The only door remaining was the one at the end of the hall on our left, the bright light from the dining room slanting onto it. Emma had to be in there. But we were close enough to the end of the hall for me to see that the dining room and the living room were wide open to each other. There was no doorway between them. If the CAMFers looked our direction when we were at the end of the hall, they would see us.
Marcus inched forward, staying in shadows on the right side of the hallway.
I followed, keeping to the left.
This time, Nose and I huddled next to the wall outside the door.
I reached out and tried to open it, but it was locked. The knob had a keyhole, not a button lock, which meant it would be a little trickier to pick. It also meant we’d probably just found Emma’s prison.
“Hey, he’s starting to come to. Frank can you hear me?” one of the CAMFers was saying.
“We should get him some water,” the other said, his voice growing suddenly louder. He was turning toward us. The door was locked. He was going to see us.
I sank my ghost hand into the doorknob, wrenched the lock, and yanked the door open. I felt someone moving with me, our bodies colliding as we slipped into the dark room, and I pulled the door closed behind us.
I couldn’t see a thing. The room was pitch black. I didn’t even know for sure who was with me. I could feel a shoulder touching mine, could hear someone breathing, but I didn’t dare say anything. Had we all made it in? Nose had been right behind me. He was probably the one I’d run into at the door, the one standing next to me. But what about the others? What about Marcus and Yale? They weren’t in the room. I was pretty sure of that.
Outside the door, the CAMFer’s footsteps approached and padded down the hall past us to the kitchen, followed by the clinking of glasses.
“Nose?” I dared to whisper.
“Yeah,” the dark entity next to me exhaled.
“Where are the others?”
“Not sure,” Nose whispered. “Yale was still back by the other bedroom. Marcus was—I don’t know.”
I heard the swoosh of the kitchen faucet being turned on, then off. The CAMFer seemed to be taking his own sweet time. It sounded like he was getting himself a drink before getting one for poor old Frank. And was that gargling I heard? Whatever it was, it was accompanied by several other odd noises. A sizzle maybe? And a scuffling thud. What was the guy doing?
After a long silence, the CAMFer’s footsteps padded back into the hallway, softer and slower this time. Maybe he was being careful not to spill Frank’s water. He came closer and closer, then suddenly stopped just outside the door Nose and I were standing behind.
Everything in my body screamed for me to scramble and hide, but I didn’t. I stood stock still. I felt Nose raise his gun in front of us, aiming it at the doorway.
The doorknob turned.
The door swung open, light slanting across the figure standing there.
Yale darted into the room, spun, and shut the door silently behind him, enfolding us all in darkness once again.
I stood, stunned, sweaty and panting.
“Is that the muzzle of your gun, or are you just happy to see me?” Yale whispered.
“What the fuck!” Nose said, and I felt him pull the gun back “I almost shot you.”
“I got the CAMFer. The one in the kitchen,” Yale said. “I was hiding in the pantry, and I took him out with the tazer.”
“Then there’s only one left,” Nose said.
“No,” I said, “We haven’t seen the Dark Man yet. Plus, Frank is coming to.”
“Still, good job,” Nose said to Yale. “But next time don’t celebrate by making me almost kill you.”
“Where’s Marcus?” I asked Yale.
“Don’t know,” Yale said. “He might have slipped into the bathroom. I’m not sure. So, your friend’s not in here?” he asked, peering into the dark behind us.
I could see his outline and Nose’s now. My eyes had at least adjusted that much.
“I seriously doubt it,” Nose said, “but let’s make sure.”
“You’ve got the gun so watch the door,” I said. “Yale and I will look.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Nose said, and it didn’t even sound that sarcastic.
I pulled the glove off my ghost hand, scanning the room by its glow.
Emma wasn’t there, but it looked like she might have been recently.
The bed was rumpled, covers pulled back, and there was something small and dark lying in the middle of it.
I walked over and picked it up.
“What is it?” Yale asked, coming up beside me.
“My backpack,” I said, shaking it a little. “But it’s empty.” They’d taken the blades. Maybe they’d taken Emma and the blades somewhere together. Shit! She wasn’t here. The CAMFers had set their trap, but they’d taken all the bait with them.
I strode to the window and pulled back the curtains. Someone had taped a black garbage bag over the glass with duct tape and I yanked it off.
“What are you doing?” Yale squawked.
I slid the window open and punched the screen with my fist, sending it flying into the flower beds along the fence. I stuck my head out the window and looked down the wall to where Jason was still crouched. The plan had been to find Emma, bullet her out to Jason if we had to, and all escape out the back yard and over the fence. That had been the plan. Except there was no Emma.
“She’s not in here,” I called to Jason. “We’re coming out.”
Jason looked at me, his face hidden in shadow. Then he suddenly stood up and disappeared around the corner of the house, his gun raised.
“Shit!” I pulled my head back in the window. “Jason is charging the front,” I said to Nose and Yale. “We have to get out there and help him.” Where the hell was Marcus? He was the leader of this little army. Not me.
“My tazer is out of juice,” Yale said as I pushed past him and pulled the bedroom door open.
Nose looked up at me, his gun ready, and slipped out into the hall, pressing against the far wall.
“Then stay here,” I said to Yale as I moved out into the hallway.
* * *
By the time we reached the living room, it was all over. Jason had taken out the CAMFer tending to Frank, snuck up behind him through the front door and brained him with the butt of his gun.
“You didn’t shoot him,” I breathed a sigh of relief, looking down at the unconscious man.
“Waste of a good bullet,” Jason said, dragging groggy Frank out of the recliner he was slumped in, and positioning him next to his friend. Jason pulled a coil of rope out of his pack and starting tying the two of them together. Frank struggled a little, but only until Jason threatened to cut certain key parts of him off and stuff them in his mouth.
“Where’s Marcus?” I asked.
“Thought he was with you,” Jason said without looking up.
“He was, but we got split up when CAMFer number three went back to the kitchen for a drink of water.”
“I tazed him,” Yale said. “And I’d better go secure him before he wakes up.” He backed away and disappeared down the hall.
I glanced at Nose and he looked down, fiddling with his gun. Why were they all acting so weird? This wasn’t over. We hadn’t found the Dark Man, or Emma, or the blades. All we’d done was knock out a bunch of CAMFer peons. And now Marcus was missing in action, and they were acting like they didn’t even care.
No, they were acting like they didn’t
need
to care.
“Where is he?” I asked again.
Jason looked up at me. He looked back down and cinched the final knot on the CAMFer twins.
“Tell me where he is,” I demanded.
“He’s getting your friend,” Jason said. “That’s all you need to know.”
“What are you talking about?” I felt my chest go numb. “She’s not here. We checked the whole house.”
“Not quite,” Jason said, his eyes glancing past me.
I turned and stared at the interior door tucked between the living room and the dining room. The door to the garage. I’d forgotten about the garage. But it would be the perfect place to hold a prisoner. Marcus had figured that out—somehow gotten in there while the rest of us were pinned down by the CAMFers. It was possible he was confronting the Dark Man alone even as we stood there doing nothing.
I stepped forward, charging toward the garage door.
LOSING MARCUS
Just as my hand closed on the doorknob, Nose grabbed me from behind, wrapping his arms around me and pinning me against him.
“Calm down,” he said in my ear. “Marcus knows what he’s doing. He’ll bring your friend back, but our orders are to stay here.”
I stopped struggling and relaxed into his hold. When he relaxed in response, I slammed my head back as hard as I could, feeling it connect solidly with his chin.
Pain blossomed in my skull, but it worked; Nose let go of me. I lunged forward and yanked the garage door open.
And stood there staring at a perfectly normal garage—dark and jumbled with dusty hobby crap and garden stuff crammed on metal shelves lining the walls. I could see the outline of a mower near the far wall, and next to it an old chest freezer huddled in the corner.
I reached to my right and found a light switch, flicking it on, but it didn’t reveal much more. There was an oil spot in the middle of the garage, and Palmer’s Ford Bronco was gone, probably still parked wherever he’d left it when he’d tried to grab me from my burnt house.
And that was it. No Emma. No Marcus. No Dark Man.
Just your typical garage.
“Thit! You may me bi my thung,” Nose said from behind me.
This time Jason grabbed me, pinning my arms behind me roughly.
“Let go of me,” I said. “He’s not here.”
“Never said he was,” Jason shoved me into the garage. “But I figured you’d throw a fit once you knew he was gone, and this will do for a holding cell until he gets back.”
“What’s going on?” Yale asked, coming up behind Jason and Nose where they stood in the garage doorway.
“She’s giving us trouble,” Jason said.
“Thee heh-budded ne,” Nose said, still nursing his bloody tongue.
“Where is Marcus?” I asked Yale. I was getting really tired of asking that question.
“He knew where they were holding Emma,” he said, “but it was too risky for all of us to go in.”
That was when I began to understand; Marcus wasn’t in Palmer’s house. At all.
“Tell me where they are, and get the hell out of my way,” I said, moving toward the door.
“You ain’t going anywhere,” Jason said. He didn’t move. If anything, all three of them just stood there being bulkier and more obstinate than before.
“What is wrong with you?” I asked. “He saved you. All three of you. So, when he says he’s going on a suicide mission, you just nod and agree and follow orders? What kind of idiots are you?”
“Not a suicide mission,” Jason said, his cheek twitching, so, at least I knew I’d touched a nerve. “He’s hard to kill. He’ll be fine. He can take this guy down.”
“
This guy
murdered his sister in front of him,” I pointed out, “and got inside his head in a two-minute phone conversation. We’re dealing with a psychopath here, and you let Marcus go face him alone.” I didn’t know who I was more pissed at—Marcus for lying to me once again and going off to be the hero or these morons for letting him do it.
“He’ll be fine,” Jason insisted.
“Even if he got caught and they tried to extract him,” Yale added, “he’d just reboot and escape like he did last time.”
And that was when it all came together in my mind, cascading like a line of dominos, each one tapping down the one next to it.
“Oh fuck!” I said, looking at the guys.
“What?” Yale said, stepping forward.
“He’s not coming back,” I said, shaking my head. “He didn’t go to rescue Emma from the Dark Man. He went to trade himself in for her.”
“Wha thee tawking abou?” Nose asked.
“Don’t listen to her,” Jason said. “She’s full of shit.”
“All they need is him,” I said. I had to make them understand. “That’s what he was saying to the Dark Man on the phone. He was offering himself. Not just for Emma. For all of us.”
Yale was looking at me, listening to me.
“He told me,” I said, my eyes drilling into his, “that the CAMFers were looking for a renewable energy source.” If I could convince any of them, it would be Yale. “That’s why they want our PSS. The only problem is when they extract it, we die, and that’s not very renewable.”
Yale’s eyes were filling with dawning realization.
“But then they found David,” I heard my voice break on the name. “This one special guy whose PSS comes back, even after it’s been extracted. Even after he dies. He’s an endless supply of PSS.”
Yale groaned under his breath. He’d known David the longest. He would understand the next part.
Even Jason and Nose were listening intently, their eyes locked on me.
“That’s why he has to save the kids on the list,” I said. “Or maybe he lied about that too and there never was a list. It doesn’t matter. The point is he came after us because he feels responsible. Because he thinks he could end this. He’s probably thought that since his sister died.” I took a deep breath, “He thinks that if they’d extracted him first, they never would have killed her. That if they have him, they don’t need any of us.”
“Very nice,” Jason said, clapping his free hand against the stock of his gun in mock applause. “That was an amazing load of bullshit.”
Nose just looked confused.
But I could see it on Yale’s face. He knew I was right.
“Marcus told me he knew what they wanted,” I told Yale. “I
convinced
him to do this without even knowing it,” I finished, tears running down my face. I wasn’t crying. They were leaking out. “He’s not coming back.”
It was possible I was wrong, but I knew with every fiber of my being that I wasn’t.
“We have to go after him,” I said, looking from Yale to Jason to Nose.
“We have no idea where he is,” Yale said. “I don’t even know how he got out of here. He didn’t go out the back past me.”
“He didn’t go out the front past me,” Jason said, stepping into the garage, his hand on his gun.
I glanced around. The only other way out was the automatic garage door, but surely Jason would have seen or heard that open.