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“Abi bought me my first camera when I was twelve. It was secondhand, but it had all the bells and whistles. I had a blast learning how to make it work.” A blip of sorrow.
“Why does thinking about it make you sad?”
“I’d started to forget things about my family. The house I lived in when I was little. Abi thought being able to keep a record of my life here would help me. So I’d never have to worry about forgetting anything again, and so I’d have a tangible memory.” She slid a little on a loose stone and I lightly touched my hand to her back to help her keep her balance. “Been taking pics ever since. I have a digital camera now, but I kept the original.”
“Your stuff is really impressive. You could have a gallery showing. Em pointed them out, on the walls at Murphy’s Law. Do you want to pursue photography professionally? When you’re older?”
“I’m pursing it professionally now.” Drive and determination.
“It looks like we’re in the clear,” I said, standing. I reached for Lily’s hand to help her up. “You sense anything?”
“No.” She held the Skroll close to her chest. “But maybe you should sniff around for some despair.”
We made it to the hotel without any further incidents. Neither of us paid attention to the duck parade that was taking place as we hurried through the lobby. We didn’t talk in the elevator.
Lily remembered our room number. We’d left without a key, so I had to knock. Waiting for someone to answer was torture. Finally, Michael opened the door and we stepped inside, barely dodging a flying Emerson.
“You scared us to death,” she said. “What the hell’s going on? Where have you been?”
“Calm down, Em,” I said.
“Don’t tell me to calm down. You take off in a strange town with my best friend and—”
“We’ve been with Teague.” My words made the impact I’d hoped for. Em sat down hard on the edge of the couch.
“Teague?” Michael joined Em.
“On the way back from getting your coffee, we saw Poe and followed him. He led us straight to Teague’s office in the Pyramid, which I’m assuming is also Chronos headquarters.” I pulled two different bottles of soda out of the minibar and held them out to Lily. She picked the non-caffeinated one.
“You randomly saw Poe on the street in downtown Memphis. He led you to an abandoned commercial building, and then you followed him inside?” Michael asked. “It could’ve been a trick.”
“It wasn’t.” I didn’t like the implication that I would’ve put Lily in a situation like that. “I’d have known if he was trying to trick us, and I’d have insisted that Lily come back to the room.”
“He tried to make me come back to the room, anyway, but I didn’t listen.” She untied the sleeves of my shirt and removed the silver rectangle. I took it. It was still warm from her skin. “If I had, we might not have made it out with this.”
“What is that?” Em popped up off the couch and plucked the Skroll from my hands.
“Dr. Turner called it a Skroll.”
“Wait. Dr. Turner was there, too?” Michael looked from me to Lily and back again. “Maybe you should start from the beginning.”
We explained everything, including the crowd of freaky rips.
“So now we have a device that we don’t know what to do with, and we still don’t have any leads on how to find Jack,” I said.
“Obviously, we have to go back to talk to Dr. Turner.” Em felt the edges of the Skroll, looking for a way to open it. “We’re taking this with us. First thing in the morning. And we aren’t leaving until we get answers.”
Chapter 26
Early the next morning, Em and I hurried across Bennett’s campus toward the science department.
“Are you just going to plop it down on his desk and say, ‘Hey, my best friend stole this from the same office where you were seen with the head of Chronos. What’s that all about? And also, do you know how to open it?’”
Em had the silver case in her bag. “No. Maybe. I don’t know right now. But when I see him, I’m sure I will.”
We didn’t even have to go all the way to Dr. Turner’s office.
He was in front of the science building, holding his briefcase. A pink carnation was in the buttonhole of his vest.
