The seconds stretched into an eternity. His breaths came faster, shallower, his pulse pounding in his ears as he imagined the worst. What if she was already gone? What if this was the last image he’d ever have of her?
His hands trembled as he typed, trying to reboot the camera, but the screen remained blank. His world was collapsing, and all he could do was watch.
Instead, the camera froze, detecting nothing but a slight pink hue from her pants.
“No, no, no,” he said, his voice panicked as he pounded on his laptop keys.
“What happened?” Sebastian asked.
Alex hammered against his keys, desperate to reboot the connection between them. “The camera’s frozen. I’ve lost the signal.”
“Can you get it back?”
“I’m trying,” he retorted, his voice filled with annoyance.
His head pounded, and his mind felt fuzzy from the fever that still ravaged him. “Ugh, I can’t…”
“Hey, easy,” Sebastian said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “Take a deep breath and think. Now isn’t the time to panic.”
“Gee, thanks, I hadn’t thought of that.” Alex huffed out a breath. “I’m just…my mind isn’t firing on all cylinders.”
Sebastian thrust a blue cup of jello toward him. “Here, eat this.”
Alex frowned at the jello cup. “Seriously? Now’s not the time for snacks.”
“You need a boost. Sugar will help you think. Just eat it and get back to work.”
Alex snatched the cup, shoveling the jello into his mouth with shaking hands. It stuck in his throat, but he forced it down. He didn’t have time for this.
Could Ava have survived the crash? Was there any hope? Or would he reboot the camera only to find that it provided no new information because Ava had perished.
His mind recreated the horrific scene over and over, imagining the plane exploding on impact. He envisioned a call from the authorities telling him there had been survivors.
Tears stung his eyes, and he set the half-eaten jello toward the side, returning his fingers to the keyboard. He needed answers, and he needed them now.
“Any better?”
“I won’t be better until I know if Ava made it through that.”
Until he knew otherwise, he imagined her still alive. She’d somehow survived the crash, and she was out there somewhere. He needed to alert someone to help her, to find her.
He tried to re-access the camera’s feed, hoping to learn something from it, but the signal wouldn’t pick up. With agrowl, he brought up another window before he swiped at his sweaty forehead.
“It won’t load?”
“I got nothing,” Alex said with a sniffle as he pounded furiously at the keyboard.
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m commandeering a satellite to see if I can boost the signal from that camera or take some pictures. Anything.”
“A satellite,” Sebastian repeated, crossing his arms.
“Yes, Shadow, a satellite. I have skills, you know. Also, a fleet of satellites that I launched myself. I don’t mind using them at this exact moment.”
He accessed the closest satellite and repositioned it to the last-known location of the pearl cam.
His fingers tapped a frantic rhythm on the laptop as he stared at the screen, waiting for the satellite to reposition itself. The seconds dragged on, each one a punch to his chest as he imagined the worst.
