by Gwenda Bond
SmallvilleGuy: I hope that’s a joke.
SkepticGirl1: Not as such. Technically I’m crawling around in the mayor’s office ceiling at City Hall. Let me know if you hear news from TI.
And there was also the impending visit to the lab. But he knew how scared I’d been after the last one. Best to keep that to myself, and not worry him unnecessarily. I’d have my friends with me this time around.
SmallvilleGuy: Look, I know you’re going back to that lab too. Please be careful—I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.
I wanted to tell him how I felt, right away, in case of the worst. But I didn’t.
SkepticGirl1: Something happens to me every day. You be careful too.
I paused, then added one final note.
SkepticGirl1: <3
I closed my laptop lid, too embarrassed to wait for a response.
Picking up my phone, I read through the texts from my friends.
Devin was still working through the City Hall schematics to find my angle of attack. I told him to stay on it and we’d see him at school. We didn’t need everyone on this morning’s field trip.
Maddy’s last message was: I asked Dante if he’d meet us. He knows the neighborhood.
If she was willing to vouch for him after one coffee date, it wasn’t a terrible argument. I pasted in the address of the building across the street and texted back: See you there in half an hour. Keep a low profile if you get there first.
James sent back a response: I’m coming too.
I returned: Stay with your dad. We’ll see you at school.
Maddy said: Thanks. See u guys soon.
My first step was to type and print off a note to Dabney Donovan. Given his avoidance of all things electronic, it seemed likely he’d want his communiqués to come old school. Soon, we’d see if I was right. Next, I wrote the note I expected Principal Butler to deliver to Boss Moxie and Mayor Ellis later in the afternoon, summoning them back to City Hall. That was as big a gamble as anything else.
Good thing I loved to live dangerously.
CHAPTER 26
Mom was in the kitchen when I came downstairs—early, even for early-bird her. And I was up way early for me. That did not escape her.
“Lois?” she asked. “Where are you off to at this hour?”
So far, it seemed like Dad hadn’t filled her in. He was sticking to our deal.
“That story I mentioned. I think I found a crack, and now I need to pry it open.”
“Colorful metaphor,” she said, pulling her robe belt tighter. “Here, take my toast so you have something to eat. I’ll make more.”
He definitely hadn’t told her. Toast was for daughters on good terms with their parents.
“Why are you up so early?” I asked, accepting the buttery bread. It was slightly blackened around the edges, the way we both liked it.
She yawned. “I might go back to bed after I get Lucy to school. I stayed up awhile after our junk food bonanza, and then your dad didn’t manage to leave after all. He came home late and had to go out early this morning. He told me not to get up, but I did anyway.” She stopped for a second. “He asked how you seemed last night. I told him fine. Are you fine?”
Part of me wanted to tell her everything. The rest of me knew there wasn’t time. And that no mother would be thrilled her daughter was doing what I was with her day. Dad had made clear there would be consequences for my straying from the path and not coming home straight after school. I didn’t approve of him keeping this from her.
However, I’d come up with a thin possibility of making everything happen during school that might allow me to fill Dad’s terms while still getting my job done. It was a long shot, but there was a chance.
“Better than fine,” I said. “Looking forward to getting this scoop.”
“Then go get it. Take some extra money from my purse in case you need cab fare.”
Something in her voice made me wonder if she was in the loop on everything, after all.
But I wasn’t going to question her generosity. “Thanks, Mom,” I said.
Her purse was on the table next to the front door, and she watched, lingering in the kitchen, as I removed a twenty. Out the door I went, and hailed the first random cab I saw. The driver was an older woman with a faint Russian accent, who didn’t so much as blink at the address when I gave it. Safer place to visit during the early a.m., I supposed. No text messages from my friends, no nothing, all the way there.
I reread the note I’d prepared to get rid of Donovan, typed and printed so the handwriting wouldn’t give anything away:
Doc, your angel investor needs a word. Not later, now. Come alone.
Then I’d provided an address: the one from Devin’s list with all the flashy cars and suited men outside it when I’d driven by. Moxie himself likely wouldn’t be there, and it wouldn’t take Donovan away for long. But I was hoping it’d be long enough for us to get in and do what needed to be done. If only I knew more about what that was.
On the brighter side, Dante would make a handy fake courier to deliver the note. I didn’t think there’d been any security cameras at the lab to get a shot of me last time, just the evil phone-wiping thing. I couldn’t be sure though. And Doc D might recognize Maddy, but especially Melody, even if he wouldn’t remember her name.
The cab pulled up at the curb of my destination, the back end of an alley that spilled out onto the street across from Ismenios’s offices. I pressed the twenty into the driver’s hand, adding a fiver for a tip. The only words we’d exchanged were the address, and now her bland “Thank you.” The car rolled away, and I’d have bet the same twenty-five bucks she’d never think of me again. There was a comfort in that.
Metropolis was small enough to go most anywhere inside the city in half an hour and yet large enough to be anonymous about it. The ability to get from place to place with no one the wiser was the exact opposite of the bases I’d grown up on and most of the towns where we’d lived, small enough someone was always watching. Here, there were people heading toward the subway and their work days, but they paid no attention to a strange girl on the sidewalk.
The sky above was filled with heavy gray clouds. I hoped they weren’t a bad omen. The weather report had called for a perfectly sunny day, and if this unfolded like I wanted, we’d be enjoying it at the end, out in the light on the steps of City Hall, basking in the glow of justice having been served.
As I breached the lip of the alley, I saw Melody, Maddy, and Dante were already there, waiting close to the far end. Melody leaned against a wall, but Maddy and Dante were facing each other and huddled together. Their date must have gone very well.
I was happy for my friend. But I couldn’t help thinking—what about me? That stupid heart symbol I’d typed—I wondered what SmallvilleGuy had made of it, if anything.
I paused and sent Taxi Jack a message with my current location: Pick us up here in half an hour? Last night’s tip is waiting.
“Lois?” The voice came from behind me.
I turned on my heel. “James? What are you doing here? I told you to stay home and just come to school.”
James sported jeans and a crisp white button-down. He peered past me into the shadowy alley to where Maddy and Dante were—reluctantly, based on the speed—stepping apart.
“We don’t know him very well,” he said.
“What are you, pulling some sort of big brother routine?” I asked, genuinely confused by his reactions, like I had been for the past couple of days.
“No,” he said, but he didn’t elaborate.
“Be a secret-keeping weirdo,” I countered, and started walking again. “I trust you can make yourself useful—but you can’t be seen by the mad doctor. How’s your dad? Not going to do anything to mess this up, is he?”
“He’s so hard to read these days,” Ja
mes said. “But I don’t think so.”
The dank alley was wide enough for us to walk next to each other, and he hurried to my side. The graffiti we passed consisted of random tagging, nothing that shouted “Bossland” to me or that was fancy enough to merit Dante’s approval.
James continued. “I heard him… whistling this morning.”
I suppressed a shudder at the memory of Doctor Donovan on the stairs.
“Not like a serial killer,” James clarified. “Like he was happy. And he gave me a big hug before I left. Said thanks and be careful.”
Those words could foreshadow some sort of kamikaze last ditch on his part, but I didn’t think so. “We gave him hope. You believing in him, it’s what made the difference.”
James didn’t respond, but when I glanced over, he seemed to be walking taller, prouder.
The others met us halfway, but I waved us back in the direction they’d come. “Have you seen him yet?”
Melody spoke up. “No one’s gone in or out yet.” She hesitated. “I can feel him in there though. He’s awake.”
“I need you to prepare yourself, mentally. We’re going to have to convince him to help us.”
“Him? The…” James lifted his hand and waved it at his face to indicate the clone.
“Yes,” I said, “we’re sending away the doctor. Which, Dante, you’re here to help?”
I had no idea how much Dante knew, but what Melody had said made me think it was more than a little. Maddy must trust him already, to give up her sister’s secrets.
“I’m here to help,” he said, smiling at Maddy. Who smiled back.
“Stop or I’m going to have to call the adorable police,” I said.
They grinned wider. Interestingly enough, Maddy was wearing a repeat band shirt, something she hardly ever did. I’d seen the one she had on, Dangerous Ladies, before.
James’s scowl was back, and I could tell from Melody’s thoughtful glance between him and the cute couple that she noticed too.
“James, stop being weird,” I said, low.
“Well, his dad is having a pretty big day,” Maddy said.
James beamed at her.
“I can’t deal with another mystery right now.” I fished out the note and handed it to Dante. “This is for Donovan. We know he goes home at night, and the clone stays here in his tank. You’ll be waiting so you can give this to him when he gets here. Let him unlock the door first. I’m hoping we won’t have to break in, but we might and I wasn’t able to bring my picks. If he asks you anything, you just say, ‘I was just given twenty bucks to make sure you got this,’ and then you leave. Come back over here. Fast. Questions?”
“Seems simple enough,” he said.
“We’ll stay over here until he’s on the move again.” I spoke to the girls next. “Ladies, give your phones to James.”
I handed over mine too.
“What’s this for?” he asked.
“Dante will come back to join you. You guys will stay over here, being lookouts. If you need to get our attention, well, I don’t know. Break down the front door or something. But do not bring the phones in with you.”
“I don’t want you guys going in alone,” James said. “Especially without your phones. And I don’t want to be rude, but should someone we just met be part of this at all?”
Dante hooked a thumb in his pocket, as casual as if we weren’t on post-dawn maneuvers. “Don’t worry about me. Maddy told me everything. I’ve seen some things… It’s not so hard to believe. She also told me this is about taking down the Boss—” he lowered his voice on the word, even though we were the only ones around. “That needs to happen.”
I wanted to know what kind of things Dante had seen, but I decided to interrupt before James could. It was a question for later. For after.
“We can’t take our phones in,” I said. “But more than that, it’s just a feeling I have. You two can distract Donovan if he comes back early. I think the three of us will have better luck with the clone. Seeing you… You look too much like your dad. It’ll be painful. It’ll remind him too much of the life his twin has that he doesn’t. I need him focused on Melody.”
“What? Why?” Maddy had her hand at her throat, like it was the most alarming thing she’d ever heard.
“He cares about her. That’s why.”
Maddy got ready to ask another question, but Dante peeled away toward the end of the alley. “Where are you going?” Maddy asked.
“The weird dude in the suit just walked past,” Dante said over his shoulder. “I’m going to deliver my message.”
And he was out of the alley like he’d been ejected from a slingshot.
CHAPTER 27
We crowded around the leftmost edge of the alley’s wall. Dante raced across the street and up the sidewalk.
Maddy jostled against me, causing my arm to brush the wall. It came away damp with what I hoped was the alley version of morning condensation. “Ew,” I said.
“Sorry.” Maddy wiped at my arm.
“We have bigger problems than alley slime,” I said. “Um, luckily?”
The weird man in a suit was still well in front of Dante, nearing the door, with its monster. Most people would turn if they heard sneakers slapping the pavement behind them—particularly in this neighborhood—but our mad scientist gave no indication he even noticed.
His suit was dove gray, and he was otherwise as Melody had described. Unassuming, contained. Like he traveled with a bubble around him, separating him from the outside world—the likely reasons being his intellect and the vast genius superiority complex that accompanied it. He gave every impression of being the definition of self-involved.
At the door, he stopped and did something unexpected. He lifted his hand and raised one fingertip to touch the image of the hero fighting the dragon-monster. The act was done almost lovingly. But then, for him to have taken the time to fix up a logo and apply it, it must be meaningful to him.
He’d named himself after the dragon Ismenios. Its teeth turned to warriors, still fighting even after Cadmus defeated it to found a new city. No way this guy was founding any kind of new anything, if I could stop it.
Some sort of flat card dangled from his hand. A key card?
Dante slowed, then stopped six feet away. He appeared to be waiting for something.
Now, Dante. Now. Once he’s inside, things get a lot more complicated.
Donovan confirmed my suspicion about the card when he waved his hand in front of door, and then reached out for the handle, pulling it open—
He’s going to get away.
I shifted my weight to my back foot, preparing to jump out of the alley and intervene. But Dante called out to him then, before he could step over the threshold.
“Hey, mister!” Dante sprang into motion. “Doctor, I have a message for you!”
Dante stopped an arm’s length away and extended my phony note toward Donovan. The paper flapped in the breeze.
The man turned his head to the side and regarded the piece of paper, not releasing the door handle. Not yet.
I felt Maddy’s sharp intake of breath beside me. “He wouldn’t hurt Dante, would he?” she asked.
“After what he did to me?” Melody said from her other side. “Yes.”
“We all saw how fast Dante can run,” I murmured, afraid to reassure either of them too much.
I thought hard at Dante: Be ready to get away, like I told you.
Donovan apparently decided Dante wasn’t worth his notice, because he pulled the door the rest of the way open, intent on getting inside.
Dante was talking louder than normal, probably so we’d be able to hear what he was saying. None of this had been included in my directions.
“Doctor, didn’t you hear?” Dante said, infusing it with a cocky swagger. “I have a message. From the B
oss.”
That got Donovan’s full attention. Still with the door half-open, he extended his other hand and accepted the piece of paper. Given how Dante usually said the mobster’s name in a hush, he really was committed to helping us.
Maybe too committed.
Dante should have left, but he lingered.
Donovan unfolded and examined the paper for much longer than reading my brief message could’ve taken, then—finally—he released the door and started up the street in the opposite direction. It was the direction of the address I’d given, and he went without missing a beat, without even looking back at Dante.
Unsurprising. He assumed most life forms were beneath his notice. All except his creation.
“Nice tip!” Dante called after him, which I wouldn’t have, on the odds he looked back.
He would see that Dante had caught the handle before the door could close completely. But Donovan paid his complaint no attention, and his wide strides took him farther and farther away. I wouldn’t know until we got over there, but Dante might have saved us from having to break in.
“Good choice of boyfriend,” I said to Maddy.
I figured she’d be blushing when I looked over, but instead she said, “I know.”
James said something under his breath. Donovan turned the corner, officially out of our sight.
“We’re on,” I said.
I stepped out of the alley, and Maddy and Melody did likewise.
“Guys,” James said, and we paused. “Be safe. I’m a little attached to you three being alive.”
His eyes rested on Maddy for a second before meeting mine. “Touching,” I said, not entirely sarcastically. Was it my imagination, or was he suddenly really interested in Maddy? Too interested, given that she was in a promising place with a great new guy. “We’ll do our best. We still have your dad to save, after all.”
There was nothing more to say. Our time wasn’t limitless. Already, while we’d been standing out here, waiting and watching, the day was brightening. The gray sky had grown a shade lighter.