I frowned, but didn’t bother to say I told you so.
I thought it though.
When I did, he startled me, stroking my hair with a hand.
“I know,” he said, softer.
I felt some part of me relax. Seconds later, I realized that a good chunk of the reason was that I could no longer feel Solonik.
The other part, I didn’t really want to think about right then.
“I can shield you when we’re this close,” Black said, glancing at me. “It’s harder at a distance, doc...especially when he was closer to you than I was and blocking me at every turn.” His voice grew thicker, holding enough emotion to make me wince, although he didn’t look away from the road. “I’m sorry, Miriam. You were right.”
I shook my head. “No, I wasn’t,” I said. I looked up at him, conscious of his fingers still in my hair. “I didn’t want you to stay because of me,” I said. “I wanted you to stay because I thought he’d kill you, Black...then come looking for me after.”
His eyes shifted down, staring at me through the mirrored shades. His mouth curled in a bewildered frown.
“Are you fucking serious?” he said. “That’s what you were worried about?”
I bit the inside of my cheek, fighting an irrational desire to hit him again.
“Where are we going now?” I said only.
He exhaled, sounding tired. Exhausted really.
“I don’t know.” He glanced at me, his mouth set in a harder line. “We found Lawless’s grandson.”
I caught hold of his hand at that, squeezing it. “Thank God.”
I felt the relief on Black too.
“I wasn’t lying to Solonik,” Black added, his voice colder. “I called Anders, told him that I needed them to deal with him...that he was jeopardizing our deal. Anders promised to pass my message on to Lucky. I have no idea if they’ll do anything about it.”
“What does your gut tell you?” I said, smiling wanly.
He glanced down at me, and some of the hardness went out of his expression.
“Honestly? I have no idea, Miriam.”
He jerked the wheel to the right again, taking us down a different road. Whatever the change had been, the road sounded different here. I wondered if he’d taken us onto a bridge, or possibly the onramp to a freeway. Shoving it from my mind as I realized it didn’t matter, and moreover that it was better if I didn’t know, I leaned back against the base of his seat.
“So what now?” I said finally, hearing the tiredness in my voice.
“I’m thinking.”
“Well, think aloud at least,” I said. “Let me think with you.”
Black sighed, but I heard a smile in it that time.
“I’m thinking I don’t want him following us back to San Francisco,” he said. “...But I’m also not sure how to deal with it from here without risking both of our lives again.” He glanced down at me. “He got into that hotel too easily, Miri. He got past my people too easily.”
“So?” I said. “What does that mean?”
“In terms of the how?” he said. “I don’t know. He shouldn’t have been able to do that. Not in this dimension.” He returned his eyes to the road. “I’m wondering if he had help.”
“What kind of help?” I said.
He clicked under his breath, but didn’t answer me.
“So what does that mean?” I asked him again. “For us?”
I rested my head against the seat, wrapping my hand around his thigh without really thinking about what I was doing. I felt him jump a little when I did it, then relax, even as his hand fell briefly back to my hair, stroking me absently. I could almost feel him thinking though, only half-way with me as his mind operated in some more distant place.
“Black?” I prodded, shaking his leg a little. “What does it mean? In terms of our options.”
“It means I have to find some way to outsmart him,” he said, sighing.
He lifted his hand from my hair and started to raise it––I could tell he’d forgotten about his shoulder when he winced as he returned his fingers to the steering wheel, his expression pained.
Glancing down at me, he added, his voice taut, “It means I can’t rely on the usual means of getting at him, Miri. I can’t overpower him with people and weapons. I have to find some way around his sight.”
Looking back at the road, he frowned.
“He’s better than me. Or he has access to some kind of help that’s giving him a serious leg up on what I can do in this dimension. Whatever the reason, I can’t rely on resources alone to compensate for what he seems to be able to do. Not with you wholly untrained in most of the combat side of things...” Feeling me tense, he glanced down. “Seer stuff, Miri. I know you can handle yourself. That’s not what I meant.”
I nodded slowly, thinking.
“We’ll need to be smarter than him,” Black added. “If we’re not, we’re both dead.”
Thinking about that, I knew he was right.
I wondered if there was a way I could help him with that. Not just the thinking part, but the fact that I still had a connection to Solonik himself. I might not be able to feel it right then, but I knew it was still there. Like a television set that had been muted, I could see the moving pictures somewhere; I just couldn’t hear them.
“Don’t do that,” Black warned.
When I glanced up, startled, he was glaring at me through the sunglasses.
“Don’t go poking around in Solonik’s mind right now, Miri. I mean it. I appreciate you wanting to help, and I’ll gladly accept it...but not like that. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you get near that psycho’s mind again...not for any reason.”
“Why?” I said, frustrated. “If I can actually use this thing, rather than just be victimized by it, then shouldn’t we at least try to take whatever advantage we can of––”
“No!” Black exploded, cutting me off.
I jumped, startled by the emotion in that one word. When I looked up, frowning, he gripped the steering wheel so tightly the knuckles of both hands were white.
“Goddamn it, Miri! Stay away from his fucking mind! Do you hear me? STAY AWAY FROM HIS FUCKING MIND!” He glared down at me, breathing harder, but I felt fear on him that time, not anger. “Do you not realize how fucking close that was just now?”
I blinked up at him, still taken aback.
“Is that a serious question?” I said.
He clenched his jaw, then shook his head as if with an effort, clicking under his breath without looking at me. “Every time you even think about that psychopath right now, you connect your mind to his. What he did to you...it’s too recent. Do you get that? It’s too fucking recent, Miri. I can’t fix it in twelve hours. You need to stay away from him, goddamn it...or I’ll knock you out so you can’t think about anything at all.”
Removing my hand from his leg, I stared up at him incredulously. “So what if we need it to track him? To get ahead of him for a change? You’re really not going to use every possible advantage you have, just because––”
“You let me handle it, goddamn it!”
“You just said he’s better than you,” I reminded him mildly. “You just said it, Black. That the seer stuff on its own won’t be enough. You don’t have the luxury to not use me, not if––”
“I don’t give a good goddamn what I just said! You work for me, Miriam. You do what I say in this or so help me god, I will knock you out...or I’ll pump you so full of drugs you can’t reach him.”
My warm feelings towards him abruptly vanished.
He must have felt it, because he raised his voice even more.
“If he gets you on a plane...you’ll fucking disappear. You’ll disappear, Miri. I’ll never find you again. Do you really not understand that?”
I stared up at him, back to bewilderment when I felt the emotion seething off him.
“Again,” I said. “Is that a serious fucking question?”
“I don’t know...is it? Because
I’m beginning to think you really don’t get it. I’m beginning to think you’re not listening to a fucking thing I’ve been telling you––”
“Stop talking, Black.” I clenched my jaw, not looking up that time when he turned. “You need to stop talking. Right now, Quentin. I mean it.”
After what looked like a brief struggle between different parts of his mind, he fell silent.
Looking back at the road, he clenched his jaw so hard his cheek jutted out.
“Fine,” he growled.
When I glanced up, I could tell he was genuinely trying to drop it, maybe even to erase the whole conversation from his mind. I could also feel him going over his comment about drugging me in his head, wishing he hadn’t said it.
Even so, that more intense thing seethed off him like smoke as he drove.
It felt like a long stretch of time before he exhaled, looking down at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
He meant it; I could feel it.
Maybe because he did, or maybe for some other reason, I felt myself let it go almost at once. Sliding my hand back over his leg, I gripped the muscle there again and nodded, leaning my face against his thigh.
We’d only been driving for a few minutes longer when he cursed loudly, making me jump. The vibration of the wheels and the engine and my exhaustion had been lulling me into a doze.
As I looked up, he wrenched the SUV’s steering wheel to the left, then we were ascending up a sloped road. Through the windshield I could see trees and plants alongside the onramp from the angle, broken by swaths of blue sky and flashes of sunlight.
I could tell by the turns he made––a sharp right at the end of the slope that must be an overpass, then another sharp right and a slope downward before the road grew flat and fast once more––that he’d turned us around. We were driving back the way we’d come.
I didn’t say anything at first, feeling the anger seethe off him.
It didn’t feel aimed at me.
He drove for a few minutes more before he spoke.
“All right,” he said.
He clenched his jaw, his eyes locked on the road on the other side of the windshield. I couldn’t see his face very well, since he still wore the mirrored sunglasses.
“All right what?” I said, wary.
“All right, you’re going to help me track him,” he growled. “But we’re doing this my way, Miri. And we’re doing it now. I’m not going on the run from this fucker...and I’m not letting him chase you anymore, either. We’re taking him out now. Today.”
I tightened my fingers on his thigh, feeling a strange flush of relief.
He looked down. “Okay with you?”
I nodded. “Okay with me.”
“I’m going to shield you,” he said, his voice warning. “And I’m going to walk you through it...step by step. I still don’t want you getting near his fucking mind. I mean it.”
I nodded, staring down at the beige carpet on the floor of the SUV.
For some reason, I still just felt relieved. I didn’t even know why, not at first.
Maybe I was just done with running too.
He prodded me again. “Are you ready to do this?” he said. “We can’t wait, Miri.”
That time, I gave him a blank look. “What...now?” I glanced at his hands on the steering wheel. “You’re driving, Black.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“You’ve also got a bullet in your shoulder.”
Gripping the steering wheel harder, he rolled his eyes at me. Or that’s how it felt––I couldn’t see his actual eyes behind the mirrored shades.
“I can split my consciousness,” he said. “It’s seer combat 101, Miri. And I’d rather do this when he can’t pinpoint a location on us, in case I fuck it up...so driving is preferable to being stationary.” He glanced at me again. “My shoulder can wait. You’re also going to have to wait on asking me any technical questions about what we’re doing. I don’t have time to teach you. I’m going to use your connection to him to find him. That’s it.”
When I didn’t say anything, he nudged me with the leg I’d wrapped my hand around.
“I’m going to be heavy-handed about guiding you,” he added. “So don’t get pissy with me about it, doc. And don’t take it fucking personally. Just do as I tell you. For once. And trust me that I’m being an asshole for a reason.”
I found myself ignoring his tone, maybe because I could feel what lay behind it.
I thought through his words. “What about your people?”
“No. Absolutely no. He’ll be watching them. We’re on our own.”
I nodded, frowning as I thought about Dex and Kiko and Farraday.
“Are you ready, doc?” he said. “We shouldn’t wait. I’m betting he’s already on the move.”
Not really sure I wanted to know what that meant, I nodded when he glanced down at me again. Firmly that time.
“Okay,” I said. “Just tell me what to do.”
Fourteen
HUNTING
IT WAS A strange thing, to be under Black’s control in that space.
I’d been using my psychic abilities, conscious or not, pretty much my entire life. I’d used them with my psychology clients, during the war, working for Nick with the police...as a kid in school. My sister and I used to play games with them, trying to hide thoughts from one another while the other tried any way they could to break in and “hack” the information.
Even with my sister Zoe, though, I’d never shared that psychic space like this.
It wasn’t like what Solonik had done to me either.
Black didn’t invade my head at all, not in terms of any of my thoughts...much less anything personal. Rather, he kind of enveloped me in that space, so much so that I could barely feel myself within it. I felt Black instead, and pretty much only Black.
As a result, I ended up more of a bystander than anything else.
I watched him work, noting how careful he was about not going too far into the parts of me that still carried a flavor of Solonik. He wrapped himself around me as he worked, thickening that feeling of a darkness that dimmed me from view, making me invisible in some way. Deadened, like how I’d felt in Solonik’s room.
I couldn’t really follow most of it with my rational mind.
All I knew was, at some point, and really before I knew what was happening, he’d jerked me out of my body entirely.
I found myself floating somewhere above it instead, looking down.
I could actually see the two of us in the white SUV, barreling down a freeway with greenery flowing by on either side. I could feel that we were approaching the city––even saw myself sitting between the two front seats, leaning against Black’s chair while he drove.
Some part of me wondered if this was what it felt like to be dead.
True to his word, he didn’t let me anywhere near Solonik himself.
Well, not in terms of his mind anyway.
Rather, he pulled me away from that view of the two of us in the white SUV, following what felt like a kind of trembling thread back into the city ahead of the car.
I could feel Solonik inside that trembling thread. I recognized the flavor of him somehow, although there’s no way on earth I would have been able to describe that flavor to someone using words. It was both too subtle and too complex. It was filled with too many things that didn’t have easy equivalencies in language. I would have had to describe him using other people maybe. Or memories perhaps, feelings and flavors I’d experienced over the years.
None of it would have been quite right.
He felt like himself, that was all.
Beyond the psychosis, the fear I had of him, the faint whispers of death-stench I felt around him and his coldblooded fury at Black having taken me––there was a living being there. That living being had a distinct imprint that belonged only to him.
As I thought it, I found myself noticing the same about Black.
Black’s flavor
was so completely different from Solonik’s, I almost couldn’t compare the two of them. My mind looked for ways to compare them anyway, and the closest it got was by giving them each colors. Black became a deep, indigo blue with sky blue highlights, almost like living flame. Dense and warm despite the coolness of the colors, he exuded a strange feeling of safety. He also felt familiar, more so the longer I looked at him there.
Solonik was gray with fire-yellow sparks.
His colors were harder, flatter––more chaotic.
I ended up with an image of a manic firebug dancing over ashes and smoldering flames. The image jerked, distorted, like it was being warped through cracked glass.
I felt more to both of them, beyond those surface impressions––
––but Black pulled me back before I got very close.
I did my best to just be still, to watch the city as it approached.
I saw the buildings grow up around us. I saw the park where we’d been...then a film speeding up in the projector as Solonik wandered around the segment where Black had fishtailed the SUV. I saw time roll back in a jerking cadence. The gun went off in his hand as I ran, slow-motion for the open door of the white SUV. I saw Black take the bullet in the shoulder, watched him grimace in pain as he was thrown into the driver’s side window without lowering his own gun. I hit the carpet then and slammed the car door. Black stomped the accelerator, the tires smoking in those few seconds before they caught, slamming us out of there.
Time sped forward again.
I watched a distorted film of Solonik watching us drive away...could almost see the calculation on his face as he tried to decide what to do next.
Then he walked to the road.
I watched him step out into the nearest lane, his hand up towards an approaching vehicle
Fear hit me as I saw it. I wondered if he would try to chase us––if he’d been following us all that time, a thought that hadn’t occurred to me even once since we left Solonik standing in our tracks in that park––but he didn’t. He got the driver to get out of the vehicle with a wave of the hand holding the gun. I watched the driver wander into the park in a daze as Solonik took his place in the driver’s seat.
Black As Night (Quentin Black Mystery #2) Page 21