Island of the Sun by Matthew J. Kirby Read Free Book Online

counter Eleanor’s anger, but that only made it worse.
    â€œYou
are
abandoning him!” Eleanor shouted.
    â€œI’m keeping him safe,” her mom said. “He doesn’t know a thing about any of this. I’m certain the G.E.T. knows that. They’ve probably been watching himsince you ran away to come find me. If we make contact with him, it’ll be just like Betty—he’ll be involved, a target, on the run with us. I can’t let that happen to him. Is that what you want?”
    That question made Eleanor pause. Uncle Jack was the best man she knew, and the closest thing to a father she’d ever had, or ever needed. When she thought about how she’d run away from him to go search for her mom, and how that must have scared him, and hurt him, the guilt ripped her up from her gut to her chest. She’d been waiting for the moment she could explain everything to him and say she was sorry, and that she loved him. But now she wouldn’t have that chance, and she had no idea when she would, and she realized maybe that was what bothered her most about leaving him behind in Phoenix. Because she knew her mom was right.
    â€œI miss him,” Eleanor whispered.
    Her mom’s eyes turned glassy, and her voice came haltingly. “I know, sweetie. I miss him, too. But this is what’s best for him.”
    â€œHe doesn’t know,” Eleanor said. “He doesn’t know I’m alive, and you’re alive. Who knows what the G.E.T. has told him?”
    â€œUncle Jack is smart,” her mom said. “Smarter than anyone has ever given him credit for. I would notbe surprised at all if he’s figured out for himself that things aren’t what they seem. He’s probably hoping even now that we’ll come home soon, safe and sound. And you know what? We will. Won’t we?”
    â€œYeah,” Eleanor said, and even though she knew he wouldn’t be able to feel it, she sent Uncle Jack a mental hug, and for a moment, it filled up every spare thought in her mind. “We will.”
    â€œSo . . . ,” Finn said after a moment. “Bolivia, then?”
    â€œNo,” Luke said from the cockpit.
    The passengers turned their attention to the front of the plane.
    â€œThose G.E.T. goons messed with
Consuelo
,” he said. “And I’ve been thinking. . . . We have to assume they put a tracking device somewhere.”
    â€œWhat do you propose?” Dr. Powers asked.
    â€œI need help finding it,” Luke said. “And I know just the folks to ask.”
    â€œWho?” Eleanor asked.
    â€œFelipe’s family.”
    â€œWho’s Felipe again?” Julian asked.
    â€œHe’s a mechanic in Barrow,” Eleanor said. “Luke and I stayed with him. He’s a nice guy.”
    â€œSo where’s his family?”
    â€œMexico City,” Luke said.
    T he plane left Alaska behind, but not the ice. Below them, the endless white of the glacial sheet nullified the surface of the earth, rendering it blank. Away to the west, the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains could occasionally be seen breaching the surface, but their upward reaching seemed a desperate act, as though the earth hoped someone or something would take its hand and raise it from the crushing depths of ice.
    About six hours out from Fairbanks, they flew over the edge of the ice sheet, cresting like a mile-high wave of white over much of the state of Oregon, and then they reached the coastline of northern California. Luke had decided San Francisco would be as safe a place as any to land and refuel. The G.E.T. didn’t have much of a presence there.
    Eleanor’s mom said the city was once one of the most beautiful places in the country to live. But not anymore. With the ice sheet only a few hundred miles away, and temperatures dropping, those with the means had gone farther south, to Los Angeles or San Diego, leaving those without means behind. From the