“Of course!” Ammu exclaimed, but then his face fell, sensing that she was not as pleased with their experiment as he was. “Is anything wrong, Mackenzie?”
“No, I just… I’m missing Rush, I guess, and I was hoping to talk with you about it. You have such a way of putting things in perspective.” She had no idea whether any other rooms in the ICIC besides the summoning room were being monitored and recorded, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
“Oh, yes. Yes, certainly. I am very sorry, Mackenzie. I would be more than happy to speak with you, and, of course, to be of any assistance I can.”
“Great,” Mackenzie said, coming to a halt so he wouldn’t walk beyond the main doors. “Could we sit outside for a bit? Would that be OK?”
“Why, I would enjoy some fresh air myself,” he agreed, as she had known he would. He strode to the lodge’s grand front entrance and held the door open for her. “Please. After you.”
“Thanks,” she said, but then she didn’t say another word, not even as they reached the garden path and began to walk amongst the flowers.
“There is a nice bench over here where we could sit,” Ammu suggested, but Mackenzie just glanced at him and shook her head. Ammu gave her a puzzled look but continued to follow her.
When she reached the workshop, she realized suddenly that someone might be using it in the middle of the day, or that it might be locked. Her brain raced, testing and discarding various plans to make it back to the others and warn them away, but when she tried the door, it was open, and the workshop itself proved to be empty. She ushered Ammu inside and closed the door behind them.
He began to look a bit concerned about her behavior, but he sat on one of the stools at the work table nonetheless, waiting patiently for an explanation.
“I’m sorry, Ammu,” Mackenzie said. “The others are coming. They should be here soon.”
“And is this meeting, in fact, about our friend, Rush?”
“No,” Mackenzie admitted.
“I see,” Ammu replied, but he said nothing more, apparently content, at least for the moment, to allow the situation to unfold in its own time.
After several long minutes of silence, the others finally arrived: first Sam and Kaitlyn, followed a short time later by Sketch and Daniel. They all sat around the work table, eyeing Mackenzie and Ammu warily.
“We need to tell him,” Mackenzie began.
“What? Are you crazy? That’s how you ask us? Right in front of him? Oh my God, Grid.” The explosion came from Sam, who could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“I’m not asking,” Mackenzie admitted. “Today was way too close for comfort. He needs to know.”
“You’re gonna get us in trouble,” Sketch said accusingly.
“Ammu,” Mackenzie said, turning to address him directly.
“Here we go,” Sam muttered.
“If I tell you something I did,” Mackenzie continued, ignoring her, “can you promise me that no one else will get in trouble for it? No matter what? Just me?”
“Oh, sure. ’Cause, of course, it was all you,” Sam said, her voice scathing. “As usual. Like nobody else had anything to do with it.”
“Look, I’m trying to take the blame, here!” Mackenzie protested.
“Credit, blame, we all take it together. You got it? Nobody’s stealing my thunder.”
“I wanted to tell him, too,” Kaitlyn admitted. “I don’t want them to hurt it.”
“Excuse me,” Ammu said politely, “but I can assure you I do not always consider it expedient to share everything I might happen to know with everyone who might wish to know it, as I believe you have all seen for yourselves.”
“Hey, that’s true,” Daniel pointed out. “He didn’t let them know the first time we almost opened the portal.”
Ammu nodded.
“Why didn’t you anyway?” Sam demanded.
“Tick-Tock—” Mackenzie started, but Sam interrupted her.
“What? Before he gets to hear what we know, I want to know what he knows.”
“It is a fair request,” Ammu said, chiming in for himself, “and one I do not mind in the least. It has been my belief from the beginning that we should tell you all why you were here and what we were hoping to accomplish. I could not do so at first, of course, because who among you would have believed it? But once you had seen the portal begin to open, I knew you would be able to accept it. I allowed them to believe you had failed, seeking permission to tell you the truth.”
Ammu looked like he wanted to say more, but he fell silent instead.
“Ammu?” Kaitlyn prompted. “What is it?”
“I am afraid it is I who must seek your forgiveness,” he said sadly. “In gaining that permission, my immediate superior mandated that once you were told, you would not be allowed to leave until the project had reached its conclusion.”
“Which is why Rush suddenly had to decide,” Sam realized.
“Yes,” Ammu confirmed. “I am so very sorry. If I had not forced the issue, he would not have had to make that choice. I wished immediately to take it back, but it was too late. I had not foreseen the consequences of my determination.”
“But it wasn’t you who made him choose, Ammu,” Kaitlyn pointed out gently. “You would have trusted him not to tell anyone.”
“I would have. Yes,” Ammu agreed. “But I should have realized that they would not.”
“It still wasn’t your fault,” Mackenzie interjected. “You just wanted us to know the truth. We don’t blame you for Rush leaving. Do we, guys?” She looked around the table, staring at each of them until they had all shaken their heads in agreement—even Sketch, who scowled at Ammu for a long moment before joining in with the others.
“Ammu trusted us enough to be honest with us, and we should trust him enough to tell him what we know, too. Daniel saved our butts today, figuring out the paint thing, but if we don’t tell him, then nobody in charge is going to be on our side. And next time, we won’t be so lucky. We’re going to scare that gryphon so badly it won’t ever come back. They might even order us to hurt it, or worse. Is that what you guys want?”
Sketch shook his head adamantly this time.
“So, we tell him. Agreed?” Mackenzie looked around the table again, and this time everyone nodded, including Sam.
“But we’re all in it together,” Sam qualified. “If we’re telling him, we’re telling him everything. We were all in on it. Not just you. I’m not watching another one of my friends leave without me,” she finished, taking Mackenzie by surprise.
“Me either,” Sketch declared, crossing his arms and jutting his chin forward, defying anyone to say otherwise.
“Together,” Daniel agreed, chuckling at Sketch’s posture, and he reached instinctively for Kaitlyn’s hand, who took it eagerly.
“OK, then,” Mackenzie said. “Together.” She looked at Sam and smiled.
“Well, for God’s sake, don’t go mushy on me now,” Sam complained. “With Rush gone, who the hell am I going to mouth off to if you start acting all sentimental?”