The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series Read Online Free PDF

us?”
    “Mel and Tara were chosen to go next.”
    “Mel and Tara?” Kate cocked her head. “I just thought we would all go in couples.”
    “Very rarely are couples chosen after the team leaders.”
    “I didn’t know.”
    “That’s strange because four couples were chosen out of our other team,” I commented.
    “You have no idea how strange that is,” Dirk replied. “Practically unheard of.”
    “I guess the One knew what the future held and prepared us for the two century jump.”
    “So what do we do?” Kate asked.
    “We wait.
     

 
     
     

     
     
“My wife, Shanna, quite literally fell into another dimension, another world, sending ripples through our research. We now know that quantum travel is possible and we are expending great resources to solidifying a controlled conveyance.” ~ Dr. Rick J. Wilson in Science Digest , Volume XXIV, 2006
     
    DONNIE AND TRIP hit the dust of the cave floor first. They stood shoulder to shoulder and just swept the room, scanning for danger and assuming a defensive stance. Dirk opened his mouth to speak then snapped it closed, violently interrupted.
    Screaming sliced through his words and announced Tara and Mel’s arrival. They clung to one another, wailing, tears streaming down their faces. They jerked up as they appeared in the Scriptorium and whirled around. When their desperate search found me they screeched.
    “Corey! You are alive!” They took turns with the phrase and leapt into my arms, sobbing hysterically. We couldn’t make out any other words.
    I looked over their heads desperately at Trip and Donnie who stood staring, just as baffled as I. “What, uh…what’s wrong?” I asked in soft tones. They just kept pawing at me and weeping. Kate eased toward them with soft caresses and tender tones, worry saturated her features.
    Dirk cleared his throat and rammed his brows together. “Okay, okay, let’s try to control ourselves, ladies.”
    It still took several minutes of soft croons from Trip and Donnie to peel them off of me. Kate stood with her palms twisting together, fighting back her own tears at seeing her friends in so much anguish. I understood, right there with her. These two were like sisters to me.
    Trip, though obviously upset about Tara, couldn’t stop staring at my wife’s sheer gown. His lustful leer kept sliding over her form, and I wanted to punch him. When he finally accepted Tara out of my arms, I took off my shirt and wrapped it around Kate.
    This sent Tara into another fit of wailing. I had never in two hundred plus years seen her shed one tear, much less act like this. I shifted, not eager to hear what possibly could drive her to this behavior.
    “Let’s get out of here. I’ve had all of our things taken to First Cabin.” Dirk directed us up the stone steps into the night. The stars sprinkled on the surface of the lake like the teardrops on the girl’s faces as we paddled to shore.
    We piled into a waiting golf cart and Dirk drove us to First Cabin. I caught a whiff of jasmine on the breeze as the cart hummed over the dew damp grass. The calm of the village at night and soft buzz of crickets spoke peace to our cart mates, and by the time we turned into the driveway the soughs and snivels had dried up.
    Our tires crunched up the gravel drive. We took in our first gander at our assigned cabin, the home of the scientist who developed quantum sphere technology. The original cabin on the village property. It stood, steadfast and ancient, a testament to the creator of sphere travel.
    First Cabin’s wide front porch opened to a green lawn that swooped down to a magical pond reflecting the rippling moon. The scientist’s wife had been taken into a jump from the center of the pond. Then years after her return, their granddaughter had crossed into a jump and had come back within hours.
    Her disappearance gave her grandfather the impetus to develop the original sphere matrix. It had taken 40 years to actually put the algorithm into