Michael blinked.
“Well, aren’t you gonna give me a hug?” And she threw herself into his arms.
Over her head, Michael cast his gaze over the melee of frenetically bopping kids. “We should go. Before the police get here.”
“What about Matt? And Em? And everyone else?” Caro had rallied from the shock. “We can’t just leave them here. We can’t just leave.”
“This lot are all safer up here than down on the street,” Michael said. “And when the police get here, they can get these kids home far more efficiently and safely than we could. We have to go. Your mother—”
“Caro, we need to get Mom.” It was killing Tyler not knowing what had happened to Jay. He had to get downstairs, see the destruction for himself, see if there was any chance she might have gotten away. And, if she was as good as he believed she was, then he wanted to stand out in the open where she could see him. He wanted to give her the opportunity to emerge from wherever she’d hidden herself and come back to him.
“Caro,” his dad said. “We can’t afford to get anyone else involved with this.”
She stared at them both for what to Tyler seemed like forever, then her shoulders slumped as reality bit deep. “Okay.”
Michael slipped from the apartment, with Tyler and Caro following close on his heels. No one uttered a word as they trooped down the stairs and burst through the street doors.
Tyler skidded to a halt. He gazed at the damage. Rubble everywhere, shards of glass, cars on their sides and on their roofs, parts strewn everywhere…. “Oh. My. God.”
“The kid sure put up a fight.”
“What do we do now?” Caro asked. And Tyler was grateful she had, ’cause he wasn’t capable of anything much right now. He felt head-to-toe numb. He couldn’t think straight. He could barely breathe.
A siren sounded in the distance. Someone in one of the nearby buildings must have called the cops.
“
We
aren’t going to do anything,” Michael said, in a tone which brooked no argument. “Tyler’s going to take you home, and you’re going to explain everything to your Mom, and pack up the car.”
He tried to muster a protest but his dad was having none of it. “I’m not kidding around, son. These guys play for keeps. You need to keep your mother and sister safe for me. I can’t lose you all over again. Can you do that for me? Please?”
When he nodded, Michael let out his breath in a huge whoosh of relief. He visibly sagged. “Thank you.”
“What are you gonna do, Dad?”
“I’m going to have a quick look round and see what I can find.” He paused, obviously seeing the doubt in their eyes. “Tell your mother…. Tell her—shit, I don’t know. I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise. We’ll sort it all out then, all right? Now scoot. Before the cops arrive and start asking questions.”
Tyler nodded. He grabbed Caro’s unresisting hand and took off at a loping jog, tugging her along beside him. Only when they’d rounded the corner and were a block away from Jay’s apartment, did he slow to a fast walk to let her catch her breath.
They walked in silence.
What more was there to say? There was only speculation and hope—something he was rapidly losing.
The garage door opened, and as his mom reversed the car out into the driveway, Tyler glimpsed the man standing on the path leading up to the front door. A frisson goosed his skin. He knew exactly who it was. His dad had kept his promise. Mike Davidson had finally come home… just when his family had to leave.
Tyler and Caro had prepped their mom—as much as they could, anyway. How’n the hell could you explain to someone why the person they loved, the person they’d married and raised children with, had walked out and stayed away for five whole freaking years to keep them safe? Not to mention now he’d come back he was so worried for their safety that they needed to leave. The whole “Jay is really a cyborg” thing was more than enough to do his mom’s head in without adding all the stuff about his dad.
Tyler thought she understood everything. He hoped so. But it was difficult to tell. His mom’s face, usually so open, with that wonderful quality which made you instantly want to be her friend—just like Caro’s—had changed with each new revelation. By the time they’d finally finished telling her everything they knew, his mom’s face had been wooden. Shuttered. Secretive.
His mom closed the garage door and got out of the car to approach her husband. Tyler exchanged a glance with his sister and they both wound down their windows. He couldn’t hear what his parents were saying, though. Their voices were too muted. Still, at least it wasn’t full-out screaming, which had to be a good thing.
His dad tossed a small bag in the trunk, came round to the passenger’s side, and hopped in, leaving his mom to take the driver’s seat. “Got everything you need, kids?”
“Yep.” Tyler had grabbed a change of clothes and his guitar. That was all he needed. Caro, too, had packed light—just a backpack with some clothes and makeup. She hadn’t even argued when he told her to leave her cell phone behind because he thought maybe it could be traced. And his mom…. Well, the bag in the trunk of the car was full of photo albums, which about said it all. She hadn’t even bothered with a change of clothes. She’d just taken the AMEX card, glanced at the name on it, and muttered something about spending up large.
She revved the car and reversed out into the street.
Tyler suddenly remembered something important. Something he needed to do. “Wait!”
She slammed on the brakes. “What?”
He opened the door and jumped out.
“Where the hell are you going?” his dad yelled, fumbling with the passenger-side door.
Tyler delved in the back pocket of his jeans as he ran to the side of the house. He squatted on his haunches to lever a potted plant up from the dish it rested on, and placed the thumb drive next to the spare front door key.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” His dad’s voice came from behind him, tight with fury.
“It’s a song I wrote for Jay. I’m leaving it here. Just in case.”
“Nothing else but the song, right? Nothing that could tell those bastards I worked for where we’re headed?”
“Nope. Just the song. If she got away, she’ll find it. I know she will.”
His dad’s hand reached out to touch his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tyler.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
His dad followed him back to the car.
When his mom drove off, Tyler didn’t look back.
If Jay got away, she’ll find me. I know she will.
~~~
Tyler rolled over on to his back and stared at the ceiling of their fancy hotel suite. “What do you mean you’re sorry? What are you trying to say?”
His dad heaved a sigh which he could only describe as heavy. “I was trying to pick the right time to tell you this but I don’t think there’s ever going to be a right time.
“Tell me straight.”
“I don’t think she made it.”
“Jay?”
“Yeah. All I found was this.” He held out something wrapped in a towel. “I wasn’t going to give it to you but your mom said I should.”
Tyler sat up and took what he offered, laying it in his lap. His dad sat next to him on the couch. Tyler slanted him a sideways glance. He looked tired, worn out. Dark rings beneath his eyes, deep lines bracketing his mouth. He’d ditched the moustache, thank God. Must have shaved it off last night before he hit the couch.
Tyler was sharing a room with Caro. Their mom had the other room to herself. Their dad was sleeping on the couch. It was an arrangement both seemed content with, and for that at least, he was grateful. At least his mom hadn’t slung her estranged husband out on his ass.
He contemplated the lumpy whatever-it-was, cocooned in the grubby frayed towel. He had a bad feeling about what it could be. But he had to know. He unwrapped it.
It was bad, all right. Real bad.
A severed hand.
Waves of sickly heat washed over him. He drew in a breath and then another. And another. And still he couldn’t get enough oxygen.
Enough. Suck it up, dude. Deal.
His internal pep-talk worked. He stared at the hand. It appeared to be human. But not quite. He steeled himself to pick it up, take a closer look.
There was no blood. It’d been completely washed clean. And the closer he looked, the more fascinated he became. Its construction, the metallic-looking bones, the tendons—all encased in smooth, pale, humanlike skin…. It was miraculous. A work of art.
He rewrapped it carefully. It was a part of her, of Jay. The only part left. “Where did you find it?” he asked, proud of how steady his voice sounded.
“I tracked the extraction team to a house—vacant, thank God. The place was completely wrecked. There’d been an explosion. It was professionally done, set to cause maximum damage. I can only presume Jay was responsible.”
“Or maybe it was the extraction team,” Tyler said, thinking aloud. “If they couldn’t capture her, they might have decided to eliminate her.”
His father rubbed his chin. “A possibility,” he finally conceded. “They’d cleaned up and gone by the time I arrived, but I think she got a few of them. I didn’t find anything on site and I figured they’d taken her. And then I spotted something in the pool by the filter. It was the hand.”
“Jay’s hand.”
“Tyler, I’m ninety-nine-point-nine percent certain Jay deliberately blew herself up in that explosion. And for some reason, her hand was the only part of her that wasn’t obliterated. I’m sorry.”
“I know.” Tyler met his eyes. “What’re you gonna do, Dad?”
“About the people I work for?”
He nodded.
“I got a message from my boss. Before Jay—” His dad raked his hand through his still non-existent hair. “Somehow, Jay convinced them it would be prudent to cut me loose. I’m not privy to the details and nor am I going to bring myself to their attention again by trying to find out what she said to them, either. I’m not that morbidly curious, just grateful as hell. Now Jay’s gone and her creator’s research along with him, with any luck that’ll be the last I hear from them. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway. Just like I’m hoping that we can all go home very soon.”
“And if not?”
“I won’t leave my family again.”
“Glad to hear it,” Caro said, from her prone position on the other couch. She rolled to her feet and wandered over to flop onto the seat next to her dad. “How’s Mom taking all this?”
“Mom’s taking it just fine.” Their mom padded into the sitting room and perched the arm of the chair. “Mom’ll take it even better if she’s clued in on what’s going on in her kids’ lives in future. And her husband’s.”
“Duly noted,” said the husband in question.
Caro yawned and stretched. “It’s been a rough couple of days. I know it’s early but I’m off to bed.
Her mom smiled. “Me, too. We’ve got a shopping expedition tomorrow.”
Tyler thought his mom looked tired but pleased. Content. Like whatever had been missing in her life had been found. And it had, of course, the instant her husband had walked back into her life like some returning hero, begging her forgiveness, and promising he’d never leave her again.
If only Tyler could have Jay back to fill the empty hole she’d left in his own heart.
“Tyler. Ah, love, I’m so sorry. I know how much she meant to you.” His mom slipped into the seat next to him. And hugged him while he tried not to cry like a girl.
~~~
A week after Jay’s farewell party, Tyler and his family returned to Snapperton and settled back into uneasy normality. They buried Jay’s remains under a tree in the backyard. No one said anything. No one had to. Jay had touched all their lives. Everyone understood how Tyler had felt about her. No matter what his parents’ personal feelings were about his non-human almost-girlfriend, they respected his.
Caro walked to school with him on Monday. They’d both have preferred not to go to classes at all but they had to. Their dad insisted that they act as though everything was normal.
Normal….
Yeah. Riiight.
He was going to have to face up to the fact Jay was gone. Just like he was going to have to face up to the fact he’d used Em to make himself feel better, and then discarded her without a thought when Jay needed him. He liked Em—as a friend. And he didn’t have a clue what he was going to tell her.
He’d have preferred to walk alone, lost in his own thoughts, but Caro was having none of that. “Do you reckon Shawn will still be top-dog?” she asked. “Or do you reckon the rumors and the lies will have finally caught up with him, and he’ll be the one sitting at the back of the cafeteria?”
“Dunno. Don’t much give a crap, either.”
“Yeah. It all seems so trivial. But it’d be cool if you were reinstated as one of the top-jocks again. Right?”