by Jen Blood
“Don’t push it.”
Our destination was just up ahead, a hulking mass of stone, mystery, and power that had stood in this spot for fifteen hundred years: La Iglesia. Another five steps and the trail opened up to a large clearing. Carl was already halfway up the pyramid, moving steadily up the narrow steps. Among the trees around us, I spotted a stout stone figure not far from the pyramid. Another stood farther in the jungle, barely visible from our spot. By the time I’d gotten a good look around, I had the uneasy feeling that we were surrounded by vengeful stone gods.
“This is creepy,” Solomon said, echoing my thoughts.
“I’m in position,” Juarez said in my ear. I looked around, but saw no sign of him.
The pyramid rose above us, its rough-hewn limestone blocks stacked to the sky. Despite the rain, we sat on one of the narrow steps at the bottom and waited. Solomon leaned against me, her arm still through mine. “You’ve been here before,” she said. Not a question.
“I have. You?”
“Once, with Michael.” I felt the gentle weight of her head on my shoulder. Several seconds passed before she spoke again.
“She saved Einstein once, you know.”
It took a second for my mind to follow the notable lack of a segue. “Kat, you mean?”
She nodded. “He was dying when I first got him... He had Parvo. Was the only one in his litter to survive. Just this tiny scruff ball who wanted to be in my arms constantly.”
“Not so different from today, then.”
“He’s a little bigger,” she said. I could hear the smile in her voice. “But... no, not really. Anyway, Kat was spending the night at the apartment in Boston one night—Michael’s idea, not mine,” she added unnecessarily. “And Stein’s fever spikes. I wake to him in mid-seizure. I knew the only decent thing to do at that point was call the vet and have him put down. So, I’m sitting on the kitchen floor with this puppy in my arms and the phone in my hand, ready to make the call.”
Her head was still on my shoulder, but I got the sense that she was far, far away. I turned and kissed her warm forehead.
“And Kat came to the rescue?” I asked.
“She just swooped in, you know? Took Einstein from me, made up god-knows-what from the crap I had in the refrigerator, got him warmed up and stabilized and...”
“And he made it.”
“The next morning, I wake up and Stein is sleeping beside me. Kat’s already gone—she had a conference that day, I think. She left a note with instructions on what I needed to do. Nothing special—nothing remotely personal.” She paused. Wiped her eyes. “That was the only thing she ever gave me that she signed ‘Mom.’ I still have it... It’s stupid, I know. But I can’t throw it away. She never sent letters or care packages when I was in college. Even birthday cards, she signs ‘Kat.’ But that stupid note...”
“She loves you,” I said. “It’s a complicated thing for her, I think, but I know she does.”
Silence fell as she considered that.
The minutes wore on.
Finally, after what seemed an inordinately long time, Solomon sat up with a heavy sigh. She looked around the clearing.
“How much longer do you think it will be?”
It was only nine-thirty. “I don’t think they’ll make us wait long.”
She nodded. After a second, she forced herself back to her feet. I didn’t care for the glassy shine to her eyes. She rocked where she stood before she began walking, circling the ruins.
“Does Jack see any sign of them?” she asked me.
I got up and followed her. “Any sign?” I asked Juarez.
“None so far,” he said in my ear. “I have a good view of the trail in, and Carl will be able to see anyone in the area. There’s no movement.”
“No sign yet,” I said to Solomon. She frowned, turning her back on me to scowl into the trees.
“Something’s wrong,” she repeated.
“At least wait until the meet time comes and goes before you start panicking. You’re freaking me out.”
“Sorry,” she murmured. She began to pace, every step clearly painful as hell. The rain slowed. The heat got thicker.
Another five minutes passed with no sign of anyone.
And then, there was a crackling in my ear.
“We’ve got movement at the trailhead,” Juarez said in my ear.
“Can you tell who?” I asked. Solomon looked at me.
“One person—male,” Juarez said.
“Any sign of Jenny? Or Kat?” I asked.
“Not yet.”
“What’s happening?” Solomon demanded.
“Someone’s here,” I said. “Juarez isn’t sure if they’re with J or just out for a midnight stroll.”
“Not likely in this weather,” she said. I’d been thinking the same thing.
“He’s headed your way, Diggs,” Juarez said.
“Can I get a description?” I asked.
“Tall. Fit. Older—fifties or sixties, maybe.”
At Juarez’s description, the tension I’d barely been holding at bay spiked. Shit. It wasn’t much to go by, but I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly who was coming our way.
“Sol?” I said. At the anxiety in my voice, she turned.
“You know him?” Juarez asked. “What do you want us to do?”
“What is it?” Solomon asked me.
“Don’t shoot,” I said to Juarez. “But be on alert. Ten to one, I know exactly who’s about to crash the party.”
Solomon looked at me in confusion.
Thirty seconds later, sure enough, Adam Solomon stepped out of the jungle and back into our lives.
Chapter Thirty-Two - Kat
It was pouring by the time Lee came to get them from their hot, humid prison. Kat had been dozing fitfully, while Cameron and Jenny maintained their stony silence. At sight of Lee at the door, however, everyone in the room came immediately to attention. Lee looked at Jenny intently, silently assessing the girl.
“You still with us?” he asked her.
Jenny nodded without hesitation. “I am.”
“Did they say something?” he asked. “Any big plans to escape again?”
“No,” she said. “He tried to get me to join them. I said no.”
“Good girl,” Lee said. He held out his hand. Jenny hesitated only a moment before she took it. “You’re either for us or against us, Jen. You know that.”
“I do,” she agreed.
“Did you miss what they did to Jonah?” Cameron asked, out of the blue. Lee very nearly growled at him.
“Shut up, Cam,” Kat said.
“Yes,” Lee echoed. “Shut up, Cam. Don’t start getting chatty on us now.”
“You saw them, Jenny,” Cam continued, heeding neither warning. “You saw the children who died. Left there to rot, like garbage.”
“We didn’t do that,” Jenny said. “That wasn’t us. Jonah did that to them. He took them out there; he fed them that poison.”
“Because he couldn’t bear knowing what the Project would do to them, if he didn’t. That’s what you’re part of—an operation that men would rather murder their grandchildren over than let them join.”
Lee advanced on Cameron. Outside, Kat could see two of the other men with the Project waiting, rifles at the ready.
“We’re done talking, old man,” Lee said. He pulled a gun from the back of his pants, focused on Jenny again. “I can’t keep you on if you’re not loyal. If he keeps feeding this shit to you, screwing with your head...”
“He’ll stop,” Jenny said. She cast a nearly-desperate look at her father. Cameron looked away. “If he cares about my life at all, he’ll shut up. I’m with you. I’m with the Project. You won’t have a problem with me again.”
Lee continued to study her, gun still at the ready. Kat found she was holding her breath. Cameron didn’t move.
“I hope that’s true,” Lee said finally. He turned the gun away, opened the chamber, and removed the clip bef
ore he handed it to Jenny. “You earn your ammo. Same as when you were first coming up the ranks.”
“Thank you,” Jenny said, eyes lowered. “I will.”
“Solomon will be expecting you tonight,” Lee continued. “Stay cool. Follow the plan. Make sure that’s all she’s expecting.”
“I will,” she said, still nodding. Kat waited for him to say something else—to give some clue about whatever he had in store, but he offered nothing. He signaled them out into the rain. The other men were on high alert.
Outside, Lee herded them into a waiting Humvee, the engine already running. Kat looked at Cameron. He lowered his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, as Lee loaded them roughly into the vehicle. “I did everything I could.”
Chapter Thirty-Three - Solomon
“What the hell do you want?” I asked my father. He stood in front of me like some apparition, dripping rain, his familiar eyes searching mine. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help,” he said. He hesitated. “I’m here to take your place.”
I blinked a couple of times, sure when I opened my eyes he would have vanished again.
“Where were you when Willett was hunting us like dogs?” Diggs demanded. Diggs usually keeps his temper on a short leash. At the moment, that leash was nowhere in sight. He was on his feet and headed for my father before I could stop him. “When she was bleeding to death in my arms? You show up now—”
“Diggs,” I interrupted. I stopped him with my hand on his shoulder, before he ended up actually killing my dad then and there. “It’s all right. I’ve got this.”
“We don’t have much time,” he said to me quietly. Like I hadn’t been watching the clock for the past twenty-four hours.
“I know,” I agreed. “Just... Let me handle my father. I’ll take care of it.”
Diggs backed off, though he didn’t go far—a couple of steps was the most space he would give me. In this instance, I didn’t mind a bit.
I leveled a cool, killing glare at my father. Or as close as I could get while delirious and dripping wet. “We don’t have time for this. Jenny will be here any second. I don’t care what you have or haven’t done... I don’t know whether you’re a good man or a friggin’ monster... It doesn’t matter. You’re still my father. Which means I don’t want them to get their hands on you. So, go. Run.”
“I’m not leaving,” he said, intractable. “Give me the memory card. Let me stay here and wait for Jenny and the others. I’ll make sure your mother gets away safely. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Well, that’s comforting,” I said bitterly. “No, thank you. We can handle it.”
He closed the distance between us. “You don’t need to handle it anymore—that’s what I’m trying to tell you, Erin. Let me take care of you. Let me protect you, the way I should have years ago. Please.”
“I can’t keep her safe anymore, Katie. She doesn’t listen to me. She’s too much like you that way. You have to take her...I can’t protect her out here. Not anymore.”
I shook my head, trying to clear it. Colors swam and blurred around me. I struggled to focus. Dad came closer. He looked worried.
“Baby, you’re hurt. You shouldn’t be here.”
“She’s hurt because you took off the first time,” Diggs said. He sounded more wary than actively furious now.
“I know that,” my father said. “So, let me make it right. Give me the card. Get her away from here.”
“And you’ll make sure Kat gets away,” Diggs said. I could tell he was tempted.
“If I give you the card, I don’t want you to just disappear again,” I said. I kept my back to Diggs and focused on my father. Everything had happened too fast—he’d come out of nowhere. I tried to make sense of it; tried to re-establish the connection I’d felt just a few days ago. “Before you go, I want to understand. I want you to tell me the truth about Payson Isle. Nothing makes sense to me.”
He reached out to me. I couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten so close. My brain wasn’t tracking things right. His hand was cool on my cheek, his eyes sad when he looked at me. “I know it doesn’t make sense. But I promise, you’ll know everything in time.”
“You’ll understand when you’re older, baby. Right now, listen to my voice. There’s light and there’s dark in your life.” My father sits beside me on my bed, brushing my hair back. “I want you to live in the light. Remember everything we love about it here. Take the dark spots... Let them go.”
I blinked hard, shaking my head again. Dad was close now. He was right there.
“Erin?” Diggs said, behind me.
“They’ll take you,” I said again. “Jenny said before that there was no deal for you. If they catch you, they’ll kill you.”
“I won’t let them,” he said.
“But how? Damn it, Dad, explain this to me. How is me giving you the card now any better than me ignoring Jenny’s demands for Kat, and taking off to leave her to die? Why would I abandon you, when I wouldn’t her?”
He didn’t answer for a few seconds. The rain had stopped. Heat and darkness lay heavy over the scene, while an unholy host of nocturnals screamed bloody murder above. I wondered where Juarez was, suddenly; if he was whispering in Diggs’ ear right now. I tried to imagine what he might be saying.
A wash of fear, slow and creeping, burned through me.
“If we are going, we need to leave now,” Diggs said. “We don’t have time to debate this.”
“Your father has his own secrets,” Isaac Payson said. His eyes were blood red. He stood over me, dark and angry. “He’s too busy running from them to protect you all the time.”
“Forget the dark spots, Erin.”
“I can’t protect her.”
I ground the heels of my hands into my eyes, trying to stop their burning. I could feel him waiting for me to say something. Waiting for me to decide.
There was light, on Payson Isle. Not all of it was a lie. Those light spots I remembered hadn’t been planted there... My father had taken care of me. He had loved me. That much had to be true, didn’t it? Something had to be true.
I shook my head. “No,” I said. My throat was parched. The word came out small in the wide open spaces. Mayan gods watched me from the trees. My head wasn’t right—too hot. Life and death decisions shouldn’t be left to people with bullet wounds and temperatures topping the hundred-degree mark.
“We’ll take care of it,” I said, forcing strength into my voice. My father still stood in front of me, his hand on my cheek. I could feel the tension in his body, just from that single point of contact. “I have everything under control.”
“You don’t have anything under control, where they’re concerned,” Dad said. “The only way you or me or any of us will ever be free, is if you give me that memory card.”
He held his hand out, waiting for me to comply. The way he used to do when I took something that didn’t belong to me. Expecting me to obey.
“Leave while you can, Erin,” he said. “Run away. Forget everything you ever knew about the Project.”
I twisted around to look at Diggs. He seemed too far away. I backed away from my father.
“I told you: No,” I said. “I’m not forgetting anything. When this is over, Diggs and I will drop out of sight. We’ll lay low. But that doesn’t mean we’re giving up. I’m not letting this go. Whoever these people are, whoever the operatives on this memory card might have been, they need to answer for the things they’ve done.”
Fear sparked in my father’s eyes.
“Your father has his own secrets.”
Why was he afraid? Was it because of what was about to happen?
Or was it something else?
“Your father has his own secrets, darker than anything I could do,” Isaac whispered to me.
When understanding finally hit me, it struck like lightning. I wet my lips. Backed away. Dad reached for me. His fingers curled around my arm.
&nb
sp; “That’s why you want the card, isn’t it?” I asked. I couldn’t get a full breath. “Not to save Kat... It doesn’t have anything to do with her. Or me. You’re on that card, aren’t you? All those entries... All those horrible things these people have done. You were one of them. You didn’t just stand by. You didn’t just run.”
My father’s eyes went cold. His fingers tightened on my arm.
“You killed for them,” I said.
If I hadn’t been hurt, I like to think I would have seen the shift before my father made it. Maybe I’m just kidding myself, though. Maybe I was always doomed to blindness, where he was concerned.
In a flash, before anyone in any direction could react, Dad pulled me to him. His hand snaked around my middle, coming to rest directly on top of my bandages. Blinding pain shot through me. I barely swallowed a scream, my knees buckling.
“You’re hurting her, damn it!” Diggs shouted. He started toward us. When he stopped, barely a second later, it took me a second before I could figure out why.
Until I felt cold steel at my temple.
And like that, in a flash of light, I was back on Payson Isle.
“Forget the dark spots.”
I’m in the greenhouse with Isaac. Afraid. He’s watching me. I remember Allie—even though I’m not supposed to. I know what he did. He takes a step toward me.
“Your father has his own secrets, darker than anything I could do. Given the choice between protecting you or those secrets, he’ll always choose his secrets. He’ll take care of you when he can... He’ll let me beat him. He’ll hate me for it. But given the choice between his life and yours, his past or your future, he will choose himself. It’s the way he was made.”
My father tightened his grip on me, forcing me back to the present. The world blurred gray at the edges.
“Let her go, Adam,” Diggs said. Dad took a step back, jerking me with him.
“It doesn’t have to go this way,” my father said. His voice shook. I could feel him trembling against me. “Just give me the goddamn card. Then you can leave.”
“And you’ll run,” I said. I swallowed bile. Tried to keep my head above the pain. “You never meant to save Kat. That’s not why you’re here.”