Please make it,I thought, watching Natalie race against noon.Please catch this shimmer. Please let this be the last noon you have to see.
Thirty yards to go.
Then, like a bad B movie, two figures darted from the trees. A pair of girls, naked and screaming, running side by side as they streaked—literally—straight for the gate. For Natalie’s gate.
“Not good,” Thad murmured.
“Run, Natalie!” I yelled.
But I knew it was over. She was too far away, with too much competition. The girls’ trajectory would intercept the gate well before Natalie could.
The scene slowed but didn’t. The naked girls flying over the black rock, their four legs like two as they converged on the gate; Natalie on her own, too far behind. Natalie was still a good fifteen yards away when the two girls hit the gate as one.
The air flashed blinding white, like a mirror reflecting the sun.Instinctively, I shielded my eyes, and when I looked back, the gate was gone. The air was clear, unwavering blue; the island breeze was back. One girl lay on the ground, as still as the rocks.
And the other girl was gone.
“Did you see that?” Jason said as the three of us broke into a sprint. “She flew back, like she was shocked.”
“Or repelled,” Thad said, his face hard.
“Have y’all ever seen that before?” I asked.
“Never,” Thad said. “But I’ve never seen two people try to catch the same gate either.”
We caught up with Natalie as she kneeled beside the motionless girl. With practiced ease, Natalie pressed her fingers to the girl’s wrist, checking for a pulse.
“Is she breathing?” Thad asked.
“Barely. I’m not sure what happened to her.”
“Me either, but I think it’s pretty clear that two peeps shouldn’t go for the same gate.” Jason looked at the girl, who looked Indian, or maybe Pakistani. Naked as a jaybird, she was stick-thin. “Man, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m getting sick of naked women.”
“Just when they look like corpses,” Thad said grimly. “But she’s not dead. And we’ve got to help her.” He was already pulling objects from his magic pack.
“Totally.” Natalie covered the girl with her extra wrap. “Even if she did crash my party.” But she didn’t sound upset; she sounded weirdly upbeat, which seemed odd given the circumstances.
“Are you okay?” I asked Natalie. “I mean, that gate. You could’ve made it.”
“Not my gate. And unlike her, I’m totally fine.” She glanced at the girl, worried.
“Still, I’m glad you’re not upset.”
“Upset? I’m not upset, at least not about the gate.” She laughed. “Don’t you see? Your charts work, Charley! A gate was just where you thought it would be!”
Her praise made me uncomfortable. “Natalie, it could’ve been pure luck. Let’s not get too excited, okay?”
“Nope,” she kept grinning. “They work. Because there’s no such thing as luck on Nil.”
CHAPTER
35
THAD
DAY 292, AFTER NOON
Another day on Nil, another round of lugging an unconscious person back to the City.
