“We were taking a night off.”
“So I see. Sit down for a minute, and I’ll tell you. It’s big, and it’s what we’ve been waiting for.” There was the excitement again, and she saw what was different—hope.
She sat and he took the seat beside her. A waiter brought him a glass of whiskey. He took a sip, and she had to fight back the urge to tell him to get on with it. He was teasing them, and the end of the world was not a matter for teasing. Rose was not so patient.
“Come on, Kane, spit it out.”
He smiled but put down his glass. “Okay, so we don’t have all the details yet, Ethan is getting them, but the Keck telescopes at Mauna Kea in Hawaii have picked up an asteroid, and it’s heading this way. It’s estimated to be here on February the 28th.”
She sat silent while she processed that information. There was no way it could be a coincidence. But what did it mean?
“Is it going to hit?”
“On the current trajectory, it looks like it’s going to miss us by about a mile. But there are other factors that might come into play and change things.”
Rose frowned. “I suppose that’s good news in a way. On the other hand, if Earth is about to get hit by a fucking great asteroid, then that’s a disaster. And I’m not sure how we’re supposed to stop it.”
“Maybe that’s what the bomb was for,” Kaitlin said. “To somehow destroy the asteroid and prevent the cataclysm. Could that have been the Tel Group’s job?”
“Maybe,” Kane replied. “And that’s why they took the machine. That was the mission all along. To blow up the asteroid before it hits Earth. To save the world.”
“So, we don’t have to do anything. Stella and her friends will save the world for us.” Kaitlin frowned. “It just seems…too easy.”
Kane gave a shrug. “I saw the control panel; they were definitely heading to the 28th of February.”
He was right, but she just couldn’t shake the idea that they were missing something. “If the asteroid is currently on a trajectory to miss the Earth, then maybe the plan is to explode the bomb and divert the asteroid, so that itdoeshit us.”
“Possibly. But at least now we know how the world might end,” Kane continued. “And we can monitor the asteroid’s path, so soon we’ll have a location.”
She brightened. Now she knew what he was getting at. “So we can go there and be in place when the time machine turns up. We can see what they’re up to and stop them if they’re up to no good.”
“Hell, yes. But that’s for tomorrow. Or rather next week.” He downed the rest of his whiskey, then got to his feet and held out his hand. “Right now, we need to find that room.”
He was so right. She slid her palm into his and he pulled her up. “Night, Rose.”
“Goodnight.”
Everything had changed.
Kaitlin was trying to wrap her head around it all.
Kane was here and he was back. And he loved her—not that she’d ever doubted that—but he loved her,andhe didn’t hate himself.
And they were going to save the world.
Or maybe not. But they were going to try. And now, they had something concrete to work with.
Kane walked fast, almost pulling her along. He stopped at the elevators and pressed the button, then turned to look down at her.
“I’m sorry I stayed away, that I wasted what little time we might have left. But I needed to be alone for a while, to come to terms with what happened. To Leila and Brandon. To the whole goddamned mission.”
“And have you?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t. I fucked up. But it happens. We’re essentially human, after all.”
Weird. Hadn’t she been thinking the same thing? “I’m just glad you’re here.”
The doors slid open. He stepped inside and she followed. “What floor?”
