Reckless Road (Torpedo Ink 5)

“It’s not possible,” Zyah denied in a whisper, pulling her hand away from Player’s. She rubbed her palm on her thigh as if removing his touch. “They wouldn’t do this. And if Mama Anat knew, she would have destroyed it. It isn’t possible.”

“Even if it is possible that she knew, she might not destroy the drawing because it came from her husband,” Maestro said. “Who is this man and how would he know, after all these years, about it? Why would he have waited this long to find the drawing if he did know? It isn’t like Anat would have been that difficult to find. She didn’t come to the United States under a different name.”

“All good questions and ones I think we need Anat to answer,” Czar said. “I’m going to ask Destroyer to see if Anat would be willing to travel here or if she would prefer us to go there. I’m reluctant to have this drawing anywhere near your home, Zyah.”

“I feel the same,” Player said.

Zyah shook her head. “I don’t like any of this. Do you honestly believe that my father built some portal so a bomb could be sent to an enemy? How would they know his exact location? There are too many variables, not to mention it’s all too sci-fi.”

“You connect with me through the earth, Zyah. Ships found their way guided by stars. Are you telling me that you really think it would be impossible for your father to find a location he needed using the stars?”

“Maybe the location, but not the person on the other end. The stars would give him a wide view, not a narrow one, Player. You’re talking about a specific location. Something would have to narrow that down, like GPS does. It would have to be even more precise.” Zyah frowned, turning it over in her mind. “If it was even possible,” she mused aloud.

“I think it is possible and your grandfather and father figured out how to do it,” Player said. “Admittedly, there are pieces I can’t figure out. The why of it. If your grandmother knew, she might be able to fill that in. And this man. Why would he suddenly be aware of us? Why didn’t he come looking before?”

Again, there was silence in the shed while they all thought it over. “Suppose this man thought the drawing had been destroyed,” Ink said. “There would have been no reason to come looking for Anat. In all this time there was no indication of bombs or portals. Nothing like this cropped up anywhere on the black market. No one attempted to sell it. He had no reason to think such a weapon existed.”

“Okay, I’ll go along with that reasoning,” Player said. “So then my brain gets fucked up and I start seeing the White Rabbit and I’m building my bombs.”

Czar nodded. “Every day you’re in the room with this drawing and you’re seeing the schematics for the bomb. You actually see it without the device, and your mind fixates on it.”

Player had been in bed every night for five straight weeks staring at that drawing while his head was pounding out of his skull. “My head hurt like a mother. I couldn’t escape the nightmares that triggered some of the worst migraines. My brain felt like it was coming apart. The bombs I normally built to try to counteract the pain weren’t working, so my brain turned to one much more complicated and intriguing.” He knew that was exactly what happened.

“This is making sense,” Mechanic said.

“The pain was excruciating. At first I could barely lay out the various parts. Just moving made me sick. I know if it hadn’t been for Steele and Zyah, I wouldn’t have survived.”

A murmur went around the shed, and all heads turned toward Czar for confirmation.

Czar nodded. “I was told, but there was nothing anyone could do. Steele did his best. Either he was going to be able to save him or he wasn’t.”

“Steele performed a miracle,” Zyah said. “I watched him. I don’t think anyone else could have saved him. He came twice a day for a couple of weeks after that and then once a day. He healed his brain injury, which was very severe, but the migraines persisted. Neither of us could understand why.”

“We might have liked to have been with him,” Ink said.

“A lot of visitors weren’t going to help,” Czar said.

“We could have taken shifts with Maestro and Savage in the house,” Ink pointed out.

“We didn’t want to upset Anat. She’s very intelligent, and no one was letting on how grave his injury actually was,” Czar said. “I understand you’re all upset, and with good reason. I didn’t go in other than once myself. Let’s just get this done. He’s alive and well, and he’s got Zyah. Keep going, Player.”