"Your dad did not joke about the danger. He gave several examples, in fact." Joe shuddered and tapped his own chest below the collarbone.

"He showed you the scars?"

Joe nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"I'll get therapy," he said.

"You heard about Caffeine?"

Again he nodded.

"People have died. They've been after my dad for over twenty-five years, after Mom and Dad since before I was born, and now they're after me."

"Your dad told me, Cent. He was really discouraging. It was like a gangster movie. 'Nice little relationship you have there. Shame if anything happened to it.'"

"I don't want you to get hurt!"

He put his arms back around me. "Shhh. I don't want to be hurt. Though it sure hurt when you disappeared like that. Thought I was batshit crazy."

"I told you up front you weren't!"

"Well that's what did it, of course. You put it in my head in the first place," he said. "I spent the last week wondering if you were ever there or if you were a figment of my imagination." He kissed me. "At least your house was still there, though there's police tape across the doors." He shook his head. "Police tape! I was really angry, you know, when I found out where you went."

"After I jumped you to school?"

"Yeah."

"Tara and Jade tell you?"

"They told me as much as they saw."

"Why were you angry? 'Cause of the last thing I said?"

"That I liked. No, it was because Tara heard Marius tell you that he wanted both of us down in the car. I would've helped, you know. I'm not useless."

I nodded. "I know."

"But?..."

"You already know the answer," I said.

He shrugged. "Maybe. Tell me anyway."

"It's the same thing. Why I didn't take you with me then. Why I should say goodbye now. I know you're not stupid. That's one of the things I love about you."

He sighed. "He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune..."

"Or 'she.' It was scary enough, with Tara and Jade in their hands. I did not want them to have my heart as well."

He breathed out, "Your heart."

I looked away.

He stood up and put his back to the fire.

"Do I have a say in this?"

I shrugged.

"It's my risk, too, right?"

"It's nearly all your risk. I can jump away."

"Then let me have some of the decision."

I frowned.

"They already took away your childhood. Are you going to let them take this-" He reached out and put his hand against my cheek. "-too?"

"We would have to be extraordinarily careful."

He nodded.

"You couldn't even tell Lany."

He nodded again.

"It would be as if I were your imaginary girlfriend, just as you said. A figment of your imagination."

He smiled slightly. "Should I have a cover girlfriend in New Prospect? So nobody suspects?"

I jumped, closing the distance between us so I was right in his face. I had to grab him to keep him from flinching back into the fireplace.

"Your imaginary girlfriend would not like that."

He let out a breathy laugh. "Understood."

I shook my head. "This is such a bad idea."

I walked into his arms.

THIRTY-SEVEN.

Millie: Signs.

It was more of a lodge than a cabin but "cabin" is what they called it. The walls were made of heavy, thick logs, after all. The main living area was a broad space flowing from kitchen to dining area to a two-story-high lounge arranged around a tall fieldstone fireplace.

Millie sat on one of the couches, staring out the windows, and smiled. The sun was bright outside and the snow was melting off the trees, off the ground, and off the roof, drip, drip, drip.

She was alone in the room and then she wasn't.

Davy leaned over the back of the couch and kissed her. He was wearing a wetsuit, and though he'd rinsed off his boots, he smelled slightly of river bottom.

"How'd it go?"

"Fine. Did four hours and topped off the lake."

Davy had shifted water from the Nile's flood stage into a lake near a refugee camp at the edge of the Sahara. "They'll be good until the seasonal rains."

Millie nodded.

"Where's Cent?"

"Queensland, surfing."

Davy took two steps back toward the kitchen until he could see the whiteboard.

Burleigh Heads, with Joe, back for supper.

"What time is that, midmorning, there?"

"Yes." She giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"Take a look at her door."

"What? She took down the sign?"

"Come look."

The old butcher paper sign was gone. The new one was in poster board.

HELLO!.

ROOM OCCUPIED BY TELEPORTING ALIENS!.

HAVE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE.

AND FRIENDS.

(STILL ACCEPTING ICE CREAM.).

Davy laughed and Millie poked him in the ribs from behind. He jumped. "Hey!"

"She's funny," she said.

"Yes. She gets that from-"

Millie poked him again.

Tor Books by Steven Gould.

Jumper.

Wildside.

Helm.

Blind Waves.

Reflex.

Jumper: Griffin's Story.

Impulse.

About the Author.

STEVEN GOULD is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Jumper: Griffin's Story, as well as many short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been on the Hugo ballot twice and the Nebula ballot once for his short fiction, but his favorite distinction was being listed among the American Library Association's Top 100 Banned Books of 19901999. "Jumper was right there at #94 between Stephen King's Christine and a nonfiction book on sex education." Steve lives in New Mexico with writer Laura J. Mixon and their two daughters. As he is somewhere between birth and death, he considers himself to be middle-aged.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

IMPULSE.