“My friends call me Sky,” she said.
“Rex,” said Rex, jerking a thumb at his chest. “Sky, we’ve got—”
“Rex, like a dog?” There was an edge of hysteria in her voice.
He sighed. Keep her calm. Don’t let her think about what’s out there. “Like a fucking Tyrannosaurus.”
She nodded at him, mute, eyes wide.
“So, we’ve got what is called a situation here.” said Rex. “What we’re going to do is use this big ol’ car of yours to make a gap.”
“Make a gap?”
“Like a snow plow,” he said. “You’re going to put it in gear, and nudge a hole in the traffic. Slow and steady. Get us on the sidewalk—”
“Is that safe?”
“Sky,” said Rex, “safe is in Kansas. We’re in Chicago.”
She nodded, set her shoulders, and turned back to the front. She was about to move the car forward when Rex spoke again. “Sky?”
“Yeah?”
“We still need to get to where we were headed.”
“You really want to get to work?”
“I wasn’t going to work,” said Rex. “I was going to meet a friend.”
“Right,” she said. She placed the taser on the passenger seat, then gripped the steering wheel with both hands. “My insurance—”
A man jumped on the hood of the car, yelling at them. Sky screamed, jamming a foot on the gas, and the big town car roared forward, slamming a hole in the cars around them. It bounced onto the pavement, shooting out like a cork from a bottle, and they were away, the man tumbling off the hood.
Rex spared a look behind them. Well, that’s one way to do it.
∙ • ● • ∙
“Where we going?” Sky spared a glance at him over her shoulder as the big town car crawled along the sidewalk. “Can you give me directions?”
“Your phone flat?” Rex felt like his head was on a swivel as he cast about on all sides of the car. There were bodies everywhere, some fallen as if asleep, some torn apart, barely recognizable. They drove past an old Taurus, flames billowing out through the windows.
“It’s not flat,” she said. “I can’t get a signal.”
“Who you with?”
“AT&T.”
“That’ll be why,” said Rex. “I’m with Verizon. They’re…” His voice trailed off as he checked his own phone, NO SERVICE showing at the top. “Well, fuck me running,” he said.
“Verizon not giving it to you?” She tried on a smirk, left it there. Definitely a cute nose.
“I’m on a plan,” he said. “Got six months to run.”
“Thieves, right?”
“Right,” said Rex. “Look, I know the way. You need to go up another couple blocks, take a right.”
“Then what?”
“Then nothing. We’ll be there.” Rex drummed his fingers on his leg. “Say.”
“Yeah?”
“Why you doing this?” Rex pointed out the front of the car at a shopping cart full of cans. “Watch out for that.”
“I see it,” she said, easing the car around the cart. “People don’t waste time, do they?”
“What?”
Sky jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the cart falling away behind them. “Looting.”
“Oh,” said Rex. “No. They never do.”
“You been in places like this before?” He noticed her hands gripped the wheel so tight her fingers where white, bloodless.
“L.A. fires,” said Rex. “Worked in the Department, thirty years.”
“Right,” said Sky. Then, “They looted in the L.A. fires?”
“People loot everywhere,” said Rex. “Humans are basically jackals. Hold up here.”
“Why—” but then she saw it. A pack of people loping, shoulders hunched over. Five of them, skittering around the edges of stopped and empty cars. He watched as Sky put the car in park, left the engine idling. “Do you—”
“Hush now,” said Rex. He reached forward, put a hand on her arm. “Don’t move.”
They sat still and silent in the car as the five people — if that’s what they are — moved like a pack of wild dogs through the stopped traffic. One of them passed close to the town car, sparing a glance inside. Rex tightened his fingers on Sky’s arm, but made no other movement, not even his eyes. The face looking in at them moved on, and they both breathed out.
“They didn’t see us,” said Sky. “Why didn’t they see us?”
“They expected to see something else,” said Rex.
“Like what?”
“You ever see a lion hunting?”
“In Chicago?”
“No,” said Rex. “On the nature channel, or whatever you kids watch today.”
“Discovery?”
“Is that a nature channel?”
“Yes.” She ran a nervous hand through her hair.
“Then Discovery,” said Rex. “You see a lion hunting?”
“I’ve seen a show,” she said.
This is why you don’t date younger women, thought Rex. No context. “They track movement.”
“Those people are lions?”
“Those people are hunting,” said Rex. “You run, you’re prey.”
“Got it,” said Sky. “Don’t run. Except…”
“Yeah?”
“What if you need to run?” Sky tossed a look back at him, then slipped the big town car back into gear.
“Then,” said Rex, “you run fast, Sky. You run really fast.”
“It’s because you seem nice,” she said. “It’s because you wanted to get your friend.”
“What?” Rex looked at her, then back out the window. “I don’t follow.”
“You asked me why I was doing this,” she said. “You’ve got a sprained wrist. You’re … don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a little bit older.”
“I’m retired,” said Rex. “Or I thought I was, until this morning.”
The town car made the right turn, edging along the sidewalk. Sky was looking out the front, focused. “That’s what I mean,” she said. “You don’t look like you’re looting the place.”
“Stop here,” he said as they edged next to the entrance to a brownstone. The front doors were hanging open. “This is the place.”
“Who we picking up?”
Rex let out a breath. “Sky?”
“Yeah, Rex?”
“Sky, you should go now,” he said. “Find your family.”
“It’s okay,” said Sky. “They’ll find me.”
“How you figure?”
She thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. John just seems like the type.” She seemed so certain. That’s a hell of a guy.
“John your boyfriend?”
“Yes,” she said.
“How’s he going to find you?”
“Easy,” she said. “He is always in some kind of trouble. If I’m in trouble too, we’ll just…” She trailed off.
“You’ll be in the eye of the storm,” said Rex. “I get it. But it’s okay, Sky. I got it from here.”
“With your arm?”
“It’s only sprained.” Rex looked down at his bandage. “Even with that.”
“I’ll keep the engine running,” she said.
“But—”
“What’s your friend’s name?” she asked, cutting over the top of him.
“Just James,” said Rex.
“What’s he like?”
“He’s a good kid,” said Rex. “I don’t know him that well, to be honest. We were in the accident together.” Rex looked at his arm. The one I caused. “My fault, right? I’ve been trying to look out for him.”
She ignored everything but the first part. “He’s a kid?”
“He’s alone,” said Rex. “His Dad’s an asshole.”
“We getting his Dad too?”
“Don’t think that’ll be an option,” said Rex. “He’ll be in the wind.”
“You go get Just James,” said Sky, “and I’ll see you back down here. Then we�
�ll go…”
“It’s okay,” said Rex. “We’ll work it out in a bit. And Sky?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” said Sky. “Here.” She held out the taser.
He thought about refusing it, then looked up at the broken doors to the brownstone. God damn old body, God damn seven flights of stairs, God damn people eating people. He took it from her with a nod, then opened the door and stepped out into the smell of smoke, a scream sounding in the distance.
You left L.A. to get away from this kind of shit, he thought. Welcome home. At least the bandage has stopped itching. With that thought he stepped through the shadowed doorway of the brownstone and into the quiet lobby inside.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Border Control,” said Ajay. “Should be easy.”
“How you figure?” Carlisle craned her neck forward. Yellow painted steel rose up to form arches across the road, UNITED STATES BORDER INSPECTION STATION writ large over an awning as utilitarian as it was non-functional. Rain tumbled and turned in eddies underneath the awning, promising a cold, wet, and taciturn border guard experience, if it came to that. “You see those cameras?”
“I see the cameras,” Ajay said. He looked tired, his face gaunt. An all-night drive will do that to you, she thought. “I don’t see the problem.”
“Guards,” said Carlisle.
“Are you wanted criminals?” Ajay tapped the steering wheel with his fingers.
Carlisle cut back an angry retort. “Uh.”
“Do you have valid United States passports?” He threw a look at her over his shoulder, sparing a glance for Danny and the kid, both asleep. The kid had fallen asleep on her mom’s shoulder.
“Uh,” said Carlisle again. “Sure.”
“And,” said Ajay, “do you have a permit for that large gun you carry?”
“It’s not that large,” said Carlisle.
“You fired it next to me,” he said. “It sounded very large.”
“Oh,” said Carlisle. “It fires large bullets.”
“Will its presence about your person,” said Ajay, “cause undue alarm to the officers here?”
“Probably,” said Carlisle. “It’s a Desert Eagle.” She caught his intake of breath. “But no, I’m not carrying it illegally.”
“Good,” said Ajay. “We should have no problems.”
Carlisle leaned back. “I guess. It’s just…” She trailed off.
“You’re used to being hunted,” said Ajay. “I know the feeling.”
“You do?” Carlisle closed her eyes for a moment. “Aren’t you a hunter?”
“Exactly so,” said Ajay.
“How you figure it feels to be hunted?” Carlisle opened her eyes, looking at Ajay in the rear view mirror.
His eyes found hers. “I was a child once too.”
She bit down on her lip. “Are you telling me—”
“I’m telling you nothing, Detective Carlisle,” he said, “that you don’t already know.”
“I’m not a cop anymore,” she said, almost absently.
He shook his head. “Being a Shield of the people, the voice that speaks for victims when the wicked have stolen away their will before the coming of the dawn? That is not a job. That is what you are.”
“What would you know about that?” She heard the bitterness in her voice, caught herself looking at Danny.
He thought for a moment before responding. The cars in front of them moved forward, and he let the big Yukon slide forward in the snow. “Names have power.” His accent made the last word sound like powa. “I know that you need reminding of some things that you might … prefer to forget.”
“Like my fucking father?” She spat the last word as if it was bile.
“Like the people around you,” said Ajay. “Power attracts power. The names we carry give us strength of purpose, let us share that purpose with others. The Night is a friend to you, Detective. You offered yourself as its Shield, and it has responded in kind.” Ajay sighed. “It is hard to explain.”
The old memory of her father sat heavy on her shoulders, and she tried to shrug it off. “Why is it so important to you?”
“The woman I … work for has enemies,” he said. “We share a common purpose.”
“That’s something we’ll need to test a bit more,” she said. “You could help by giving me names. You know how you say in your world names have power?” She looked out the window at one of the cameras attached to a pole. “Same in my world.”
“Raeni Williams,” said Ajay.
“What?”
“Raeni Williams is her name,” said Ajay, “but it doesn’t tell her purpose. You would call her a witch. I call her my mother.”
“Your … mother,” said Carlisle, trailing off. “You mentioned her. Before.” Back at the bar. “Most people have mothers. They don’t call people mother. Well, not unless they tag the end of it with something else, like fucker.”
“Is that the detective asking?”
“I’m not asking,” said Carlisle. “I’m saying how the world works.”
“Who are you,” said Ajay, “to tell me how the world works? We spin on around the sun regardless of your thoughts on it.” He seemed almost dismissive.
Carlisle wanted his approval, recognized it for what it was and crushed it down like a bent cigarette under her boot. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m telling you how it is.”
“Tell me who you call mother,” said Ajay, “when your own mother is torn away in a fire-filled night, bullets snapping around you like rabid dogs.”
“I don’t know much about that,” said Carlisle.
“Just so,” said Ajay.
She felt the stir of anger in her chest. “What I can tell you is what happens when your alcoholic father beats your mother to an early grave. She dies, and she leaves you alone with him, forever.” She rubbed at her face. “Forever, or until there’s an end to it. Father still wants a woman around, more or less.”
“Is this why you don’t want me to speak with him?”
“No,” said Carlisle. Then, “Yes. Well, it’s more like this: when I … made sure he was gone, I did it because I didn’t want to speak to him ever again.”
“You didn’t want him to use his voice.” She watched the back of his head nod. “You didn’t want him to speak to you.”
“I didn’t want,” she said, “for him to speak to anyone. He stole away my voice. Least I could do was to return the favor.” She looked at her hand clenched on the leather seat in front of her, made herself relax it.
Ajay let the car roll forward once more as the line moved. “I understand,” he said.
“You can’t,” she said.
“I understand,” he said. “I’m not trying to fight with you. Fighting’s what you know. It’s what you are.”
“I thought you said I was a detective.”
“You who claim to know how the world works don’t yet know that we can be more than just one thing?”
Carlisle thought about that. “I didn’t choose to be a fighter,” she said. Her voice grew quiet. “I just wanted to be able to use my own voice again.”
“And you may get your chance,” said Ajay, his voice brightening in counterpart to hers, “because this fine border control officer wants to speak with us.”
“What?” But it was true, a man in uniform was making his way towards their car. “Okay,” she said. “One question.”
“Just one?” She heard the smile in his voice, for all the gravitas in the cabin.
“How is it you know so much about the world?”
“I find things,” said Ajay. “It’s what I am.”
“Just one thing?” said Carlisle. “You’re not more than one thing?”
“I am many things,” said Ajay. “Perhaps I can even be a friend.”
“Don’t push your luck,” said Carlisle, but she wanted it too. That feeling in her gut made her feel like she was sixteen again. “And slide down your win
dow.”
Ajay turned his head to the window and the border control officer standing outside it. The man was leaned forward a little, head ducked against the half rain, half ice falling from the sky. Carlisle watched as Ajay cracked the window. “Hello, my friend,” he said. “It is unpleasant, yes?”
Carlisle let Ajay talk with the officer, turning to find Danny’s eyes on her. They were warm and dark, not the yellow that made Carlisle … concerned.
“I…” said Danny.
“You heard,” said Carlisle, her voice low.
“Don’t get the chance to miss much,” said Danny, turning away. “I’m sorry. I—”
“Hey,” said Carlisle. Last thing I need is a pity parade. “Save it.”
“Okay,” said Danny, stroking Adalia’s hair. Carlisle felt like the motion was from a time when Adalia was younger, the world simpler. “It’s just—”
“I know,” said Carlisle.
“Okay,” said Danny, turning to look out the window. Carlisle watched the muscles in her jaw bunch as she clenched her teeth. “You don’t know what it’s like,” she said after a while. Her eyes moved to the officer, still talking with Ajay.
“What’s what like?”
“When someone hurts someone in your Pack—”
“Family,” said Carlisle, looking at Adalia. “Humans call them family.”
“When someone hurts someone in your family, it wants … you want to hurt them back,” said Danny, her voice low.
Carlisle made her voice light, felt how brittle it was around the words. “He didn’t hurt me,” she said. “He made me.”
The car rolled through the border gates, the window sliding back up. Ajay turned to say something, looked at the two of them, and closed his mouth.
The man has wisdom. Carlisle turned back to Danny. “It’s old history.”
Danny nodded like she was agreeing. Carlisle couldn’t stand to look at the sympathy in her friend’s eyes, found herself looking at the floor of the Yukon, food wrappers — here’s a trick question: is a Moon Pie food? — and Coke cans on the ground. How do teenagers eat that kind of shit?
“Well,” said Danny, “there’s probably something else we should talk about.”
Thank God. Carlisle turned back to the front. “What is it?”
Danny jerked a thumb outside the truck at the trees on the edge of the road. “We’re in Minnesota,” she said.
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