“Zack . . .”
“Think about it. If Peter’s information’s so crucial, why didn’t he include it in his letter? If getting to him is so important, why didn’t he offer to meet us somewhere halfway? And then there’s the big question. Why do the Pelletiers want us to go to Peter? Why did they give us the van?”
David chucked a loose hand. “I can’t answer any of that. I just know in my heart that he’s our only hope. Unfortunately, I see the way the others react whenever I mention Brooklyn. Now I’m scared that we’re about to add Peter to the list of people we’re avoiding.”
“They just need time,” Zack said. “I need time.”
David opened the door and turned around, his face a somber veil.
“Sooner or later, Zack, our problems will come find us again. It’d be nice for once if we met them on our terms.”
The next day, while the group ate lunch in the dining room, David told the others about Mia’s strange incident in town, the self-combusting note from the future. No one seemed willing to explore the issue with him.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” he assured Mia. “For all you know, your future self used a new type of paper, one that doesn’t handle time travel very well.”
She rolled her shoulders in a feeble shrug. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
Zack watched from the end of the table as the others stared down at their food. That seemed to be the default reaction now whenever David soiled their haven with real-world matters.
The cartoonist dropped his napkin over his plate and vented a loud, wistful sigh.
“We need to get better.”
Everyone turned to look at him. It had become a rare occurrence for Zack to join a discussion, much less start one. He tapped the table pensively.
“The way I see it, we have four different threats out there and Evan’s the least of them. And yet he kicked our asses worse than the Gothams, the Deps, and the Pelletiers ever did. Hell, we kicked our own asses for him, all because some of us still can’t control their weirdness.”
Hannah took umbrage at his stern implication. “It’s not Amanda’s fault. She was drugged.”
“So were you. So was I. And yet we didn’t go crazy with the shifting and juving.”
Flushed with guilt, Amanda looked down at her fingers. “He’s right.”
“No, he’s not,” said Hannah. “This was nobody’s fault but Evan’s. And by getting pissy at you, Zack’s playing right into his hands.”
“I’m not saying this to be pissy.”
“Bullshit. You’ve been cold to my sister for days. Everyone sees it. And I don’t think it’s fair.”
Now it was Zack’s turn to blush. He couldn’t look at Amanda now without recalling Evan’s teasing hint of the future, her predestined romance with Peter Pendergen. He was ashamed to let it bother him so much, and doubly ashamed that it was noticeable.
“Look, all I’m saying is that we need to get a better handle on these things we do. They’re our biggest advantage when they work right and our biggest liability when they don’t.”
David nodded his head. “I agree. I mean if we’re staying here awhile, we might as well put the time to good use. We’re hidden away now. No one will see us if we practice.”
“You sure about that?” Mia asked. “If you’re wrong, the Deps will be all over us again.”
“Maybe. And maybe someday soon you’ll get a portal in public that can’t be concealed. Wouldn’t you like to learn how to avoid that?”
She narrowed her eyes at David. “That’s not up to me.”
“You sure about that?”
Zack gestured to Theo and Mia. “To be brutally honest, I think you two need the most work. You’re our early warning system. If you were both a little more attuned to the future, maybe we could have avoided Evan’s prank before it blew up in our faces.”
The two resident oracles stared at Zack with pained astonishment.
“Now you’re really being unfair,” Theo griped.
“Now Zack’s right,” Hannah shot back. “Did you get a flash of warning at all when we were drinking our spiked mimosas?”
Theo glared at her. “I would have told you if I did.”
“Well then you just proved Zack’s point, didn’t you?”
“Hey, you know what else I can’t foresee? An end to your grudge against me.”
“This isn’t about that. Get over yourself.”
“It is about that, so why don’t we both get over me?”
Amanda raised her hands. “Okay, stop. This isn’t helping. Now Zack needs at least two more weeks to properly heal. If some of you want to spend that time practicing, then do it. If not, then don’t. But we can’t fight each other like this. We have enough problems.”
In the cool silence, Zack uncovered his plate and stared at it until it glowed. The others watched now as his razed corn cob repeatedly vanished and reappeared, each time with more kernels. The ash-gray clone of a chicken breast re-formed itself piece by piece.