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Tony carried the laptop and wished he could show it to leading technology creators back home. He grinned at the half-pint genius beside him who’d shown Tony things he couldn’t use back home. Not for another nine years. He’d given V’ru his word and wouldn’t break it.
But hot day-am! Tony couldn’t wait to see this baby light up if Rayen could do her imitation of a power supply.
When he reached the common area, kids were running around eating some weird yellow and pink fruit that could be the offspring of a watermelon and a pineapple.
Two of the kids were levitating and tossing a circle of pink power the size of a tennis ball between them.
V’ru’s face drooped with longing.
Tony assessed the situation, then paused, turning his head back and forth.
“What are you hunting for, Tony?” V’ru asked, looking around. He’d taken to mimicking any move Tony made.
“Rayen and Gabby. I need to talk to them about not sharing anything they see with this computer when we go home. Do you mind hanging out here for a little bit while I find them and talk?”
“You mean out here?” V’ru asked with a bubble of excitement in his voice.
“Sure. You don’t mind do ya?”
“Think they’ll let me stay?” V’ru was watching the kids his age running around and playing with their powers.
“Mind? Are you kidding? They’ll be glad to have you. Go on and I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay,” V’ru answered, not sounding too sure of himself, but he took a step toward the group.
Tony headed toward the healing hut. If anyone knew where Rayen was, it would be Gabby. He rounded one of the shelters where the kids slept then turned around and leaned forward to watch V’ru to make sure that no one made fun of him.
Or hurt him.
Tony had spent many days watching over his kid brother Vinny and sometimes stepped in to keep someone from bullying him. He’d teach Vinny how to defend himself once they were back together again. As soon as Tony got the MIT scholarship, doubled up on his classes, and blew through school to get his degree, he’d take any job that would pay enough for him to rescue Vinny from foster care.
The only problem with that plan was Nick setting Tony up for a theft at the Byzantine Institute. Tony hadn’t stolen anything, but could he convince anyone he was innocent?
He’d worry about that when he made it home again.
V’ru had walked up to a group of five kids playing some weird game that resembled shooting marbles, but it was a holographic game played on a horizontal level with balls that looked more like tiny stars. When they hit each other, it resulted in a little pop of light and tiny fireworks.
The kids stopped playing as soon as they noticed V’ru.
One boy crossed his arms. Bad sign.
V’ru shoved his hand up in his hair, a nervous twitch.
A little girl stepped up and smiled at V’ru then said something. V’ru tentatively opened his hand, palm up.
The little girl handed him a glowing star that twirled and sparkled on his palm.
The boy with the crossed arms made a put-upon noise, then nodded at the girl and V’ru stepped into the circle.
Tony grinned. V’ru was careful not to rub elbows with the little girl. Not because V’ru considered her below him. The kid didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. No, he was being a normal eleven-year-old boy encountering the female half of the species for the first time up close and personal.
V’ru was acting as if she had something contagious like ... cooties. Just thinking of that old term made Tony smile.
The kid was going to be okay.
Tony swung around to continue on to his mission and practically ran into Gabby. He put a hand up. “Whoa, Sweet Cakes. Last thing we need is for me to drop this work of art.”
Gabby stared at the laptop, dismissed it, and raised worried eyes to Tony. “We have bigger problems than the prophecy.”
“Then why did I stay up all night with V’ru trying to make this thing work?” Tony snapped.
“Don’t yell at me. I’m not the one causing the problems.”
True, but admitting she was right would do nothing to soothe his irritation. “Sure. Whatever.”
Gabby stabbed a hand on one hip. “I’m starting to feel more sympathy for Hannah.”
He wasn’t sure if he should be angry on his or Hannah’s behalf. “Tell me what has your panties in a wad, then I need help finding Rayen.”
Bam. Say the right thing and Gabby forgot about being mad at him. She clasped her hands together. Praying or worrying?
Or both.
“Rayen is gone with Callan, Kenja, and Kaz.”
He tucked the laptop under his arm and cracked his knuckles. “We have maybe four hours until the moon sets. Do they want to solve this prophecy or not?”
“That’s not the problem!” she said, grabbing her head. “Listen to me.”
He was going to throttle Gabby if she didn’t start making sense. “Start sayin’ somethin’ intelligent and I will.”
She glared at him and whispered, “The TecKnati are destroying all the transender sites.”
“What the—”
“Keep your voice down so the children don’t hear.” She cut her eyes to the side then came back at him. “Jaxxson just got a telepathic message from Callan, telling us to keep everyone inside the ward. He said it’s the safest place and there’s nothing he, Kenja, Kaz, or Rayen can do to keep us any safer. They’re trying to reach the sites first and stop the TecKnati.”
Tony clamped a hand over his face, feeling nauseous. If they wrecked all the transender sites, none of these kids would make it home. V’ru would be here forever. Pulling his hand down, he said, “Someone needs to burn SEOH big time.”
“That won’t be one of us, but if we can figure out the prophecy SEOH will get his due.”
That was putting a lot of faith in words written in ancient Greece, but Tony wisely avoided pointing that out. “Now you want the prophecy solved again, huh?”
“I always did. I just didn’t want to talk about it until I told you about the transender sites.” Compassion wrapped Gabby’s next words. “If they destroy ours, I won’t be able to go home, and you won’t make it back to Vinny.”
His gut clenched with panic at that thought until he processed it all the way through. “The TeKs don’t know about our site.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, I’m not, but work through the logic. They’ve never met us at our transender site for an arrival or a departure. If they knew, I’m thinkin’ they would have had scouts watching that site for us to arrive today and ambushed us to steal the laptop. We didn’t come in through their transenders, so I don’t think they know about ours.”
“Oh.” She stared off into the distance a moment then smiled with relief. “Okay, then let’s work on getting the prophecy sorted out and that computer operating so we have a way to send these MystiKs home.” That sounded like what Rayen had been getting at last night.
“Wait a minute, Sweet Cakes. Where’d you come up with the bit about using the computer to send them home?”
Talk about the classic deer in the headlights look, with the way Gabby’s face froze, the headlights belonged to a tractor-trailer bearing down on her. “Hey, Gab, chill. What’s the matter?”
She was back to wringing her hands. Something was up with their mouthy Gabby. “Don’t ask me how I know, Tony. I can’t tell you and even if I could, you wouldn’t believe me.”
He raised a hand to calm her. “You don’t have to tell me, but as far as not believing you? I’ve time traveled through a portal in a laptop five times, outrun a croggle, fought a killer plant, and watched you float around.”
“Right. Okay, I need to sit down with you and V’ru to work on the prophecy while they’re gone. Callan promised Jaxxson they would all be back before moonset, but he didn’t know how soon before moonset.”
“Let V’ru have another fifteen minutes for a break and meet us at his kamara.”
“Okay. Thanks for easing my mind about our transender.” She went rushing off.
Tony couldn’t share her elation. It just dawned on him that the traitor might know about their transender site. If that was the case, he hoped Rayen got to it first.
