Free The Gossamer Crown: Book One of The Gossamer Sphere by Melissa Conway Page B

had broken through the clouds.  Three perfect rays beamed down on the rocky coastline.  She thought about what Caitlin had said to Bill Masters, “Look what you’ve set in motion.”  The tsunami was the first disaster to have occurred, and it hit right after they drilled.
    “Is everything that’s happened because of Bill?” she asked.
    “Drilling into the crater was certainly the catalyst, but the sphere has been struggling to receive messages for some time now.  Climate changes caused by greenhouse gasses, space cluttered with orbiting satellites and junk, all have interfered.” Caitlin paused.  “It was inevitable.”

Chapter Fifteen
    East of England
     
    When they arrived back at the farm, Caitlin pulled up in front of the house and dropped Zach and the others off, saying, “I’ll be back later.”
    Simon appeared in the doorway. “Breakfast is almost ready.”
    “Thank you,” Caitlin said, looking up at him.
    “Where are you going?” Lizbeth asked. 
    “To dig deeper into the origins of the salvage ship that found the crown, The Gossamer .  There must be something I missed.  Maybe the crew members who survived can help, if I can locate any of them.  Stay here, and keep an eye out for each other.”
    As she walked back to the SUV, Zach looked around at the isolated plot of land and wondered where they would go, but then he got a whiff of bacon on the air and his mind shifted to the growling of his stomach. 
    He followed Lizbeth and Kevin inside.  Simon went through a door off the murky living room, and Zach saw him pick up the receiver of an old-fashioned telephone before shutting the door. 
    The kitchen consisted of a long, narrow room with a windowed alcove that had a built-in bench and table.  A dark-haired woman tended to the sizzling pans on the stove.  She was short and very heavy, wearing a floral-print cotton dress, with furry mukluks on her feet that came up almost to her knees.  She gave them a gap-toothed smile over her shoulder and bobbed her head up and down.
    Kevin said something in another language and the woman’s smile increased.  She responded back, in what sounded to Zach like Russian or Polish, and gestured for them to sit at the table.  Kevin took a stack of plates and a handful of silverware from her and set the table.
    Everyone turned at the burst of music coming from Zach’s pants pocket.  He fished his cell phone out and saw the number – home.  He went back into the living area and answered.
    “Zach Wong!  Where are you?”
    “I’m fine, Mom.  How is everyone?”
    “Where?  Where are you?  We’ve been so worried.”
    Zach struggled briefly with the idea of lying.  He didn’t relish the thought of trying to explain why he’d abandoned his life to go on this crazy quest.  He decided to go with a strictly limited version of the truth.
    “I’m staying at a house in the country.”
    “Which country?” his mother asked.  Zach had forgotten her uncanny ability to zero in on the facts.
    “England,” he said reluctantly.
    After a silence in which he imagined his volatile mother’s face going red with anger, she astonished him by saying, “I consulted the I Ching.”
    His mother was a woman of culture who avoided any discussion of her humble beginnings in a rural Chinese village.  Confessing that she’d resorted to divination – frowned upon in educated circles as a practice of the peasantry – told him more than words how worried she’d been.
    “Mom-”
    “There is danger in whatever you are doing, my son.  Do not trust anyone.”
    He thought again about Simon telling him that not everyone wanted the crown to be found.
    “I’ll be careful,” he said.
    “I’ve transferred some money into your account.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I want you to call me every day, do you hear me?”
    “Alright.”
    “I love you.  Be safe,” she said.  Before she rang off, she added, “The hexagrams were very clear.  You have da zhuang - use it