Nightlights: Guardians of the Edge

9.7: Winding Threads

Getting Jehane to Mexico City wasn't as quick or easy as anybody hoped, and neither Seth nor Ajax were allowed to go with her. Kwan went instead.

"This isn't the time for anybody with a dodgy record to be climbing on an international flight," Kwan said as he checked through some papers at the Texas portal.

"They've got better things to worry about," protested Ajax.

"You don't think they'd be looking for anybody they can connect to the previous event in Detroit? You and Seth were both highly visible."

"You were there, too! And Jehane should be as recognizable as Hatherly."

Kwan quirked a smile. "And if we were going through Asia, I'd be concerned. As for Jehane..." he looked at where Jehane sat quietly, staring at her hands. Some of the other girls had done their best to transform her from the quiet, unaffected schoolgirl into something else, with all the magic makeup and nice clothing and a haircut could conjure, but none of that could change her body language. She was frightened of anchoring the new gate, Ajax knew, and Elian wasn't making it any easier on her with his hesitant assurances that it would probably be safe.

Kwan sighed. "Well, she's a girl. She wasn't fighting. And we have no choice if we want to open a portal to Mexico City. Don't be pests; you'll get to be useful once the portal is reactivated."

And then they left. And Ajax and Seth waited. And waited.

"Shouldn't they be there already?" Ajax demanded the next morning, as Jake re-emerged from the portal with his tablet.

"If they hadn't run into complications, like the city dealing with a catastrophe straight out of a sci-fi movie, that would be true. Have you downloaded the news update, Elian?"

"Yes. Processing it now."

Jake tapped on his tablet then passed it to Seth. "They've photographed Hatherly and Tainter. Nobody's officially talking about them yet but the bloggers are making their own connections. The monsters and the portal itself is still the major story—alien invasion—but the parallel narrative of another terrorist attack is slowly growing."

"It's both," Ajax pointed out. "The wildlife and the gate are alien."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," said Seth, scanning the tablet screen.

Ajax ignored him. "Are they evacuating the city?"

Jake shook his head. "Mexico City is way too big and way too important to the global economy to just abandon. And the portal opened up in a poor hospital, in a less prosperous side of town. The military is working on barricading the colonia in question. They're having some trouble getting near the gate itself, which I suppose we must be grateful for."

Elian said quietly, "If somebody can get near the gate—I've been working on something. A gizmo. I might be able to shut the gate down remotely, but the device has to interact with the Tower Effa ghost, which is currently contained within the virtual space of the portal itself. I think."

Jake nodded, took back his tablet from Seth, and made a note on it.

"No sign of anybody else from Hatherly's crew?" asked Ajax.

Jake shook his head, and Seth grinned. "But I bet Natalie took advantage of the confusion to get away, or else why would we be even having this chat? The gate isn't what everybody's been telling us he'd do."

"I wonder what her state of mind is, though," said Jake soberly.

"We'll have to find her and see," said Ajax grimly. "Jehane seemed to break through to Malachi just by talking to him."