Fear (13 page)

Gaia put a hand against Ed's chest. “You have to go. Get out of here. Right now.”

Ed looked like he had been kicked in the stomach. “What do you mean?”

“I thought that was pretty clear.” Gaia pressed against him, forcing Ed to take a step back. “Go away, Ed. Go home.”

The expression on Ed's face turned to anger. “Do you really hate me that much? You won't even let me help you?”

The smart thing to say would have been “yes.” So what if Ed thought she hated him? At least he would be safe. But Gaia couldn't do it.
She had already stomped on Ed's feelings—and her own—so many times.

“I'm not doing this because I hate you,” she said. “I'm doing this because I have to.” She looked into his eyes and tried to will him to listen to her.

The anger on his face dropped a notch, but only a notch. “What is this really about? What are you not telling me?”

Gaia wished she could tell him the truth, that she was doing this to protect him. If Loki knew that Ed had gone up against his agents, if he thought that Ed knew about Gaia and everything that was going on,
Ed's life expectancy could be measured with an egg timer.
But as much as she liked Ed, he suffered from the usual side effects of the Y chromosome. If she told him she was doing this to protect him, he'd never leave.

Tatiana came to her rescue. “Please, Ed,” she said. “I know you want to stay, and it would be wonderful if you could, but you must believe us when we say that you must leave.”

Ed looked back and forth between Gaia and Tatiana. “All right,” he said after a moment. “If you both want me to go, I'll book.” He held up a finger. “But only on one condition.”

“What?” asked Gaia.

“When this is over,” said Ed, “you have to tell me what's really going on. No BS. The truth.”

Gaia nodded. “One day you'll know everything.”

Ed turned away. “Yeah,” he said over his shoulder. “Just make sure that day comes before I'm ninety. In the meantime, be careful. You have to live long enough to tell me.” He walked on. In a moment he was swallowed up by the darkness.

Tatiana stepped closer to Gaia. “You are very hard on him.”

“I am,” Gaia agreed. “But you understand why I do it, don't you?”

“Yes,” Tatiana said with a nod. “Before, I thought you were only being mean to Ed.”

Gaia stared at the gloom where Ed had disappeared. “I'm trying to keep him alive. If I have to be mean, if he thinks I'm a jerk. . .” She shrugged. “I'll have to live with that. It'll be the same way with you.”

“With me?”

Gaia nodded, doing her best to be
she-who-is-not-getting-kicked-in-the-guts-by-emotion.
“If you and Ed are going to be together, you have to keep him out of this, even if it means lying to him.”

Tatiana shook her head. “That's not going to happen.”

“It has to,” said Gaia. “You're involved in this mess. So is your mom. If Loki finds out that Ed loves you, he'll go straight for him.”

“He won't find out.”

Gaia gritted her teeth in frustration. “He could. Didn't we just catch a spy? There are bound to be others. Loki will see you together and he—”

“No,” said Tatiana. “Loki will never hear about Ed and me because there is no Ed and me. Ed doesn't love me. He loves you.”

There was no answer to that. No answer that Gaia could give without crying, and this didn't seem like the right time. “Come on. Let's go see the bad guy.”

Tatiana led the way around a pair of bushes and pointed at the ground. “He's over here.”

It was so dark back under the trees that Gaia almost tripped over the spy before she saw him. The man in the gray sweater lay faceup on the dew-slick grass. There was a bruise along his cheek that was bold enough to be seen in the dim light. His hands were bound out of sight behind his back.
His eyes bulged over a wide strip of duct tape.

“Where'd you get your tape?”

Tatiana held up her bag. “I brought it in here.”

Gaia shook her head. “Is there anything you
don't
have in that bag?” She leaned down beside the spy. “So, who decided to kill him?”

“Kill him?” Tatiana stepped closer. “We just tied him up and put some tape over his mouth.”

“And nose.” Gaia pointed at the strip of silver tape. “It's kind of hard to breathe that way. Have you noticed anything like breathing going on?” She grabbed the edge of the tape and gave it a sharp pull.

The duct tape came off the man's face with a sound like an opening zipper. For a second the man in the gray sweater seemed too stunned to do anything, then his mouth flew open. “Help!” he screamed. “Someone hel—”

Gaia slapped a hand across his mouth. “Shut up—or do you want this back?” She dangled the strip of tape above the man's face.

The spy shook his head.

“So, when I move my hand, you're going to stay nice and quiet, right?”

The spy nodded.

“Right.” Gaia slowly removed her hand. She looked up at Tatiana. “Okay, your plan worked. You caught one. Now what are you going to do with him?”

Tatiana circled to stand on the other side of the man on the ground. “We have to ask him questions, get him to tell us what he knows.”

The spy raised his head from the damp ground. “Who are you girls? Are you nuts? Why did you attack me?”

“You're not fooling anyone.” Tatiana dragged her notebook from her bag and waved it at the man. “You already said you knew me. You've been following Gaia all over the city. I have it all written down in here.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” The man struggled to sit up, then fell back on the ground. “I know you because you go to the school where I work. I wasn't following anybody. I don't even know this Gaia person.”

“Don't you recognize me?” asked Gaia. “Maybe I should turn around, since you've been on my ass all day.”

The man shook his head. “I wasn't following anyone.”

“You hit me,” said Tatiana.

“You hit me first,” said the man. “I was only defending myself.” He looked up at Gaia. “This kid kicked me and bit a plug out of my arm. Then she started screaming. I don't know anything. Honest.”

“I saw you behind Gaia on the sidewalk,” said Tatiana.

“I was on my way home,” said the man.

Tatiana snorted. “And were you also on your way home on Sixty-sixth Street?”

“Yeah, actually, I was.” He lifted his head again and gave a shaky smile. “Look, I can see that this was some kind of mistake. You guys let me go now, and I won't call the police.”

Gaia walked over beside Tatiana. “Are you sure about this?” she said softly. “Maybe he was just going home.”

“No!” Tatiana fumbled open her notebook. “See, here on the subway. A man in a gray sweater. And all the way back at Washington Square Park. Man, gray sweater.” She tapped the page. “It's all in here. And besides, he hit me first. Really.”

Gaia looked down at the man and considered. Tatiana seemed sure, but they had passed thousands of people during the day. Tens of thousands. How many of those people looked somewhat alike? Tatiana had so wanted this plan to work. What if she had started to imagine things?

“Tatiana,” Gaia started. “You are sure? Absolutely sure?”

She frowned. “This is no coincidence, and it's no mistake. This guy is in my notes a dozen times.”

Gaia thought about it for a second, then nodded. “All right.” She dropped down and planted a knee against the bound man's chest. “Here's the deal,” she said. “I pretty much believe her and not you.”

“I—”

“Not your turn yet.” Gaia increased the weight against his chest. She lowered her face until it was inches from the spy's. “In a minute it's going to be your turn. You'd better think about what you're going to say.”

The man stared up at her for a few seconds, then a smile crept over his face. A moment later
the smile turned into a snicker.
“You girls,” he said. His laugh ended in a cough. “You're one hell of a pair. The briefing docs say you're both supposed to be damned smart, but you sure don't show it. If you had half a brain between you, you might be dangerous.”

“I knew it!” said Tatiana. She bounced around the man. “He
is
one of Loki's men.”

Gaia looked at the man more closely. The gray sweater concealed a lot of muscle. This guy might look ordinary, but he was a lot tougher than he seemed. She was glad she had taken him out before he could hurt Ed and Tatiana. “All right,” she said. “So you're working for Loki.”

The man shrugged. “Naw, I'm working for Calvin Klein. I thought you'd look good in an underwear ad.”

Gaia gave him a backhanded slap.
Enough to rattle his teeth.
“Why don't you just tell us what you know? It'll save us time and save you dental work.”

The man let out another bark of laughter. “Why should I tell you anything?”

“Maybe you shouldn't.” Gaia grabbed the man's right ear and gave it a hard twist. “But I think you will.”

The spy squirmed under Gaia's grip. His face twisted in a grimace. “I'm not—”

Gaia twisted his ear farther around. “Where can I find my father?”

Creases of pain
appeared on the man's forehead. “I don't know.”

“What about Loki? Don't tell me you don't know how to find your own boss.”

The man tried to twist out of her grip, but Gaia kept a tight hold. “All right,” he said. “Yeah, I'll tell you. Just let go.”

“Tell me. Then I'll let go.”

“Bermuda,” said the spy. “He's in Bermuda.”

Gaia eased her grip on the man's ear. “Loki's in Bermuda? Like the island? If Loki is in Bermuda, then how did you communicate with him?”

“Satellite phone,” said the spy.

Gaia looked up. “Did you find anything like that on him?”

“We found this.” Tatiana held out a small device. “It looks like a regular mobile phone to me.”

Gaia took the phone and turned it over in her hands. She noticed only the logo of a local phone company. “I don't think this thing is big enough to be beaming messages into space.” She dropped it on the spy's chest. “Why don't you try again?”

“That one's just for cover,” said the man. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The real thing is built into my skull.”

“What?”

“There's antennas in my ears and cameras in my eyes.” The spy opened his eyes extra wide and stared up at Gaia. “The aliens taught us how to do it. Be careful, Loki's probably watching you right now.” The man kept his
goggle-eyed expression
for a moment longer, then suddenly shouted, “Boo!” and dissolved into laughter.

Gaia stared at him in disgust. “This idiot's only going to lie to us.”

The man continued to laugh. “No, you really think so?”

Tatiana dropped her book bag on the ground and planted her hands on her hips. “We just have to make him tell us what we want to know.”

“How?” Gaia stood up and rubbed her hands down her jeans to brush off the man's sweat. “Even if he tells us something that makes sense, it'll probably be a lie. How can we ever check on him?”

Tatiana's lips pressed into a hard line. “We do whatever we have to,” she said.

“You do whatever you damn well please,” said the man. “I don't care how hard you scratch or pinch. There's nothing you can do to me that's even close to the things Loki would do if I talk.”

Gaia leaned over him and tried out her most menacing tone. “We could kill you.”

The smile faded only a little. “Sweetheart, I've been watching you for a while, but I don't think murder is your game. Still, even if you do have it in you, being dead is still not as bad as what the boss would think up.”

Gaia turned and took a few steps away from the man. Tatiana walked over to join her. The two girls huddled, their heads close together in the darkness.

“What now?” Tatiana asked softly.

“I'm not sure,” said Gaia with a shrug. She glanced back at the spy. One thing that the man said was probably true—he was a lot more afraid of Loki than he was of Gaia and Tatiana. If they wanted to change that, they were going to have to hurt him. A lot.

Over the last few months Gaia had put her fist into the face of a lot of muggers, rapists, murderers, and just plain bad guys. She had kicked and punched and done a lot of damage. Her knowledge of martial arts was up to this job. 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.

But the guys she had beaten up before had been fighting back. It was one thing to pound down an armed drug dealer in a stand-up fight. It was something else to torture a man who was lying on the ground with his hands and feet held together by a yard of duct tape.
The difference was like hunting a lion in Africa and hunting a lion in a cage.
Even though she had the strength and knowledge to hurt this guy, Gaia didn't think she could do it.

“We may have to let him go,” she said.

“What?” Tatiana's eyes bulged, and the muscles of her jaw stood out like cords on her thin face.

“Maybe we can turn the tables. Follow him back to Loki.”

“No, I'm not taking that chance,” said Tatiana. “He knows things. He can help us find our parents.”

“He isn't going to help us find anything,” said Gaia.

Tatiana shook her head. “Then we make him.”

She walked back to the spy and knelt on the damp grass at his side. “My mother is out there somewhere,” she said. “I don't know what they are doing to her, but I will find her and bring her home.” Tatiana's accent seemed stronger and harder than usual. “Tell me what you know. This is the last time I will ask.”