share what Paul and Travis told you. that was wrong. But now you know
everything. yes, finally.' She had been furious that he'd withheld
such things from her, but she hadn't been able to sustain her anger,
she could not rekindle it now. Because, of course she was equally
guilty. She'd not told him about the unease she'd felt during the
entire tour of the property yesterday afternoon. The premonitions of
violence and the unprecedented intensity of her nightmare. Certain
that something had been in the back stairwell she'd gone into Toby's
room the night before all the years they had been married, there had
not been as many gaps in their communication with each-other since
they'd come to Quartermass Ranch. They wanted their new life not
merely to work but to be ct, and they had been unwilling to express
doubts observations. For that failure to reach out to each , though
motivated by the best intentions, they might pay with their lives.
Indicating the tablet, she said, 'Is it anything?' It's everything I
think. The start of it. His account what he saw.' He Spot-read to
them about the waves of virtually palpable sound that had awakened
Eduardo Fernandez in the night, about the spectral light in the
woods.
'I thought it would've come from the sky, a ship,' she said. 'You
expect ... after all the movies, all the books, you expect them to come
in massive ships.'
'When you're talking about extraterrestrials, alien means truly
different, deeply strange,' Jack said. 'Eduardo makes that point on
the first page. Deeply strange, beyond easy comprehension. Nothing we
could imagine--including ships.'
'I'm scared about what might happen, what I might have to do,' Toby
said. A blast of wind skirled under the back porch roof, as shrill as
an electronic shriek, as questing and insistent as a living creature.
Heather crouched at Toby's side. 'We'll be okay, honey. Now that we
know something's out there, and a little bit about what it is, we'll
handle it.'
She wished she could be half as confident as she sounded. 'But I
shouldn't be scared.'
Looking up from the tablet, Jack said, 'Nothing shameful about being
afraid, kiddo.'
'You're never afraid,' the boy said. 'Wrong. I'm scared half to death
right now.' That revelation amazed Toby. 'You are? But you're a
hero.'
'Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not. But theres nothing unique about being
a hero,' Jack said.
'Most people are heroes. Your mom's a hero, so are you.'
'Me?'
'For the way you handled this past year. Took courage to deal with
everything.' didn't feel brave.'
'Truly brave people never do.' said, 'Lots of people are heroes even
if they it dodge bullets or chase bad guys.' People who go to work
every day, make sacrifices for their families, and get through life
without hurting people if they can help it--those are the real heroes,'
Jack told him. 'Lots of them out there. And once in a while all of
