“You think Heath liked that?” Dad asks, watching the door swing closed.
“I have no idea,” I say, but it’s hella-unlikely that Heath enjoyed sitting at a desk and making sure people live the way my dad wants them too.
Scratch that. Not the way my dad wants them to. The way Kelly Openshaw wants them to.
“What did Kelly want?”
“Another rift alert.” He speaks like it’s merely a minor nuisance.
“What? What does that mean?” I scurry after him as he heads for our private elevator.
He waits until we’re sealed behind the door and moving up. “The rift opened. I explained to her about Saige and how she’s been opening the rift.”
“You think that’s what it was?”
“There wasn’t any other reported activity.” He glances at me. “Why are you so worried?”
My stomach somersaults. “Could someone cross-over while the rift at Saige’s house is open? Remember that flick you recorded of the Neapolitan Verse?”
The elevator spits us out on the top floor. “Price, that was a different reality. One where no one had discovered the alternate Verses yet. Everything is controlled now. It’s completely safe.” He grips the doorknob and waits as the sensor reads his prints.
“Sure, safe.” I follow him inside, careful not to touch the doorknob he just did, and I can’t help checking over my shoulder to make sure no one’s there.
A few hours later, I pace in front of the conference room, the hall lights set on dim. Dad stayed up late, and I almost called off the jam. But he’d gone to bed a half an hour ago, and I took the stairs down to the first floor. I wonder about the alert when I get back upstairs, but surely I’m allowed to leave the apartment.
I have the print on a glove I fashioned out of sticky skin. I’d gripped our apartment doorknob the same way he had while wearing the glove, and now I’m ready to try it on the conference room.
“Now or never,” I mutter to myself as eleven o’clock comes and goes. Heath should be here any minute, as per his chat. I steel myself for a wailing alarm and another announcement that I’ve been arrested, and then I grip the doorknob.
The metal warms, building the panic in my chest into a sizzle. Finally, the knob snicks and I push my way into the room. Down on the end, behind the long table, sits that odious frame. I want to take it down and smash it as much as I want to step through it. I can’t do either. Both will get me in trouble with both Kelly and my father.
Footsteps alert me to the presence of another person. I turn, expecting to find Heath.
I come face to face with Saige Phillips.
Heath
I HATE RUNNING LATE, BUT MY MOM had caught me leaving the house. It had taken me a good fifteen minutes to convince her I wasn’t going through any rifts, and that I’d be back in a couple of hours.
I hadn’t dared to take a pedi cab, as Price and I had agreed we should have no record of us being anywhere but asleep in our beds.
I burst into the warmth of the building, my boots barking too loud against the tile. It feels too bright, like too many people can see me. A guard sits at the desk, something I wasn’t expecting.
He looks at me and glances at his counter. A moment later, he waves me past. “Elevator is open, Heath.”
I nod my thanks and proceed around the corner to the elevator banks. I push the up button, cursing everything about the situation. Will Guy be notified that the elevator’s been called? Will the guard alert him?
Price hadn’t said anything about it, and my blood runs hotter. I’m sure he didn’t know, but still. I could be causing a problem—a problem we could’ve anticipated and avoided.
I step into the lift and push the button for Price’s apartment. I duck out before the doors close and turn toward the offices. The door opens easily, and I proceed down the hall toward the conference room. Light spills into the hall, and my mood lifts.
At least until I hear two voices inside the room.
I freeze, pressing my back into the wall, and hold my breath. A girl. Price is talking to a girl. Did he hail Kelly without me?
I peek around the corner and catch a glimpse of someone with long, brown hair. I know that stance…
“Saige?”
She spins toward me, her eyes set on panic mode.
“What are you doing here?”
“She came through the blasted rift.” Price paces from the head of the table toward me and back. “This is bad, man. We can’t call Kelly with her here. I can’t believe Kelly doesn’t know she’s here.”
My eyebrows draw into a V. “Explain.”
“Kelly knows when someone goes through a rift. I did it and spoke to Saige for like, two minutes, and I got arrested. She knew I’d gone. She knows when the rift opens, when it closes, everything.” He peers closer at Saige. “So it makes no sense that she didn’t know you came through.”
“I’m telling the truth,” she says.
He crosses his arms and glares at her. “My dad got that chat from Kelly right when you were leaving. Remember, Heath?” He glances at me.
“Yeah.”
“She said the rift had been opened. My dad explained that Saige was opening it randomly, and she said to keep an eye on it. She didn’t mention anyone had come through.” He takes a step toward her. “And she would know. So why doesn’t she know, Saige?”
“I already told you—I don’t know! I opened the rift and walked through as fast as I could. I figured it was still tethered to your time since no one uses it anymore. Two steps, and I was in the basement. The house was super-cold. I heard footsteps upstairs, and I figured I was safe. So I stayed there, trying to stay warm, until everything went quiet. Then I snuck upstairs.” She speaks in a freaky calm, slow voice, like she’s rehearsed this to Price already and she needs to go slower this time. “That’s when I realized your family didn’t own the house. I freaked out about that.” She shifts her feet, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets. “So I got the heck out of there and went to the library. You weren’t hard to find.”
“And here you are.” Price’s tone is laced with sarcasm. “Why are you here?”
She lifts her chin before glancing at him and then me. “I want to make sure my sister is okay.”
“She’s not okay,” I say automatically, thinking of the way she passed out after every rift walk, all the crazy things I helped her through. Guilt gnaws at me that I made it back and she didn’t. Can’t.
“She’s not?” Saige asks.
“She’s stuck in another Verse,” I say, my voice going into a monotone. “She can’t go through another rift. Her cells are damaged.”
Her eyes wildly search mine. “I didn’t realize it was so bad.”
I shrug. “She didn’t either. But she was—” I clear my throat. “She was in bad shape. After we’d rift-walk, she’d, uh, sort of lose the ability to hold herself up, and she’d sleep for hours. She had to take tons of vitamins and minerals and stuff.” I can’t look at Price. It seems unfair that I was there to help his girlfriend when he wanted to be.
“I had to leave her in the past, in another Verse.”
“What year?” Saige asks. I like this new version of her. The one with sturdiness in her shoulders and determination in her expression.
“Twenty-twenty-eight.”
Saige falls into a chair and stares at her hands. “Well, that complicates things.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Price says. “We’re not using the rift to rescue Cascade.”
“Then how are we going to rescue her?” Saige lifts her eyes to his, and both of them radiate an anguish that makes me ache.
“We’re going to negotiate with the rift lord,” he says, moving to the head of the table and sitting down. “You shouldn’t be here, and we can’t let her see you.” He nods to me. “Heath, over here.”
I join him, wishing we didn’t have to sit so near the otherworldly picture frame. A chill skates over my shoulders just being close to it.
“S
o stay out of sight, and don’t talk.” Price shoots Saige a meaningful glare, and she puts her head in her hands.
“You ready?” I ask him.
“Ready.”
We decided that I’d open the chat since she already contacted me once. It makes sense that I’d be able to contact her again—no trail back to us breaking into Guy’s flatpanel.
I take a deep breath and open the chatline. It rings only once before Kelly’s voice echoes from my ears to the walls around me.
“Heath Stonesman,” she says. “It’s late.” A pause so short I can’t even speak. “Am I on speaker?”
“Yes,” I say. “Price Ryerson is here with me. We’re interested in negotiating a trade.”
Her cackle bounces around inside my brain, doing nothing to comfort me. “I don’t negotiate with teenagers.”
“Oh, you’ll negotiate with us.” Price leans forward like she can see him. Maybe she can; her presence feels omnipotent.
“Why’s that?”
“Because we know how to open this bridge between our Verses, and you can’t stop us from sending anyone we want to the Global Verse.” He glances at me.
“From anywhere we want,” I add.
The silence on the other end of the chat says we’ve struck a nerve. “No one defies me,” she says.
“Well, maybe it’s time for a shift in who controls the cross-overs,” I say.
“I’ll send Soda back,” she says. “She’s been bawling all day anyway.” She sniffs. “I can’t hardly stand to read another report of her sob story.”
My fists tighten until my nails press into my palms. Price motions for me to stay calm.
“That’s not good enough,” I say.
“You don’t want your girlfriend back?” Her mocking tone irritates me. “I’ll be sure to tell her that.”
“I didn’t say we didn’t want Soda back,” I grind out between my teeth. “I said that wasn’t a good enough offer.”
Price leans forward again, like he needs to speak into the flatpanel. “You send Soda back—right here to my conference room. You—”
“Your conference—” she starts, but Price yells over her.
“You stay out of our government affairs regarding the Black Hat. He has nothing to do with you, or with your cross-overs, and where he is and what he does is none of your concern.”
He nods at me, my demands laid out on the table. “We need the assurance that you won’t mess with our lives again, beyond the scope of your involvement with the Ryersons for the cross-overs.”
I don’t know why I wait for her to confirm. When she doesn’t, I meet Price’s eyes. He looks more afraid than I’ve ever seen him. Also extremely determined. He nods.
“We need permission for one cross-over,” I say without looking away from him. “Price Ryerson would like to live in the Global Verse, with Cascade Kaufman, who is confined there indefinitely.”
Saige gasps, and Price and I both send her a warning look.
“Absolutely not.” There was no pause before Kelly’s declaration.
“In the year twenty-twenty-eight,” I continue. “You’re not in control at that time. He will not be a problem for you, or your father, or your grandfather.”
“No one comes to the Global Verse,” Kelly says. “That’s protocol, and even I can’t override that.”
“He won’t be going anyway.” Guy stands in the doorway, an absolute storm on his face. “Kelly, I had no idea these boys—” His gaze sweeps over Saige and becomes more infuriated. “Were planning this chat.”
“Dad, I want to go.”
“No.” He takes a few steps in the room, steering to the other side of the table from where Saige sits. “You heard Miss Openshaw. No one crosses to the Global Verse.”
“Why not?” I ask. “I was there. It was practically identical to our Verse.” Something doesn’t add up right, but I can’t quite place my finger on what.
“Things change in forty years, Mister Stonesman,” Kelly says.
“What’s changed?” I challenge. “There were happy people with jobs. Security. The only problem with your society was your grandfather. People were terrified of him and his time lords.”
“Our economy is in distress,” she says.
“So is ours,” I counter.
“The environment is on the brink of collapse.”
“Again, so is ours.” I glance at Guy. “Do we really believe that the Global Verse can’t support it’s own scientists? It’s own technicians? It’s own doctors?” I lean back in my chair, studying his face. He’s like stone, giving nothing away. “Have you ever been there?”
“No one crosses over to Global,” he says, his voice much weaker now.
“Why do your people have to come here?” I ask, leaning toward the panel the way Price was. “I think you might be lying to us about the conditions of your Verse, Kelly.”
“I am not,” she snaps. “We’re only a few years away from delving into the same chaos as the Neapolitan Verse. I’m trying to prevent that.”
Price’s fingers flex and his eyes tighten. He’s seen the Neapolitan Verse, and I’ve only heard rumors.
“I don’t believe you,” I say, holding Price’s gaze. His determination is infectious. “I was there, Kelly. In fact, your uncle brought me there. So whatever protocols you have, they’re new in the last forty years. And I don’t believe your society has disintegrated that much.” I shake my head as if she can see me. “Nope, I don’t believe it. Not with your family in control of things.”
“Believe what you want, Mister Stonesman. No one crosses over to Global. End of story.”
Price’s head lags to his chest, but I have a new idea brewing in my head. “Fine,” I say. “We’ll chat again tomorrow.”
“No—”
I hang up on her before she can finish her rejection. “Well, that went well.”
Price scoffs; Saige moans; Guy rolls his eyes.
“Price,” Guy says. “What is Saige Phillips doing here?”
Price
“SHE SHOWED UP A HALF AN HOUR AGO,” I tell my dad while I try to send her a mental message to come stand by me. I don’t like how close he is to her. But she has no Receiver, no speaker implants, no cybernetics. I really hate her lack of technology.
“She claims to have come through the rift this afternoon. Remember when Kelly chatted you about the rift being activated?” I gesture toward Saige, who stands and edges around the table toward me. “She says she came through then.”
Dad squints at her like he can read minds with his cybernetics. Maybe he can. There’s an add-on for everything these days. “I didn’t get a report of anyone moving through the rift.”
“It happened in seconds,” she says, her voice tremoring slightly. “Much shorter than usual.”
“Hmm.” Dad folds his arms and studies her for another long moment. He sighs and moves toward the door. “Well, let’s take this party upstairs.”
“I actually—” Heath starts, but Dad spins and pins him with a glare that renders him silent.
“Everyone is coming. No discussion.” He positions himself just outside the door and waits until the three of us exit. I make sure to go last, putting myself as a buffer between my friends and my father.
On the silent ride up to the top floor, my mind turns over the many sides of my dad. He can be helpful, kind, even loving at times. Other times, he’s ruthless, the same man who made teenagers sign contracts and do his dirty work.
No matter what, I don’t know who I’m dealing with today, or who he’ll be tomorrow. It’s the unknown that unsettles me the most.
“You’re not to contact Kelly again,” he says as soon as the door to his office snicks locked.
“Okay.” I agree automatically, and I don’t look at Heath as we make our way to a long couch that sits to the side of my dad’s desk. If I make eye contact with Heath, our covert plans will be obvious. I sit in between him and Saige, but I don’t feel anyone watching me either, and the old camarade
rie Heath and I have always shared is solid.
“And no one will be crossing over,” he continues.
“Of course not.” I keep my eyes on the slate tile, lightning building in my veins. Does he really think I’m going to sit around this massive apartment and do nothing?
“Saige will be going home tonight.”
I glance at him. “I didn’t tell her to come here.” In fact, her being here causes more problems. Problems I don’t need. Cascade was clearly conflicted about her sister six months ago. She left through the rift to take her home—and I lost her. I don’t want Saige involved in this rescue mission.
She seems to know about the resentment I harbor against her, because she glares my face off before saying, “I came because I want to find my sister.”
“She’s in the Global Verse,” Heath says, not unkindly but not friendly either. “She can’t come home.”
Saige’s fierceness softens into the scared girl I first met. “My father’s there too.”
Heath cocks an eyebrow at her. “A version of him.”
“What does that mean?” she demands, leaning forward to see him more fully.
“It means your father plays for the Openshaws,” Heath says, mimicking her body language. “He’s not on our side. Or Cascade’s.”
“Her name is Chloe!”
He rolls his eyes and sits back, his arms cemented across his chest. Something twists inside me—how did both Cas and I lose the father lottery?
“He can’t cross over either,” Heath tells my dad. “He’s as sick as she is.”
Dad nods, his eyes falling to the desktop. “I want you all to know…” Emotion chokes off his words, and again I marvel at the Many Sides of Guy Ryerson.
“I had no idea rift-walking had lasting physical effects.” He meets my eye, and I believe him.
“Are you sick?” I ask.
“It’s not really a sickness,” he says. “It’s more of a fatigue thing. Using the rift is debilitating. And very difficult. You feel like you’re going to die.” His voice takes on a haunted quality, and I feel a cold emptiness in my lungs.
Mend (Rift Walkers #2) Page 22