Exo: A Jumper Novel by Steven Gould

Author:Steven Gould [Gould, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Superheroes, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781466828483
Google: Wq9zAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2014-09-09T07:21:41+00:00

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Discussion

Need to talk in person about your stuff. Could you meet me where we made our deal, tomorrow, at the same time of day?

Roberta

She hadn’t named the Dixie Chicken. Dr. Matapang clearly thought someone else was reading her e-mails and, probably, watching her movements.

Crap.

I shot off an affirmative. I was hoping she was imagining things, but if she was right, I hoped it was just the DIA and not Daddy’s old friends.

I arrived ten minutes early, coming in through the veranda entrance in the back, and took a seat in dark corner. I ordered a Coke and waited, the Coke untouched. If she was being tracked, I had no intention of drinking anything here.

That’s how they caught Dad.

At 1:30 a young woman in a denim jacket and khaki pants walked through the front door. She looked around and then took a manila envelope out of her shoulder bag and began walking through the room, holding it so anyone could read the letters APEX ORBITAL writ large upon it.

I raised my hand when she neared me, watching her warily.

She blinked and said, “I’m supposed to ask if you know who this came from.”

“Roberta?” I said.

She nodded and handed it to me. “Right.”

“Is Roberta okay?” I asked.

“Was when she gave me this. Roberta said, ‘The note explains all.’” She jabbed her finger toward the envelope. “I’m not supposed to linger.”

I nodded. “Well, thanks.”

She turned around and left. I bent down behind the table, as if to tie my shoes, and jumped away.

* * *

The handwritten note said:

Hey Space Girl,

They’re definitely watching me. This note is being delivered by my landlady’s daughter.

I had one of the students put the first unit on the roof of the lab. It’s in a cardboard box next to the elevator stack.

I’m eating lunch over in Bryan at the same time this is being delivered to you in hopes they will be following me. Instructions are in the box, but let me know (via e-mail) if you have any questions. I have the parts for the other two if this one satisfies.

Roberta

I could look down on the space-engineering building from the top level of the massive parking garage next door. The cardboard box sat in the shade, up against the north side of the elevator shack.

It could be a trap. There could be guys waiting inside the roof-access door. It could be booby-trapped. For one brief second I considered getting Dad, but that thought didn’t last long.

With Dad involved it might take all day to get the thing off the roof. Or worse. I could practically hear him saying, “Not worth the risk.”

Well, it wasn’t his satellite.

I jumped to the roof and crouched by the box.

The top wasn’t taped and one of the flaps fluttered in a breeze. I flipped it back gently. When nothing went boom or emitted scary hissing noises, I flipped the rest of the flaps open. All I could see was gray foam, but when I peeled back one corner, I could see a rectangular section of solar cells and aluminum framing.

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