How were we supposed to fix that, though? I looked away, churning over the question. My phone was still pressing into my thigh. A blue notification light shone through my jeans. Odd. I only emailed or texted for the barest, dullest necessities. Knowing that the government scrutinized every word on my phone or computer screen was a serious deterrent to spending time online.
I wiggled the phone from my pocket. The email had arrived more than ten minutes ago: Mom.
Sit tight, we’re on our way xx
I scrolled down. The email was in response to a message that’d arrived right before it.
One sent from my own address.
Mom, I’m really sorry, I swear I’m not making this up, please believe me!! I don’t remember what happened, but we were watching the movie together and I’m suddenly no longer in the movie theater. I’m in Philadelphia. I MEAN IT. I SWEAR I DON’T KNOW HOW. Am near the Reading Terminal Market. I’m so sorry I don’t know what happened, I just showed up here and suddenly my phone can’t even get service, I had to find wifi. I don’t have any money, please come get me!!
“Whatever we’re doing,” I said, “I think we’ll have to pick up Hazel number four, first. And we’ll have competition.”
CHAPTER TEN
I left my cell phone in the grass. The MGA had given me that phone; I suspected they could track it even if I turned it off. I couldn’t let them take me back. Not if there was a chance that Neven was telling the truth.
“Let’s go.” Neven lowered herself so we could climb on.
I stepped forward, but hesitated. None of us were dressed for the cold. The trip to Philadelphia took an hour by car; however fast Neven flew, we’d be clumps of ice by the time we arrived. We needed coats.
My first thought was of raiding my closet, which wasn’t an option. My second thought was to order online, but that wouldn’t exactly be fast enough.
My third thought: What about the truck stop?
I’d never bought clothes in a brick-and-mortar store before. If TV was to be believed, though, truck stops sold just about anything. I knew Red was carrying a wallet. Would it be silly to take a detour for clothing? We were racing against the MGA. I didn’t want to suggest an impromptu shopping spree if it would make Neven or the others think I wasn’t taking the situation seriously.
“Does anyone have money?” Rainbow asked. “I’m freezing, and I’m the only one here with long sleeves. We might find cheap clothes at the truck stop.”
I raised my hand. “I don’t have money, but I vote yes.”
“What about Hazel Four?” Red asked, even as she reached for her purse. “We don’t want the MGA to get to her before we can, right?”
I watched her go through her wallet, both glad that Rainbow had been the one to ask my exact question and unsure why it unsettled me that she had. We were the same person, weren’t we? Our hair might be different, but she had the same name, same family. I even recognized her socks when her jeans rose and exposed a strip of fabric. I knew her voice as mine.
Maybe all three of us had the same thoughts about the truck stop, and Rainbow had been the only one to voice them. Maybe all three of us had wondered about reaching Hazel Four on time, and Red had been the only one to bring it up.
“Do we need to find her?” I said hesitantly. “Or should we focus on, um, the other thing?”
“Saving the world,” Neven said.
I nodded. “That.” The words felt too ridiculous to repeat.
“How do we even do that?” Red wondered.
“Closing that rift, I assume.” Rainbow looked to Neven for confirmation.
“How—?” I started.
“No,” Neven said.
I turned to her. “Wait. No?”
“No.”
“That, that mission you mentioned. It’s not the rift?”
“No.”
As far as apocalypses went, I’d figured a frenzied interdimensional portal the likeliest suspect. I didn’t question Neven’s abrupt response, though; I was still marveling at hearing answers so direct in the first place. Not “We’re working on it” or “Here’s an unsubstantiated theory.” Answers.
“The rift is the concern of the Powers That Be,” Neven went on. “You have your own task.”
“Which is what?”
“You need to learn that for yourself. There are guidelines, I’m afraid.”
“So we’re supposed to save the world,” Rainbow said, “while . . . ignoring the out-of-control rip between dimensions that’s destroying it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you give us a hint?” I tried.
“No.”
“You have a lot of rules,” I said.
“No,” she said, “but the Powers That Be do.”
“Can you tell us about them?”
“No. Find the girl. The rest comes after.”
“But the MGA is coming for her, too. They have helicopters and a head start. She’ll be long gone by the time we arrive.”
“You’ve not even started and you’re ready to give up?”
A reply faltered on my tongue.
“Is it really necessary to find her?” Red asked. “Your—my—our parents and the government wouldn’t hurt her. Right?”
I wondered whether we were thinking the same thing: that we wished we’d been let off the hook, too. It sounded at once cowardly and tempting. If Hazel Four could sit at home and wait all this out, more power to her. With the farm no longer in meltdown, the MGA would treat her better than they had Red and Rainbow.
“She’s here. She’s involved already.” Neven rolled from her side onto her belly. “The Powers sent you for a reason.”
“Do tell,” Rainbow said.
Neven didn’t answer.
“I wonder what the MGA wants with Hazel Four,” Red said. “Simple damage control, grabbing whatever comes from the rift?”
“They’ll want to experiment in case she’s linked to the rift, too,” I said. “Since the rift’s behavior changed—”
“Experiment?” Red wore a concerned frown.
“Nothing bad,” I said quickly. “Practical tests. Like, they’d escort me in a van or chopper and measure the rift’s response based on how far away I was or how long I stayed there. They took blood and hair to keep near the rift as a potential substitute. They did similar tests on Mom and Carolyn to see if it was genetic. For a year, I wore various sensors and kept a diary to see if my mental or physical state affected the rift. Things like that.”
“That’s a lot.” Rainbow blinked.
“It doesn’t sound like they’ll harm her,” Red said.
“Of course not. Oh!” Finally, it dawned on me. “If they want to experiment, they’ll study her effect on the rift. Which means they won’t bring her home—”
“They’ll take her to the rift.” Rainbow spun to face Neven. “And you said you could sense its location.”
Neven’s reptilian mouth twitched. “Go get those coats.” She lumbered up, slow and deliberate, but her eyes were alert. Like she’d been waiting for this. “You’ll need them.”