The Dysasters (The Dysasters #1)(62)

“We have to find those next two kids, like now,” Sabine said.

“We’ve been trying to, but those files are crazy hard to understand,” Foster said.

“Show us,” Sabine said. “Hey, Finn and I have already been sworn to secrecy, and I’m a sophomore pre-med student. I’m damn good at research. We can help. Let us help.”

Foster met his gaze and Tate shrugged. “It’s Cora’s stuff, so it’s up to you.”

“Let’s do this,” Foster said. “Come on. I’ll show you the Batcave. Bring the s’mores.”



* * *



“Okay, seriously. Your crazy daddy is brilliant,” Sabine said, glancing up from a thick file of equations and graphs and medical records. She was sitting on the floor of Cora’s office next to Foster with files spread all around them.

“He’s not my dad,” Foster said.

“Hey, sorry. This has to be really hard for you,” Sabine said.

“No. Yes.” Foster sighed and swept back her thick fall of red hair, retying her ponytail. “It’s hard, but I shouldn’t take it out on you.” She paused and looked from Sabine to Tate and Finn, who were sprawled on the floor beside them. “I shouldn’t take it out on any of you. I just … How about we don’t call him my dad ever again?”

“Done,” Tate said.

“Fine by me. The guy’s an ass,” Finn said.

“Anyone who could hurt Cora and you isn’t worth being called dad,” Sabine said.

“Thanks. So. We’ve been going over this stuff for three hours. I got nothing. How about you?” Foster asked the group.

“This crap is worse than a foreign language,” Finn held up a yellow legal-sized sheet of paper that was filled, front and back, with equation after equation. “It’s an alien language.”

“Tate? Any more revelations?” Foster asked him.

Tate tried not to jump guiltily and was unable to meet her eyes. “Um. No. I need more time, and some, um, biology books.”

“We could go to the library tomorrow,” Finn said. “After I feed. I need to run into Portland anyway. Want to come with me?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Tate said.

“Well, I have an idea, but it doesn’t have anything to do with all this stuff.” Sabine’s sweeping gesture took in the papers spread out on the floor as well as the Batcave, which was filled with more files. “Of the next two kids whose birthdays are in three days we know one of them was born in Louisiana and one was born in North Carolina, right?”

“Yeah, or at least that’s what we think we know,” Tate said.

“What if instead of tracking people we track weather and the state?” Sabine said.

“Explain,” Foster said.

“Tate says the next pair are bonded to water. So let’s watch the weather off the coast of North Carolina and in the Gulf. If the point is to draw the pair together and get them to manifest their element bond, then it seems logical that they would be drawn to one of those two states. Or at least that’s all we have to go on regarding their locations. Both states are on a coast. My guess is in three days one of those states is going to be the site of a major water disaster,” Sabine said.

“Damn, girl! Have I told you lately how sexy it is that you’re so smart?” Finn leaned forward and kissed the back of Sabine’s neck, making her giggle.

“Okay, but what then?” Everyone looked at Tate. “Let’s say that tomor row we hear that there’s a weird hurricane forming off the coast of North Carolina. What do we do? Do we get in a plane and go … where exactly to do what exactly?”

“I think all we can do is watch and wait,” Foster said.

“And let those two water kids walk into something terrible like what happened to us? To our families?” Tate said.

“I don’t know, Tate. I wish I did, but right now all I know is that you and I are safe here, and there are six other kids who aren’t safe, whose families aren’t safe. I want to figure out how to save them, or at the very least how to get to them before the Fucktastic Four grabs them, but I have no clue how to do that. Do any of you?” Foster’s emerald gaze swept the group.

“Do you know where Stewart would take them if he caught them?” Sabine asked.

Foster nodded. “He’d go to his island. It’s just off the coast of Key West. Billionaire patrons bought it for Doctor Rick more than two decades ago. It’s where he was doing human genetic research as well as supposedly figuring out how to genetically alter seaweed to break down plastic and absorb pollution.When I was about…” she paused, thinking back. “Um, eight, I think, the government shut down the human branch of his research. They said he deviated from his declared study and moved to unapproved human trials, so the scientific community basically shunned him. Cora said it was a big deal, but I was too young to really understand much, and he refused to talk about it. All I know is after that he was still conducting the seaweed experiments up until five years ago, when he ‘died.’” She air quoted.

“Who’s on the island now?” Finn asked.

“No one. It’s abandoned and quarantined. There was supposedly some kind of toxic leak from his lab right after Doctor Rick’s fake death,” Foster said.