37

As soon as Lena settled into the taxi, she placed the call. Dr. Gabriella Speciale said in greeting, “You must have many questions.”

“So many,” Lena replied, “I don’t know where to start.”

“So let me offer a few observations about what is happening. All this began as a small research project aimed at creating a measure of harmonious brain-wave patterns. It has evolved into something greater than any of us. Now there are a cluster of projects. A Tibetan doctor leads a team outside Rome. Brett travels the United States, revealing our preliminary ascent state to dying patients, working alone until he met you. A theoretical physicist and his business partner operate out of Santa Barbara. Associates continue our base trials at universities in Milan and Vienna and Rome. If I were forced to label our entire group, I would have to say we have not yet arrived at a point where we can even name what is happening. But if you like, I will tell you what I think.”

Lena had heard enough to love the way Gabriella spoke. Her accent created a musical lilt, and her voice was honeyed in the manner of someone who was accustomed to being both beautiful and in charge. “Please do.”

“I think we are evolving. We have received an invitation to move beyond our comfort zones. We are not in lockstep. Instead, we are each developing a crucial component of something far greater. So great, in fact, we have difficulty even seeing our own tiny fragments. You have made money from a rather incredible business project. Now you are being asked by your temporal self to step into something far more challenging. To you, all this seems both illogical and threatening. To me, it says that you are one of us.”

To have a highly intelligent woman speak to her in such a manner, calmly declaring that everything she had endured actually made sense, left Lena’s eyes burning. She swallowed against the emotions and asked, “Are we in danger?”

“Most definitely. Every step we have taken thus far has been met with severe opposition. That is why I wanted to speak with you tonight. I would like to have my beloved join you. His name is Charlie Hazard. You can ask Brett about him. Charlie is an expert at keeping people safe.”

Lena supposed she should have been made more nervous by yet another person declaring that danger surrounded them. But the sense of being in the company of people she could trust grew stronger still. People who understood. She wiped her eyes. “All right. Yes.”

“Good. Thank you.” Gabriella sighed into the phone. “Now I will sleep easily. I loathe the prospect of this evolving project bringing anyone into danger.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Lena said.

“Excellent. That is settled. Charlie has already left for the Zurich airport. He departed while I was still speaking to Brett. With your permission, Charlie will fly tomorrow morning to New York. Now tell me something about yourself. Please. I want to know who it is that is about to become one of my closest friends. It is a very Italian thing to say, yes? Completely illogical. We have never met, but our few words are enough to make me certain of this.”

“I left logic behind a long time back,” Lena replied. “And I feel the same way.”

“That is so nice to hear. Do you have something you wish to share with me?”

Lena rolled down the taxi’s window and spoke into the wash of warm Georgia breeze. “Things are moving so fast I haven’t had time to digest anything. Or come to terms with what it might all mean. Not for your project. For me personally.”

“You must still take time for yourself,” Gabriella said. “Have a nice meal, savor the wonder of life. What is the one thing you most wish you had time to do?”

“I’m embarrassed to say it.”

“Do so anyway. Please.”

“Speak with my boss. Tell him everything.”

Gabriella was silent for a long moment. “Do you trust him?”

“Yes.”

“So much you are willing to place the lives of your entire team in his hands?”

It was Lena’s turn to go quiet.

“This you must decide before you make any such declarations. I would suggest you enter into this slowly. Develop the groundwork that will lead him to accept the impossible before you actually declare it.”

Lena nodded to the soft wind. “That makes perfect sense.”

“See this as an expedition into life’s wonders and mysteries. Taking such care frames a safe passage.” If anything, Gabriella’s accent had deepened, become even more lyrical. “What else excites you in this moment?”

Lena was silent. There was no way she would say what came to mind, which was, sitting and talking to Brett.

Somehow Gabriella caught a whiff of her repressed excitement, for she laughed softly, then said, “As one friend to another, I advise you to go and savor the exquisite joy of redefining your boundaries.”

Brett stood behind Lena at the Delta check-in counter and had his ID ready when she asked. He could see she was surprised to discover that Robin had booked them into first-class seats.

He liked standing back and observing Lena. Her features were stained by a fatigue far deeper than this one day. He wished there was something he could do that would light up her face like Gabriella had in their conversation. Instead, he was going to offer her a perfectly valid reason to walk away.

He waited until they were seated in the same Starbucks where they had been earlier in the day. He felt extremely tense over what he was about to say. He liked her a great deal. The more he got to know Lena, the more he felt drawn to her on a variety of levels.

“All right,” Lena said once they were seated. “Tell me.”

So he did. Brett started at the beginning, described meeting Gabriella at a professional conference and falling head over heels in love with a married woman. He described her ex, the wealthy socialite who had financed Gabriella like he would a trophy racehorse, and how Gabriella’s passionate drive conflicted with her ex’s careless lifestyle. He related how an amorphous group called the Combine had begun tracking them through this same ex-husband. Which led Brett to Reese Clawson, and the villa above Como, and Charlie Hazard.

There he stopped and sipped from his tea. Taking a break. Drawing in the grim determination required to launch into the next phase of his secret. The dark tunnel he had walked after Gabriella chose Charlie over him.

Brett faced the rear wall. He stared at the grey paint like he was reading from a scientific journal about the measure of one man’s guilt. He described his hunger to grow beyond Gabriella’s staid and conservative set of experiments. Another sip, and he related his contact with Reese Clawson’s group and their offer of a lab and the freedom to go public. All because he had lost a woman who had never returned his love. Which led Brett to investigate the question of temporal boundaries, and how this had drawn him to the maw of the vortex. How even now he could hear the silent roar, the hungry viciousness.

Lena’s response was the last Brett would ever have imagined. He did not actually believe it happened, not even after he felt the warm hand settle upon his own.

The expression she revealed was full of soft compassion. But all she said was, “It’s time.”

Brett had no idea what she was talking about. Lena rose from the table and lifted her carry-on with the hand not holding his. She led him from the café and down the central aisle and up to where the attendant was greeting the first-class passengers. They walked down the connecting tunnel and into the plane, where an attendant pointed them into the first row. Brett settled by the window because Lena directed him there, placing herself between him and the rest of the plane.

All without letting go of his hand.