“Wait, what do you mean I can give up my power?” I asked again.
“We’ll talk another time, Rune. Come, Mayor, time to tell the world how foolish their elected representative is.”
Chapter 18
Wednesday 14:40
Pete and I were just ahead of Harriet and Nathan as we trailed up toward Ten-two. Noah and Persia had fallen behind, talking animatedly about something. Without the Lincolns, we had decided to walk back to Ten-two. Coordinating via Jo, we had joined up with Harriet and Nathan quickly enough, and Lowndes, true to her word, had made no move to stop us. Though we had gotten what we wanted, it didn’t feel like a victory. Pete had begun the walk back in an excited mood, wanting to talk about everything that had happened, but the moroseness of everyone else had dulled his jubilation before long.
When Pete and I stepped into the living room, we were surprised to see someone sitting on the couch, facing away from us.
Pete jumped in front of me. “Tyler…” he began, then stopped. “Oh, it’s you.”
The figure turned, and we could both see it was Alex. “Well, this morning was a disaster,” Alex said.
“Good to see you.” I gave him a nod. Then I nudged Pete. “I thought you didn’t care that Tyler was gone,” I said, mainly to avoid looking at Alex.
I wasn’t sure how to react to his presence. Once we had been so close, but out relationship had become so cold that repairing the damage seemed impossible. On the other hand, Jo and I had regained some of our former closeness.
Pete, ignoring my jibe about Tyler, sat on the couch opposite Alex. “What brings you back to Ten-two?”
“I came to help. Lord knows you need it.” Alex wore a white shirt, no tie, black sports jacket. He had previously tended to look too young for the way he dressed, but not now. Thin, gaunt, with a zero blade haircut, he looked much older than his seventeen years. His features displayed not an iota of a smile or humor.
“And why would we need your help, Collier?” Nathan growled. “What use have you ever been to anyone?” He and Harriet had just entered, and they moved around to take up position behind the couch on which Pete sat, facing Alex.
Alex smiled. “Just because I can’t turn into a smelly bear doesn’t make me useless. The world has need of smarts as well as brawn.”
“If only you were a quarter as smart as you thought you were,” Nathan said. “Then you might be useful enough to be worth the trouble of putting up with an obnoxious brat.”
“Why do you think Ashley needed me as project manager for the prison, when she had a menagerie of friends she could have used instead?” Alex asked.
“Where did you disappear to?” Harriet asked. “The prison was barely complete when you were nowhere to be found.”
“I needed a vacation,” Alex said. “I didn’t change my phone number. I could have been found if I was needed.”
“You weren’t needed,” Nathan said. “And still aren’t.”
“Giving up the mayor was stupid. He was your only leverage. Now Lowndes will never hand you the prison.”
“You saw a segment on TV, and you think you are an expert on the topic,” Nathan said. “Why am I not surprised.”
“We never actually kidnapped Mayor Maxwell,” I said. “Persia just got a bit hot-headed. Twice. He was never ours to hold. Plus, Lowndes agreed to everything we asked for on live TV.” We’d all left before the interview, but we had paused briefly at a sports bar to watch it. Half the city had dropped into bars, it seemed, to watch the world change on live TV. And most weren’t just watching. I doubted the bars had ever sold that much alcohol that early in the day. “The situation couldn’t have gone better for us.”
Alex studied Harriet. “Surely you’re not as naive as Rune?”
Harriet shrugged. “I realize the risks. We have no choice. Getting back control of the prison is essential.”
“Lowndes is planning on taking her men to Chicago or Miami so she can start a new reign of terror,” I said.
“We will take every precaution,” Harriet said. “I’ll have eagle shifters flying overhead, making sure that no ambush or anything is planned. We haven’t agreed on the details with Lowndes yet, but the transfer won’t go ahead unless her officers leaving the prison are unarmed. Without titanium weapons, they won’t be able to do much against us. I won’t have as many men as I’d like, but I’ll manage to get a dozen or two. That should be enough.”
“It won’t be enough,” Alex said. “Give me a few men so I can react if something goes wrong.”
“Just who do you think you are?” Nathan asked, moving forward to loom over Alex. “You disappear without a word, then come swanning back in and expect to lead our men?”
Alex, though a fraction of Nathan’s size, wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. “Yes, and you know why. It’s called stepping up when something needs to be done. That’s what a leader does. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? You only know how to follow orders. You wouldn’t shake after pissing unless explicitly ordered to.”
Nathan growled, pushing his forehead against Alex’s.
Harriet stepped in. “Nathan, that’s enough.”
As Nathan backed away, Alex’s smug smile caused Nathan to jerk forward once again. With effort, he controlled himself, then stalked out of the room.
“I’ve never seen Nathan angry before,” I said. He wasn’t the emotional type, more suited to the cold foreboding look of an ancient castle.
“I can get under people’s skin,” Alex said. “Call it a gift.”
“Yes. A gift,” Harriet said in a droll voice. “You mentioned an alternative plan. That would be what exactly?”
“Send a small team to break into the prison,” Alex said.
“To what end?” she asked.
“Organize a mass breakout,” Alex said. “You need to get all those shades illegally locked up to be released, don’t you? It certainly appears so if you’re only capable of recruiting two dozen for an important job.”
“No one wants all of them released,” Harriet said. “The prisoners include Dennis, a kid who murdered a family just to experience killing. Also in the JC is Sam Williams who…. Well, you know what he did.”
My head sank to my chest. Sam Williams was the wolf shifter who had planned to kill Alex and Jo’s parents. I had put the blame on him but, in fighting him off, it had actually been me who started the fire which had killed the Colliers.
“I have been forced to forgive others for what happened that night,” Alex said. “Why not him too?”
My stomach tightened into a knot. The way he said ‘forced to forgive’ told me he hadn’t forgiven, not really, and I couldn’t blame him. I hadn’t lost my parents that night, and I couldn’t forgive myself.
“I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned him,” Harriet said, glancing at me, then back at Alex. “But you can’t mean that you’ll be happy for your parents’ murderer to be freed along with other criminals who deserve to be in prison. No, as well as being wrong thing to do, shades have received enough deserved bad press due to the firedrakes. We need to be trusted.”
“That’s never going to happen. Have you watched the news lately? Fearmongering has been perfected to an art form,” Alex said. “Plus, what about the experiments being carried out in the restricted area? Aren’t you curious about what’s going on there. Don’t you need to know what she’s doing before Lowndes comes out with a new weapon against you?”
“It’s only rumors that anything—”
“Rumors. Really? You’ve heard enough to know something’s going on.”
“There is,” Harriet admitted. “But we don’t know enough to speculate on what it might be.”
“Yet people do speculate. Are they discovering the secret to removing elementals from shades? Or maybe they know how to sever the link to Brimstone.”
I looked up. Was severing the link to Brimstone possible? Was that what Lowndes was referring to earlier when she suggested I could giv
e up my power?
“It’s true I’d love to know what Lowndes has Doctor Kressan doing in the bowels of that prison,” Harriet said. “But we built it right. It’s nearly impossible to break in without serious manpower and planning.”
“Doctor Kressan is at the JC? I didn’t know that,” I said. “Does she have the fire summoning crystal?”
“Probably,” Alex said. “Since you let her just take it last year, damn fool that you were.” He focused back on Harriet. “The prison isn’t so hard to break in for those who know its secrets.”
“Secrets.” Harriet’s eyes narrowed. “You set up a secret entrance, didn’t you? Without telling me.”
Alex nodded. “I wasn’t sure you’d go for the idea.”
“I was your boss.” Harriet’s voice was low but with a dangerous edge to it. “If you knew I wouldn’t go for it, then it shouldn’t have been built.”
“You were in charge, but I was project manager. I didn’t have to burden you with every detail.” Alex shrugged. “It wasn’t a matter of hiding it from you. Just telling you at the correct time. Which would be now.”
“That’s bullshit.” Harriet walked around the couch to stand closer to Alex. “Are you this unconcerned because you don’t realize what a betrayal this was or because you just don’t care? I’ve done nothing but help you from the first.”
“I did nothing wrong except for showing some foresight.” Alex turned away from her toward me. “So what about you, Rune? You’re your man, right? Will you follow Harriet like her lapbear, or will you help me break in.”
“Neither,” I said.
“Neither?” Alex asked. Harriet didn’t react to my response; she continued to glare at Alex in silent fury.
“It was a mistake helping today. And by being reckless, Pete could easily have died.”
On the couch, Pete straightened out of his slumped position. “Dude, I had that. Expert driver, like me, I was never in danger.”
“We got lucky. And I’m sick of following half-baked crazy-ass plans that put everyone in risk for no good reason.” With that, I walked out of the living room and straight out the main door. Noah and Persia, with their arms linked around their shoulders, were whispering to each other as they came up the path. Noah, seeing me, started to say something. I ignored him, skipping around both of them and continuing down the street without looking back.
It was only when I was two blocks away from Ten-two that I figured out where I was going.
Chapter 19
Wednesday 16:10
When I reached Danny’s house, I stood in the porch for a long moment before finally pressing the doorbell. No answer. I knocked, then tried the doorbell again. Nothing. I scowled at the door, then moved around to the side of the house, knowing that—as a trucker who often spent several days on the road—he was as likely to be in a different state as to be at home. The white-painted side gate was ajar, though, so I pushed it open and walked into the back yard. I heard a bang, hesitated, then continued forward. “Danny. Danny, you there?”
“Who is it?” Danny emerged from a shed that leaned against the back wall of his property, rubbing his hands on a rag. Beside him, with the bonnet open, was a sky-blue pickup truck. “Rune, how did you know to come?” Danny patted the roof of the cab. “I never told you I finalized the sale.”
“You bought this for me?” When I’d mentioned I was interested in buying something suitable for off-road, Danny had insisted on finding it. His network of friends apparently all owned pick-ups or similar. “I didn’t even give you the money.”
“I got a good bargain so I paid already. If you don’t want it—”
“Absolutely I want it. I’ll bring the cash when I get a chance.”
He’d been the driver of a truck I’d been tasked to protect, and we had bonded during the journey, and remained in contact since. Knowing about my abilities never seemed to matter to Danny—I liked that I felt normal around him. He was in his fifties and overweight, though he didn’t look fat because he had a frame that held the weight well. A white handlebar mustache flopped over his mouth. His skin had the coarse rubbery look of outdoorsy men the world over.
“Why didn’t you tell me you bought it?”
“I wanted to fix it up before showing you,” Danny said. “But now you’re here, you might as well help. Are you any good with… no, I’m not letting you near the engine. I just have to finish replacing the timing belt and putting everything back together, and it’ll be done. One of these panels needs to be treated for rust, though. How are you with simple tasks?”
“I’ll give anything a go.”
“Start here.” Danny handed over a wire brush, showing me the rusted area.
He then picked up a spanner and stuck his head under the bonnet. “I said I’d get you a good warhorse, and that’s what this truck is. I know the guy who owned it before, and he took pretty good care of it. He just didn’t take care of the little things, you know, and those build up. That’s why I want to give it a good makeover before handing it to you. Treat it right, and it’ll treat you right. Same for everything really. Marriage, for instance. My wife chided me for being unromantic, and I guess she was right; she usually was. Never once bought her flowers or chocolates. But she knew I was there for her one million percent, and she was there for me. That matters more than silly romantic gestures. What’s stronger than steel?”
“Spiderwebs.”
“We were tied together by bonds as strong as spiderwebs.” He laughed. “That doesn’t sound right. Doesn’t matter though. If I ever said something poetic, she’d faint in shock.”
It was a quirk of Danny’s that he talked about his wife often, sometimes as if she was still around, even though she had passed away over a decade ago. It was his way of keeping her alive in his heart. He rarely brought her up directly; he’d just mention her when a subject touched a memory of her, which it did more often than not. It was endearing in a rather morbid way.
I got to work on the rust spots with the wire brush. A fine copper dust began to fall, coating my shoes. “Is it okay that I’m scratching up the blue paint?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, that’s fine,” Danny said. “Once the rust is gone, we’ll treat it, then touch up the whole panel.”
I began to scrub in earnest, wondering if finding this here had been a sign. I had some money saved up from when I’d been working long hours on the prison, and at the time I’d asked Danny to keep an eye out for a vehicle, I hadn’t fully decided to leave Lusteer. It had merely been a way of keeping my options open. Now it seemed like the solution to my problems had fallen in my lap. Did I even need to return to Ten-two?
“Listen to me, chatting away about myself without even asking about you,” Danny said. “You’re well, I hope.”
“I’ve been worse.”
“I get very chatty when I haven’t talked to anyone in a while. My wife would be amazed at how much I talk sometimes these days. When she was around, even when I was traveling for weeks at a time, each day I’d be on the phone with her for an age. Lord, I don’t know how we filled the time. Of course, it was all her talking and me listening.” He lifted his head out from under the bonnet. “Hey, what am I thinking Bringing you in here, and putting you straight to work. Where’s my manners; where’s my hospitality? My wife would have clipped me around the ear. Let’s get you inside for tea and biscuits, or, better again, beer and chips.”
“Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to work.”
“Fair enough. If you’re sure.”
“I am. And I’d appreciate a place to sleep for the night if you have it.”
“Of course.” He lowered himself back under the truck. “I must say I like to hear that. About you wanting to work. I’m sure not all young people are lazy, but sometimes it seems like that. There’s a satisfaction in a job well done that’s impossible to get from anything else. Can’t be replicated with a lifetime of video games, social media, youtubing or whatever newfangled thing kids are doing thes
e days. My wife used to say…”
I got into a nice rhythm, rubbing at the rust and listening to Danny reminisce over his wife, ruminate about trucking, and complain about the passage of time. I said a few words here and there, enough for Danny to know I was still listening, but not enough to hold any of the load of the conversation.
I didn’t want to talk, I didn’t want to think—I wanted to wear myself out with good wholesome work, then sleep like the dead.
Chapter 20
Thursday 07:10
Flames roared skyward all around me, and my heart rose joyfully. This time, I knew where I was, and I was delighted to have returned. I’d get to meet her again. “Sash!” I shouted. “Where are you? Are you alive?” I choose a direction and paced forward at speed, no longer having to fear that the flames continued forever.
As I walked, I continued to call for Sash, but I got no reply. When I finally emerged from the flames, I paused to look around. The Shield, Sash had called the wall of flames. The giant wall curved away from me in both directions. The air was a hazy orange, and I couldn’t see far in the distance, but I got the sense that the walls circled all the way around the area upon which I stood, the Oasis. I was on Brimstone, but I had no idea how much of what I saw was a mirror of that world, and how much was purely my imagination, pure dream.
“Sash!” I called again. “Come out to talk to me.”
And this time she did. One moment I was alone, the next she stood in front of me. “It’s you,” I said. “It’s really you.”
“What an inane thing to say,” she replied. “Who else could I be but myself.”
A smile flashed across my face, gone as soon as I re-remembered what had happened to her. “Are you really alive?”
“Of course I’m alive. What’s this, inane question day?”
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