CHAPTER 2 - PHONE CALL
The next day after school, Carter and I sat down to call Brian and Mason.
I put it on speaker so we both could hear, then we waited.
"Hello?" It was Brian.
"Hi," I said. "It's Payson and Carter. We need to talk to you and Mason."
There was a moment of silence, then I heard Mason say, "We're all here. What's up, Pay? Carter?"
"Hi Mason," Carter said, smiling a little.
I immediately began to tell them about the letter from Zane. (Brian filled Dinda in on the parts she couldn't hear. Aka: Mason and Carter.) I read it and we talked about it for quite some time.
"So, he found her?" Brian asked excitedly. "That's fantastic."
I sighed. "But he left her behind."
"Yeah, but we can go back and get her eventually."
I agreed. I really hoped they would be able to get her soon. I mean, Zane had spent years trying to track her down, and Brian had been forced to leave her. They deserved to see her again, and she deserved to see them too. For all their sakes, I hoped it would work out.
"So what's the plan?" Carter asked, leaning over the phone. I could tell she was excited. She was biting her lip, which she usually did when she was excited about something. "Where do we go from here?"
Brian cleared his throat. "As much as I want to do something, I think the best plan is to wait for word from Zane. We don't even know where he is. I mean, he was in Oaklahoma. But that could have been days ago."
I looked up at Carter. "He's right."
We began to fill eachother in on what was going on in our lives. Apparently, Brian was now running DQA and Mason was helping. They said it was running a lot smoother now that O'Bryan was out of the way.
"Have you heard anything from O'Bryan?" Carter asked. Truth be told, I wanted to aske that very question. I wanted to know what O'Bryan was doing.
Silence.
Finally, Mason spoke. "We've heard chatter. But nothing concrete."
"What have you heard?" I asked. "It could be important."
I could hear whispers on the other side of the phone. I knew they were debating what was safe to tell and what wasn't, but I wanted the full story. And I told them so.
"Alright," Brian said. "We heard rumors that he's in the market."
What did that mean? In the market. "For what?" I asked.
Brian sighed. He didn't speak for quite some time, but then he said, "An inventor. He's looking for an inventor. Trying to replace Cilas, I guess. Lucky for us, Cilas was practically one of a kind. They'll have a hard time of finding a replacement. Especually one who'll do what he wants."
"He'd remaking the machine," I said simply. And it wasn't a question, it was a fact. O'Bryan hadn't given up. He hadn't been silenced, just angered. He was coming back, and he wanted to do it with a bang.
"You don't think he'd go abck to DQA, do you?" Carter asked.
Mason laughed. "Are you kidding? Everyone here's mad because they think he tried to trick them, and that it was Cilas who saved their lives. We've got people here who are always asking for quests that have to do with bringing O'Bryan down. Trust me, he won't come back. He wouldn't dare."
That did make me feel better. I mean, if he didn't have the support of Dopplegangers and origionals, it would be much harder fro his plan to succeed. He needed support, and he wasn't getting it from DQA. He wasn't getting it from anywhere, except Carl and Harvey, assuming they were still his faithful sidekicks. And I had no doubt that they were.
We began to say goodbye, but before I hing up, I asked, "How's Dinda?"
It was Dinda herself who answered. Apparently, she was seven months along. All I could think about was how happy Zane would be to have this new half-brother or sister. He'd make an amazing big brother, I was sure of it. He'd proved that by going to Arizona to look for Arabella.
"Well you take care of yourself," I told Dinda.
She laughed. "I will, Payson. And you take care as well."
Her voice faded away and Mason was back on. "See you guys soon, I hope."
"Keep us posted?" I asked.
"Will do. You too. And no going off trying to save the world again. No heroics, okay?"
Both us of laughed. "I promise. See you Mason."
"Later," he said before he hung up.
I glanced at Carter. Neither of us said anything, but the message was clear. We were both worried. About Zane, about Dinda and the baby, and about O'Bryan. And we wouldn't stop worrying until Zane was found, the baby was born (it and Dinda with perfect health, mind) and O'Bryan stopped. But somehow, I knew that wasn't going to happen as fast as I'd like.
