Jenna leapt away in shock. “I’m sorry!” she stammered. “I just want to help! Are you OK?”
He didn’t respond, but he did start chanting again. “No, no, no, no, no . . .” his voice droned on as if to ward off some kind of danger that Jenna couldn’t see. She really needed help. She wasn’t sure what to do, though. Could she go down to the lobby? Would he be OK if she left? She pulled out her flipcom, but she had even worse reception inside the emergency stairwell.
She had been debating for only a few moments when she heard someone’s pounding footsteps hurrying up the stairs. She heaved a sigh of relief. She could get some help!
“Hello?” she called out. “Can you hear me?”
The footsteps slowed but didn’t stop.
“Jenna?” a familiar voice called back, confused. Suddenly, the man on the floor stopped chanting and raised his head.
“Jimmy?” he whispered hoarsely.
Jenna’s eyes widened in surprise, but she regained enough of her presence of mind to answer. “Yes, it’s me! I’m just a little higher, here with a man who needs help!” The pounding continued, and Jenna saw a torchlight bob into view around the bend in the flight of stairs.
Jimmy ran straight up to them, though he had the sense to train his torchlight lower to the ground, and he didn’t trip over the man as Jenna had.
“Jax!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing out here?”
“The storm,” the man muttered.
Jimmy took his arm, and Jenna noticed that he didn’t shriek at Jimmy’s touch. “Let’s get you back home, OK?” Jimmy flashed his torch at Jenna. “How about you? You OK?”
“Fine,” Jenna responded, trying to sound confident. She was burning up with curiosity, though. Who was the mysterious man named Jax? Jimmy had never once mentioned him, but clearly the two had a relationship of some kind.
“Wait here for me, will you?” Jimmy asked. “Let me get Jax back into his apartment, and then I’ll come walk you down.”
He pulled open the stairwell door and then gently ushered his charge through it. The door swung shut with a solid click, and Jenna sat down on the top step of the landing to wait.
Clearly the man had special needs of some kind. The storm or the darkness must have upset him to the point where he had fled his apartment. Yet the stairwell had been too much, and he had gone hysterical, or something like it. But who was he, and how did Jimmy know him? He couldn’t be an employee of the QE. Maybe a family member of someone who worked there? He apparently lived on the twenty-first floor, but though Jenna wracked her mind, she couldn’t think of anyone who lived on that floor. It was the same floor Zane had lived on before he left for Marah—and his suite had been very large. Was this man living in the general manager’s suite? It seemed highly unlikely. What else was on that floor?
She had waited barely a few minutes when the power came back on as suddenly as it had disappeared. The stairwell lights flicked on, blinding her momentarily. She switched off her torch and took the opportunity to assess her bruised knees. They didn’t look too bad yet. She was glad she’d been going up the stairs instead of down, or she might have crashed all the way to the next landing, giving herself a concussion—or worse.
The wait for Jimmy seemed interminable. More than once she was tempted to give up and head back down to her apartment on her own (it’s not like she needed company now that the lights were back on), but she was nearly insane with curiosity by this point, so she held out a little longer, hoping he would return soon.
At last the door swung open, and Jimmy pushed his way into the stairwell.
“Hey!” he greeted cheerfully, though his voice sounded a bit tired. “You waited for me.”
“I said I would,” Jenna reminded.
He gallantly offered his arm. “Well, then let me escort you back to your door.” She took it gratefully, suppressing the shiver of pleasure that shot through her arm when she touched him.
“So?” she prompted. He knew exactly what she wanted. An explanation. But he sighed deeply.
“Can you keep a secret?” he asked her, his tone the most serious she had ever heard.
Her heart stopped for a moment—she worried that he was going to tell her something she really didn’t want to hear. But she drew a deep breath and answered, “Of course, Jimmy.”
“Do you swear?” he continued.
“Swear?” she repeated warily. “Like an oath, you get to keep my firstborn if I break it, or on my life, and I’ll die if I tell?”
“Well, I won’t kill you,” Jimmy said, his playful tone back in his voice. “But in all seriousness,” he added somberly, “I really need your promise that you won’t tell anyone about who you saw tonight, not even Lilah.”
Now her curiosity raged out of check. She had to know who the man was and what relationship he had with Jimmy. “I promise,” she agreed firmly.
“Let’s head to my apartment, and I’ll tell you what I can,” Jimmy suggested. It was a quick trip down the stairs and into the hall with the lights back on. Jimmy lived a couple of floors below Jenna. Within a few minutes, they were seated on Jimmy’s couch. The storm had moved away from the building, but they could still see occasional flickers of light through his large picture window. The apartments had similar layouts on this level, Jenna noted, but Jimmy’s apartment was surprisingly sparse. He had no pictures on the walls, no decorations of any kind. But his couch was comfortable, much more so than her own, so she settled in and turned expectantly to him. “All right, tell me this top secret stuff you’re not going to kill me over,” she said. “Who was that man in the stairwell? Is he OK? I heard him from down below, and I thought he must be hurt. But I couldn’t see anything physically wrong.”
Jimmy shook his head. “Jax is fine, physically anyway. But storms really flip him out. He was probably antsy as soon as it rolled in, especially with the thunder overhead. For whatever reason, when the power went out, he decided to try and find me. Only once he got into the stairwell he panicked. He’s a serious recluse, and even going into the stairwell was too public.”
“He didn’t even acknowledge me, so I wondered if he was having hysterics of some kind,” Jenna said. “But why leave his apartment and try to find you?” What she really wanted to know was how Jimmy knew him.
“I never told you the real reason I’m here on Zenith,” Jimmy began. It was a statement, not a question, but Jenna shook her head. She had guessed a long time ago that Jimmy had another reason for being here besides his father wanting Mr. Quintan to shape him up, but she had never been able to figure out what it might be.
“Now that you’re the project manager, I bet you’ve heard of the top secret gate, am I right?” Jimmy continued.
“Yes,” Jenna said slowly, wondering at the change in topic, “though I’m surprised you have. Quintan made us all sign confidentiality agreements, and as far as I know, only the top leads on the West project have any idea there are plans for a local gate.”
Jimmy smirked. “And I’m not a top lead, is that what you’re saying?”
“Well, you don’t seem to be doing anything with the project,” she said frankly. She frowned at him thoughtfully. “Are you trying to tell me that you are secretly the head engineer of the gate design?”
“Hardly. No, Jax is the inventor of the local gate. He’s also my twin brother,” Jimmy explained with a careless shrug of his shoulder. Jenna’s mouth dropped open. “Jax has a suite on the twenty-first floor, and he has a live-in housekeeper who kind of doubles as a caretaker, but when the power went out, he took off to try and find me, and she didn’t realize it.” Jenna realized her mouth was still open and shut it quickly. The pieces started clicking together, and she had a million questions for Jimmy, but the first thing out of her mouth was an accusation.
“You never said you had a brother!” Jenna reproached. “Let alone a twin!” She was furious with hi
m. She felt betrayed for some reason she couldn’t explain. After all that time they’d spent together, he’d been hiding such a major part of his life—what else had he kept secret from her? Did she really know him at all?
“Jax is . . . well, he’s different. You saw him. He’s a genius, he understands things that I can’t even dream of. But he’s so far off the spectrum that he doesn’t communicate or interact socially with nearly anybody else. He would talk to our mother, but after she died, the only person left he would talk to is me. He lives as a complete recluse, has for years. He tolerates Mrs. Smitz because she’s been with our family since we were kids, but he doesn’t speak even to her. When he came up with the brainchild for this gate, my father worked out a deal with Quintan. Jax came to live here four years ago, and he has half of the twenty-first floor to himself here in the Tower.”
Jenna listened to his explanation without a word. Her fury was ebbing as her reason talked her through the situation again. She had an idea where this was going. In that case, Jimmy was right to keep her brother a secret from everyone. But she still couldn’t believe that he hadn’t ever told her he had a twin, even if he could never explain that his twin was also living here on Zenith. Did he trust her so little?
“The QE West idea was hatched once it appeared that a real gate could be built, that it was more than a theoretical possibility,” Jimmy said. His foot tapped restlessly. Was he anxious? What about? If he thought he had anything to worry about from her, he truly didn’t know her well at all.
“At first it was working OK—Jax would literally write his plans on scraps of paper and shove them under the door for Quintan. But a year ago, he just quit. He wouldn’t respond to Quintan, nor to comms from my father. When I commed him, he just refused to talk about it at all. So they brought me out here to try and get Jax to finish his project. They’re trying to build the prototype now, but Jax will only tackle the problems occasionally with a lot of persuasion from me. So my job here in Omphalos is to manage my brother. It’s not going so well. I tried to tell my father it wouldn’t—you can’t ‘manage’ Jax—but he won’t listen. All he can think of are the implications of getting the gate to work.”
Jenna could easily believe it. Interdimensional transports on the surface would completely change the way everything worked. People would have instantaneous travel from place to place. Goods wouldn’t have to be shipped at all.
It would turn life as they knew it upside down the same way that the interstellar gates originally had for those people all those generations ago. Jimmy’s dad and the Quintans would be poised to make a fortune.
“There are some people who would kill to have that technology,” she said thoughtfully. Jimmy was keeping a very dangerous secret indeed. Suddenly, she remembered the crashing transport that had nearly hit Jimmy, the one registered to Logistitec. A shipping and transportation company whose livelihood would be at serious risk if local gates became common. “And some who would kill to make sure it never worked,” she added quietly.
Jimmy laughed at her. “You sound like Quintan. Or like Zane. If anyone in the universe is safe, Jax is. Quintan’s made sure of that.”
“So safe that someone could just walk into him in the stairwell?” Jenna challenged skeptically. “Do you have any idea how many people live in this building?”
Jimmy waved her off. “That was a fluke. If Jax wants to get out, nothing will stop him. But if you wanted to get in, you wouldn’t have a prayer. Even the stairwell door wouldn’t have opened for you. The handle is coded. The lift is the same way. It takes a thumbprint and a retina scan to even select the twenty-first floor.”
Jenna considered that. She was sure the technology could be hacked, but it would take a determined assassin. It would be a lot easier to attack Jimmy—since he was apparently Jax’s link to the real world. If someone were to kill Jimmy, would Jax work on the gate at all? Would he communicate with anyone at all? Did the people at Logistitec have that much inside information about Jax? If his existence was such a closely held secret, how would rivals know that targeting Jimmy would be the same as targeting Jax?
“What about you, Jimmy?” suggested Jenna finally. “Your brother may be protected, but you’re not.” A sudden memory struck her. “You almost got killed your very first evening here!” Jenna’s blood turned icy, and her palms started to sweat just remembering it.
Jimmy took her hand reassuringly. “Zane seems to think that people would like to knock me off too, since I’m the link to Jax. Simple paranoia though, in my opinion. I’m not sure anyone knows what’s really going on—but if they do, they’re not likely to go after me. Jax is the real prize. I’m just the idiot little brother.” Jenna tried to get her fear under control. This was why she didn’t want to let anyone in again. Jimmy had wormed his way into her affections before she’d even realized what he was doing.
But what if she lost him too? What if she truly was cursed and Jimmy paid for it with his life? Or what if it wasn’t her curse at all, but just the cutthroat business world anxious to make sure that Jax never succeeded in building the gate? She was breathing too fast, and Jimmy was staring at her, his forehead creased. She tried to make herself calm down, breathing deeply and trying to take refuge in humor.
“Your brother does tower over you. Are you sure you’re twins?” she teased, though her tone sounded forced. It was one of her million questions. She hadn’t gotten a good look at Jax, but she had noticed that he was at least half a foot taller than Jimmy. Obviously they were fraternal twins.
Jimmy still looked at her thoughtfully, but thankfully he let it pass. It was frustrating sometimes how well he could read her. “I’ll introduce you to my brother one day. Then you’ll get a chance to see for yourself. But first I’ll have to warm him up to the idea. He needs time to get used to the idea of meeting a new person. Especially a woman. For whatever reason, Jax finds women especially frightening. Luckily, I’ve been talking to him about you for a while, so at least your name will be familiar.”
Jenna raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been talking to him about me, yet you’ve never mentioned him at all to me?”
Jimmy laughed a little awkwardly from embarrassment. “Well, I can’t help myself when it comes to you. I tell my brother everything, you see. Not that he cares much, but I have to talk to someone, especially now that Zane’s gone.”
“You miss him too?” Jenna asked, wondering what was wrong with her. She’d been increasingly uncomfortable around Zane and had felt so trapped, but now that he was gone, she found that she did miss his friendship. She missed going out to dinner with him and discussing work and listening to his enthusiasm about racing. She just didn’t miss being his girlfriend.
Was it even possible to have a truly platonic relationship with a guy? Or would attraction on one end or the other always ruin everything?
“Of course I miss Zane. We go way back, Zane and I. We went to university together.” He sighed, leaning his head back against the sofa. “Plus, now I have to frequently face Quintan on my own without Zane to distract him. It’s wearing me out.”
“Do you still hear from him?” Jenna was curious. Of course, she heard from Zane regularly, but it was always about business. Or it was supposed to be about business.
“Oh yeah. We comm each other every so often. Sometimes he wants his own personal update on how Jax’s work is going, and sometimes we just chat. He sounds better. He sounds like he’s getting back to normal. Although he has nothing to do out there but work all day and stream feeds all night,” Jimmy reported.
“Sounds boring,” Jenna said. She sighed. “I guess that’s probably the real reason he suggested that I come out to Marah. He gave me some kind of official excuse about how I needed to make a site visit, but there’s really no need for me to be out there. Anything I need to do can be done by comm or terminal.”
“Are you going to go?” Jimmy wanted to know.
“Not
if I can find any way out of it. But part of my job is still to keep Zane happy, so unless Mr. Quintan himself says he doesn’t want me to, I’ll probably end up out there one way or another.”
Jimmy grimaced. “Well, if I were you, I’d probably start packing my bags then.” Jenna hoped he was wrong. A trip to Marah was unlikely to help her keep things strictly platonic with Zane.
12. Symphoria
Luckily, the subject of a trip to Marah didn’t come up again for several months. However, when Zane finally sprang the idea on her again, it wasn’t for business. He wanted her to come out and visit him “as a friend.” The first time he had brought it up, she had unwisely agreed to go visit him the next time she had a three-day break from work, not really thinking about it seriously. She so rarely had one of those that it hadn’t seemed like something she needed to worry about anytime soon. It was easy to keep putting Zane off every time he brought it up later with the excuse that she couldn’t take any extra time off yet. However, when Zenith’s planetwide holiday for Colonization Day drew near, Zane commed again, insistent that it would be the perfect time for a short visit to Marah. Unfortunately, Jenna already had plans, and after making excuses about the trip for so long, Zane didn’t believe her.
“No, I honestly can’t come for Colonization Day, Zane,” Jenna reiterated with exasperation into her flipcom. Her door buzzed, and Jenna was vaguely aware that Lilah was heading to the door while she listened to Zane insist again that she take her long weekend off and visit him at Marah Bay.
The Quintan Edge (Roran Curse Book 2) Page 12
