“You should’ve stayed dead, Veida,” Dirk said, sounding dejected, yet somehow filled with superiority.
What!Veida?Her cousin Veida? The one whose death was the reason Madelaine had to become the Paladin Courier?
No time to think about that now.
“Veida. I need help!” Madelaine shouted. “What do I need to do besides put my thumb on the silver bauxite nugget?”
Veida immediately shouted the answer. “Place your hand in the oval beneath the device and hold it there for ten seconds.”
Madelaine obeyed instantly, pushing her hand into the large oval as the countdown clock went from ten to nine to eight…
Had she put her hand on the oval in time? Was she one second too late?
Madelaine didn’t know.
Beneath her hand, the smooth surface warmed beneath her skin. A royal blue glow started flashing around the oval. When the timer got to three seconds, the royal blue glow flashed dim and then bright. Dim and bright. Dim and bright.
The timer reached zero and all the lights went off. The warmth beneath her thumb and hand cooled quickly.
What was happening? Madelaine had no idea. The Mechanism looked like it had turned off. Had she failed?
Then Madelaine heard what sounded like an earthquake. The Mechanism was rumbling, sounding like a jet engine revving for departure.
Jack’s hands landed on her shoulders and he pulled her back a few steps from the Mechanism, keeping his hands locked in place as they watched the device lightup. A panel appeared over the device. And then the matte black housing seemed to detach from the ground beneath the Mechanism, lifting up and up until the Mechanism and the device were covered. The entire phone booth-sized Mechanism was no longer visible.
Jack drew Madelaine back until they stood next to Dirk, who Veida kept pinned to the ground.
“Please work,” Madelaine said under her breath. Jack squeezed her shoulders as if to calm her. She leaned into him, her back pressed to his chest as rumbling filled the cavern.
Silence enveloped the rocky cave and then a huge, loud thump came from the housing. She hoped it meant the Mechanism had launched something, hopefully the device, into space.
Next to her,Veida fell to her knees with a sob.
Anguish filled Madelaine. Something was wrong. She hadn’t done it in time. She’d been one second too late.
She tore from Jack’s grasp to kneel before her cousin, needing to offer comfort and an apology. Before she could make words exit her mouth, Veida threw her arms around Madeline’s neck. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madeleine,” she said between sobs. “You did it. We are saved because of you.”
Madelaine wrapped her arms aroundVeida and held her, so grateful that they’d succeeded in this so very important errand.
Dirk silently fumed. Madelaine could see thatVeida had subdued him with zip ties. Appropriate. His expression was not one of a villain who’d lost and was now sorry he had been such a snobby little crust fish. No. He seemed even haughtier and more full of himself than before.
“Don’t think this is a win,Veida,” he said, his tone filled with venom. “You should’ve stayed dead.”
“You lost, Dirk! Don’t be such a sniveling little crust fish about it.”
Dirk kept talking as if she hadn’t spoken. “The same goes for you, Madelaine. If it were up to me, you and your whole family would be dead.”
Before Madelaine could respond with fury, Jack punched him in the face, putting him out of their misery, at least for now.
“I always liked you, Jack Grey,” Veida said.
One week later…
Veida reassured Madelaine that she and her sister were no longer in the direct line of service for the Paladin Courier program, because when Veida had faked her death five years ago to avoid an assassination plot, she’d been pregnant with twin girls.
She’d given birth to her twins in secret and left them with a trusted friend on Verdara, visiting them as she was able.
