Chapter 17
Grey and Ethan were still asleep when Colt slipped out of bed the next morning. He hesitated a moment, looking at Oz’s empty bunk as he wondered if Danielle had been sneaking out at night to meet him. The thought of them dating, much less kissing, made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he was jealous. He just thought of Danielle as his kid sister, and he didn’t want anyone kissing her—and that included his best friend.
A flashing light caught his eye, and he walked over to his dresser to find that he had a message waiting for him on his tablet. It was an e-mail from Danielle, who wanted to meet him at his grandpa’s apartment after breakfast. Apparently she and Jonas had spent the entire night and into the morning poring over the data from the Tesla Society, and they’d had a breakthrough.
“I better not be late for my training scenario with Agent Rhane,” Colt grumbled under his breath. As much as he wanted to believe that the Black Sun Militia breaking their treaty would keep the Thule from invading, he still wanted to be ready.
Colt took a quick shower, changed into his uniform, and stopped by the commissary to grab a protein bar and an energy drink. By the time he got to the apartment, Danielle was sitting at the kitchen table with a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon and a tall glass of orange juice.
Grandpa had an open invitation to join the faculty at the Intergalactic Defense Academy, but he had no intention of accepting the offer. He claimed the only reason he was still living in campus housing was because he wanted to make sure there was a smooth transition with the new leadership team—but Colt had a feeling that he was sticking around to make sure nobody else tried to assassinate his grandson.
“Where’s my breakfast?” he asked.
“There’s the fridge, help yourself,” Grandpa said as Danielle stifled a laugh.
“I knew he liked you better than me,” Colt said as he stole a strip of bacon.
“Was there ever any doubt?” Grandpa was approaching his eighty-sixth birthday, but if it weren’t for the gray hair he wouldn’t look a day over fifty. He was tall and thin with perfect posture, wide shoulders, and a narrow waist that made him look every bit the superhero he truly was.
The doorbell rang.
“I bet that’s Jonas,” Danielle said, wiping her mouth with a napkin as she got up and followed Grandpa to the door.
Jonas looked nervous. He kept looking over his shoulder, and the moment Grandpa invited him inside he slammed the door shut and locked the dead bolt. Next he closed all the blinds and poked his head into the pantry, checking behind the door before he sat down at the table and chugged down the rest of Danielle’s orange juice.
“Is someone following you?” Grandpa asked.
“To tell you the truth, Colonel McAlister, I’m not sure,” Jonas said.
“Call me Murdoch,” Grandpa said.
“Yes, sir, thank you.”
Grandpa poured him another glass of orange juice. “So is someone going to tell me what kind of trouble the three of you have gotten yourselves into, or is this simply a social call?”
“We discovered something important about the Thule,” Danielle said. “I mean, right now it’s just a theory—but it’s a sound theory. And if we’re right, it could change everything!”
“Slow down,” Grandpa said.
Danielle took a deep breath and explained how she and Jonas were convinced that there was a direct correlation between portals and what they were calling “randoms,” and how those randoms might lead to the Thule gateway.
“Randoms, is it? How do they work?” Grandpa asked.
“We’re not exactly sure,” Danielle said. “I mean, they’re not portals or even tears in the space-time fabric. They aren’t soft spots either.”
“In truth, they don’t even qualify as precursors,” Jonas added. “They’re like tiny pinholes that come and go, but more are showing up every day.”
“And you think there’s a pattern?” Grandpa said. “Some kind of hidden message?”
“Yes, sir.”
Grandpa took a sip of coffee, but his eyes never left Jonas. “I think there may be more to the story.”
“Like what?” Danielle asked.
“That data had to come from somewhere, and I’m guessing you either stole it or you have an inside source. Either way, it explains why Cadet Hickman is so fidgety.”
“We didn’t steal it—at least not directly,” Jonas said. “But the thing is . . . well . . . we can’t tell you where it came from.”
Grandpa took another sip of his coffee. “How long before you find the gateway?”
“That’s the problem,” Jonas said. “It could be this afternoon or a year from now. We just don’t know.”
“One week,” Grandpa said.
“For what?” Danielle asked.
“That’s when you present your findings.”
“But—”
Grandpa held up his hand to cut Jonas off. “You’re not getting a second more, so I suggest you get up from that chair, walk out the door, and get to work.”
“Yes, sir.”
“As for you,” Grandpa said to Colt. “You have somewhere else you have to be.”