I had to keep going.
I cleared the last steps, rounding the foot of the tower, and collided with someone.
“Laura Clark,” a woman’s voice said, and hands grabbed my shoulders, keeping me from pitching backward. “I thought that was you running up those stairs like a bat out of hell. What on earth are you doing here?”
I blinked the sun out of my eyes, thinking to myself that this was the third time I had literally run into someone I knew in the last hour, and I’d had about enough of it. Then I realized who was standing in front of me, and relief overwhelmed me.
Janice Sheldon. She was wearing a bright pink T-shirt with a denim jacket over it, her long, blond hair pulled back in a ponytail once more. Behind her, Shailene hovered, watching me without coming too close.
“Janice,” I panted. “It’s Erikka. He has Erikka.”
She blinked at me, as if she was having trouble understanding what I was saying. “What?”
“The guy who took the others. Weirdo in a black fedora and a long coat.”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, Coach,” Shailene said quietly, still standing a distance away. “Erikka and I were doing our warm-ups, but then she took off. I can’t feel her anymore.”
Janice’s expression was unreadable. “Oh, my God,” she breathed. “You were following him, Laura?”
“Yeah.” I put my hands on my knees, breathing hard. I felt kind of like I was going to throw up. “But I couldn’t keep up. I can barely feel him now. He’s still close, but he’s getting away.”
Janice turned to Shailene. “Get her a Gatorade. There’s some in the car. The electrolytes will help.” Shailene scurried away, and Janice crouched down in front of me. “Are you telling me that you can sense this man?”
“Yes.” I heaved. “Or, at least, I could. I’m having trouble finding him now.”
“You overdid it,” she said, putting a steadying hand on my shoulder. “You have to learn to control your energy expenditure. Just because we’re superhuman doesn’t mean we’re unstoppable.”
“Well, how the hell should I know?” I snapped. “No one is willing to explain anything to me. I’ve been having to figure it all out myself.” I squeezed my eyes shut, straining, trying desperately to hold onto the thread of connection between me and the man in the trenchcoat. But it was gone. He was gone. “I’ve lost him,” I whispered.
“It’s okay. You’ll find him again,” Janice said.
Shailene reappeared then, holding a plastic bottle. Janice took it from her, cracking the seal and handing it to me. I drank deeply.
Janice watched me for a moment, then rose. “All right,” she said, looking between me and Shailene. “Change of plans. We’re going against orders.”
Shailene’s eyebrows rose. “What? But, Coach—”
“This is an emergency, Shai. Our team is almost gone. If Laura thinks she can help us find them—and I believe she can—and she’s willing to help us, then we need her help.”
I thought for a second that Shailene was going to argue with her. But she just quirked her mouth and nodded.
I put the cap back on the bottle and shakily straightened. “Seriously? You’re going to let me come with you?”
“Yes,” Janice said. “And we’ll show you how to control these powers of yours, so that you don’t overextend yourself again.”
I grinned. “Great. Thank you.” I hesitated, then added, “And you won’t tell my dad, right?”
She leveled a look at me, a sort of mischief in her hazel eyes that seemed to hint at something she wouldn’t quite say. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
I leaned back against the concrete balustrade, my eyes closed, breathing in the smell of eucalyptus leaves on the slightly salty breeze blowing off the bay. The air was fresh around the park, and especially up here, away from the exhaust fumes from traffic down at ground level. The bright morning sun warmed the skin on my forearms deliciously. Janice was right, I thought, opening my eyes and looking up at the blue sky. The sun really does help.
After I’d downed a full bottle of orange sports drink (and a yogurt smoothie, and two granola bars—they kept shoving food at me, and I wasn’t about to complain), Janice had said, “We need to get to higher ground. She needs light to help her regain her energy, and if she’s going to track this Anesidoran man, she needs as few obstructions as possible. There’s too much interference at street level. The best place for sensing is above.”
Shailene glanced up at Firebelle Tower looming over our heads. “Up there?”
Janice nodded. “As good a place as any. We probably shouldn’t leave this area until we know for sure where they’re going. We could inadvertently move away from them, and then she’d never get his signal back.”
“Hold up now,” I said, following Shailene’s gaze. “We can’t go up there. That’s not a tower for people to go up, it’s a tower for people to look at from the ground. I don’t think there’s even a way to go inside it, and even if there were, it’s definitely off-limits to random college students. And what’s this about needing light? What am I, some kind of plant?”
“The rules don’t apply to us, in case you hadn’t noticed,” said Janice. “And yes, plant photosynthesis is a good comparison. Though all humans do need sunshine. Ever heard of a little thing called ‘Vitamin-D deficiency’?”
I took a deep breath, looking up at the massive tower above us, a slender pillar of smooth concrete that rose a good fifty feet before being topped with brilliant bronze flames. “Okay, I’ll bite,” I said. “How are we supposed to get up there, though?” I remembered Joanie, the cheerleader with the green eyes on the side of the train on Thursday, and how she seemed to cling to its sides with no support like a Human Fly. Was that one of our powers?
Shailene smirked, seeming to read my mind. “You don’t have to climb it. There’s a service entrance around the back. Those flames don’t stay that shiny on their own. I mean, unless you want to climb it,” she added, a devious grin quirking the corners of her lips.
“No, no, I’m good,” I said quickly. “Don’t want to overdo it or anything.”
They led me to small balcony at the top of the stairs, a narrow concrete outcropping that emerged between the jagged flames, invisible from ground level. “There,” Janice said, looking around in satisfaction. “Laura, you try to rest. Roll up your sleeves, let the sun hit you, and focus your mind. See if you can pick up on that man’s signal again. Shailene, I’m going to get the amplifier. Keep an eye on her, okay?”
Shailene made a noncommittal noise and climbed up over the balustrade and into the flames, perching herself about fifteen feet away from me. I watched her for a minute, pulling the motorcycle boots off my aching feet and stretching my bare toes. “Isn’t that metal hot?” I asked her.
“Not really,” she said.
Janice looked between us for a minute and sighed. “I’ll be right back. Try not to get into any trouble.”
And so we’d sat in complete silence until now. Every so often I could feel Shailene looking over at me from where she was roosting like the goddamn Batman, but I stubbornly avoided her gaze. When I opened my eyes, I stared out over the park, across the City toward the Bay. From up here, you could see everything—all the way to City West, its tall buildings bisected with its own strip of green marking Jones Park and the City Zoo.
In my pocket, my phone buzzed, accompanied by the “secret” noise from The Legend of Zelda—my message alert tone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shailene grin. I ignored her and pulled my phone out.
It was a text from Ana. Hey, everything ok? she’d written.
I shifted awkwardly, feeling Shailene watching me still. Yeah, it’s fine, I typed.
A few seconds later, my phone buzzed again. Good. Damien was sorry you couldn’t come to breakfast. Maybe dinner tonight?
I stared down at my phone, my stomach knotting up again, not knowing how to respond. Why did I feel this way? It wasn’t like I was jealous. I’d never
had a crush on Ana—on top of the fact that she’s straight, she’s like family. The thought of that was as gross as the thought of having a crush on Tonio or something. But it didn’t change the fact that the thought of her dating this *NSYNC wannabe with his fancy hair and freakishly perfect teeth made me want to cry. Or barf. Not necessarily in that order.
I sighed and shoved my phone back in my pocket.
“Everything okay?” Shailene asked, echoing Ana’s words.
“It’s fine,” I said.
Shailene was quiet for a moment, crouched with her arms draped across her knees, looking down at her hands. “It seems like no matter how hard I try, I’m always sticking my foot in my mouth around you.”
“What?” I said, not sure I’d heard her right.
She shrugged. “Like yesterday. I’m sure you spent all last night thinking about what a bitch I am.”
I blinked rapidly, looking away. “Actually, no. I didn’t think about you at all last night after you left.” It was a total lie—that was exactly what I’d done, but I didn’t want her to know that.
She laughed awkwardly. “Of course not.” Something in her tone of voice made me glance back at her. Her face was bright red. “There I go, foot in mouth again. Never mind. Forget I said anything.”
We sat in uncomfortable silence. After a moment, Shailene stood, pacing across the angled metal plating of the torch’s flames. She had some good balance—and nerves of steel—to walk around out there, I thought. She pulled at her long, dark hair as she paced, twisting it up into a bun, knotting it into itself. That’s when I noticed—at the nape of her neck was a small tattoo, slightly smudged at the edges with age. An inverted black triangle.
“Your tattoo,” I said hesitantly.
She looked at me, her eyes guarded. “What about it?”
I shrugged. “I like it. I was just going to say I have a similar one.” I pulled up the cuff of my jeans, revealing a small heart on my ankle, emblazoned with the rainbow pride flag.
Something in her eyes changed at the sight of it. Softened a little. For a brief second, I felt that wall that she’d built between us last night start to crumble—just a bit. “Oh,” she said. “That’s cool.”
I smiled in what I hoped was a conciliatory fashion, and she smiled back. We looked out over the treetops together.
“I’ve always loved this place,” she finally said.
I grinned, eager to have a conversation with her that didn’t involve us arguing. “Yeah? Do you come here often?”
“Yeah. It’s a good place to monitor Anesidoran activity. There’s not as much interference with the amplifier. But… sometimes I just come here. You know. To think.”
“No good thinking spots in City West?” I teased.
She half-turned, glancing up at the glinting flames rising over us. “It’s not that. It’s more like… I feel a connection to this place. Do you know the story of Firebelle Lil?”
“Lillian Brown?” I clarified. “A little. I know that she was the first female firefighter in the City, back in the early nineteen-hundreds.” This tower was built as a memorial to her—there was a plaque saying so down at the base—and the park was named after her, too.
“Those are the basics,” Shailene said. “But there’s more to it. This tower was donated to the city by Sylvester Jones, the newspaper mogul.”
“The guy the park in City West is named after.”
“Yeah. Sylvester Jones was in love with Firebelle Lil, and he asked her to marry him at least half a dozen times. But she always turned him down. After she died in the Great Fire, he had this tower built in her memory and donated it to the City as part of the park.” She ran a hand thoughtfully along the smooth, gleaming bronze. “But that’s not the whole story. The real reason she turned him down is because”—she hesitated, seeming unsure if she should continue; but then her eyes flashed, determined—“she already had a lover. A woman named Betty.”
My heart skipped slightly, both from Shailene’s words and the way she looked at me when she said them. This was something I’d never known. Firebelle Lil was one of the great heroes of the City. She’d saved hundreds of lives before the flames had taken her own. I’d heard about her all my life, but I’d never heard that she might have been a lesbian. “Is that true?”
“It’s true,” Shailene said. “I found a book in the library that had some of their letters in it, Lillian and Betty’s. Believe me, there was nothing platonic about them. But they neglect to mention that in history class, huh?” She smiled wryly. “Anyway, that’s why… Firebelle Lil is kind of special to me. I used to come here a lot when I was… going through some stuff. I feel closer to her here. Even if this tower was built by a more-than-slightly-obsessive straight guy who couldn’t take a hint.”
I laughed, and Shailene laughed with me. It felt nice to not be at odds with her.
And familiar.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, thinking. “Listen, Shailene,” I began, “I know you said you felt like we shouldn’t push things—like maybe we weren’t supposed to know—but don’t you think…”
The service doorway opened just then, cutting me off. Janice came out onto the balcony, her arms laden with equipment I could only guess the purpose of.
“Right, Laura,” she said, setting a large black plastic-and-metal box down against the balustrade, “how are you feeling?”
I blinked. “Better, actually.” And I did. I hadn’t noticed, but I’d felt tangibly better since Shailene had started talking to me.
“Good. Then let’s get this set up. It’s an amplifier. It boosts our sensing range. Hopefully it will work for you. I’m not sure why you’re able to sense this man when none of us are”—she glanced at me sideways for a moment—“but at this point, I don’t care. If it works, if it can get our girls back, I’ll take it.”
“Okay,” I said, watching her open the box and fiddle with some diodes. It looked like a piece of stereo equipment. Janice pulled out two long rabbit-ear antennas, adjusting them slightly while looking at a small digital reader on the box’s face.
“So, who is this guy I’m tracking, anyway?” I asked as she fiddled with the controls.
“From your description, it sounds like Andronicus,” Janice replied. She turned a dial, eyes still riveted to the digital screen. “He’s a high-ranking official on Nibiru, one of the commanders of the Anesidoran fleet.”
I chewed my lip, remembering the way he’d seemed to be watching me over the past two days. What would someone like that be interested in me for? “None of the other abductees are able to sense him?”
“Not that I’m aware of. He operates on a different frequency from us, if you will.”
I swallowed, looking back out at the park. “So why can I?” I whispered.
I didn’t realize she’d heard me, but she shook her head. “That’s the million-dollar question.” She flipped a switch and looked at me. “There. All set.”
“That’s it?” I didn’t notice any change.
“That’s it. Try to see if you can get a reading on him now.”
“All right, I guess,” I said uncertainly. I didn’t know how this thing was supposed to help me when I didn’t feel any different. Was I supposed to be like a bat now, able to hear radar or something?
Shailene jumped back onto the balcony and smiled reassuringly at me. I smiled back, hoping I wasn’t blushing too much. Then I closed my eyes, reaching out with my mind. Listening, almost.
“I don’t know,” I started. “I don’t see how—” I broke off abruptly. Out of nowhere, I felt him. He was far away, a lot farther than he’d been when I’d sensed him at the park. So distant I could barely feel him at all. But there, in fragments, I saw it. The mall in the Hilltop district, with its tall Gothic clock tower. An old-fashioned trolley car dinged as it went by, slowly plodding its way up the steepest hill in the city. Across the street from the mall was the massive Union Station, where all four PeRT lines converged along with an Amtrak station and t
he Greyhound bus. It was the central location for anyone going in and out of the City.
And suddenly I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were leaving. He was taking Erikka out of the City.
“Union Station,” I said, opening my eyes and looking from Janice to Shailene. “And we have to hurry. We don’t have much time.”
“Right,” Janice said. “You sure you’re feeling all right, Laura?”
“Yeah. I feel good.”
“Okay, then. You’re about to get your first crash course in Striker 101: moving fast.”
“Moving fast I can do,” I said, pulling my boots back on. “I figured that one out this morning.”
“Good. We’ll put that to the test.” Janice unzipped a black backpack that lay beside the amplifier, rummaging through it and withdrawing a pair of black fingerless gloves. She tossed them to me. “You’ll need these.”
“And these are?”
“Your Human Fly gloves,” Shailene said, giving me a wink that made my stomach flip-flop. “Or would you prefer Spider-Man?”
“Not unless they let me shoot webs and fly around New York City,” I replied in what I hoped was a level voice.
“Afraid not,” said Janice. She slung the backpack over her shoulders, pulling the straps tight. “But they will help you get a better grip on smooth surfaces. Ready?”
I shrugged helplessly. “As I’ll ever be.”
Janice nodded. “Right. Let’s go.”
With that, she launched herself over the side of the balustrade. I gasped, leaning over to see her clambering effortlessly down the side of the concrete tower. In two seconds flat she was on the ground, unharmed and undaunted. So that was how Joanie had done it.
“You’ll be fine, Laura,” Shailene said next to me. “Just do what she did. I’ll watch to make sure you don’t fall.”
I exhaled shakily. “Promise?”
“Promise,” she said.
I swallowed hard, swung my leg over the balustrade, and let go. My stomach dropped out from under me as I fell for just an instant, but then my hand shot out, and though there were no handholds to cling to, it stuck to the surface and held me. My heart pounded in my ears, but when I didn’t plummet to my doom, it eased slightly. I reached down, like for an invisible ladder rung, and stuck again. The gloves were like magnets, holding me to the tower’s surface.
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