Six (30 page)

“Can I go look at the fish?” said Lily loudly, her back turned to the back of the room.
“Please?”

“Sit down, Lily,” muttered her mother.

Grace laughed. “It's fine. She can go and look. Just be careful.”

Lily looked at her mother, who smiled and nodded. Lily beamed, jumped, and picked up her small red backpack carefully with both hands.

“You can leave it here,” said her mother.

Grace hesitated for a moment and then nodded. She ran off.

Parker turned his attention back to Grace.

“Good evening, everybody, and welcome. We're delighted you're all here with us today, and we hope that your journey to SIX will be pleasant and smooth. Yes?”

Parker turned and saw that the jumpy man had his arm in the air.

“Where is SIX?”

A few people—
I
s, Parker guessed, shifted uncomfortably and looked away. Grace, however, seemed unfazed by the question.

“It will all be explained soon. I'm afraid at the moment I'm not at liberty to say anything for security reasons—just in case any of you should choose to leave before we board.”

“Does that happen much?” asked the bearded man.

Grace shook her head. “Never, but we still have to be cautious.”

Parker wondered if backing out at this point was really an option.

Grace turned to the three men at her side. “This is David,” she said, introducing the older man, who smiled and gave a small wave. Grace leaned forward to look past him. “And William and Nathan. If you need anything at all or have any questions, they'll be more than happy to help.”

She turned back to face the passengers.

“Your luggage has already been delivered to the cargo hold, and we'll be ready to leave as soon as we've run through security.”

Parker felt himself tense at the mention of security.

“We'll be calling passengers up to board by name. It shouldn't take too long. In the meantime, please do help yourselves to the complimentary drinks and snacks.” She pointed to a full cart parked at the end of the first row of seats. “And one last thing. The bathrooms are over there, if you need to go, so please do make use of them before you board. Now, if there's anything . . .”

Something seemed to have caught Grace's eye, and everyone turned to see what it was.

“Why is the bag moving?” she asked. She was looking at the red backpack on the empty seat.

Parker couldn't see what Grace meant. Lily's mother looked down at the backpack with a confused look on her face and shrugged. “I don't see anything moving.”

As soon as she spoke, the backpack shunted a fraction to the right and stopped again.

Lily's parents' eyes widened, and her father's head snapped around to the back.

“Lily!”

Lily, who was kneeling down by the pool of water, looked up.

“Come here!”

Lily stood up slowly and started to walk over. She look terrified.

“Now!”

Lily jumped and ran over.

“What's in there?” asked Lily's father.

Lily looked down at the backpack.

“Nothing,” she whispered.

Her father reached over and picked up the bag. Lily's bottom lip began to wobble as her father zipped it open and, with a disapproving glance up at Lily, pulled out a small cardboard box with holes in the top of it.

“I didn't want to leave him,” said Lily.

Grace walked over to the family and watched as the father opened up the top of the box.

“Oh!” said Grace. “Oh, dear.”

Lily's mother turned to her daughter as her father began to apologize to Grace.

“What were you thinking, Lily? We told you he couldn't come.”

Parker tried to get a look inside the open box.

Can you see?
asked Emma on Effie.

Parker shook his head.

Grace sighed and knelt down next to Lily.

“Honey, I'm so sorry—but he can't come with us.”

Lily looked up at her father. “Daddy? Please?”

She started to sob, and her mother took her hand and pulled her onto her lap. She stroked her hair as her father turned to Grace.

“Is there no way? It's only a hamster,” he said.

Grace shook her head. “I'm sorry. The instructions were very clear—no pets at all. You'll have to leave him.”

She leaned forward and took the box from Lily's father's hands.

“No!” screamed Lily. She tried to reach forward, but her mother held her tightly.

Parker watched as Grace handed the box to William and whispered something in his ear. William nodded and walked away, leaving Lily screaming and sobbing behind her.

Parker heard muffled sobs. He turned to see Emma with her head down beside him, her body shaking with her sobs.

Emma? What's wrong?

Emma didn't answer. Instead she covered her head with her hands and kept crying.

Emma? Tell me what's wrong.

Finally, Emma lifted her head. She stared at Parker for a moment, her eyes red and her cheeks wet with her tears.

What's the matter?

I'm going to miss Polly,
she said. And then she began to cry again.

Parker, not knowing what else to do, patted his sister awkwardly on the back.

She'll be okay,
he said.
Michael will take care of her.

Emma nodded but didn't say anything back as Grace stood up and walked over to the long counter on the side of the room. She returned almost immediately, holding three purple drawstring bags.

Grace knelt down in front of Lily, who was still crying.

“Here you go, sweetie,” said Grace.

Lily looked at the bag and then started crying loudly again.

Lily's mother took the bag. “Thank you,” she said.

Grace placed her hand gently on Lily's mother's shoulder. “Why don't you take her over to the back until she calms down. We'll call you in a little while.”

Lily's mother nodded, and she and her husband stood up.

“Poor kid,” muttered a woman behind them.

Parker turned his head to watch as they made their way over to the pond at the back, when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Grace walking over to where he was sitting.

“Here you go, honey,” said Grace as she handed Emma one of the purple bags. “Are you okay?” she said upon seeing Emma's face.

“She's nervous,” mumbled Parker.

Grace nodded. “You'll be fine,” she said to Emma gently. She turned to Parker. “Would you like one too?”

Parker nodded, took the remaining bag, and then quietly thanked her. Grace smiled and walked back over to the counter where David, the older of the three male Avecto employees, was already waiting. Parker opened up the bag. Inside he found a coloring book, pens, candy, cards, and a handheld electronic game player.

He pulled it out and showed it to Emma, who gave a small smile and then turned back to her thoughts, leaving the purple bag unopened on her lap.

Parker didn't get to play his new game for long. They were the first to be called.

“Here we go,” said Solomon. He had been surprisingly quiet since arriving at the terminal. Parker wondered if this had something to do with him commenting on his accent.

They walked over to the counter.

“I'll take this one,” said David. “James is an old friend of the family.”

Solomon nodded.

“Ah, how nice!” said Grace. She looked down at the list in her hand and called out another name as David ushered them over to a computer farther along the counter.

“You have all the papers with you?” asked David.

Parker nodded and placed the stack of passports and papers that Solomon had given him on the counter.

David checked the passports but made no comment on the fact that the pictures clearly didn't match any one of them. Parker stood in silence as David began to tap on his keyboard. He looked up and handed the passports and tickets back to Parker.

“You're all set. If you just go to William over there, he'll show you to your seats.”

“Thank you,” said Solomon in a quiet voice. “Thank you so much.”

David looked down at his screen. “You're welcome,” whispered David. “It's good to see you again, Dr. Gladstone.”

“Thank you,” said Solomon. He turned and let Emma lead him over to the open doors where William was waiting. They were halfway across the room when they crossed paths with Grace, leading one of the women passengers over to the counter.

Grace stopped and placed her hand on Solomon's arm. “Have a wonderful journey,” she said with a bright smile.

Solomon smiled. “Thank you . . . you . . . you . . . you . . . you . . .”

Parker's eyes widened in horror as Grace watched Solomon with a look of growing concern on her face as he continued to repeat the word
you
over and over.

Solomon had no choice. He raised his hand, and Parker and Emma tensed as he slapped the back of his head and let out a loud shout.

“Alberta!”

Startled, Grace jumped back—just as Solomon broke into song.

“Albertaaaa! I'll miss you, Alberta! My beautiful land . . .”

Solomon nudged Emma to move on, and the three of them quickly walked off, leaving Grace behind them, looking perplexed.

Solomon stopped singing and breathed a quiet sigh but said nothing as they approached William. He took their tickets from Parker.

“Follow me,” said William.

Parker's nerves returned as they walked through the doorway into a long black corridor, past four closed doors marked
SAPPHIRE
,
DIAMOND
,
TOPAZ
, and
RUBY
. They stopped at the door marked
EMERALD
. William pressed a gold button, and the doors opened to reveal another long corridor with silver metal doors running along both sides.

“We've put you all together in one of the family rooms,” explained William. He led them down to the end of the corridor and pressed another button. The door opened to reveal four narrow black leather beds side by side in the center of the room.

“You don't need to do anything at all,” said William. “Just lie down on the beds. You can leave your bags and anything else you don't want to carry on you anywhere on the floor—they'll be there when you arrive. There's no need to stay completely still, but we'd prefer it if you didn't move around too much.”

William pointed up to a large white rectangle that took up most of the ceiling.

“The screen above you will turn on in a moment and show you a film—it will tell you when we're ready to go—” William stopped. “Oh. Sorry, sir. I wasn't thinking. The film has full audio too—you won't miss anything.”

“Thank you,” said Solomon.

“Is that all okay? Do you have any questions?”

Solomon shook his head. “No, we're fine.”

“Do you need me to help you onto the bed?”

“No, no. My daughter can help me. Thank you.”

“All right, then. Your flight will leave first—in about ten minutes,” said William. “If you need anything at all, there's a button by your headrests to call for assistance. Enjoy the flight.”

Solomon thanked him and William left the room. He waited until the doors had closed, and then he turned to Emma and Parker.

“We did it.” He smiled.

Parker and Emma were too nervous to smile back.

“Ten minutes?” asked Parker.

“They don't want passengers getting restless. It will be fine,” said Solomon. He walked over to the first bed and lay down.

Parker hesitated for a moment and then lay down on the bed next to Solomon. Emma took the one next to him. She turned to face him, and Parker felt his wrist buzz.

This is weird,
said Emma.

I know. So weird.

I thought they'd put wires on us or something,
said Emma.

Parker smiled.
Maybe it's a television show—one of those ones that pulls pranks on people, and in a moment Dad's going to walk in laughing with a camera crew.

Emma's mouth dropped open.
I bet that's it!
Oh no, Parker! We're going to look like idiots.

Parker rolled his eyes.
Dad would never do that to us. That's, like, the meanest prank ever.

Maybe Dad didn't know about it.

Emma. It was a joke. A television show would not kidnap Dad.

I don't know. Remember that show where a man pretended that he'd died and then he jumped up in his coffin when everybody was crying at the funeral?

Okay. That was pretty bad. But this isn't like that—I know it isn't.

Emma didn't look convinced.
Fine. But, if it is, we'll pretend like we knew it was a prank all along. Okay?

Fine,
said Parker.

There was a pause.

Parker?

Yes?

I'm scared.

Parker responded before he'd had a chance to mute his thought.
I'm scared too.

Really?

A bit. But it will be fine. Let's just lie back and pretend we're at the cinema. I'm going to try to sleep.

Sleep?

Well, maybe not sleep—just rest. Thinking about things isn't going to help. Try it.

Okay,
said Emma. She smiled at him as she pressed down on her wrist to end the call, then turned to face upward. Parker watched her close her eyes, then he turned to do the same.

*  *  *  *  *  *

After only a few minutes the silence in the room was broken by the sound of lapping waves. Parker opened his eyes and watched as the screen above him brightened. A gentle beach scene appeared—not unlike the one they had seen on the video Lina had given them.