“Grey told me something back in Roanoke.” Audrey allowed her hazel eyes to drift closed. “Something I was either too ashamed or too afraid to admit.”
“The Game.” Something clicked in Steven’s head, something that had crossed his mind more than once and been dismissed each time as too horrible to conceive. “It’s all that’s keeping you alive.”
Archie rested a gnarled hand on Steven’s shoulder. “Without the presence of the Game’s near limitless power, her illness, much like the decades I have on each of you, is no longer held at bay.”
“I couldn’t bear to tell you, Steven.” Lena traced a circle on the ground with the tip of her shoe. “You had to see it for yourself.”
Steven met Lena’s despondent gaze. “How long has she been like this?”
Audrey held up a shaking hand and inhaled to answer, but tears choked her voice and she flashed an imploring look in Lena’s direction. “Tell him,” she croaked.
Lena sucked in a breath. “We landed here in Chicago four months ago with nothing but the clothes on our backs.” A quiet laugh fell from her lips. “Funny how having a debit card in your back pocket doesn’t do you any good in the 1930s.”
“We can relate.” Emilio encircled Lena with his muscular arm and pulled her close.
Visibly bolstered by his nearness, Lena kissed Emilio’s cheek before continuing. “We had to come up with some money and a place to stay. Fortunately, this hotel was down a couple housekeepers, and when we told them we’d work for room and board, we discovered we were more than qualified for the job.”
“That was late October,” Audrey croaked. “Back when I still felt okay.”
Lena patted Audrey’s leg. “We made it through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. Made some friends. Even got invited to an occasional home-cooked meal with the family of one of the other cleaning ladies.”
Audrey smiled. “Esmeralda.” The single word sent her coughing.
“Don’t talk, chica.” Lena shot Steven a concerned glance. “So, everything was going fine till we hit February. One day, Audrey just didn’t want to get out of bed. She hurt all over, the nodes in her neck got all swollen and tender, and the next day, she was burning up with fever.” She shook her head. “I thought she might be coming down with strep throat or something, but Audrey knew what it was right away.”
“The leukemia.” Audrey spoke the word as if naming her executioner.
“It wasn’t long before the nosebleeds started,” Lena continued. “Then she lost her appetite, started losing weight.” She lowered her head. “I can’t bear to see her this way.”
Archie knelt by the bed and took Audrey’s hand. “Are you in any pain, child?”
“Pretty much everywhere.” Audrey reached up a trembling hand, her fingers brushing Archie’s silver mane of kinky hair. “It’s funny. I’ve never seen you like this.”
“You mean my natural state?” Archie offered her a kind smile. “It would seem the Game is good for both our constitutions.”
Audrey got out a single laugh before a coughing fit sent her into spasm.
Niklaus pulled close to Steven. “I don’t know much about medicine, but I’m guessing there’s nothing in this decade that’s going to help her.”
Steven sat on the bed and squeezed Audrey’s knee gently, afraid he might hurt her. “Did you two try to go to a hospital?”
“A week ago.” Lena shook her head. “With a little nudge, the doctors actually came to the correct diagnosis pretty darn quickly. The treatment options, on the other hand, weren’t anything Audrey wanted to try.”
“Audrey?” Steven asked.
“No.” She cut him off with a harsh whisper. “I’ve been failed by the most cutting-edge medical technology the twenty-first century can provide.” Her weak hands balled into fists at her sides. “Call me crazy if the thought of burying a couple dozen ‘radium needles’ in my skin or taking a blood transfusion from a complete stranger didn’t exactly fill me with hope.”
Steven buried his face in his hands. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what else to do.”
“It’s simple, isn’t it?” Emilio stepped up. “We get her and the rest of us back to where and when we belong.”
“We’ve already done it twice, you know.” Niklaus shot Audrey a beaming smile. “We can do it again.”
“We’ve got the bus.” Steven patted the pouch at his hip. “We just need the gas.”
“Hell, we were barely in 1936 five minutes before Lena found us. Things are looking up.” Niklaus narrowed his eyes in the girl’s direction. “And while we’re on the subject, you said you’d tell us once we got to the hotel how you knew to come find us in that alleyway.”
“Something else you’re going to have to see to believe.” Lena burrowed in the top drawer of the table by her bed and produced a yellowed envelope with her name written in ornate script across the front.
“Lena Cervantes.” Steven took the envelope. “Whoever wrote this knew exactly who they were looking for.”
“And where to find you,” Niklaus added.
“Not to mention when.” Lena motioned to the envelope. “Look inside.”
Steven pulled a similarly yellowed piece of stationery from the aged sleeve.
“Dear Miss Cervantes.” He read aloud, shaking his head in disbelief. “Early on the morning of February 24, 1936, a quartet you’ve been awaiting for some time will be passing through Chicago. Arrive at the address below before the clock strikes three or your paths will not likely cross. If that occurs, I won’t be able to help you further. May fortune shine upon you all.”
He handed the letter to Emilio who read the last line.
“A Friend.”
Archie took the letter next and inspected the fine calligraphy. “Who could this be?”
Lena shrugged. “I don’t have the first clue.”
Steven stared down at the envelope. “When did you receive the letter?”
“Someone slid it under our door a couple weeks after we arrived in Chicago.” Lena gestured in the direction of the hall. “One morning it was just lying there on the floor.”
“And you waited.” Steven took the letter back and held it up to the light. “With nothing more than this, you waited for us.”
“I, or rather, we have waited for months for you to arrive.” Lena laughed. “As for tonight, I’ve been up for a while.”
“Don’t let her downplay any of it.” Audrey’s voice came out a rough whisper. “She’s been out there every night for a week on the off chance the letter writer got the day wrong.”
“Like I said.” Lena shrugged. “A while.”
“Well, we’re here now.” Steven handed the letter back to Lena. “And now that we’re all back together—”
“Not all of us.” Emilio went to the room’s tiny window. “We still don’t know what happened to Grey.”
“I found you and Archie.” Steven’s gaze shot to Lena. “And together, we four made it here to 1936 and Lena and Audrey.” His hand went to the pouch at his side, the leather warm to the touch. “We’ll find Grey too.”
“Agreed,” Lena said, “but first, we’ve got to take care of Audrey.”
Steven sighed. “Which begs the question, where do we go to find another crossing?”
Niklaus straightened up. “We could always look up Ed Leedskalnin in Florida or try to find the site of Zed’s California compound. We know both of those work.”
Archie shook his head. “Audrey is in no shape to travel.” His eyes cut to Steven. “Whatever we do, it’s going to have to be close by.”
“The first time we ran into Grey, and the second time, Zed. If only we knew someone here in 1936 we could ask for help.”
“About that…” Lena let out a sarcastic laugh and shook her head. “Not sure if this qualifies as ‘help,’ but there’s one more thing I haven’t told you yet.”
“You’re serious?” Steven asked from his perch on the hard city bench. “She’s…here?”
“Live and in color.” Lena motioned across the busy street to the ground floor entrance of Pioneer Trust and Savings Bank, the doorway flanked by a pair of three-story Grecian columns and shielded from the sun by an ornate marquee. “I doubted my senses when I saw her the first time, but I’ve come back more than once, and there’s no denying it’s her.” She checked her watch. “Ten past five. All the bank clerks head out around now every day, and she’s usually at the back of the pack.”
“And you’re sure it’s not just someone who looks like her?” Steven squinted as the sun came out from behind a cloud and beamed down upon the city street from the west. “What if this woman is simply her great grandmother?”
“I’ve heard people call her by name as they walked past, heard her speak.” Lena shivered, and Steven guessed it wasn’t just from the cold. “It’s her.”
Steven shook his head. “She did mention our initial meeting wasn’t her first trip to the Windy City, but this?”
Together, they sat in silence, Steven holding an open newspaper before his face like he’d seen in any of a dozen spy movies while Lena rooted purposefully through a purse she had borrowed from one of the other cleaning ladies. Five o’clock came and went, then fifteen past. Half a dozen women in conservative attire flooded out en masse followed a few minutes later by a collection of men in dark business suits.
As the bottom of the hour approached, Steven glanced in Lena’s direction.
“Maybe she didn’t come to work today.” He checked his watch for the hundredth time and started to get up. “We can try again tomorrow, I guess.”
“Won’t be necessary.” Lena caught Steven’s wrist and inclined her head in the direction of the door. “There she is.”
A familiar icy sensation welled up from Steven’s core as he caught sight of the woman who had haunted his nightmares for months.
Her jet-black hair, curled into a wavy bob, just kissed her chin on one side.
Her dress, a long green satin number with fur at the sleeves and neck, stretched down her body to mid-calf, a far cry from the revealing black dress she wore at their first meeting.
Her heels, as black as her heart, remained firmly planted on the sidewalk as she turned to walk up the street away from Lena and Steven.
A pinch at his left collarbone from Amaryllis confirmed beyond a doubt the woman’s identity, a confirmation punctuated by the chill in his heart when he met her gaze for all of half a second, those unmistakable emerald eyes burning into him like both fire and ice.
“I wasn’t sure till this moment whether or not I truly believed you, but you’re right.” Steven folded the newspaper and left it on the bench as he headed up the sidewalk, Lena close on his heels. “God help us all, that’s Magdalene.” His hand instinctively went to the pawn in his pocket despite the fact that the forces necessary to empower the icon of the Game would not exist for another eighty years. “Somehow, that’s the Black Queen.”
26
Hunter & Hunted
“How is this possible?” Steven whispered to Lena as they followed Magdalene up the sidewalk half a block back. “Assuming she’s somewhere in her twenties here in 1936, that would put her over ninety back home.”
“Not that different from Archie, I guess.” Lena pulled her coat tight about her. “Who’s to say our team is the only side with a member who’s been pulling social security for a few years?”
“Good point.” Steven shuddered, only half from the cold. “Still, you’re not the one that was nearly seduced and then burned to a crisp by a someone who’s possibly a nonagenarian.”
“You couldn’t possibly have—” Lena began to answer, but as the woman they were following rounded the next corner, Steven grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a newsstand to avoid a quick cross-shoulder glance from their quarry.
“Sorry. Didn’t want her to spot us.”
“Calm down, Steven.” Lena sighed. “No matter who or what she may become seventy years from now, here she’s just a bank clerk, nine to five like clockwork.” Lena stepped from behind the newsstand and continued up the sidewalk. “Not to mention, she has no idea who we are or that we even exist.”
“Seriously?” Steven followed close behind, scanning the sidewalk to no avail, the woman in green nowhere to be seen. “You know as well as I do what kind of person Magdalene is. In 1936, she may not yet have become the woman we know, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous.” He motioned to the empty sidewalk before them. “What do we do next? Your call.”
“We follow her. She can’t have gone far.”
Lena shot up the sidewalk as fast as she could without drawing unwanted stares. Steven worked to keep up, narrowly avoiding collisions with an elderly woman carrying a bag of groceries and a man in a dark suit big enough to play defensive line for the Bears.
“Best watch yourself, pal,” the man muttered under his breath.
Steven offered him an apologetic grunt and continued his pursuit of Lena. Another block, and the girl finally slowed enough for him to catch up to her. Pulling in a deep breath, Steven stepped into the alleyway where Lena awaited.
“Funny,” she said. “I could’ve sworn I saw her duck in here.”
Steven poked his head out of the alley, scanning both directions for the elusive woman in green. “We lost her.”
“But how?” Lena crossed her arms and shivered in the cold. “She can’t possibly run in those shoes.”
“It’s a big city, Lena.” Steven leaned against the brick of the building to his left. “She could be anywhere.” He jammed his hands in his pockets. “Guess we try again tomorrow.”
“I don’t like being followed.” The voice from above their heads carried a not-so-faint Irish lilt, icy in its delivery. “You may think you’re quite the clever lass, girlie, but the two of you are about as subtle as a herd of buffalo.”
As one, Steven and Lena’s gazes leaped skyward to find Magdalene staring down at them from a second-story fire escape, her dismissive stare identical to that of the woman who would try to kill each of them more than once eight decades hence. Steven braced to bolt from the alley but froze in place when he noticed the snub-nosed pistol in the woman’s hand.
“Why are you two tailing me?” Magdalene gripped the rusted iron of the rail with one hand while maintaining a bead on Steven’s head with the other. “You’ve got ten seconds to answer and I’d better like what you have to say.”
“Or what?” Lena’s hands went to her hips, her gaze shifting into a defiant glare Steven had seen on more than one occasion. “You going to call the cops?”
“Funny.”
Magdalene’s curt answer hung in the air for all of two seconds before a firm grip descended upon Steven’s shoulder. Simultaneously, a gruff hand caught Lena by her upper arm, yanking the two of them together. Steven turned his head to one side and met gazes with the linebacker he’d almost collided with a block back.
“This the girl who’s been spying on you, Miss Byrne?” Uttered in as thick a Chicago accent as he had ever heard, the words sent Steven’s heart racing.
“Yes, Milo.” Magdalene descended from her perch, a predator drawing closer to her prey. “She’s the one.”
“And this mook?” Milo shoved Steven forward. “Who’s he?”
“No idea.” She trailed a finger down Steven’s chest, a faint smile of amusement on her lips. “Never seen him before.”
Milo’s grip on Steven’s shoulder doubled in intensity. “You want I should take care of this situation?”
“Not quite yet.” Magdalene studied them both. “First, a question or two for my new pair of shadows.”
Just a bank clerk.
The words echoed mockingly through Steven’s psyche as he waited for Magdalene to speak again.
Nothing in this Game is ever what it seems.
“What’s your name, boyo?” she asked Steven. “And don’t be telling me any fibs or I’ll know. You understand me?”
“My name is Steven. Steven Bauer.” He pu
lled his shoulder free from Milo’s grip and shot the man a hard look. “Now, let go of Lena’s arm. You’re hurting her.”
Milo shot Magdalene an inquisitive look and at her quick nod released his grip on Lena’s arm. Lena, in turn, ran her fingers down the sleeve of her coat, smoothing out the wrinkles left by Milo’s gorilla-like hand.
“And you,” Magdalene asked. “I believe ‘Steven’ here called you ‘Lena’?”
“Lena Cervantes.” Two words, uttered with no emotion save cool disdain.
“By the way,” Milo uttered, “they know your name too.” He cracked his knuckles. “Heard them mention it when they were following you up the street.”
“Of course they do,” the woman fated to become the Black Queen hissed.
“Look,” Lena whispered, “all we want is—”
“Just a child.” Magdalene cupped Lena’s chin in her taloned fingers, the movement as sudden as a serpent’s strike. “At first, I thought it coincidence, me picking your face out of the crowd again and again, but three times in one week? Surely you don’t take me for a fool, or worse, unobservant.” She squeezed Lena’s jaw until the girl squinted in pain. “If you know enough about me to have reason to follow me through the streets of Chicago day after day, then you should know full well I am neither of those things.”
“Please, don’t hurt her.” Steven stepped forward to help Lena, but froze at the sight of Milo’s massive hands balling into fists. “Look, we’re not here to hurt you or whatever it is you think we’re doing.”
“Then what do you want?” Magdalene released Lena with a shove and turned to face Steven. “You have piqued my interest, Mr. Bauer. Please, tell me, what it is you and your young lady-friend want with me.”
Queen's Peril Page 28