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I said nothing.
"I don't blame you," he said eventually, his gaze for the street and the square and probably any potential threat while he still held me. "It does complicate things, though; this being a location your parents visited. You being here when you're grounded. It complicates things. But I understand why you did it."
"You're not going to send me back to the Orion?" I asked.
He huffed out a breath of air. "I can deny you nothing, Mouse. If you go down, I go down. We go down together."
This was his career, he was talking about. This was his position at RATS.
I shook my head and stepped back, feeling the absence of his warmth keenly. "I shouldn't have come. I'm sorry."
"Well," he said, dusting himself down. He looked good in a 1950's suit. Smart. Attractive. "We're here now, let's not waste the opportunity."
"Thank you, Jack," I whispered.
"Don't thank me yet," he muttered. "Now, let's see. Your parents might change things."
He glanced around, taking in God alone knows what. I started looking around as well, but where Jack was looking for clues, ideas, problems and threats, a rip in Time itself, I was looking for my folks.
"They might not be here," I offered when nothing stood out to me. Maybe I'd risked everything for nothing at all.
"Oh, I think they will be," Jack said, sounding surer than I thought he should have.
"Why?"
"Because a rip of this size has to be connected to an OE event and your parents' disappearance in St Petersburg in the 21st Century is likely tied into Carrie's disappearance in the 21st Century and our Orion picking you up on a flyby."
"Sergei," I said.
"Yes, but for the life of me, I can't see there being anything in Leningrad that is associated with Lunik. The entire Russian Space Programme was based at Baikonur and Star City. Moscow at a pinch, I could see. But not Leningrad."
"So, the connection is my parents," I said.
"Yes, I think so. But why lure us here if not to obtain information connected to Lunik? This doesn't quite fit."
Why would Sergei lure us to St Petersburg? Why this date?
"Luna 1 launched today," I mused aloud.
"Yes, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Not at Leningrad."
"Yes, but the date is still important. Why not lure us back to the 21st Century when my parents went missing presumed dead." Definitely dead, but never found, I thought grimly.
"To cause a rip of this magnitude," Jack was saying, "Sergei would need an Origin Event."
"You said my parents' disappearance was tied into an OE."
"Yes," he said more slowly, still glancing around.
"But you don't think that's it," I surmised.
"It doesn't fit, Mimi. Itcouldbe enough to tie it all together, but I just don't see why he'd bother. Other than to mess with you, I suppose."
"Not just me," I muttered. "RATS is now down one Orion with only one left to fly if another rip occurs."
Jack stilled, and then slowly looked down at me.
"Exactly," he whispered.
