No Time to Die (18 page)

Z
oe's legs dangled around Theo's neck. She was sitting on his shoulders inside the dark crawl space that Galileo had revealed to them, behind a fake wall in Julian's bedroom—one that slid open only at the touch of two thumbs placed on invisible sensors. But the space was hollowed out for only two people, so she had to scrunch herself atop Theo's shoulders. Natalie leaned against Galileo, her knees balled tight, and he lay contorted around her. It was the only way the four of them could fit.

Before, a second had never registered as a unit of time in which experience could dwell. Now Zoe knew better. Each one mounted a struggle against sound, against movement, against panic. It was frightening how elongated time became when you were trapped with the catastrophes roaming like wolves through your mind. You could age years in a minute. Well, she supposed someone else could.

It seemed that hours were passing without any change. Her thighs and rear tingled. She was desperate to stand, to stretch, to take her pill. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she were to have a repeat seizure. The cool smooth walls confined them. The only way out was to move the wall and expose everyone.

Don't seize,
she told herself.
Don't panic.

Her breath was coming in short gasps. She squeezed her eyes shut, summoning the spirit of Gramps. His raspy voice, his playful smile. His eyes that seemed to see past all her inadequacies straight through to her soul. She hoped that he understood why she had to leave, and that he would forgive her for the first real secret she ever kept from him—for his own benefit.

What would he do if he were here right now? Probably turn this hell into a silly game to pass the time—
first one to twitch loses.
Why was it that some people had the power to improve a horrible situation with their presence alone?

In the midst of her yearning she heard someone tap on the wall. Six light taps. Her whole body braced. Galileo's hand flew to her leg with a tacit command,
Freeze.
Theo's shoulders tightened, lifting her an inch.

The voice came through muffled but distinct.

“All clear. You can come out now.”

It was Julian's.

Her first instinct was to cry. Usually she repressed feelings of weakness in front of strangers—so often was she trying to be a strong adult—but now she let all her tension flow out, unchecked. The relief was monumental. Theo chuckled, not unkindly, when her tears dripped onto his face. It was still too dark to see, and she wondered if he was shedding a few himself.

When the wall opened, they scooted out one by one. It was all she could do not to race through the house flipping cartwheels. All that glorious space! She tried to contain herself as Galileo restored the wall to its original position. Natalie hugged Theo, as Zoe danced in circles around them.

Galileo turned to Julian and put a hand on his shoulder.

“How are you? Okay?”

Zoe stopped twirling to listen, chastising herself. How could she not have asked him that right away? Part of behaving like an adult was showing empathy to others, unlike kids, who tended to be interested only in themselves.

“Fine,” Julian said, smiling. “They leave to look in forest.”

“Then I wish them luck,” Galileo said. “They'll need it.”

“It was tight fit,
sí
?”

“You might say. But it served its purpose. See, you thought we'd never need it.”

“You should have seen us,” Natalie added, beginning to chuckle.

“Good thing no one farted,” Theo said to Zoe. “Especially you.”

She giggled, smacking him. “Gross!”

Galileo let them indulge their amusement, but he didn't crack a smile. Instead he typed away on his cell phone.

“Oh, lighten up,” Natalie said, poking his arm. “You can't be above a fart joke.”

“Maybe if we were off the hook. But they're just going to search even harder. Next time we might not be so lucky.”

Zoe's giddiness evaporated. She didn't like the severity of his expression. It reminded her of the look on her father's face when her mother received her diagnosis of cancer—a look that had been indelibly seared into her memory.

“So what do we do?” Natalie asked.

“Get out of here ASAP.” He waved his cell phone. “Remember our cop friend? He's parked in the garage right now in a rental car, waiting for us.”

“Great! What are we doing? Come on!”

“There's apparently a police blockade at the exit to the main road. Every passenger is being checked for ID.”

Zoe felt her face crumple. Why did things have to be so hard? This was all her fault. If she hadn't forgotten her pill at home and had a stupid freaking seizure, no one would have been able to track them. All she wanted was to get to the compound so Natalie could get on with the research. Gramps couldn't wait forever.

“Now what?” Natalie said in a low voice.

He hesitated. “There's a way, but I don't want to force it on you”—he looked at Zoe—“especially not in your condition.”

“I'm fine,” she declared, annoyed. “Try me.”

He seemed reluctant to explain, rubbing his temple as if it ached. “You've already had a seizure. We could take our chances and spend the night, wait it out.”

She shook her head. “I'll feel so much better if we can just get out of here.” Then she remembered how she had been insensitive to Julian, so she turned to him. “No offense, you know.”

He waved a hand. “Better for me. I no want to get in trouble.”

They all looked at Galileo.

“Well,” he said, “you three would have to squeeze into the trunk. It should be less than five minutes altogether, but it won't be pleasant.”

Zoe closed her eyes. The thought of entering another dark, trapped space made her want to sob. When she opened them, she saw that Natalie was shaking her head. Theo looked too exhausted to react, or maybe he was just the type of guy who didn't show fear. It was after midnight. They had been traveling for some fourteen hours.

“And where will you be?” Natalie asked.

“In the passenger seat. I have a federal badge.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Friends in high places,” he said, as if that were a satisfying answer. Zoe stared at his angular face in profile, wishing she could crack even one of the mysteries that surrounded him. Who was he, really? Why was he risking so much? And how did he cope with the pressure? Maybe the Network had already invented some kind of drug to help normal people become extraordinary. If so, she could pretend she'd taken it, too.

“Can you even breathe in a closed trunk?” Theo asked.

“It won't be totally closed. I've done it before. The trick is to stay calm and not hyperventilate.”

“I don't know,” Natalie said. “It seems risky. What if they search it?”

“What if they search the house again? Next time they'll be more careful. I don't know what prints we might have left around here.”

“I'm in,” Zoe announced, surprising everyone with her sureness, herself most of all. She forced a smile. This was no time for cowardice or indecision.
If there's a job to be done, just do it.

Galileo shot her a grateful look, and she could tell he understood the level of bravery she'd had to summon from deep down, where Gramps's soul had left its imprint on hers.

“All in?”

Theo eyed her with a new respect. “If she is, so am I.”

Zoe tried to contain a grin as a warm flush crept into her face.

Natalie put her arms around them both and narrowed her gaze at Galileo.

“There's nothing on this earth more precious than these kids.” At the last word Zoe stiffened, but Natalie didn't seem to notice. Her voice was trembling with emotion—and menace. “I'm trusting you to understand that.”

I
n the trunk, Natalie's breathing quickened as the car slowed.

The checkpoint.

She was lying in the fetal position with Theo and Zoe scrunched on either side of her. Their warm bodies pressed against hers, making pools of sweat at each point of contact. Theo's knees bent into her back. Zoe, being spooned, had pulled her elbows in tightly at her sides. They jutted into Natalie's ribs like tiny spears. The ceiling of the trunk loomed several inches above their faces, so close that she wondered if a coffin would be spacious in comparison. Unlike the cool crawl space, the air here was stuffy and reeked of gasoline fumes from the tailpipe.

It was dark except for a razor-thin edge of light visible around the perimeter, the broken seal that allowed them to breathe. From the outside, it was impossible to tell that the trunk wasn't fully shut. She knew that if they started to suffocate, she could push it open all the way—but that would mean instant capture. Not a last resort she wanted to use.

The car stopped, jolting them into one another. She felt Theo's hot breath on her scalp and Zoe's waif-like body tensing against hers.

The trick was to stay calm.

“Almost there,” she whispered. If being a mother had taught her anything, it was that comforting others was the most soothing way to comfort yourself. She tightened her arms around Zoe, drawing her even closer. The sweet scent of her hair was an antidote to the noxious odors of gas and sweat, like cherry blossoms on a spring day. Innocence, youth, beauty. She concentrated on imagining a world in which those precious attributes were sustainable, a world she was determined to make real. A sharp ache pinched at her temples. If only she could endure a little longer.
How bad do you want it,
she goaded herself. All the years of studying, the thousands of hours in the lab, the lack of complete attention to Theo, the loss of her marriage—yes, Nick had cheated, but hadn't she pushed him away?—all in the service of her relentless search for that powerful gene.

And—as far as she could tell—the proof was an inch away.

Sweat dripped from her cheek onto Zoe's hair. Natalie didn't know how much longer they could hold out. The oxygen in the trunk seemed to be thinning. Each breath was less and less effective. She gulped, expanding her lungs with fumes, then choked out a cough, tried again, choked again. Why were Zoe and Theo able to breathe so steadily? In a surreal moment of detachment, she saw what was going to happen—she alone was going to suffocate.
Unless.
All around, the fresh night air was seeping in, taunting her to throw open the trunk and inhale a greedy breath.

But how could she devastate Theo? Her returning to jail and outing Galileo in the process would leave him with nothing. It was getting harder to think straight. Her brain throbbed, thoughts blurred. Lucidity receded like a tide, washing away all but the immutable pearl of her soul, her love for her son. No lab and no gene in the world could tempt her to abandon him.

She was moments away from giving in to the blackness when his arms wrapped around her.

“Breathe, Mom,” he whispered. “You're just panicking.”

I love you,
she wanted to say, but didn't have the breath. All she wanted to do was stand in a wind tunnel and suck in the coldest, freshest air of her life. Instead she inhaled the stuffy gas fumes, trying not to choke. Why wasn't the car moving?

“That's right,” he said. “Nice and easy.”

The authorities were probably searching the car. Soon they would open the trunk and then the whole charade would be over. It was taking too long. Something was wrong. Had Galileo been caught?

Then the car lurched forward, picking up speed with each turn out of the neighborhood. No sirens could be heard, no signs of pursuit. The whine of the engine crescendoed until all they could hear was the roar of the car, as if they were encased in its very core. They accelerated until Theo and Zoe were rolling and jostling her at every bump, but she wasn't bothered. By the time they reached peak speed, she knew they were on the open highway, a straight shot through the unsuspecting night to freedom.

They emerged from the trunk at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. No houses could be seen in any direction, just wide open fields under the starry night sky. Zoe clutched Galileo in relief, her short arms barely reaching around his back, while Natalie looked on with tenderness and a hint of envy. How she wished to fall into a man's arms and be held. But propriety dictated that adults didn't give in to such whims.

As if reading her mind, Theo pulled her close, and with a slight shock she noted that he was not so young anymore. He was a head taller than she was, and broad through the chest, his shoulders muscular and strong. What had happened to the scrawny teenager she knew? Was there no end to his growth spurt? It hardly seemed possible that this handsome man-child had come out of her body eighteen years earlier.

“You saved me,” she confessed, leaning on his shoulder. “I was freaking out in there.”

“I just got you out of your head,” he replied. “I never knew you were claustrophobic.”

“You weren't supposed to.” She gave an abashed smile. “I've tried so hard not to pass my quirks on to you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are there more?”

“Oh, you have no idea,” she joked. Galileo shut the trunk and turned to them, with Zoe beaming at his side. The car was a silver Nissan sedan with Ohio plates, utterly ordinary. Through the passenger window, Natalie saw the officer friend of the Network sitting in the driver's seat, still wearing his cop's uniform. She shuddered to think where they might be without his cooperation. “I can't believe you pulled it off.”

Galileo smiled; the lightheartedness had returned to his eyes. “We should be fine now.” He looked down at Zoe, who was hanging on to his arm. “You got your pills with you?”

“Right here.” She held up her backpack.

“Good girl.”

“How much longer will it take to get there?”

“About three days. But I'm going to drive through the night and see if we can't get there faster. I'm guessing you guys would like a rest already.”

They all nodded. Even Theo, who was such an adrenaline junkie that he had once gone skydiving without Natalie's permission.

“What about our friend?” Natalie asked, sticking a thumb at the driver.

Galileo sighed. “That part of the plan's ruined. He was supposed to return to the station in his cop car, seemingly unable to find us. But now I'm sure it's been towed away as evidence. They'll think we stole it.”

“So what's he going to do?” She checked her watch. It was after midnight. “Isn't he due back now?”

“Yep. So we're going to play into their version of events.”

“How so?”

“We'll drop him off near a gas station somewhere back along our route between Wheeling and Columbus, where he'll go and call the station. He'll say he blacked out after a struggle with me before I took off with his car, and then he later woke up in a ditch near the highway with all his personal effects missing. He'll say he walked until he found this gas station and called. It would be consistent then that his car was discovered where we left it, miles west of where we allegedly dumped him.”

Natalie balked, horrified. “But you're taking the hit for something you didn't do!”

“So what? To them I'm already a monster. But he's a real person who's going to have to face a lot of questions. This way, he'll seem heroic and victimized and nobody will hold him accountable.” Galileo paused as a single car sped past them on the otherwise empty road. Natalie thought they probably looked like a regular American family, a husband and wife and two kids pulling over to stretch their legs. He lowered his voice. “It's absolutely critical that he and Julian and everybody else who put their lives on the line for the Network are protected at all costs.”

“But why do they go to so much trouble?” she blurted, before she could stop herself. “Their lives would be over if anyone found out.”

“The reason is always the same. To help a loved one.” He lifted his chin toward the officer in the car. “His mom is at the compound, in our hospital. Acute myeloid leukemia. We're trying a radical gene therapy that's years away from federal approval—and so far it's working.”

Natalie's lips parted in awe, and she caught a glimpse of the way Theo was watching him. There was no mistaking the admiration in his eyes—and the longing. Zoe seemed to have already claimed Galileo as a surrogate father figure and he appeared to be enjoying the role, or at least was humoring her. Just as Natalie was wondering whether his affection was sincere, Zoe tugged on his sleeve.

“Can we go to sleep in the backseat now? I'm tired.”

“Of course you can, darling,” he said. “Of course.”

Zoe didn't see the shadow that crossed his face then, but Natalie did. It was a split-second shift from his guise of composure, a flicker of the heart chafing against some pain it wishes to forget.

 

 

When Natalie woke up in the backseat the next morning, the kids—or rather Zoe and Theo—were still snoozing on either side of her. She had started to think of them together as
the kids,
even though Theo was officially an adult, and so was Zoe, at least nominally. The girl plainly craved respect, even if she did at times slip into childlike patterns of speech and behavior. But her bravery and rebellion were the hallmarks of late adolescence, and her intelligence was precocious for her physiological age. No, Natalie was sure she did not deserve the label
kid—
this whole journey was predicated on that notion, after all—and resolved never to let it slip anymore in her presence.

Galileo was driving up front alone, humming along to a Beatles song on the radio—“When I'm Sixty-Four.” She couldn't help smiling at the irony as she wiped the crust of sleep from her eyes. Ahead in the distance, the sun shone on a great white arch that rose gracefully into the sky, dwarfing the buildings below it.

“The Saint Louis arch!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, we're going to pass right by it.”

How fitting,
she thought. The arch was the famous Gateway to the West, erected as a monument to westward expansion and discovery. A celebration of the new world that lay at the feet of the pioneers, waiting to be explored.

“You must be exhausted,” she said. “How long have we been driving?”

“About nine hours since you fell asleep back in Ohio. I had to backtrack to Pennsylvania to drop off our friend. But he's out of danger now. His story went over well. And we're just about a day and a half away.”

“You have to sleep. I don't understand how you can still be driving.”

He explained that they were going to stop at another safe house in Springfield, Missouri, for a few hours so he could nap.

“Why don't we just spend a whole day there?” she suggested. “It's fine, really. No one's following us now.”

“I wish we could. But in this job there are no days off. I have to leave on another mission as soon as we get to the compound.”

Their time at the safe house in Springfield came and went. Galileo slept in the bedroom of the family's absent son, who was a computer tech at the compound, while Theo and Zoe kicked around a soccer ball in the backyard and Natalie sipped iced tea. After taking turns showering and filling up on hearty home-cooked barbeque, they loaded into the car again for the final thirteen-hour stretch.

Green grasslands passed by, and stretches of wide-open desert in which nothing surrounded them for miles but red sand and rock outcroppings. Night fell. The heat outside barely eased—the barometer said 95. It was different than the sweltering summers of New York that she was used to; this heat was dry and breezy, devoid of suffocating humidity. Desert heat. She had never experienced it before.

Despite her exhaustion, sleep was the furthest thing from her mind as they crossed the border into New Mexico. No one had spoken for some time, so Galileo's voice nearly startled her.

“We're just about there.”

Her heart hammered as she leaned forward to peer out the windshield. In front of them were the outlines of tall, jagged mountains set against a twinkling black sky. In the backseat, Zoe sat up and shook Theo, who had been dozing.

She pointed out the left-side window. “Look!”

Natalie saw, too. Glittering neon lights in the distance. A tan castlelike building nestled against the foot of the mountains. It seemed like a majestic Native American palace of some kind.

The lights grew brighter as they approached the sprawling, glittering castle and pulled into its parking lot. Rising directly behind it, the mountains soared like arrowheads, blotting out the low-hanging moon. In the front splashed a fountain, lit from beneath with pink and purple lights. A billboard above it read in neon yellow—
DANCING EAGLE CASINO
. Next to it was a rendering of a fierce-looking warrior with feathers protruding from his head and a braid hanging by his ear
.
On the sign in the lower right-hand corner were the words
PUEBLO OF LAGUNA INDIAN RESERVATION
.