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"Cohthouse, where Michael and Elton aiting Moving through the saiven Peter, Michael told his sister what he knew When he canal and showed her the words in the logbook, Sara took it from his hands and examined it

"Okay"

Michael frowned "What do you mean ’okay’?"

"Michael, it’s not that I doubt you I’ve known you too long But what are we supposed to do with this information? Colorado is, what, a thousand kilometers from here?"

"About sixteen hundred," Michael said "Give or take"

"So how are we supposed to get there?"

Michael paused He glanced past his sister to Elton, who nodded

"The real problem is what happens if we don’t"

And that hen Michael told them about the batteries

Peter absorbed this neith a strange detach of inevitability Of course the batteries were failing; the batteries had been failing all along He could feel it in everything that had happened; he felt it in the core of hiirl, Amy, the Girl from Nowhere That she had arrived in theirwas more than coincidence All that ree

He became aware that no one had spoken for a while "Who else knows about this?" he asked Michael

"Just us" He hesitated "And your brother"

"You told Theo?"

Michael nodded "I alished I hadn’t He was the one who told me not to tell anyone Which I didn’t, until now"

Of course, Peter was thinking Of course Theo had known

"I think he didn’t want people to be afraid," Michael explained "As long as there wasn’t anything we could do"

"But you think there is"

Michael paused to rub his eyes with the tips of his fingers Peter could see the long hours catching up with him None of them had slept at all

"You knohat I’d do, Peter The signal’s probably automated But if the Army’s still out there, I don’t see hoe can just do nothing If she did what you said at the mall, maybe she could protect us"

Peter turned his face toward Sara After what Michael had just told them, he was surprised to find her so co no ehness

"Sara? You haven’t said anything"

"What do you want me to say?"

"You’ve been with her all this tih "All I knohat she isn’t She’s not a viral, that’s obvious But she’s not an ordinary hu, either Not the way she heals"

"Is there any reason she can’t speak?"

"Nothing I can find If she’s as old as Michael says, otten how"

"And no one else has been in to see her"

"Not since yesterday" She hesitated "I get the feeling everyone’s sort ofafraid of her"

"Are you?"

Sara frowned "Why would I be afraid of her, Peter?"

But he didn’t know The question had felt strange to him even as he’d asked it

Sara rose to her feet "Well, I’et back Ben will start to wonder" She placed a hand on Michael’s shoulder "Try to get some rest You too, Elton The two of you, you look like hell"

She had nearly reached the door when she turned, focusing her attention on Peter again

"You’re not really serious about this, are you? Going to Colorado"

The question see pointed to this conclusion Peter felthim, What’s your vote?

"Because if you were," Sara said, "with the way things are going, I wouldn’t wait et her out of here" And then she slipped frohthouse

In Sara’s absence, a deeper silence settled over the rooht And yet his rasp the totality of what they were conteirl, A hi batteries, which Theo had known about; the e on Michael’s radio, like a transmission that had crossed not just a width of space but ti to them out of the past It was all of a piece, and yet its shape remained elusive, as if son

Peter found hi at Elton The old ht have fallen asleep

"Elton?"

"H to say," he replied, his blank eyes roa upward "You knoho you need to talk to You Jaxon boys, it’s always the same I don’t have to tell you"