It plunged straight downward, maybe twenty feet, to the river below. “Oh, great,” Aly said.
I looked north and south. In both directions, the ridge angled downward until it eventually met the riverbed. “We’ll be okay if we go sideways,” I said.
I went to the edge and looked over. I eyed the tangle of trees, roots, and bushes along the steep drop. Since Marco had taught us to rock climb, steep embankments didn’t scare me as much as they used to. This looked way easier than climbing Mount Onyx.
“Maybe there’s a shortcut,” I said. Quickly I stepped over the edge, digging my toes into a sturdy root. I turned so my chest would be facing the cliff. Holding on to a branch, I descended another step.
“Whoa, Jack, don’t,” Cass said.
I laughed. “This is ea—”
My foot slipped. My chin hit the dirt. I slid downward, grasping frantically. My fingers closed around branches and vines. I pulled out about a dozen, and a dozen more slipped through my hand. I felt my foot hit a root and I caromed outward, landing at the bottom, hard on my back.
Aly’s face was going in and out of focus. I could have sworn she was trying to hold back a smile. “Are you hurt?”
“Just resting,” I lied.
“I think I’ll look for a path,” Cass called down.
I closed my eyes and lay still, my breath buzzsawing in my chest. I heard a dull moan, and I figured it must have been my own voice.
But when I heard it again, my eyes blinked open.
I sat up. Aly and Cass were just below the crest of the ridge, trying to make their way down. They were both shouting. But my eyes were focused on a thick, brownish-green bush, maybe ten yards away.
A pair of shoes jutted from underneath.
I ran to them, grabbed the ankles, and pulled. The legs slid out—Ohio State Buckeye sweatpants—and then a ripped-up KI polo shirt.
From above, Fiddle shouted at me to give him CPR. How did you do CPR? I wished I’d taken a course. All I could think about were scenes in TV shows—one person blowing air into another’s lungs.
As I lowered my mouth carefully, his eyes flickered open from a deep sleep. “Jack? Hey, bro. I didn’t know you cared.”
I sprang back. “What the—how—you were—we thought—” I stammered.
“Spit it out,” Marco said, sitting up. “I’ve got time. I’ve been waiting for you. It gets boring here all alone.”
He was fine. Resting in the shade, that’s all! I helped him up and bear-hugged him. “Woooo-hooo!”
Footsteps pounded the dirt behind me. Aly and Cass ran down a path from the lower side of the ridge. They had taken the long way around.
“Dudes!” Marco yelled. “And dudette.”
As they jumped on him, laughing, and squealing with relief, I stepped back. My initial joy was wearing off as quickly as it had come. Our reaction seemed somehow wrong.
I watched his face, all pleased with himself, all happy-go-lucky returning hero. Everything we’d been through, all the hardship in Rhodes, the abandonment, the awful visit to Ohio—it all began to settle over me like a coat of warm tar. I flashed back to the last time I saw him, in a room at a hotel in Rhodes. With Cass lying unconscious on a bed.
He’d skipped out on us. As if flying off with our only chance of survival was some kind of game. He hadn’t cared about anyone at the Karai Institute. Or how many lives he’d turned upside down.
“Brother Jack?” Marco said curiously, staring out at me from the hugfest. “’Sup? You need a bathroom?”
I shook my head. “I need an explanation. Like, when did you come up with the idea to find a Loculus by yourself? Just, whoosh, hey, I’ll go to Iraq and be a hero?”
“I can explain,” Marco said.
“Do you have any idea what we’ve been through?” I barked. “We just got back from Ohio.”
“Wait. Did you—go to my house?” he asked, his eyes widening.
I explained everything—our trip to Lemuel, the visit to the house, the expressions on his mom and dad and sister’s faces. I could see Marco’s eyes slowly redden. “I … I can’t believe this …” he murmured.
“Jack, maybe we can talk about this later,” Aly urged.
But Marco was sinking against the trunk of a pine tree, massaging his forehead. “I—I never wanted to go home. I remember how painful it was for Aly when she tried to call her mom.” He took a deep breath. “Why did you go there? Why didn’t you just follow my signal here? That’s what I thought you’d do.”
“Your tracker malfunctioned,” I said. “It was off for a couple of days.”
“Really?” Marco cocked his head. “So you risked everything and went to the States? For me? Wow. I guess you’re right, I do owe you an explanation …”
“We’re all ears,” Aly said. “Start from Rhodes.”
“Yeah … that hotel room …” Marco said. “It was hot, the TV shows were all in Greek, Cass was asleep. All I wanted to do was take a break. You know, hop on the old Loculus, maybe scare a few goats and come right back—”
“Goats?” I said. “Cass was in a coma!”
“Dumbest thing I ever did. I know,” Marco said. “I’m a moron. I admit it. But it gets worse. So I’m flying around, and I get distracted by this little island called Nísyros. Looks like a volcano from the air, hot girls on the beach, you know. I swoop in close, make people scream. Fun times. Only when I get back, Cass isn’t in the room anymore. I panic. But you guys are probably already flying away. I figure, great, you’ve abandoned me.”
“Did you actually say ‘hot girls’?” Aly said, her face curdling with disdain.
“So I figure I’ll race you back,” Marco went on. “But how do I get back to the island of the KI Geeks? It’s halfway between nowhere and the Bermuda Triangle. And then I hear something. This voice. And here’s where it gets complicated. And awesome.” He paused, looking around.
“Ahoy, there!” came Professor Bhegad’s voice. Fiddle was pushing him down a sandy path, about forty yards away.
“He’s here?” Marco said, looking confused. “Wait. Four Karai peeps?”
