Fear (12 page)

Josh didn't like their chances. It would be hard to get out of the city before Loki found them. Even if they did get away this time, it would mean staying on the run, staying undercover forever. But the only alternative was to take Heather back to the lab, and Josh wasn't about to do that. No matter what Loki might say, they would never give Heather the counteragent. Worse, once she was at the lab, Glenn would probably try out more experiments on her.
Someone that was willing to dissect animals while they were still alive
was not exactly the person you wanted handling the health of the woman you loved.

Josh pushed aside the blinds and peered out into the street. He saw nothing, but he couldn't be certain that Loki didn't have them both under surveillance. “Are you getting your things?” he called over his shoulder.

Heather stepped out of her bedroom with a few wadded clothes in her hands. “I don't know why we need to run,” she said. “I'm not afraid. I. . . I'm not. . .” She trembled. Her hands shook, and the clothes fell to the floor. For a second Josh thought that Heather was going to fall, too. He rushed toward her, but she straightened. “I'm not afraid,” she repeated.

Josh sighed. “You should be,” he said. “Heather, this injection you were given. It's hurting you. Don't you feel it?”

Heather frowned. She held up one hand in front of her face and slowly flexed her fingers. “I feel strange. But I'm not—”

“Not afraid. I know.” Josh ran his hands across his face and tried to think of something that would get Heather excited. Anything that would get her moving. “Heather, you're not thinking straight. You need to trust me. Loki wants to take you back to the lab. He wants to treat you like one of his animals.”

Heather blinked. “Like a mouse? He thinks I'm a mouse?”

“Yes, something like that.”

A sudden hard light burned in Heather's eyes. She stomped across the room and shoved Josh back. “I'm not a mouse. I'm not afraid of anything.”

“That's right,” said Josh. “You're not. You're Heather. You're fearless, right?”

“That's right.”
Another tremor
swept over Heather as she leaned against a table to keep from falling. “I'm fearless. I'm like Gaia now. Only. . .” Her knees wobbled. “Only I don't feel so good.”

Josh was actually relieved to hear her admit it. Heather might be having even more trouble with how she felt, but at least she seemed to be thinking a little bit more clearly than she had on his last visit. He walked over and put a hand against her forehead.
Heather's skin felt as hot and dry as burning paper.
He moved his fingers down to her neck. Her heart was beating at hummingbird speed.

“They lied to you,” he said. “Loki and the doctor. You're not like Gaia.”

Heather shook her head. “I am. Gaia's father said so.”

“He wasn't Gaia's father. He's her uncle.” Josh bent down to look Heather in the face. “This drug they gave you was a fake, something they cooked up. Loki doesn't know why Gaia is fearless. Nobody does.”

“But he told me that I would be like Gaia.”

“Loki would have told you anything. He didn't care about you, Heather. He gave you a drug that had never been tested on humans.” Josh put his hands on her arm and tugged her toward the door. “Now we have to go before he comes for you.”

“Go?” Heather looked up at him. The anger had burned out of her eyes, but in its place was a terrible emptiness. “I can't go.”

“Why not?”

Heather shook off his arms. “I have a test in history tomorrow,” she said. “I have to study.” She paced around the room in fast, tight circles.

Josh tried to get in her way, but Heather stepped around him. He was forced to spin around in the center of the room as he tried to talk to her. “Heather, forget about school. You have a lot more to worry about than any test at school.” He reached out and snagged her as she passed. “He's coming here to kill you—don't you understand!”

“Get away!” As Heather pushed Josh away, she let out a scream that sent him staggering. The scream tore out of her mouth, raw and hard and so forceful that
Josh didn't know how she could make such a noise and live.

For a moment a vision flashed through Josh's mind. A monkey, screaming in the middle of its cage until it screamed itself to death. Josh thought Heather might follow the same pattern.

Then the terrible scream cut off so quickly, it left Josh's ears ringing. Huge, slow tears dripped from her eyes as she slowly turned toward Josh. “Oh, Josh,” she said in a whisper. “I'm scared.”

The words sent a chill down Josh's back, but he struggled to smile at her. “That's good,” he said. “That's good, don't you see? It has to mean the drug is wearing off.”

“But,” said Heather. “I don't want. . . to be. . . a mouse.” She took a single step and
collapsed on the floor.

Josh ran to her and pulled her off the carpet. He cradled her head in his lap. She was still breathing and her heart was still beating, but both her breath and her pulse were faint.

“Hold on,” Josh whispered to her. “I'm going to go get some help.”

He picked her up and laid her carefully on the couch, then turned and bolted for the door. He didn't have any idea where he was going at that moment, but he had to do something. Maybe he could find a doctor. Maybe he could get some of the counteragent. Maybe he could lure Glenn to the house and force him to do something. All he knew for sure was that the woman he loved was in trouble, and he had to do something.

Josh opened the door and found himself facing a tall man with short hair and electric blue eyes. Before Josh could say anything, Loki pushed him back into the apartment. “Your time is up,” Loki said.

Josh pointed to the unconscious figure on the couch. “She's passed out. We have to do something.”

Loki nodded. “I agree,” he said. “It's time for action.” He reached into his tan coat and pulled out a blunt-nosed pistol. The gunshots echoed through the apartment.

THERE WERE MORE THAN THREE
people in the fort. A lot more.

Tom gritted his teeth and struggled to push Natasha higher along the plaster-and-stone wall. “Can you see anything?”

Natasha peered through a window not much bigger than a mail slot. “There are two others down this way,” she said. “One of them has a Kalashnikov.”

“Only two,” said Tom. “This sounds like our best chance.”

“Wait.” Natasha put her hands on the windowsill and pulled herself higher. “I see another one near the door. That one is also armed.”

Tom swore under his breath. “All right. Come on down.” He helped Natasha slide down the wall, holding her close for a moment before setting her bare feet on the ground.

“What are we going to do?” she asked. “There are guards at every door.”

Tom leaned back against the wall and shook his head. “We're not going up against machine guns when all we have is a cattle prod. We have to find another way out.”

“What about the way you got out before?” asked Natasha.

“Through the roof?” Tom thought about it for a moment. “If we can stack up some furniture, we should—”

Before he could complete his thought, a shout came from another part of the fort. A moment later the sound of running feet echoed down the hallway. Natasha darted forward to the next turn in the hallway, then came sprinting back. “They're all looking around,” she said. “They must know we've escaped.”

“We haven't escaped yet,” said Tom. He looked back. There were no unguarded exits down there, but there didn't seem to be any activity from the guards. Yet. Getting back to the cells and making an escape over the roof seemed like the only option.

“Come on,” he said. “Let's move.”

More shouts came from behind them. Tom paused for a second, letting Natasha run ahead. He could see shadows moving through the torchlight. The guards were coming.

Tom turned back around to run, and his foot rang against something metal on the floor. He looked down and saw an iron grate set into the pale limestone bricks. He dropped to his knees and looked down. Through the openings between the dark, rusty bars Tom saw a distant glimmer of water.

“Natasha!” he called as loudly as he dared. “Back here.”

She came back and skidded to a halt beside him. “What is it?”

Tom leaned down and grabbed the bars of the grate. “Help me get this thing open,” he said.

Natasha looked down at the grate, then up at Tom. “Surely you don't think we're going down there?”

“Why not?”

“Because it's dark and full of water.” She gave the grate a tentative kick with her bare toe. “It's probably nothing but the sewer for this fort.”

The grate lifted from the opening with a squeak of rusty metal. “It's also our only way out,” said Tom. “Besides. . .” He took a breath. “It doesn't smell like a sewer. It smells like the sea.”

“It's pitch dark down there,” said Natasha. She shook her head and took a step back. “Please, Tom, let's try climbing up instead.”

With a grunt, Tom dragged the grate clear of the opening. The hole in the floor was barely two feet on a side. The drop to the water below was at least ten. “There's no time,” he said. “We have to try this.”

Natasha folded her arms. “No,” she said firmly. “I love you, but I am not going down there.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Why? Are you afraid of water?”

“No.”

“I know you're not afraid of the dark.”

“No. It's only. . .” She shivered. “Water in the dark that bothers me.”

Tom chalked up Natasha's sudden apprehension to fear of the unknown. Considering everything else she'd been through, there was no rational reason for Natasha to be afraid. Tom had to take charge. “You want to see Tatiana again?”

Natasha nodded sharply. “Of course I do.”

“Then this is the way,” said Tom.

She stepped past him and cast one sour look at the hole. “It had better be,” she said, dropping into the darkness. A second later there was a splash from below.

A gunshot cracked from the corner, and a bullet flattened itself against the wall. Tom had no time to be graceful. He threw himself headfirst into the void.

There
aren't too many things I can think of that are more embarrassing than dozing off in front of your friends. It's one thing to go to a slumber party when you're seven. It's way different to fall down and drool all over the grass when you're seventeen. It's really different to start gnawing the ground in front of the one guy you love and the girl that's probably his new honey.

I'll take embarrassment for ten million, Alex.

If this were like a regular sleep, where a shake on the shoulder was enough to get me up, it wouldn't be quite so terrible. But this is more like Sleeping Beauty without the prince. I sleep until I wake up, and that's that.

When I'm asleep, I'm completely vulnerable. All those years I spent learning to be a badass black belt aren't worth a thing while I'm unconscious. Asleep equals weak.

If I were going to be afraid of something, I think this might be it.

She knew the points where an attack would be most painful, even the places where she could kill with a single touch. She knew how to hurt people.

“I THINK SHE'S WAKING UP.”

Of course I am,
Gaia tried to say, except her tongue was more asleep than her brain. She felt hands moving under her head and shoulders as Ed and Tatiana helped her sit up. She struggled to raise her head and open her mouth.

“Stop,” she said. “Leave me alone.”

“Are you all right?” asked Tatiana.
Her blue eyes were so wide, she looked like an anime character.
Little Sailor Tatiana. “I thought you were dead.”

“I told you she'd be okay,” said Ed. “I've seen this before.”

“Yeah, you've witnessed the resurrection. Big deal.” Gaia rubbed at her eyes and tried to put together what had happened before her face made friends with the ground. She had been out walking around, following Tatiana's plan to catch one of Loki's agents. Only they weren't having any luck. Ed could walk again, which was beyond fantastic. He was probably also in love with Tatiana, which was a lot less fantastic. Then Tatiana screamed. Guy in sweater. Fight.

Okay.
Back in the flow.

Gaia pulled free from Ed's grip and twisted around. “Where's the sp. . . I mean, what happened to the guy Tatiana was fighting? Did he get away?”

Ed shook his head. “He's over there,” he said, jerking his thumb toward the darkness. “We've got him tied up.”

“Tied up with what?” Gaia stood up and almost fell down as she swayed on her feet.

“See,” said Tatiana. “I knew she wasn't all right. No one passes out like that and is all right. We should take her to the hospital.”

She tried to move in to steady Gaia, but Gaia waved her off. “If passing out was going to kill me, I would have been dead a long time ago.”

“But it's a
rule,
” Tatiana insisted. She turned to Ed. “I don't care what you say. If you pass out, you have to see a doctor.”

“Let it go,” said Gaia. She squinted at the shadows under the nearest row of trees. “The guy is tied up over there?”

“Yeah,” said Ed. “Come on, I'll show you.”

“No,” said Gaia. She moved around in front of Ed. “When you tied him up, was this guy awake? Did he see you?”

“Me? I don't think so. You kicked his lights out.” Ed peeked over Gaia's shoulder. “We could go see if he's awake now.”