Page 79 of Aftermarket Afterlife

“No,” said James. “But they are going to be pulling back to calculate their own losses. They don’t have the manpower to stay on the offensive forever.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” I said. “The more time they have to regroup, the worse our position becomes.”

“Three days gives us time to find Megan,” said Antimony. “She shouldn’t be a part of this. We have to save her.”

“I’m positive Leonard knows her location,” said Sarah. “If we can locate him and get me close enough, I can extract it, and we can retrieve her.”

“That sounds like the start of a very dangerous plan,” I said. “How are we supposed to find him?”

“I can call Megan’s phone again; I’m sure he’ll pick up,” said Antimony. “He has a weird obsession with me. If he can bring me back into the fold, I prove the veracity of his leadership. If I seem like I might be willing to listen, I bet I can get him to tell me where to meet him.”

“And I bet you’re not going,” said Sam.

Antimony gave him a disgusted look. “Of course I’m not going. I just want to convince the asshole that Imightgo, so we can go and yank the information we need out of his stupid head.”

“Charming as it is to watch your relationship dynamics in action, I don’t see where this is the best idea,” I said. “While you try to get information out of Leonard, Leonard’s going to be working to get information out ofyou.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Find a complicated but valid way to declare Megan a member of the family, and allow Mary’s connection to extant family members to locate her?” suggested Sarah.

“I...don’t think that would work,” I said. “I didn’t start picking up on Sally or James until after I’d been introduced to themasfamily, by amemberof the family. I can’t just decide someone’s going to be my responsibility now.”

“What if her mother hired you to babysit for her?” asked James, with sudden interest.

I frowned at him. He shrugged.

“Sorry. Natural-born rules lawyer.”

“That might work,” I said, carefully. “But I’d have to talk to her mother, and there’s just been an attack on the Fringe—she’s not likely to want to talk tome.”

“She’d probably talk to Alex,” said Antimony. “Can’t you ask him for help?”

I paused. “That might actually work,” I said.

“We have three days,” she said, and shrugged. “I know you just got back, but it’s worth trying. Honestly, I think everything is worth trying at this point.”

“Your mother just finished telling him about your aunt. He’s not going to pick up the phone right now, and I’m tired of hopping around the country like a jackrabbit on a hot tin roof,” I said. “Are yousurethis is what you want me to do?”

“Right now, I don’t think anyone is sure of anything,” said Antimony. “But we need to know where Megan is, and we only have three days. If Leonard feels like he can’t get anything else out of her, he might kill her. I don’t think we can get another routewitch to give us a ride, not after asking twice in one day, and we can’t fly when we aren’t sure where the Covenant is or what they’re watching. That’s going to mean about a day and a half in the car if she’s near the Fringe, and possibly longer if she’s being held elsewhere.”

“Or maybe this one isn’t your fight to finish,” I said. “Depending on where she is, I may need to get someone else to help.”

“Providing it doesn’t conflict with an existing collapsing spatial tunnel, I will bring Antimony to your location as necessary,” said Sarah, voice serene. “My apologies, Samuel, but I lack the mathematical acumen to bring you both. The higher-level calculations are still in progress.”

“You did just fine when you abducted herandJames to Iowa,” said Sam sourly. He didn’t mention that she’d had a third passenger for that journey. We all tried not to mention Artie around Sarah more than absolutely necessary. It wasn’t like she was going to forget what she’d done.

“I also moved us forward in time a week, because I had to sacrifice accuracy on either the dimensional length or the dimensional time. My method of bending space moves all four relevant dimensions. Would you like me to accidentally hop us to the end of this battle, and hope none of us are needed for a victory?”

“Wait,” said Sally. “Is the telepathic wasp-girl talking abouttime travelnow?”

“Yes and no,” said Sarah. “The only time travel I can accomplish is the same kind everyone’s capable of—forward. It’s just that I can get there faster than you can, if I really want to.”

Sally sat back on her log, looking stunned. It was odd that she was out here instead of inside with Thomas, but nice to see that she was already fitting in with her peers. It was even nicer to see Antimony not trying to needle her or otherwise test her suitability as James’s friend. I guess “sold herself to the crossroads so he could have a better life” was enough of a display of good friendship that Annie was willing to accept she might be worth keeping, even if she still wasn’t going over to make friendly overtures to Sally directly. Not quick to warm up to new people, is our Annie. Honestly, if I hadn’t been there to witness it, I would still have had issues with the idea that she was engaged.

I stood.

“Where are you going?” asked Annie.

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