"Sound like you having a fun trip," I say in broken English, which she's quick to correct. This is how the lessons usually go. Conversational with her pausing to correct the mistakes I make in my replies and explaining those corrections.
She's legitimately a good instructor.
"And yes," she replies to my statement after having me repeat it with the proper grammar. "It's definitely been an adventure."
"Why you travel?"
My angel flawlessly corrects my 'bad' English and replies, explaining how she's recently reconnected with family she didn't know she had.
"It's been really great spending time here," she says. "I feel like I know so much more about him now."
The way she says it makes us all share a look. Does this mean…
"She fucking got the data," Sev mouths, and his lips split into a shit-eating grin.
Atticus can barely contain himself as he paces back and forth a few times, bursting with latent energy.
I have to focus hard to continue the conversation with her, giving them both a stern look that says to shut up and stop distracting me.
The video freezes and glitches the whole way through the lesson, and sometimes I need her to repeat herself several times for us to keep going with the lesson. At one point, she tried to move the laptop to show me her room, but as soon as she did, the whole video pixelated and froze, and we weren't able to get it back for a few minutes.
I do my best to let her lead the conversation, in case she needs to set something up to covertly pass along intel woven into the conversation. But so far, I haven't picked up on anything that seemed out of place. Save for maybe a random Segway into old cartoons. She mentionedTom and Jerryas well as the Road Runner ones.
That can't be random.
When the time ticks up to 11:30, and I know we have to hang up, my stomach twists.
Aurora starts to wind down the lesson, explaining that I'll see her again in less than a weekwith a better connection.She's supposed to land back on US soil a few hours before our lesson.She jokes that maybe I can turn my video on for once. She's curious to see what I look like.
I know it's her way of saying she can't wait to see us.
"Maybe," I allow. "I think about it."
"I'llthink about it," she corrects, and I repeat her words.
"See you very soon. Have a safe trip."
"I will!" She smiles, and I know it's for me. "It really has been an adventure, but I'm excited to go home."
"Goodbye, Aurora."
"Bye."
The video feed cuts, and I sit back heavily in my chair. A contrasting sensation of being heavy and light—exhausted andsomehow also brimming with nervous energy—makes my hands clench and shake on my thighs.
"She did it," Sev says, biting his lip, gaze distant. "I mean, I knew she would, but fuck…"
Atticus shares a rare smile with Sev, and I nod.
"I'm sorry," I mutter. "I've been?—"
"Don't be," Atty interrupts. "We were all wound tight. This is all great news, and I'm going to start analyzing the video for anything she said that might've been more than lesson material and see if I can get that image of the coastline clearer, but we donotlet our guards down."
At his words, the unstable thing in my core solidifies. He's right. And I'm glad he said it.
My angel looked good,safe, but she's still there for two more days.
"Now's not the time to celebrate," Atty says, sitting and pulling himself in to start waking up all the monitors. "Save that for when she's home."
