Dev got the phone call from Aubry ten minutes after they took off, the airjet set on a steady course north. Katya wasn’t officially on the passenger manifest, which meant they’d technically be smuggling her over the border if they needed to land in Canada, but Dev had ways around the problem if it came to that.
“What is it?” he asked, conscious of Katya putting on her headphones and turning up the music.
“Jack thinks you’re dicking him around—he’s pissed.”
Dev squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Can you keep him calm for three days?”
“He’s going to last maybe one more day—two at the most.” Aubry’s tone changed. “Dev, what he’s saying, it’s not out of his ass. He’s making sense.”
“I know Jack’s making sense.” Dev had seen Jack’s son William after the first episode, had held Jack as the other man broke down. He had a bone-deep understanding of the anguish that drove his cousin’s every action. “That’s the hell of it. Look, I’ll call him.”
“And you’ll be back in New York in three days?”
Knowing Tag and Tiara would be able to handle Cruz now that Sascha had become involved, he said, “Yeah. Set up a meeting with Jack.”
“I guess you can’t escape some things,” Aubry said as he hung up, and Dev knew he wasn’t talking about the meeting.
Coding in the number for Jack’s cell, he waited. The other man answered after a couple of seconds. “About time, Director.”
“Cut me some slack,” Dev muttered. “You’d think we weren’t related, the way you’re out to string me up.”
“Don’t pull the cousin card on me.” But his tone became less harsh. “You been avoiding me, Dev?”
“No. We’ve had some other shit hit the fan.” Thrusting a hand through his hair, he leaned back in the seat. “What you’re saying—I’m listening.”
“Good.” A pause. “Fuck, Dev, I didn’t set out to be a pain in your ass, and I sure as hell don’t want to rake up old memories, but we’ve got to deal with this.”
“There’s no way I can support what you want—you know that. Our ancestors gave up everything for our freedom. How the hell can you turn your back on that?”
“Because my son is so terrified of his own abilities that he’s too scared to make friends.” Jack’s torment filled the line. “He’s a baby, but he’s so afraid he’ll hurt someone that he stays in his room all day. You deal with that every day and then you tell me the choice isn’t mine to make.”
Catching the break in Jack’s voice, Dev straightened. “What aren’t you telling me? I thought Will was stable for now.” He’d believed they had time to find another answer—one that wouldn’t destroy the very heart of Forgotten identity.
“Something happened. I don’t—” A jagged breath. “I need to confirm it. But I know that Will’s getting worse.”
Dev thought of the seven-year-old boy who called him Uncle Dev, thought, too, of the others on the edge. “It’s circled back.” The strange new abilities arising in the Forgotten were bringing with them the same madnesses that had driven the Psy to Silence. “But you’ve seen how Silence isn’t the answer to everything—they’re not the example we want to follow.”
“You go cold, Dev,” Jack said. “I’ve seen you do it. You mainline the machines and you go cold. What if you couldn’t?”
Dev knew all too well what it felt like to skyrocket out of control. Especially now, with a woman who slipped beneath the metallic layer as if it didn’t exist. “I might go cold, but I stay human, Jack. I feel.” Too much. Too strong.
“It’s a bad choice, I know,” Jack admitted. “But if there are only bad choices . . .”
“We’ll find another way.” Dev wouldn’t lose his family, his people. “I’ve got Glen and his team on it night and day. And I’m working every contact I have—just . . . don’t make any hasty decisions. Can you give me a few more days? Can Will?” Because if the boy had gone critical, then Dev would turn the plane around. He had every faith that the woman by his side would understand.
“What’s so important that you can’t talk to me today?”
Dev glanced at Katya’s head, turned toward the window of the plane. “I’m fighting to save another life, another mind.”
Jack sucked in a breath. “Damn, you know how to sock it to a man. I’ll give you a few more days.”
“Call me the instant anything changes.” Because—and though Dev’s protective instincts screamed in violent repudiation at the thought—small, big-eyed William was their barometer, the closest to snapping the threads of his sanity. Swallowing the knot in his throat, he didn’t even make an effort to hide his own worry for Will. “You call me and I’ll come. You got that?”
A pause filled with things unsaid, and Dev knew Jack understood the brutal truth, a truth no father should have to face. “Yeah,” his cousin finally answered. “I gotta go—Melissa’s home. This is fucking messed up.” The last sentence was tired.