Why not set the power of crowdsourcing on the case? Strip the metadata from the photo. Sneak some posts onto various social media sites, being careful to shield his own identity. Pose the question. Can this object solve our energy issues? Are billionaires hoarding this resource for themselves? #Revolution #BeAHero
He itched to get started. His brain was already sorting through the details of how to seed the mystery onto the internet. Filled with determination, he smiled at his brother’s earnest artistic efforts. If he had the ability to make the world better, he was going to do his damnedest to make it happen.
And if he could do that, surely he could find Mathilda.
Suddenly, all he could think about was her. He wanted to see her in all her tangled-hair, muddy-booted, dedicated-science-nerd glory. He wanted to feel her kiss again. He wanted to tumble her into bed, with or without a mosquito net. He wanted to see her eyes shoot blue fire at him when he got under her skin. He wanted to tell her he loved her. He wanted to take her into his arms when one of her panic attacks threatened. He wanted to see her face light up with happiness. And—maybe selfishly—he wanted that happiness to be thanks to him.
“I can try,” he told Ethan, “but there’s a chance that she’s married now.”
Ethan didn’t seem to understand the problem, so he left it there. Maybe it wasn’t an issue. Maybe she’d said no to all that money and social status and everything that went with being a marchioness. But if she had married Duncan, wouldn’t there have been some mention, somewhere, anywhere?
That was the tiny spark of hope that he kept holding onto.
Besides, even if she was married, maybe she wouldn’t mind if he showed up out of the blue with a friendly check-in. Yeah, like a wellness check. A friendly not-at-all desperate-with-longing wellness check.
There was only one way to find out for sure.
First step, figure out where she was. Step two…he’d make that up as he went.
34
“Are you sure you’re ready to go back to Nahele?” Professor Thomas, her thesis advisor, frowned at her skeptically. “You still look a little shaky.”
“I look pale, that’s all. I lost my jungle tan. That’s one more reason why I need to get back there. Not the most important one, obviously,” she added quickly, in case that wasn’t clear.
“I don’t know about this, Mathilda. The crew out there was pretty shaken up. We closed the facility for a month to make sure no more attacks were coming.”
“But it’s open now, right?”
“Yes. They’ve experienced no further trouble. But there’s a chance that’s because…” He tilted his head toward her.
She filled in the blanks. “Because I’m not there.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I get it. But if you really break it down, that’s completely unfair. It’s not my fault someone crashed near the camp. I had nothing to do with that. Maybe we shouldn’t have rescued the survivors, but isn’t that the aloha spirit?”
“Don’t use aloha against me. I’m trying to keep everyone safe.”
“Sorry, Professor.” She sat on the edge of the folding chair in his barracks-like office. The university was undergoing some repairs after a hurricane had swept through, and the entire department was now located in temporary prefab units that looked like oversized porta-potties to her. “But I managed to reach out to the others before they went back, and they all signed a letter agreeing that I should be able to return, as long as the doctors cleared me. I also have a letter from the hospital saying I’m good to go.”
He reluctantly accepted the paperwork she laid out on the desk before him. “Even if you do go back, I think you have to accept the fact that this phase of the project has failed.”
Wow. Harsh. That felt like a stab in the heart from her very own advisor. “I believe it’s too soon to make the determination. When we first reached the site of the plane crash, I happened to notice more ohi’a in the area than I’d expected. I believe there might be a potential regrowth of an old ohi’a forest nearby, beyond what we already knew about.”
“Potential?”
“I…never got a chance to confirm.”
Between the murder drone and being saved by Rory, she’d missed her opportunity to explore. After that, she hadn’t gone back to the crash site.
“Now that all the drama is past, I’d like to verify that it is in fact a substantial stand of ohi’a. That could help us for the next reintroduction attempt.”
He thought that over, fiddled with the papers, then finally nodded. “And you’re sure you don’t want to focus on preparing the next batch of fledglings?” Three ‘alala chicks had just been born. They were months away from being ready to introduce into the wild.
“This won’t be a long trip. Two weeks, at most. Then I’ll shift my focus to our newborns.”
“Very well, you have my permission. But take it nice and easy. No plane crashes. No bullets.”
