Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
She leaned in a little closer. “My view,” she said, tone conspiratorial, “is that Raintree’s exhausted the market in the state and nearby areas—the tourism would be so much stronger if the falcons did an air show, but they just say no whenever the town council asks.”
Eleri couldn’t imagine the boy she’d met putting on a show for anyone, but she nodded along with the innkeeper. “So there aren’t any Psy here already?” That’d derail her entire theory of this being the Sandman’s base of operations.
“Oh no, I never meant that!” Mi-ja corrected at once. “There’s Ralph out by the far canyon wall—I think the man is half-crazy, but he’s not the only one like that around here. Got a few full-crazy old human coots, too.”
Then, as Eleri listened, the innkeeper ran through a number of other Psy who called Raintree home—including two young teachers who’d landed jobs at the local high school around the time of the first murder, and several more who worked in a facility at the other end of town that made high-tech components for flying craft.
“Owned by the falcons,” the innkeeper was saying. “Biggest employer in town, and they don’t discriminate on who they hire as long as you have the skills. Been around, oh, twenty years at least.”
Despite Mi-ja’s belief in the falcons’ hiring practices, Eleri had a feeling that if she dug deeper, she’d find firewalls built into the system to ensure no proprietary information ever leaked to the Psy—which meant no Psy with high-level access inside the facility.
Its success over a long period confirmed the latter for her—because prior to the fall of Silence and the Council, the Psy had had a bad habit of not just stealing the work of others, but believing it their right due to their status as the “superior” race.
Whether that deep-rooted sense of superiority would change after the fall of Silence was an open question—but the current dangerous instability in the PsyNet would seem to make any such delusions moot.
Their “superior” race was in danger of total extinction.
Eleri should have been concerned about the fall of the psychic network she needed for survival, but that would’ve required a depth of feeling of which she was no longer capable. All she had left in her was the drive to finish this last task, a droplet of penance in an unfillable bowl.
“Do the falcons build aircraft?”
“Oh no, not here. Though I think Adam’s people do own part of a company way out in…I can’t remember where. They…”
The rest of the other woman’s words faded in the static inside Eleri’s brain.
My name is Adam.
She’d known WindHaven called this place home, had guessed the boy she’d met a decade ago…not a boy now, not anymore, might be in residence, but the confirmation still hit like a punch to the gut, the reverberation strong enough to seep through the wall of numbness inside her mind.
Then she realized what Mi-ja had implied. “Adam’s people? He’s the alpha?” Eleri had access to multiple databases, could have long ago searched for his name, but she’d never been able to make herself take that step.
It would’ve simply been further acid dripping into an already open wound.
“Wing leader,” Mi-ja corrected. “Yes, took over from Aria when she passed.” Her face fell. “She was a good friend to me, his grandmother. Used to complain I talked like a myna bird.” A shaky smile. “But she never minded, said she liked how I always managed to draw out even the shyest person.”
A flicker in Eleri’s mind, a clear memory of a fierce woman with snow-white hair and a steel-straight spine wearing multiple turquoise and silver bracelets. Her arms had been thin but strong as she took an angry and grief-stricken young man into her embrace, his long silky hair falling down her back as he buried his face against her neck.
Eleri had been too far away to hear what she’d said, but Adam had stopped his attempts to get at Reagan and Eleri, his rage banked.
“…over by the school.”
Eleri emerged back into the conversation to realize Mi-ja had moved on to another topic altogether, but she didn’t interrupt until it became clear the other woman wasn’t going to return to talk about the Psy in town.
Eleri nudged her back to the topic with a couple of subtle questions.
At the end of it, she realized Raintree had far more Psy residents than she’d guessed. Per Mi-ja, the Dewdrop Diner was the best place to meet at least a few of them.
“Sally—she’s the owner and chief cook—well, she went ahead and made up a whole Psy-friendly menu. She’s like me, getting ready to welcome a lot more Psy visitors. Psy menu’s real light on any kind of flavorings. You should try it.”
“Thank you,” Eleri said. “It sounds like the ideal place to get a meal.” In truth, she ate like a machine these days—just enough calories to keep her going, keep her strong enough to do her self-imposed work.