Page 73 of After All The Wreckage

The tabs I’d had open had changed after being tossed aside. Instead of Casada’s face, the screen now displayed the Argento Skies, Inc. website.

“You really think this has something to do with a cloud seeding company?” I could hear the doubts in his voice. I didn’t blame him.

“I thought cloud seeding was just a myth? Can they really make it rain?”

“We’ve been doing it for decades,” Gage told me. “The results are mostly inconclusive, though. It’s difficult to prove whether it would have rained regardless of whether the clouds were seeded or not. Plus, it comes with its fair share of controversies.”

“Like?”

“People say forcing rain to fall is stealing water from one location to give it to another. Several nations have accused China of weaponizing the weather.”

“And yet we’re still doing it?”

“Especially states out west because of the severity of the droughts they experience.” He looked down at the information on Argento Skies. “They’re on a short list for a federal contract?”

I nodded. “Their new CEO, Shawn Walden, has gone after it pretty aggressively.”

“What happened to their old CEO?”

I told him about the plane crash and how the FAA ruled it an accident. “But get this,” I said, opening up the article I’d found earlier. “His widow said he’d been receiving death threats from some local environmental group who insists the silver iodide in their cloud seeding is making people sick. The town tried to sue the company.”

Gage shook his head. “The parts per million in the snowpack and waterways from cloud seeding are insignificant. Lower than most naturally occurring levels.”

“But what if the town already had high rates of silver iodide in the water and soil from years of mining?”

Gage looked thoughtful. “I’d still have a hard time believing there was enough of it going up in the air to push into the unhealthy category.”

“So the lawsuit was most likely a money grab?” I asked.

“I’d have to look at the data, but probably.”

“How doyoufeel about cloud seeding?”

He raised a brow, and his lips twitched. “Feel about cloud seeding? I mean… I’ve never really considered it. I didn’t know it was a debate that needed me to pick sides.”

“Not even in the meteorological community?”

“No. At least not the circles I was in. We were about saving people’s lives by increasing warning times and researching ways to prevent catastrophic events from occurring.”

He’d given up those dreams of making a difference to care for his family, but watching him with Monte and Ivy, you’d never know it. All you saw was his love and devotion. Things I longed to have. Things he’d offered me. My heart squeezed. Could I change my dreams and feel the same way he did? Or would I eventually resent it?

I couldn’t think about it tonight. Maybe after all this was done—once we’d stopped whatever was happening with Dunn and Demi and found the people responsible for my mom—maybe then I could really evaluate what he’d offered me.

“Can you think of any reason the Space Force would be interested in cloud seeding?” I asked.

His lips curved upward, turning into a small but stunning smile. “I mean, maybe if they were trying to make it rain on the moon. Or Mars?”

I reached out and smacked him on the shoulder. “I’m serious, Gage. You want to know why Monte was taken, where Demi is—it’s all wrapped up in this somehow.”

My words wiped his smile away, and I instantly regretted it.

“How did you make the leap from your mom meeting with this Space Force guy to it all being related?” he asked.

“Argento Skies is one of Dunn’s donors,” I told him. “Plus, Mom had the company’s symbol next to notes about meeting with Casada. Her car crashed right after that meeting with him. Believe me, it’s connected. I’m going back to D.C. in the morningto get into the Argento Skies office, and then I want to talk to Dunn again. See if we can rattle his cage some more.”

Gage’s brows drew together. “What do you plan to ask Dunn?”

“If he knows where your mom is.”