“Yeah, I get that I saw things I shouldn’t, but I know how to keep secrets. And Jes Hawkins will have me locked up in Malibu. I won’t be a threat.”
She didn’t answer me. Her eyes were riveted on the road behind us.
And right then all the weird pieces fell together. “Those aren’t Retrievers, are they?” I said.
Magda didn’t waste time looking guilty. “No, they’re not.”
“So who are they?”
“Federal agents, I’m guessing.”
I tried to breathe against the crazed spinning in my chest. I’d stumbled onto crimes some powerful people did not want exposed.
“You lied to me,” I said. “You knew the whole time who was chasing us.”
“So what if I lied? Would you have acted differently?”
“No-o, but that’s not the point. I’ve been lied to half my life.” Truth matters. “They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?” I said.
Magda stuck her hand under the seat and pulled out a bunch of keys. “I’m not sure. Assume their job is damage control.”
Damage control? “You mean yes! Why don’t you just say it? Yes, they want to kill us!”
She twisted a key off the ring. “All right, they might kill us, but not until they know what evidence we’ve got and where it’s hidden.”
“Like the wall hangings.”
“How do you know about that?”
“I know stitch-code.”
“Right, of course you do.” Magda tore off her jacket. “Listen. I’m going out that back window, so hold the wheel steady and when I yell ‘Now,’ you hit the gas. Okay?”
“Okay.”
She crawled over the seat and slid open the back window. I held my breath as she slithered into the truck bed.
The other truck was still out there, and it sounded like it was getting closer. Magda crouched in the back. The truck’s running lights caught on the lid of a big, steel box she’d opened. She tossed things out of the box, the lid slammed, and I heard the scrape of metal.
Magda sank down until she’d disappeared, and the metal box inched toward the tailgate until it was right up against it.
The other truck thundered behind us, then light suddenly blasted into the rearview mirror, half blinding me. I glimpsed Magda’s hand on the tailgate, and she yelled, “Now!”
I slammed the accelerator and the truck took off. The tailgate burst open and the steel box soared into the air.
Brakes shrieked behind us. The box crashed on the pavement, bounced, and flew, lid open like a giant steel moth throwing itself at the coming headlights.
The other truck swerved, but too late. Tires squealed and metal screamed.
“Keep going!” Magda yelled.
I pushed the accelerator to the floor. Magda crawled back through the window and over the seat. She pulled on her jacket, her whole body shaking. “You did great back there, but let’s change places,” she said. “I’ll drive the next section.”
“Do you think they’re gone?” I said when Magda had the wheel again.
“No, we slowed them down, but we didn’t stop them.”
“What do we do now?”
“We keep going.” She stared out into the dark. “I know there’s someone you care about. Here’s my phone,” she said, pushing it at me. “Call him.”
“But you said—” I didn’t finish.
My eyes filled with tears as I tapped in Yates’ code. Good-bye. I could feel my heart tearing from my body. How could I say it?
The phone rang three times, and then a slight click and silence. I swallowed, afraid of who might be on the other end. “Yates?”
“Avie! Are you okay?”
Scenes flashed through my mind. Yates waiting for me by Mom’s grave, showing up at my house with his friend’s dog, laughing with me at Riding Buddies, disappearing after Becca’s death. He’d always been a part of my life.
“I’m in trouble.”
“You sound like you’re hurt.”
I’m not hurt, I’m going to die. “We’re on a highway in—” I stopped myself, guessing his phone could be tapped. “Some guys are chasing us.”
“Jeez, no!”
“We’re trying to outrun them, but—”
“Hawkins can’t keep us apart. I love you, and I’ll find a way to get to you, even if he hires a hundred guards.”
I licked away a tear at the edge of my mouth. “It’s not Hawkins. These aren’t Retrievers.”
“Then who the hell is it?”
“We’re not sure, but I got caught up in something huge. Father G was right—what’s happening, it goes way beyond the Paternalists. The Vice President’s involved.”
“The VP! You think those are government agents chasing you?”
I nodded, the yes stuck in my throat and Magda squeezed my arm. “Say good-bye. Now.”
“I love you.” My voice shattered. “I’m sorry. Good-bye.”
“Avie!”
I broke the connection. If I was going to die, I didn’t want Yates to die, too.
Magda’s eyes darted from the road to the rearview mirror and back. “Pull the card on my phone and bend it in half. There are pliers in the glove compartment.”
I did as she said.
“Now toss it.”
I cracked the window and the little plastic and silicon card was swept out of my fingers. Phone numbers, addresses, and who knows what else Magda didn’t want those agents to discover.
“We’ll get rid of yours, too,” Magda muttered. “But not yet.”
Hearing that, I realized she hadn’t given up completely. There was a slim chance we might survive.
65
Magda and I turned away from each other. Stared out into the dark. I felt as empty and cold as the night we were driving through except for the sputtering flame of knowing I didn’t want to die like this.
We drove with the windows open, even though it was freezing outside. We didn’t talk. Didn’t play the radio. We listened hard for the sound of an engine.
Magda’s guns lay on the seat between us. I set my hand down on one without looking at it. Flashed back to icy steel on my cheek. My heart pounded, but I didn’t take my hand away. I saw myself shove the gun into the guy’s ribs. Bam.
“Teach me how to shoot,” I said.
“Not now.”
“I want to live.”
“This isn’t the movies. If I try to teach you now, you’ll only end up getting hurt.”
“As opposed to being totally defenseless and getting killed?”
Magda didn’t answer. She pointed at two sets of lights up ahead, one right on the other’s tail. The one in back hugged the first so closely I didn’t see why it wasn’t pulling out to pass.
“Why are you smiling?” I asked.
“Because I love welcome parties.” She crammed a gun into her belt. “Get your stuff together.”
I had no clue what was going to happen next, but I did what she said.
The two trucks slowed down up ahead. Magda blinked her lights and yelled, “Brace yourself!” She wrenched the wheel, and slammed on the brakes.
“What are you doing!” I screamed.
We skidded past the trucks and sailed off the road. Dirt exploded over the hood. The truck hurtled through the brush, rocks pelting the windshield.
We banged to a stop.
“Get out!” Magda grabbed her bag and threw open the door. I jumped out into the cloud of yellow dust.
Flashlight beams swept through the haze. Magda was running for them and I ran after her.
Up on the road, one of the trucks idled while the other was turning around.
The men behind the flashlights were scrambling down the embankment. “Maggie, you okay?” one of them called out.
Magda raced up and threw her arms around him. “Still in one piece. Let’s get out of here.”
He helped us up to the road while the other man got on his phone. “Sheriff, we ran into an abandoned vehicle down on Highway—”
<
br /> We crawled into the truck bed and slid under a tarp lashed to the sides. I lay down on the hard plastic liner, the tarp stretched over us like a coffin lid and the truck took off, heading back the way it came.
They called her Maggie. That’s got to be her real name.
Her friends in the other truck were covering our tracks. Pretending to be concerned citizens, waiting for the local sheriff. But how far ahead of the bad guys were we?
The pickup roared up the highway. The truck bed stank of manure and cement dust and the raised diamond pattern on the liner bit through my jacket and jeans. I could feel Maggie’s gun lying beside my thigh. Ready.
Wind banged the tarp over us like a drummer. “How long before we get there?” I yelled.
“Couple hours. Maybe more,” she yelled back.
“It’s freezing back here.”
“It’s only going to get colder.”
She wrestled with a metal box, then slapped something small and folded against my chest. “Wrap this survival blanket around you—and cover your head.”
The papery metallic blanket crackled as it unfolded. We both wrapped up burrito style, but I still shivered under the foil. Maybe it would have kept in my body heat if I’d had any left.
Time passed, but there was no way to tell how how far we’d gone or how close we were to where we were going, and my pulse wouldn’t slow down. The guys chasing us were still out there and even though we’d dodged them this chase wasn’t over.
They won’t stop until they know we’re not a problem anymore. I wondered if they’d do it fast. A bullet to the head? Or if they’d interrogate us until they found the evidence we had.
Tears ran in hot trickles into my hair. I’d messed up so badly. I shouldn’t have let anger screw up my thinking. I should have waited until we crossed the border to send out Sparrow’s message.
If we live, if I get to Canada, I have to leave Maggie the phone with Sparrow’s tape of Jouvert and I have to disappear. That’s the only way I’ll be safe.
Suddenly, we were slowing, turning off the highway. The tarp sighed and went quiet, and I lay completely still. The tires crunched over something like snow.
The truck cruised along slowly. Braked like we were hitting traffic lights. “Are we there?” I said.
Maggie rustled in her foil wrap. “No, we’re on the outskirts of Boise, but I think we’re safe for now. I doubt they’ll track us into the mountains.”
I lay back. Soon, we started climbing and the road got bumpier.
I wanted to believe Maggie, I really did. But it felt as if she had decided a long time ago that lying worked better for her than telling the truth.
Salvation
66
When the truck stopped after what could have been an hour or maybe two, Maggie and I crawled out from under the tarp. We were parked by a big, black building with a cross on top. “Welcome to Salvation,” she said.
Hills spotted with pine trees rose up on either side of the little valley we were standing in. The moon reflected off the snow and the rooftops of cabins. It smoothed out the fields and caught on the blades of a dozen windmills.
Close to the church, the cabins clustered together, but as the valley stretched away, the houses were farther and farther apart. The lights were off in all of them except one.
“Is this a town?” I asked.
“Not exactly. It’s for people who don’t trust towns. Or governments,” she added. She grabbed her duffle. “You want us in the Bunker?” she called to the guy who drove us in.
“Nah, sis. Heat’s not on. You kin stay at the house tonight.”
I don’t know what blew me away more. That this place had a Bunker or that the guy was Maggie’s brother. He came around the truck. “Let me carry that,” he said, taking my bag. “So who’s your friend, Maggie?”
I decided then and there I was done with lying. “I’m Avie.”
“Rogan.”
“Thanks for—” My throat got so tight, I couldn’t finish.
“Sure. No worries.”
We trudged through ankle-deep snow to his cabin and climbed the rough-hewn wooden steps to a small covered front porch. A white dog with grey and black splotches leaped up to greet us as we walked inside. Warm yellow light filled the main room. A sofa and chairs sat by a woodstove, and a table big enough for a family separated the sitting area from the kitchen.
“Nellie and the kids are asleep,” Rogan said. He fed wood into the stove before tossing us a couple sleeping bags. “Bathroom’s back of the kitchen.”
Maggie and I rolled out the sleeping bags on the rug by the stove and slid in.
Safe. For now.
67
I woke to the smell of frying sausage. My eyes weren’t even open when I heard a woman say in a hushed voice, “I don’t want her staying here.”
“Shush now, Nellie,” Rogan said. “She’s family and she’s in trouble.”
“I understand she’s in trouble, but she’s never put family first. Not you. Not me. Not her son.”
My eyes popped open. Son? There were obviously volumes of Maggie’s story that were classified.
Rogan said something I didn’t catch. Maggie was asleep on her side a foot away from me. Her mouth twitched, and I wondered why we were here if Nellie hated her so much.
“I won’t let her hurt that boy.”
“Luke’s almost a man, Nellie. He can handle seeing her.”
“Do I have a voice in what goes on in this house?”
“Of course you do. We’re partners.”
“Then respect my feelings,” Nellie said.
Maggie opened her eyes. She had been awake and listening, and when she saw me looking at her, she warned me with a look not to ask about what I’d heard.
“All right. They’ll move into the Bunker,” Rogan said.
“Thank you. And I promise I won’t say anything.”
“That’s all I ask.”
Then everything was quiet except for the griddle. Maggie and I lay still.
I heard Rogan say, “Kids outside?”
“Sarah’s feeding the goats, and Jonas is up to his usual. When do you expect Luke and the others?”
“Before supper. That the second breakfast you’re fixing today?”
“I’m guessing those two didn’t eat much yesterday.”
“You’re a kind woman, Nellie Paul.”
“Go on. Get out of here.”
I watched Rogan pull his jacket back on. He was pressed, buttoned-up, tucked in, and polished even in jeans and a work shirt. Clean shaven, not a hair out of place. The front door opened and shut. Maggie waited a minute, then faked a yawn. She crawled out of the bag. “Morning, Nellie. Good to see you.”
“Maggie.”
“Mind if I wash my face?”
“Not at all. By the time you’re done, food’ll be ready.”
I waited another minute, then got up. “Hi, I’m Avie.”
“Nellie.”
After hearing Nellie stand up to Rogan, I expected her to be tall, but she was tiny and lean in her overalls and flannel shirt. Her hair was pulled off her clean-scrubbed face like she didn’t have patience for unnecessary things.
“Thanks for letting us stay here,” I said.
She nodded. I rolled up the sleeping bags. “What should I…?”
“Oh, just leave that. Come get something to eat.”
Nellie’d set two places at the table. She slid a plate with eggs and sausage in front of me. I took a slice of bread, spread it thick with butter and cherry jam, and dug in.
“This is delicious,” I said. Then I took a sip of milk. It wasn’t from a cow.
Nellie eyed me. She was in her thirties, I guessed, a survivor. “You don’t seem fancy enough to be one of Maggie’s girls.”
I didn’t look like a call girl, that’s what Nellie meant.
“I’m not one of her girls.” I don’t know why I felt I had to stick up for Maggie. “You know, they’re not … the girls don’t have
sex.”
“A penthouse full of girls in a Las Vegas casino. What do they do?” Nellie said.
I shrugged. “They’re like, I don’t know, entertainers. The guys just want to have fun and the girls play pool with them.”
“So what are you doing with her?”
“Maggie’s helping me. I ran away from home after my dad signed my Contract.”
“You don’t like who your dad picked?”
“He sold me to get money for his company.” I saw Nellie frown. “Besides,” I added, “I’m in love with someone else.”
Nellie’s frown softened as she flipped the last sausage. “Is he coming here?”
“No. He’s meeting me in Canada.”
Nellie paused, and then said carefully, “So you’re not planning on staying?”
A little warning bell triggered in my head. Maggie layered everything she did with secrets. One wrong word, and who knew what trouble I’d cause. “Maggie can explain better than I can.”
“Explain what?” Maggie stood right behind me.
“How you’re just visiting,” Nellie answered. “How you’re taking this girl to Canada.” She looked at Maggie like she was challenging her to lie.
“That’s the goal,” Maggie said. She pulled out her chair, and her face transformed. She was Magda: smooth, cool, deceptive. “Mmm. Elk sausage and homemade bread. You’re an amazing cook, Nellie.”
The door burst open, and a little boy about five or six ran in, followed by a girl a few years older swinging a pail. The boy threw himself at the table. “I’m Jonas,” he said to Maggie. “Who are you?”
“Your Aunt Maggie.”
“I don’t remember you.”
“It’s been a while.”
The girl, Sarah, put the pail on the floor. “Can I hug you, Aunt Maggie?”
“That’s up to your mama to decide.”
Nellie gave a nod, and Maggie drew in Sarah for a hug. The kids sat down with us at the table.
“Our brother’s gone for a ride,” Sarah said. Maggie’s face paled, before she said, “When’s he coming back?”
“Around suppertime.” Sarah looked at her mother. “Can Aunt Maggie come to supper?”
Nellie froze, a plate in her hand. Maggie shook her head. “It’s too much, Nellie. I know that.”
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