One Giant Leap by Heather Kaczynski

Author:Heather Kaczynski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

SUDDENLY, IMPOSSIBLY, LUKA was standing in front of us. He looked clean, uninjured, and only somewhat surprised to see all of us.

I approached him cautiously at first, as though he were a wild animal, not quite believing.

And then before I realized what I was doing, the distance between us was gone and I was hugging him, as though to reassure myself he was real and whole. “I thought you were dead.”

He returned the embrace with gentle pressure, and when he pulled away, the light was back on in his eyes. “I saw your car approaching. I had hoped . . .” He gave a wry half smile. “I apologize for sabotaging your vehicle’s navigation system.”

“Are you okay? When I couldn’t get you on the communicator . . .”

“I’m sorry I didn’t answer. I couldn’t know if you and the device had been taken. Perhaps I was too cautious, but I couldn’t allow anyone to find this place.”

“What happened? How did you even get here?”

His gaze shifted behind me, taking in the others I’d brought without comment. “First, we need to get out of the open. And get your car into the garage.” His eyes darted to the empty space around us. Even knowing we were alone, I shared his paranoia. He stepped back inside and held open the door for me. “Please, come in.”

“I’ll take care of the car,” Mitsuko said behind me, but I barely heard her.

I walked past Luka, my eyes adjusting slowly to the dark. As everyone else filed in behind me and Luka closed the door, I realized we were in an airlock of sorts. Another set of doors lay behind the first, and when Luka unlocked this one, it opened into a beautiful circular room with a high, rounded ceiling and rustic wood furnishings. Well-lit and cozy even while feeling open, the room was half kitchen, half living space. Everything seemed fairly new, the appliances modern.

“Welcome,” Luka said, eyeing the group a bit uncomfortably.

I turned my eyes on Luka and absorbed every detail of him. It was him: alive and breathing, his skin and hair a little more bronzed, maybe from working that plot of land out front. It’d been a day since I’d seen him. His clothes were basic, nondescript, but clean and new.

Luka tilted his head meaningfully toward the kitchen and I followed him there, away from the others. I heard Emilio whistle and Hanna entered cautiously, settling on the couch, trying not to be obvious in her spying on Luka and me.

Luka spoke low and quickly. “Were you followed?”

“Not unless it was by an invisible car. We haven’t seen another for miles.”

Still tense, he asked, “Your friends—can we trust them?”

“You know them, too. They’re not strangers.”

The grim line of his mouth was telling. He didn’t trust anyone.

“I wouldn’t have brought them if I didn’t trust them. I thought we could use all the help we can get. What happened after you shot me into space?”

He seemed to relax by a fraction, hand raking through his hair.

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