The ride to Aggie’s house was interminable in the rush hour traffic from Westfield into the city, but Emma didn’t want to get pulled over right now. She had too many other things to deal with at the moment. Along the way she thought of what she would do next. Dr. Pavelski had said the test was only preliminary, but Emma knew in her heart—or at least she wanted to believe—that it was accurate, that Louise was alive.
The only thing to do would be to go to Russia and find her. Bykov wouldn’t give Louise up willingly, she knew that much. She would have to take her daughter back, by whatever force was necessary. On this she knew Emma Earl and the Scarlet Knight were in agreement.
She was surprised to find the front door to Aggie’s house shut. Usually when she came over with big news Aggie would wait for her on the front steps. This time she found the ground floor of the house silent and dark. “Hello?” she called out.
In response she heard Renee cry from upstairs. Emma was halfway up the stairs when she heard a door open. The same time she reached the top of the steps, Akako came out of Renee’s room, the baby pressed against her chest to suckle. Akako’s eyes widened as she saw Emma. “Oh, I didn’t hear you come in,” Akako said.
“Is Aggie home?”
“She’s in the guest bedroom. With Cecelia.”
“Cecelia?”
“I think you should talk to Agnes about that.”
“Oh, sure. Thanks.”
Emma knew the guest bedroom well; she had lived in it for a couple of weeks after she’d been evicted from her apartment nearly five years ago. The décor of the room remained the same, but at the moment Cecelia occupied the bed. She slept while Aggie sat at her bedside and flipped idly through a magazine. The witch looked up at her with the same surprise as Akako.
“Sorry, dear, I didn’t realize you were coming.”
“What’s going on here?” Emma asked. From the look of the black eye on Cecelia’s face the former assassin had been in some kind of a fight. Emma felt a tickle of happiness at this. She knew it was irrational to blame Cecelia for what had happened to Louise, but sometimes she couldn’t help it. If Cecelia hadn’t come after her, hadn’t driven her to the archives and then into the vault, where the rogue spell had transported her to the future, she might not have gone into labor well over a month early.
“I’m not exactly sure. She showed up at Renee’s party last night looking the worse for wear. I gave her a restoration potion.” Aggie put down the magazine and shrugged. “She actually looks much better than she did last night.”
“What does she want?”
“She didn’t say. She only said she wanted my help.”
“Oh.” Emma watched Cecelia sleep for a moment and noted that even when unconscious the former assassin looked ready to spring like a jungle cat. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
“Certainly, dear.”
They went down to the kitchen, where Akako had already put on a pot of tea to boil. She sat at the table and rocked Renee gently while the baby fed from her breast. Aggie shook her head. “I thought you were trying to wean her,” Aggie said.
“She doesn’t like the formula.”
“At this rate she’ll still be sucking from your teat when she’s seventeen.”
Akako didn’t say anything to this; she continued to rock Renee and stroke her hair. Emma took a seat on the opposite side of the table and wondered if perhaps she should have called first. As if she sensed the tension in the room, Aggie put a hand on Akako’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, dear. I need to get some sleep.”
“I would have looked after Cecelia if you’d asked.”
“You have your hands full already.” Aggie shuffled over to the teapot, which had begun to whistle. “But Emma didn’t come here to listen to our domestic squabbles. Did you, dear?”
“No, I guess not.” In a way, she didn’t mind watching Aggie, Renee, and Akako. She wished she, Jim, and Louise could be a family like that. Maybe now they could. “I met an old friend today.”
“Who’s that?” Aggie asked as she poured three cups of tea and laid out some almond cookies. “Someone from school?”
“No. A friend from Russia.”
Aggie straightened as if someone had shocked her. “Oh, I see. And what did this friend tell you?”
“She said that Louise is alive.”
Renee began to cry as Akako’s hands went slack; she nearly dropped the baby to the floor. Aggie barely held on to the teapot; she sloshed some of the liquid over the side of Emma’s cup. “Are you sure, dear?”
“I’m pretty sure. I had Dr. Pavelski run a DNA test.” She didn’t elaborate on the mechanics of getting the material to test. “She says it’s very likely the child we buried isn’t Louise.”
“Why would anyone kidnap Louise?” Akako asked. She had not been in this universe when Emma first met Bykov; she had arrived from a parallel world after Emma’s first ill-fated trip overseas.
“He’s a Russian gangster I worked for briefly, not knowing what he was of course. Katarina said he wants to groom Louise for a spot in his organization.”
Aggie sat down next to Emma but didn’t do more than look at her tea. “And you want to go and find her.”
“I have to.” Emma looked up towards the ceiling, where Cecelia slept. “Do you think you can handle things for a little while?”
“Of course we can, dear.”
“It’s just that with Don Vendetta in jail things are going to get ugly. And whatever Cecelia wants—”
“Don’t be silly. If there’s any hope at all your daughter is alive, you have to go.”
Akako nodded to second this. “You’re her mother,” she said as if this summed everything up. The way she rocked Renee and cooed softly to her was the way Emma wished she could have with Louise. She knew then there was really no decision to be made.
“I need to get over to Russia. Fast. I thought maybe I could borrow Akako’s flying carpet.”
Aggie and Akako traded a glance before they both nodded. “That’s fine, dear. I can always make another one if we need it.”
Emma leaned across the table to give Aggie a hug. “Thank you so much.”
“It’s my pleasure, dear.”
Emma gave Akako a careful hug and then squatted down to look Renee in the eye. “When I get back I’m going to have a new friend for you to play with. Would you like that?”
“Yes,” the baby said.
Emma nodded and then patted the girl’s head. She hoped if she did manage to get Louise back, her daughter and Renee could be friends, as she’d seen in the future. That was if she could find Louise and bring her back.
“I’ll be back in a bit. I have to make a stop first,” she said.
“Take all the time you need, dear.”
Emma left Aggie’s family huddled around the kitchen table and paused for a moment to imagine herself, Jim, and Louise in their place. Then she sighed and ran out to her bike.
***
Dr. Richman would probably think she was certifiably insane if she explained that the sewers were the only place where she felt normal anymore. This had nothing to do with the darkness, the seclusion, or especially the smell of the place. It was because Jim lived down in the sewers.
As she always did after she climbed down into the sewers, she left a message with the first of his scouts she ran into. She sat down on a fairly dry patch of cement to the side of the sewage pipe to wait for him. Depending on where he was it might take minutes or even an hour to meet with her. Sometimes she brought a flashlight to read or caught up on messages on her BlackBerry. This time she was much too nervous to do anything but sit there and drum her fingers on her knees.
Footsteps splashed through the sewage to announce Jim’s approach. Another friend arrived first, a three-foot-long rat with a silver stripe along his back. The stripe had become less noticeable in the last two years as the rest of the rat’s fur had begun to turn gray at a much slower pace than her hair had turned white.
The rat she’
d named Pepe because of his stripe nuzzled her hand like a pet. “You keeping out of trouble?” she asked in ratspeak. He indicated an affirmative to this. She stroked his gray fur and wondered how much longer he would be around; nine years was positively ancient for a rat, especially in the wild world of the sewers. Pepe told her about the latest litter in his tribe, who were his great-great-great-grandchildren. Sometimes it pained Emma to think Pepe could so easily have generations of children while she had been denied one child—or so she had thought.
Jim finally came into view, as always clad in his long coat made from the skins of dead rats. That, along with the tangled hair and pointed nose Louise had inherited from him always gave him a rat-like appearance. At first this had frightened her to the point where she’d sprayed him with air freshener, but later, as she came to know the man inside, she came to love it.
She didn’t wait for him to reach her; she got to her feet and raced over to him. She threw her arms around him and then kissed him almost violently on the lips. If Dr. Richman, Becky, or anyone else saw the way she kissed Jim they would probably stop worrying about her so much.
Their lips pulled apart, but they remained in each other’s arms. With her workload on the surface and his work down here to keep the various rat tribes from fighting each other, they rarely managed to find time to be together. Emma had long since reconciled herself to the fact they wouldn’t have a “normal” life, no matter how much she daydreamed about it, but she wished she could see him a little more often.
“I have something important to tell you,” she said.
“Good news?” he asked.
“Very good news. The best news.”
“What is it?”
Emma took a deep breath. “I think Louise is alive.”
“Alive? You say she die.”
“I thought she did, but I met with a friend who said someone kidnapped her. They took her to Russia.”
“That far from here?”
“Yes, very far. I have to leave tonight to find her and bring her back.”
“You not go alone,” Jim said. “I go.”
“No, Jim, you can’t. It’s too dangerous.”
“No care. She my daughter.”
“I know, but—”
“Then I go.”
“What about things down here? Who will look after the sewers while you’re gone?”
Jim nodded to where Pepe watched them. “Him.”
She finally pulled away from Jim and turned to look down at the sewage that sloshed over her shoes. “I don’t want to lose you too,” she said.
She felt his hand on her shoulder and gently massaged her tired muscles. “You not lose me. Or Louise. And we not lose you.”
A debate raged within her mind. She knew Jim had every right to go with her; he was Louise’s father after all. Still, she didn’t want to risk something might happen to him, so that she might gain a daughter only to lose the man she loved. Then the Scarlet Knight part of her brain chimed in that she would work better alone, without a civilian along whom she would have to protect.
When she turned back around, she decided to open up with her big guns. “Before she was born you said you didn’t want to see her.”
He only smiled slightly at this. “I change mind.”
She smiled back. Jim’s honest, completely uncomplicated nature was one of the things she loved about him. The rest of her life was so overly complicated that it was refreshing to deal with someone who didn’t lie or play games. And she in turn didn’t lie to him if she could help it. “We’re going to fly there. I don’t think you’ll like it.”
He took her hands and gave them a squeeze. “I not care if it mean we get her back.”
In that they were in agreement. She turned to face Pepe. “Looks like you got a promotion,” she said to him. The rat squeaked his approval at this and then wished them luck. “Thanks.”
They would need it.
***
It didn’t surprise Emma to find Becky at the house. As she came up the front steps, Becky ran up to her and crushed her in a hug. “Oh my God, kid, I’m so happy for you,” Becky said. She must have sensed Emma’s discomfort as she pulled back from the hug. “Are you really sure?”
“Dr. Pavelski ran a preliminary DNA test. The girl you buried isn’t her.”
“So who is it that we buried?”
“I’m not sure. We might never know.”
“Holy shit.” Becky shook her head. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she must have noticed Jim for the first time by the motorcycle. “What’s he doing here?”
“He’s going with me.”
“Why?”
“He’s Louise’s father. He wants to help.”
“I’m not sure what good he’s going to do unless she’s in a sewer.”
Whenever Becky spoke about Jim like this, Emma reminded herself that Becky had been skeptical of Dan at first too and now she was dating him. This was an extension of Becky’s need to mother Emma, to try to protect her, something that had become harder and harder to do over the last nine years. “It’s his choice,” Emma said.
“I guess.”
“I came to freshen up and pack a few things.”
“Pack? I didn’t think that carpet had much room for cargo.”
“I’m sure we can manage something.” Emma went back over to the bike, where Jim stood. “You can come in to wait.”
“Your friend not like me.”
“Becky likes you fine. She’s a little overprotective when it comes to my boyfriends.”
“I you boyfriend?”
“Well, you are my friend and you are a boy.” She smiled back at him and then leaned forward to kiss him. It wasn’t a very long kiss as she could sense Becky glaring at her. She took Jim’s hand to lead him inside. “I’ll be a few minutes.”
“You want anything to eat? I got some cheese in the fridge,” Becky said.
“Becky—”
“I thought that’s what rats ate.”
“Not much cheese in sewers,” Jim said.
“I’m sure Jim wouldn’t mind a cup of tea and some crackers,” Emma said. She shot Becky a dirty look.
“Sure. I think we can manage that.”
Upstairs, Emma took a shower; it might be her last one for quite some time. It wasn’t likely she and Jim would stop at any motels along the way to Russia or while they were there. It might be nice if she found Louise if she didn’t smell like sewage and a corpse.
She stood in front of the mirror and tried to see herself the way Louise would. She combed as many tangles out of her hair as she could and then pulled it into a tight ponytail so it wouldn’t get too disheveled on the flight over. Then she closed her eyes and tried to imagine Louise running into her arms to cling to her the way Renee clung to Akako. Mostly, in spite of her talk with Dr. Richman, she imagined Louise would recoil in horror at the sight of her.
She forced herself to turn away from the mirror and go into the bedroom to change. For a full minute she stood in front of the closet to find an outfit that would seem welcoming and motherly. In the end she decided to go with something practical—a sweater and jeans. She dug out her heaviest coat to wear over this. The weather in Russia would undoubtedly be colder than Rampart City.
Once she’d dressed, she stuffed some extra clothes into a duffel bag. She stared at the bag for another minute and wondered what size clothes Louise wore. From what she remembered of Louise in the future, her daughter was shorter, closer to her father’s height than Emma’s. She also had a tendency to dress as a bit of a tomboy; she favored blouses and slacks over dresses. But that Louise didn’t exist—at least not yet. It pained Emma to think she had no idea what her daughter was like.
“You OK?” Jim asked.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I was thinking about her.”
“I think of her too.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I wonder what she like. If she like me.”
“I was thinking the same thing.�
� Emma sat down on the edge of the bed and stared down at the floor. “Do you think she’ll hate us?”
“No. We her parents. We love her.”
The conviction in Jim’s voice was enough to make Emma smile. He was far more certain about this than she was. “I hope you’re right.”
They kissed again and while Emma wanted it to go farther than that, she knew they couldn’t, not right now. They kept the kiss as short as the one outside and then Jim helped her to her feet and took the bag for her. Becky waited for them in the hallway with another duffel bag. “I put some of Steve’s old clothes in there. I thought you might need them,” she said. She held out the peace offering to Jim.
“Thank you,” Jim said.
Becky managed to kiss Jim without her nose crinkling from his smell. Before she let him go, she hissed, “You make sure they both get back.”
“I will,” he said and once again his conviction was enough to convince Emma. She gave her best friend a hug; Becky held on to her much longer than Jim. She knew Becky thought this might be the last time they got the chance to hug.
“Be careful, kid.”
“I will.”
“And bring my niece back safe.”
“We will.”
Then she took Jim’s hand and they went downstairs to head for Aggie’s house and the carpet that would take them to find their daughter.
Part 2
Chapter 8
The first time Emma rode on the magic carpet Aggie had created for Akako to use to shuttle between Rampart City and the archives in Ireland she had been six months pregnant and spent most of her time throwing up over the side. This time she sat calmly at the front of the carpet while Jim shivered and turned green. He had yet to vomit, but Emma supposed it was only a matter of time.
She had known Jim wouldn’t enjoy the ride. He became nervous if he went two feet above the sewers, let alone almost a mile above them. When they had first arrived at Aggie’s and she had led them upstairs to where the carpet waited, Jim had stared at it for a moment in disbelief. “We ride this?” he asked.
“It’s perfectly safe,” Emma, Aggie, and Akako said in unison. Emma said this again as they soared above the Atlantic Ocean, the lights of Rampart City no longer visible. Jim nodded but didn’t say anything; she imagined he was trying to keep what little food he’d eaten in his body.
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 113