Mr. and Mrs. Hudson came into the room. Mrs. Hudson brushed her hands through Matt’s hair and kissed him on the forehead. “Good night, chéri. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Good night, bud,” Mr. Hudson said, tousling his hair. “You did good today.”
They repeated this to Corey on the lower bunk. Matt caught Albert staring at them with a kind of longing, like he wished Mrs. Hudson would tuck him in and tell him she loved him, too, and Mr. Hudson would call him “bud.” It gave Matt a squeamish feeling. It was like coming out of a restaurant with a full stomach only to see a hungry child with hands outstretched. There were different kinds of hunger. Matt hadn’t realized until now that Albert had been starved for a long time. It didn’t make him like him, but maybe he despised him a little less.
“Good night, Albert,” Mrs. Hudson said. “Let us know if you need anything.”
Albert started a little. His cheeks flushed like he’d been caught stealing. He nodded stiffly, then quickly lay down on the blow-up mattress. He pulled the covers up to his chin and closed his eyes.
Mr. Hudson switched off the light as they went out.
The room was quiet. Matt didn’t think either Corey or Albert fell asleep in five seconds, but it’s not as if they were going to chitchat.
9The Initials
Matt awoke to someone tapping him on the shoulder. He shot out of bed. “Whaaaa?! What’s happening?”
“Shhhh! Calm down, it’s only us.”
It was Corey and Ruby. They both were standing on the edge of his bed with flashlights. Their faces looked ghoulish.
“What are you doing?” Matt asked.
“Secret sibling meeting,” Corey whispered. “Come down.”
Barely conscious, Matt slid down from his bunk. He looked at the clock. It was 2:03 a.m. Had they set an alarm so they could meet in the middle of the night, or had they still not gone to sleep?
“Bathroom,” Corey whispered. “We don’t want to wake Albert.”
They all crowded into the small bathroom, still using only the flashlights. It was pretty squishy and uncomfortable.
“What’s going on?” Matt whispered.
“I’d like to know the same thing,” Ruby said. “Corey woke me first, said he needed to talk to us.”
“I have to show you something,” Corey said, and he waited, like he was trying to build anticipation, but Matt only felt annoyed.
Clearly Ruby felt the same because she said in a whispered huff, “Then show us something already so I can go back to bed!”
Corey reached inside the pocket of his pajamas. “The map is not the only thing I came away with from Captain Vincent,” he said. “When we landed in New York, I found this.” He pulled out a square of cloth and laid it flat on the floor. Both Corey and Ruby focused their flashlights on it.
Matt recognized it right away. It was the handkerchief that Vincent had given to him when he’d frozen time during their chase. There were the smears of his own blood, now dried to a rusty brown. He wasn’t sure what the significance of it was. Clearly Ruby didn’t either.
“You dragged us out of bed to show us a bloody handkerchief?” Ruby hissed.
“No, look here,” Corey said, pointing to the corner of the handkerchief. Some letters had been embroidered into the cloth in pale blue thread. Matt hadn’t noticed those before. Of course he wouldn’t have in the moment. He was far too focused on Vincent and keeping him from destroying his family. Matt leaned in and squinted to see the letters more clearly. They were very loopy letters, but Matt could read them clearly.
V.Q.
Ruby gasped. “Oh no . . . you don’t think . . . ?”
“I do think,” Corey said. “Vincent is a Quine! It makes perfect sense. This confirms that Marius Quine is really on his side because they’re somehow related!”
“Related how, do you think?” Ruby asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe Quine is Vincent’s father or brother. Or he could be his son!”
Matt almost threw up right there and then. He was glad Corey and Ruby couldn’t see him. He was sure his face was green. This couldn’t be. There had to be another explanation. Some mistake . . .
“Do you think Mom knows?” Ruby said. “That Vincent is a Quine?”
“I don’t think so,” Corey said. “My guess is he kept it from her on purpose. He was playing her all along. They both were.”
“I’m not sure we should be so hasty in drawing conclusions,” Matt said. “It’s possible this is just coincidence. There are plenty of last names that begin with Q.”
Corey scoffed. “Really, bro? Still going to try to convince us that Quine’s on our side?”
“He is on our side,” Matt said, sounding more convinced than he actually felt.
“He also said Pike was on our side,” Corey said, “and where is she now? When are you going to wake up? Quine is messing with you.”
“You have to admit, Matt,” Ruby said, “the fact that Vincent got the Aeternum from Quine makes it look pretty clear, no matter what he said to you in Asilah.”
Matt didn’t say anything. He was glad now, very glad that he hadn’t told Corey and Ruby or anyone the truth about his true identity. It would have been a mistake considering this new revelation. They wouldn’t understand. Matt didn’t understand. He was trying to reorder everything in his brain. Vincent had just told him he was not the enemy, that they were on the same side. Vincent said Matt, at some point in his future, had already come to Vincent in his past and helped him figure out what he needed to do in order to get the Aeternum, thereby assuring him that they were on the same side. And Vincent knew Matt was really Marius Quine, or would become him at some point in his future. And if they really did share a name . . . if they were family . . . No. He refused to believe this. It couldn’t be. Matt stared down
