by Brinda Berry
“Wait a minute. This is suicide. Too many guns.” He shook his head in quick angry movements.
“Can’t wait. Have to—” A bullet splintered wood a foot from his head. He kept his body low as he ran along the brush to get closer. Sweat dripped into his eyes.
Eli Bleeker had exited the vehicle on the other side, previously hidden from Regulus’s view. The gunmen were covering the area with gunfire so Bleeker could sneak from the back to the portal opening.
He had to tag Bleeker before he made it through.
Bleeker bolted toward the portal and Regulus knew it would be close. He abandoned his cover to sprint to the armored truck. A burning sensation pierced his arm and he registered that he’d probably been hit.
He needed to stop him. He’d promised to get this killer who’d tortured Mia. A killer who wanted to use Mia and probably wouldn’t stop.
Regulus lunged for Bleeker and they both breached the portal.
14
Quest
An annoying, pecking sound woke me. I groaned and pulled the heavy quilt over my head. Ta-ping. Ta-ping.
Next, my vibrating cell phone joined the chorus, scuttling on the glass top of my bedside table. The clock read two o’clock. I squinted to read the caller’s name. “Hello.”
“Mia. It’s Arizona.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you awake?”
“Do I sound awake?” I sat up and looked for Biscuit. The realization that I’d never see my dog again suffocated me.
I sat up and put my forehead on my knees. “What did you say?”
“I’m outside your window. I’ve been throwing pine cones at your window for ten minutes.”
“Why are you here?”
“Mia. Wake up. This is important.” Arizona spoke in a rush.
I flung my quilt to the side and got out of bed. He had to be crazy. The temperature had dropped to ten degrees—unheard of for most winters around here. Ice with a layer of fine snow covered every surface.
At first, I couldn’t see him. I turned on my light, stood in the window, and glowered at him waving frantically.
I padded across the hall to Pete’s room and listened. The door was unlocked and the room silent, so I peeked inside.
The bed was empty. An avalanche of panic slid into my stomach and I inhaled sharply. A second later, I saw his duffel bag on the chair and exhaled.
He hadn’t left.
After I tiptoed down the stairs, I disabled our home’s security system and my shoulders drew up tight at the beeping sounds in the quiet.
Arizona didn’t waste time and stepped inside. I motioned for him to follow me to my room. Not turning on any lights, I sat on the bed.
“I’ll pass on being cryogenically preserved. What took you so long? ” He sat beside me without waiting for invitation. Then he leaned over and swept my hair from my forehead.
“Hi.” I gave a don’t-worry smile. “You missed the excitement of me hurling earlier. Seems like everyone else in Whispering Woods witnessed it.”
“Why didn’t you take some of the medicine from my bag? It would have healed your stress. You must have a lot of bruises from the wreck on top of the shock of what’s happened. I brought some with me.”
“No and never.”
“Mia, it’s not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t give you anything that would.”
“I know. It’s your medicine. As in not from earth. There’s something weird about that.”
He took a deep breath, rolling his eyes. “So resistant.” He looked at the clock on my bedside table then back at me. “You dealing with her death?”
I noticed the way he purposely avoided the word mother.“Yeah. I’m OK. I didn’t even know her. She left when I was really young and she didn’t care enough to take me or Pete with her.”
“Right.” The answer came out clipped, hurried.
“Not that I wanted her to take us. Still, I don’t get why Bleeker would kill her. It doesn’t make sense.”
“I agree. Madmen rarely makes sense. Mia—”
“And I worry about how my brother is handling it.
“Right.” Arizona placed his hand on the top mine where it rested on the bed. He lifted his other hand and rubbed his forehead. “I have something important that we need to discuss.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That can’t be good. What’s wrong?”
“Something is very wrong.”
“Is it you and Em?”
“No. I don’t like to ask for help. Actually, Regulus is the only one I depend on. What happened between you two today?”
I sat staring at him. “I don’t know. I said some harsh things.” I hesitated for a minute. “Mean things. I know he’s trying really hard to be nice to me. But he doesn’t have to. I don’t know if he feels some obligation to keep me happy, or if he feels guilty for what happened or—”
“Mia, we’re running out of time.” He was all seriousness with his end-of-the-world face. “Regulus left. He went to the Garden. He’s headed toward Magnum Opus.” His words tumbled out in a hurry.
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s Magnum Opus?”
“We don’t have much time. He’s traveling quickly and we need to stop him. He’s not authorized.”
“Is that a big deal?”
He frowned at me. “I can tell you on the way. For now, I can say that the IIA doesn’t tolerate Enforcers who don’t follow orders.”
“Why is he doing this?”
“He’s gone after Bleeker outside our jurisdiction.” He shook his head. “He’s going to get himself arrested to prove something to you or Pete or…I don’t know. He’s crazy.”
“Arrested? Did you say Pete? What does Pete have to do with this?”
“I called Em and then your brother because I was trying to locate Regulus. Your brother took him with his team to apprehend Bleeker. There was some kind of struggle and Regulus and Bleeker went through the portal.”
I stood, holding my breath. “We’ll stop him. What can I do?”
Arizona took both my hands. “I need your help, for you to be fully committed to getting him back.”
I hesitated, my mind whirling. Arizona’s fear tasted of tart raspberries. Had I ever seen him afraid? I remembered another time. Regulus had been near death from a biological weapon meant to kill me.
“We can follow him. Stop him.” I grabbed his hand and rubbed his wrist to feel the location chip inserted underneath the skin. “You know exactly where he is.”
“Not when he’s off this plane.”
“This plane?”
“I have to be in the same dimension. Or I can’t. He’s gone home.”
Arizona saw a backpack in the corner of the room. He handed it to me and grabbed my free hand. “We’ll be right back. I’ll have you back in an hour.”
He tugged me toward the door.
I pulled back. “Let me talk to my dad and tell him that…that…” I closed my eyes and inhaled, trying to get enough air into my lungs. “He needs to know when I’ll be back. He’s stressed enough as it is. I can’t make him worry.”
“What if I promised you that we’d be back before he notices you’re gone?” He grabbed my new pink cell phone which he quickly slung into the backpack.
“You’re sure?” When he didn’t answer, I took his chin and forced him to make eye contact with me.
“Time is different than you think. It will not be a problem. You have my word.” He gave me that confident smile I expected. The confident one that he hadn’t shown since entering my bedroom. It always worked for him.
Arizona pushed. “I’ve spent too much time explaining this. Decide. Come or I’m leaving without you.” The smile was gone and he slung my backpack onto his shoulder. He rushed to the stairs without looking back.
“I’m coming.”
I watched him go into my kitchen. Cabinets sounded like they were opening and closing while I grabbed my coat from the rack in the entry. Adding gloves and a h
at, I hesitated again and looked toward the kitchen.
Arizona sped around the corner, took a quick look at me, nodded approvingly, and opened the door.
“Come on, my little gatekeeper.”
* * *
“It’s up ahead,” I said, gritting my teeth against a gust of sharp wind that made my skin burn. I pushed the wool scarf closer to my neck and over half my face before I exhaled warm air to thaw my nose. The frozen ground sparkled with a layer of snow and ice.
If not for the buzz I felt in approaching the portal, I would have thought every living thing on earth was asleep. The stillness was deceptive until I looked ahead to the area near our creek and felt the vibrations undulating like heat over a highway.
Arizona didn’t appear to mind the cold like I did. He’d turned up the collar on his ski jacket but didn’t wear gloves.
“You nervous about going through?”
His words were low and I knew he didn’t care if I was nervous or not. He walked at a pace that had me practically running.
“Well, I’m not. I’m trying to not think about it. Talking about it isn’t helping.” I stepped in a hole and recovered with an ungraceful, half-falling lunge.
He never slowed.
“The other time you went through, we were on motorcycles. This time, we aren’t. There are reasons for that and you’ll see soon enough. I don’t have time to explain everything to you, but you do need to keep up. I can’t babysit you.”
“I figured that part out already.” I rolled my eyes. He couldn’t see me, but I didn’t like this side of Arizona. The all-business-boss-Mia-around sort. He was like Regulus plus six cups of coffee. This jittery Arizona needed to chill.
He stopped short of the periphery of the portal. The banded circle of vibrating air emitted a high pitched chorus of sound. He checked his cell phone.
“What are you doing? Checking your Portal Finder app?” I said, expecting an overbearing answer from this new version of Arizona.
The corner of his mouth kicked up in a condescending tilt and he grabbed my hand. “No, I wanted to check the GPS app for the portal location.”
He couldn’t see or feel the portal. Sometimes, I forgot that everyone couldn’t, except for synesthetes. The sounds and tingles along my spine excited me like running after fireflies as a kid. Chasing their glowing bodies had been irresistible.
The fireflies of my youth were long gone and I’d rarely found that thrill in the woods during my teen years. Finding portals had been a surprising escape.
“You could’ve asked.” I shook my head and I stared at the space ahead.
“Yeah, well, I’m not crazy about women drivers.”
“Very funny.”
“Actually, it is.” He nudged me with an elbow. “Ready? Because here we go. Don’t let go of my hand.”
He gripped my hand tighter and yanked forward. It surprised me like a hard sneeze, uncontrollable and sudden.
Inside the portal, my stomach bottomed out. It slammed into my gut again. My lips ached; I’d bitten the bottom one on impact. I ran my fingers along my lips to see if blood wet my mouth. My head throbbed like it had in yesterday’s car wreck.
I forced my eyes open, expecting bright sunlight, burning pain, something, anything, that would match the shock of the moment of entry into this other world.
Instead I looked down to see wet pavement littered with trash. “Same alley?”
“What?” He was genuinely confused at my question.
“Is this the same alley as before? When you and Regulus brought me?”
“Shh…” He pulled me into the shadow of a dumpster.
My entire being ached from yesterday and today hadn’t helped matters. But only inside my head did I protest the manhandling. We slipped from the shadow of the dumpster to hide behind a fire escape platform running down the right side of the building.
A fresh pile of feces sat on the lowest platform beside my head. I fought the gagging that automatically choked me at the stench. Only something newly deposited would steam in the cold, damp, night air.
Arizona pulled his jacket collar up higher to touch his chin. The sound of pounding feet made me jerk my head up. He turned toward me. His wide green eyes and the tiniest movement of his head from left to right warned against speaking.
Men—ten or so—ran with pounding uniformity past the alley, holding translucent, molded shields to their chests. Their headgear looked like hockey masks and they wore tall, black boots.
Once they were gone, Arizona held one finger to his lips and grabbed my hand. He leaned forward and kissed me on the mouth. It was a quick kiss, over before I realized what he intended to do.
“We did it. We’re in.” He gave me that familiar grin I’d seen so often with him. Carefree and happy.
His statement drew my immediate attention. “I didn’t know that getting here was debatable,” I said. Then I remembered the kiss. “And why did you do that?” I rubbed my mouth across my sleeve.
He shrugged. “I was caught up in the moment. You know—the thrill. Sorry about that.”
He wore smug expression and there wasn’t an ounce of sorry in his twinkling eyes.
“You are an adrenaline junkie.” I stated and glanced around. “This doesn’t look like the place we went before,” I said.
“It’s not. I told you where we were going.” He rounded the corner and glanced back to make sure I was right behind him.
“Oh,” I answered as if I knew. He’d said some names that meant nothing to me.
“I’m counting on you to get us out of here. We have two hours before this portal will close.”
“Huh?” The hairs on the back of my neck bristled.
Arizona leaned forward to give me a look that demanded I pay attention then spoke in a clipped voice. “Fact. Portals disappear and new ones open up in Whispering Woods and in every dimension. Fact. You are able to locate the new ones before the IIA can. Fact. This is the reason you’re called the Gatekeeper.”
I mimicked his know-it-all tone. “Fact. This didn’t mean much to me until today and you never told me about the portals here.”
We skimmed the walls like secret agents, walking as quickly as possible without actually breaking into a run. Every building appeared to be a skyscraper, rising to an impossibly dark sky. A searchlight from a rooftop illuminated a swath of building fronts near us.
My breath came in shallow pants. “How much farther? Does your thing…” I pointed at my wrist to indicate the chip. “Does it work now?”
He nodded. “Do I need to slow down?” He stopped to look me full in the face. “Are you sick?” He put his hands on both my shoulders.
“I don’t know. I’m tired from finding out about Biscuit. And the wreck.” My face felt clammy. Saying Biscuit’s name made my chest ache. “And the barfing.”
“Barfing?” The corner of his mouth lifted as if he enjoyed the new vocabulary, something he’d obviously missed in his language training.
I squinted and glared at his question.
“Sorry. I find that word funny. You should take the meds I tried to give you earlier. It will make you feel better. Immediately.”
“I don’t want—”
“Mia. We don’t have time to argue. I’m not sure if it’s stress or a stomach bug, but you need to get better now.”
“Fine.” I held out my hand. He reached into the backpack that hung over his shoulder, the one he’d taken from my room. Removing a box, he carefully opened the lid and took out a thin, blue square, one-half inch in diameter.
I knew the drill.
“Below the tongue. Let it dissolve.”
I nodded and obliged. No burn or taste of chemicals. No zinging through my blood like I’d expected. No high.
“Is Regulus near?” I hoped that Arizona’s implanted sensor chip was singing. This world with its dark streets filled me with dread.
“He’s a couple of miles ahead.” Arizona took a right and we scurried across an intersection. Overhead,
a large metal arch announced the entrance to a district in letters too dark to read. Throngs of people walked in both directions. There were no vehicles and I realized I hadn’t seen one since we’d arrived.
“I’m still woozy, but I think I feel better. Walk faster.” I grabbed the back of his nylon jacket to make sure I didn’t lose him.
The sardine-can feeling progressively worsened as we entered the second block of the district. Heavy darkness pressed on me from the people, from the buildings, from the air.
I could feel the tension vibrating around as Arizona led me forward. A man with a dirty face grabbed my arm and I squealed, jerked back and tried to escape his grasp. Arizona turned and glared at the man. The stranger slumped to the ground and I saw the stunner in Arizona’s hand.
“Don’t let go.” He turned back around, continuing to push his way through the bodies.
A thumping sound penetrated the air and I realized it was the same sound we’d heard in the alley. People yelled and chanted. Arizona moved to the left between buildings. He ran and I could barely keep my grip on his coat. After noticing my struggle, he pivoted and grabbed my hand in a pinching grip.
Again, we hid, but this time behind a large metal box stamped with strange letters and an insignia.
“What is going on?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Nothing. Normal.” He hesitated for a beat too long and I sensed that there was something not quite right with his tone or eyes.
“Why are we hiding?” I inched past the metal box and he yanked me back, hard.
“You aren’t authorized to be here. They can’t identify you without a chip.”
I schooled my expressions so he couldn’t see how scared I’d suddenly become. “The IIA?” The two words came out a little low, but I controlled the shaking I felt inside.
“Actually, the Makers don’t know. I mean, the IIA…they don’t know either. If they find us, they’ll insert your chip. But we’ll be out of here in no time.” His demeanor was serious. Calm. A little too calm.