“Oh shit.” Now he was finally getting the connection to Mathilda. Dread gathered in his stomach. “What happens then?”
“It emits such a strong magnetic pulse that all nearby electrical currents are disrupted. Power outage, at the very least. They weren’t entirely sure what other effect it would have. It hasn’t been tested. That’s why I wanted to get it back from Mathilda before she did something careless with it. Clearly we were too late.”
They both looked down at the ground, where the wave of darkness kept spreading, one transformer at a time going down.
“Don’t call Mathilda careless,” Rory snapped. “She didn’t know any of this. Not warning her was careless. Keeping so much to yourself that the rest of us have been in danger this entire time was careless. Careless is?—”
“All right, all right, I get it. I should have warned you both. I was more worried about other people getting their hands on it. It could be reverse engineered. That’s why Tanaka wants it. He already tried infiltrating the lab, but that went wrong and a firefight broke out. Half of our equipment got destroyed by gunfire. That makes my sample even more valuable. It’ll be months before they can produce another one.”
“Then why didn’t you have ten armed guards with us on the plane to Maui, if that sample was so important?”
“I thought a low profile would be safer. I think my head of security might be double-crossing me.”
“Max? Really? I always thought he was very loyal.” And a real asshole, but Rory kept that part to himself.
“It could be someone else. Possibly one of my assistants. Maybe someone connected with my sister or someone else in my family. I can’t trust anyone until I find out who’s passing information to my competitors, Tanaka and others.”
“So you’re saying I’m the only one you trust, and that’s only because I didn’t know shit about what you were doing?”
“More or less,” Lincoln admitted.
“But you didn’t trust me enough to warn me that crystal might be dangerous.”
After a long silence, save for the drone of the engine, Lincoln said, grudgingly, “I suppose I could have said something before we crashed.”
“You think? Or maybe later, before I slipped it to Mathilda?” That was the part he couldn’t quite get over. She was a completely innocent victim in all this.
“Point taken. Here’s the thing, Pilot Rory. The thing no one tells you about being a billionaire. It makes you paranoid as fuck.”
30
Mathilda didn’t want to wake up from the delightful dream she was having. She was sitting high in a mango tree on a cushion of epiphytic ferns. Hector was perched in a neighboring avocado tree. He was preening his black feathers and complaining about all the dust kicked up by the wild horses that had just galloped through.
“No consideration,” he chittered. “So thoughtless.”
“Horses will be horses.” The least she could do was sympathize with him. “But your feathers look beautiful. You’re healthy?”
“Having the time of my life. An ‘alala being an ‘alala. Are you quite well?” He cocked a beady eye her way. “You look a mess.”
“I am a mess. I don’t know what to do. I have to make a big decision and I don’t know what the right thing is. What should I do, Hector?”
“You’re asking me? I’m just a birdbrain.”
“Ha ha. Your kind is very smart. Don’t underestimate yourself.”
“There you go.” He used his beak to tuck one last feather into place, then flapped his wings and lifted into the air.
“What do you mean, there you go?” She watched him wheel in a circle, then swoop past her.
“If you got me back to where I belong, you can do the same for yourself. Not to sound like a parrot,” his feathers shuddered, “but don’t underestimate yourself.”
“I really missed you, Hector. Don’t leave. Stay and talk to me. I want to know everything.”
“You know enough.” He flapped his wings to catch a downward air current. “Gotta go poop on some horses,” he croaked.
“Don’t leave me! Come back!”
“I’m not going anywhere. You’re okay. You’re okay. Mathilda, wake up.” Hector’s voice was sounding deeper, and much closer, as if he was right there with her, holding her in his arms.
