Ciddah was waiting. And if he failed here, she might be waiting forever.
He holstered his gun and ran up the last level to the roof. The first thing he saw was Ruston carrying Weiss across the board.
Then he saw the bright lights of the helicopter in the dark sky, headed toward them.
Mason ran, hoping the pilot hadn’t seen them yet. He crossed the board in two steps and sprinted after Ruston, reaching the door before the helicopter neared the school.
Ruston was taking the stairs, so Mason followed. What if some had taken the elevator? How could he be certain they had everyone? But the elevator would likely beat Ruston and Mason downstairs. It would be okay.
As Mason rounded the landing on the second floor, he drew his gun. He didn’t want to use it again, but there might be enforcers in the lobby.
But only Nash was waiting, holding open the front door. Mason stayed right behind Ruston, like a shadow. His breath was heavy, and his side ached from so much running.
“That’s all of us,” Mason managed to pant out as he passed Nash at the door.
Ruston glanced over his shoulder. “What about Holt?”
Mason shook his head. “He got stunned.”
Enforcer sirens wailed in the distance, melding with the drone of the school siren.
Mason thought of Ciddah, wondering if she were at Lawten’s home and if Levi would really help him rescue her once they got the children to safety.
He hoped so.
CHAPTER
28
Shaylinn stood behind Jemma, who was crouched at Naomi’s bedside. “You were hiding your labor, weren’t you?” Jemma asked after another contraction had passed.
“What was I supposed to do?” Naomi lay in bed, sweat matting her hair to her forehead, her cheeks flushed. “If I’d said one word, uttered one groan of pain, Jordan wouldn’t have left. And Levi needs him tonight.”
“Oh, honey.” Jemma took hold of Naomi’s hand. “You’re so brave.”
Naomi rolled her eyes at Shaylinn. “If your sister is going to be like this through my labor, I want her out.”
That brought a smile to Shaylinn’s lips. “Jemma, stop being dramatic. Naomi needs you, and she can’t tolerate such sweetness. Did you forget that she’s married to my brother?”
All three girls burst into laughter.
“Jordan is very sweet,” Naomi said in an offended tone. Then she winked at Shaylinn. “Just not when any of you are watching.”
“Good,” Shaylinn said. “I don’t think I could stomach seeing him be sweet.”
“You can’t stomach anything right now,” Naomi said.
They all laughed again. It felt good to laugh, but Shaylinn was afraid for Naomi. Her sister-in-law was the toughest woman Shaylinn knew, but she’d suffered two contractions since Shaylinn had entered the room and the pain had been obvious. And Jemma said it would only get worse.
“Mason sent a box of pain meds if you want to try them,” Jemma said.
A small shake of the head. “I don’t need any of that stuff.”
But an hour later, Naomi changed her mind. It took Shaylinn and Jemma a bit to figure out how to load the vaporizer, but once they did, Naomi sucked down the meds like they were water. Soon after she seemed to relax.
“She’s very close,” Jemma said. “Go get Chipeta and Aunt Mary.”
Shaylinn probably didn’t need to run, but the whole experience had her terrified. She hurried into the living room, where she found the three women still praying. Eliza was in tears.
“How is she?” Chipeta asked.
“Jemma thinks she’s close. She said for you and Aunt Mary to come.”
Aunt Mary pushed up from the sofa and trotted out of the room. Chipeta followed.
Shaylinn sat down on the sofa across from Eliza, feeling strange to be sitting with a woman who was crying. She didn’t know if she should try to comfort her or not, so she just sat there, feeling useless.
“Did you hear that?” Eliza sniffled. “Listen.”
Shaylinn held her breath. A heavy silence descended, then three knocks sounded on the front door. She jumped so high it felt like her heart had stopped. She met Eliza’s gaze.
“I thought I heard someone. Maybe they’re back already.” She got up and ran out of the living room.
“It’s too early, Eliza.” Shaylinn got up and followed her. “Wait. Don’t open the door yet.”
But it was too late. Eliza had already cracked opened the door. “Oh, hello.”
“Sorry to bother you,” a familiar voice said, “but I have an urgent message from Levi.”
Eliza gasped and opened the door wider. “What happened? Is it the children? Come in.”
Rewl entered and stopped just inside the door. He looked past Eliza to where Shaylinn stood. “Hello, shimmer.”
Shaylinn tensed at the sound of his oily voice. Why would Rewl have an urgent message from Levi when Levi didn’t trust him? How did he even find the cabin?
“What’s the message?” Eliza asked. “Is everything okay?”
“It will be.” Rewl reached behind his back and pulled out a gun.
Eliza’s eyes flew wide and he shot her.
Shaylinn screamed. Eliza slumped to the floor. A black cartridge clung to Eliza’s chest and click, click, clicked, bringing a hint of relief to Shaylinn — it had only been a stunner. But Shaylinn’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at Eliza’s motionless body and the way her eyes were still open and moving. She stepped toward Eliza.
“None of that now, femme,” Rewl said, training his gun on Shaylinn.
“Shaylinn?” Aunt Mary ran out from the back and stopped when she saw Eliza’s body. “Oh!”
Chipeta appeared second. “What’s this?”
“Back off,” Rewl yelled, pointing the weapon at Aunt Mary, then Chipeta. “I’ve got a job to do, and you femmes are going to let me do it or I’ll stun every one of you.”
“What do you need to do?” Chipeta asked.
“I’m taking Shaylinn on a little ride.”
Shaylinn’s heart fluttered. She didn’t want to leave the cabin, especially with Rewl.
Aunt Mary started to cry. “Please don’t hurt Shaylinn.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone, but if you cause me any grief, I will.” He waved the gun at Shaylinn. “Let’s go, shimmer. We’ve got somewhere to be.”
Shaylinn glanced at the ladies, then moved slowly toward the door. She didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t trust Rewl, especially since she was almost certain he’d been the one who had killed Chord.
Rewl slapped his hand against his leg. “Faster — let’s go. Open the door.”
Shaylinn had to step over Eliza’s body to get to the door. She hoped Eliza wouldn’t be stunned long.
“You two get back!” He waved the gun at Chipeta and Aunt Mary, and they retreated down the hallway.
Shaylinn opened the door. A black car was parked in front of the cabin.
“Down the steps and into the trunk of that car.”
Shaylinn whipped her head around to look back at him. “A trunk!”
“Not your interest, shimmer. You won’t be in it long.”
Shaylinn walked out into the cool night. A breeze pressed her clothing tightly against her, and she shivered. The trunk was already open. Shaylinn walked to it and looked back again.
Aunt Mary and Chipeta had come to the door and stood watching, looks of horror on their faces. Behind them, Shaylinn could see Jemma kneeling beside Eliza. Rewl backed down the stairs, his steps crunching over the gravel as he neared, still pointing his gun inside the open door of the house. He glanced at Shaylinn. “What are you waiting for? Get in!”
“You’re a bad man,” Shaylinn said.
“I’m a stimming hero, which you’ll see soon enough. Lawten Renzor messed up a lot of stuff. But Bender is going to set it straight. Now, get in!”
Shaylinn climbed into the trunk. It looked like it would be cramped once the top slid shu
t.
“Lie down on your side.”
Shaylinn obeyed. The carpet on the floor of the trunk was scratchy and smelled like metal.
Rewl looked down on her. “You don’t have to worry, femme. I’m going to keep you safe. And once you have those babies, you and I can talk paint.”
The innuendo made her breath hitch, though she barely understood it. “I will never talk paint with you.”
He flashed his striped teeth in a wide grin. “We’ll see, neo. We’ll see.”
The trunk slid closed, engulfing Shaylinn in darkness. She could hear Rewl’s footsteps crunch over the gravel, the car door slide open and closed, then the engine purr to life. Then the vehicle rocked back and lurched away.
What could Rewl possibly want with her? How did it involve Bender? Maybe he was turning her over to General Otley as a favor. If so, would Otley take her back to the harem?
She sang songs to comfort herself on the drive, but the journey didn’t last long. No more than ten minutes had passed when the car stopped.
Shaylinn tensed, waiting for the trunk to open and Rewl to order her to get out. But he didn’t come. After a while she pounded her fists against the lid above. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Just me, femme,” Rewl’s voice came from the front seat.
“Why are you keeping me in here?” Shaylinn asked.
“We’re waiting for someone. It won’t be long.”
Waiting for who? Shaylinn sang to herself some more and prayed. Moments later a vehicle approached and stopped behind Rewl’s car. Someone got out and walked over what sounded like concrete.
“You got her?” It was Bender’s voice.
“She’s in the trunk,” Rewl said. “Are you sure we can trust him?”
“No, but I don’t see another way.”
“He makes me nervous,” Rewl said.
“It’s our best option,” Bender said. “We can’t keep doing things the soft way. We need to change if we’re ever going to make a difference. This is the best chance we’ve got right now.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Come sit in my car with me,” Bender said. “She isn’t going anywhere.”
Shaylinn listened to the shuffling of steps and the sound of power doors rising and falling. Then there was silence.
CHAPTER
29
Omar tapped Charlz. His friend had been about to go out but promised to wait until Omar stopped by. Ten minutes later, Omar knocked on door 322 of the Twister, where Charlz lived.
Charlz opened the door, and Omar was struck by how bad his friend’s flaking skin looked. “Long time, peer. Where you been?”
“Keeping busy.” Omar followed Charlz into the kitchen. The table was cluttered with stunners. Charlz didn’t sit and didn’t ask Omar to.
“Why don’t you come out with Scottie and me tonight? We’re going to Melman’s.”
Ah, the Safe Lands DarkScene. “I can’t. I need your help.” And Omar explained about what had happened with Otley, cutting out his SimTag again, and losing his apartment and access to stims. “I’ve got something important to do tonight, but the itch is so bad, I’m nearly sick. I need something to get me through the night.”
“You know I can’t get involved in that, peer.” Charlz touched his ear as if to say someone was listening. “Otley almost killed me last time I got roped into your plans.”
Omar, Charlz, and Skottie used to be enforcers, until Omar had talked them into helping him and they all got reassigned. Was Charlz saying no for real or only because someone might hear? “I just need a hit of something. Anything.”
“I can give you a beer,” Charlz said, walking to his fridge. “I know how the ache feels, peer, and I’m sorry. But if you vape too much right now, you’ll be wasted when you’re supposed to be doing whatever tonight.” He got a beer from the fridge and handed it to Omar. “And while you can mix stims — vape your downers now then vape some uppers before you head out — I wouldn’t risk it when you’ve got someplace to be. Plus, that’s a great way to end up in the MC or premie libbed.”
So Omar sipped his beer like it was the most precious substance on earth, then went with Charlz to Melman’s, hoping Skottie would have more mercy.
When they found Skottie outside the dance club, he wasn’t nearly so prude. “You’ve been off the vape how long?”
“Two days,” Omar said, rubbing the scar on the bridge of his nose. “But I have to be someplace in a couple hours. It’s really important that I don’t mess it up.”
“It’s too risky,” Charlz said, but Skottie waved him off.
“I think he can take it.”
“I can,” Omar said. “Thanks, Scottie. Anything you can do, I really appreciate it.” He felt pathetic and desperate, but he would keep begging until someone helped him.
They went to the hit room at Melman’s and claimed a table in a back corner. But before Skottie would place an order, he taught Omar a few things about the stims he favored. It turned out that Omar liked downers, which helped him relax, took him to a blissful, euphoric oblivion where nothing mattered in the world. Uppers wound him up and made him jittery and anxious but helped him think fast. Grass, brown sugar, and alcohol were downers. Golden ice, white cocoa, and the cocktail mixes were uppers.
“Can I just have some grass and brown sugar? Low doses are fine.”
Skottie shot him a dirty look. “Were you even listening to me?”
“He’s practically a shell,” Charlz said. “I’m telling you, be careful.”
Skottie removed two PVs from his pocket and set them on the table. “Charlz?”
Charlz sighed and set his own PV on the table. “I still think this is a mistake.”
When the barkeep came again, Skottie gave very specific instructions. “Empty all three of these. Fill one with a four of brown sugar, one with a two of white cocoa, and the third with a five of grass.”
Omar got jittery just hearing that order. “Thanks, Skottie. Seriously. I really appreciate this.”
“Not a problem, peer.” And when the barkeep returned, Skottie handed Omar the brown sugar first. “Now sit here and take your sugar very, very slowly.”
Omar did, and all the pain went away. So did his worries. Relief.
Sweet relief.
Omar probably would have stayed in the chair at the hit room for a week, but Skottie woke him after an hour and made him vape the white cocoa.
He woke up fast. The euphoria was fast too, came and went in a few minutes. After two days of aching pain, it felt good to feel strong again. Energized. Indestructible.
Then Skottie let him take the PV that had grass in it. “Save this until you need it, you hear me? And come visit me later if you need more of the sweetness.”
Omar didn’t doubt for a minute that he’d see Skottie the next night.
He left his friends at Melman’s and met Kendall and the two Jack’s Peak men, Mukwiv and Tupi, at Zane’s house. Zane gave Omar a gun belt with a SimScanner. Once they left the house, Omar put Jordan’s gun on the other side of the belt. He didn’t think Zane would have approved of a real weapon, but Omar knew from his time with the enforcers that many of them carried the dual-action pistols.
They walked through the storm drains and into the Highlands. Omar felt good. Alive and awake and whole again. The trip passed by in a blur, and soon they were above ground again, approaching the Medical Center from the back parking lot.
“SimTalk: tap: Zane,” Omar said.
“You there yet?” Zane asked.
“Yeah. We’re in the back parking lot. What do you see?”
“The stairwell is empty. Go for it.”
Omar waved the others to follow and walked toward the stairwell as if he had every right to be there. It was a trick he’d learned in his time spent being a rebel. If you looked suspicious, people thought you were. But if you looked like you belonged, people didn’t question why you were there.
They climbed the stairs to the sixth floor,
and by then Mukwiv was panting pretty heavily. The guy had to be under forty or he would’ve been liberated like Omar’s mother, but Mukwiv had almost as many wrinkles on his face as Papa Eli once had. Tupi was much younger, maybe Jordan’s age. They were all wearing black, which had camouflaged them in the tunnels and outside, but would make them really obvious in the MC.
“We’re on six, Zane,” Omar said. “What do you see?”
“Not a good time. There’s a janitor.”
“Are you kidding?” Omar wanted to get this done, not hover in the stairwell, waiting to get caught while a janitor mopped the floor. “What do we do?”
“Hang tight. Or you could jump him. I’ve got the cameras off.”
“Zane says there’s a janitor out there and that we could jump him,” Omar said.
“No,” Kendall said. “It’s better if fewer people see us.”
“He could be cleaning for hours,” Omar said.
“I don’t think so,” Zane said. “He just emptied a trash can and is pushing his cart toward the elevator.”
Omar glanced at his team. They were all wearing harnesses to carry the kids. Mary and Shay had made them out of strips of fabric.
Shay.
Hopefully, once they all moved into the basements, Ruston would put Kendall and her kid far away from wherever he put Shay. Maybe Omar could suggest that to Ruston. But no matter where Kendall wound up, he had to apologize to Shay. He wondered if she really would always forgive him. Kissing Kendall had been a pretty major screw-up.
“Janitor just got into the elevator,” Zane said. “Go now.”
“Janitor’s gone,” Omar told the others. “Let’s go.” He pushed open the door and walked down the bright hallway. “Where am I going, Kendall?”
“There’s a big entrance on the left, about halfway down,” Kendall said. “Wooden doors. A plaque that says Safe Lands Nursery. You should be able to go right in, but stop just inside the front doors. And be quiet.”
The doors came into view. Omar opened one and held it for everyone. “Wait right inside,” he whispered.
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