CHAPTER FOUR

JANE, DARCY, AND IAN slowly made their way through the gray, decaying industrial complex. Holding the phase meter out in front of them, they used it as their guide to locate whatever it was they were searching for.

As they passed through one set of large loading doors, Jane looked in to see metal shipping containers stacked end over end, like a child’s building blocks. The sight reminded her of Stonehenge. The comparison of the two, and the mysteries they both held, was not lost on Jane. They were definitely in the right spot.

The three of them continued through the complex, passing the shattered window with the suspended glass and the puddle on the ceiling, until they heard tiny footsteps in the distance. Two shadowy figures emerged from the door opposite them. Darcy froze, momentarily freaked out by everything going on. But as the figures got closer, they saw that they were just children. It was Maddie and Navid.

“Are you the police?” Maddie asked.

“No, we are scientists,” Jane began. “Well, I am,” she said, looking over to both Darcy and Ian and giving them both a shrug.

“Don’t tell them!” Navid said to Maddie in Farsi. “They’ll make it go away!”

Jane and Ian looked at each other in confusion. They didn’t speak this language, so they were at a loss as to what the kids were saying.

“Make what go away?” Darcy said to everyone’s shock and surprise. No one could believe that she understood Farsi!

“What? I got skills,” Darcy said, only slightly offended. “They are worried we are going to make something go away.”

Jane looked from Darcy to the kids, then bent down on one knee to speak to them. “Can you show me?”

Maddie looked from Jane to Navid, then bent down and picked up a brick. She cocked her arm, about to fling the brick at the three grown-ups.

“Violence never solved anything!” Ian yelled, clearly afraid. But that didn’t stop Maddie. She hurled the brick at full force and the three grown-ups ducked, but nothing happened. When they looked up, they saw the brick hovering in midair. Jane, Darcy, and Ian looked at one another in complete disbelief.

“That doesn’t seem right,” Darcy said, breaking the tension. It wasn’t right. And Jane was determined to find out why.

Jane, Darcy, and Ian followed the kids through the complex and up a winding staircase to the next amazing discovery. Standing at the top of the staircase, Navid dropped a bottle down the shaft, but instead of hitting the ground, it disappeared in midair halfway down. Everyone was stunned yet again, but when the bottle then reappeared at the top of the staircase, then fell, disappeared, and reappeared again—only faster this time—they were shocked even more.

Amazed, Jane had to try it for herself. She picked up a soda can and threw it. Like the bottle, it too disappeared, but unlike the bottle, Jane’s soda can never reappeared. “Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t,” Navid said very matter-of-factly.

“I want to do it,” Darcy said with excitement. “Jane, give me your shoe!” But Jane ignored Darcy and instead rushed off, following the direction of the now-intense beeping of the phase meter. She hadn’t seen readings like this since New Mexico. Since Thor.