wasn’t going to try to explain, lest I somehow screw it up.
A little voice in the back of my head did buzz a warning, though. Dude. You’re making out with an Epic.
I turned that piece of me off. How easy it was to not worry about consequences in that moment, just as Megan had said. I barely heard the knock come at my door.
I did notice, however, when that door started to open.
34
MEGAN broke from me and I spun around. Tia—distractedly looking at the tablet in her hands—pushed the door open. She looked up, then right at me.
I went cold.
“Hey,” Tia said. “I want to send Val to plant some supplies for the hit on Newton. We can have her drop you off, and you can go place that camera for me. Would you mind? I’d rather not wait.”
“Uh … sure.” I resisted the urge to look around for Megan. She’d been standing just beside me.
Tia nodded, then hesitated. “Did I startle you?”
I looked down at the stack of papers I’d dropped, without noticing it, during the kiss. “Just feeling clumsy today, I guess,” I said.
“Be ready in five,” she said, setting a small box on my side table—the remote camera. She glanced at me again, then left.
Sparks! I hurried over and shut the door, then looked back at the room. “Megan?” I asked softly.
“Ow.” The voice came from under the bed.
I walked over and looked down. Megan had apparently thrown herself to the ground and rolled expertly under the bed. It was pretty cramped down there.
“Nice,” I said to her.
“I feel like a teenager,” she complained, “dodging my boyfriend’s mother.”
“I feel like a teenager too,” I said. “Because I am one.”
“Don’t remind me,” she grumbled, climbing out and rubbing her forehead, which she’d scraped on something under the bed. “You’re like five years younger than I am.”
“Five … Megan, how old are you?”
“Twenty.”
“I turned nineteen right before we left Newcago,” I said. “You’ve got one year on me.”
“Like I said. You’re practically a baby.” She held out her hand and let me pull her to her feet.
“We could go talk to Tia,” I said as she stood. “Prof’s not here, and Tia’s more likely to listen to you. I’ve been working on them, explaining that you didn’t kill Sam. I think she’ll give you a chance to speak for yourself.”
Megan frowned and looked away. “Not right now.”
“But—”
“I don’t want to face her, David. It’s tough enough dealing with all of this right now without worrying about Tia.”
I puffed out a breath. “Fine. But we’re going to have to sneak you out somehow.”
“Walk down the hallway, distract anyone you run into, and clear me a path. I’ll hide in the sub again.”
“I guess.” I walked to the door slowly.
“David,” Megan said.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“Coming down here was crazy,” she said.
“Completely crazy,” I agreed.
“Well, thanks for being crazy with me. I kind of need a friend.” She grimaced. “Sparks. I hate admitting things like that. Don’t tell anyone I said it?”
I smiled. “I’ll be quiet as a buttered snail sneaking through a Frenchman’s kitchen.”
I grabbed my rifle from beside the door, slung it over my shoulder, and struck out into the hallway. It was empty. From the looks of the storage closet, Mizzy and Val had finished unloading the boxes; hopefully they weren’t annoyed at me for ditching them. I slipped all the way down the hallway and entered the sitting room, the lavish chamber that connected to the submarine dock.
No signs of anyone in here. I turned around.
Val was standing behind me.
“Gah!” I exclaimed.
“Looks like we’re going right out again,” she said.
“Uh … yeah.”
Val passed me wordlessly, moving toward the door to the docking room. I needed to give Megan an opening. If Val went inside, there’d be no chance of Megan sneaking into the sub without her noticing.
“Wait!” I yelled. “I need to grab the spyril.”
“Go get it then,” she said.
“Right.” I waited in place for a moment, shuffling from one foot to the other.
“Well?” Val asked, pausing at the door into the docking room.
“Last time I used the spyril, something went wrong. I ended up losing my propulsion in the middle of the bay.”
Val sighed.
Come on, I urged.
“You want me to check it over?” she asked, though it was clear it was the last thing she wanted to do.
I let out a breath. “That would be awesome.”
“Well, go grab it then.”
I ran to get it, noticing, happily, how Val lingered in the sitting room. When I