Chapter 6
“Mom?” Sofie shouted, slipping the key back under the decorative frog on the edge of the porch. “Surprise!”
Silence followed as the two girls let themselves into the house and to the kitchen where Sofia started digging through the refrigerator.
“Mom? Hope it’s ok to drop in, we’re starved.” She put the mayo and lunch meat on the counter and turned to look for her mother. “Are you even home?”
As she said it the front door opened again and her mother stepped through.
“Mrs. Petrov!” Sam shouted. “Guess who came to see you!”
“Oh Samantha my dear, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Maria.” Maria scowled. “Mrs. Petrov sounds so old.”
“Hi mom.” Sofia stepped out from behind the corner with a shy wave.
“Doamne, Sofie…” Maria said in her native language, her voice catching as she pressed a hand to her chest. “You walk in like ghost, no call, no warning—what if I’m not home, hmm?”
She stepped forward quickly, pulling Sofia into a tight embrace, half laughing, half crying. “Fata mea, how long since I have heard your voice. You’re out of the hospital and you didn’t call me?”
“I know mom,” Sofia said softly, “and I wanted to call so many times, but I just couldn’t…” she paused for a moment before continuing, “I couldn’t bring myself to face you after… Well, after Victor died I wanted to die.” She paused to look in her mothers eyes. “I couldn’t see a reason to continue, and I tried to make sure I wouldn’t.”
“Sof…” Sam said softly.
“I know Sam, I didn’t tell either of you.” Sofia interrupted as she looked from Sam to her mother. “Dr. Bennett and I worked through it, and I can see now how precious life is and…” She paused, eyes dropping to her feet as she took a deep breath. “And I want to continue to be a part of it, with or without Victor.”
“Well,” Maria was the first to break the silence that followed, “we all know you two didn’t come all the way across the desert just say hello.”
“Right.” Sam laughed nervously, “Well, it’s not that we don’t…”
“Mom you know we always love visiting.” Sofia broke in. “But you are right…”
“But I am always right.” Maria chided them. “What do you need children?”
“Do you remember my science project from the eleventh grade?” Sofia asked.
“The year they robbed you of your trophy?” Maria said indignantly. “Of course I do, my Sofia should have taken first place, but they did not even judge your invention because there were no caves to test it in.”
“That’s the one!” Sam laughed. “And I agree, that was a first place project if I ever saw one.”
“Do you still have it mom?” Sofia asked.
“Of course I do, do you think me an animal that would just throw my baby’s hard work in the trash?” Maria laughed as she led them out to the garage.
After digging through several floor to ceiling stacks of boxes, each one with the name of the person its contents belonged to and the date it was packed carefully written in sharpie on each side she finally found the one she was looking for. The box Maria pulled from the stack had a giant blue ribbon drawn on the lid and Sofia’s name plastered on all four sides.
“Really?” Sofia said as a slight tinge of embarrassment flushed her cheeks.
“They don’t give you what you earn,” Maria said proudly, “I do it for them!”
Sofia reached in and lifted the metal sensor plate out of the box, “I never got to prove that it worked.” She said softly.
“We can now.” Sam encouraged her. “This is exactly what we need to map the path of the formation in real time.”
“Formation?” Maria hesitated as she searched her daughters face for the answer. “You are not back in that place where you lost…”
“We’re doing it the right way this time Mrs. Petrov.” Sam reassured her.
“Samantha Roche` I have been telling you since the two of you were little girls, call me Maria or mom.” Maria scolded. “You say Mrs. Petrov and I look for my own mother! Now, tell me what you two are up to, yes?”
“Yes mom.” Sam laughed. “No more cowboy style research.”
“We’ve got real funding this time mom!” Sofia nearly shouted. “Halvorsen Global!”
“Marcus’ family?” Maria asked.
“That’s the one!” Sam announced. “Mr. Halvorsen wants us to turn it into a TV show, he says he will give us whatever we need as long as we make the show a hit.”
“You.” Maria said, her tone abrupt. “Hate television… You always refused to even watch it when you were little. Why are you now going to star in your own show?”
“We need to find out what happened to Victor.” Sam said softly. “To find his body if it’s still there and to put him to rest. Until we do, we wont be able to heal.”
“I understand.” Maria pulled both girls in for a tight hug as she softly added “And you must do this then.”
Sofia’s hand drifted to the device, her fingers tracing its edges as her memory filled in the details. She reached both hands into the box and wrapped her fingers around a large smooth plate with two holes through it.
“Seventeen pounds…” she grumbled as she strained to lift it out of the box. “It’s a composite of quartz, a graphene mesh, gold latticework and layers of ceramic. I should have found something lighter.”
“What’s that you used to say Sof,” Sam laughed. “It has to be big to see what’s small.”
“Gotta have mass to read micro-vibrations and signals accurately.” Sofia corrected. “Still, we need to find a way to make it smaller, lighter. You know?”
“What about Halvorsen Global’s R&D team?” Maria suggested.
“Give them my tech?” Sofia scoffed. “They’ll wrap it in plastic and stick their name on it.”
“They work for us now.” Sam reminded her. “You want an entire team of engineers dedicated to transforming your work into something fresher, lighter and better?” Sam paused with a grin before adding in a sing-song tone, “I can make it happen.”
“We don’t really even know if it works yet Sam.” Sofia argued.
Sam pulled the receiver plate out of Sofia’s hands and walked to the grass next to the driveway and dropped it before returning to grab the two composite spikes that had to be pressed into the ground through the holes in the plate. She glanced in the box again and fished out the control computer and mounted it with its power supply to the receiver plate.
“You want to run the transmitter out into the back yard and stick it in the ground or should I?” Sam quipped with a smile.
“I will do it so you girls can watch the screen together!” Maria said as she grabbed the box and headed through the door at the back of the garage. “I will have it setup in five.”
“She knows how to use this thing?” Sam whispered as Maria closed the door behind her.
“She knows it almost as well as I do.”
The two of them waited until the receiver monitor began pulsing a wave signal across the graph in the main display.
“Got it!” Sofia shouted to her mom before adding with a puzzled look on her face. “That’s odd.”
“What’s that?” Sam asked.
“Do you see that ghost pattern in the background?” Sofia paused and placed her index finger on the screen. “It’s oscilating just like the machine, see the timer? Five hundred millisecond intervals.”
“Sof, we’re hundreds of miles from the site, is it even possible?” Sam asked.
“If my device works like I designed it to, yes.”
“If?” Maria retorted. “My baby doubts her work Sam. You see why I colored on the box, if nobody tells her it was a winner, she wont believe it is a winner!”
“Either way, it’s working.” Sam decided. “Should I call Mark and have him assemble a team for you?”
“Yes.” Sofia’s eyes sparkled as her imagination started working over the SPS, Subsurface Positioning System and what she could transform it into with Halvorsen’s backing. “I lead the team, no questions. K?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Sam agreed.
The drive back to the research site was spent in excited conversation as the two discussed the plans they had for the SPS and the new materials they had at their disposal to refine and rebuild it with. Sofia hadn’t looked up from her notebooks until the truck rolled to a stop in Sam’s driveway.
“Dark?” Sofia asked.
“Three hours ago!” Sam quipped before adding more sincerely, “Nose in the books on a real project again feel good?”
“You have no idea.” She whispered as she clutched her notebooks to her chest. “I can’t believe that I came up with this in high school! Do you know what this thing actually does?”
“Ummm,” Sam laughed. “No, but you can tell me tomorrow when you tell your R&D team.”
“What?”
“And we need to hurry up and get inside to grab some clothes,” Sam added with a smile as she slid past Sofia and into the house, “wheels up in two hours!”
“What?” Sofia shouted for the second time as she abandon her notebooks to rush after Sam. “Wheels… What?”
“Halvorsen wants you to meet the new team tomorrow morning at eight sharp.” Sam’s tone was casual, almost humored. “At HQ in New York.” Sam shoved an apple into her mouth as she crossed to her room to start packing a bag. “You better go pack, he said the jet will be here by ten and we need to be wheels up by twelve.”
“When did you hear from him?” Sofia shouted, as her pragmatacism kicked in and she rushed into her room. “Have you known all day?”
“Texted a half hour ago.” Sam tapped the side of her smart glasses as she crossed to the bathroom to grab her shower bag and toothpaste. “Said he would have an apartment stocked with food and ready when we get there.”
“An apartment?” Sofia paused. “How long we planning to be there?”
“Me?” Sam said pointing at her chest, “three weeks to a month.”
“And?” Sofia filled the doorway the best she could with her small frame as she tried to corner Sam. “Am I only planning three weeks to a month?”
“That’s up to you.” Sam placed her hands on Sofia’s shoulders as she locked eyes. “I don’t want to push you into anything you aren’t ready for, but Halvorsen is hoping you will stay through development to be near your team.” She let the words hit as Sofia contemplated the meaning.
“Without… You…” Sofia stammered as her eyes dropped.
Sam pulled her chin to bring her eyes back up. “Not unless you want to stay.” She paused to measure Sofia’s reaction before adding, “And even I won’t be gone more than a couple weeks at a time.”
“Baby steps.” Sofia said somberly. “For now the only thing I need to worry about is getting on that plane.”
The two of them finished packing and threw their bags into the back of the truck for the trip to the airport.
“The text said Henderson Executive, 3500 Executive Terminal Drive but this place is incredible!” Sam exclaimed as she eased the car to a stop.
The desert heat hit Sam in the face the moment she pushed her door open, the cool interior instantly transforming under the oppressive wave. The parking area was less of a parking lot and more of a large concrete circle, the cars spaced out as though they needed room to breathe. Sam had barely made it to the front of her truck when the sliding double doors hissed open revealing two neatly dressed women as they quickly crossed to meet her.
“Good evening Ms Roche, Ms Petrov.” She offered her hand in turn. “My name is Priya Banerjee, I will be your concierge this evening, this is Clara Weiss our flight attendant. If you need anything at all, please be sure to let us know.” She paused as she motioned them toward the door. “If you will follow me, we can get in out of the heat.”
“My ba…” Sofia turned toward the bed of the truck but stopped short when she saw it empty.
“Your luggage has already been checked ma’am.” Clara said confidently.
“Thank you.” Sam started moving toward the door, anxious to get out of the heat.
The group was greeted by a wall of cold air as they walked through the sliding doors and into another world. As the shock from the temperature change eased and the calm of the airport took center stage, this wasn’t like any airport either of them had ever been inside. Rather than loud crowds of exhausted travelers the environment seemed perfectly manicured to imbibe a feeling of peace and serenity. A single desk positioned just so on the far side of the expansive space as to draw your eyes so you see it without really noticing it, behind it a smartly dressed woman with her hair pinned in a perfect bun.
“Good evening Ms. Roche, Ms. Petrov.” The woman announced. “I am Isabella Torres, thank you for allowing us to care for your vehicle while you are traveling. May I have your keys?”
“Oh… Right.” Sam stammered as she fumbled through the backpack she used as a purse. “Here, sorry… I didn’t think about it.”
“Not at all ma’am.” Isabella said gently. “It happens more often than you think. Thank you, have a wonderful trip and I will see you when you return.”
Sam paused with a thoughtful expression knitting her brow. “Thank you, and… Yeah, hopefully you’ll be working!”
“Oh no ma’am.” Isabella countered. “I will be your personal assistant on Project Parallax, as Mr. Halvorsen’s requested. So while you are gone I will be watching and reporting back to you, and in turn when you return I will be here to pick you up.”
Sam froze. “What?”
“I apologize. Were you not informed of my addition to your staff? Mr. Halvorsen said to ensure you had the best personal assistant in our personel department,” Isabella smiled as she spoke, “and I am the best. Thus, I will be your personal assistant.”
“Thank you.” Sam blurted, belying her discomfort at the idea. “Wasn’t informed… It’ll be…” She was struggling. “OK.”
“Of course ma’am.” Isabella said confidently as she handed a Laptop computer and cellular phone to each of them. “I hope your business trip is extremely prosperous, if you need anything at all please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”
“Right this way Ms. Roche” Clara urged the girls to follow. “We have to stay on schedule.”
She led them through a door and back into the desert heat, its shimmering waves distorting the majesty of the Gulfstream G650ER that sat waiting with its engines softly winding up. Clara stopped at the foot of the small stairway leading into the cabin as she gestured them onward.
“After you.” She waved them on as a new face appeared in the doorway.
“Good evening.”
The voice carried easily down to them—calm, precise, and practiced.
The face belonged to a slender woman in a sharply tailored uniform, midnight blue cut clean against the fading gold of the desert light. Her dark hair was pulled back into a low, disciplined knot, not a strand out of place, and a pair of aviator sunglasses rested just high enough to reveal eyes that missed very little. There was nothing theatrical about her presence—no forced warmth, no stiffness—just a quiet, effortless authority that made it immediately clear she was in command of everything that mattered up there.
“Captain Camille Reyes,” she continued, a faint, professional smile touching her lips. “Welcome aboard.”
She stepped slightly to the side then, one hand resting lightly along the rail, leaving the path open—but not without intention.
An invitation yes, but also a boundary. Notice of her authority in the sky.
“Thank Y…” Sam’s voice caught as she stepped inside.
The temperature shift hit them in the face the moment they crossed the threshold.
The dry heat of the desert fell away behind them, replaced by a cool, controlled stillness that felt less like air conditioning and more like design. The noise of the outside world—wind, distant engines, the open vastness—collapsed into a soft, insulated quiet.
The cabin didn’t feel like an aircraft.
It felt wider than it should have been, the ceiling just high enough to erase the instinct to duck, the aisle broad enough that the space read more like a corridor than a passage. Soft, indirect lighting traced the contours of the interior, warm but subdued, reflecting gently off polished wood and brushed metal.
Cream-colored leather seats faced each other in pairs, deep and structured, more like something from a private lounge than anything meant for flight. Between them, low tables sat already set—glassware, neatly arranged, untouched. Nothing out of place. Nothing left to chance.
The windows—larger than expected—framed the desert outside in perfect, cinematic slices. Blinding light and endless sand, reduced to something distant, almost unreal.
Behind the main cabin, a partial partition hinted at more space beyond—a quieter section, more private, deliberately out of view.
There was no sense of clutter. No overhead bins crowding the ceiling. No visible mechanics of travel. Everything that made flying feel like flying had been… removed.
For a moment, it was difficult to tell whether they had stepped onto a plane at all.
A soft motion near the front—one of the crew stepping aside, already anticipating where they would go, what they would need.
No instructions. No announcements.
Just expectations.
“Ms. Roche, Ms. Petrov,” Camille greeted again. “If your computers need power you will find receptacles near your seats, If you don’t mind,” she gestured for them to sit, “we should be in the air shortly.”
Sofia found her seat at the end of couch, her legs folded under her as she absorbed back into studying her notebooks.
Movement.
Sam looked out the window as the door she had come out of slipped behind her and the ground started speeding up. She loved flying, always had. Her favorite part was take off, normally a bumpy affair filled with strangers, some clutching the chair in front of them in fear, some excitedly watching out the window as Sam was now. As the nose of the plane lifted into the air she could feel the smoothness of wind under the wings replace the sharp bumps of the runway tarmac.
“Good evening again.” Camille’s voice crackled over the intercom. “We just crossed thirty thousand feet and made our turn to the east, I don’t see any weather on the radio so it should be pretty smooth skies tonight. We will be landing at Teterboro Airport in approximately five hours.”
The flight passed in silence, the only sounds other than the flight crew were the sounds of Sofia turning the pages as she poured herself into relearning the technology that she invented barely more than a decade before. When the plane finally stopped and the doors hissed open the scene was a stark contrast to what they left behind. The coolness of the New England spring was amplified by the pre-dawn arrival time forcing the two to brace themselves against the cold.
The car? sleek, black, seamless. It was luxury that didn’t need an introduction, it was Halvorsen’s brand.
“Halvorsen trying to impress us?” Sofia whispered as they slid into the back.
“Hopefully!” Sam smiled. “A girl could get used to this.”
“I think that’s the point.” Sofia sounded apprehensive.