Liquid sloshed out as I crossed the room, the three glasses held between my trembling hands. I had to dodge tables and men who didn’t seem to think getting out of my way was important. All around the bar, people coughed, causing a feeling of dread to move through me and settle in my stomach.
Dragon stood at Helen’s side, his dark eyes moving between my aunt and uncle as he frowned. Then his gaze settled on me, and the heaviness in my stomach grew. Something in his gaze made my steps falter. He looked like he knew what we were doing here, like he’d expected it all along, and I couldn’t help wondering if he and Helen were somehow involved in this.
Al looked up when I set the glass in front of him, his brown eyes swimming with pain and maybe even shimmering with tears. It was hard to tell in the dim light. “So it’s true? Joshua was here?”
I slid into the empty chair and nodded somberly. “It’s true.”
“Shit.” Al lowered his head, and this time I was sure there were tears in his eyes, and that he was trying to hide them from us.
My uncle put his good hand on his head, massaging his scalp. His other arm rested on the tabletop. He was technically on duty, so he was wearing the sword contraption on his stump. It had been a long time since I’d studied the thing—not since I was little and had been enthralled by the idea that my uncle might have been a pirate when he was younger. Seeing the blade now made that weight inside me grow. The metal was dull from age, and along the base where the blade met the cuff, a layer of rust had started to form. Al was a teenager when the virus started, goofy and young, he had bounced back after losing his family much better than a lot of people had. But he’d aged, just like the rest of us had, and along the way he’d probably started to think that he’d grown accustomed to the threat of death lurking around every corner. Only he hadn’t, and the shock of loss was just as startling and painful now as it had been when the virus was first released on this world.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Al said after nearly a minute of silence, his head was still down and his hand was still massaging his scalp. “After twenty years, I thought we were in the clear. I thought all our worries had been for nothing. Why are they doing this now?”
“I don’t know,” Parv responded. In the dim light of the bar, she suddenly looked ten years older than her actual age. The dark circles under her eyes that told me she’d been having a difficult time sleeping were more pronounced, and I noticed for the first time that she had creases at the corners of her eyes. “But we need to figure out how to get Axl out of the CDC.”
“If he’s there.” Al, having pulled himself together, lifted his head and focused on my aunt. “All we have right now are theories.”
“He’s there,” I said firmly. Theories or facts, I didn’t doubt it anymore. The CDC had my Dad. “Between the stuff Donaghy overheard at Jackson’s house and finding out that Dad is immune, I don’t have a doubt.”
Even though Al frowned, he nodded like he agreed with me. “It looks bad.”
“What’s bad is the fact that we have no real way of getting in.” Parv’s gaze was suddenly focused on something behind me, and I twisted in my seat to find Helen and Dragon still standing in the same place. Still talking, their heads together like they were trying to block out the rest of the bar. “Maybe…”
“Can you trust her?” Al said.
“Trust who?” I turned back to face my aunt and uncle. “Are you talking about Helen?”
“Parv said she works at the CDC. Maybe she knows something.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t know who to trust anymore. Plus, until tonight, I had no idea Helen was even a nurse. If she knew who I was, wouldn’t she have said something?”
I thought back to all the conversations I’d had with Helen, and doubt clawed at my brain. There were times when she’d seemed to be trying to tell me something, but I hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to her. It had never occurred to me that the gnarled woman who served drinks in Dragon’s Lair would have any real information to share.
“Can you trust her?” Al repeated.
“I don’t know.” I exhaled, my mind still flipping through every word and look Helen had thrown my way since I started here. Nothing felt off or suspicious. At least not until today. But I’d been understandably preoccupied. I could have missed something. “The best I can do at this point is feel her out.”
“What about this gray man?” Parv asked. “What if he has some kind of access to the CDC?”
The gray man. He was an even bigger mystery than anything else that had happened, because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how he knew anything. He looked like someone who either lived in shantytown or slept in alleys, not a person who would know secrets. Who the hell was he?
“He obviously knows something, but I don’t know what that is or how he got the information.” I shook my head and the urge to massage my temples hit me hard. With all the new information swirling around in my head, I was starting to get a headache. “And it isn’t like I know where to find him. He just pops up.”
Al exhaled and sat back. He drummed his fingers against the table as he thought it all through, and I held my breath. Waiting. Praying that Al had an epiphany that would lead us to Dad.
“We’re going to have to be smart about this. Take our time. Do some recon. And we absolutely cannot talk about this in the apartment building.” He turned his brown eyes on me. “Don’t tell your mom.”
I hated the idea of keeping her in the dark. It wasn’t fair, at least not to the person she was before Dad’s disappearance. She’d always been strong and I knew that if they’d chosen to tell her the truth back when they’d found this all out, Mom could have handled it. Now, though, I had to agree with my uncle.
“You should have told her years ago,” I said, even as I nodded in agreement.
“That’s something you’ll have to take up with your Dad,” Al replied. “When we find him.”
The pain in my head increased, then traveled through my body until it found a home in my stomach. Adding to the tension that had already coiled inside me.
When we found Dad.
I tried to hold onto that hope, but it was tough when we hadn’t really accomplished anything with this conversation. In fact, I kind of felt like I had even more questions now than I’d had before I sat down with Al and Parvarti.
“So that’s it?” I asked, looking back and forth between my aunt and uncle. “This is the best we have?”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Parv said.
I didn’t have any, and it made me feel more helpless than ever before.
Al got to his feet. “I’m sorry, kid, I wish I could do more.”
“We all do.” Parv stood too.
I got up without thinking about it, following their lead like I was a puppet and they were pulling the strings. Obviously, they considered this little meeting over, and I couldn’t beg them to stay because I had nothing else to add. That didn’t mean I was happy about it, though. In fact, I was so angry that I didn’t trust myself to open my mouth without screaming.
Al and Parv traded a few comments about work and before heading out my uncle assured me that he’d poke around.
Parv started to follow him, but stopped at my side after only two steps. “I know it seems like we didn’t get anywhere, but we did. If nothing else, you’re not alone in this now.”
“I know.” She had a point, but I didn’t feel much better about where I stood. “I just want to get Dad out of there before it’s too late.”
“We will.” Parv gave my hand a squeeze before following my uncle.
I went back to the bar, ignoring Glitter, who was more chipper than I could stand right now, and doing my best to stay away from the customers even though I desperately needed the tips. I had too much going through my head to even think about being cordial.
Helen had disappeared sometime during my meeting with my aunt and uncle, and she stayed gone the rest of the night. If Dragon hadn’t been
missing too, I would have wondered where she was, but I had a suspicion they were going at it in his office. Again.
Oddly enough, Helen and Dragon weren’t the only two people I didn’t see after my aunt and uncle left. Donaghy, too, seemed to be nowhere in sight. Before the fight I was relieved that we hadn’t had the opportunity to talk, but now I found myself constantly scanning the room in search of him. Maybe it was wrong to drag him deeper into all of this, but my aunt was wrong about one thing: I didn’t feel lighter now that Al and Parv were in on this. It made me feel more helpless because they didn’t have any more solutions than I did, and who the hell knew if or when we’d ever come up with something. Donaghy, with those icy blue eyes and the scar on his chin, as well as his quietly calm exterior, made me feel secure.
He came out of the back about a half hour before closing time. He was still shirtless, but his skin was moist, as if he’d just gotten out of the shower. Maybe he had. He didn’t usually take a shower when the bar was still open, but I’d missed most of the fight and for all I knew he’d been covered in the black blood of his enemies.
He stopped in front of me, shaking his head as he slid onto a stool. “My guards are in bad shape.”
I poured him a drink without being asked, and slid the glass across the counter. “They’re sick?”
“Coughing like crazy. Feverish. They haven’t left their cots all day, which tells me it’s serious. Those two assholes love the entertainment district more than anything.” He let out a deep breath. “This thing is going to get serious real fast.”
He was right, but I didn’t need to tell him that. Not with the man sitting at the end of the bar, coughing into his glass. Glitter served him whatever he wanted, but kept her distance. I’d even seen the girl use a rag to pick his empty glass up, and she’d spent more time scrubbing the dirty glasses today than any other night since I’d started working here. The water in the basin was hotter, and had more soap in it, too. It was like everyone working here had the same suspicions that Donaghy and I had about this flu.
“Did you know Helen works at the CDC?” I asked, tearing my gaze away from Glitter so I could look at the fighter again.
“Just found out.” He shook his head. “She and Dragon…”
I perked up. Something about the expression in Donaghy’s eyes told me he had the same suspicion I did. “What? Do you think they know something?”
“I think they are involved in a lot more than just serving booze and organizing fights. I’m just not sure what.” Donaghy took a big gulp and I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed. When he’d set the glass down, he wiped his lips and said, “I’ll keep my eyes open, but I have a strange feeling.”
“Me too.” I exhaled and leaned against the counter, suddenly feeling exhausted. “I’m starting to think that the best thing I can do is just get back on Jackson’s good side. He’ll be able to get me some information.”
Donaghy sat up straighter. “After what those guys you work with told you? That would be dumb as shit, Meg. Don’t risk it.”
“I have to find my dad, and this could be the only way.”
“Don’t do it,” Donaghy said again, he paused so he could study me for a second. “You don’t still think Jackson’s a good guy. Do you?”
“No…” My voice trailed off when I thought back to how Jackson had behaved this afternoon. He was the same, but different. I felt like I’d seen him without blinders on for the first time. “He had me fooled for so long. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before, but I think I know how he was able to hide it from me.
“How?”
“He saved me,” I said, meeting the fighter’s gaze.
“What?” Donaghy’s eyes searched mine, swimming with concern and questions.
He wasn’t the only one who had questions, though. I’d had a million going through my head for the past several weeks, but most had been about my dad. So many that I hadn’t really stopped to think about Jackson and how he had managed to fool me for all these years until now. I should have, though, especially after what I’d learned about Stevie Jones—AKA Ticker.
“The day my sister was killed, Jackson swooped in and saved me,” I said, trying to do something I usually avoided: remember. “Mom was walking Margot and me home, and the streets were busy. Full of people who were doing the same thing: going home after a day of work or school. The horde came out of nowhere. One second the street was clear, and the next they were there. Dozens of them. They turned a corner and charged us. It happened so fast. The crowd went nuts, and Margot and I were ripped away from Mom. I held onto my little sister’s hand as hard as I could while we ran. I tried to keep her close. She was crying, and all I wanted to do was to get her somewhere safe.
“When I lost her, it felt like someone with super-human strength ripped her hand out of mine. It was so violent and forceful that I almost felt like I’d been shoved away from her in the process. People surrounded me and I couldn’t figure out where she’d gone. I screamed for her and searched the crowd, but it was as if she’d vanished.
“Then the crowd parted and the zombies were there. Snarling and growling. They’d already taken a few people out, and I can remember the smell of blood in the air. The dead were coming straight for me. Everyone around me was trying to look out for themselves and no one cared that I was alone. I tried to run, but there was nowhere to hide.
“That’s when Jackson popped up out of nowhere. He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd. A zombie was on top of us, but he took care of it and got me to safety. We hid in an alley, behind a dumpster, just the two of us. I could still hear the screaming from the street, and I was crying because I didn’t know what had happened to Mom or Margot. Jackson held me and comforted me. He kept me safe.
“When it was over we went back out to the street. There were bodies everyone—both human and zombie—and the road was covered in blood. We found Margot’s backpack lying in the middle of the street, covered in blood and ripped up. Jackson helped me look for my sister, and not too long after that Mom showed up. She had a big gash on her head, but she couldn’t remember what had happened. She thought the crowd had trampled her. We searched all night for Margot, but never found her.
“After that, Jackson and I were inseparable. I knew people didn’t like him, but he was always good to me. Sweet and caring. I thought I could see something in him that no one else could. I thought I knew him better.”
I stopped talking and silence settled around us. Donaghy was frowning, thinking it all through, and I did too. Searching my memories of what had happened for facts I might have been ignoring for years.
It was odd, Jackson popping up like that when he didn’t live in that part of the city, but it had always seemed almost divine to me before now. Like it was meant to be. Now, though, I had to wonder if it hadn’t all been for show. Like he had planned the whole thing. No, not Jackson, but his father.
“We never found her,” I said quietly. “Margot’s body vanished. She was the only one from that day.”
“You think they took her?” Donaghy asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.
They. It always came back to they lately. Only, I didn’t know who they were and I didn’t know who to trust or what to think.
“Maybe. Angus was immune, and I now know my father is too.” Donaghy’s eyebrows shot up and I shrugged. “My aunt and uncle filled me in on some details. Anyway, Margot could have been too.”
Something like worry or fear or a feeling even more intense than that flashed in Donaghy’s eyes. “If they took her, they could take you. You’re part of that family too. What if you’re immune?”
“I’m not.” I almost laughed. “My last name is the only thing special about me. People get all bent out of shape when they hear that my last name is James, but the truth is, we aren’t related by blood. My biological parents died on the way to Atlanta. Vivian and Axl James adopted me.”
Understanding crossed Donaghy’s face and he frowned. “That’s it. That’s
why Jackson wants you.”
“What?” I wasn’t following his train of thought.
“Your name. James. You’re the one who told me how power-hungry his dad is. Well, who has more power in this country than the Regulator?”
“Angus James,” I whispered, shaking my head. “He’s been dead for twenty years, and yet people still talk about him every day. They pray to him for God’s sake.”
“Having you at his son’s side could ensure that the Stars would be able to stay in control. Hell, he might even be able to get The Church to back him if Jackson was married to you.”
“Shit.”
It had never occurred to me before now, but it should have. Jackson was usually careful not to bring my uncle up, or the crazy religion that for some reason thought Angus James was their savior, but Donaghy was right. If anyone in this settlement could sway people to side with the government, it would be someone with the last name James.
I I mulled over what Donaghy and I talked about the whole walk home, so lost in contemplation that the coughs ringing through shantytown got little more than a fleeting thought from me. A thought that went in one ear when a hacking cough shook the metal walls of the shack I was walking by, passing through my head and flying out the other ear when the statue of my uncle came into view.
I slowed to almost a stop, my gaze on the carving and the gifts lined up around it. Credits were tucked under the base, the paper they were printed on flapping in the breeze like it was taunting the people around it.
To me it felt like that, anyway. The people living in this section of the city didn’t have enough of anything to go around, and yet those credits would sit by this shrine until it rained hard enough for them to be washed away. No one dared touch them, no matter how lawless or needy they were. Even skeptics probably found themselves silently fearing that the spirit of Angus James would curse them to a death even more horrible than the one the virus had rained down on this country. They would instead starve, possibly right here in this very spot, kneeling in front of the statue and begging for help while the credits flapped in the breeze.
Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella Page 25