The Fire Road

by Tymber Dalton

  She finally released him and stepped back, nodding as she wiped her tears away. “I know,” she said. “And that’s okay. Sometimes, we have to keep going for the people we love even though we don’t want to. You can redeem yourself.”

  “Even though I’m a pain in your arse and Lina might one day blow me up?”

  The pain in his voice that he tried to disguise with humor didn’t fool Elain at all. “I’ll work on that. Somehow.”

  Elain returned home and poofed into the bathroom. After a quick shower, she returned to bed and slipped under the covers.

  She wasn’t much closer to an answer, but at least in a couple of ways, Elain’s mind was now at rest.

  Marston had to live. Mercedes really had spoken to her in Maine that time.

  And she’d been able to give Marston a little bit of comfort.

  On that note, she closed her eyes and tried to get some rest.

  And tried to get the heartbreaking sound of Marston’s tears out of her brain as she’d left him and poofed back home.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You realize if this doesn’t work that I will hunt you down and strip the flesh from your living body, right?” Aliah asked the guy.

  The guy looked nervous, and rightfully so. Carl’s was a far more imposing body than hers was. “It’ll work. It’s super-simple, and it has the backups you wanted.” He pointed to the timer again. “Use that key to unlock the keypad, set it for how long you want it to tick down, and then close and lock the keypad. It can be preset for up to forty-eight hours.”

  “What about the phone?”

  “You have to dial the number, and let the call go through, then punch the code in. The phone will set it off immediately with maybe a five-second delay at the most, depending on the cell signal. It’s irreversible. The timer can be stopped, if you unlock it with the key and turn it off. And you can set it off immediately with the phone even if the timer still has time left on it.”

  “It won’t accidentally get a call and go off, will it?” She stared at the large device in the back of the truck. “That would fucking suck.”

  “No, it’ll only respond to punching the code in after it answers.” He handed her the keys. “Just make sure when it goes off that you’re at least twenty miles away and upwind, since you’re not a shifter. The blast radius won’t be that large, but it’ll give you a good head-start.”

  “Oh, I fucking plan to be a lot farther than that, dude.”

  “Um…can I ask something?”

  “I’d avoid the Midwest around eastern Missouri for now.”

  “Okay. Thanks. I live in Detroit.”

  “Wow. That’s a shithole that could benefit from a bomb.”

  “Cheap real estate, man. A bunch of us have settled there, buying up property. High crime. Like we give a shit about that. Less humans looking over our shoulders.”

  “Just out of curiosity, how’d you get the stuff to make this thing?”

  “We have a supplier based out of the Ukraine. We don’t ask, he don’t tell. Let’s just say my Russian had to get good by necessity, both written and spoken, over the years.”

  “Cool.”

  “You must really have a grudge against someone to go this big.”

  “None of your business. You got paid.”

  “I wasn’t complaining. I’m already trying to figure out how I can capitalize on this shit in the wake of the disaster. I’m probably going to set off a couple of small, dirty bombs in New York or something. Completely terrorize people and get them to desert the damn city so we can go in and clean out a few banks. Fucking radiation don’t bother us none. Our nest has pretty strong genes. We’re all shifters. Well, we have a couple of younglings who haven’t shifted yet, but they will eventually.”

  Now he had her attention. “How you know that? About the radiation, I mean.”

  He snorted. “My father was one of the scientists on the Manhattan Project. He did some secret testing on the side on our kind down at the Oak Ridge facility. Discovered it by accident. I mean, we can’t exactly survive a direct blast, duh. But fallout and radiation exposure? Shit. That’s nothing. Someone like you, though, without shifting genes? You’d be susceptible to radiation. That’s why I suggest being upwind of it when you set it off.”

  “Hey, if you’re so experienced with this shit, how come I’ve never heard of any going off?”

  “Because for starters, when I quote a price, most people say thanks but no thanks, we’ll go with ANFO, and they go away. I’ve built a couple of these before, but the people I build them for usually only use devices like this for intimidation. They make sure whoever they’re blackmailing knows the damn things are there, and they make them pay up to keep it from going off. Why you think shit’s so fucked up in Moscow right now? And North Korea? That crazy little fucker there, he’s being controlled by one of ours. A couple of devices have been intercepted by governments, but you bet your ass that their militaries keep that shit quiet. Most of the bombs I build are conventional ones. I also teach people how to build IEDs and shit.”

  “This will work, right?”

  “Yeah. Just make sure you’re ready to deploy it. Once it goes off, you can’t undo it. It’s not like bombing the shit out of someplace and they can rebuild. That’ll make a hot zone.”

  “That’s what I want.”

  He shook hands with her. “Good luck, dude. I’ll keep an eye on the papers.”

  Once the guy left, Aliah unhooked the car dolly from the back of the SUV, hooked it to the back of the truck holding the bomb in its cargo bay, and loaded the SUV onto the dolly.

  With that done, she boogied. The only concrete tie to her now was Carl’s mother. As Carl helplessly struggled in her brain to get her to stop, Aliah only laughed.

  “Carl, I never knew you were a momma’s boy. All the more fitting I blow her up when she triggers the bomb that nukes the Midwest.”

  She drove straight through to New Madrid, to a storage unit facility Carl owned there through one of his shell companies, and stashed the truck in a unit. Then she headed out to the farm where his mom Syrena lived.

  “Carl” had talked to the woman on the phone only once since Aliah had been wearing his meat suit. Their communications usually happened either through e-mail or text.

  When the older woman opened the door, she frowned. “What are you doing here?”

  “I had business locally,” Aliah said, walking in when Syrena stepped aside. “So I decided to stop by. No more problems like that asshole, Gary?”

  His mom frowned. “No. Except the daughter’s pregnant. It’s yours.”

  “Oh? Good. One more bastard running around to remember me by.” Aliah had yanked the info of that incident out of Carl’s brain. “Maybe I need to go pay the mother a visit and fuck her again and get her knocked up, too.”

  “She killed herself two weeks ago.”

  “Oh. Well, that is a shame. She wasn’t half-bad.” She pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and handed it to Carl’s mother. “Here.”

  Syrena suspiciously eyed it, but made no move to take it. “What’s that for? I have a phone.”

  “You’re going to help me out. I have something big in the mix, and there’s three million dollars in it for you if you just do what the fuck I say. Money you won’t have to share with anyone. Cash.”

  Now she looked even more suspicious. “What?”

  “You don’t need to know the details.”

  “How do I get the money?”

  “I’ll wire it to you as soon as it’s done,” Aliah told her. “All you have to do is, when I text you the number and code, exactly one hour later, call the number from this phone and punch in the four-digit code. Then you destroy the phone, dump it, and walk away.”

  She still wouldn’t take it. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to be sitting in a business meeting in front of twenty other people, a business meeting that will be videoconferenced to about thirty other people, and recorded. None of
them will see me pick up a phone, and I’ll have proof of it.”

  “What’s going to happen when I do?”

  “For three million dollars, do you really care?”

  She stared at the phone. Aliah could see her considering it.

  “How will that make me that much money?”

  Aliah tried to act like Carl would. “Look, I’ve got a bunch of deals in the works. All I need is an alibi. This is an untraceable phone. No one knows anything about this goddamned shithole, so they won’t trace you or it back to me. Meaning these business deals will make me a shit-ton of money.” He started to pull the phone away. “But, fine. I can call Leon or Shorty and—”

  She moved deceptively fast for an old cockatrice bitch who was a hundred-plus years old, give or take, and snatched the phone from his hand. “No. I’ll do it. That’s all I have to do? Make a phone call and punch in a code?”

  “I’ll text you exactly one hour before with the phone number you’ll call, and a four digit code. Reply to me with just OK to let me know you got it. When the number you call picks up, you punch in those four digits. That’s it. Smash the phone, dump it, and walk away.”

  “How will I know people won’t figure it’s me?”

  “Go down to the truck stop in Marston,” he said. “Lots of people stop in there. Make the call from the fucking bathroom or something. You’re a smart woman. Think of something.”

  “I’ll do it.” She stared at him. “You have a charger for it?”

  “Oh, for chrissake, it’s the same as the other one you have. Use that. Don’t use it for any other calls, either. Okay?”

  “When are we doing this?”

  “I’ll let you know. I’m still trying to finalize the meeting date. Keep your calendar open for the next two months. It’ll be during the day.” Aliah hoped to do it sooner than in two months, but she wanted to get her baby back first. Once that was done, she could have this triggered after she’d reached the northern border and could get across to Canada in the confusion.

  Aliah walked past Syrena and into the kitchen. She opened the fridge, grabbed a can of soda from there, and left a wad of cash, nearly ten grand, in its place. She’d seen the games Carl played with his mom regarding money.

  If nothing else, that much might help the woman get over whatever hesitations she might have.

  Aliah turned and found the woman standing in the kitchen doorway. “So…you leaving now?” Syrena asked.

  “Yep. That’s my plan. Just do what I say, and we’ll all be happier in the long run.”

  “I’ll be safe?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to take any chances. All my ducks in a row. That bullshit.” Aliah grinned the way she’d seen Carl grin in his memories. “Gonna take a lot of big, rich assholes for the ride of their lives. They won’t know what hit them. Needless to say, don’t say anything to anyone.” He walked past her and headed for the door.

  She was just about to step through the front door when Carl’s mother spoke. “This that big one you said you were working on? The Florida thing?”

  Aliah turned. “What part of not talking about this did I not make clear? I hear one word of you talking about this to anyone, and I’ll get someone else to fucking do it. You hear me?”

  She nodded.

  He headed out. Syrena was a bitch, and that was something Aliah had learned since she’d started living as Carl. But she was also greedy as fuck, and never did anything to fuck up a chance to make money.

  As she returned to the SUV and got in, Aliah couldn’t contain her grin. She’d left the car dolly with the truck in the storage unit. She’d already paid Shorty to be ready to move a truck for her. She’d left the cargo bay locked and didn’t leave the key. The cab doors were unlocked, the ignition key in it. She’d left a combo lock on the unit and would give him that info when she needed him to go drive the truck there. He could use the dolly to take his own car and then leave. Hell, he could have the dolly, if he wanted.

  Not that he’d survive to use it much.

  She’d told him that if he successfully completed the task, and the other party picked up the truck successfully, Carl would wire him twenty thousand dollars.

  But to keep his fucking mouth shut or he’d have to share that money with the others. Oh, and that she’d hacked into the surveillance cameras at the destination location and would be watching him.

  Which she had. The truck stop in Marston was pitifully understaffed and their IT department was lacking.

  They’d even used the factory-default password for the cameras. Which she’d since changed the passwords to so she could always log in. The assholes watching them at the store would never know the difference.

  Good old Shorty, he was as greedy as Syrena and had readily agreed to do it. It wasn’t the first time Carl had asked him to move trucks, no questions asked.

  Now all Aliah had to do was wait for word from Florida that they could move in and grab Cameron. She’d meet them, get her baby back, blow up the Midwest…and then she’d figure out her next step once they were safe.

  But first she’d grab a hotel room somewhere else, get some sleep, and then get her ass back to Maine.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Elain lay in bed, unable to sleep. She felt unsettled, disturbed. Not just because of the blockage over the nuclear bomb vision, but restless in general.

  The very air didn’t even feel right.

  Sleep eluded her.

  She wouldn’t go so far as to say she felt Samhain approaching as September slipped through their fingers, but if she was going to immerse herself fully in her role, maybe it was the collective energies of everyone who did believe in the special properties of the date who she was sensing.

  This really sucks.

  Then again, maybe it was the double burritos of doom she was feeling. It seemed when she was pregnant with Ellie that she was always tired during the day, and at night sometimes she couldn’t sleep if her life depended on it.

  Brodey rolled over and slipped his arm around her waist.

  “You all right, babe?” he silently asked through their mate-bond.

  “It’s right in front of us. The answer to this damned vision. I feel it. It’s right in front of our fricking faces, and I’m missing it.”

  He kissed the back of her neck. “If you need to go talk to the others, or go talk to Ryan, or whatever, I’ll take care of the kids.”

  “Baba Yaga keeps telling me we have to look back in time. I don’t know what else we can do.”

  She struggled not to feel helpless, but unfortunately, defeat seemed inevitable.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  She rolled in his arms, tucking her head against his chest. All she wanted to do was make him and his brothers happy, raise their kids. Love their family and friends.

  “You’re doing everything you can,” she said. “I love you. You don’t know how much I appreciate all three of you being here for me and putting up with all of this.”

  He kissed her. “Love you, too. Take your phone.”

  She nodded. Then she carefully got out of bed and retrieved shorts and a T-shirt from the closet and poofed into one of the guest rooms to put them on.

  After bringing her phone to her, she sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and tried to decide where she should go. Who she should talk to.

  Trust my instincts.

  Doing her best to clear her mind, she opted to let the Universe point her in the right direction. It couldn’t hurt. She’d tried everything else she could think of besides taking up Tarot cards, and she thought Mai might have placed an order for a deck of those yesterday, just for the hell of it.

  I need a hint.

  When she smelled cool, piney woods, she knew where she was even before she opened her eyes.

  Maine.

  What she wasn’t expecting, however, was to open her eyes and see the dark, menacing hulk of the rock pile looming over her. She quickly scrambled backward away from it across the damp grass, h
er breath catching in her throat and cutting off her scream of fright.

  It’s like a goddamned boogeyman.

  Once her pulse had slowed, she finally stood and stared at the rock pile.

  Why would she be here of all fucking places?

  It was a nightmare brought to life. Her nightmare.

  Multiple nightmares, now that she’d seen a glimpse of how the literally cursed thing was constructed.

  And knowing whose blood had been soaked into the rocks on top.

  Just to make sure, she pinched her left arm and winced.

  Nope, not asleep.

  She walked over to it and finally worked up the nerve to reach out and touch one of the stones with the tip of one finger.

  No hot wind, no faint screaming.

  None.

  Nothing.

  Sure, the latent energy within it was there, but not the newer creepy shit.

  When she laid the palm of her hand against the rocks, she still felt nothing but cool rock and inherent funk.

  Slipping her phone into her pocket, she started to climb, then realized how stupid that was. She closed her eyes and poofed herself onto the top of it, ready to get herself down again if she felt a hint of whatever it was she’d felt there before.

  Still zilch.

  Just the ambient funk.

  Old ambient funk.

  What the hell?

  She turned in a circle and felt…nothing.

  Cockatrice. There had to be a connection. The harder she tried to see it, the more the answer seemed to slip out of reach. Like there was something there dodging and weaving out of her vision. A floater in her mind’s eye. One of those things where you only saw it on the periphery, but when you focused on it, it disappeared and made you think you were fucking crazy.

  She looked at her phone. It wasn’t quite midnight yet, so she poofed back to her own yard and called up a number.

  “Good evening, my dear,” the cautious voice answered.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  “Of course you may.”

  “I meant…can I come there, right now, and talk to you?”