Free Falling by Kailin Gow Page A

little worried about Grayson going with them, because Marlene really doesn’t look happy, but then, I guess I wouldn’t be if I had to spend time with someone who had hurt me like that, even if I had been trying to Fade him at the time. I guess I just have to trust that the presence of the other Faders will prevent any serious problems. When they’re gone, Lionel, Jack and I are left in the farmyard. We’ve been there a few seconds when the door to the farmhouse opens.
    “There you are.” The voice is a hearty one, and comes from a man making his way across the yard to us. He’s a little younger than Lionel or Sebastian, good looking enough in his way, and dressed in rough work-clothes that fit in with the farm environment a lot better than anything we’re wearing. He walks stiffly and it’s only as he moves closer that I realize he has a prosthetic leg.
    Lionel moves forward, shaking his hand vigorously and clapping him on the back in a way that suggests the two men have known one another for years. But that seems to be the thing with the Underground. It isn’t some government organization pieced together from people who have never met, it’s a private one, put together from people who have worked on the same kind of things for years. Of course they will know one another.
    “Hello Jonas,” Lionel says. “It has been too long.”
    The other man, Jonas, grins. “Well, we know you only get in touch when there’s some impossibly difficult mission to be done. What is it this time?”
    Lionel laughs at that. “Not impossibly difficult, I hope. I’m going to be on this one, after all.”
    “Ah, well it can’t be as impossible as all that, then, can it? Or it won’t be when you get through, anyway.” Jonas waves a hand towards the farmhouse. “Why don’t you head inside, Lionel? You can keep your Faders from taking up all the room in the place. It’s not like I live in a mansion.”
    “Not still bitter about that one, are you?” Lionel asks jokingly, before going into the farmhouse. As he does, Jonas reaches up to put an arm around Jack’s shoulders. Presumably, they know each other pretty well too.
    “Well, now that Lionel’s taken care of for now,” Jonas says. “I got your message about your dad, Jack. It’s a bad situation.”
    Jack has been sending the head of Location Four messages?
    “And?” Jack asks.
    Briefly, I see Jonas’ eyes flicker over to me. “And I’ll look into it.”
    “Thanks.”
    Jonas shakes his head. “Don’t thank me. I’m interested. Exactly as you knew I would be, no doubt. This could be the breakthrough we’ve been working towards for years. How could I pass that up?” Jonas hesitates. “You have brought it with you, right?”
    Jack nods. “Of course I’ve brought it with me.”
    I can see the look of relief on Jonas’ face. Whatever Jack has brought along with him, it’s obviously important. The only thing I can think of that might be that important is the rock we found. Has Jack brought that? I would have thought they’d have it under lock and key in Location Four. Lionel certainly said something about his people analyzing it.
    “Good,” Jonas says. “I’ll have my research team begin analyzing it. If we’re lucky, it will shed some light on a lot of things.” He looks Jack up and down then. “How are you feeling?”
    “Aside from being beaten senseless, barely escaping the Others, and having to trek halfway around the world?” Jack asked.
    Jonas looks at him in a way I can’t decipher. “You know what I mean.”
    Jack nods. “I’m fine. Better than fine. I made a breakthrough. And it’s all thanks to Celes here.”
    “You’ll have to tell me all about this breakthrough when we get a chance,” Jonas says. “Along with the rest of it. It’s not every day that my nephew loses his heart, and I want all the details.”
    “Uncle Jonas…”
    “Uncle?” I ask, looking back and forth between them. There isn’t a resemblance that I can see.