Escape Velocity

Chapter Twenty-three

The ringing broke the silence; it was Melisse. I didn't want to interact with anyone. Not Melisse. Not Duncan. Not even Christina. It was weird for her to call instead of text but that's what mute buttons were for.

It wasn't easy to process my great-grandmother's joy over Ginevra's birth, a joy she kept separate from the truth about the father, about how she was torn from her home, about the loss of her parents. And to learn of the other baby's death so soon after. It could've been a tragic novel, but it was real life.

The voicemail notification pinged, then a text from Melisse popped up on the screen: "911 Call me!"

Duncan swiveled to look at me. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. Some emergency. I'll listen to the message."

"Call her. There'll be two more texts before you're finished if you don't. You know how she is."

"Melisse, hey, it's...What? What do you mean 'lost'? Where? Slow down. Let me put you on speaker. Okay, start from the beginning."

"It's Kate. She's lost in a cave. According to Ben, she asked him to suggest an adventure. He picked caving. Even though the jerk doesn't have much experience."

"Why would she do that? It's just nuts to gamble with her Parallax evaluation."

Melisse's voice crackled over the phone connection. "Says the girl who's been AWOL for almost eight hours."

"But I had a good reason."

Duncan interjected. "It doesn't matter why. It matters that they find her."

Of course. This wasn't about me being right. It wasn't about me at all. "So, they're lost? In a cave?"

"No. Well, yes and no. Kate's lost. Ben isn't." Melisse took sharp breaths every few words. "They got separated. Ben found his way out. Kate didn't."

"That creep. I can't believe he left Kate behind," I said.

"He had to. He left to call for help. Their phones didn't work in the caves."

Duncan took one hand off the steering wheel and rubbed my neck. "She can't be that deep into the cave."

Melisse said, "But you don't understand. When Ben tried to find her, she was moving away from him. He said her voice became fainter until he couldn't hear her."

Duncan said, "Search and Rescue will be able to find her."

Static garbled Melisse's words. When it was clear again, I heard her say, "They can't go further into the cave. I guess she crawled through a slender opening and the rescuers were too big. And there's water from the heavy rains this week. Part of the access is flooded."

Why would Kate do this? What if she ruined her chance at the program? It didn't make sense.

But Kate had finally done me a favor. Potentially a very big favor. It was a chance to show what my bot could do.

"FetchBot can be rigged to search for her. We can use my phone as the video interface with your phone."

"You aren't listening, Savanna. Cell phones aren't working in the caves. Any other options?"

"I have an idea. I mean, it's way out there. If my idea has any chance of working, Dr. Brunello and Dr. Seabron will be involved. It relates to those joint experiments we've been doing. You'll have to tell them."

"Tell them what?"

"That I've been gone and you need their help until I'm back."

It was the shortest Steve's Sure-Fire Semi-Secret Stratagem I ever used: I'd either save Kate or save myself. I couldn't hate Kate so much that I would refuse to help, even if I got kicked out of Parallax for my little off-site adventure.