Free Falling by Kailin Gow Page B

“Jack, is everyone in the Underground related to you in some way?”
    Jack smiles. “Not quite everyone. Sorry, Celes, I should have introduced you. It’s just that I haven’t seen Uncle Jonas face to face since… well, I don’t know how long it has been.”
    “You were eight,” the other man supplies.
    “Jonas is my mother’s stepbrother,” Jack explains. “We’re not related by blood, but…”
    “But sometimes you don’t have to be,” Jonas finishes for him. “We’ve kept in touch through messages over the years, and I’ve tried to keep an eye on Jack’s career for Jacqueline’s sake.”
    Jack nods. “Uncle Jonas, this is Celes.”
    Jonas extends a hand to me, and I take it. His grip is firm, but measured. His gaze is slightly more disconcerting. He looks at me closely, as though he’s trying to spot something about me.
    “Do I have something in my eye, or something?”
    Jonas laughs. “No, sorry. It’s just that… well, you don’t know how excited I am to finally meet someone like you. Someone like Jacqueline was.”
    That’s enough to make me feel a little strange. I know that the whole Underground thinks of me as special. I know that I have special powers. It’s just something else to meet someone who is that obviously interested in what I am.
    “Sorry,” Jonas says. “I’m making you uncomfortable, aren’t I?”
    “Just a little bit,” I reply.
    “It’s just quite an exciting day. I get to see Jack again after all these years, plus I get to meet you. Jacqueline… well, I always knew that Jack’s mother was special, but Sebastian and I only found out quite how special when she died, by which time it was too late to learn more directly.”
    “That didn’t stop Sebastian trying,” I say, remembering how interested the Location Six leader was in me.
    “No, it didn’t,” Jonas agrees. “Sebastian got a little obsessed after Jacqueline’s death, and I have to admit that I wasn’t much better. It’s… well, you can imagine how important some of the implications are. You’re very special, Celes.”
    I shrug, still not entirely happy with that way of thinking. Not happy with some of the situations being what I am has put me in, either. “So far,” I say, “being special has gotten me shot at, forced me to change my identity, and given me a power that means I kill people.”
    “But it’s so much more than that,” Jonas insists. “That’s why I went along with Sebastian, trying to find others like Jacqueline. Like you. It’s not just that Jacqueline was my sister, it’s that her existence shows that there is more to the universe than just humanity. Than just Earth. The whole parameters of our thoughts have to change to take that in.”
    Jack moves me gently away from Jonas a little. His uncle doesn’t seem to take any offense at it.
    “And now, of course, Jack has found you. I had started to worry that perhaps he was all that was left. That he was the last, lonely remnant of… well, whatever you both are. Which we will of course be able to find out far more about, now that Jack has brought us the rock for analysis.”
    So Jack has brought the rock over with him. I wonder how he managed to persuade Lionel to do that. Or maybe he didn’t tell him. I have to say that, in spite of his over-eagerness, I quite like Jonas. There’s something about him that’s almost infectiously warm and curious. It reminds me a bit of my little brother, but it’s more than that. I like the warmth Jack has towards his uncle. It’s a total contrast to the stiff formality of his relationship with his father, and it makes me wonder how they got so close when they’ve met so little.
    “I’m pleased to meet you, Jonas,” I say. “I hope I can do something that will help with your research. I’d like to know where I come from as much as you do.”
    That makes Jonas grin, and he moves forward to pull me into a bear hug. “You know, you remind me of Jacqueline. She was so much the