"That would be an affirmative." Then he took the stick out of his ass. "Ironic, isn't it? In light of my allegations against him?"
"Yeah. There seems to be a whole lot of that ironic shit going on around here lately."
Whatever the hell that meant. Ordinarily, Zach would have demanded to know. He also would have picked up on the odd note in John's voice and hounded him unmercifully until he discovered what had put it there. But right now he had more important matters on his mind. "You have any contacts you can tap around here? I know this is out of your usual area, but I need to know if there are whispers of anything going down." He rammed his fingers through his hair. "God, John, I'm groping around blind—I don't even know where Glynnie and her boyfriend were snatched. It could have been anywhere between here and home. The guy's mother was too hysterical to give me any details."
"So hopefully she'll slam down a tranq or two that'll guarantee her a good night's sleep, and you'll learn more in the morning when she's had time to calm down," John said. "Meanwhile, you try to get some rest, too, and I'll get cracking and see what I can find. Let me have a number where I can reach you. No, wait, that's probably not a great idea—you'll want to keep the lines clear so the kidnappers can get through. Jesus, Zach, you gotta drag yourself into the twenty-first century here; you're about the only guy I know who still doesn't own a cell phone. But, okay, never mind that," he muttered, and Zach could practically smell the circuits burning in Rocket's brain. "We can work around it. Give me a call tomorrow, late morning, and I'll let you know what I've found."
"Thanks, John." His gratitude was profoundly sincere, but to counteract the almost embarrassing degree of emotion that swept through him, he cleared his throat and said with deliberate lightness, "I could just plant a big wet one right on your lips."
"Not in this lifetime, pal." Then John's voice went dead serious. "You keep the faith, Zachariah. And let me and Coop know if you require our physical presence up there. He says it's about a five-hour drive from here. What?" A quiet exchange occurred off John's end of the line, then he spoke back into the receiver. "Ice said to tell you we can be there a helluva lot sooner than that if we charter a plane. So let us know."
When they said good-bye and hung up a moment later, Zach felt better. It didn't make sense, since he wasn't any closer to getting his sister back than he'd been ten minutes ago. But at least he'd started the ball rolling. And it was… comforting, somehow, to touch base with friends.
He paced his room for a while, then prepared for bed. He didn't expect to get much sleep, but at least it gave him a goal, and after stripping down to his skivvies, he grabbed his ditty bag and headed for the bathroom.
He stopped inside the door. Wonderful. Just his freaking luck. It wasn't bad enough he and Lily had been given rooms right next door to each other, but they shared this bath, too, and she'd obviously already put it to use before him. It was warm, steamy, and fragrant with woman-scent, and she had stuff spread out from one end of the counter to the other. Zach simply stood and stared at the clutter for a moment, recalling Coop saying that John had information on her, which Zach had then failed to collect. It wasn't like him to let the details slide.
Then his shoulders hitched in a minute shrug. So big whoop. He'd find out what it was tomorrow. Reaching out, he picked up a fancy little pot and turned it end for end to peer at its labels. He unscrewed its lid and sniffed the contents before closing it up again and setting it back where he'd found it. Next, he picked up a shiny golden tube. Damn. He shook his head as he pulled the top off a creamy red lipstick and swivelled it up to its full extension. Women sure as hell packed a heap of shit with them. His own ditty bag was downright spartan in comparison.
Carefully he restored and replaced the lipstick, then took a step back with his hands up to keep from messing with anything else. He reached for his own bag and hauled out a toothbrush and toothpaste, then brushed his teeth and knocked back three aspirin. Glancing at the damp towel spread out over the curtain rod across the tub, and at the water-massage shower-head beyond it, he decided to put off his own shower until tomorrow. But around four in the morning, when he got tired of flip-flopping from one side to the other for what felt like the hundredth time, he got up and took a long, hot shower after all. By the time he finally dropped off it was nearly five a.m.
The sun beat down on Zach's head, and the airfield's tarmac beneath his feet felt soft and gooey in the fierce African heat. He was hot and sweaty, and his arms ached from holding his squirmy, five-month-old baby sister. She'd drooled all over his chest, she kept chewing on the pocket's flap, and everywhere her sturdy little body touched his, a furnace-like heat molded his white cotton shirt and khaki shorts to his skin in soggy, misery-producing patches. To top it off, the bug bite on his left leg just below her drumming foot itched like crazy. His stomach churned with such queasy anxiety he feared he might throw up.
He swallowed to hold down the nausea and ignored his discomfort as he stared up at his parents. "Don't make me go," he pleaded one last time. They were sending him away from the only home he knew, and he'd give anything, do anything, to change their minds. "The flight attendants can take care of Glynnie." He stared imploringly at his father, then his mother. When he caught her glancing at her watch, he knew his entreaty had fallen on deaf ears in that quarter. So he concentrated on his dad. "Please, Papa. You said yourself that Grandfather will be waiting to meet the plane. Let the flight attendants hand Glynnie over to him. You don't need me there for that."
"She'll be growing up in a strange land, son, and you're her big brother. I'm counting on you to keep her safe."
Zach's chin jutted. "It's not fair! I'm eleven; what the heck can I do? It's not like I know this Philadelphia place the way I do the veldt. It's Grandfather's territory. Let him keep her safe."
"He will. But he's getting up there in years, so she'll need your strength and stamina as well."
"But if he's old, don't you think two kids might be too much for him? Girls are easy—just send him Glynnie. Boys are nothing but trouble. They wear a body down." He should know, he'd heard his mother say so often enough.
She frowned down at him now. "Don't argue with your father. You're going, and that's the end of this discussion." But, bending, she kissed his forehead, and he closed his eyes to savor the unusual caress.
When she straightened she smoothed back a lock of his hair that had fallen forward. "It won't be so bad, darling." Then she looked at his father. "Peter, we should be going; I want to check that appendix in the village. Zachariah, be a good boy for your grandparents. Take care of your sister. We'll come see both of you very soon."
Suddenly he was on the airplane, buckled into his seat with the damn baby back to gnawing on his pocket as he pressed his face to the porthole window. He watched his parents walk away before the plane even taxied to the runway. Turning from the sight of their departing backs, he glared down at his sister, hot resentment rising in his throat. This was all her fault. Things had been fine before she was born. If it wasn't for her…
But when her lip quivered and she started to whimper as the plane hurtled down the runway and rose into the sky, he pulled her up against his chest to comfort her. Her damp little arms clung around his neck, and he cuddled her close and whispered reassurances as, staring out the small window, he watched everything he'd ever known dwindle to the size of a dime, then disappear.
With a sharp inhalation of air, Zach jerked awake. He blinked, his eyes stinging with unshed tears and his stomach hollow with a remembered sense of abandonment. Then he just lay there, staring blankly up at the ceiling as he sucked in and blew out deep, even breaths to bring his heart rate back down within its normal range.