Angels of America: A Circle of the Fallen novella

  Over the next day or so, we settle into a routine of having one of the corrupt cops shove food through the hatch in the bottom of the door, having the grumpy female one stalk us to the bathroom, and sleeping in snatches here and there. Food is usually granola bars, two fruit pots and two juice boxes. We got a sandwich to share at one ‘meal’ but, not needing sustenance as badly as me, Katie let me have it all. She pulled just a tiny bit of energy from me this morning, no more than a tickle around my stomach, to keep her stores topped up. I guess she still felt buzzed from the feast on the police on Thursday. It’s boring but safe. There’s plenty to talk about – namely, who the hell is Daniel and (I’ve remembered to be mad about this now!) why he was more important that me. Man, that was a long story when it got going. I don’t mind listening to stories: Katie told me about how she wanted to be a professional cross country runner – though why anybody would do that much exercise willingly confuses the crap outta me. And then there was the tale of how she and Jack met, though she says it’s mostly a blur and that this memory probably isn’t even the first time they spoke. Not quite sure how that works but okay.

  “It is a bit like your power to make people forget you and things you’ve done. He could do it with a kiss. Just one little meeting of the lips and I forgot everything about him, about everything that happened while he was with me. Until I became a Shade and he became human, we never kissed. We swapped sides about six months ago and it’s… it’s hard just to be apart. There was this bond between us long before that and we just depend on each other, I suppose. Maybe a little too much but… Anyway,” she said and shook herself clear of the memory. “At first, I thought all Shades had that power and I was afraid to get close to any of them. But two of the people I used to live with were in a mixed mortality relationship and they got on just fine. It was just him.”

  “And you. Can you do that?”

  She shook her head. “I kiss Jack all the time and he’s never forgotten me.”

  “But, if he used o have the power himself, maybe he’s immune. Haven’t you ever kissed anyone else?” Now, a few hours later, I can’t describe her look as anything other than shifty. Something happened back in England.

  “Not as I am now. No.”

  “Then kiss me.” Not a full frontal French kiss – she looked dubious about it. This is kind of an experiment – or the closest we can get trapped in here. I bit my lip and stared at the floor, my face flaming as I listened to the faint squeak of feet somewhere outside. This is the worst, weirdest idea I’ve ever had. It’s such a long shot.

  “I don’t want you to forget me, Rose.”

  I expected her to throw up endless arguments but, there was just that one simple statement before she brought my face up to hers and planted her lips on mine, soft and gentle. Slowly, she touched my hand and worked her fingers in mine, never breaking contact. A faint tickle in my brain suggested that any damage would have been done by now. I tried to ignore it but Katie reached further into me than ever before and slammed the door on it. My knees started to wobble. I felt light-headed. My hand twisted until my chipped fingernails were digging into her skin. Skin that felt warm and human. She twitched and pulled away. Her right hand looked limp and lifeless and she cradled it to her chest.

  “I broke it last year,” explained this dark haired, dark eyed creature standing in front of me. “Rose. Are you okay? Do you know my name?”

  “You’re Katie. Duh! I felt you inside me. Like you were trying to pull things out of my head without having to make me think about them.”

  “That’s because I was. And you shook a few of mine loose.”

  “But you don’t have the power.”

  “You’d think that being an angel would give me all the optional extras. I guess it was just Jack…and you. I don’t know if he could do what you do. You reversed the process, Rose. You made me remember things I thought I forgot.”

  Obviously the whole secrecy plan’s gone out the window. Wish she’d tell me when she makes these well thought out, joint decisions. We drift off to opposite ends of the room and I put my back to the wall and slide down until I am resting on the balls of my feet. The door bangs twice and a paper bag containing ‘breakfast’ gets squeezed through the hatch. Dried cereal bars, yoghurt and juice. There’s something else in the jumble when I tip it out on the table. A bottle of dark peach nail polish – the only one I had in the small make up bag I stuck in my bag before I went on the run. My stomach grumbled and I saved that puzzle for later.

  And later’s here now.

  Stiletto heels click on the corridor floor and bolts rattle on the door. In walks Mariah in her usual power dress and perfect hair. “Hello girls.” A new guard stands behind her and shuts the door just far enough for us to know who’s boss. Mariah might be in charge of breaking us but he’s the one with the control. “It’s been a while.”

  “Not long enough,” I mutter, drawing a stern look from Katie and an amused sigh from Mariah.

  Don’t antagonize her.

  Antaga-what? From her glare, I guess I skipped the class where they defined antagasomething. You mean don’t piss her off?

  ”You were asleep last time we met,” Mariah says. “I saw how you stopped your friend getting shot at the diner the other day. Very impressive. Didn’t do a whole lot of good in the end but…” she trails off and leaves her implication to sink in for a few moments. “Oh well, you can’t save them all.”

  “I’m here to save Rose.”

  “And a fine job you’re doing too. Anyway, as you can see, I have a bodyguard with me. Considering you are awake, Katie, and given your unpredictable nature, it seemed wise to have protection.”

  “Are you going to hurt her? Then you are in no danger from me.”

  “My emotional well being was under threat at the rib shack. She was protecting that, not the waitress.”

  “Perhaps. Still, it would have been more interesting if you had used your own powers, Rose. I mean, you did tell me you had some.”

  “I did,” I agree. “I also said I wouldn’t show them to you. So suck it.”

  “See, it is interesting.” Mariah walks further in, out of arms reach of her guard, and sits on the only chair in the room and places her folded hands in her lap. Watching how calmly she does that makes me angry.

  Cool it. She wants to make you mad so you drop your defenses and give her what she wants.

  It is difficult but I swallow my sudden anger back down and smile back just as sweetly. I know Katie is speaking sense, even if I don’t like it.

  “I’ve been listening to you and you keep speaking of some ability to erase memories.”

  “Okay…”

  “We’d love to find out more on that.”

  “I suppose you would. Not gonna happen today though.”

  “Oh well. We’ve got the rest of your life to get into that.” I seriously don’t like the way she said that with entirely too much relish. “Se, whether by force or if you come willingly, the circle will have you. There are things about you nobody understands and my bosses want to find those out. Gosh, no, they don’t tell me why they want you but I know they want you weak and compliant. If you stopped with this ridiculous trying to sit it out thing, then everything would go so much more smoothly.”

  “Screw you.”

  “This is Rose’s decision, not yours.”

  “She won’t agree to this. You could do anything to her once she surrenders. You might kill her, or torture her, or use her for evil or anything.”

  “That’s true. Sadly, that’s beyond my control.”

  “And you have no moral compass to tell you that this is wrong. That condemning a young girl to potential death is so very very wrong.”

  “Like you, dear, I have bills to pay. I’m sure we’ve all had jobs we’re not terribly proud of.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “As you know, we have your little boyf
riend under our… guard.” Control.

  “Jack? Where – where is he? What’s happening to him?”

  Mariah ignores her questions as easily as if Katie hadn’t spoken at all, tapping her French manicure on the tabletop while her guard sweeps our trash from lunch into a bin liner. “He’s our leverage n keeping you here. I know you won’t leave without him and I know, if you get him back, you won’t leave without Rose. Which tells my people that we made the right decision in following you all these years, dear child.”

  “I’m not a child and you don’t get to call me a dear anything.”

  “Quite. Anyway. You were taken from family when you were tiny and put into the state child care system, thinking you had been abandoned. We lost track of you until a couple of years ago when your name popped up on our radar. Truth be told, I think they had given up on you ever becoming what they needed you to be. And then Rose Blood applies to Milagro High School and… well, you know the rest.”

  “But why? Why is it so important to you that it’s me in here at all?”

  “Why you? People like you are interesting to people like me.”

  “But – Katie’s a goddam angel. Do your experiments on her!” I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so so sorry.

  “And she’s already dead. Of no use whatsoever. You, though, you are one of the nearly dead. Sometimes, people like you develop powers before you die and… return. We’re going to try to find out how it happens,, and why only to a few. Maybe it’s something in your brain, may be something physical, perhaps it’s something to do with your deprived upbringing. Nobody knows. But the tests will tell us more.” What. “How you use your abilities. Why you have them. If you have any more.”

  “I told you before – I’m not having this discussion until you give Jack back. You don’t need to hurt him or Katie to get me.”

  “Sadly for you girlies my bosses have shown unprecedented interested in your Jack. Did you know he was the first Shade ever brought back. Apart from the Keepers, obviously, but they hardly count.”

  “The first?”

  Apparently this is as much a surprise to Katie as it is to me.

  “Oh, yes, he was the experiment. To see if it would work. So you both have a lot to thank him for. Or curse him for. Depends on your opinion, really. Once Jack saw that we had you, he realized he should just open up to us because, one way or the other, we’d find out about him. Gosh, do you think this was an act of self-sacrifice? Was he being so helpful in the hope that my people would be so captivated by him that we would just… let you go? No no no.” Mariah pivots in her seat until she is staring at me with steel eyes that freeze me in place. “A boy who was dead and is now alive, an angel, and a girl who has powers and will soon die. What a week hey?”

  “Listen to me Mariah.” I manage to lever myself up from the weight of her gaze and take a few steps toward her, stronger with each step, wanting to take each one less than the last. She crooks a finger at the guard who take a threatening step forward and puts a restraining hand on my shoulder to stop me. Something deep inside me responds to his touch – to the first real human contact I’ve had in days. I give him a look of my own: he withdraws his hand but does not move away. You will not have me. You can do tests. You can send me to a freaking Shade shrink. You will never have me.”

  “Well, if you won’t come willingly…”

  Pulling his cap a little tighter on his head, the guard grabs both my wrists and pulls them tight behind my back. I don’t fight – much – waiting for the bite of flexi-cuffs being tied on. There’s nothing. Weird.

  “Where are you taking her? I’m coming too.”

  “Ultimately, to the circle, naturally.”

  “And now?”

  “To the holding area.”

  “The what!?” I spit out, going from pissed but resigned to angry as hell in 0.1. “The holding area! I’m not a fucking animal!” And, in that instant, I know that’s all any of us are to her and her fellow maniacs - animals, pieces of meat to be poked and prodded, studied and stared at like some side show freak. She holds the door open and the guard marches me out while Katie follows right behind us. The tiled floor feels strange under my sneakered feet after that scratchy carpet. It’s lovely and cool in the corridor but there is no time to enjoy it as I’m guided down the corridor and round the corner at the end to the left. We take more turns, walk down more halls, take stairs that converge on a balcony that circles a large empty room. Through an open door is the police set up of their lobby. This is anything but legal, though. A large hexagonal rug in dark red covers the centre of the room. A gold tile floor extends a foot or so from the edges. Each of the six walls has a door leading off of it; one goes to the police station, the others are closed.

  “Don’t get excited,” Mariah half snorts. “You’re not going through any of them.”

  “Do you..? Have you brought anyone else in through them?”

  “No dear. This is all for you. Now don’t you feel special?” Not really. We didn’t know how we would manage to bring you in so here we have the precinct you used. Over there is a hospital. That one is a gas station mini mart. All places you don’t really have a choice about going.”

  “This means a lot, doesn’t it”

  With a sniff, the woman totters down the staircase and stands in the middle of the room, her heels sinking into the deep pile of the rug. It looks so lush that I long to get down on all fours and let my hands disappear into it, but I settle for just standing at its edge with Katie and imagining how it would feel beneath my bare feet. The guard returns to his position an arms’ length from his protectee. (That’s a word. I said it and now it’s a word.)

  `”Welcome to your new home, Rose.”

  “Huh? Home? You expect me to live here?” It’s a room. With six fake sets surrounding it. And all I know is upstairs is cells.

  “Expect. Know. It’s all semantics really.”

  In the instant it takes me to get my reply ready, I see Katie nod very slightly out the corner of my eye and start moving. The next thing I see is Mariah staggering back with a hand pressed to her mouth. It’s her left and I’m amazed to see a thin gold band circling her ring finger. Someone was desperate enough to marry this evil cow? The guard moves forward – fast, but not supernaturally fast – and I back up, stretching for Katie’s hand. Which isn’t there. Mariah takes her hand away from her face and smiles creepily with blood smearing her top front teeth. “And I thought you were going to be smart.” I hold my hands up in an I had no idea about this way but it doesn’t take a genius to know she doesn’t believe me. She reaches out and grabs my friend by the arm, pulling her in to her chest and twisting her to face me. Being so close in height, it’s a difficult maneuver although she uses her stilettos to help, driving the point into the canvas just above the toe of one baseball boot. I don’t expect Katie to squeal in pain. She uses her long arms to elbow Mariah in the abdomen, who doubles over and releases her while the guard sneaks up further, twists her hands behind her back – much like he did to me – only this time he forces her into the flexicuffs meant for me.

  I don’t pause to figure this out, or even to see if Katie is following, I just do a 180 that would make my head spin if I let it and start bounding up the stairs. My rubber soles squeal on the tile but it, thankfully, reverts to bare concrete about half way up and there’s only the dull thud of my weight hitting it. Two more guards are emerging from the corridor we entered from. I’m at the top, almost, and it’s too late. Turning to hurtle down the stairs now would result in a broken neck. They see me and shout something I can’t make out over the cussing Mariah and my own heartbeat. A cool hand takes mine and yanks me the final two steps to the top, and there is a flash of silver light as my momentum is notched up even more to vault over the waist high balcony and down to the floor. This is it. This is how you die. The impact doesn’t even register with me but I’m aware
that I’m on my back on the carpet, unable to move, unable to get my breath. There’s somebody screaming quite a way away and I think it might be me. Upside down, the guard holding Mariah gives her cuffs a final tug and shoves her to the floor. Katie pulls me up just in time to see her hit the ground and smack her skull on the tiled edge. Watching her crash into unconsciousness is twistedly satisfying.

  “Hey!” Katie jolts me back into the room and I can see the hulking shadows of two more guards hurrying down the stairs. “There’s no time.”

  But I’m not ready to run again.

  Regardless, Katie twists and heads for the open door and vanishes through it. I start to follow but the guard holds me back. “Get the hell off me!” I yell and reel my fist back to punch him in the… well, chest, I guess, although the face would make me feel so much better. He catches my arm and forces it back down to my side. No time to question why he’s helping us – though I’m not complaining – as Katie comes speeding out of the police precinct shaking her head. “They’ve fixed everything. We can’t get out that way.”

  We’re already standing in front of one of the closed doors directly opposite. Katie leans backs and then pushes herself into a fly-kick at the closed door, which flies open a moment before her foot should make contact. Inside is a convenience store. No time to look around. Katie and the guard push the door closed and slide the thick deadbolt across. We’re so lucky it wasn’t across when we broke in, ‘cos we’d be screwed if that had broke. While they figure out if there’s anything else around that might keep them out, I grab a carrier bag from the counter and race around filling it with foods that will give an intense, quick burst of energy – soda, candy, even some reading material. One good thing about Mariah and her little group of sadists –they go the whole hog, fully stocking the shelves with real food to maintain the illusion.

  “Okay, GO!”

  Katie rushes forward, vaults the counter and picks up a bottle of vodka on her way to the door. The guard starts to moves but a metal bending thump behind the door sends him to the floor. He picks himself up and starts running forward before he’s even gotten upright. I straight-arm the door and all three of us bundle through it as a second hit to the interior door starts to crumple the edges.

  “What now?”

  “Find a car.”

  “Erm…” Up and down the road is eerily empty. It’s a regular street scene with two-storey houses and a handful of people walking along a tree lined street. But no cars. I suddenly hate normal life. I hate it for carrying on and not even missing me. I take a breath of fresh air, marveling at how I never noticed the faint breeze before. I’d thought there might be a car or two at the pumps here, tourists maybe, fooled into thinking this was a real filling station. Around the corner is a small, square lot where Mariah and her cronies keep their vehicles. One of the huge, protected SUVs will be ideal. Not covert, but ideal. I head for one and try the passenger side door – surprise, surprise, it’s locked. Even though I should have expected it, I punch the side panel any way. The door pops open – did I do that? – and I blankly climb up to the seat. Katie is sitting behind the wheel, her slim body almost too slight for this, though her height and the take-no-shit expression means she looks like she was born for this.

  Maybe I was.

  She grins at me, and buckles up. The guard comes up to my window. I look down at the top of his dark cap and shake my head. There’s no way in hell we’re taking one of our captors with us. Sadly, I don’t get to make that choice. He wrenches the door behind me, launches himself across the backseat, thrusting a car key at Katie. The other two guards who were chasing us have been joined by what sounds like a dozen more and heavy booted feet are stomping the way to this little lot. “Time to go.” The big monster of a car peels out of the lot, spitting gravel. From the heightened seating in the SUV, I see a bunch of dark upper bodies scatter. Then there is a bump beneath the big tires, another scream from as I stomp on an imaginary brake and try to look out of the tinted rear window.

  “Collateral damage.” But Katie doesn’t look half as casual as she sounds. This – having to hurt people on the line of duty, is killing her. Another word with the Keepers is on the cards.

  The three of stay silent other than our panicked breathing until we make it out of this little residential area and into a more commercial area of Valmont, where the big vehicle is soon lost in the general traffic of a fairly busy town. There are some Jeeps and other off-roaders on the road, so the SUV only has the distinction of being slightly bigger than anything else. The flow of traffic slows us down. My pulse slows with it.

  “Okay, somebody needs to do some explaining.”

  Katie jerks a thumb behind her, so I twist to stare at the guard. Who takes his navy cap off and it’s Bytheway. Somehow I manage not to react as violently as I want to. Going postal in these confines would not be a sensible thing to do. “Okay. Explain please.”

  “I asked that waitress where the station was and she said the local one is closed. I googled and found nothing. But there was a lot of internet noise about a huge building in town being taken over and refurbished. Seemed logical.”

  I can’t help but stare at his messy near-black hair, falling out of the hair tie he used to hide it under that cap, the hypnotic pale eyes whose exact color I still can’t define except to say it’s something like ice. Suddenly, I’m scrambling over the front seat and into the back to sit by him, his arm falling over my shoulders. A warmth I realize I’ve been missing settles inside. Katie keeps a good simulation up, but compared to Bytheway, she’s… she’s just dead. Her body heat feels artificial somehow, hr breathing forced. “The waitress. How is she?”

  “Called an ambulance for her and the guard. She’s fine. They put a bandage on and said she probably only needed it dressing properly. The guard though… he died before the EMTs even loaded him in.”

  My heart skips a beat. Glee or guilt? “I’m so glad to see you again by the way. By the way, thanks for the rescue. Which… how?”

  “Followed the ambulance to the hospital. Got his clothes. Went to the building and pretended to be his replacement.”

  “They use an outside firm?”

  “No, they just asked if I was sent from head office. Evidently, I’ve got an honest face.”

  “Yeah, I guess so too. What happened to the other guards, do you think?

  His eyes widen and he holds up a finger to silence me. Then Bytheway reaches over me, takes out a pen knife to slice open of carpet underneath the passenger seat and starts fiddling around with his blade. He comes back up with a flat black box with a whole mess of wires birds-nesting around it. Red lights along one edge are blinking frantically at me. “Tracker. Katie, slow down at the next Intersection.” He buzzes the window down and throws the tracking device into the bed of the flatbed behind us. It turns off right where we carry straight on and it’s bye bye Mariah. For now. Of course they’ll find us again.

  “Lunch.” My stomach is grumbling, not happy with the meager rations provided in the cell. The wide SUV barely fits through the drive thru lane of the local Dog Dive. The bags of junk food smell sooo good and warm my thighs, grease dripping through the paper to stain my jeans. It’s a testament to my personal growth that I don’t even care. Well, when you’ve been in the same underwear for three days, it stops mattering quite so much. I can’t resist anymore. I tear open one of the bags and cannot decide whether to go for the fatty food or the sugar laden soda first. Bytheway plucks another bag out of my lap, unwraps the burger and puts it into Katie’s outstretched hand and then balances her fries and drink on the now-empty passenger set. My burger is halfway finished by the time anybody else has even taken a nibble. I suppose I’m the most food deprived. A handful of fries and a slurp of orange soda later and I rip into the first of my mini dogs. A rumble sounds too close behind us. It turns out to be a family with two pissed looking parents and three sc
reaming kids in a battered station wagon who are too busy yelling teach other to pay attention to the road. But it could have been Mariah or one of her gang. That’s why I’m squeezing my hotdog so hard ketchup is dripping through my fingers.

  “Katie, go faster,” says Bytheway with a quick look at my tight face.

  “We would arouse suspicion,” she replies. She’s right. The last thing we need right now is-

  “Does it matter?”

  Evidently not. The SUV lurches across the lanes and accelerates up to a steady fifty. We hang a left into another shopping area and brake harshly. Not a big fan of parking is Katie. “Out.” She has my messenger bag draped over her side and the bag of stuff she mostly lifted from Leeship mall. My knees are about as supportive as tapioca and Bytheway rushes forward to hold me up when they start to buckle.

  “Rose.”

  “Oh. Hey. It’s you.”

  “Yeah, it’s me. Are you dizzy or anything?”

  “I’m fine. So, what’s the plan?” Balance regained, I take my bag off Katie and sling it over my own right shoulder, staggering a little: after a few days of doing nothing, the weight is surprising.

  “We need another car.”

  “Well, you guys do that while I go get some clothes.” Katie tugs me back. “Now what? I’ve been in these for days. I’ve gone through pretty much everything in the bag. What do you expect me to do?”

  “Go through it again.”

  “It’s ok for you. The rest of us can’t just magic clothes whenever we need them.”

  “I don’t- okay, but I’m coming with you! In fact, we both are.”

  “What about getting a car?”

  “We’re not jacking one from here. It’s too public.” This little shopping area is not exactly heaving with people but there are enough around that we could easily be spotted. Also, there are quite a few security guards hanging around the big Walmart. I head over to it with the other behind me. There’s nothing here that a person could call fashionable or desirable but, as quick as I can under the gaze of my companions, I gather clean underwear, some tennis dresses and a cheap pair of sneakers. The toiletries are unbranded and plain. On a whim, I get a classic rock CD and take it to the register to pay, keeping my head as low as I can without being suspicious. I’m fully aware it’s simply paranoia but, considering this is still Valmont, Mariah might have infected all these nice, normal people to give me back to them.

  “Where’s Katie!?” When I return to the real world, she has vanished.

  “Bathroom.”

  Bytheway takes the bags off me and we slide down the rough brick wall, using my stuffed messenger bag to cushion our backsides. “Why are you helping me? You infiltrated the security at that building just to get me out. Why? I’ve been nothing but trouble.”

  “Maybe I like being a hero.” Remembering the bruise on his jaw when we’d met, I think it’s more likely that he just likes trouble. Bytheway pulls something out another bag and begins picking at the packaging anywhere he can grab a bit. “I need to call my brother. He’ll be worried.”

  Suddenly I can feel tears prickling in my eyes. Shaking my head, I turn away and give him as much privacy as I can without actually moving. If only there was somebody at home waiting for me, worried about me. The sun beats down on my skin, people walk and jog up and down the street getting a tan, oblivious to the evil going on at the big building on the edge of town. Would any of them do anything if they knew. Probably not: it’s not like anyone would be honest about what was happening inside. And what could they do? Nothing. If kidnapping and imprisoning kids in cells was the worst that they had plan – which is doubtful – then they might get away with it. Nobody would notice if they were like me with no family or friends to speak of. No attachments to deal with. But if they were going to keep me there, maybe hurt me, and they could do that to other teenagers… no. My social conscience perked up. You can’t let it happen. It’s not fair to let any other lonely, unsuspecting girl go through this and worse. She might not have a Katie to save her. She might not have a Jack to take the worst. And then the tears started rolling, tracking a tiny river down my face. Distantly, I heard Bytheway finish his call. An arm fell over my shoulders and I buried my face in the chest I was being pulled into. For a minute, he just let me sob into him. Then he held me away from him and wiped my tears away with the pads of his thumbs.

  “Rose, you can talk to me. Anything that happens, I’m right here.”

  “Thank you Matthew. All they did after the diner was put us both in this cell thing. The lady came in a few times to put pressure on me to give myself up and… I did think about it. There was too much more to lose than gain.”

  ”And then I came in. And I’m not letting you go back.”

  Even as he speaks my mind is whipping up a panic. He might not get any choice in whether I go back. “Shit! We have to go! NOW!”

  Too slowly, Bytheway gets up and hands me my bag. Slinging it across my body on the run, I speed across the street, a bit pissed when he beats me to the SUV after starting after me and carrying two bags. He’s in the driving seat before I can yell “I’m driving.”

  “Don’t ask questions. Just go.” Where we’re going doesn’t even need to be said. Katie doesn’t go to the bathroom if she doesn’t want to – she only really went in the cell for the slight change of scenery. Picking and choosing your bodily functions is one of the perks of being dead. Almost sensing the urgency inside me, my cute driver swings the monster car into an empty car lot and hits the accelerator, barely touching the brakes as chain link fences and general mess rush up.

  “Trust me,” he yells over the roaring engine. “This is a shortcut.”

  He’s right. Within about 5 minutes, we are merging back into the traffic going past the big building I had escaped from just an hour ago. “Where’d you learn to drive like that, man?”

  “I’ve been around a while. Picked up a few tricks.”

  “Okay. Are you a getaway driver? ‘Cos that’d be cool.”

  Bytheway snorts like he thinks so too. “Just for today.”

  I dread to think of the possibility that Katie has already gone inside but she’s not anywhere insight. Driving around here in the armored machine is sure to get unwanted attention. It’s even more risky to be on foot without even the protection of metal and glass but we won’t find Katie in the car if she has decided to hide somewhere.

  “What are you thinking, Rose? And why do I think I won’t like it?”

  “Because you won’t,” I smile. I find the hoodie I put in my own bag and put it and the new brown sneakers on. Can’t do much about the worn out jeans but it should be enough to turn me into the typical teen if they’ve circulated a description. A moment of madness takes hold. “Park this back in the staff lot.” No, I don’t know why I just said that either – other than it’ll confuse the crap out of anyone who checks – but Bytheway just does it without question. Well, he frowns a bit but I can ignore that. Frowny faces – check. The SUV disappears and I wonder over to the other side of the quiet residential street where nobody will pay any attention to me, but I can see what’s going on.

  “Hello.” A polite young boy comes up to me, sucking on a melting popsicle. “Are you lost?”

  “No, why do I look lost?”

  “You’re just here and people don’t come here if they don’t live here any more. Not since the new people got here.” He points at the big building opposite. “And you’re watching it. Are you a spy?”

  “Not exactly. I’m looking for my friend who Isa spy, and she’s super good at it. Think you can help me find her?”

  He shakes his head. The dripping popsicle is making a red track down his polo shirt and shorts and making a puddle between our feet. “Mommy and Dad don’t want me going near there. It’s not a friendly looking place anyway. I get scared looking at it sometimes. Anyway, lady, there was something happ
ening there today and … if your friend’s gone inside, she might be dead. Sorry.”

  With a sudden shiver, I’m suddenly glad for the sweater, and not just because we’re heading towards autumn. “There were guards. Men dressed in black and white. Are they all gone?”

  Maybe he’s about to answer but then there is the crack of breaking glass and the loudest boom I’ve ever heard outside a movie theater. The faint smell of burning tinges the air. Black smokes edges the big building. Like a sensible person, the kid runs away. Like an insane person, I run towards it. The smoke is coming from the glass fronted lobby. When I get there, black smoke is pumping through a jagged foot-wide hole in one of the doors, the day air sucking toxins and heat out and into my face. Nobody has come to investigate yet. Most of the security are probably still in the city looking for us. A body rushes past me, begins to go into the mini inferno, stops and backtracks slowly. Bytheway. “Well, I think that got their attention, don’t you?” Katie has just materialized next to me.

  “Are you crazy? We’re right back where we started, Katie, right where she wants us.”

  “And Jack is in there”

  “Look.” I hold her by the upper arms – girls got muscles – and practically shake her into looking at me. “I know you want him back but this isn’t the way! They’ll be on alert. They might be inside just waiting for us to go in. We need to be smart about this: find a motel, make a plan. Come back when we know what we’re dealing with. I’m not walking in there just to get killed to death and, if you go in, you know I’m following.” She’s a mind reader. She knows it’s true.

  “I can’t just leave him.” One look at her eyes and I can’t think of any arguments that matter. “Besides I had a check in the bits of the building I could fade into. I only found a skeleton staff.” Even if Bytheway helped me drag her away from this place, Katie would only come straight back once we turned our backs.

  “Uh, girls. Even if there are only a few guards in there, they have weapons. We don’t.”

  “Way ahead of you, Coffee Shop Guy.” She fished inside her t-shirt and laid a pendant over her chest, dangling from a thin silver suede ribbon. The pendant was silver with dark purplish flashes, a deep amethyst it looks like. There are blue sparkles hopping around the six pointed silver star which never seem to touch. She holds a hand out to each of us and a stun gun appears in each palms. Two black devices, looking like a man’s electric shaver but capable, I’d heard, of delivering enough voltage to knock out the dead. I push one through the waistband of my jeans, at my hip, hoping the curve of it with hold it in place. “What the hell good is a necklace gonna do? No. Doesn’t matter.”

  The acid smell of burning alcohol hits us as we charge into the lobby. I could get drunk off the fumes.

  “And they say drinking is bad for you. Well, I guess it is if you get Molotoved.”

  “Stick together or split up?” asks Bytheway. Practical questions are the only ones he ever asks about these things. I love that. If he did ask anything else, the answers might not be there.

  “Split. I can go alone, they can’t hurt me. You two take that side,” Katie points to the left and starts heading through the blaze licking up the sparse lobby furniture – a few chairs, a bookcase and a few pictures on the walls but I can’t tell what they used to be. A hand in the small of my back pushed me beyond the lobby. The flames were getting close to me and I was just standing there, breathing in the tendrils of smoke still hovering, not caring, not realizing that my asthmatic friend must be struggling. Bytheway coughs a little, shakes his head and points his finger towards the door Katie went through. I go through it. He follows. The shadows thrown by the fire provide enough cover for us to dive into the dark corridor to the left. One lowly guard is hurrying down the central corridor, radioing the rest of his team for back-up at the explosion. That hallway leads to the main atrium where we overpowered Mariah and I feel a sudden urge to go down and bask in my glory. Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll die. Because that’s where the rest of the troops will be coming from. Even with the uncomfortable bulk of the Tazer banging into me, that would be an epically bad idea.

  “Come on.” Bytheway starts opening doors along the corridor, two on either side. One is an empty office, one is a storage closet, the other two are set out like meeting rooms but look like they’ve never been opened before. He snatches up a chair and props one foot after the other on it to retie his bootlaces. The few moments are a welcome chance to take in some fresh air. The windows in this room, maybe the whole building, don’t open but I manage to force a gap in one of the vents and leave the door open as we’re ready to leave. I ignore his puzzled look as I go back to the office and look for a heavy object to break the toughened glass window. There’s a big paperweight on the desk. A jumble of official looking papers catches my eyes but I ignore them. Mariah wouldn’t be stupid enough leave an office unlocked where anything important was kept. An alarm wails when the glass shatters on the fifth try, jarring unpleasantly with the wail from when the flaming vodka bottle hurtled through the front door. “Run!” My long hair fans around me like my own personal fire as I turn towards the door. It gets caught in the lock as I swing the door behind but I grit my teeth and yank my head forward, a clump tearing out by the roots. The alarm from the broken window can barely be heard over the one from the lobby. Someone, somewhere, in the building will be aware of it – maybe even watching our every move. They had cameras in the precinct set, probably on that cell-like room, it’s nota huge leap of faith to assume they’d have surveillance all around.

  But I have to trust that Katie checked it out.

  And yet…

  Bytheway has got to the end of the corridor, breathing hard as he still labors to breathe easily. “Can you carry on?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” He’s not. Asthma is not an easy thing to live with but if we don’t move, neither of us might be doing any living for long. The few guards left haven’t figured out we’re here yet. “Through here.” I duck under his arm and through another door into one of those creepy white corridors with white and blue spiral tiles. “Go the end, turn right, start going up,” he orders. I don’t question him, or the knowledge he seems to have picked up during his days fake-working here. At the first break between flights of stairs, I stop, hang my head over the banister. Footsteps. Pressing a hand to my side, the steps seem never-ending. It’s too frightening to stop. “Stop!” Errr… what did I just say? “Rose, it’s me. Can’t catch-“ a hiss of electric, a scream, a shuffle of feet on concrete.

  A body tumbling down endless granite stairs and coming to rest on the previous level.

  Chapter eleven