by TJ Klune
There was a storm in his head. Everything felt surreal. “I have to go.”
“Goddamn you, Nate. You need to stay safe. Get as far away from that Marine and the girl as possible. I don’t know what’s happening, but you can’t get mixed up in it—”
“More than I already am?”
“Nate. Please. I’m asking you to do this. For me. Please. Just… drive. As fast as you can. Head east. Hole up somewhere until this blows over. Use cash. No cards. This doesn’t have to involve you. This doesn’t have anything to do with you. Leave, Nate. Do it now.”
He remembered the way Alex had braided Art’s hair, gentle and soft, snapping near her ear for the scrunchie.
How big the sunglasses were on her face.
How Alex had been embarrassed to ask for a razor.
He’s my protector.
You have to believe me when I say I would rather die than see anything happen to her. I’m doing everything I can to help her. Everything.
The way they’d both looked back at him after playing a game of Old Maid, asking if he was going to come outside with them, because nothing smelled as good as the air after it rained.
The way the flowers had bloomed.
God, the field looked like it’d been so fucking alive.
“I can’t,” he whispered.
“Oh. Nate. No. No. Please. Please don’t do this.”
“I have to tell them. I have to—”
“You don’t. You don’t owe them a damn thing!”
Ruth couldn’t understand. She hadn’t seen the way Alex had showed Art how to skip rocks. She hadn’t had a cup of coffee waiting for her made just right by a man who didn’t know how to smile. “I think I do.”
“If anything happens to you, I’m going to murder you, do you get me?”
He laughed. It cracked right down the middle. “Yeah. God, yeah. I understand. You be safe, okay? Don’t let the Man get you.”
“Kiddo, I’ve been around these types longer than you’ve been alive. They don’t know who they’re fucking with. You call me if you can, you understand? Don’t you be someone who disappears. Okay?”
“Yeah, Ruth. Thank you. I—thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get the fuck out of here.”
But he could hear her smile.
The phone beeped in his ear.
He tossed it on the bench seat.
He headed toward the cabin, pushing the truck as fast as it could go.
He was almost to the turnoff when his phone rang again.
He thought about ignoring it.
He glanced down.
EDDIE across the display.
He picked it up.
The line crackled.
“Hello?”
“—ate, you—hear me?”
“Big Eddie? Yeah, I’m here. We’ve got a bad connection. I’m almost up—”
“—immy. He’s—need the guy. They—who he is.”
“What? Eddie, you’re breaking up. I can’t hear—”
A clear burst. “Jimmy. Nate, Jimmy is dead.”
“Who the fuck is—the water guy?”
“Yes. He’s been shot. It’s been days. I called—and they don’t—”
“I can’t hear you! What did you say?”
“Randy. There is no one named Randy employed by public works.”
Nate’s stomach twisted. “How do you know?” he asked dully.
“I called. Spoke with the big boss. Nate, who is he? Where did he come from? Did he give you a last name? They’re going to want to know. The police. It’s—”
“No,” Nate said, his own voice sounding far away. “No. He never… said… Eddie, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to—”
“Nate, don’t do this, okay? Just—stay—we’ll find him—don’t move—”
Nate threw down the phone and gunned the engine.
A minute later, he saw the sign for Herschel Lake.
He went as quickly as he could up the mountain, dust kicking up in great clouds behind him. The old truck rattled and groaned as the tires bounced in potholes. He hit his head on the ceiling of the cab. His phone was knocked off the seat. The groceries rattled on the passenger-side floor.
He gritted his teeth together, pressing harder on the gas pedal. The needle crept toward forty.
He exhaled sharply when his cabin finally came into view. He started honking the horn frantically, the sound low and weak.
Alex must have heard, because the front door opened and he stepped out onto the porch, gun drawn. Art peered out from behind him, eyes wide.
Nate slammed on the brakes, the end of the truck fishtailing slightly as he came to a stop. He threw it into park before shoving the door open.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, voice flat.
“Seventh Sea,” Nate said, gasping for air. “It’s about Seventh Sea.”
Alex’s expression hardened almost immediately. The gun was pointed in Nate’s direction yet again.
“Whoa!” Nate cried, raising his hands and taking a step back. “Goddammit, Alex, I’m not—”
“How do you know that name?” Alex asked, voice cold.
“I have a contact, okay? Back in Washington. The first day I left here. When you asked if I’d made any phone calls. I lied, okay? I called my contact. Asked questions. Asked her to look up Alex Delgado.”
“Uh-oh,” Art breathed.
The gun didn’t waver.
Nate took a step toward the porch, hands still raised. “I’m not here to hurt you. I swear. I would never do that. To you. To her. You both are my—”
“Don’t,” Alex snapped. “Don’t you fucking say a goddamn word.”
“You’re my friends,” Nate said, ignoring the warning. “The water guy.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “The guy that came up here? What about him.”
“I don’t think he’s who he says he is. He was in town, and there was—it doesn’t matter. A man is dead, and I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Who did you call?” Alex demanded. “What the hell did you do?”
“I asked questions. I’m sorry. I didn’t—I had to. It’s not—”
“Alex,” Art said, pulling on his pant leg.
“I told you,” Alex growled. “I told you that you couldn’t ask questions. That you had to take it for what it was. That you could get hurt. That you could get her hurt.”
“I know,” Nate said weakly, taking another step. “I wasn’t—I didn’t think. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. I didn’t know.”
“Alex,” Art said again.
“I’m doing what I’m doing for a reason,” Alex said. “Why did you think I was—”
“Alex.”
“What, Art? I’m trying to—”
“We need to go.”
The barrel of the gun shook. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “We have to hurry.”
“Get to your room. Pack what you can. Now.”
She glanced at Nate before disappearing into the cabin.
Alex glared at Nate once more before following her inside.
Nate froze for a moment. His heart was thundering in his chest. His throat felt tight. He could barely take a breath.
He was up the steps into the cabin before he even realized he was moving.
Alex was in the kitchen, taking cans of food from the pantry, lining them up on the counter. He ignored Nate, leaning down and grabbing the block of water bottles.
Art was in the bedroom, her duffel bag and Alex’s opened on the bed. She was shoving clothes inside in big handfuls.
Nate went to his own bedroom. He didn’t know what to do. Should he be packing too? Should he be trying to talk to Alex? Should he just crawl into bed and pull the comforter up over his head until all the noise around him fell away and he could pretend these past days hadn’t happened?
Instead, he grabbed his own bag and began to pack.
&nb
sp; There was no order to it. He grabbed everything. Jeans and underwear and boots. His toothbrush. His hands were shaking, and the band wrapping around his chest made it harder to breathe. His movements were jerky, almost mechanical. He could only hear Ruth’s warning in his head, telling him to run, that he needed to run.
He heard Art grunting out in the hall. He zipped up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and went out the bedroom door.
She was trying to drag both bags. Nate knocked her hand away on one of them and lifted it for her. Her smile was a little wobbly, but she was able to pull the remaining bag much more easily.
The kitchen was empty.
The front door was still wide open.
For a brief moment, Nate wondered if Alex had left them both behind.
He came back in through the door, a dark look on his face. The gun had been tucked away again. He saw Art. “You get everything?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”
“It’ll have to do. Keys.”
Nate blinked, unsure of what was happening.
“Nate,” Alex snapped, holding out his hand. “Give me the goddamn keys.”
Nate reached into his pocket. The keys pressed painfully into his skin, but he managed to pull them out. Alex snatched them out of his hand before he grabbed his duffel from Nate. He bent over to pick up Art’s too. “We need to go,” he told her. “You stay behind me. Hold on to the back of my shirt. You don’t let go. This is just like on the Mountain, okay? We move quick. We move quiet. And we don’t look back.”
“Okay,” she said in a small voice.
“Good. Let’s go.”
“Come on, Nate,” she said, glancing back at him.
And Alex stopped. “What?”
“Nate’s coming too.”
“No,” Alex said. “He’s not. This is—”
“We’re not leaving him,” Art insisted. “We need him, Alex. He’s part of this.”
“You can’t know that—”
“Do you trust me?”
“That’s not fair,” he snapped at her, and for the first time since Nate had known him, there was a heartbreaking look of fear on his face. Of desperation. It was naked and fierce, and Nate almost couldn’t take it. “You know I trust you more than anything in this world.”
“And you made me a promise.”
“I know.”
“Then you need to trust me now,” she said. “We need him. You need him.”
Nate thought Alex was going to argue. He looked up at Nate, scowl ever-present, but he was panicking. Nate hadn’t thought it was possible for Alex to be anything but stoic, but here he was, eyes wide, searching Nate’s face for something. It was a dissonance Nate hadn’t prepared himself for. He’d seen Alex threaten. He’d seen him braid hair like it was the easiest thing in the world.
He wasn’t supposed to be scared.
Neither of them were.
“Fine,” Alex said, shaking his head. “Nate, you will do what I say when I say it. If I think there is even a second that you’re not, I will shoot you in the head and leave your body where it lands. Do you get me?”
“Yeah.” Nate could barely breathe.
“He won’t shoot you.” Art patted Nate on the hand. “He likes you too much for—”
“Art,” Alex barked.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Not the time. I got it. It’s never the time.”
“Art, behind me. Nate, behind her. We move quick. We don’t stop. We’re in the truck. I’m driving.”
“He’s really good at driving,” Art said, looking up at Nate. “Especially when people are shooting at us.”
“That’s not as comforting as you think it is,” Nate said faintly.
“I know. But it needed to be said.”
Alex was at the door, slowly scanning the tree line. His stance was stiff, a duffel bag over each shoulder. Art went behind him and grabbed the tail of his flannel shirt. She looked back at Nate. “Stay close,” she said. “It’ll happen fast.”
“What will happen fa—”
“Now,” Alex said. “Move. Now.”
Nate did the only thing he could.
He followed.
They were on the porch, the wood creaking beneath them. Alex stopped at the top step for a moment, looking around again. And then he was moving down the steps and onto the gravel, rocks crunching under his feet. Art was his shadow, holding tightly to his shirt. Nate felt like he was moving underwater.
Alex tossed the duffels into the back of the truck. He motioned for Nate to do the same. There were white garbage bags already sitting on the bed. It looked as if they were filled with the cans Alex had been taking from the pantry. The water was there too. Some blankets. Nate dropped his duffel next to theirs. He turned in time to see Alex lifting Art into the truck. He turned to round the back to the passenger side when—
He stopped.
A little farther down the dirt road stood a man.
“Uh,” Nate said. “Alex?”
“What?”
“I think the water guy is here again.”
“What the hell are you—”
Nate was shoved back behind Alex, the gun already drawn and pointing at Randy.
Art whimpered inside the truck.
“Staff Sergeant Weir,” Randy said merrily. “What a pleasure it is to finally meet you.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Alex asked, voice low and dangerous. He had one hand behind him, holding on to Nate’s arm, keeping him in place. It took Nate a second to realize Alex was protecting him. He peered over Alex’s shoulder to see that Randy hadn’t moved. He was about twenty yards away. He looked unarmed.
“Who I am doesn’t matter,” Randy said. “You have something that doesn’t belong to you. I’d like you to return it now. This little test has gone on long enough, I think.”
“What test?”
Randy smiled. “You really think we didn’t know where you were? We could have come in at any time, Weir. In fact, that was the plan to begin with. But the powers that be decided that a field test was in order. To see how the Seventh Sea would react to… outside stimulus. There were those of us that disagreed, but. You know how it goes. Rank and file. Rank and file. We do what we’re told.” His smiled widened. “Well, most of us do, anyway. You certainly caused a bit of a hullabaloo, didn’t you? They weren’t expecting that. Though I must commend you, as it definitely pointed out the faults in our security system. I’m sure those in charge will take that into consideration when deciding your fate. You helped us, after all.”
“You can’t have her.”
Randy laughed. “Her? Her? Weir, there never has been a her. You know that as well as I do. And you don’t get to decide what happens to it. It doesn’t belong to you, no matter what your misplaced paternal instinct is telling you. It’s tragic, don’t you think?”
Alex stiffened.
Randy picked up on it almost immediately. “Oh, yes. I know all about you, Alex Weir. Your history. Where you came from. Your file is rather… detailed. Did you ever wonder why they picked you? Out of everyone? You were a grunt. A machine. Brute force without a brain. You were a weapon, and you went where you were pointed. But you never stopped to ask why. Why they chose you. Why they gave you the access to it they did.”
“Don’t,” Alex said in a thunderous voice.
Randy’s eyes narrowed. “They picked you because you were broken. They picked you because they wanted to see if it would latch on to you. Like a host. Symbiotic. They wanted to see what it was capable of in the face of human grief. I think even they were surprised just how far it went. You thought you were a glorified babysitter. You didn’t know that you were part of the test.”
“I don’t care. You can’t have her. She doesn’t belong to you.”
“And you think it belongs to you?” Randy asked, sounding incredulous. “Alex. Alex. It’s not real. None of what you’re feeling is real. It is using yo
u. It has manipulated you. That is not a little girl. That is a monster. It doesn’t give two shits about you. It never has. In your sorrow, you just couldn’t tell the difference. And for that, I am sorry.”
“Who do you work for?” Alex asked.
Randy shrugged. “Does it matter? Probably not a division you’ve ever heard of. Let’s just say I’m the one they call when something has been taken and needs to be returned.”
“You’re an Enforcer.”
Randy arched an eyebrow. “Okay, so you have heard of us before. Interesting. And here I was thinking you were just a sorry grunt with dumb luck. I won’t make that mistake again. I would have taken it from you sooner, but—well. The last few days have been enlightening, and I had my orders.” He glanced over Alex’s shoulder. “Mr. Cartwright. The Mafia. Really. That’s what you thought. That’s where your imagination took you.”
“How did you—”
“You wired us when you came here,” Alex growled.
“I did. Just not near the water meter. Nice of you to check, though, after I left. Can’t be too careful, I’m sure. Not in this day and age when paranoia can keep you alive. But the time for all of this has come to an end, I’m afraid. I didn’t expect that local to get involved. Small towns, right, Mr. Cartwright?”
“Big Eddie,” Nate breathed. “You leave him alone. He’s got a family—”
Randy waved a hand in dismissal. “I don’t care about him. We’ll all be long gone by the time he even thinks of you again. Mr. Cartwright, it’s time for you to listen to me. You stand behind a man wanted by the United States of America for treason. He has defected and, in the process, has taken something that did not belong to him. If you don’t surrender immediately, you’ll be considered an accomplice. You will not like what happens then. However, if you yield, I will see to it myself that you are treated fairly. You have thirty seconds to decide. Starting now.”
Nate didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what they were talking about. This had nothing to do with him. He’d come here to grieve for a life lost. For the mistakes he’d made. To lick his wounds and figure out what to do next. He didn’t ask for this. He didn’t ask for any of this.
“If you do this,” Alex said quietly, still staring straight ahead. “If you… I won’t blame you. But you can’t stop me. They can’t have her. Not again. I need to get her home. Please, Nate.”