Shock and fear washed over Colin. How had they found out all these things? Had someone spilled all the secrets to them? “Are you actually saying you traveled through the Fault Line?” He made his voice hard, wanting to test Tyler. “That you went into the past… and came back? That’s impossible.”
“You calling me a liar?” The boy looked like he was about to jump all over Colin again but Lucinda reached out a hand toward him. “I came back by… I don’t know. I came back the same way I got there. I found the spot I came in and just… thought about going back. Sort of.” He shrugged, at a loss for words.
So it was true. But Colin was only defeated, he realized, if Gideon found out. Otherwise they were just annoying kids. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to tell Gideon Goldring, after all-who knew what information might come out of such an argument?
Lucinda was walking in circles. “Ice age? This is all so crazy! I didn’t even get to tell you what happened to me. Mr. Walkwell-he isn’t even human! He’s some kind of part man, part animal. A faun, I think.”
Tyler stared at her as if she had lost her mind. “What, like Bambi?”
“No, you know, like the guy in what’s-it-called-Narnia.”
“Mr. Walkwell is a lion?” Now Tyler sank down in the dirt beside the cavegirl, shaking his head. “I don’t get it.”
“I’ll explain later, but he’s a goat-man. I think it’s called a faun.”
Oh, they were a cute little comedy act, these two, Colin thought. He would dance for joy when he was finally rid of them. “Not just a faun, but a tutelary spirit,” he said, wiping some of the dirt and blood from his face with the sleeve of his sweater. “To be precise, Mr. Walkwell is the genius loci of Ordinary Farm.” He was feeling his way back to control again. “How did you find out about Mr. Walkwell, Lucinda?”
She told him about the fire, the singing, and the man Mr. Walkwell had captured.
“Stillman?” said Colin. He tried to sound casual, but his heart was thundering. What had he gotten himself into? He had thought he was only manipulating that fat fool Modesto, but Stillman was a billionaire and he wanted the whole farm! Still, it was too late to turn back now. “I think I’ve heard the name, but I can’t imagine what interest he’d have in some little farm like ours.”
“Oh yeah,” sneered Tyler. “Some little farm. Right. Some little farm with dragons and monsters and a hole that leads back a million years into the ice age.”
“You’d better keep your mouth shut about that,” Colin told him. “I won’t be able to save you if you start babbling about visiting the past.”
“What are you talking about? Why should I keep my mouth shut? And why would you want to save me? Especially after I kicked your butt.”
Colin bit back his anger. “After your primitive friend hit me, you mean.” He took a breath. Calm, he told himself. Calm. “Because if you keep your mouth shut and do it my way, Gideon will think it was just an overflow from the Fault Line. It happens occasionally-that’s where the griffin eggs came from, they just showed up one day. Sometimes the Fault Line opens up enough that we could step into it if we dared. Other times it just sort of spits things out. We have to tell him it was one of those situations, because if you tell Gideon you went into the Fault Line on your own and came back, he’ll know you were messing around with the silo and he’ll go completely berserk. He really will kick you out in a heartbeat.”
Lucinda looked upset, but her brother looked suspicious. “That still doesn’t explain why you want to help us. You hate my guts, Needle. Admit it.”
He hesitated. “I’ll admit I don’t like you much, Jenkins. But your sister has been nice to me, and I’d hate to see her punished for something you did.” Which was just true enough that he could say it with convincing feeling: Lucinda had been kind to him. Colin wasn’t used to it.
Lucinda Jenkins looked at her brother with an expression almost of triumph, an expression that said, See? I told you! She turned to Colin and smiled. “Thank you, Colin. That’s generous of you.”
He felt a little bad-but only a little. “Well, if you agree, we’d better figure out how we’re going to explain that”- thug, he thought, looking at the creature who had hit him; but he didn’t say the word, only gestured-“to Gideon.”
“Hang on,” said Tyler. “That’s all fine, but how can Gideon afford to get rid of us, anyway? We know all about this place now. We could tell everyone what we’ve seen.”
Colin laughed. “He wouldn’t just let you go. He’d have my mother brew up one of her special medicines and adjust your memories. She’s good at that-it’s sort of like hypnotism. She’s had to do it with a couple of government inspectors over the years.” He couldn’t help noticing that Lucinda’s expression had completely changed. The girl was looking at him as though she had just remembered he was a space alien who wanted to eat her. “Lucinda? Did I say something that upset you?”
“N-no,” she said, shaking her head rapidly. “No, Colin. Go on.”
He had no idea what that was about, but he didn’t have time to waste worrying about it. He was trying to get this whole disastrous night back under control. Colin couldn’t afford anything that would upset his plans before he met with Modesto again; there could be no more excitement on the farm, no more upheavals, starting now.
Both Jenkins kids were watching him, waiting to hear what he said next. The cavegirl who had almost knocked his head in now crouched beside them, cowed and anxious. With nothing but his wits, Colin had taken control of a bad situation and was back in charge.
He was very proud of himself.
Chapter 22
At Last, Some Answers
U ncle Gideon was wearing his bathrobe and slippers, as usual. Several days’ growth of gray beard furred his cheeks and he smelled more than a little stale, like clothes that had been hanging in a damp bathroom for a couple of days. Still, his wits seemed as sharp as ever: after Tyler finished telling his story (or at least the carefully crafted version Colin had prepared, in which Tyler was an innocent victim of the Fault Line instead of someone who had broken the rules to explore the silo), Gideon stared at him for several moments with open suspicion. It was all Tyler could do not to squirm under that disbelieving gaze.
He didn’t like letting Colin Needle call the shots on this, but he was glad he didn’t have to tell anyone about Octavio Tinker’s diary or any of the other things he and Lucinda had collected. And now that he was facing his great-uncle’s mistrustful gaze, Tyler had to admit that the last thing he wanted to be telling Gideon Goldring was the actual truth.
“Well… that’s quite some news,” Gideon said at last, straightening in his chair. “So the Fault Line is active again-just conjured up an ice age for a few minutes and spewed out this young woman? How lucky for you, Tyler, that the manifestation barely touched you-how lucky for all of us! I don’t know what I would have told your mother if we’d lost you instead of gaining a new farmhand.” He looked entertained by the idea in a sour sort of way, then grinned at Tyler and Lucinda. “But now you two know our biggest secret! You should be honored.”
Tyler was still shivering a little. Honored! I could have been killed! In all the excitement that fact had kind of escaped him until now. Okay, maybe it was my own fault, but they ought to have warning signs up around that thing!
Most of the farm folk had gathered in the kitchen. The cavegirl had already fallen into the gentle clutches of Sarah and the rest of the kitchen staff, who had taken her off to bathe her and dress her in something more suitable to a California summer than her heavy, greasy animal hides. Tyler wondered whether she would really become a farmhand-obviously, no one had asked the girl whether that was what she wanted.
As if sensing Tyler’s thoughts, Gideon said, “Now, what shall we name our newest arrival?”
“She’s got a name-she’s called Last One.”