Reflex

Reflex is a science fiction novel by the American writer Steven Gould, published in 2004 and a sequel to his 1992 novel Jumper.

The book is set about ten years after the first one, with David married to Millie and both of them living quietly at a hideaway they chose for its inaccessibility, which is exactly how the plot becomes a two-hander: the story alternates between David's account of his captivity and Millie's account of being stranded, first by the abduction and then by a fall from the cave entrance that teaches her she can jump as well. Gould is careful about the mechanics, so the imprisonment is a technical problem as much as a physical one, since the shackles are designed to bring David back violently whenever he tries to leave, and the device his captors implant is intended to stop him using the ability on his own terms at all. Millie's chapters do the rescue work, which gives the novel a different shape from its predecessor, and the criminal organisation that kidnapped him turns out to have influence inside the agencies that were supposed to be his employer.