Chapter 32—Meeting after Day Two

Nikki sat sipping a soy latte at the Java Cafe. Other than a grizzled hippie holding a cup like it was his last, no one else was there. Tonight the team would plan their expeditions for Saturday and Sunday.

Nikki felt time pressing down on her, like on Sunday nights before those embarrassing gym classes. She remembered how Carole, a cheerleader type, had stuck out her leg and after Nikki fell over it whispered loudly, "It's a wonder those toothpicks can hold a body up."

She made a delete sign in the air and focused on Devin's tunnel selection theory. They had examined two tunnels based on his rating system and nothing had come of it, not even a clue.

Last night in bed, her thinking had run along a new track. Maybe Christina and Jake should figure out which tunnel to search next. Theirs was a different way of thinking. It was one she couldn't relate to, but who was to say it would be less effective than Devin's "intelligent" approach. What was intelligence anyway? Did intuition have its own intelligence? She had to admit she didn't know, and her chest tightened. Regardless, she found herself wanting to give intuition a chance. And if it didn't get results, the team could go back to Devin's method on Sunday. They only had four hiking days left before the full moon, and with five tunnels still to explore, the deadline loomed like an approaching freight train.

"Hey." Jake slapped down a glass of iced green tea in front of Nikki. A little spilled out the sides onto the table. "You look like you're trying to solve a Rubik's or something." Jake sat down and chuckled. "Where were you, out beyond Pluto?"

"Just thinking." Nikki didn't react to his attempt at a joke. Lame anyway, she thought.

"Well, yeah, that much was obvious," he said. "You look like you lost your best friend or something."

"I'm fine." She lifted her shoulders and tried to act more engaged.

Moments later, Devin and Christina high-fived Jake and rearranged chairs so they could join everyone near the big potted palm. No one dared to high-five Nikki, and she wondered why. Christina and Devin set down their lattes. Jake dumped a pack of raw sugar into his iced green tea and began stirring. Or whipping was more like it, with more spilling. No one said a word, just waited to see how long it would take the thick, brown crystals to dissolve.

Finally Jake broke the silence. "What's our plan, oh fearless leader?" He looked at Nikki while rubbing his spiky mess of hair.

"I want to try something different this time."

"Really? Do tell."

"We followed Devin's rating method and got nowhere." Nikki aimed her tiny pupils at Devin. He blinked at her forthrightness. Christina watched his reaction. Nikki wasn't the most diplomatic person on the planet. But if Devin was insulted, he didn't show it.

"Since we're pushed for time, I want you, Jake, and you, Christina, to...to feel, or intuit...or whatever you call it, which tunnel to try next. I have no idea how this works, but I want to give it a try."

"Well." Jake stood taller and grinned at Nikki, and then at Devin, who squirmed. "Can you two geeks stand by and watch us doing our woo-woo thing?"

"I'll give you one day," Nikki said. "Tomorrow. If we get no closer to the crystals, or to any clues, then Sunday we go back to our geek method, as you call it." She looked at Devin with unblinking eyes as if willing him to go along.

"What do you say, Devin?" Jake asked. "Will you do Saturday, at least?"

Devin removed his owlish glasses and cleaned them with a napkin. "We can try one day." Devin didn't believe for one minute their method would succeed.