Fear (11 page)

Gaia turned her attention back to the park ahead. A block away, she saw a final few joggers and rollerbladers spinning around the fence beside the reservoir. A single skateboarder was cutting back and forth across the junction of the paths, tipping his board up on the front wheels, then on the back, cutting tight circles and dodging the passing runners.

It was getting so dark that the people ahead were little more than dark silhouettes. Gaia couldn't make out features, or hair color, or even the color of the clothes they were wearing.

That's far enough,
Gaia realized. There was no point in continuing this game in the dark. If Tatiana couldn't pick out the spies in daylight, she wasn't going to spot them in the dark. So far as Gaia knew, Tatiana wasn't carrying any night vision equipment.

Gaia turned around again and looked back along the path. It was almost as empty behind her as it was ahead. She tried to pick Tatiana out of the handful of dark figures.

A skateboarder slipped past on her left, cutting so close that she could feel the wind of his passage. The ball-bearing wheels of the board made a
metallic hiss
as the guy zipped along the sidewalk. He cut out about a dozen yards, pivoted on the nose of the board, and turned back sharply. This time he passed Gaia so closely that it sent her hair flying.

Gaia scowled and turned her head to watch the guy zip back toward the reservoir. No matter where you went in this city or what time of day, you could count on a skateboard jerk. She had just turned her attention back to looking for Tatiana when the sound of the skateboard wheels came whirring up behind her again.

It had been a long day, and all this walking around and worrying had done nothing to help with Gaia's stress level. The last thing she needed was a guy trying to flirt by running over her toes. As the sound of the wheels grew closer, Gaia bent her knees and got ready. The noise was right behind her, then off to the right.
She tensed, turned, and grabbed.

Gaia caught the skateboarder by the back of his jacket and pulled him clean off his feet. The skateboard continued on down the path, riderless, while the rider squirmed in Gaia's grip.

“Look,” she said. “You want to think about giving people a little space?”

“Absolutely,” said the guy in her grip. “But I'd rather share with you.”

Gaia frowned. The voice sounded familiar. Only it couldn't be. “Ed? Is that you?”

“That's the rumor. Want to check it out?”

“But. . .” Gaia released her grip on the back of his jacket. She studied him in the dim light, trying to see his face. “How. I mean. . . your legs—”

“Are fine,” said Ed. He flashed her a
smile that penetrated the darkness.

For a moment Gaia could do nothing but stare at him. Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him fiercely. For the moment, all the thoughts about keeping Ed at a distance were gone. She wasn't worried what her uncle might do if he found out how much she cared about Ed. She wasn't thinking about Loki at all. All she could think was,
Ed Fargo is walking.

“How did this happen?” she asked. It wasn't until she tried to talk that she realized she was crying. Her face was buried against Ed's neck and her voice was broken by sobs.

Ed's arms went around her and returned the hug. “It's been happening for a long time,” he said. “I've been getting better, but I've been afraid to admit it.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “When you get an answer to that one, let me know.”

Gaia finally relaxed her grip and stepped back and pointed in the direction where the skateboard had gone. “Are you supposed to be doing this?”

“Pushing off mongo-foot?” Ed shrugged. “Most people keep the front foot on and push with the back, but I wanted to pop a phobia, so I—”

Gaia pressed her hands to her temples. “All right, I don't know what any of that means. I just wanted to know if you should be back on the board already.”

“That depends—you want the doctor answer or the Ed answer?”

“Both.”

“The doctor answer is that I'm supposed to be taking it easy. Doing a little walking. Getting my strength back.”

“And the Ed answer?”

He grinned. “The Ed answer is, you can't do a front-side half cab or pull a boni-oni or even a barley grind without a board under your feet.”

Gaia choked out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a cry. “You sure you didn't break your brain when you got your legs working? What are you talking about?”

“Magic words that only the cult of the board can fathom,” said Ed. “You'll get used to it.”

She mopped the tears from her face. “This is. . .” Gaia stopped and swallowed. “This is just amazing.”

“It's not that amazing,” said Ed. “I haven't even managed a three-sixty or a varial.”

“That's not what I mean, and you know it.”

“Yeah, I know.” He smiled again, but it was a softer expression. “It's pretty amazing to me, too. I almost forgot what riding was like. Hell, I almost forgot what walking was like. I think I was trying to forget.”

Gaia sniffed and wiped her face again. She was suddenly glad it was getting dark because she was sure her face was flushed and her eyes red. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

“That part was fate,” said Ed. “I've been thinking about how I should tell you, but I couldn't come up with that perfect moment. I thought maybe at the prom, you know. I could hobble over to your table, ask you to dance, and then bust some moves.” He broke out into some kind of fifth-generation hip-hop that he must have seen on his mother's aerobics tape. “But then I remembered that I'm a really bad dancer.”

Gaia laughed. “So you decided to follow me and skate over my toes instead?”

“Hey, I didn't actually hit any toeage,” Ed replied. “And I didn't follow you, either. That's where the fate part comes in.” He pointed up the path toward the now deserted reservoir. “I came up here to skate with some guys I used to know. They left a few minutes ago, and I was just getting in a few moves before I hit the subway. I look around and boom, Gaia.”

Gaia wasn't sure if she believed him or not. “Ten jillion people in this city, and you just happened to run into me?”

“See?” he said. “Fate.”

“Yeah.” Gaia felt this warm feeling down inside. She tried to remember the last time she had felt anything like it. Maybe it was when she woke up in Ed's bed after the first and only time they made love.
Maybe that feeling was happiness.

“Hey,” said Ed. “It's getting pretty dark in here. You want to go somewhere? Celebrate my escape from the vile clutches of the crutches?”

Gaia started to give the automatic “no.” She had to keep Ed safe by keeping him away. But she pushed that thought away. It wasn't every day you saw a miracle. If Ed could get his legs back, maybe a normal evening wasn't too much to hope for?

“Sure,” she said. “But we need to wait for Tatiana.” It would have been nice to get some Ed-alone time, but abandoning her spy-catching partner in midplan was probably a bad idea.

“Tatiana? Is she coming here?” asked Ed.

Gaia nodded toward the dark path. “She's back there somewhere. She should be along in a couple of minutes.”

“Yeah?” Ed looked back down the path. “That's, uh, good.”

There was a tone in his voice that Gaia couldn't quite make out. “You and Tatiana have been spending a lot of time together.”

“Yeah.”

“You're really getting along.”

“Tatiana's great,” said Ed. “You should have seen how surprised she was when she saw me on my feet yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” Gaia stared into his open, handsome face. “You really like her?”

He shrugged. “Of course.”

A tightness grabbed at Gaia's throat. She should have known. Ed had told Tatiana that he could walk a whole day before he told Gaia. They had been spending all those days and nights together. It was obvious that Ed was thinking of Tatiana first, Gaia second.
That's good,
said the little voice in her head.
That's the way it has to be.
Gaia hated the little voice.

“If you're going to wait for Tatiana,” said Ed, “I should probably go check on my skateboard. The way that thing was moving, it's probably halfway to—”

His words were cut off by a scream from the darkness. For a moment Gaia stood rooted in place. Then the scream came again, and she was flying through the night.

She wasn't sure, but it sounded an awful lot like Tatiana.

“YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR
that,” the spy said through clenched teeth. He held up his arm. Even through the material of his jacket, Tatiana could see the spreading stain of blood where she had bitten into his arm.

Tatiana darted to her right.
A fist hit her on the shoulder, spreading electric fire up and down her arm and spinning her around.
For a guy that looked so normal, the spy hit hard. She nursed her sore arm as she circled back around to her left. Her heart was pounding so hard, it seemed to be in her throat instead of her chest. She could barely hear over its snare-drum beat.
Get away,
the heart drum seemed to pound out.
Get away. Get away. Get away.

The spy faked to his right, then cut left and threw another punch.

Tatiana jumped back, barely staying clear of his whistling fist. She tried to remember what she had learned in karate class and swung her foot toward him in an attempt at a leg sweep, but there was a big difference between taking a class in a nice clean dojo and fighting a professional spy in the dark. Tatiana's foot only grazed the man's shin.

The spy struck back with a stiff right hand that caught Tatiana in the ribs. No one—
no one
—in her life had ever hit Tatiana like this before. It
hurt.
She backed off a step and started circling again, trying to stay out of the man's reach.

Tatiana's idea of taking the guy out herself seemed pretty funny now. Or it would have been funny if she wasn't hurting so badly. Her chances of getting out of this on her own seemed as
close to zero as the temperature back in Moscow.

“Gaia!” she shouted. “Gaia, help!” It was hopeless. Gaia was probably blocks away by now and long out of earshot. There was no one left along the paved path. There was nothing but dark trees on either side. Tatiana was going to have to face this guy alone.

The spy rushed at her. He brought a hand down in a vicious,
knifing blow.
Enough of her training remained that Tatiana automatically raised an arm to block. But even the block sent pain running from her wrist to her shoulder. Her left arm fell numb. Tatiana pulled back, giving the spy more space.

The man in the gray sweater paused, cursed under his breath, and rubbed at his bleeding arm. “You probably gave me some kind of infection.”

“I hope so,” said Tatiana. Her voice sounded shaky and breathless in her own ears, but at least she was still talking.

The spy extended a finger and shook it at her face. “I'm going to make you pay for what you did. I'm going to—”

Tatiana jumped up and delivered a straight kick that caught the man high on the leg. The spy grunted, staggered, and hit the ground hard.

Tatiana smiled to herself. Her karate instructor would have been proud. This guy might outweigh her by sixty or seventy pounds and be six inches taller, but she could still take him. She leapt forward and aimed another kick at his side.

The man rolled, caught her foot in his right hand, and flipped Tatiana back. She hit the ground flat on her back, the air left her lungs for the second time in five minutes, and she gasped as she fought to draw a breath. The man in the gray sweater loomed over her. He no longer looked so normal. His clothes might be neat and his hair average, but the expression on his face was pure fury.

He pulled back his right foot, ready to deliver a kick that would crush Tatiana's face.

A blond missile came out of the darkness and struck him at a hundred miles an hour.
Gaia sent the man rolling along the ground. The spy was quickly back on his feet. He turned to face this new threat and attacked Gaia with a series of crisp punches. Gaia ducked, dodged, and blocked. Then she counterattacked. A punch to the man's stomach. A kick to his upper thigh. Gaia casually blocked a weak jab at her face and returned a stinging left hand that snapped the man's head back. Then she took a grip on his arm, crouched down, and sent him flying.

The spy was tough. He tried to get back on his feet, but Gaia was right there. She clipped him under the chin with a fist, then spun and delivered a kick to his chest that made the man's eyes go wide and his skin turn gray. The spy staggered and fell to his knees. Gaia moved in and finished him with a looping left hand. Thirty seconds after the fight had started and the man in the gray sweater was out like a light.

Ed Fargo appeared out of the darkness. He glanced at the fallen spy, then ran straight to Tatiana. “Hey, you all right?”

Tatiana nodded. She tried to get out an answer, but it was still hard to get enough air to breathe, much less talk. She held up her hand and Ed took it. As Ed was putting Tatiana on her feet, Gaia strolled over. “Is this my stalker?” she asked, jerking a thumb toward the man on the ground.

“Yes,” Tatiana choked out. “He's been following you all day.”

“That's good,” said Gaia. “Now we're finally making some progress.” Then she blinked twice, took a step back, and fell to the ground.

TEN MINUTES TO GET FROM
the lab to Heather's apartment. Ten minutes to get Heather's things. Ten more minutes to get as far away as possible before Loki sent forces after them.