He nods, waiting, and I know he’s looking for other answers in my thoughts, so I only think the commands telling him to go to sleep.
Finally, he turns, disappearing down the hall.
Moments later, Shock comes out. “I thought it was over.”
“No, you thought we were the problem.”
He grimaces because I’m right, and then he looks out the window. “Ithoughthe’d be done at some point.”
Taking the plate from me, he sits at the table. “At least I know why no one else is going to come ask questions about his apparent disappearance.”
No. No one will ask any questions so long as he is a blip on their sector map once a night.
“What are you going to do while they’re in town?” I ask him.
He shrugs and says, “See if I can get some answers from Echo and Ion?” before taking another bite.
“I can tell you how they did it, and I can tell you it won’t work for us.”
“Fine.” He sets his fork down and looks out toward the smoke. “Maybe I’ll ask a dying man to tell me secrets.”
CHAPTER
TEN
CHRYS
I havemakeup on to hide the lingering shadow of the bruise on my cheek and a light long sleeve on to hide some of the others. Mary knows how I got here, so I’m nottooworried about her. Other people though…
“You promise you have something else to do?” I ask Arc as he opens the car’s bubble top for me.
“I do.”
“If you sit in the parking lot waiting for me and going out of your mind, I will be so mad at you.”
“I’m going to drive over to that empty park and sit in the car and enjoy the silence of no one’s thoughts for a while. Would that be okay?”
I hate how easy it is for me to forget that the world is louder for him.
“Hey,” He cups my cheek gently and kisses me. “It’s not your job to remember. Now go, have fun with Mary.”
I kiss him back and hope he finds that quiet he wants. “I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
The cafe’s front is shaped like a large zurgle, painted lavender with pale green tiger stripes. When I open the door and step inside, I’m met by dozens of eyes and a chorus of chirps and purrs.
As the door closes behind me and my new curious audience starts to make their way forward, I can think of seven different friends from back home who would probably strangle someone to be in this room right now.
“Hi!” Mary gets up from a table toward the back and comes over to hug me. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”
“Me either!”
It’s a two-person table, and even though she can’t read minds, she notices the question on my face. “Wren is doing something with her sponsor today. Last-minute plans.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I’m here to see you, after all.”
When we sit, a turquoise zurgle with a tortoiseshell pattern jumps onto the table between us.
“Nowthisis what I was expecting when I was told about zurgles.” The cat-like alien creature in front of me is the size of what I’d call a normal house cat.
