Lost Stars (The Jewel Project #3)

08.1|| The Longest Flight

The next day, Herrison finally called. In a blank, impersonal voice, he expressed his regrets for what had happened. It was a plane crash, beyond his control, but he still felt guilty for setting it up. Sam couldn't handle the platitudes, so he bluntly just asked for information on their departure. It would be in two days and they would be going to Malta, not India.

"We don't have all the information we need," Herrison had said. "You've seen the research papers. They're meager sketches of what we need. So we've found a deserter – one of Snitch Gravel's men who has run from his organization. He's hiding out in Malta and we need him to tell us everything he knows."

Sam didn't care. He just wanted out of the house. None of them had had the courage to tell their parents about Tom. Sam knew that his brothers still hoped, and he just couldn't do it. Not now. Probably not ever. He didn't even want to think about it. All he wanted to do was bury himself in work and numb himself out.

He and Jimmy had secured covers from their school. The internship had turned out to be highly successful, so the company in Japan demanded more interns. Sam, Jessie and Jimmy were next on the list, so they'd be sent out. It was sickening how happy and proud their parents were about that.

The problem was for Jerry and Kyle to get out of the house. Jerry already complained that he'd barely started college and he already had to leave, but he sucked it up and tried coming up with an excuse. The problem was that he and Kyle actually came up with the same excuse.

"You can't be going to a conference. I'm going to a conference," Jerry argued, waving his spatula at Kyle.

"So that means I can't go, too?" Kyle said, his eyebrows raised.

"It will look silly."

"Yes, for you, because you just started college two weeks ago. I'm in my second year."

"Yes, but science conferences are much more believable."

"Then what? IT?" Kyle huffed. "Just drop it, Jerry."

"Sam." Jerry turned to him, his hands on his hips.

Sam didn't really care, but he raised his eyes from his book and looked from Kyle to Jerry and the pancake smoking behind him on the stove. The smell turned his stomach over.

"I don't know. Why can't you just both go?"

Jerry swelled. "Because it would seem too unrealistic."

"Why?" Kyle asked exasperated. "Your college is sending students to a conference and so is mine. There are no limited spots and it's not like we're going to the same one."

"Yes, but we can't just both go—"

"Why not?"

All three of them froze and turned to their mother who stood in the kitchen doorway with a questioning expression on her face.

"Why can't you both go to these conferences?"

"Because it would be... too much?" Jerry whispered.

Maxi huffed and walked over to the stove. "This is about your education, Jerry. Nothing is too much. I never want you to think you can't go to something you enjoy." She flipped the pancake and the smoking stopped. "Is it about the money? You know that's never an issue."

Kyle smirked at Jerry over his mother's head. "That's what I was telling him."

"So when are you supposed to leave?" she asked.

"In two days," both Jerry and Kyle said.

Maxi turned from one to the other, frowning. "At the same time as Sam and Jimmy?"