In a flash, the word Umber popped into my head. Agent Umber to be precise. My mind pictured Jake and Agent Umber huddled together at the reptoe party, and the GPS chip Jake had embedded in my clothes. Is that why Jake had agreed to slip past the wall and help me find Nobody? Was he using me to find Quinn for the HOA?
Idiot.
I’d stupidly led Jake and the HOA right to Quinn. Guilt twisted my stomach into a large knot as I pictured Quinn locked inside a lab jar. Even after everything he’d done to me, to mutantity, he didn’t deserve whatever the HOA had in store for him. No one did.
Damn Jake.
“I’ll give you an extra twenty if you get me to the warehouse in ten minutes.” I plastered the cash against the bulletproof glass between the cabbie and me.
“You got it, sister,” he said, slamming his foot on the gas. I jerked back against the seat as the cab surged forward, eating up the distance between the traitorous leader of the Resistance and me. Make that, the soon to be bloody leader of the Resistance.
A few miles outside of Mutant City, a yellow fire truck filled with mutant volunteers appeared behind us, its sirens screaming like a reptoe in a blender. The cabbie yanked the wheel and we pulled to the side to let the fire truck pass. Clouds of smoke billowed from the next block. The same block as the HELLO MUTANT-KITTY warehouse. My stomach clenched, and in my heart, I knew the fire trucks final destination.
I was too late.
Much too fucking late.
Chapter 34
The ground under my feet heated, a side effect of the intense flames circling the HELLO MUTANT KITTY warehouse. Flames burned so brightly that the mutated firefighters, their flame retardant flesh blackened and burned, stayed far back. I watched helplessly as the building burned. Tears flowed freely down my cheeks from the thick smoke and heart breaking grief. I’d caused this. All of it.
“Looks like arson,” a fire-mutant said to the firefighter standing next to me. He held up an explosive device, its timer cracked from the heat of the fire.
“Any survivors?” I asked, my nails digging into the palm of my hand, leaving half-moon puncture wounds. The mutant shook his head. “I’m sorry, miss. The fire’s so hot it’s unlike we’ll recover any bodies. Poor bastard never had a chance.”
Bodies. Children really. I swallowed past the lump lodged in my throat and nodded, praying Caren hadn’t suffered.
But I knew she had. They all had.
“We did find the body of a hunter,” the fire-mutant said, waving in the direction of the warehouse. “But he died long before the fire got to him. Poor bastard took two bullets to the head.”
Jake.
In the end had he tried to destroy or save the Resistance? Did it matter either way? My heart ached for the dead children, and for the man I’d thought Jake was. A man trapped between worlds, a man so much more like me than I’d ever realized. With a final glance at the burned building I whispered a prayer. One Calvin had taught me long ago. Now I lay me down to sleep…
But there’d be no rest for me.
Not now.
Not ever again.
******
Mindlessly I made my way from the burning wreckage of the Resistance to the wall. I felt completely numb. No thoughts or emotions broke through the coldness inside me. At the wall a line of mutants waited to cross over. But row of guards, all heavily armed, stood in front of the gate preventing the mutants travel.
“Please disperse.” The oldest of the guards, his face wrinkled with age and alcohol, waved his arms. “The wall is on lock down. No one gets past. Return to your homes.”
I smiled and stepped closer to the gate. I didn’t have a home or a family. Not anymore. Resden and the HOA had seen to that. My feet continued forward until I stood face to face with the armed guard. “Wanna see my passport?” I smiled, my face frozen. I would pass through the gate.
One way or another.
“We don’t want no trouble.” The old man held up his hand. “Step back, girl, before you get hurt.”
I licked my lips, tasting the flavor of soot and ash. “I suggest you step aside.” Pressing my finger into the guard’s chest, I added, “Before you get hurt.”
He jerked his weapon up, but before he fired, I jammed my thumb between the firing pin. The hammer smashed into the bones of my digit, crushing them into a mutated mulch. The pain stole my breath but I just smiled.
The guard’s eyes widened, which gave me enough time to slip one of my nine-millimeters from its holster and blow a six-inch hole in his forehead. He flew backwards, taking his weapon and my thumb with him. Blood shot from my hand, but the pain wasn’t too bad. More like ripping off a bandage, a really big bandage, one glued on with superglue. It had happened so fast the other guards had no chance to react. They scrambled for their guns, flipping off the safeties and aiming in one motion.
Fuck it.
Rather than battle it out, I shoved the smallest of the guards from the gate, shot the lock, and pushed my way through. I ran as fast as I could in my pink combat boots and twenty pounds of armament.
Bullets slammed into my back, nearly knocking me from my feet, but somehow I managed to stay upright. Blood, almost pinkish in color, dripped between my shoulder blades from a bullet wound that nearly severed my spine. But still I kept running.
Just when pain and blood loss reached unbearable, I found sanctuary behind a mutant trash truck. My teeth started to chatter as if a blanket of coldness had wrapped itself around me. For a brief minute my vision turned hazy and grey. My stomach rolled seconds before blood and bile shot up my esophagus. I puked into the gutter spilling the lining of my intestines.
Get up or die here, my mind screamed.
Somehow I found the strength to stagger the few blocks to Quinn’s loft. Just my luck, the elevator wasn’t in working order, and the steps looked like Mt. Everest.
I hated the human world.
By the fourth floor landing the blood leaking from my multitude of gunshot wounds stopped. Bloody slugs dropped from my body, landing with tinny clinks against the stairs. My thumb had also grown back, a little bit shorter and crooked, but functional. I smiled, thanking evolution for kicking ass one more time.
After fifteen grueling minutes on hell’s Stairmaster, also known as a four-story walk up, I reached Quinn’s loft. My body had regenerated to the point survival seemed possible, even if breathing didn’t.
I had to warn Quinn and stop the HOA before they nabbed him. If I helped him I might be able to convince him to destroy the vaccine. All of mutantity depended on it.
Too late, my mind whispered as I reached Quinn’s loft.
The front door stood wide open. Furniture lay broken and scattered around the once spotless room. The white leather couch bled bits of fluffy fabric like tuffs of sheared sheep-hogs. I expected to find Quinn’s bloodied corpse somewhere in the mess. Prepared myself for it. But the closest I came to a corpse was the shredded skin of David West.
Empty, of course.
I picked my way through the shattered pieces of Quinn’s borrowed life, stooping to pick up a battered, well-read copy of The Iliad, and a photograph of David West, his arm around a blonde woman.
Blonde woman.
I looked closer at the picture.
Shit.
The woman in the photograph was the same woman with Nobody at the reptoe party. The same woman who’d attacked Quinn the night I’d stolen his ID. Who was she and what did she have to do with this mess? I needed to find out and soon. Nobody’s life depended on it. Not to mention Quinn’s and maybe my own. I set the photograph down. There was only one way to find out. I checked the magazine of both nine-millimeters, and stood.
From the doorway, the sound of a bullet entering the chamber reverberated in the silent room. “Hello Indeara.”
Chapter 35
“We haven’t been properly introduced,” the blonde woman said, the gun in her hand pointed at my heart. She looked like a beauty queen in her prime, except for her cold smile
and the gun, of course. “I’m London West.”
“West?” My forehead arched. Had Quinn left me for this woman? Did he marry her? I could see why. She surpassed all definitions of beautiful. From the top of her glossy hair to the tips of her Prada shoes she screamed young, rich, powerful, and sexy.
London smiled, showing off even, gleaming teeth. Could I hate her more? “Yes, David West was my husband,” she said.
“Was?” Damn, I sounded like a parrot.
She nodded. “Yes, was. As much as it pains me to admit it, it’s true. I married David five years ago.”
“Congratulations.” I tilted my head to the side, my fingers brushing the outline of my PM40 tucked under my shirt. “Sorry I missed the wedding.” At least she’d answered the Quinn question. He’d only livid in David West for the past three years. So what was Quinn and her relationship? Did she know he livid inside the body of her husband?
“You didn’t miss much.” Shrugging, London motioned to the shattered picture on the floor. “We honeymooned on the islands. Drank rum from coconuts. And then came home.”
“Sounds fun.”
“For a time.” She waved a hand to the ruined couch, and I sat taking a few seconds to slip the PM40 from my waistband. London continued, “How do you feel, Indeara?”
I raised an eyebrow at the change of subject. “I’ll survive.”
“Will you?” She rubbed her arm. “How much time do you think you have left?”
A shiver ran up the back of my neck. “What’re you talking about?” I tugged the sleeve of my shirt down, trying to cover the small red welt on the inside of my elbow.
“I haven’t told anyone.” She smiled sadly. “But you should. Nobody has a right to know. So does Quinn.”
I frowned. “My health isn’t your concern.”
“If you say so.” She swallowed, her throat constricting like a snake. “But the plague is. I have to stop it, and you might be the only mutant who can help me do it.” Her face grew older as if the task of saving the world had aged her. “The only reason you’re still alive is your mutation. And eventually, as you get older, even that won’t save you from this plague.”
Just like Calvin.
“Resden’s responsible.” She shook her head. “Your grandfather created the mutant plague years before. To kill one mutant.” Calvin. “But it backfired.”
“How do you know this?”
Her eyes dipped to the floor. “I was there.”
“Where?” A feeling of dread washed over me.
“At Resden, when your father came to beg for Emily’s life. I’d just turned nine, and Calvin was the first mutant I’d ever seen.” London’s voice shook, but with real emotion I wasn’t so sure. “Arthur turned him away. I’ll never forget the look in Calvin’s eyes.”
I nodded, remembering his desperation. He would’ve sold his soul to the devil to save my mother. “Why are you telling me this?” I placed my PM40 on top Quinn’s broken coffee table. “Why does any of this matter to you, a human?”
London glanced at her own gun as if weighing the dangers of setting it down. Finally she emptied the chamber and flicked on the safety before, laying the gun on the floor between us. “Resden needs to be stopped. Too many mutants have died already. Good mutants. When the vaccine is finished who knows how many more with suffer.”
Great, another bleeding mutant-heart.
A piece of the puzzle suddenly clicked into place. I jumped up, which made London back up a step. “You’re Mutant L,” I said. “That’s what Nobody’s been hiding. He’s afraid to put you in danger.”
“He wants to protect me.” She laughed, a genuine laugh born from deep inside her. In a flash I saw the woman Nobody likely did. I shook my head. My poor cyclops friend was toast.
“But it’s not you who’s in trouble.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“The HOA wants Nobody.”
“Yes.” Her face paled. “They fear him. Fear what he can do with his computer.”
“So you had him kidnapped.”
“We had no choice. The HOA learned Nobody’s identity, and it was only a matter of time until they captured him.” The fear left her face replaced by a small smile. “Plus, we need his expertise—”
“Who’s we?”
She shook her head, sending waves of blonde curls dancing across her shoulders. “That doesn’t matter now.” She was right. The only thing that mattered to me was stopping Resden, by whatever means possible.
The pocket of London’s jeans chirped in one of those annoying generic mobile phone rings. She looked down reluctantly and then back at me. “I have to get this.”
I nodded, walking to the other side of the room to give her the impression of privacy while staying close enough to hear her every word.
I didn’t trust London.
Or anyone else for that matter.
“She’s right here.” Out of the corner of my eye I watched London motion to me. “Yes, I know you told her to lay low.” She paused to listen and then let out a loud laugh. “Well apparently she didn’t want to.”
I grinned, picturing Nobody on the other end of the phone, his face growing redder with every word.
“When?” London’s voice grew taunt, all banter between her and the giant gone. “No.” Her head tilted to one side like a toy doll, plastic and beautiful. “She has a right to know,” she said into the phone. “Fine,” she added a minute later and hung up.
“What doesn’t Nobody want me to know?” I peeled away from the window ceil and stalked across the room. My eyes darting back and forth as London began pacing its confines while muttering to herself. Finally she stopped, either coming to a decision or fearing all that walking might make her sweat, and therefore ruin her carefully applied makeup.
I wasn’t sure which.
“The HOA has Quinn.” Her eyes met mine. “They caught him slipping across the wall.” A sudden flash of fear caught me off guard, paralyzing me under a weight of grief I hadn’t experienced since Calvin’s death. Like Quinn, love was hard to kill, I reminded myself. He’d survive until I mounted a rescue. He had to. Without him I’d never destroy the vaccine in time.
“And it gets worse,” London said.
It usually does, I thought.
Chapter 36
Worse, from the chatter on the mutant message boards, was a team of agents led by Agent Umber, all preparing for my arrival at Resden. Somehow I’d gone from gnome leg breaker to mutant super-fucking-hero.
“Must be the outfit,” London said, pointing at my Mutant Star tank top. I shot her a look that suggested physical harm if she didn’t shut up. She didn’t. “Add a pink cape, and a half-mask to protect your secret identity,” she added with a laugh. “And you’ve got it made.”
“Remind me to kill you when this is over,” I said. She ignored me and continued her teasing. “We’ll have to work on your name though.” Her finger tapped her bottom lip. “Maybe something like Mutant Girl.”
“Quiet.” I held up my hand and London instantly fell silent. We were about a twenty feet from Resden, hidden in the folds of an underground world of water pipes and drainage ditches. The sewer had become my home away from cramped apartment home. I sniffed the air, debating which smelled better, wastewater or a cyclops too busy with hacking into the HOA’s system to shower for four days.
Wastewater won out, just barely.
In my hands I held thirty pounds of plastic explosives, four timing devices, and a stuffed rag doll. Each served the same purpose, saving our asses if things went to hell. My plan for rescuing Quinn was hazy at best, but for some reason London had accepted it without question. Especially once we located enough c-4 to level a small country stuffed in the back of Quinn’s closet. Damn Tony.
“How much time do we have?” London motioned to the timer in my fist, its digital clock flashing red with warning. I secured the timer to the sewer grate above our heads and tapped a few keys until the timer read five minutes.
“
Once I slip inside I’ll have twenty minutes to find Quinn and get the hell out before the first bomb detonates.” Climbing down the ladder attached to the sidewall of the sewer I grinned at the well-dressed, perfectly coffered beauty queen, knee deep in sludge, preparing to blow up one of the most powerful companies in the world.
I brushed my hand on the side of my pants. “Once I set these, there’s no stopping them.” I glanced at the timer dangling from a string around my neck. “So stay as far away from Resden as you can.”
“Please be careful.”
“Why?” I raised my eyebrow. “I’m as good as dead anyway.”
“Don’t say that.” London’s face gleamed in the dim light of my flashlight. For some reason she looked horrified at the very thought of death. Like she’d never experienced anything unpleasant in her short Ivy leagued life.
“We’re all dead if I don’t rescue Quinn, and destroy the vaccine.” I frowned, gesturing to the tall blonde. “Us mutants, I mean.”
London flinched.
Interesting.
I rubbed my chin and once again wondered at her connection to the mutated race. Why was she helping us? What did she have to gain? I hoped I’d learn the answer before it cost us all.
“Nobody’s going to be pissed that I’m helping you.” She shook her head. “Really pissed.”
“Yep.” I grinned. “But he’ll be alive.”
She glanced down at her fist, the one currently gripping an explosive timer. “Let’s hope when this is over, you are too.” The ominous words hung in the air long after I set the final charge.
******
A bus filled with afternoon commuters passed by giving me enough time to cross the street in front of Resden without drawing the notice of the two agents, Black and Brown, standing at the front doors. Not that anyone would notice me. I looked as human as human got in a pair of London’s jeans and one of Quinn’s t-shirts, my blonde curls stuffed under a skullcap.
After our trip down the sewer I’d changed from my bloodied tank top and cargo pants into my human costume. The jeans fit much too snug, so much so that I instantly went on a diet. Thankfully the t-shirt covered the extra inch of flesh mushrooming over the waistband. The t-shirt also hid two nine-millimeters and my PM40. Unfortunately, I left most of my grenades in the sewer below, along with the C-4.
The Body Dwellers Page 13