Page 168 of Javier

“I had a dream just now.” I forced myself to slow down. “A powerful one. In the dream, I saw Nix. He smiled at me, you know, the half-smirk with the dimples?”

Everyone nodded, including Javier, who stared at me expectantly.

“Nix opened his hand,” I went on. “On his palm sat a painted box. A box. Get it?”

“So, the object Li is demanding is the painted box,” Javier said, mostly for the others’ benefit.

“Or something in it,” I suggested. “Why else would Nix show me the box?”

Javier nodded. “Good point.”

“Have you seen this box before?” Dash asked. “Do you know where it is?”

“No and no, but…” I looked to Mina.

“Small painted boxes of the world.” Mina’s fingers raced over her keyboard. “Description?”

“Square,” I said. “Small. Wood. Yellow with miniature palms on the top and sides.”

“Parameters set.” Mina tapped a last key and leaned back. “Searching. In a few hours, I’ll have pictures of every painted box on the Net lined up like perps behind a one-way glass.”

“Then we can search for something concrete.” Javier flashed a wolfish grin.

“There’s more.” I fidgeted with my hands.

Dash knocked his chin. “Go.”

“In the same dream, Nix stood on a hill overlooking an inlet. I believe he meant to tell me where one or both of our sisters are. Beyond the inlet, there was ocean, lots of ocean.”

“The ocean covers seventy percent of the earth’s surface,”Kai offered grimly. “We’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“The Pacific,” Thena chimed in. “Orion beamed a line west of us. The planet flashed in my head and I saw it land on the Pacific Ocean.”

“Too bad Orion didn’t give us a set of coordinates,” Finn grumbled.

“In my dream, I saw a rugged coast.” I ventured. “An island, maybe?”

Mina shook her head and her dangling earrings jingled softly. “I’m a miracle worker, but that description is way too general even for a genius like me.”

“Did you see any specific landmarks?” Javier asked. “Something unique?”

“Yes.” I shut my eyes, recalling some more. “I saw a lighthouse.”

“Lighthouses.” Mina tapped her keyboard then met my stare. “According to Google, there are more than eighteen thousand eight hundred lighthouses in the world.”

Matt whistled aloud. “That’s a lot of fucking lighthouses.”

“Try lighthouses of the Pacific Ocean,” Trev suggested. “We need more.”

“Let me think.” I recalled every detail in the dream. “This one stands over a rock shaped almost like a pyramid, but flat at the top. The rocks jut into the ocean like a long arm. They’re black, and a steep set of stairs lead up to the lighthouse. It’s painted blue and red.”

“Volcanic rock,” Javier mumbled. “Pyramid shape. You’ve got colors. That’s something. Right?”

“That is.” Trev agreed.

“I’m on it.” Mina pounded the keys, refining her search. “Missy, take a look at these pics.”

I came around the table and stood behind Mina and Trev, studying every image that flashed on her screen at a fast clip.

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