The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(108)

The driver took a panoramic sweep of his surroundings, then shut his door. Hannah’s heart lurched as he moved to the edge of the fifty-foot drop.

“David, if he jumps, you tell me now. I don’t want to see that.”

“He doesn’t jump. Watch.”

For the next several seconds, he kept his expressionless gaze on the canopy of trees below him. Then, with triumphant fury, he threw the ignition key over the cliff.

“Oh no!”

“It’s all right,” David assured Hannah. “We’ll find it.”

The man procured a handphone from his pocket and pressed a single button. “Yeah, it’s me. It’s over. I’m out. Thanks for everything. Go fourp yourself.”

Satisfied, he chucked the phone into the trees, then turned around and left the way he came. The ghost disappeared in a ripple.

David beamed at his companions. “He walks back down the hill, still smiling. Whatever decision he made, it was a good one. For him and for us.”

“But who was he?” Hannah asked.

“Who cares? We have a vehicle now. An unstolen luxury van.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Theo said. “For all we know, this guy just quit his job as a car thief.”

David sighed impatiently. “It’s been sitting here for two days. If it was stolen, then it wasn’t reported. If it was reported, then it wasn’t tracked. This is our van now. We just need to find that key.”

They descended the hill and scoured the woods in a three-pronged sweep. The search felt like a needle-in-a-haystack conundrum to Hannah, but then she knew it was never wise to bet against David Dormer.

Theo took a break from his halfhearted hunt, wiping his brow with the lip of his T-shirt. Hannah was momentarily stunned by the sight of his finely muscled stomach, the hint of a scar on his left pectoral. She was wise enough not to ask about old wounds.

“You okay?”

“Headache,” he said. “Probably just lack of sleep. It’ll pass.”

“Did you see anything futurish when you looked at that van?”

“It’s hard to say. I got a bunch of vague flashes, but I can’t tell if they’re predictions or just my usual thoughts. Mia’s lucky. At least her future’s written out for her.”

“Well, were they good flashes or bad flashes?”

“Both,” he replied, with jittery uncertainty. “I feel like that van will take us all the way to New York, but that could just be wishful thinking. I also feel like that scene we witnessed up there wasn’t entirely genuine, but that might just be paranoia.”

Hannah grew tense all over again. There was something about the driver’s expression, right after he threw the phone, that slightly reeked of acting. She’d also filed the suspicion as paranoia. Certain parties had given her plenty of reason to be skittish.

“Found it!”

David bounded through the trees, grinning with triumph. He jingled a key chain in his hand.

“So who feels like driving?”

—

Hannah mentally cursed Theo and David as she climbed behind the wheel. She had two certified geniuses in her company and yet she was the one who had to pilot the crazy Royal Seeker. There were buttons and switches everywhere. This was no Salgado clunker. This was the goddamn Enterprise.

After ten minutes of wary experimentation, in which Hannah nearly sent the Seeker over the cliff, she finally got a handle on the controls. Soon the splinter group returned with their four-wheeled surprise. Zack’s fear turned to bafflement when he spotted Hannah behind the wheel.

He stood up and chucked his arms at full wingspan. “What . . . ? How?”

The passenger window opened to David’s chipper face. “Shall we discuss it inside?”

Soon the Silvers filled the six plush seats, basking in cool comforts. Between the air-conditioning, the fresh water, and her ridiculously cozy perch, Mia felt a full-body relief that was almost religious in intensity.

She glanced around in muddled awe. “I can’t believe you guys just found this lying around.”

David smiled at her. “After the last few days, I think we’re due for some random good fortune.”

“It just seems a little too random,” Zack fretted.

“And a little too good,” Amanda added.

Hannah narrowed her eyes. They weren’t even a couple yet and they were already making her ill with their cuteness.

David scowled at them. “This wasn’t delivered to our doorstep. It was abandoned in a distant patch of wilderness two days ago. Don’t you think that’s a little dodgy as far as traps go?”

“By the old rules, yes,” Zack replied.

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that in a world where time can go wibbly-wobbly and pretzel-bendy, it’s entirely possible that we were meant to find this Mystery Machine.”

“Meant by who?”

“Do you really have to ask, David? Do you think this is the first silver gift we’ve gotten?”

Amanda nodded darkly. “Exactly.”

Theo and Hannah remained outwardly neutral, though images of Azral had been circling their thoughts from the moment the van came to life. Theo fumbled with a thin metal attaché case he’d discovered under his seat. The lid was held shut by a convoluted system of clasps. He couldn’t tell if it was locked or just strange.