Escape

by Francine Pascal

  “Who’s doing this?” she barked into his dizzy eyes. “Who is doing all this? Is it Loki?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Where’s my father? Where the hell is he?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He repeated the exact same phrase with the exact same inflection. But this time. . . he smiled.

  He was playing with her. He was freaking playing with her. And his stupid, robotic loyalty was obviously unbreakable.

  Reflex took over. Before she could finish another thought, Gaia had driven her lower palm straight up into her assailent’s nose. She could hear the snap as his head whipped back against the bar again. He began to slide slowly from her grip down toward the ground.

  “Get up!” she hollered. “Get up and answer me!”

  That was when the knife nearly slashed straight across her chest. He was slicker than she’d thought. As he fell toward the ground, he’d pulled a hidden blade from somewhere, and he’d gone down slashing.

  Gaia grappled onto the bars above her and swung herself back from his slashing hand. He took two more swipes before she swung back toward him, punting the knife far down the empty sidewalk with a perfectly placed snap of the foot.

  And then he just took off. He took off at top speed, slamming his body deep into the crowd on Fifth Avenue. Gaia landed back on the ground and tried to spot him, but with that damn gray suit on, he’d turned into the other thousand men on the street in gray suits. Plus her dimming vision, along with a mild postbattle dizziness, had begun to kick in just enough to leave her disoriented.

  No, she shouted at herself. You’re losing him, goddamn it. She hadn’t just lost him. She’d lost herself the last best chance at getting any real information about her dad.

  Unless. . .

  Maybe she hadn’t lost every chance just yet. Maybe, in fact, she’d just discovered the one true lead she actually had. The one place she hadn’t thought of to search.

  And quite suddenly there were two horrific things she needed to talk to Sam about. She couldn’t even decide which one would be more painful to discuss. But it would all be moot if she couldn’t get back home without passing out. . . .

  Scampering Dog Syndrome

  YES, SAM HAD FOUND A COMB IN the bathroom of the maid’s quarters and combed his hair. Yes, he had washed his clothes in the washer/dryer while Natasha and Tatiana were away, and he had cleaned his little prison of a room rather thoroughly. But that did not mean that he was preparing for his strategy session with Gaia like it was a date. It had been time to clean things up, anyway. Time to introduce at least a little bit of order into his thoroughly chaotic world.

  Okay, yes, he had snuck out and gotten her a gift.

  But it wasn’t like it was some kind of gift gift. Its purpose was entirely utilitarian. Its purpose was only to ensure his and Gaia’s safety.

  He heard the front door of the apartment open and close. It was almost seven-thirty. It had to be Gaia. And so. . . he began to pace. Which in this room basically meant taking two steps in one direction and two steps in the opposite direction. He didn’t want to sit on the chair and he didn’t want to sit on the bed.

  He felt like a dog whose master had finally come home from a long day at the office. That was what this excited pacing felt like: a dog scampering around with the most vicious case of cabin fever. He could practically feel his tail wagging with anticipation, waiting in his little doghouse for Gaia to walk through the door. Terrific—he had gone from feeling like a five-year-old child to feeling like a dog. He heard the secret knock and tugged the door open, letting Gaia in and then slamming the door shut.

  “I am so glad to see you,” he admitted. He didn’t even bother to temper his enthusiasm. “I mean, I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty solitary person, but this hiding thing is just ridiculous. This is. . . well, I’m just very glad you’re here.” He smiled at her and tried to free himself of scampering dog syndrome, relaxing his body into a state of near stillness. But something was wrong. Gaia wasn’t smiling back. In fact, she was a complete mess. Maybe she’d fallen asleep on the train?

  “Sam, we need to talk—”

  “Wait, I got you something,” he said, reaching behind him for her gift and handing her the rolled-up paper bag.

  Gaia stared dubiously at the bag. “What’s this?”

  “A gift.”

  “Sam, this is no time to be—”

  “No, it’s not a gift gift,” he explained. “It’s nothing like that, just open it.”

  Gaia still looked rather uncomfortable. Impatient, even. Exhausted, concerned, ornery. . . not what Sam had hoped for tonight. But nonetheless, she reached into the bag, and she pulled out her gift. A brand-new cell phone.

  “I got a replacement ATM card at the bank and I got us each a phone,” Sam explained. “Don’t worry, I was only outside for about a half hour. I just thought for safety purposes, we wouldn’t want to risk. . . losing contact again. It’s already on and ready to go.”

  She examined the phone and then looked up at him. “That was. . . Thank you,” she said. “It’s a really good idea. . . . Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now if we need to get a message to each other, we can just call or text message, and no one needs to know a thing about it—” He stopped himself midsentence and took a closer look in her eyes. A sharp pain flashed through his chest. And it had nothing to do with his healing bullet wounds. Something had happened. Someone had hurt Gaia somehow, or she had just hurt someone, or else. . . she was going to hurt someone. “What happened?” he asked anxiously. “Tell me what’s wrong. Is it your dad? Gaia, come on, you’re scaring me.”

  Spinning

  SHE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO begin. She didn’t want to scare Sam senseless or break his spirit, which seemed to be improving every day. But he had to know. He had to know just how big this was. He had to know that it was all connected, just as they had both speculated. He had to know that the people who wanted him dead were still out there—maybe right outside the door. They were still watching. And most of all, she needed to make him understand that, all things considered, they only had one lead now.

  That compound. Loki’s compound in the Berkshires that Sam had somehow managed to escape. If Loki or his people were somehow behind her father’s disappearance, then the compound was definitely their best shot for clues. But even if Loki had absolutely nothing to do with the disappearance, Gaia was willing to bet that he might have had some information on the person who did. And that information might still be hidden away somewhere in that compound.

  The timing was perfect. With Loki out of commission, his operations had come to a complete standstill there—at least that was how it seemed. And if Sam had managed to find his way out, Gaia was clinging to the hope that he just might be able to help her find her way back in.

  But how could she ask him to do such a thing? How could she even break the news about the kind of danger he was obviously still in?

  “Sam, listen to me for just a second, okay?”

  His eyes widened slightly. He could obviously tell that this was serious. “I’m listening. . . .”

  “I saw some things today. . . ,” she began slowly. “I had a run-in with a few people, and. . . I’m not even sure what to make of all of it yet, but—”

  “People—what people?” he snapped.

  “I had a little. . . altercation with that man. The man from the West Side Highway. The one who was trying to—”

  “457?” Sam squawked. “You saw 457? Did he. . . What did he do to you? Tell me what he did to you.”

  Sam looked like his head was about to start spinning with anger. Gaia did her best to keep him calm. She would offer him the facts because he needed to know them, but she was desperate to keep the emotions to a minimum if that were at all possible.

  Sam began to get ahold of himself, and Gaia brought him up to speed. She told him about the connection between Pockmark and 457 and thus the
connection between both her father’s kidnapping and Sam’s. Obviously all evidence pointed to Loki, but Gaia still wasn’t absolutely sure. His coma was an unequivocal reality, which meant that even if he was behind all this, there was still some other enemy somewhere out there in the dark making it all happen.

  “But I have a plan,” she finally forced herself to say. “A crappy plan, but still a plan. And I hate it so much, I don’t even want to tell you.”

  “Try me,” he insisted.

  “Okay. . .” Gaia’s chest tightened as she began to feel the painful weight of what she was about to ask Sam to do. “S-Sam. . . ,” she stammered uncomfortably, “if I could do this alone, I swear to God, I’d be gone already. . . and the thought of you in any more danger makes me physically sick. And the thought of you having to revisit that horrible place makes me even sicker, but. . . if we want to solve this thing. . . if we want to find out where the hell my father is and who it is we’re trying so hard to hide you from. . . I think that compound is our only lead right now. And you’re the only person who has any idea where it is, Sam. You’re the only one who can help get me in there and—”

  “Us,” Sam interrupted. “I’m the only one who can help get us in there.”

  Gaia wasn’t sure how to respond. But Sam was way ahead of her.

  “We can use my car,” he said. “I hardly ever use the thing. I let this guy Todd Cooper drive it and he pays for the garage.”

  “Sam. . .”

  “We’ve hardly even talked for the last year unless it’s about the car. He already graduated. He probably hasn’t even noticed I’ve been gone. But if I call him tonight, then I can get the car for sure, first thing in the morning. That’s our deal.”

  “Sam, you don’t have to do this,” Gaia offered, backpedaling in spite of everything she’d just said. “If you can try and remember how you got out of there and how you got to the city, I can just retrace—”

  “We are going first thing in the morning,” he declared, leaning his face closer to hers. “If you think I’m going to let you go alone, you’re crazy. Besides, I need to get to the bottom of this just as badly as you do, Gaia. I’m not going to live out the rest of my life in this room. If that’s our only lead, then that’s our only lead. I can get us there.”

  Gaia nodded her solemn thanks. If he was truly willing to take the risk, then she was currently in no position to argue.

  “So perfect,” Sam said with a resigned smile. “That leaves us the rest of tonight to go over strategy.” He moved back toward the chair and picked up the pad and pencil he’d gotten for their strategy session. “I have a couple of ideas. . . . I was thinking we could even—”

  “Sam, wait,” Gaia interrupted. “I. . . I can’t.”

  “Gaia, it’s already been decided. I’m going with you, that’s—”

  “No, that’s not what I’m talking about now.”

  Sam looked up from his pad and stared at her, confused. “Well, what are you talking about? You can’t what?”

  Gaia’s stomach began to roll and twist and spasm. Was she still going to try to keep that date after everything she’d been through? Was she still going to take this moment—the moment right after Sam had agreed to risk his life—to tell him about Ed?

  Remember that look in Ed’s eyes, she reminded herself. She was hanging on by a thread with him and she knew it. You’re not leaving until the morning. You can still pull it off. The world’s shortest date. For Ed. Jesus, think about everything he’s done for you. You’re going. No matter what you want right now, you’re going.

  She looked back in Sam’s eyes and then she dropped her head. She was frozen. Paralyzed from the head down. You have to tell him now. At some point he’s going to have to know.

  It was time. It was time for all her stupid choices to blow right up in her face. That must have been why she was hiding behind her hair.

  Tragically Uncomfortable Smile

  HE COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAD gone wrong. He’d just done the right thing. He’d insisted on taking her back to that compound. So why had she moved beyond quiet into a state of almost complete paralysis? Her hair fell over her eyes as she gazed at the floor. Finally she tried to look up at him.

  “Sam. . . I can’t. . . go over strategy with you tonight.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because. . .”

  That couldn’t possibly be her entire answer. Though knowing Gaia. . . Was she really going to make him say it? Yes, as the seconds ticked by, it seemed she was.

  “Okay.” He sighed. “Because why?”

  “You’re angry already,” she complained.

  “No, don’t be ridiculous. I’m not angry. You just need to talk to me.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “You can tell me anything, Gaia. I promise you, you can tell me whatever you’re feeling. Whatever is going on. Believe me. There are things I want to tell you, too. Things I need to tell you. . .”

  “What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “No, you have to talk first, okay? Believe me, you have to talk first. So tell me. Tell me why we can’t do this tonight and then I’ll talk, okay?”

  Gaia took a deep breath, met Sam’s eyes with her own, and then dropped her head again. “I can’t go over strategy tonight. . . because I have a date.” She finally turned her face up and looked Sam dead in the eye. “I have a date with my boyfriend. And I have to keep it. I have to.”

  The silence in the room was impenetrable. But it wasn’t silent in Sam’s head. In Sam’s head, all he could hear was Gaia’s statement, echoing again and again, until it blurred into one loud, muddy noise that rattled his eardrums and left his mouth and his throat bone-dry.

  Sam fell back onto his butt and crossed his legs.

  “Sam—”

  “Shhh.” He smiled and placed his finger to his lips, desperately trying to regain his faculties. Talk, Sam. Talk now. He was struck by a number of urges. The urge to destroy every piece of furniture within a ten-foot radius, the urge to leave this stupid little room and never come back, the urge to cry like that pathetic newborn. But he discarded all those urges one by one, employing herculean amounts of self-discipline. You know what you have to do. You know what you’re going to do now, so do it. Honesty is not an option. It’s not fair to her. So talk, you idiot. Start lying.

  “God,” Sam squeezed out of his throat. “Is that what you were so worried about?” He could feel his heart literally shriveling. “God, you had me so scared after everything we were just talking about. Don’t scare me like that again, okay?”

  Gaia looked into his eyes and gave him the sweetest, most loving stare she’d given him since his resurrection. He’d finally seen the look in her eyes he’d been dreaming about, and now it was for all the wrong reasons. “I just don’t want to hurt you, Sam. Seeing you again is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. You have no idea—”

  “Gaia,” he said, forcing the corners of his mouth to maintain a smile, “you don’t need to be so worried about me getting hurt. I took two bullets in the back and I’m still here. Come on. We were already broken up. And, I mean. . .” Go on. Keep going. You can pound your head through the wall once she’s gone. “I mean, I was dead to everyone. That’s not your fault. That’s no one’s fault but your uncle’s. No, I’m just. . . I’m glad you had someone to stick by you through this horror show.” Deep breaths. Deep breaths. “Wow. . . a boyfriend, huh? I guess I started a trend. Do I know him?”

  Gaia’s head dipped yet again. Sam was just starting to remember what a horrible sign it was when Gaia’s head dipped. He wished he’d remembered that earlier. “Who is it?”

  She didn’t say a word. She didn’t even move a muscle. But somehow Sam knew. He knew already. Had he always sort of known? Maybe he had. In that totally useless way that people know things they don’t know. But whether he’d always known or not didn’t really matter much now, did it?

  “It’s Ed, isn’t it?”

  Her
head shot up in surprise.

  “It’s okay,” he said gently. The gentle part, he wasn’t faking. The smiles, maybe. The calm angelic acceptance, definitely. But he wasn’t angry. There was no one to blame here, and he knew it.

  “We’ve just gotten. . . really close. . . ,” Gaia began.

  “Of course.” Sam nodded.

  “He’s back on his feet again, and he’s been—”

  “Wow, that’s great,” Sam interrupted. He wasn’t even sure which answers were sincere anymore.

  “I know,” Gaia said. “And. . .” She trailed off with nothing left to say.

  “So. . . okay. . . you have a date tonight. . . with Ed. Your boyfriend.”

  Gaia barely nodded in the affirmative. “I do,” she croaked. “I tried to get out of it. I really tried, but—”

  “It’s okay,” he said for what felt like the two-thousandth time. His brain was beginning to throb. “You don’t need to explain. I just wanted to figure out. . . a game plan for us, that’s all. For tomorrow. But we can do it after your date—”

  “Yes,” Gaia agreed. “After the date. Definitely. We need to do that, Sam. We need to figure out a game plan for tomorrow. That’s really the only thing I should be doing now; I just. . . need to go out on this date.”

  Sam could feel the conversation coming to a close and he got a bit lazy, actually letting his own head drop forward for a moment.

  “But it’s going to be the world’s shortest date,” she assured him. “I swear. I’m going to tell Ed that we need to make it an early night. Okay?”

  Please don’t do that, Gaia. Please don’t try to throw the dog a bone.

  “Well, you’d better get going,” Sam said, trying to cut off her patronizing offer of an “early night” with Ed. The thought of an early night only made him imagine what the late nights must be like. “Keep the phone with you,” he added. “Just to be safe. . .”

  “Okay . . .” She stood up tentatively from the bed. Sam immediately shot up with her to avoid feeling any more doglike than he already did.

  “So I’ll. . . see you later tonight, then,” she said.