by Andrew Weis
After dashing through the building wall to the outside, I floated above Double N. From up high, I spotted Daniel standing on the ledge with his back plastered to the wall beside an open window. The fire escape was fifty feet from him, much too far to reach. He looked as though he were afraid of heights.
My feelings ricocheted inside my heart like a rubber ball in a concrete room. Considering all the time we were together, I wanted nothing more than to unload my guilt for one chance to explain to Daniel why I lied about Coz on my last day. Unfortunately, my ARV wouldn’t let that happen.
Daniel shuffled along the ledge toward the fire escape and as long as he didn’t look down, he’d be okay. He couldn’t resist his fear-laden curiosity, so he looked down and slipped. He somehow grabbed the ledge and dangled. His worn checkerboard-patterned skateboard shoes found no grip as he tried to shuffle up the white-painted face brick wall.
The fall would at least break his legs. He might even shout out if he got hurt after landing. Could I live with the memory of watching the boy I loved get injured? A vengeful heart would let him suffer, but that wasn’t the job of a watcher or an archangel. Damn it all!
Coz’s red Chevelle pulled up in the front of the building. Perfect timing. I held a deep breath, then tried to prepare myself for the worst. There was one way to save Daniel. I hoped it wouldn’t get me locked up for eternity, but I made a choice. After floating down to the ledge, I stepped out of inrep.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked, hoping my soft voice wouldn’t startle him.
Daniel looked up at me with terror in his eyes, then lost his grip on the ledge. I shot down after him, caught him and brought him back into the bathroom from which he escaped.
I set him down on the bathroom floor. He flapped about in a full frenzy as though he were an infant throwing a tantrum. He was so cute. While I waited for him to calm down, my nose tingled at the heavy smell of pine cleaner. I wished that he could see me instead of a blonde-haired leathered-up African-Asian mix who appeared out of thin air.
I bent down and cupped his face.
“Hey! Calm down,” I said, speaking in a soothing tone, which settled him.
I’m positive he didn’t recognize me with my changed appearance. Besides, I doubted that he’d even be thinking of me at this moment.
“What are you?” he asked.
A strange relief soothed me. We hadn’t spoken since that last day at school and feelings of affection for him awoke.
“No time, Daniel. They think you bailed out the window. Come on, we’re leaving,” I said and headed for the door.
Down on the main floor I observed Tyrone chewing out Nemo and Nero while Coz stood by with a judgmental sneer. Coz handed Tyrone a slip of paper and mentioned something about a formula.
“Keep quiet, they’ll be going soon,” I whispered.
We watched as Nemo and Nero left their shop. Tyrone proceeded to the back of the shop where he opened a white steel door leading into another lighted warehouse-sized room. The sound of two rumbling car engines outside faded away.
“Okay, now’s our chance,” I said.
Daniel and I made it down the stairs to the main floor and ducked behind a set of stacked tires with manufacturer’s stickers still plastered on the treads. I led us toward the front door and got us out of the shop. We hustled to the side of the building and paused to catch our breath.
“Daniel?” I asked.
Daniel wasn’t behind me. I lost him in a fifty-foot stretch. Damn that boy!
I inrepped and stormed back inside the shop. In the far back corner, I watched Daniel as he sneaked through the same white steel door Tyrone used. I whisked to the door, then peeked in the room.
Daniel shuffled between pillars of industrial blue plastic 55-gallon drums and stopped close enough to hear Tyrone as he spoke to Daniel’s father, Reggie.
Reggie sat in the middle of a semi-circle of sandbags while his smartphone played smooth 1970s tunes that filled the tense silence. I never gave music from the 1970s much of a chance. While I listened to the music, the melodic soul and pop-like sound loosened my cynical heart. Believe it or not, it sounded good.
In the sandbagged ring, Reggie applied a block of his clay to a small vault door, then sat behind a table piled with various voltmeters, wire strippers and chemicals. Tyrone straddled a metal folding chair while he watched Reggie finish the setup.
“This should work,” Reggie said, turning off his music.
“Are you sure you’re good with that?” Tyrone asked.
Tyrone removed his revolver from his coat. He cocked and uncocked it while he stared at Reggie. He then removed a piece of paper from his brown leather coat pocket and waved it.
“Maybe this recipe will work better,” Tyrone said. “Coz found it by chance in your basement toolbox. Pretty lucky, huh?”
Tyrone slammed the paper onto the worktable, causing Reggie to flinch. Reggie seemed to recognize the green-lined cream-colored sheet as he let out a defeated breath.
“You’re crazy, T,” Reggie said.
Tyrone slapped Reggie and almost knocked him to the floor.
“Get the formula right and your boy lives,” Tyrone said, shoving his phone in front of Reggie’s face. “Does he look familiar?”
“You son of a bitch,” Reggie said. “If you hurt Daniel—”
Tyrone clutched Reggie’s neck.
“This ain’t no debate. Make the mud work, and you won’t have any problems. Get busy, boy.”
Reggie looked at the paper. He grabbed a pair of glass mason jars containing chemical compounds and resumed work on his test bomb.
“Good boy,” Tyrone said.
Reggie reworked the clay, then set it on the lock. He pressed his remote detonator. A muffled poof and a dissipating cloud of smoke later and the small vault door drifted open.
Tyrone continued watching the door as the puffs of smoke dissipated.
“No sulfur flash? It’s ready?” Tyrone asked.
Reggie plopped extra explosive clay into a small plastic tub on the table, then sat on a brown metal folding chair.
“Was that so hard?” Tyrone asked, smiling. He tucked his gun into a shoulder holster.
“Okay, you got your bomb. Now let me go,” Reggie said.
“Easy, player. We can’t go to market without a field test. Get ten pounds of mud ready by tomorrow. No bullshit!” Tyrone bellowed.
“Ten pounds? You’ll flatten a city block with that much.”
“We need to keep some in reserve for, uh, future projects. Get busy,” Tyrone said, then slapped a small bin containing circuit boards, resistors and computer chips off the table, scattering the contents across the dusty cement floor.
Tyrone slammed the steel door. Daniel rushed over to Reggie.
“Daniel,” Reggie said.
“Dad, what’s going on? What’s Tyrone want with us?” Daniel asked.
“He tried taking my silent bomb,” Reggie said.
I knew I saw a bomb explode, but I still didn’t understand how it didn’t make a sound. It seemed ironic that all that intelligence wasn’t spent on curing disease or other social problems.
“Dad, let’s go out the back door,” Daniel said.
Reggie shoved the formula into his pocket. Before they made their way to the exit, a gun clicked behind Reggie’s head and stopped him cold.
“Don’t you love family reunions?” Tyrone asked like a pompous jerk.
Reggie spun around, then tackled Tyrone. Daniel watched as the fight moved away from him. He appeared to spy the gun still in Tyrone’s grip and ducked out the way of the gun’s barrel. I feared it might go off and strike God knows what. Daniel stumbled back against a stack of blue barrels causing them to teeter. Reggie landed solid punches, but Tyrone overpowered him. Tyrone shoved Reggie against the worktable.
“Where you going, Reg? You ain’t leaving the show early,” Tyrone said.
The tower of barrels fell forward, I materialized, swooped over and p
ulled Daniel to safety while the stack of barrels bounced around on the concrete floor like big bass drums.
Chapter 17
DANIEL AND I ran hand in hand away from Double N down the darkened street. With the hornet’s nest shaken, I had to do everything in my power to keep him close while I figured out what I needed to save him from so I could get my promotion.
We ducked down a gangway between a burned out brick house and a small copper plating business to catch our breath. We stopped on a fractured concrete patio with a rusty barrel grill and a kid’s plastic three-wheeled trike with one wheel missing. Daniel caught his breath while he eyed me with wild curiosity.
“Look, Daniel, you can’t go running off like that. You almost got yourself and your father killed.”
“How do you even know me, girl? Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
My shuttered guilt when I denied him in front of Coz sprung to the front of my heart.
“Ease up, boy. You’re looking at the grand prize winner of the Daniel Perry sweepstakes. Some prize you turned out to be,” I said, flinging my pony tail behind me.
“What?” he asked with a slacked jaw.
“It might take you a while to understand, so I’ll just say it. They assigned me to you. You of all people!”
“What do you mean, assigned? Did Coz send you?”
“No, he didn’t send me. I don’t work for that steaming pile of crap.”
I was so flustered I couldn’t think straight. My vision flashed in and out of blue as I walked about in circles trying to work things out in my mind. I was about to rip into him again when I noticed him staring at me with his mouth wide open.
“What the hell, girl?” Daniel asked, his eyes white and bright.
“Close your mouth, you’ll let the flies in,” I said.
“Are you a ghost?”
I looked at my arms. Dammit! Only partially inrepped, I took a deep breath, then restored myself to human form. I remembered in training that angels could still show what they were if they didn’t keep their emotions under control. I was running in and out of inrep so much Daniel had front row seats to that unintended show. In seconds, I compromised my ARV, thanks to the shock of speaking to Daniel for the first time in two years.
“No, I’m not a ghost. Besides, you’re big on gratitude. I save your ass and I don’t get so much as a thank you. I don’t think you’re worth saving.”
Did I just say that? It was a huge lie, and my heart knew it. There wasn’t any doubt about that.
“Look, I’m sorry. You’re right. Thank you for saving me,” he said more sincerely. I wanted so much to hug him. He was so transparent that I could read his feelings blindfolded.
“You’re welcome,” I said.
I bit the corner of my lip and shifted my eyes.
“You, uh, saw me when I was, um,” I said.
Daniel nodded.
“Then you saw my, uh.”
He nodded again.
Crap.
I walked toward the gangway. “Well? Let’s go!” I said.
My mind clouded with confusion and anger. I didn't know if I could save Daniel from whatever trouble he was in but the sooner I did, the better. I knew saving him from his confinement in Tyrone’s gang wasn’t enough for me to succeed in my ARV. Nobody in Hali pulled me back, so I must still be in their good graces.
Daniel and I walked along the quiet street in the late hours of the night, the tension too thick to start a conversation. He continued staring at me as though he waited for something awesome to happen. I stole glances at him and pursed my lips.
“Stop it,” I said.
He dropped his head and looked away, but he couldn’t help himself. If I was lucky, he might get used to being around me and stop gawking like a child at a freak show. I paused while he continued into the gravel parking lot of Hoffman Cement.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To get my dad’s car,” he said. “We can’t walk alone on the streets at this hour.”
I entered the grounds of Hoffman Cement and approached Daniel’s car; it looked more like a relic in need of serious body work.
“What kind of car is that?” I asked.
“Sixty-seven Belvedere GTX,” Daniel said. “We rebuilt the 426 Hemi and put in a new tranny,” he said, stealing curious looks at me.
“Well, the body could use a polish.”
“Are you always so judgy? Rehabs cost a fortune, and I ain’t made of money.”
“Don’t take it personally. I’m only saying.”
“Well don’t, all right? I already know what I got to do,” he said and climbed into the car.
Boys always were touchy about their cars. I forgot that and endured his snappy reminder. After starting the engine, a soft rumble preceded a commanding roar as the wheels spun out on the gravel lot, then screeched upon gripping the asphalt pavement.
Daniel parked the car in front of his garage in the alley, then went in his house through the back door. I took a seat on a living room chair, which slid a foot across the smooth wood floor. I watched him walk about the room fretting about, well, everything. He was so preoccupied that I thought he might’ve forgotten that I was with him.
Arlen told me I had to keep Daniel from impending death. So far, I had saved him from that twice already. The awkward silence between us grew more frustrating.
“So, your father was in the Army?” I asked, blurting out the first thing that came to my mind.
“Yeah. How did you know that?” he asked.
I pointed at the photos on the wall.
“Oh. Yeah. He was in Afghanistan,” he said.
“When did he get back?” I asked.
“About a year ago.”
Daniel walked toward the stairs, then paused on the second step.
“Auntie? Riley?” he called out, but nobody answered.
Damn.
“I heard Coz snatched you a few days ago, right?” I asked.
“Yeah. They knocked me out, and I woke up at Double N. I never found out if they did anything to Riley and my aunt.”
I wrung my hands as I took a nervous breath.
“What?” he murmured.
“I’m sorry, Daniel. They didn’t make it. It was Coz.”
“Coz? What’d he do to them?”
“He, uh, beat them to death.”
“I’ll kill that son of a bitch,” Daniel said, pounding on the wall.
He paced around for a moment, clutched his head, then collapsed to the floor and sobbed. I never saw him so upset. My conflicted heart restrained my instinct to rush to his side. I was never so paralyzed. My God, he was my man, and I couldn’t even hold him or tell him I was his girl. Should I console him or let him work through his feelings alone? I was about to put my hand on his shoulder when the doorbell rang.
Without giving him so much as a compassionate pat on the shoulder, I went to the front door and looked through the peephole. Thank goodness it was them. I unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door.
“Hey, Abbey,” Nemo said. “Why you got yellow cop tape on the door?”
“Daniel’s aunt and sister were killed here, and the place is still a crime scene. Daniel just found out a moment ago.”
They pulled down the police tape as I unlocked the storm door.
“Oh, man,” Nero said, entering the house.
I locked the door while Nemo and Nero helped Daniel to the couch. Nero handed him a box of tissues.
“The timing ain’t proper, but we got to talk,” Nemo said.
“What did you find out?” I asked.
“Tyrone’s putting the squeeze on Reggie.”
Daniel dried his eyes. He sniffled, but the mention of Reggie’s name caught his interest.
“I noticed,” I said. “They look like friends in these pictures. Why is Tyrone so bent on forcing Reggie’s hand?”
“Reg ain’t with the program,” Nemo said. “Tyrone wants Reggie’s quiet bomb.”
“I saw. They had
a successful test at your shop, but if Tyrone and Reggie were army buddies, why doesn’t Tyrone make his own silent bombs?” I asked.
“Reggie’s the brains of the two. Tyrone couldn’t light a fart without help,” Nero said.
That visual disgusted me.
“My dad said his formula would be safer for mining companies,” Daniel said.
“It’d be safer for criminals too,” Nemo said.
“My dad’s not a criminal.”
“Not a willing one anyway.”
“Not in any way. My dad’s not stupid enough to rob a bank.”
“Greed doesn’t require smarts,” I said. “When I was in Tyrone’s office at Xtremes, I found blueprints.”
I retrieved the blueprint I took from Tyrone’s office from under the sofa and rolled it out on the kitchen table. Everyone circled the table and looked over the drawing.
“The Fed?” Nero asked.
“Looks that way,” I said.
“They want to rob the Federal Reserve Bank?” Daniel declared.
“Yeah.”
“How? That place is tighter than his ass,” Nemo said, thumbing at Nero.
“Not cool, man,” Nero said.
“Everyone knows hitting the Fed is a suicide move. Unless T knows somebody on the inside, he won't live long enough to count a single dollar.”
That also meant that Daniel and Reggie might suffer that same fate.
“It’s ambitious, but T can’t pull it off on his own,” Nero said.
Someone helped Tyrone all right.
“There was someone else in the room when I first met Tyrone at Double N,” I said. “I heard the voice but never saw his face.”
Nemo and Nero paused then shook their heads, not offering an answer.
“I don’t care what Tyrone wants,” Daniel said. “We’re going back and getting my father.”
“Daniel, my job is to protect you,” I said. “You’re not going anywhere without me. Understand?”
“So, all you’re going to do is protect me so I can watch my dad get killed? Not a chance. We’re a package deal, girlfriend,” Daniel said, shaking his head like so many girls did with their duck lips in full plump.