep it casual. I must say I’m more than a little curious.” Ralph pauses. “You say this woman at the launch knew who you were? Even with the disguise?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re sure she didn’t follow you from the hotel.”
“I think I would have noticed.”
“Well, there’s nothing to be done about it now. See this through and get home as quickly as you can.”
After we hang up, Jared goes out on the balcony. I know he wants to be alone, so I continue to search for more information on Ethan’s laptop. Why had I insisted on staying at the launch? Jared wanted to leave—he must have known something was wrong. I should have listened.
Bree and Ethan arrive a few minutes later.
“Oh, man, you really missed it.” Bree bursts through the door chattering. “Everyone was looking for you. It was a madhouse.”
“Yeah, we thought when that guy mentioned us, it might get hairy,” I say. “But it was so cool to be there, Ethan. I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m glad it’s over.” Ethan shudders. “Remind me never to do that again.”
“Did you win?”
“Second place.” Bree’s disappointment is obvious. “What’s with him?” She points to Jared on the balcony. “Is he okay?”
I tell them about meeting the woman with the business card for Darwin Speer.
“Seriously?” says Ethan. “Wicked cool.”
“Why is this cool?” Bree turns on him. “The one time these two try to go out in public and they’re ambushed!”
“Yeah, but it’s not as if Darwin Speer is some lunatic Satanist like Lester Crow. This guy’s the real deal. A mega-genius. He’s doing things other people only dream about.” Ethan grabs the laptop from me and sits on the bed. “Let’s see what Mr. Speer has been up to lately.” He clicks the keys. Bree and I lean in on either side. “The guy launched an unmanned rocket to Mars, for Pete’s sake. I mean who does that? Whoa. It looks like he joined the board at CERN.”
“What’s CERN?” Bree asks.
“It stands for…European Something Something for nuclear research. It’s where the LHC is.”
“LHC?”
“Large Hadron Collider. Don’t you people read?”
Bree lets out a huffy breath. “Okay, Brainiac, what’s that? Since we’re so dumb.”
“It’s the biggest particle collider in the world. You’ve heard of them, right? They smash protons together at the speed of light, create new particles, anti-matter, black holes—it’s the last frontier. Who knows what they’ll find. Maybe other dimensions.”
“Other dimensions,” I say slowly. “Like, spiritual dimensions?”
“Well, they don’t call it that. They use words like ‘multi-verse’ and ‘supersymmetry.’ See, most of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy, and scientists really have no idea what that is. The LHC could help them figure it out.”
“Break on through.” Bree hums the tune.
“Exactly! You see, there’s this thing called the Higgs Boson, according to the Standard Model—”
Bree holds up a hand. “Slow down, Rocket Man. Speak English. What’s all this got to do with Jared?”
“I’m not sure. But if Speer is interested in finding other dimensions, and if he knows that Jared might be able to do that and has actually done it…well, this is like the new frontier of quantum physics—”
“Jared doesn’t know anything about quantum physics.”
“Jared is quantum physics.” Ethan is really excited now. “He’s like this singularity, a human being with angel DNA. He’s not only been to the other side, he is the other side.”
“Grace has been there too. And she’s totally human.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Ethan rubs his stubbly chin. “But if the Abyss actually exists in that other dimension—that fifth Dimension, so to speak—then Grace going through shouldn’t have been possible. But if Jared was the portal, and if Grace, a human, could go through with him, then Speer might think that he can do it too.�
�
The sliding glass door opens, and Jared appears, staring at us. I can tell he’s heard every word. I go over and tug on his shirt so he looks at me.
“It’ll be okay. He can’t know what’s really going on. He’s a science nut. He probably doesn’t even believe in the spiritual realm, anyway.” I touch his face. “Don’t worry. We’re protected.”
“You are.”
“We’ll be right there with you.” I glance at Ethan and Bree. “You guys are coming, right? Ethan, you’re dying to meet this guy. And Bree, you love celebrities.”
“Of course we’ll come!” Bree claps her hands together like a little girl.
“See?” I lean into Jared. He’s so tense. “So, you call the guy and tell him that if he wants to see you, he has to see all of us. We’re a team. We’re Forlorn. Right?”
“Sure, we’re a team.” Bree glances at Ethan, who shrugs and nods.
“Yeah. Go team.”
Jared cracks a smile. “Thanks, guys. I’ll need all the help I can get.”
“Literally,” I say.
5: Play With Fire
Jared
A sleek electric limo with tinted windows picks us up at the hotel the next morning. It’s a Speerhead Model Z, one of Speer’s latest designs. The driver, a young middle-eastern man wearing dark sunglasses despite the cloudy sky, opens the door for us to get in. The car moves away from the curb, smooth and silent. Soft classical music plays through the speakers. A video screen in the ceiling plays a running commercial for the Speerhead line of electric cars.
When I called last night, I expected to hear the voice of the woman who accosted us at the launch or some other assistant of an assistant. Darwin Speer himself answered.
“Jared! Let’s get together. When are you available? I’ll send a car for you.” He spoke with a barely detectable German accent. He never said hello, like he already knew it was me calling.
I told him that I was leaving the city but I could meet for an hour around nine a.m., and that my friends would be with me.
He agreed without hesitation, but I still felt uneasy.
“This is awesome,” Bree whispers. She runs her hands over the lighted buttons on the door. “What do all these lights do?”
“Don’t touch anything,” Grace says.
“I can’t help it. Have you ever ridden in an electric car before? It’s like a space ship.”
The car turns onto 10th Avenue and speeds up, heading south over the river.
“We’re going to New Jersey?” Ethan sounds nervous.
A glass partition separates us from the driver. Bree pushes the intercom button.
“Hey, where are you taking us?”
“Manhattan Yacht Club,” says the driver.
Bree giggles. “He has a yacht!”
We pull into the marina where several yachts and sailboats are docked in the shadows of skyscrapers. The driver directs us to the biggest one there, a monstrous, sleek white vessel that looks a little like a UFO. “Lucille” is painted on the hull in a fancy cursive script.
“Holden Caulfield,” Bree says under her breath. She and Grace have developed a system of using literary and celebrity names instead of actual swear words.
A dewy-faced young man in a white outfit meets us on deck.
“Welcome! I’m Owen, Mr. Speer’s personal assistant.” He flashes a friendly smile and shakes hands with each of us. “Come on in. He’s finishing up some work and he’ll be right with you.”
Owen leads us into the main cabin area which is bigger than most houses. Two long sofas in beige and brown sit at right angles to each other in the sunken center, facing a mahogany bar and a giant-screen TV. Enormous cubist-style paintings of fish hang between the windows. A raised platform beyond the seating area holds several pinball machines. Speer must be a collector.
Owen asks if we want drinks. Bree and Grace ask for cokes. I ask for water. Ethan is too busy eyeing the pinball machines.
“Go ahead and try them,” says Owen, seeing his interest. “You’ll find tokens on the bar.”
Owen hands out drinks and leaves us alone. Bree and Grace wander around touching things while Ethan plays a pinball machine. Discordant pings and buzzes fill the air.
“This is freaking amazing.” Bree’s eyes are wide. “I wonder if he’ll give us a tour.”
I take a sip of the water. I must have gripped the glass too hard because it shatters in my hand. Blood pours from between my fingers.
Grace grabs a towel from the bar and runs to me. “What happened?”
“I don’t know…the glass broke—”
“What a mess!” Bree says. “We’re here five minutes and we’ve already ruined the place.” She grabs another towel and gathers broken pieces of glass. “Ethan! Get the trash can!”
He grabs one from behind the bar and brings it over.
“I’m fine.” I hold my hand up. The bleeding has stopped. One of the perks of being not quite human is that I heal quickly.
“You still don’t know your own strength.” Grace wipes the rest of the blood from my hands and throws the towel into the trash. Bree adds the broken glass and puts the lid back on. “Everything will be okay.”
With the crisis averted, Bree returns to gawking. Ethan puts the trash can back behind the bar and resumes his pinball game. Grace sits beside me on the couch and rubs my back.
“Why are you so nervous?”
“I don’t know. This seems strange.”
“Let’s just go with it,” she says. “Relax. It might be fun.”
“Welcome, Jared and friends!” Speer bursts through the doorway with arms wide open in greeting. He’s tall and skinny, with large floppy ears and pale, watery eyes. He wears a black t-shirt, skinny jeans, and white Converse sneakers. The whole effect is of a grown man trying his best to look like a kid. His eyes cross a little like he might be near-sighted but refuses to wear glasses.
Ethan stops playing pinball and stares. Speer glances at him and laughs.
“That one’s my favorites. Attack of Mars. 1995. They’ve made some reissues since then but none of them beat the original.” He goes to Ethan and puts his hand out. The gesture is somehow awkward, as if he’s trying too hard to be hospitable. “You must be Ethan. I heard about your kick-ass video game.”
“You…heard?” Ethan takes his extended hand.
“Hey, I’m a gamer too. I designed a game when I was twelve. SpaceStar. Not nearly as good as yours, but the technology wasn’t quite where it is now, am I right?”
“I guess not.” Ethan seems unable to speak—he’s utterly star struck. Bree steps in to rescue him.
“I’m Brianna.” She offers her hand. “You can call me Bree.”
“Oh, Bree. Like the cheese?” Speer takes her hand, laughing at his own joke. He reminds me a little of Ralph.
“Your boat is really nice,” Bree says. “Thanks for inviting us.”
“No problemo. I hope Owen took good care of you.”
“Oh yes. Were you named after Charles Darwin? I mean, it’s an unusual name.”
“Yeah, my parents hated me.” Speer laughs again. His laughter has the cadence of a wheezing donkey. “No, seriously, my parents were both scientists, so we all got science names. My brother’s name is Newton.”
“Really?”
“No.” Speer laughs again. “I don’t have a brother. Only a sister. Lucille. I tell her she was named after the early afarensis hominid found in Ethiopia. She hates that.” Speer turns his attention to me, and I catch the brittle intensity of his unblinking gaze. “You met her last night.”
His sister? They don’t look much alike.
“So! Jared Lorn. Back from the dead.” He steps down into the seating area and grips my hand. The pulse of his palm runs into mine, like a static shock when you touch a doorknob. He feels it too but doesn’t pull away.
“This is Grace,” I say, disengaging my hand. He glances at Grace and smiles with disinterest.
“Hey, Grace. How’s i
t going?”
“Uh, fine.” She shakes his hand and seems about to ask something, but Speer has already turned back to me.
“Well, you’re probably wondering why I asked you here. But before I tell you, there’s someone who’s dying to meet you. Maddie!”
A girl skips down the spiral staircase. She’s ten or eleven years old with pigtailed hair and shy eyes. She clasps something in her arms I can’t make out.
“This is my daughter, Madeline,” says Speer. “She’s a huge fan of yours, Jared. Come on in, honey, don’t be shy. He won’t bite. Will you?” Speer laughs again—a nervous habit.
“No.” I start to relax. Perhaps Speer only brought me here to meet his fan-girl daughter.
The girl walks up to me, her face frozen in a smile. “Hi.”
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you, Maddie.”
She giggles. “Can you sign this?” She holds out the item—a framed picture of me onstage in the angel costume, performing with Blood Moon.
“Uh, sure.” I glance at Grace, who rolls her eyes. Speer produces a marker and I sign the picture.
“Maddie told me all about you, Jared,” Speer says. “How you died and returned as a rock star, and then you disappeared again. I promised her I would find you.” He takes the marker and snaps the cap back on. “I like to keep my promises.”
“How did you find me?”
He shrugs. “I have my ways.” He gives me a mischievous grin.
“Okay, well, if that’s all you wanted—”
“Hey, you just got here! You can’t leave without taking a tour of the boat.”
“Sounds great!” says Bree.
Speer takes his daughter’s hand and leads the way through a door. Bree and Ethan follow. I hesitate.
“What’s wrong?” Grace asks.
“I don’t know. I don’t like this.”
“I’ll protect you, I promise.”
She takes my hand and coaxes me into the formal dining room.
“I never thought I would be one of those rich guys who buys a yacht, but I’ve got to admit, I love traveling by sea. It’s so much easier to come and go unnoticed. To slip in and out of places whenever I want. Such a sense of freedom. Wouldn’t you agree, Jared?”
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