By traveling from his dorm room and having me lock the door behind me, Paul was doing his part to make sure we never found out whether that fusion thing would be for real.
We got him settled on his bed, stretched out and comfortable; after a few rough landings in other dimensions, you learn the value of a soft reentry. I sat beside him and leaned over so that our faces nearly touched.
“If you think Conley’s onto you—even for a second—come back,” I pleaded. “We can figure out other ways of getting a cure.”
“Not without bargaining for it, and that’s not going to happen.” Paul brushed a curl away from my cheek. In almost a whisper—because he was still shy about saying it—he told me, “I love you.”
“And I love you. In any world, any universe.”
His smile was crooked. “This world is enough.” Then he became more serious. “Sometimes I look at you, and I think—if I didn’t know we shared a destiny, if I hadn’t seen the proof for myself, I’d never believe this was real. That you could love me as much as I love you.”
I’ve felt exactly the same. “We do share a destiny. We’re meant to be. Which means you’re meant to come back to me. Got it?”
“Got it.” When Paul settled his hands on his chest, he put his fingers on his Firebird. Our eyes met, and then—
Then nothing. Paul didn’t vanish; there was no light, no pop, no sign that he had even been there. Of course, his body remained in our dimension, remains there still, right on his dorm-room bed, but unseen, untouchable. No scientific instrument on Earth could find it.
Slowly I rested my hand on the space where he’d lain, where only a moment before I would’ve been able to feel his heartbeat. His blanket was still warm. I told myself that Paul could do anything, that he’d save Theo and come back home.
But Conley was waiting for him. Even as I pressed my palm against the warmth Paul had left behind, his soul was being torn apart.
5
AFTER MY PARENTS FINISHED CHEWING ME OUT FOR NOT telling them about Paul’s trip to the Triadverse to find a cure for Theo, they settled in with me for the wait.
“Paul said he’d come back after twenty-four hours,” I told them as we sat up late on the back deck. “Or as close to it as he can manage. Even if he hasn’t found a cure for Theo yet, he’ll check back in just to let us know he’s safe.”
“Twenty-four hours!” My father shook his head, expression grim. “If Conley’s figured out how to monitor dimensional traffic, his people could be on Paul within minutes.”
“But that dimension’s Paul already got away from Triad,” I protested. “He escaped to Ecuador.”
This placated my dad not at all. “You think a global tech mogul like Wyatt Conley can’t hire operatives in Ecuador?”
Mom laid her hand on Dad’s shoulder. “Henry, please. This isn’t helping.”
I imagined Paul being held prisoner. Being interrogated by men to whom the Geneva Convention wouldn’t apply. My stomach cramped, as if in sympathetic pain. Had we been stupid to leave my parents out of it? I said, “Could you have done something to help him get into the Triadverse without being detected?”
“Nothing Paul isn’t capable of doing himself,” my mother replied. “He has a chance. Paul knew the odds. He did this to help his best friend. We should respect his decision.”
She was speaking to my father then, who didn’t reply. I figured it would be a long time before we were forgiven—or, at least, that it wouldn’t happen until Paul had given Theo a miracle cure that restored him to health.
But it didn’t take that long.
By the time thirty-six hours had passed and Paul still hadn’t returned, Dad was beyond yelling at me about it. Like the rest of us, he was too frightened for that.
“They wouldn’t kill him,” I said, pacing through the great room. “Would they?”
“Unlikely. Conley would be a fool to simply eliminate Paul rather than taking him captive as leverage.” My mother turned out to have an instinct for criminal behavior. “Yet Conley would also be foolish not to tell us he’s taken Paul captive. My instinct is therefore to assume that Paul remains at liberty. But if he is free, why hasn’t he returned?”
“Maybe he’s in the heart of working on Theo’s cure,” Dad said.
“Maybe,” I repeated. But none of us believed it.
Two full days after Paul’s journey into the Triadverse, none of us had slept more than a couple of hours at a time. Dad now believed Conley had captured Paul but was making us sweat it out; Mom theorized that Paul could have experienced a Firebird malfunction.
In either case, we knew there was only one way to find out for sure.
“I should be the one to go,” my father said. “I’ve left these travels to the young ones for long enough.”
“Dad, no. I’m the perfect traveler. It should be me.”
For the past three and a half months, Paul and I had periodically visited brand-new universes, to further test the Firebirds and to see more of the multiverse’s wonders. Mostly I saw a lot of dimensions very similar to my own, but where my parents were working on different research, teaching at a different university, et cetera. But even those worlds could offer a wealth of data the Firebird project team could use. I went because I could travel more effectively than anyone else; Paul went with me because he had the experience, and because it was dangerous to travel alone.
Now, however, I would have to make a trip on my own—the riskiest one of all.
Mom sat at the rainbow table, her hands steepled in front of her. “You go in. You immediately use the locator function to find Paul. As soon as you know where he is, you return and give us the full report. We’ll decide how to proceed from there.”
“Okay.” Did that mean actually reach Paul if I could, or just get the information? I decided I’d make that decision when I arrived in the Triadverse.
“If Paul’s Firebird malfunctioned,” Mom continued, “he may have tried to return to our universe but instead traveled to a new dimension. Your Firebird is set to track his. You’ll be able to follow in his dimensional footsteps, so to speak—to travel to whatever world he might have ended up in.”
“Please.” Dad’s voice broke. “Let me be the one to do this. For all three of you to be in danger at once—”
My parents love Paul and Theo only slightly less than they love Josie and me. They’re the sons Mom and Dad never had. I knew they were as afraid for Paul as I was, but seeing my father this upset ripped me open inside. “Dad, I can do this better than anyone else. I have the ability; I have the experience. Meanwhile, you have the actual scientific knowledge about the Firebirds. If you go, and Conley winds up capturing you, too? We’re going to be totally screwed.”
This made him laugh a little, as it was meant to. I knew I couldn’t make this situation easier for any of us, but at least I could get my father to accept what had to be done.
Or maybe not. Maybe Dad still hated the idea of my going to rescue Paul as much as he ever had. But he didn’t object again, not even in the moment when I embraced them both and leaped out of my own world—