I
return my attention to the road after that. A getaway isn’t much use if we end up crashing in the middle of it, and I’m driving too fast to do anything but concentrate. I can’t drive like Jack does, with that uncanny knack he has for knowing where there are police patrols, and the ability to push the Aston to its limits, but I still drive as quickly as the traffic around us allows. I’m wound tight as I drive, glancing around constantly, looking around for any sign that Grayson and I might have been followed.
So when the black sedan pulls in two cars behind us, I spot it instantly. I almost panic then, almost floor the accelerator and just hope for the best, but I take a breath, forcing myself to be calm as I look closer in the rearview mirror. It isn’t the same car as before. It can’t be, because this car has a perfect windshield rather than one covered in cracks from where a body has hit it. There have to be plenty of black sedans in the world, right? It might be nothing. It might just be someone on their way back from work.
I believe that about as much as I believe that the men back at the school had just been there for something innocent. I have to act. I have to do something that will tell me straight away whether this car is following me, so at the next intersection, I take a good look at the traffic around me, grit my teeth, and run a red light. Horns sound, and brakes screech, but when I look back, I have my answer.
The black sedan hasn’t followed.
“Celes?” Grayson asks. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry. I thought…”
I tail off as I glance up at the rearview mirror again. The sedan is still way back at the intersection, but there, two cars back again, another black car has pulled in behind us from a side street. It could just be a coincidence. It’s a different make and model to the sedan, and black’s a common color for cars. But somehow, I don’t buy it.
I take the next turning, not caring that it sends me cutting across traffic. Again, the following car doesn’t go with the move, but again, a jet black vehicle settles in a few places back a street or so later. This one is a van, which stays for about three blocks before being replaced by what looks a lot like the original sedan. I guess most people would have forgotten about it by that point. After all, who really looks at the cars behind them?
“Celes,” Grayson says. “Talk to me.”
There’s only one conclusion I can come to by this point. “I think we’re being followed, Grayson.”
“Followed?” Grayson sounds like he hardly believes it, but then he takes another look at me. It’s easy to guess what he’s doing. He’s looking at all the changes to my appearance, finally thinking about why I might have needed to make them. “Celes, are you in some kind of trouble?”
I bite my lip, weaving past another couple of cars. “You could say that. Look, Grayson, I need you to trust me for now, okay?dth=
Grayson nods without hesitation. “I do trust you.”
I head away from the town, out onto the highways. There, I guess that I’ll have the advantage. After all, I’m the one in the sports car. Once I’m on the open road, I give up worrying about what the police will think and just go as fast as I can. I figure that if the police stop us, at least whoever’s following won’t dare do anything with them around. I hope.
So for the next half hour, I play cat and mouse with more black vehicles than I can count. I have the speed, but it never seems to be enough. I’ll power away from the sedan or one of its sister vehicles, but whenever I slow down enough to look round, there’s another one, taking over the chase. It reminds me of the way I’ve heard wolves run down deer, pushing them towards one another, running them until they drop from exhaustion.
Of course, since I’m the deer in this scenario, I don’t want to think about what happens then.
My phone rings again, and I start to ignore it. This isn’t the time for an argument with Jack. Yet almost as soon as I think that, I change my mind. After all, if anyone can help me now, it’s Jack. I take out my phone and answer. On the other end, Jack’s voice is tense, even frantic. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him like that before.
“Celes?”
“Jack!”
“Celes, are you safe? Does someone have you?”
It takes me a moment to realize what he means. When I do, I feel a second of deep embarrassment. With my going missing this morning, Jack actually thinks I’ve been kidnapped, when I’ve actually just gone off looking for my boyfriend. Of course, given that the black van’s back on my tail when I look at the mirror again, there might still be time for his first instinct to be proven right.
“Celes?” Jack repeats.
“Jack. Jack, I’m fine.” For a moment, relief at hearing his voice overwhelms me. “No, I’m not fine. I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have done it. I took the car. I just wanted to see… to move on. I needed to visit Grayson again.”
Jack’s groan is audible down the phone. I know what he must think. That I’m an idiot. Worse, that I’ve gotten into the spoiled little princess role far too much. I’m surprised to find how much it matters to me what he must think. I don’t want to disappoint him like that, and now I have.
“Were you followed?” Jack asks, his voice tight.
“That’s the problem,” I say.
“Oh, Celes.” Another groan. “What happened?”
I explain about the cars swapping in and out behind me, despite all the things I’ve been doing to try to lose them. Jack doesn’t seem surprised by it.
“It’s the professional way to tail someone. The idea is that people will spot one car that’s behind them for miles, but different cars just look like normal traffic. You did well to spot them at all.”
There’s a faint note of approval there that reminds me of the way Jack sounded after his ‘test’ with the gun at the diner. Like I’ve done better than he expected me to. That’s why it’s such a shame that I have to tell him the rest of it.
“I only spotted them because the sedan looked just like the one they used when they tried to attack me and Grayson.”
“They spotted you with him?” Jack asks. “How many were there?”
“Just two at the time. I knocked one out, and the other… well, he probably won’t be in great shape for a while either.”
“Do I want to know how you did that?” Jack asks, and then pauses. “No, there’s no time. Your ex-boyfriend is in a lot of danger now, Celes.”
“I know,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
I can just picture Jack shaking his head. “It’s too late to start worrying about that now. Tell me where he is, and I’ll send a team around to keep an eye on him.”
I hesitate just a fraction. “Grayson is with me, Jack.”
“Okay.” It’s a shade of the word that doesn’t mean it at all. “Where are you now? I’ve been able to take a general direction off the scanners, but I need something more specific.”
“I…” I look up and read the next sign I see to Jack. “Jack, I’m not sure how long I can keep this up.”
“You’re doing fine,” Jack reassures me. “You just need to keep driving, Celes. Whatever else happens, you keep driving. Don’t even stop for the police. The Others obviously know that you’ve spotted them, but from the sounds of it, they probably won’t make a move to try to stop you until I’m there.”
“Probably?” Probably isn’t a reassuring word. Probably is only a step up from maybe.
“Celes.” Jack’s voice is suddenly firm. “I’m going to get there. You just need to hold on until I do. Do you understand?”
I bite my lip. “Yes.”
He hangs up, and Grayson and I are alone again. Grayson is looking more alarmed by the second.
“Celes, I know you said to trust you, and I do, but don’t you think you should tell me more of what’s going on? Who was that on the phone?”
“That was…” I suddenly find that I don’t want to try to explain who Jack is to Grayson. I don’t know if he’ll understand. I don’t know what I can say to
make
him understand. “…a friend. He’s going to try to help us, but from the sounds of it, it’s going to take a little while.”
“What about the rest of it?” Grayson asks. “Why do you look like this, Celes?”
I knew he’d ask it at some point, but how much of an answer can I give him? I don’t want to tell him all the stuff about my possibly being some kind of freak, but I owe Grayson something at least.
“Grayson,” I say, “I have a new identity, because my old one was in danger from men like the ones who attacked us. I can’t explain everything about why, but I found out some stuff recently that means I’m suddenly very interesting to a lot of people. A group called the Underground is trying to keep me out of danger.”
“What kind of stuff?” Grayson presses.
I smile tightly. “Well, it turns out that I’m adopted, for one thing. For the rest… like I said, you’re going to have to trust me Grayson.”
Grayson stares out ahead of him for a moment. Finally, he seems to come to some kind of decision. “Celes, whatever kind of trouble you’re in, I’ll be there. You can count on me. We’re a team, you and I.” He reaches over then to touch my face. “You’ve always been gorgeous to me, but now I’m seeing how gorgeous you can be. And having lost you for a short while has shown me how much I care for you. I’m not letting you go, Celes.”
His hand brushes over my cheek, and I lean into the touch, sighing as I think about how good this feels. I’m so busy enjoying the sensation that I barely notice that the van behind us has been joined by a couple of sedans. When I do, my chest tightens. They’re making some kind of move.
I put my weight on the accelerator, squeezing every ounce of speed from the Aston Martin, and just hoping that Jack is going to be in time.
TEN
I
return my attention to the road after that. And
even without many other cars on the highway, I still have to concentrate hard at the speeds we’re going. We’re easily doing more than a hundred in places, but even that isn’t enough to get rid of the cars chasing. It’s not that they can catch us, but they’re simply relentless. As soon as I have to slow down again, they’re back.
Worse, they seem to be determined to close the gap. Where before they hung back, now the black cars come close, forcing me to push forward again and again. I don’t realize what they’re doing at first, because there’s no way that they can catch me like that, but then I get it. Each burst forward is burning fuel, and driving like that, it’s a pretty good bet that the sports car Grayson and I are in will run out of gas before their vehicles do.
I realize that the only chance now is speed. Sustained, relentless speed to leave them so far behind that they can’t hope to catch up. I power along the road, overtaking cars while barely looking at what might be coming the other way, driving recklessly, even dangerously, in my need to get away. I don’t know for sure what will happen if the cars behind catch up, but if what happened at Jack’s apartment is anything to go by, I don’t want to find out.
So I drive. I drive as fast as I can for as long as I can. I drive until there hasn’t been a sign of the following vehicles for long minutes, until the fuel gauge is on the red line, and I know I’ll have to start looking for a gas station soon, or Grayson and I will grind to a halt on the side of the road. We have to be safe by now, don’t we?
“Celes…”
Grayson is looking behind us, and there’s real fear in his tone. I know what I’ll see even before I glance in the mirror, but I do it anyway. Three black cars, all sedans this time, have pulled in behind us.
They’ve beaten us. Run us ragged so that now there isn’t any way for us to escape. The cars start to pull forward, gaining ground on the Aston a little at a time. What will they do when they catch up? Force us off the road? Shoot us without bothering to stop? I swallow nervously as I realize that, whatever they plan to do, there isn’t anything I can do to stop it now.