The Intuitives(83)

“Credit, blame, we all take it together. You got it? Nobody’s stealing my thunder.”

“I wanted to tell him, too,” Kaitlyn admitted. “I don’t want them to hurt it.”

“Excuse me,” Ammu said politely, “but I can assure you I do not always consider it expedient to share everything I might happen to know with everyone who might wish to know it, as I believe you have all seen for yourselves.”

“Hey, that’s true,” Daniel pointed out. “He didn’t let them know the first time we almost opened the portal.”

Ammu nodded.

“Why didn’t you anyway?” Sam demanded.

“Tick-Tock—” Mackenzie started, but Sam interrupted her.

“What? Before he gets to hear what we know, I want to know what he knows.”

“It is a fair request,” Ammu said, chiming in for himself, “and one I do not mind in the least. It has been my belief from the beginning that we should tell you all why you were here and what we were hoping to accomplish. I could not do so at first, of course, because who among you would have believed it? But once you had seen the portal begin to open, I knew you would be able to accept it. I allowed them to believe you had failed, seeking permission to tell you the truth.”

Ammu looked like he wanted to say more, but he fell silent instead.

“Ammu?” Kaitlyn prompted. “What is it?”

“I am afraid it is I who must seek your forgiveness,” he said sadly. “In gaining that permission, my immediate superior mandated that once you were told, you would not be allowed to leave until the project had reached its conclusion.”

“Which is why Rush suddenly had to decide,” Sam realized.

“Yes,” Ammu confirmed. “I am so very sorry. If I had not forced the issue, he would not have had to make that choice. I wished immediately to take it back, but it was too late. I had not foreseen the consequences of my determination.”

“But it wasn’t you who made him choose, Ammu,” Kaitlyn pointed out gently. “You would have trusted him not to tell anyone.”

“I would have. Yes,” Ammu agreed. “But I should have realized that they would not.”

“It still wasn’t your fault,” Mackenzie interjected. “You just wanted us to know the truth. We don’t blame you for Rush leaving. Do we, guys?” She looked around the table, staring at each of them until they had all shaken their heads in agreement—even Sketch, who scowled at Ammu for a long moment before joining in with the others.

“Ammu trusted us enough to be honest with us, and we should trust him enough to tell him what we know, too. Daniel saved our butts today, figuring out the paint thing, but if we don’t tell him, then nobody in charge is going to be on our side. And next time, we won’t be so lucky. We’re going to scare that gryphon so badly it won’t ever come back. They might even order us to hurt it, or worse. Is that what you guys want?”

Sketch shook his head adamantly this time.

“So, we tell him. Agreed?” Mackenzie looked around the table again, and this time everyone nodded, including Sam.

“But we’re all in it together,” Sam qualified. “If we’re telling him, we’re telling him everything. We were all in on it. Not just you. I’m not watching another one of my friends leave without me,” she finished, taking Mackenzie by surprise.

“Me either,” Sketch declared, crossing his arms and jutting his chin forward, defying anyone to say otherwise.

“Together,” Daniel agreed, chuckling at Sketch’s posture, and he reached instinctively for Kaitlyn’s hand, who took it eagerly.

“OK, then,” Mackenzie said. “Together.” She looked at Sam and smiled.

“Well, for God’s sake, don’t go mushy on me now,” Sam complained. “With Rush gone, who the hell am I going to mouth off to if you start acting all sentimental?”

“I would not worry,” Ammu replied. “A Samantha without sarcasm would be like the sun without its glorious rays. You will simply have to shine your wit upon us all more evenly from now on.”

And with that, they all burst into laughter. Everyone but Sam, that is, who just flashed him a wry grin and rolled her eyes.





46


Instructor Report



“How the hell did it get rid of the paint?”

“I could not even begin to guess. We know so little about its—”

“I don’t want you to guess. I want you to make an educated surmise. That’s why I pay for your expertise: so we won’t all be standing around like piss-damn ASVAB waivers just making shit up by pulling it out of our asses and calling it an idea.”

“Well, if I had to… surmise… I would say it has to do with its composition. Its most basic physiology is very different from our own. It can literally slip through our grasp. I suspect it absorbed the paint into itself, assimilating it into its own form.”

“You’re telling me you can’t even touch it?”

“We can touch it. We simply can not hold onto it.”

“So shooting it might not have any effect.”

“That is a distinct possibility.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out. Let’s try it on the next one.”