by Martha Carr
She chuckled about feeling so talkative, let alone on this particular subject and with a parkour-club acquaintance. The lack of any substantial link to any other part of her life was part of the motivation. The walls that had allowed compartmentalization had begun to fall one by one, but at least the parkour group was still far more interested in her skills than her background.
She’d managed to avoid ending up on any news footage outside of the media circus that was Alison’s adoption hearing, but the more time she spent in public around James, the more chance that eventually everyone would start recognizing her, if only as James Brownstone’s girlfriend.
Do I even have to worry about anyone else anymore? The cartel’s gone. Yulia might have fucked with my raids, but she keeps a pretty low profile, and I doubt she’s gonna come here just to try to kill me.
Lana laughed, snapping Shay out of her thoughts. “How can family be new to you?”
Shay shrugged. “I left home pretty young. Spent a long time depending only on myself. Caring about other people—that’s what’s new.”
“I can understand that. You had to make your own way, but now you changed, and it’s weird to look back at even who you were.’
“Yeah, changed a lot.” Shay let out a wistful sigh. “Still trying to wrap my head around a lot of it.” She shook out her head. Brooding was for James. “A fun night tour of the city, huh?”
Lana nodded. “Yep. We might even run into the Night Spiders.”
Shay looked away to hide her smile. She’d seen Lily and the magical teens in action and could testify to the impressiveness of their enhanced parkour moves, but being a little open about her background didn’t mean she was ready to start telling every random person all her secrets.
“Oh? You interested in them?” the tomb raider asked.
Lana chuckled. “Just, ever since you asked about next-level parkour a while back, I’ve been thinking about them a lot more.” She shrugged. “Maybe at this point, I want just to know the truth of whether they exist. The only person I’ve seen who could pull off the kind of stuff they do is Marcus, and the idea of a bunch of people like him blows my mind.”
“We could get lucky and see them.”
Shay was half-tempted to text Lily to ask for a little display. Her smile faded, and the thought drifted away. Lily probably wouldn’t want to be around her for a while.
That’s what it means to be a tomb raider, kid. Impressive magic, and senseless violence and death.
Aaron waved his arms. “Is everyone ready? Remember that we changed tonight’s final rendezvous to that frozen yogurt place. If you’re not going to stop by, text me, so we know you didn’t die.”
Everyone laughed. Shay didn’t. Bouncing around the city at night at high speed was dangerous. She could never understand why no one else seemed to think that.
Aaron and Lana ran toward the edge of the building. Shay ran after them.
Tonight’s the night. I keep coming in third or fourth, but I’m gonna go all-out.
The tomb raider sprinted full speed toward the edge of the building and leaped, soaring into the night sky. A stream of yellow and red lights streamed beneath her. LA night traffic.
The flight lasted only for a few seconds before she landed on the next roof with a smooth roll that brought her back to her feet with almost no loss of momentum. Lana appeared at her side and rushed past her.
Oh, the chase is on, huh?
Shay grinned. She picked up the pace, sprinting after the woman. The thud of Aaron’s footfalls sounded right behind her.
Lana jumped over the side of the building, but Shay’s heart didn’t speed up. She’d studied the course as thoroughly as she might the background for a tomb raid. No surprises tonight, just a chance to prove her skills.
The tomb raider followed the other woman over the edge. Lana had landed on metal stairs and was already halfway down them. Shay jumped over a handrail and fell toward the bottom. She caught another rail about six feet above the street while the other woman hopped back and forth using a less dramatic strategy.
Shay hit the street and ran toward a nearby alley, now in the lead. She didn’t sprint through the alley. They still had many miles to go on the course, and exhausting herself in the few first minutes wouldn’t help her prove her skills.
I need to win tonight. I need to show them my determination.
A jog brought her out of the alley and toward a fence. Lana and Aaron were a few yards behind her on either side. She spotted a USPS mailbox and ran toward it. With a clean vault off the box, she cleared the fence. Lana and Aaron both hit the fence directly and scrambled over it.
A grin broke out on the tomb raider’s face as she ran from the fence toward the darkened multi-level parking garage. Another quick vault over a gate sent her inside, the other two close behind, and the rest of the club much farther back.
The runners followed the spiraling concrete structure up for two stories before Shay broke toward an open space between a large truck and an obnoxiously yellow Porsche.
Someone’s overcompensating.
Shay jumped onto the railing and pushed off without a second of hesitation. She’d long since learned that was the difference between her and the others like Lana or Aaron, or even Lily and her friends. Some part of her mind was always running a tactical scenario and trying to convince her brain not to put her in unnecessary danger. The briefest hint of hesitation meant she wasn’t achieving the speed and momentum she needed to beat Lana and Aaron.
Tonight, she didn’t care about falling. She risked that every time she hit her obstacle course in Warehouse One. No. It’d taken a while and many parkour runs before she finally realized the truth.
Parkour was just a type of exercise and movement to her, but that wasn’t what it meant to Aaron, Lana, or the others. It wasn’t what it had meant to the men who had created parkour.
Free-to-Move. It was right there in the name. Free as in freedom. That was what most of the club members were striving for; a near-religious experience where they pushed their bodies to the limit and appreciated every single second as a fully-examined sensory experience.
Shay had started training in parkour as a tool at first, frustrated over her humiliation at the hands of Marcus. It was just like everything and everyone else in her life: something to make her more dangerous in her job. Joy had played little part.
As she caught a ledge from an office building across from the parking lot and pulled herself up, she understood that was no longer true. Like many other things in her life, things had changed.
Another quick pull moved her up, followed by another until she rolled onto the roof.
The occasional drone whirred past in the distance, but she didn’t care, being too far from them for a good look. She’d just end up as Parkour Penny on the net again.
Shay allowed herself a grin as she launched from the edge of the building and caught a pipe on the next taller building. She shinnied up the pipe as she surveyed the grand glory of Los Angeles at night.
The city stretched out on all sides, an ocean of light and movement in the deepening darkness. From the top of a building at night, there was no detail to take in, just silhouettes. Enemies could be walking or driving beneath her, and people she’d never meet.
She didn’t need to be concerned about a sniper or an assassin. With the cartel defeated and her criminal days moving farther and farther into the past, the sun might be able to shine on her dark life soon.
I’m hanging out at barbeques with cops now. Yeah, definitely getting softer. Ironic, considering my boyfriend’s pretty much a living natural disaster and helped me destroy a cartel.
Freedom. Not fear.
Her new life had started because of fear and ennui. She didn’t want to die in her kitchen, murdered by someone who could smile at her but didn’t care about her. A couple years before she would have laughed at lecturing students and caring about people as absurd dreams or even signs of weakness.
Shay held no illu
sions that the parkour had changed her life. It’d taken time, effort, and new relationships, not to mention a death or five hundred. It was more that the activity was a nice symbol of her changed life.
The tomb raider launched herself onto the wood and steel skeleton of a high-rise office building. She caught a girder with her hands, and swung and caught the next, and then the next, like she was on the world’s most dangerous set of monkey bars.
At the other side of the building, she released and flew straight toward another roof. She wasn’t even sure how high up she was at this point. The lights of the cars were distant underneath here, more like dim fireflies than anything else.
A genuine smile lit her face.
What a damn cool way to tour the city.
More seconds blurred into minutes as Shay closed on the end of the course, her heart pounding and sweat soaking her clothes.
Almost there.
Shay jumped from a roof to a small balcony and immediately leaped from there to a ledge on the building on the opposite side. She swung a few times and jumped from the ledge to a canvas entrance arch in front of a deli and bounced off.
The tomb raider landed, her arms spread out on the middle of a sidewalk. Several curious people looked her way.
With a grin, she waved and sprinted off, not giving them time to process why the sky was raining women before Lana and Aaron arrived.
Shay risked a glance behind. She’d been so wrapped in the course she’d forgotten about them.
I still have the lead. I can do this. I can win.
The tomb raider cut into an alley, her eyes widening. A huge flat-nosed delivery truck was parked in the middle, blocking her path. She didn’t understand why the driver had risked entry, given he had barely half a foot of clearance on either side.
Really, asshole?
Shay’s gaze darted around the alley as she took in every stray protrusion. She pushed herself harder, her pounding feet echoing, and charged a frame-mounted row of lights over a door. She jumped toward the lights, hoping they could hold her weight, and pushed off the door and the frame.
The tomb raider flew to the top of the truck and ran across it. A delivery man emerged from another door behind the truck. He shook his head and looked up, wide-eyed, as Shay jumped off the truck’s roof into a roll in the alley. Once she was back on her feet, she offered him a happy wave.
Two more quick corner turns, and three fences later, Shay stood in the parking lot of a frozen yogurt place, Sweet Storm.
She leaned over, her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She hadn’t pushed herself that hard without someone trying to kill her in a long time.
By the time she caught her breath and looked up, Aaron was jogging into the parking lot, Lana about five yards behind.
They slowed and stopped in front of Shay, also leaning over to catch their breath.
Lana wiped sweat from her brow. “Congratulations, Shay.”
“Huh? What?”
“You beat both of us, not to mention everyone else.”
Shay gave the other woman a broad grin. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
Unburdened for most of the run even by worries over if the others were close behind, she’d finally done it. Her competitive soul had been satisfied because she’d taken first. She’d just had to start competing with herself instead of the others.
I’m damned good.
She shrugged. “The froyo’s on me.”
12
Shay nibbled on a slice of Peyton’s latest creation, a mouth-watering sausage pizza with a touch of bacon. If he kept this up, he wouldn’t just be Pizza King, he’d become Pizza Emperor. Not that she wanted to tell him that. Despite living under her stern eye and sharp tongue, the man’s ego threatened to spill out of control—just like his sense of fashion.
Still, it was nice to have a little late-night snack that was so damn delicious. She’d gotten lucky that he was even still there so late.
The hacker was kneeling on the floor in front of Osiris. His ridiculous flared purple pants made her wonder if he was just going through a 70s phase. Whatever it was, she hoped that he’d cycle back to something less obnoxious soon. She wasn’t a fashionista since a lifetime of violent and up-close killing had lowered its importance in her mind, but she still had certain basic standards.
People always claimed that fashion ran in cycles, not that she’d seen any of his recent outfits popular with anyone else. There still was plenty of time left in the 2030s. Maybe the decade would close out with a true revival of sartorial crimes long since forgotten.
Peyton pushed a small hollow ball with a bell toward Osiris. The cat meowed and knocked it back. They pushed the ball back and forth several times, the man smiling as if it were the most exciting thing he’d done that day.
Maybe I should get a pet. I can train my pet to threaten Osiris and keep him in line like I keep Peyton in line.
Let’s see. Got a boyfriend, a protégé, and a daughter in all but name. Might as well complete the domestication set with a pet or two.
Shay snickered.
Maybe not. An attack falcon would be cool, though. Sky Shay.
Peyton frowned and looked up from his tabby. “Should I be scared?”
“What? I’m not allowed to think anything funny without telling you first?”
“Just saying, someone sitting there cackling without saying anything is kind of freaky. And that’s just normal people, let alone you.” He shrugged. “You’re scary enough without cackling. If you ever lose it, I don’t think even Brownstone could handle you.”
Shay smirked. “I wasn’t cackling. I was just thinking about getting a pet.” She pointed at the cat. “I’m inspired by your cat. Maybe.”
“A pet? You? Seriously?” Peyton frowned as if the idea were absurd inherently.
“Why not? If I can train a person, I can train a pet. The only difference is that a pet is less mouthy and easier to bribe.”
Peyton snorted. “If you believe that, you need to spend more time around cats.”
“I don’t need a cat. If I were to get a pet, I’d want something…I don’t know, more tactical.” Shay frowned and tried to run through the possibilities in her mind. She kept circling back to attack falcons or bears.
He laughed. “Don’t think you can go to a pet store to get the kind of pet that would suit you, Shay.”
“Oh? What do you think would suit me then, smart guy?”
Peyton shrugged. “I don’t know. A shark with machine guns on the side? A Komodo dragon? Maybe a real dragon? You could ride him on jobs, machine guns optional.”
“Don’t tempt me. I can always check out Oriceran. Maybe I can find a spare dragon or two there.”
Peyton rubbed his chin and pushed the ball toward Osiris. The cat pushed it back and meowed loudly.
“You know, a guard dragon would be pretty badass,” the hacker agreed. “We should give him a name like Fluffy.”
“Why would you name a dragon Fluffy?”
“Because it’s funnier if the name’s ironic. He’ll be a huge guard dragon with scales, not some cute little thing.”
Shay laughed. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Not exactly like dragons are gonna let some random human tell them what to do. Don’t meddle with them and all that.”
“Raise it from an egg. It’ll think you’re its mommy.”
She shrugged and shook her head, not sure how they’d ended up in this ridiculous discussion.
Maybe I can ask Alison what she knows about dragons. I’m sure they teach the kids about them at her school.
Peyton pushed the ball again to his pet, but the cat didn’t bat the ball back. Instead, he lifted his head and pranced off. It was hard not to see it as anything other than haughty.
“Got a lot of other shit to get in order before I worry about pets,” Shay commented. “Just fun to think about. Not everything’s money and ass-kicking for me.”
“Yeah, there’s also Brownstone.”
Shay rolled her eyes.
“Okay, not everything’s money, ass-kicking, or Brownstone for me.”
Her phone chimed with a text, and she pulled it out of her pocket. She frowned. It was from her department head.
Need to speak with your immediately. Your career and the future of archaeology and revised history are at stake.
“What the hell?”
Peyton stood and dusted his pants with his hands. “Ass-kicking or money? Bad news? Somebody need to die?”
“Maybe. It’s from my department head. He wants to talk to me right now.” Shay shook her head. “I haven’t talked to this guy outside of meetings all year, and suddenly he’s stalking me on and off campus.”
“Not like he knows where Warehouse Two is. You can just wait until you’re on campus next. What’s the worst thing he can do, fire you? That’s not your real job.”
Huh. What would happen if he tried to fire me? Still, what the hell does this message mean? The future of archaeology and history? Talk about being dramatic.
She stared at the message for a few more seconds. “No, something’s wrong. My instincts are telling me so.”
Peyton gave her an incredulous look. “Something wrong with some random professor? What, he got a really bad papercut, and he’s bleeding out by the printer?”
“If you remember, with your help, I became a random professor, too.” Shay shrugged. “Plus, this guy’s interested in something that might have a link to Oriceran, which means there could be some serious artifacts involved. Not like idiots don’t stumble upon random magic.” She shook her head. “No. I’m going now, and I want you to run support, just in case it’s some asshole I’m not expecting, like the Hollingsworth idiots or Yulia.”
“Okay, you’re the boss, but please tell me you’re not going to have a gunfight at UCLA. You do that, we might not be able to cover it up.”
“I’ll just stick to knives then.” She winked.
Peyton groaned.
“Just remember, this isn’t a tomb raid,” Peyton murmured through her earpiece. “And you’re at a college. Even if it’s nighttime, there are enough people there that if they hear any gunfire you will get swarmed with cops. If that happens, I’m guessing the little truce you have with that AET lieutenant will go away.”