The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(109)

David flicked a curt hand. “I don’t know what to tell you. If you want to give yourself an ulcer over paranoid conspiracy theories, feel free. Just leave me out of it.”

“Hey come on, David . . .”

“Why are you getting so angry?” Amanda asked. “We’re just talking.”

“Except none of us have thanked him yet.”

The others looked to Mia as she straightened her seat back. Her expression was both remorseful and stern.

“Thanks to David, we don’t have to walk across the country now. We don’t have to worry about deserts or dehydration. We could be in Brooklyn in four or five days instead of two or three months, thanks to David. And he did it all without robbing or hurting anyone.”

She looked to him now. “Thank you, David. You probably saved my life again.”

The van fell quiet. Hannah scanned the bright new smile on David’s face, then confronted the disturbing new possibility that she’d be traveling with two couples soon.

Zack let out an attritional sigh. “Look—”

The attaché case loudly sprang open, startling everyone. Theo exhaled with relief. A few more minutes and he would have started smashing it.

The others stared at him, dumbfounded, as he procured a neatly wrapped stack of shiny blue cash. Hannah leaned forward and read the paper band.

“Holy shit. Five thousand dollars?”

Zack blinked in stupor. “Are you serious?”

“That’ll last us all the way to New York,” said Amanda. “Easily.”

“Guys, you’re not getting the full scope of this.”

Theo turned the case on his lap, revealing a tray of identical bricks. Lifting one revealed another, then another, then two others. Fifty stacks in total. A quarter of a million in cash.

The group fell into bewildered silence. Soon Zack found his way to the only sane response.

“Thank you, David.”

Nervous giggles spread through the van as the others followed Zack’s dizzy lead. The grin on David’s handsome young face slowly flatlined. He looked to Zack contritely.

“I’ll admit that your suspicion seems a little more plausible now.”

“Look, trust me, I’d rather be wrong. If Azral’s the one who gave us this stuff—”

“No,” said Hannah, frantically waving her palms. “I’m sorry. Between all the bad stuff of yesterday and the good stuff of today, I’m about to get the bends. Can we put away the big issues for a couple of hours? Can we just enjoy this? Please?”

No one had trouble agreeing to her request. After a cozy respite, Hannah oriented Zack on the van’s controls. David plotted a course on the computer navigation system. Soon the Silvers joined the speedy bustle on Highway X, snaking east through the South California grasslands and into the desert.

By the time the Seeker crossed into Arizona, the sun had set and David fell fast asleep in his seat. The five waking Silvers tumbled back into the larger issues. Some thought about Azral. Others thought about Peter. All of them wondered why one was so eager to help them get to the other.





TWENTY-ONE




The Power Boy chargery crackled with life, a pocket of activity in a bare patch of Kansas. Two hundred travelers ambled the station, stretching limbs and killing time while their vehicles drank from electric wells. The plaza offered two diners, four stores, an arcade, and a mini-theater. It also sported a tea lift, a diversion so unique that Zack nearly drove off the freeway gawking at it.

While the van replenished at a generator, the Silvers split up and wandered in pairs. Only Zack and Theo chose to brave the antigravity madness of the tea lift. They were loaded into a two-seat metal cup, which rose ten stories into the sky on a remote-controlled saucer of aeris. Despite the panorama of sun-drenched plains, Zack and Theo couldn’t take their eyes off the other riders—twenty cups of people, all floating through the air in a slow and synchronous halo.

Theo saw Zack’s stupefied expression and raised him a jagged chuckle. “This is some Willy Wonka shit right here.”

“I know. My inner physicist is sobbing right now. He demands we plummet.”

“Why did we do this again, Zack?”

“Oh, you know. When in Rome . . .”

“. . . fall as the Romans fell?”

The cartoonist shrugged. “We can’t be country rubes forever. If this is what they do at gas stations, just imagine their theme parks.”

An electronic chirping sound emanated from Zack’s pocket. He retrieved his handphone and checked the screen. Amanda Calling.

He answered her with a grin. “Hey. You’ll never guess where we are.”

“I know where you are. I saw you in line. You’re both crazy.”

“You should try it. It’s amazing.”

“Yeah, no thanks. I’m just making sure you’re not holding each other and screaming.”

“Well, we’re not screaming.”

Amanda laughed. “Just try not to die, okay? I don’t like driving the van.”

“Where are you now?”

“At the base of the statue.”

He peered down at the thirty-foot sculpture of Power Boy—a chubby blond tyke with button eyes and an electric-blue superhero outfit. Two black-haired women stood at the feet of the eyesore. Even from a hundred feet up, Zack could see Hannah’s fidgety agitation. He was starting to share Amanda’s concerns about her.