Heat (13 page)

You should know better than to think you're normal. You should know better than to think you can have
friends. You should know better than to think you might possibly, one day, be happy.

Ed rolled up beside her. His breath steamed in the light of the nearest streetlamp. "If this snow gets any deeper, I won't be able to move."

Gaia kicked at the path. Six inches of snow and it was still falling. The weather would pick tonight for a decent snow. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I don't know where to go."

"What about the park?" suggested Ed.

Gaia glanced at him. "Why?"

Ed spun his chair around and pointed back the way they had come. "That's where we said we'd meet her. If she's looking for us, that's probably where she'll go."

"I thought you were too tired to move."

"Not yet." Ed gave her a tired grin. "But if it keeps snowing, you might have to carry me home."

MARY RAN UNDER THE THIN, BARE
branches of the winter trees. She had lost the path. The snow covered everything, obscuring the boundaries between path and field and playground. Everything looked the same.
Black trees. White snow.


Mummy

She struggled along on her injured leg. At every step it seemed that her foot got heavier. After a hundred yards she was limping. After two hundred she dragged the leg behind her, leaving long cuts in the snow like some mummy from an old movie limping across the sand.

"Help!" she shouted, but it seemed that the snow muffled her voice. "Gaia!"

The snow was falling faster than ever. It made it hard to see more than a few feet ahead. Mary knew that she was still in the park, but she didn't know where.

She might be near the chessboards or the fountain. The Arc de Triomphe might be no more than a dozen yards away, cloaked by night and snow.

"Gaia!"

The same thought ran through her head over and over.
I have to find Gaia. I have to warn her about her uncle.

HALFWAY TO THE PARK GAIA GOT
behind Ed and pushed. Even with her help, getting the chair through the deepening snow was a struggle. It was ridiculous to even try it. The only thing that made sense was to help Ed get home.

Fireworks

But inside, something seemed to hammer at her. Hurry.
Hurry.


No more than two dozen people were waiting near the arch by the time they reached the center of the park. None of them looked anything like Mary Moss.

"How long do we wait?" asked Ed.

Gaia shook her head. She was all out of answers.
I have to find Mary.

"Gaia."

The call was so faint that at first Gaia was sure she had imagined it.
Then it came again.


"Gaia."

"Did you hear that?" asked Gaia.

Ed raised his head. "Hear what?"

Before Gaia could reply, the fireworks finally started. Sparkles of gold and silver mixed with and lit the falling snow.

Gaia didn't stop to watch. She turned and ran into the night.

BLOOD WAS FROZEN ON MARY'S
cheek. She could barely breathe. Her eyes teared in the bitter cold. Her leg ached from hip to ankle.

Close

When the colors started in the sky, she

thought it was an illusion. It was only after the second explosion and the third that she realized it was the fireworks at the center of the park.

Gaia was close.
All she had to do was follow the fireworks.

"Gaia!" she shouted again.

She limped forward a step. Another step.

A tall, dark figure appeared from behind a tree. "I have to give you credit," said Loki. "You came very close." He raised the gun over his head and brought the handle of the heavy weapon down in a vicious blow.

This time the fireworks were all inside Mary's head.

LOKI'S EYES WERE STILL STREAMING
with tears. He risked removing his mask for a moment, bent, grabbed a handful of snow, and rubbed it across his burning face. Then he carefully replaced his mask. Even with the heavy snow, the park wasn't completely empty. If he were seen, the situation would be severely complicated.

Blunt Instrument

Despite the pain her attack had caused, Loki felt

even more regret about killing the girl. Mary Moss had proved to be quite resourceful. It was true that she had become too close to Gaia, but if Mary could be turned, that closeness could become an advantage. Mary might be used to manipulate Gaia in ways that a blunt instrument like Ella could never achieve.

No. She knows about Katia. She can't be allowed to survive.

Mary groaned and rolled over in the snow. Her eyes blinked open. "Gaia," she groaned.

Before she could do anything more, Loki drove the toe of his boot into her side. The girl let out a little yip. A small hand with bright red nails reached toward his ankle. Loki stomped down hard on the pale fingers, then sent another kick into the girl's body.

This time he was rewarded by a low, whistling moan before his victim passed out. Mary Moss would be giving him no more trouble.

Loki once again put his fingers in the girl's red hair. He pulled her unconscious form to her knees, moved around behind her, and put the Glock at the base of her skull. It would look like a drug hit. That's what the girl's parents would think. That's what the police would think. Most important, that's what Gaia would think.

And Gaia would learn a very important lesson--don't get too close. Otherwise you might get hurt.

Loki put his finger on the trigger.

"No!" came a scream from his left.

Loki felt a sense of movement.
The sense of something rushing toward him out of the darkness and snow.


He pulled the trigger.

GAIA COLLIDED WITH THE MAN JUST
as the gun exploded. For the tiniest slice of a second the muzzle flash lit the snow around her,
freezing the motion of every snowflake like the world's loudest strobe light.


Frozen Moment

In that moment of light Gaia could see everything. She could see the wool knit of the man's mask. She could see the black pistol in his gloved hand. She could see the bruises on Mary's face, and the blood on her split lips, and how her ginger hair was blown aside by the bullet on its way to her brain.

The frozen moment ended. Gaia's momentum knocked the man from his feet and sent him sprawling in the snow.
Gaia didn't go down.
She landed on her feet, skidded, and jumped again to find the man already getting up.

Gaia put a sneaker in his hidden face. The man sat back down in the snow. Gaia launched another kick.

When fighting, Gaia usually worked hard not to cause permanent damage. This wasn't usually. She aimed her blow at the man's neck and delivered it with
enough force to send his head bouncing all the way to Eighth Street.


The man blocked. It was a fast, efficient flip of his left arm, just enough to send Gaia's foot grazing past its target.

The missed kick sent Gaia flying over him. She tucked down her head, did a quick tumble, and rolled back to her feet. By the time she turned around, the man was also standing.

Gaia circled left, faked right, and went in. She sent a stiff right hand aiming for his face. Blocked. A spin kick at his side. Blocked. A sharp uppercut at his chin. Blocked.

She took a step back and studied the man. He held his hands low, almost too low, but he was fast. Gaia gritted her teeth. He wasn't fast enough.
No one was.


Gaia went back another step, then came forward in an electric rush. She flew into the air with her stiff right leg aimed at the man's head.

The man raised an arm to block, but Gaia adjusted her aim midflight. She lowered her foot and drove it square in the center of the man's chest. He staggered back, but before Gaia could follow up her attack, she

was forced to duck a whistling right hand that shattered the air only inches from her face.

This guy was good. Most of the idiots Gaia fought were completely clueless. Some of them had packed on a lot of prison muscle, and they probably looked pretty tough. Gaia wasn't impressed by looks. Even the tough guys were slow and easy. Not this guy. He was big and fast. More than that--he was trained.

The man feinted a kick, then withdrew another step.

Gaia followed. She threw a punch. Blocked. Kick. Blocked. Punch. A solid blow to the man's gut. Kick. A glancing shot to his hip but still enough to make him take another clumsy step. Leg sweep. The man in the black ski mask went down.

Gaia took her time.
One more shot.
That was all it would take. When it came right down to it, people were so easy to kill.

There was movement on her left. Gaia whipped around to face this new attack.

It was Mary. Her outstretched right hand clawed at the snow.

The man in the mask hadn't managed to touch Gaia a single time, but one look at Mary hit her like a bus. Gaia took a step toward her fallen friend. Then she remembered the man in the mask. Gaia turned back to face her enemy.

He was gone.

Gaia hurried forward. There were footsteps in the deepening snow. If she followed, she could catch the man. She was sure of it. All she had to do was leave Mary.

That was not an option.

She ran back to where Mary lay. Blood was spreading in the snow. It was splashed around Mary and speckled for a dozen yards in all directions. Mary's hand had stopped its fitful clawing at the earth. Mary's legs were still.

Images flashed through Gaia's mind. A house in the snow. Her mother.
Blood and snow.
Over and over, blood and snow. Gaia moved toward Mary as if she was wading through all her worst nightmares.

She's dead.
She had to be dead. There was so much blood.

Gaia knelt in the stained snow. Tears made her vision waver, and her hands trembled as she reached out to touch Mary's cheek. Above her, shifting, sparking colors appeared as a fresh round of fireworks burst over the park. "Mary?"

To Gaia's astonishment, Mary's eyes opened. Her face was a mask of blood and pain, but her eyes immediately locked on Gaia's face. "Gaia?" she said in a weak, weirdly distorted voice.

"It's me." Gaia ran a hand over her friend's hair. Her fingers came back
warm and sticky with blood.
"Don't worry. You're going ... You'll be okay."

Mary gave a single slow nod. "Gaia."

Gaia leaned in close. "Yeah."

"I was so worried about you," said Mary. Then her eyes slid back, and a final shiver ran through her body.

Gaia threw back her head and screamed into the falling snow.

LOKI STOOD BACK AMONG THE TREES
and watched as Gaia knelt over the fallen girl. He felt a moment of fear when he realized that the Moss girl was still alive, but then he saw the final shudder rack her body and knew that the threat was finally over.

Crimson Halo

"Where are you!" Gaia screamed at the night. "Where are you, you bastard!"

Loki didn't move.
He didn't dare move.
There were sharp pains in his hip and chest. He was quite certain that at least one of his ribs was broken. If Gaia found him, he had no doubt the girl would leave him as dead as he had left Mary Moss.

For an uncomfortable moment it seemed like Gaia was peering straight at Loki's hiding place. Then she turned and ran back toward the people at the center of the park.

Loki waited until Gaia was out of sight, then he went back to Mary. He took two glassine envelopes of cocaine from his pocket and slipped them into the dead girl's coat. Then he opened a third envelope and poured a bit of the powder across her frozen face.

He took one last look to satisfy himself that everything was as it should be, then he started out of the park. For the police everything would be neat and easy.
Junkie girl dies.
Drugs on the body. Even if they never found someone to blame, they would never look very hard for an answer.

As Loki reached the sedan and climbed inside, he wondered how Gaia would react. The situation of the death--the death, the gunshot, the blood--it was bound to conjure images of her mother. Its effect on Gaia should be interesting.

Loki pressed the speakerphone button on the car's dash. "The task is completed," he said. He reached for the button to hang up the phone, then paused. "Have someone standing by to clean up the car," he said. "There's blood on my upholstery."

He hung up the phone and drove away.