SENALL

41 Lawrence Crowell told them everything.

Dorie listened with Forno as he explained how Dave found Vanderberg Parr still alive on Rook, how they traveled to the Ultra planet, and how the two Crowells reunited.

Once Vanderberg Parr told Lawrence he could go back instead, and the Ultras could limit how much he aged (Parr hadn’t exactly told the whole truth when he’d claimed he could move Dave to our universe and make him younger), Dave made the choice to stay and let his dad go. Lawrence needed to know as much as possible about the people in Dave’s life, including Forno and herself. Jennifer Lisle, too, and Terl Plenko. They spent hours talking, apparently, before the time came for Lawrence to walk out in his Ultra suit to board the Exeter and come home.

There was more Lawrence said about the return trip and Dave’s plans to live out his life in the Ultra universe, but Dorie tuned him out. She didn’t want to come across as rude, but she was distracted.

When would she get to see Terl?

Not soon enough.

Adi Thakur didn’t call her until after they’d left the Tempest Bar. She hurriedly said her goodbyes to Forno and Lawrence; Forno was taking Lawrence Crowell with him to Earth. When they returned to the Brindos Building, Jennifer Lisle told Lawrence someone would brief him about the Ultras, and then he could go home. When they released them, Forno would pilot a skiff to the domelock, where Lawrence Crowell and the Helk could hop a shuttle to Swan Station and the jump slot back to Earth.

Adi informed her Terl Plenko was in a holding area in the Operations building across the thoroughfare. The NIO was still processing him, and they had more questions to ask about what had happened on Coral, his escape from the Rock Dome, and his operation in the city of Bestus on Barnard’s Star. The room was not barred, locked, or guarded. Only Jennifer Lisle was there, and once Dorie opened the door, the assistant director left the room to give Dorie time with him.

Plenko sat on the only table in the room, using it as a chair, and he stood when he saw her. He towered over her, the leathery skin of his head marked with small bumps. Goosebumps. It was too cold in here for him. He had a plain green tunic on that covered him from shoulders to knees.

“Hello, Dorie,” he said.

It was almost too much to bear, hearing Terl Plenko say hello to her. The last one to do so had not survived Sakson’s rage. Even before that, she’d had doubts about that Plenko being her Plenko. Would she be able to tell the difference now?

“Hello,” she said back. She didn’t hesitate, wanting to get something straight right away. She didn’t move from her spot just inside the door. “I need to know the truth. I need to know you are my Plenko. I can’t have someone else just tell me you are. I want to believe it’s you, but you must allow me this moment of uncertainty.”

“I understand.”

Dorie came forward, covering half the distance to him. “Tell me something. Something only you would know.”

He didn’t answer right away, taking time to think of something, staring at her so forcefully, she had to look away. “You know,” he finally said, “most Thin Men retain the memories—or most of them—of the original. So will anything I tell you actually convince you?”

“I don’t know. I just need to hear . . . something that seems right. That feels right.”

He cleared his throat. “Well—”

“C’mon, Big Guy. Something good.”

Terl Plenko’s face softened. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, the change was so stark. “Dorie, I never stopped thinking about you.”

Dorie felt a fluttering in her heart, but she simply gave him a look that told him: And?

“I couldn’t come back for you. Once I knew you were still alive? I knew you were hiding out with the Movement in the Helk quarter on Temonus.”

“Information you could’ve gleaned from any number of people.”

He nodded. “Okay.” He sat on the table; it creaked ominously under his weight. “Okay, you’re right.”

She waited some more, and she so wanted him to give her a reason to believe, that she ached all over. She folded her arms over her chest, not wanting him to see her trembling.

“I gave Lorway that last card.”

“What last card?”

“The one she left for you in the Bubble. It was designed for you.”

“What do you mean for me? I just thought it was—”

“I designed it. It was infused with your DNA. Your DNA, cross-engineered with RuBy. And—” He shrugged and looked sheepish. “It had a trigger.”

“I don’t understand. What kind of trigger?”

Plenko waved a hand dismissively. “Complicated.”

“Tell me.”

“It worked similarly to the other Tarot cards. If you used it, the quantum travel could be directed more accurately. It could pinpoint an exact location.”

After a brief silence, Dorie said, “The Tempest Tower.”

“More specifically, to the suite.”

“You’re not the only Plenko who knew that suite.”

“No, but I’m the one who made the cards—including the Minor Arcana—and the only one who knew the suite’s new location.”

“You mean when it was no longer on the 100^th floor.”

“The trigger needed RuBy on the other end to make it work. To get you there. RuBy with your DNA on it to give the card something to hunt for. Not just on its surface, but in the drug itself.”

“But I’d long ago given up RuBy, and—”

She stopped cold. Not long after transporting to the suite, she braved the balcony to find the RuBy she’d hidden there after she’d stopped using. Behind the old electromagnetic shield panel. The panel no one ever knew about except—

Terl.

She said, “Behind the panel.”

Terl Plenko nodded. “I knew about that hiding place. No other Plenko could have known about it.”

“Somehow, you worked with Lorway.”

“We . . . kept in touch. Even while she was in the Bubble.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“There were a lot of Minor Arcana Tarot cards for quantum travel. Dave Crowell never needed those to get to the Ultra universe. I had a few trusted friends on Barnard’s I could send. I didn’t dare go anywhere near there myself. I especially didn’t dare trying to contact you. In your new position as governor, it was too difficult to try and get to you.”

Dorie considered this and found it believable. “She swapped the package, didn’t she?”

“When she traveled to the Tempest Tower before you did. She knew where I had hidden the RuBy in the suite.”

“And where was that?”

“In the cubby. The same one where Alan Brindos found the mortaline sculpture. The key that you yourself carried to help Crowell and Brindos open and destroy the vault of mortaline.”

A planet twisting out of shape . . . a sea of bodies struggling to break out.

“They were so intent on that sculpture,” Plenko continued, “they never searched much farther back in that cubby. It was well hidden.”

“You had that planted there that far back?” she asked incredulously. “Even before the start of the first Ultra scare?”

“Lots of Plan B scenarios.”

“Why didn’t you just leave it there then? Wouldn’t the trigger still have worked?”

“It would have. But you needed to find it. You needed to touch it, either the covering or the RuBy itself. That was the location tracer. That’s how we found you.”

“You and Dave. I mean, Lawrence.”

“Well, and Forno. He called it in to Jennifer Lisle.” He gave Dorie a look of sympathy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to roll and use it.”

Dorie lowered her head, but she nodded. She couldn’t blame him for what happened. She’d even thought it had helped her in that situation. Really, Sakson had already caused her relapse. Even now, she would need time and distance away from the drug—and a good therapist—to get back to where she’d once been.

More importantly, she knew. Terl. She knew this was truly her Terl Plenko. A wave of sadness washed over her—the last of the years without him whispering away—followed by a fresh wave of happiness. She broke into a wide smile and crossed the room to him.

He was ready for her. He slid off the table and fell to his knees so he could wrap his arms around her waist, and she could put her own arms around his neck. Barely.

“Oh God, Terl,” she said, her eyes misting. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“And I’ve missed you. I should’ve contacted you somehow.”

“It’s okay. It’s fine. You’re here now, and everything’s going to change. I love you. I love you, and I’m clearing your name once and for all. I’m bringing you back—”

“From the dead?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It isn’t death when it’s a new beginning.”