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as she waited at the bottom of the aircraft’s stairs, Arianna and Gabriella already aboard.
    “C’mon, let’s roll,” Lora said, smiling and giving Sam a nudge toward the stairs.

    “OK,” Lora said, coming down the aisle to stand next to Sam. She produced a satellite phone. “I’ve got the Professor and Jedi on a secure communications link. We need to analyze your dream together and see what we can learn. We need to go over every detail so that we can stay ahead of the others.”
    Sam suddenly thought about what Lora was saying—
every detail
—and realized that, although he’d explained how there had been a “complication” with Alex, he hadn’t fully described the scene he remembered from his dream. A wave of shame rippled over him.
    It was only a dream. I can change things …
    “OK,” Sam said, taking a deep breath before speaking into the handset. “Hey, guys.”
    “Sam!” Jedi’s excited voice came over the phone’s speaker. “Dude, I think we should probably start with what you did to Alex … tell me everything.”

    The plans for their Antarctic voyage had been decided and gone over, and everyone was ready. They seemed to take the situation with Alex in their stride, not judging Sam for what he did in his dream.
    Sam looked out the window. The supersonic aircraft was getting them there in a hurry.
    We’ll be in Antarctica soon
.
    Sam thought he could make out drift ice and icebergs floating in the dark sea.
    That’s an amazing sight. I really have been all over the world now
.
    What an incredible ride
.
    I wonder where it will all end?
    Lora came back from the cockpit and sat down in the empty seat beside Sam. “Another hour until we touch down. Remember, where we’re landing, they don’t know the real reason why we’re there.”
    Sam could see her hesitate, as though there was something else she needed to share but was hanging onto it.
    “Lora?” he asked.
    She showed them her tablet computer.

    “The weather,” Lora said. “It’s going to get worse, and soon. We don’t have much time on the ground to find Alex.”
    “How long?” Sam asked.
    “Six hours, maybe a little more, at the most.”
    “And what will happen out there in six hours?” Eva asked.
    “We can’t be there,” Lora said. “It’s two polar vortexes converging to form a supercell. Half the continent will be in cyclonic blizzard conditions. Worst case, if we get caught out, we head for the closest station from Alex’s last known location. Here.” She tapped the map.
    “The Chilean station?” Eva said. “OK.”
    “So,” Sam said, “when we touch down, we have only six hours to find Alex
and
the Gear?”
    Lora nodded. Eva looked ill at the thought of what was to come. The other two girls were sleeping. The Guardians and Agents were huddled at the end of the cabin, busy checking over their equipment and weapons.
    Sam worried about Alex. If he had any locator device with him, he either hadn’t activated it or it wasn’t giving out enough of a signal.
    Sam pulled out his phone, uselessly typing a text message to Alex. He looked at it for a long time before slowly hitting the delete button over and over, erasing the message.
    Nope, it really is time for us to meet face to face
.
    “How far away do you think Alex is?” Eva asked.
    Sam was silent, then he looked to her and Lora and saw that they expected him to know.
    “Oh, me?” he said, looking at a map of Antarctica. “Well, ah, he’s probably not far. I mean, I saw that mountain range in my dream, to the east. So near there?”
    “OK,” Lora said. “That’s a pretty big search area. It could take days to cover.”
    “But we don’t have days,” Sam said, distractedly. “We’ll find him. Unless he …”
    “What?” Eva said to him. “Unless he what?”
    “Sam?” Lora prompted.
    Sam looked up and saw that his two friends were looking at him, eyes wide.
    “Well?” Eva said.
    “Unless … you see, my worry is,” Sam began,