Free Run (The Tesla Effect #2) by Julie Drew Page A

without elaboration. “Be here at two thirty. I’ll make the call at three, and I’ll give you some background first.”
    Malcolm nodded once, satisfied, and Bizzy spoke up. “I’m learning everything I can about entanglement,” she said. “I’ve found a few speculative papers, all very abstract and not pertaining to human subjects, of course. I’m afraid this is brand new territory, except in fiction, maybe. If we get to a point where that’s all we’ve got, we may decide to talk to Max after all.”
    Sam spoke, tentatively. “I might be able to get access to the files down in the Medical Examiner’s office at the hospital. You know, the official coroner’s report and the death certificate for Dr. Petrova.”
    “Good,” said Finn, looking around the group and settling on Sam. “The more we can find out, the more help we’ll be to Tes when she gets back. Which is soon, right?”
    Sam calmly returned his pointed look. “You know I won’t say.” But he sounded reluctant as he ran his hand through his short, dark hair. “I’m not going to tell you or anyone else what I remember about any of this. Which, I want to stress, is not that much. I have a partial understanding of what took place—what is, now, taking place—eight years ago. But that’s all.”
    “We get it,” said Bizzy, however grudgingly. “No hints.”
    “Well—,” Sam hesitated, clearly uncomfortable.
    “Well what?” asked Finn sharply.
    “I think it’s okay to say—I mean, I just want to say one thing, which isn’t really information, I don’t think, just my own feeling about some stuff I’m not that sure about.”
    “What are you talking about?” asked Beckett, who was not exactly a patient person, even under the best of circumstances.
    “I’m talking about time,” said Sam firmly.
    “Yeah, that’s not ambiguous in this context,” muttered Keisha, earning a quick grin from Bizzy.
    All eyes on him now, and a renewed tension in the room, Sam looked uncomfortable and unhappy to have brought it up at all.
    “What about time?” Finn asked.
    “It’s running out,” said Sam. “Tesla is…look, things are happening fast now, and there’s a lot we don’t know. We need to hurry.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 8
     
     
    “So,” said Sam as he handed Tesla his helmet, swung his leg over and sat down on the patched leather seat. “What are you doing here?”
    Tesla grinned as she tightened the chin strap and pulled the mirrored visor down, despite the darkness, so that only her mouth and the dimples on either side were visible in the lights of the parking lot. “Wow, you’re that happy to see me, huh?”
    Sam—this younger Sam, sweetly earnest and a total failure at hiding his feelings—looked down and fiddled with the ignition, clearly embarrassed.
    “No, yeah, of course I am,” he said, finally looking up. “But, you know. Last time you came for a reason, and you had a plan.” He revved the engine once, as a vent for his feelings, and then moved his head once, sharply, toward the bike.
    “Get on.”
    Tesla climbed up behind him and loosely wrapped her arms around his waist. “Full use of all my limbs this time,” she said happily, leaning over his shoulder so he could hear her above the sound of the motor.
    “So I see,” he said, a trace of amusement and a hint of the cool— and, let’s face it , Tesla thought, sexy —man he would become.
    “Where to?”
    They sped through town and out into the countryside, in less than fifteen minutes, content with their thoughts and the feel of each other’s bodies where they pressed against one another, clothes, and the vibrations of the motor and the tires speeding over rough pavement the only things between them. Tesla pondered Sam’s question about where she wanted to go, to which she had only answered, “Somewhere we can talk.” She assumed they would go to a coffee shop or some other quiet venue, but the focus of her thoughts was not on where , but