We all cram into Javier's car. With every second we spend wasting time, debating on who sits where and what to do, my nerves tighten until I'm sitting in the backseat, a complete mess.
Once we are on our way to the airport, I call my mom while Sun calls the police, alerting them of the break-in and murders.
"Mom," I say once she answers.
"Aria? Is everything okay?" Her words slurred like she's half asleep. I've woken her up.
"Is Dad home?"
"No," she says. "He's at work with you. Right?"
"He's not there," I say. "You should probably sit down for this. There was a break-in at MaxLife, and well, things aren't good. Two of our lab techs were killed, and um... I don't know where Dad is. I'm trying to find him."
"WHAT?" She screams and I hear a thump. Did she fall out of bed? I almost wish I hadn't called her, but it's better she hears this from me than the cops. "You need to get out of there and come home. It's not safe."
"I'll be home in an hour," I say. This doesn't help, instead, she starts to yell for me to come home so I have to resort to yelling back to get her attention. "Mom! I'm safe and with the team. We're going to check one more place where we think Dad could be." Then I soften my tone. "One hour. I promise."
When I hang up, Javier is pulling into the Orlando Executive Airport. "This looks familiar," he says. "Just like the dream."
"Yeah." I lean over the front seat squinting into the darkness. "But the place is dead. There aren't any planes taking off."
Once we've parked and climbed out of the car, we rush inside the main terminal, a small building compared to Orlando's International Airport. We search the area until we find a security guard.
"Are there any outgoing flights right now?" Javier asks.
"At 1 a.m.?" The guy laughs. "Not in this airport. Where are you planning on flying?"
"Have there been any that have left in the last hour?" I venture.
"Sure. But they were all private planes." The man scrutinizes me warily now. "We don't give out private flight information."
Defeated, we settle into the rows of hard seats.
"It was a long shot." Javier shrugs. "Maybe the assassin's dream was a memory from a different situation. There's a strong chance that dream led us in the wrong direction."
"What do we do now?" I say. All my hype and bravado has seeped out of me, leaving me with an awful headache. "We can't just give up."
"It's late," Sun says. "And the trail is cold. Aria, you know I want to be there for your dad. If it weren't for him, my father wouldn't have gotten the treatment for his mind that he needed. I owe Dr. Hale so much. But as much as I hate saying this, it seems like we've got to rely on the police."
"I've been thinking this all through," Jake says. It's the first time he's even spoken since we left MaxLife. "And I think I've figured out how this all played out."
"Okay, Obi-Wan," I drone. "Enlighten us."
"Someone must have seen me trying to hack into the Federal Reserve Bank and guessed I saw the codes. Someone who was also trying to get the codes themselves. Remember how I got those headaches? What if they weren't coincidental but concocted by that very someone to get me to go to MaxLife. I mean, they could have very easily bribed my doctor to set me up with MaxLife for further tests. Then while I was dreaming, you all went into my brain and recorded me showing you the codes. Afterward, all the thieves had to do was retrieve those video files either by hacking into your system or from one of your staff. Boom. They got the codes."
"That's pretty out there, dude," Tony says.
"But for 81 million?" Jake shrugs. "It was a cheap and easy con."
I pull my knees against my chest and nibble on the corner of my pinkie. Now that I've calmed down, I see Jake's point and why he blamed me. The thought of someone taking what we do and using it for their own gain never crossed my mind. We've always been about helping people and making their lives better. But what makes me sick inside is to even consider the fact that someone in MaxLife could've sold the information we gathered.
"So that's why you thought it was my dad or even me who was a part of this," I say.
"Except none of us were explicitly looking for those," Javier says. "It was pure chance. Aria, you were the one who actually discovered the codes in Jake's Vault. Did you know to look for those codes or was it just a coincidence?"
I dare a glance at Jake. He's looking at me with pain-filled eyes. I was the one who lied and betrayed him. But could my involvement have been more than we had realized? Was this all my fault?
"I never knew anything about codes," I whisper. "But after I saw Jake in class, I put two and two together that the dreamer was Jake. I should've said something to the team, but I didn't. I guess, I felt like we were so close to making a breakthrough that I couldn't, or didn't want, to stop and think through the consequences of it all."
Everyone is silent as the enormity of the situation slides over us. Finally, it's Sun that breaks the silence.
"My vote is we each go home and think through this," she says. "Maybe the police will come up with a solution. We've risked a lot to be here and to have done what we did."
I scuff the end of my shoe across the linoleum floor, hating to admit defeat. "Fine, but I'm not giving up on my dad. He's in trouble and I'm going to find him no matter what."
"There's something else," Jake adds. "This whole dream thing you guys do, it's more valuable than you're giving yourself credit for. You are essentially looking into people's thoughts, searching for memories, finding their deepest secrets, and potentially discovering things even your patients can't remember. Put that into the wrong hands, it could be dangerous. And worth way more than $81 million."