His punch didn’t knock the guy out as intended, but it did knock him down and stun him, giving Scott the perfect opportunity to bend down, yank up the guy’s shirt and grab the weapon tucked in his waistband. The first guy turned to see what had happened and immediately fumbled for his own gun. Scott beat him to the draw.
He straightened up and held the gun, not as steadily as he would have liked, a few inches from the first guy’s face, but had to back off to keep the fallen man in his limited field of vision. At the back of the alley, he could see Padme suspended halfway up the fence.
“Padme!” he called. “Let’s go!”
As she dropped to the ground, Scott took the first guy’s gun off him and then politely advised the two men to get into the Dumpster. Padme began to run over, but she stopped short and screamed, “Scott, look out!”
The shots rang out one after the other, four in all, each striking him in the back. He just had time to think, The driver of the Hummer, before he lost the ability to think at all.
Chapter Forty-five
The minutes ticked by slowly, not that Bryn had any idea what time it was. Maddy had ordered Dillo to remove Jason’s handcuffs, and three sleeping mats had been brought in, complete with scratchy but warm wool blankets. Mia had gone back out with Maddy to hold vigil over Munnu, or whatever his real name was. Jason had wrapped himself up in two of the blankets like a burrito, lying down in a corner of the dungeon away from the bright light so he could sleep. Bryn, probably because she’d been unconscious for the greater part of the morning, was unable to do the same.
She paced for a while, feeling the floor shift slightly as the biopolycrete pipe rocked back and forth with her movements, but finally sat, trapped with her own thoughts.
More than once in the last few days she’d wondered why the XIA didn’t just clean out the anthill that was Edgemere. Only when Jason had admitted to contacting his handler, whom she knew to be Shasta, did she figure out what ‘stay the course’ must have meant, and why Edgemere was tolerated. When he’d first appeared in Shasta’s office, Jason was disgruntled about being pulled from his op to babysit her. Then Antonovich had attacked and Jason recognized Munnu’s body. Had he ever really believed that someone else in the FBI was involved? Or had he exploited the situation to get into Maddy’s good graces?
Whatever his motivation for bringing her to Edgemere, it was clear he’d since been working towards his, and the XIA’s, goal, which was to get information on Maddy’s father. And now it all hinged on Scott’s doctor friend being able to pull Munnu through. She was concerned about her own safety if Munnu died, but not overly so. Jason had put Maddy on notice that he’d contacted Shasta. If Maddy killed them, there would be repercussions.
Probably.
Bryn wondered how much of Jason’s motivation Scott had been aware of. Not much, at first anyway, if his reaction in Shasta’s office had been genuine. He’d asked, “Why not me?” when Shasta had assigned Jason to the job. Plus, he’d pegged Jason as a Mad Eye, but hadn’t seemed to know much else about him, or the op he’d been pulled from.
Things would have gone differently if Scott had been assigned to protect her. She thought about the cozy apartment in the silo and liked to think it would have gone much differently, at least until Antonovich showed up. Still, she knew that was just a fantasy. Maybe the reason she’d been so confused about her feelings lately was because she’d been slowly coming around to the realization that Scott didn’t want them to be together. And as much as she’d come to care for him, she had too much self-esteem to keep making herself available to a brick wall. If only she could flip a switch and turn those feelings off.
It might help if she could stop thinking about him, but she was just wondering where he was when the door to the dungeon opened yet again. She expected it to be Maddy with news about Munnu, but was shocked to the core when Padme was escorted in by Dillo. He said, “You girls play nice, hear?” and left.
The moment her surprise faded, Bryn got to her feet and advanced on the smaller woman. Padme took one look at her livid face and began backing away, which only gave Bryn more confidence. She’d never been one to advocate violence, but there were some situations that more than warranted it.
“What are you afraid of, Padme? That I’m going to squeeze a little payback from your skinny little neck?”
Padme folded her hands over her abdomen and said quickly, “I’m pregnant.”
As Padme intended, her words stopped Bryn cold - and also sent a cold wave of dread running through her.
Pregnant? With whose child?
As if anticipating Bryn’s reaction, Padme added slyly, “And it’s not Lupus’ either.”
I’m being played, Bryn thought, and shrugged off the moment of indecisiveness. “Well, I’m sure he’s glad he dodged that bullet. And don’t try to tell me it’s Scott’s. You’re not going to manipulate me.”
“It isn’t Scott’s, but he didn’t care. He was trying to save me. We were going to leave together until-” her breath hitched in her throat and she looked around the dungeon like an animal caught in a trap.
Padme’s large brown eyes shone with tears, actual tears, not the crocodile kind Bryn would have expected from her. Inwardly, Bryn cursed herself for being a softie. She wanted nothing more than to disabuse Padme of the notion that Scott was really her knight in shining armor, but the words wouldn’t form. She knew what it felt like to be used. She glanced over at Jason, who’d awakened and was sitting there impassively watching.
She sniffed and crossed her arms, asking Padme, “Where is he?”
The tears in Padme’s eyes spilled over as she shook her head, lips parted and quivering. “Gone.”
It occurred to Bryn that she’d said, ‘didn’t care’ and ‘was trying,’ as if talking about him in the past tense. Somewhere deep inside her, Bryn already knew, but she said, “What do you mean, gone?”
In her peripheral vision, she saw Jason stand and move towards her.
“Padme?” she urged in an exaggeratedly patient tone. “What did you mean?”
“They shot him.”
Bryn sucked her lower lip into her mouth, biting down to keep from screaming at her, calling her a filthy liar. She felt Jason’s hands on her upper arms, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.
Jason asked, “Who shot him?”
“The men in the Hummer. Then they brought me here.”
“He’s not dead,” Bryn said.
Padme’s tearstained face looked haunted. “They shot him four times. In the back.”
“He had a vest on,” Jason said, running his hands up and down Bryn’s arms. “I felt it on the beach.”
Dillo’s voice came from the door. “We took it off him.” He looked at Bryn. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” Then he pointed at Padme. “The Mad Eye queen would like a word with you about a certain nanoneuron program.”
After he took Padme away, Bryn broke down, gasping for air as her heart compressed in her chest. Jason tried to pull her into his arms, but even if her quills would allow it, she didn’t want his comfort. She shoved him away, shouting, “No! You...no! Scott wouldn’t be - he wouldn’t be...if it weren’t for you!”
Jason put his fist to his mouth and turned away. Bryn didn’t have anywhere to go. There was no place to hide from her grief. She stood there in the middle of that insane place and sobbed.
Chapter Forty-six
A woman’s voice woke him.
“His vest was gone, but he was still wearing the bullet-resistant shirt and jacket from his earlier op. Whoever did it used a small caliber weapon, fired from some distance away. All four bullets were slowed significantly, only penetrating enough to cause flesh wounds. It’s the head injury - and his eyesight, actually - that has the doctor worried.”
Scott’s vision was blurry, but he recognized Shasta’s general shape and her voice. He didn’t see anyone else in the room and couldn’t figure out who she was talking to. Then she turned and he saw the light
from the holophone in her hand.
“Hold on,” she said, leaning over and peering into his face. “Agent Harding? Are you awake?”
He wondered why she couldn’t seem to tell if his eyes were open, and then realized it was because only one of his eyes was capable of opening. He lifted a hand and found half of his head swaddled in bandages. A tube was taped to his arm and connected to a bag on a pole.
“He’s conscious. I’ll call you back.” Shasta closed her holophone and got right to business, snapping, “Report, agent.”
“Um...” he knew he needed to tell her something, but couldn’t seem to recall what.
Another person came up alongside his bed on the other side. A man’s voice said, “He’s in no shape for you to be grilling him.” A light appeared, lancing into his eye, and then the man asked, “How many fingers am I holding up?”
Scott blinked, trying to focus. “Those are fingers?”
“Alright...ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Ma’am? I’m no ma’am, Scott thought before it got quiet again and he drifted off. Sometime later, he woke again, and this time his first thought was for Bryn. Was she safe?
His vision was still blurry and it was dark, but he knew he was in a hospital room. He’d been shot - again. And Padme had been taken. He tried to sit up, but realized that was a mistake as shooting pain radiated from his back. His next move was to turn his head in search of a call button, but that, too, sparked pain.
“Hey,” he called, realizing as he did it that his voice sounded weak. “Someone!”
No one responded. He lay there feeling frustrated, but it didn’t last long. He sighed and let his exhaustion and whatever drugs they’d given him pull him back under.
Chapter Forty-seven
After the storm came the numbness. Bryn sat on one of the sleeping mats staring at nothing. Every once in a while, she’d think of something Scott had said or done and the tears would trail down her face. They sent in some food and actual water, but she was too wrung out to eat. Jason came over to coax her into at least drinking, so she took a few sips to get him to leave her alone.
At some point, she lay down. The mat didn’t do much to alleviate the hardness of the metal flooring, and the blanket smelled like dog. She slept fitfully, longing to be home.
In what she thought of as ‘morning,’ but could in actuality be any time of day, the door opened and Dillo ushered Mia inside. He seemed solicitous of her, which gave Bryn hope that their ordeal was about to end, but he just left without saying a word. Mia’s head drooped and she seemed to be having difficulty keeping her eyes open. She headed straight for the remaining mat and sat on it.
Jason got up and brought her a blanket, draping it over her shoulders. “How is he?”
She looked up at him, eyes eloquent. “Dead. They all are.”
Bryn felt like someone had punched her. She’d convinced herself that everything would be alright, and now their last hope had been snatched away.
“How did Maddy take it?” he asked.
“Hard.”
He didn’t probe further, and Bryn thought why bother asking anything else? Scott was dead and they were next.
“She went to bed,” Mia said. “But I heard her tell Dillo to give the order for everyone to evacuate Edgemere.”
A muscle in Jason’s jaw jerked.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Bryn asked.
He exhaled slowly, the air passing over his clenched teeth with a slight hiss. “She’s going to disappear.”
Bryn closed her eyes. “And so will we.”
Chapter Forty-eight
“You were very, very lucky, young man.”
Scott’s doctor had round cheeks, a deep cleft in his chin, and his breath smelled like bacon. Those were the things Scott noticed most, as the doc got up close and personal in order to examine his eye.
“And not just because those bullets did as little damage as they did. You should have gotten immediate medical attention for this eye, but it appears you won’t lose your sight. You’re not going to be pretty while it’s healing, but you get to wear a cool eye patch.”
What, is this guy a pediatrician?
The doc spouted more blah blah blah, but Scott tuned most of it out. His injuries weren’t life threatening and he wouldn’t be blind, end of story. There were only two things he wanted to know, and the doc could only answer one of them.
“How long ‘til I’m out of here?”
“I’d like to keep you another night for observation.”
“But that’s not necessary? I mean, if I wanted to leave, you couldn’t hold me?”
From behind the privacy curtain, he heard Shasta’s voice, “You’re no good to me all banged up like that, Agent Harding. Just listen to the man in the white coat.”
The doc leaned in and said quietly with his bacon breath, “I’d do what that one says if I were you. She scares me.”
Scott impatiently suffered through the rest of the exam. When he and Shasta were finally alone, he asked, “Where’s Bryn?”
With a negative twitch of her head, she said, “Edgemere, last I heard. I had intel from Alton that his op might come together after all.”
“Alton’s been compromised. Maddy Singh knows he’s not who he seems. He and Bryn are under house arrest. I made a deal with Maddy to get them released, but she double-crossed me. Have you heard from Mia? Uh, Dr. Padilla?”
Shasta took in his rush of words with one eyebrow raised high. “I’ve been leaving messages for Dr. Padilla, but she hasn’t contacted me. Why? No, wait. I have urgent business to attend to regarding a certain riot that has gotten out of hand, not to mention I’m late joining Deputy Director Unger in explaining the typhoid situation to the mayor. So please update me, from the beginning and as quickly and succinctly as possible, as to how you ended up in that alley looking like a sieve.”
Scott gave her the short version of events, answering her questions as she fired them at him. When he’d finished, she stared at him like he was an alien who’d offended her deeply.
“Well, congratulations, agent. I’m not often at a loss for words, but I don’t think the proper words exist to describe how messed up that op was.” She sighed.
Scott felt like a complete failure. “I know what you’re thinking. I should have found a way to contact you.”
“That would have been nice,” she said with only a trace of sarcasm, “but it sounds as if Maddy Singh made sure you wouldn’t risk it. I’m not certain things are as bleak as you painted them, though. I had to sell my soul to the FBI, but it’s given Alton an ace in the hole; he has something Maddy desperately needs. But Dr. Padilla’s involvement complicates things and the timing couldn’t be worse. Half my agents are here in the hospital and most of the department is out dealing with the riots. Alton’s going to have to pull it out. We don’t have the manpower at the moment for a rescue attempt at Edgemere.”
“They lost a lot of people at Coney Island. It wouldn’t be that hard.”
“Maddy’s men didn’t harm you when they took Mia, and I suspect they wouldn’t have shot you when they took Padme if you hadn’t resisted. I don’t think Maddy plans to kill anyone. Assuming she knows by now Alton is a federal agent, it would be a very bad move on her part.”
“She was willing to start a war just to get her hands on Lupus.”
“And now she’s got someone even better. Padme would certainly be more useful to us than agent Quinones.”
It had never occurred to him that Shasta might have known Quinones before he became Lupus. “Have you learned anything from him?”
“No. He’s not cooperating.” She stood and looked at her holophone. “I have to go. Do me a favor, agent Harding. I’ve got too many fires to put out. Stay put and don’t start any more.”
Chapter Forty-nine
“I am not going to kill you.” Maddy stood framed in the doorway of the dungeon. “But I’m afraid I can’t let you go just yet.”
She wore a sober black suit, and a delicate pillbox hat, draped with dramatic black netting, was perched on her white-blond hair. Dillo, always the steadfast sidekick, occupied the space to one side of her, while Padme stood somewhat further back, head held high. To Bryn, Padme looked like she belonged there, which didn’t surprise her one bit. If anyone could work the situation to her benefit, it was Padme.
“Cut the crap, Maddy,” Jason said. “If you’re not going to kill us, then let us walk out right now.”
Dillo pulled his long jacket aside and revealed a pistol resting in the holster on his hip. “Recognize this?” he asked. “I’m loving your gun. Don’t make me shoot you with it.”
“Boys, boys,” Maddy said, before taking a breath and addressing Jason. “I wish I could let you go, Dragila, dear, but I’m going to need a head start on you since Munnu’s death rather negates our deal. It’s patently obvious you and - the XIA I presume? We never clarified that - were merely tolerating my existence as a means to an end, but even the XIA won’t be able to overlook the little matter of my driver having to shoot that other agent. In the end, it seems prudent to move my operations somewhere less, I don’t know, blatant. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for all your...contributions.”
She glanced proudly back at Padme. “I think things are going to work out just fine.”
Jason held his hands out. “I’m sorry about Munnu, Maddy, really I am, but come on. You hate your father. Make the deal, get payback, and you don’t have to leave. Win-win, right?”
Xenofreak Nation, Book Two: Mad Eye Page 20