Sidekick

by Auralee Wallace

  Normally, I would have ignored it. When you come from money, people are always trying to hurt you. But there was something about that note.

  Something I couldn’t explain.

  Or maybe it just made it harder to ignore everything else. Like how my father never talked about my mother. Or the fact that there wasn’t a single picture of her anywhere except for a worn snapshot hidden away in the drawer of his bedside table.

  Still, I didn’t do anything about it. Not at first.

  Then one night, on the anniversary of her death, I caught him sitting at the edge of his bed looking at her picture. His eyes were glassy, and the room smelled like Scotch.

  My father never drank.

  The pressure of the moment had been building in me to a point where I could no longer take it.

  “How did she die?”

  People had always said it was an accident but never gave any details.

  He put her picture back in the drawer and shut it. “It doesn’t matter.”

  I knew instantly that I had asked the wrong question.

  “Why did she die?

  His head had snapped up then. He turned those ice blue eyes on me; behind them a deadly monsoon raged.

  “She was disloyal.”

  That was it…three words.

  They were my big secret.

  The reason why I gave up life as I knew it.

  He had killed her. Just like the note had said.

  That night, I packed my things and grabbed all the money I could find. Just as I had made it to the door, he stopped me. He needed to tell me the conditions of my release.

  There had been no last pleas for me to stay. No I’m sorry. No I love you.

  I hadn’t wanted to hear more then.

  I did now.

  “Tell me all of it.”

  For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer. Finally he said, “Maybe it’s time you did know the truth. A real life cautionary tale. You always were too much like her.”

  He paused. I didn’t move. I was terrified to hear what he was about to say, but I had to know.

  He shook his head then began. “At the time of your mother’s death I was working on a biological weapon.” His eyes moved to mine. “Does that surprise you?”

  I kept my face frozen.

  “No? Good. I think it’s time for us to be completely honest with one another.” I could see the challenge raging under the surface of his controlled face. “I stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Your mother…she knew nothing about it. Not then. No, she thought I worked with pharmaceuticals.”

  He smiled wryly.

  “You see, in the beginning of our marriage, she never asked questions. She was just happy. We were happy. Then you girls were born.” He shook his head. “And she changed.”

  I could feel the familiar pain swelling in my chest, but I held it back. He didn’t deserve it.

  “Suddenly she wanted to know all about the business. The ins and outs of how I made my money. I knew I couldn’t tell her the truth. She couldn’t handle the reality of my world, and frankly, I loved that about her.” He sighed deeply. “But she kept pressing. It didn’t matter how many times I told her the importance of loyalty and trust. She kept pressing. Then she started drinking.”

  He stopped talking for a moment, eyes far away.

  “If she had just listened to me…been loyal to me…none of it would have happened.”

  I clenched my fists. “What did you do?”

  “One night she came to my office, painfully drunk,” he said, voice tinged with disgust. “I was looking at the prototype for a weapon. It was in capsule form. Nasty thing. Could melt a person’s insides in less than five seconds. My people still hadn’t figured out the best delivery system for it. Bombs?” he asked with speculation in his voice, as though he were discussing a thing of no more importance than what to have for dinner. “Contaminate the water supply?”

  I waited. My every muscle raged with tension.

  “Your mother wanted to know what it was. I told her not to worry about it. But she pushed and pushed. She questioned me. The man she had made vows to.” He could no longer hold back the anger from his voice. “I told her it was a painkiller—something that could help people like Jenny. She didn’t believe it.”

  He looked me directly in the eye and smiled.

  “She said, ‘Well then, I guess there isn’t a problem if I take it.’”

  The shock of the words tore away my ribcage leaving my heart bare.

  I spun away from him, squeezing my eyes shut.

  My mind’s eye was already making his words come to life. A scream burned in my throat, tearing at me to let it out.

  I couldn’t. I wouldn’t give him that.

  I inhaled deeply before turning back around. “Did you even try to stop her?”

  My words echoed over the glossy white walls of the room.

  A flicker of something passed over his face. I could have almost believed it was pain, but then he said the words that would break us forever.

  “She made her choice.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “You had a choice too,” he added, voice back to cool nonchalance. “I would have left you alone.”

  Bile filled my throat.

  “Even with your disloyalty, I would have left you alone. At one time, you were very special to me, Brianna. My one perfect child. But I can’t let you go now. You’re too much of a liability.” He looked down at his phone once again.

  His phone.

  Oh God, he hadn’t been ignoring me. He had been calling security!

  I backed away from him. “You’re crazy.”

  “I’m not the one dressed like some pathetic superhero,” he replied with the same disgust I had heard earlier. “How is Ryder by the way? Last I heard, she was still comatose.”

  I clenched my teeth.

  “Did you find something in my office to share with her? Or perhaps you were looking for something to give to your boyfriend?”

  Pierce.

  A rush of cold swept my limbs.

  He knew about Pierce.

  “Do what you want to me,” I said trying to keep my voice steady. “Leave him alone.”

  He looked at me with a pitying smile. His game over smile.

  I needed to get out, fast.

  The likely escape route was gone. I could already hear the footsteps in the hall.

  The unlikely escape route would have been the ventilation system, but he was standing underneath the only visible hatch.

  That left the impossible.

  “You’ve been bankrolling the Sultana, haven’t you?” I asked, moving a hand to my belt. “You paid her to scare the city into buying your chip.”

  My father moved to open the door.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about Brianna…but you should know…I would never think on such a small scale.”

  I took a step back. “What are you going to do with me?”

  “It’s for your own good. I wouldn’t want you hurting yourself like your mother.”

  My body shook with the effort of holding back the rage bristling inside of me. “I never want to hear you talk about her again.” Choden had warned me this would happen. My father was using my pain against me. I needed to stay focused. What I was about to do was crazy, but it was my only shot at escape. I couldn’t let my emotions distract me.

  “I’m being sincere,” he said. “But if you don’t want to take my word for it, maybe you’ll take your sister’s.”

  Then, I was suddenly looking into a mirror.

  Jenny had come running through the door.

  Jenny couldn’t run. Jenny couldn’t even stand.

  I was looking at me.

  But…not me.

  “Jenny?” I heard myself whisper.

  It was impossible. It had been only days since I had last seen her at the press conference. There was no way. Even if my father had found a cure, how had she built enough muscle to stand?

/>   Her face showed none of the paralysis I had grown to love. She moved towards me.

  “Bremy.”

  My hand flew to my mouth.

  “Bremy,” she said, again reaching out to me.

  Tears filled my eyes.

  “I know you’re scared.”

  I was scared…but not for myself. Jenny was standing before me. Talking. All signs of her disability were gone. Yeah, I was scared. I wanted this so badly for her. I loved her more than I loved anyone. But this felt wrong. Nothing good ever came from my father.

  “Dad told me everything,” she said. My eyes flashed to his. A smile glinted there. He was winning…and he knew it. “He can help you. The way he helped me.”

  “Jenny—”

  There was so much I wanted to tell her, but I couldn’t get the words out. In the past, I wouldn’t have had to say anything at all.

  Men rushed the room. Big men ready to take me away.

  I took another step back.

  “Bremy, don’t,” Jenny pleaded. “It’s time to come home.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can,” she said. Her voice. I couldn’t get over hearing my own voice say these words. I felt like I was going crazy.

  “You don’t have to be alone anymore,” she said softly. “I know you don’t have any friends. You don’t have your family. Dad showed me where you’re living. How much longer do you think you can make it on your own?”

  She moved towards me again. This time I didn’t move away.

  “I know things are bad, or you never would have sold this.”

  Jenny held something up to the light.

  My bracelet!

  I couldn’t answer.

  “It’s time to get the help you need,” my father said evenly.

  I might have cracked if he had stayed quiet, but now hot anger welled up inside of me. There was no way I was going to let my psycho father put a chip in my head. I took another step back toward the wall of windows.

  “It will be easier on you if you cooperate,” he said. “There’s no way out.”

  He was wrong.

  There was. It was just…impossible.

  I grabbed one of the tools from my belt. Choden had warned me against using it, but I was out of options.

  “Brianna!” my father commanded.

  “My name is Bremy.”

  I spun on my heel, and my hand shot out towards the windows. The rubbery substance slapped hard against the glass. For a second the world seemed frozen…then came the boom.

  Glass showered around me. I crossed my arms over my face as tiny shards whipped my body.

  After a second, I opened my eyes. The glass wall gaped open, allowing the cold night wind to rush into the building.

  “Bremy!” Jenny shrieked. “What are you doing?”

  What was I doing?

  I stared into the yawning darkness.

  I twisted around to face my family one last time.

  “You’re right, Dad…maybe I am a lot like Mom,” I said hair blowing around me. “But I’m also a lot like you. You thought this was about blackmail?”

  He said nothing.

  “You should know I would never think on such a small scale.”

  Surprise flickered across my father’s face, but it was the look of horror in Jenny’s eyes that burned into me as I spun again on my heel.

  I took long running strides towards the jagged mouth of the window.

  Then I leapt into the open arms of the night sky.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  My arms and legs pin-wheeled into nothingness.

  Air rushed from my body.

  I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t do anything.

  But when I hit the summit of my leap, my thoughts snapped back into focus.

  Choden had told me what to do.

  I twisted midair and faced the building as my body started to drop.

  I grasped at my belt and pressed a button embedded in the buckle.

  A spike shot from my waist, bearing a long cord attached back to my belt.

  I was supposed to aim for concrete, but the world was rushing towards me too quickly to aim for anything.

  I was falling, fast.

  Every cell in my body screamed.

  Then I felt the barest of tugs at my waist.

  The spike had hooked something.

  I had to think. Choden had said the cord was supposed to stiffen and reel in once it caught, giving me tension, but I had to work with the arc of the swing.

  I grabbed at the rope with both hands and put out my feet. Choden had also given me specially designed boots to absorb impact, but they wouldn’t be enough. I was going to hit the wall…literally. And I was going hit it hard.

  The building zoomed towards me. I clamped my eyes shut and braced.

  The wall slammed into me.

  Shock rocketed through my body as a sound cracked above my head.

  I looked up as I plummeted towards the earth.

  The cord had broken free.

  Lifetimes passed as I fell…but a second later, I lay stunned in a clump of rhododendron bushes.

  I couldn’t move.

  I couldn’t feel anything.

  My brain had been jolted beyond thought.

  Suddenly a face appeared above mine.

  Choden.

  “Child! Get up! We must hurry!”

  He had his hands underneath my arms and was trying to pull me to my feet, but I couldn’t make anything work.

  “Now! Child! Now! They are coming!”

  My feet hit the ground. Pain shot up my right leg. I grabbed at Choden for support. I tried to catch my bearings, but lights blinded me…headlights. Choden had driven his canopy-covered jeep across the lawn, two or three steps away.

  I bit down the pain and lurched forward.

  Agony ripped through me. My leg was on fire, but it was the sharp pain in my ribs that nearly crippled me. I couldn’t breathe.

  We made it to the open door. Choden lifted me into the seat then moved quickly over to the driver’s side.

  I groaned with pain as I moved to crane my head out the window to look up the building. Jenny stood in the gap of broken glass, both arms wrapped around her waist.

  My father was nowhere to be seen.

  ***

  We drove in silence.

  People could have been chasing us, but I wouldn’t have known it. It took all of my concentration to stop myself from screaming out in agony.

  Finally, the pain eased enough for me to notice that the creaking of my seat had softened. The jeep had slowed down. I cracked my eyes open. We were driving in a quiet area of the city.

  “How badly are you injured?”

  “I don’t know,” I mumbled.

  “Is anything broken, child?”

  I had to stop and think about that. “Maybe a rib.”

  “Your leg?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Take this,” he said passing me a small jar.

  I didn’t bother to ask what it was. I popped the lid and drank it down.

  Warmth filled my belly then spread throughout my body. Everything still hurt, but a new feeling of numbness made it tolerable.

  “I am sorry, but we will need to move quickly.” Choden’s eyes stayed on the road, but I could see the tension in his expression. “We need to move Indira. I fear our location is no longer safe.”

  I nodded and told him that my father knew she was comatose, so the building was likely being watched. Hopefully, they hadn’t moved in on her already. I could only imagine what my father had planned now, given the night’s events.

  “Let me out here,” I said. “You go to Ryder.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “We’ll make plans to meet up.” I swallowed, giving myself a moment to gather the strength to continue speaking. “I’ll have information from Bart for you by then. But I have to make sure Pierce is safe first.”

  I recognized a few stores locked down for the night.
We were close to my apartment. I needed to get to my old phone. Bart still had my new one. I had never actually checked to see if more than the GPS still worked after Ryder had given it back to me. If it did, my father would certainly be monitoring it, but it didn’t matter. Everything was already on the table.

  “Child, I should examine you,” Choden said softly. “You almost died tonight. You would have died if the rappelling claw had not come loose the moment you hit the building. It was the most fortunate luck that you did not aim for concrete as I told you.”

  “Luck?”

  “You pierced a window. It cracked when the pressure of your fall caught. You did not hit the building with the full force of your swing.”

  That hadn’t been full force? Suddenly the image of a water balloon hitting a wall popped into my head. I guess I was lucky. Who knew luck could hurt so bad?

  “You attempted too great a jump at too great a height. We will have to train you more on the physics of these types of maneuvers.”

  Yeah, it was real cute that he thought I was going to do something like that again.

  “I have to check on Pierce. Please stop.”

  I could feel his disapproval, but the jeep slowly whined over to the side of the street.

  “You will have to be careful. Your father’s men will not be far behind. Do not stay in your apartment any longer than necessary.”

  I nodded.

  “Meet us at this address when you are done,” Choden said, writing something on a piece of paper before handing it to me. “You will see the stairs.”

  I nodded again and opened the door. The first step nearly killed me.

  “Uh, Choden,” I said. “Do you have any more of that medicine stuff?”

  He looked at me gravely then handed over another bottle. “Do not take it for at least an hour.”

  “Sure,” I said, shutting the door. My ribs screamed with the motion.

  The jeep’s clouded taillights receded in the distance.

  I popped the lid off the second bottle and swallowed the contents before shuffling jerkily towards the stairs up to my apartment.

  I had to get the phone and get out.

  I heard Queenie’s music blaring as I limped down the hall. Good to see the entire world hadn’t gone mad.

  I got into my apartment and fell to my knees. Each breath felt like a sword plunged into my left side.

  Once I got the pain to a manageable level, I reached across my mattress and grabbed my old phone.