by Matt Betts
5
After she left the restroom, Deena wandered through the concourse toward the baggage claim, where she could find a taxi or shuttle to get her out of the airport and into the clear. She was surprised to catch a glimpse of Avi out of the corner of her eye. He was hard to spot, because he blended so well with the rest of the crowd in the airport. He didn’t appear panicked, but he was by no means relaxed. Deena had known him long enough to spot the difference. She’d passed him. She was in the clear and could walk off without a hitch. The automatic doors that led outside opened for her and she paused.
Unfortunately, they had a history and she felt she owed him an explanation for his kindness.
Deena pulled her bag up higher on her shoulder and approached him from an indirect angle, passing through the seating area of a boarding gate before sitting down near where he was standing. “Let’s go,” Avi said. “I have a car in the lot. We can get out of here and you can rest up for a while before your next job. I’ll check in with Marsh on the way.”
Deena was surprised that he’d recognized her and noticed her approach. “No.”
Avi was already two steps toward the corridor that lead to the parking lots. “No, what? We need to get going before the police come looking for you to ask what happened on the plane.”
“I’m not going back.” Deena set her pack on her lap. “Something’s changed. I’m…”
“You’re tired. You’ll feel different after you sleep for a few hours, you always do.” His eyes were slowly taking in the escape route. He was doing a great job of hiding it and keeping his face neutral considering the situation. He continued walking, dismissing what she’d said.
Deena stayed in her seat. “Something has changed, Avi. Fucking listen to me. I’m not going back.”
Avi looked around at the crowd in the airport and casually walked back to the seating area. “What’re you going to do? Throw a tantrum? This isn’t the way to stay under the radar of the authorities.”
Deena knew that she couldn’t explain it properly to Avi in a manner brief enough to make him listen in their immediate situation. His job was always to get her to safety with as little fanfare as possible. But it was also to get her back for the next job. Avi started walking away again. Quiet and quick and the whole thing would be over. It was the way it worked. Deena stood and followed Avi at a distance. He didn’t turn around, though she knew he was checking her progress in store windows and other reflective surfaces. He moved quickly, but not more than anyone else around him that might be trying to catch a flight. Avi never looked up, never consulted a map or any other directions. As was the case with any job, he’d likely memorized multiple escape plans.
She wondered if this was still his Plan A, or if they’d already moved on to Plan B or C.
As they neared the people mover that would carry them closer to the parking garages, three Seattle police officers stepped out from a service door at the side of the hall. They looked side to side at the people nearby, and Avi turned into a gift shop without missing a beat.
The iced coffee in the cooler drew Deena’s attention. She could use caffeine. Lots of it. As bad as her stomach felt right now, a nice vanilla cappuccino sounded awesome. As she pulled the handle to slide the door open, Avi grabbed her and whispered, “They’re gone.”
They moved quickly through the rest of the airport and out into the chill of the open-air parking garage. Avi’s car was just a few steps away and he stepped in fluidly. “Get in, and let’s go,” he said.
Deena paused. As soon as they got in that car, he’d start trying to convince her again that they needed to get back. He’d stop listening. He’d call Marsh. These were all things that Deena didn’t want. Standing there, the sounds of sirens were still easily heard, even over the traffic of the garage, the roar of flights taking off and the general mayhem of a giant airport like the Seattle–Tacoma International. She felt herself once again weighing bad and worse scenarios and thinking that if she could do just one more thing, she’d be in the position she wanted to be in. She opened the door and got in.
“Finally. Let’s get on the road. I want to be a couple of hours away from here before we stop for the night. I’d love to just drive all night and not rest until tomorrow, but I don’t think you’re in any shape for that. And I certainly don’t think you’re in any condition to do some of the driving for me.” A hint of panic had slipped into Avi’s voice now that they were away from the public.
There was no way she could do that much driving and she knew it. She could barely keep her eyes open and even that gift shop coffee wouldn’t have helped. “I have to explain this. You need to know.”
“Rest and then tell me when you’re coherent. I’ll wake you up when we get to the hotel.” Avi pulled out his cell phone.
“Wait. You’re not calling Marsh, are you?”
“He needs to know I have you and that we’ll make it for your next job,” Avi said. “He’s not happy that you didn’t contact me straightaway when you disembarked.”
She put her hand on his arm. “Just… just wait.” She couldn’t find the right words to explain to Avi about the buzzing in her head that went silent on the plane and how she hoped it would never return. “I’m not going to do that man’s bidding anymore. I’m not killing anyone again.” She felt tears well up in her eyes as she thought of all the people that were dead because of her. It quickly seemed like a movie, like she was watching someone else do it. At the time it was no big deal; her brain filed it away and let it go. Now, they were all catching back up with her. She stared at the dashboard as faces and names came back to her. “Oh God, what did I do?”
“Deena,” Avi reached out to touch her arm and calm her but she pulled away.
She closed her eyes to try to block out the memories. “No. No. I’m not going back there. Something about that last hit strained my power and it crumbled. I feel like a rope around my neck snapped and I’m not suffocating anymore. I don’t feel right about anything I used to do. It’s a change in my—I don’t know—in my brain.”
“You need rest, that’s all.”
“In all the jobs we’ve worked together, no matter how exhausted I’ve been, have you ever heard me say I wanted to quit?” She hadn’t. Up until an hour ago, using her powers to chase down, maim, injure or kill Marsh’s targets was a thing of joy to her; a job that she was uniquely suited to and that she excelled at. “I called him. I called Marsh and told him I was done.”
“So you decided all of this? Just decided all of this since you killed that mark on the plane? You went from contract killer to pacifist in a matter of minutes?” Avi took his eyes off the road for moment to look at her. “You’ve thought about the implications? You’ve considered how Marsh would react? He’s not just going to let you go.”
“I’ll just run. He can send whoever he wants. They won’t find me.”
“They will.”
“Let them. I can handle myself.”
Avi sighed. “You said you had a change in your brain because you stressed your powers. Do you even know if your powers still work? Maybe they’re gone. What then? You can’t handle yourself against his killers if that’s the case.”
The possibility that she was now powerless never occurred to Deena. She’d lived with the Shadow Energy since she was a teen and assumed she’d always have them. But if she was changing her entire life, it seemed fitting the thing that had made her life hell would be gone. “And if I don’t have powers, I’m no use to him anyway. If I went back and he found that out, he’d kill me. I have to run.”
Deena could see Avi’s lips press together tightly as he checked his rearview mirror. He flipped the left blinker and passed another car on the highway. To stay inconspicuous he set cruise control to just above the legal limit, as usual.
“I haven’t heard you mention your sister once. What about Harper? H
mmm? Where does that leave her?”
6
Stanley Yuko watched as four men led Harper Riordan off the elevator. He’d known it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Harper’s latest disaster with the bus was certain to draw unwanted attention from law enforcement, and in turn, from Marsh.
Stanley pressed the intercom button. “Harper is here.”
“Harper is here? You make it sound like I had an appointment or something,” Harper said. The girl sneered down at Stanley in his chair and he felt himself shrink back. He looked away and stared at the tape dispenser on his desk, not wanting to meet Harper’s eyes. He straightened the pens and the staple remover on his already immaculate desk. Stanley waited until his boss’s voice came from the speaker. “Send them in.”
Stanley nodded to the men. “Go ahead.” He tried to sound cordial as he pressed the buzzer to unlock the door to Marsh’s office. He pulled his finger off the button as they went in. Once the door shut, he pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial.
“Hello?”
“It’s Stanley. They have her. They have Harper Riordan,” Stanley said. His heart was beating hard enough that he could feel it as he talked. He stood up and walked over to the elevators, hoping not to be heard. It was dumb to have dialed the phone in the first place, he could be easily overheard. He just hoped that everyone was too busy in Marsh’s office to notice.
“Slow down. What do you mean? She works there. What do you mean they have her?”
“She screwed up a job last night. And Marsh was upset after a call with her sister. I think they’re going to kill Harper,” Stanley said. “Oh, they’re going to kill her.” Stanley hated how dramatic he sounded, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed the federal agents to do something quickly.
“Kill her? When?”
“Now,” Stanley said. If he pressed his ear against the door, maybe he could hear what was happening in Marsh’s office. That simply wouldn’t look good if someone caught him. Still, he stared at the door. “They might be going to kill her now. I don’t know. I don’t know.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Agent Rivers? What should I do?”
The silence lasted a few more seconds. “Just stay put. If you feel like your life is in danger, leave as soon as you can. I’ll see what I can do on this end.” He hung up.
“What? What should I do?” Stanley said as loud as he could without getting too loud. He knew there was no one there anymore, but he couldn’t believe he’d been hung up on. After another moment with the phone to his ear, he quietly slipped it back in his pocket. He’d never felt like his life was in danger at the office. Not in all the years he’d worked for Marsh directly. He took a breath and analyzed the situation. It wouldn’t make sense to kill Harper in the office. Too much of a chance to be caught, to leave evidence to connect Marsh with her death. He was far smarter than that.
The elevator bell rang and the man from tech support stepped out when the doors opened. Stanley hated having to call the tech people in. They always sent James, the weird guy that smelled strongly of body spray and took far too long to get around to fixing problems. The tech liked to make small talk and chat about things that Stanley had no interest in. Sports. Video games. Beyonce and Kanye West.
“Hey. What’s the problem today?” James set an extremely large drink with a straw sticking out of it on Stanley’s desk. Stanley watched beads of sweat immediately begin dripping down the side of cup.
“I can’t connect to the server,” Stanley said.
“Can you get to the internet?” James sounded bored already.
“Yes. I can get everywhere but the server.”
James took a long drink of his soda and looked over Stanley’s shoulder at the monitor. It didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to get started.
“Have you played the new Grand Theft game?”
“No. I really don’t have time for games,” Stanley said. He went into his shell and began ignoring James and waiting for the problem to be solved. He took an antiseptic wipe from his desk and wiped down his office phone, his stapler and each of his pens. He finished by scrubbing the arms of his chair and then throwing the wipe in the trash bin. The whole while, he ignored James.
He thought about Harper and convinced himself she was safe for the moment. Just the moment, though. But how long would that last?
7
Deena felt sick. Really sick. Her hands were trembling and she was sweating just a little. Her stomach was doing noisy flip-flops and she had a hard time standing still. The water in the sink felt cool on her face, but it did nothing to calm her nerves.
The doorknob rattled and she yelled louder than she meant to; “Occupied!”
Deena cursed the lady on the other side of the door under her breath. She flipped open her backpack and found enough cash there to buy one more tall frozen mocha mint coffee before they had to go and catch the train. She’d had four coffees in the last three hours and they were playing havoc with her already messed up body, but one more wouldn’t kill her. Deena didn’t know where the coffee jitters stopped and the effects of her powers began. They were wrestling with her psyche and her brain, making every thought painful and forcing her to question each decision. Was she a twenty-something or a teen? It was hard to separate the two. She stuffed the rest of her things—notebook, makeup, brush, extra socks and gum she’d bought at the airport—back into the bag and unlocked the door.
As she stepped out, a woman waiting nearby rushed in.
“Grow a bladder, lady,” Deena said. She stepped to the end of the hall and peeked around the corner. Though there were four people standing in line at the counter, she all but ignored them. She also looked past the pudgy, dark-haired girl pouring milk into a mixer near the display case of muffins and bagels. Her gaze landed on the young man at the cash register. She’d been mesmerized by him from the moment she stumbled in off the street looking for someplace warm. His hair was gelled all crazy, every which way and he had a hint of stubble on his cheeks and chin. She thought he looked a little like a popular singer whose name she couldn’t quite place. He had to be eighteen, twenty, tops.
He’d upsized her regular to a large for free when he saw how flustered she was when she first walked in and that was all it took. Deena knew how fragile she was as she was rebuilding herself, her power, but she didn’t care. She nursed that first coffee as long as she could, staring out the window and checking her watch, waiting for Avi to return from his errands. She was wearing the Mariners shirt and matching sweats she’d bought at the airport. At the time, over-the-top team apparel seemed like a good idea to help her to blend in. Now, she felt like an idiot.
Kevin, she knew from his nametag, gave her an incredulous smile this time. “Back for more? You’re out of control, girl.” He wiped his hands on his earth-toned apron and prepared to tap her order into the computer. “Same thing or can I get you something a little… calmer? Less caffeinated.”
Deena giggled, caught herself laughing a little too much and forced it to stop. “Oh no. You find something that works, you gotta stick with it. Can you make this one a bit mintier? Put a little more mint in? I like the mint.” She felt giddy and out of control and tried to remember when the train was leaving.
“Sure. That’s not a problem,” Kevin said. He turned and grabbed a metal cup and started pouring ingredients.
The crunch of a blender startled Deena and she felt her arm throb reflexively. She looked down and saw the black ink creeping out from under her sleeve toward her wrist. She took a deep breath and pulled the arm of her sweatshirt down a bit lower. Once her pulse slowed, Deena scowled at the heavy girl mixing another customer’s drink.
Deena retreated to her table, spread out the maps and brochures in front of her, and eyed them. They were announcements and flyers for all the touristy things to
do in the area. Deena had pulled them out of a display at the last rest stop to distract herself. They meant nothing, but she still read them over and over to keep from screaming about the things they’d done and the things to come.
She and Avi would take a taxi to the train station, get tickets and go. They could hop a train to anywhere and then start sorting out Deena’s life. That was the only plan she had for now and she clung to it tightly. She’d left a message for her sister to call her. Deena would explain the whole thing and tell her where they could meet up.
The only thing she didn’t have a lock on was Avi. For now he seemed to be going along with the plan. He agreed to put her on the train, but she wasn’t sure he’d follow through. Would he buckle to his fear of Marsh, or stay loyal to the past that he and Deena had together? It could mean the difference between making a clean getaway and being delivered back to her old life. She thought about Harper and wondered how she would feel about running away and leaving her life behind. Images of the things she’d done began to flood back to her, but she pushed them down and swallowed them like the heavily minted beverage in front of her. She stared at a trifold brochure about rafting down a nearby river. With the next sip, she got instant brain freeze. It was a nice distraction from trying not to remember what it was like to actually be fourteen years old back in the day.
8
Deena at 15 the first time around
The tree fort that Deena made in the woods near the highway wasn’t the most spectacular thing ever, but it was stable. Stable enough. She’d borrowed a few old busted up pallets from behind the Kroger, pocketed a handful of nails from the nearby hardware store and used a rock to pound them all into a decent flat surface to sit on.