Cry For Tomorrow (18 page)

“Guess they found our little surprise in the elevator shaft,” Jake laughed dryly.

“Right, and they’re going to be totally
not
amused if they ever lay hands on us,” Zack added. He carefully closed and bolted the doorway from the inside before hurrying down the dark stairs after us.

There was a hollow
thump
of someone striking a wall ahead and muttered cursing.

“Watch the turn here, everybody,” Carl warned, too late.

There was another
smack
of flesh against wall and muttered curses as we all arrived at the end of the stairs and burst into the back hallway on the fourth floor. Only a small spark of light marked the narrow hall between apartments and the pale outline of the door leading to the fire escape.

“Be careful,” I warned as I took a step out. I snatched at the jacket of the small boy dodging past me barely in time to keep him from running off the side of the small landing. “This old fire escape isn’t very safe but it’s better than what’s waiting for us back inside.” I passed Jon onto Jennie’s waiting hands and turned back, calling, “Dusty, come to me,” to the dog peering from the dark with big, frightened eyes. I shook my head in resignation. We so did not have time for this. Grunting softly, I hefted the forty pound dog up and under my arm.
At least, we’re going down,
I thought with a groan.

“Quiet now!” growled O’Malley. “You youngsters make enough noise to wake the dead!”

“Okay, let go!
”
I hissed as I reached my arms out to catch Merry as she dangled from the metal rung overhead. The little girl squealed softly as she fell.

“That was kinda fun,” she giggled in my ear as she was set on the ground beside Dusty.

“Yeah, for you,” I made a big show of rubbing my shoulder, but I remembered to smile.

“Okay, where to next?” interrupted Kelly as she tried to peer into the deep shadows of the short alleyway.

“Well, Rosa and Jake’s place was our number one retreat, but that’s plainly out so I guess we head for our alternate site—”

“Hold it right there!” boomed a rough voice from the shadows across the alleyway.

“Hey, Sarge! We’ve got’em!” the black-clad man shouted as he and two other similarly clad men slid from the dark and closed in on us.

“Halie! What are we going to do?” cried Kelly as she huddled against me. I could feel her shaking.

“We aren’t going with them, you know what they’ll do to us if we do.” Nodding at Jennie and Carl, I was already reaching for the hilt of the sword under my jacket. A part of my mind was wondering what would happen if I were to project an electrical charge through the blade when I used it.

“Okay, you folks are coming with us now,” ordered the soldier as he advanced on us with the muzzle of a taser gun pointed at our middles. He busted out laughing when he saw the gleam of the swords that had suddenly appeared in the hands of three of the teens.

“Just what good do you think you’re going to do with those toy swords against taser weapons?”

“Well, I guess we’re not going to have to find that out tonight, now are we, Hannigan,” came a voice from the mouth of the alley.

“Rainor! What are you doing here?” grumbled the soldier. “You ain’t got jurisdiction in this part of town, so you can just take your grey hide outta here!” He looked beyond the grey-clad agent’s shoulder and called. “Hey, Sarge! Looks like we got us an interloper here! Sarge?”

“Sarge is busy—all tied up, you might say,” Rainor informed him as he moved closer.

Confused by the agent’s sudden appearance and the disappearance of their sergeant, the soldiers had their eyes on Rainor and were not paying attention to us as we shifted back into the shadows and out of the line of fire. When the old man balked I quickly got his attention and shook my head in warning.

“He’s a friend. Stay close to us,” I whispered. Tugging at Jon’s hand, I started moving toward the mouth of the alleyway. We were nearly in the clear when he stumbled into a can lying in his path and sent it rattling down the alleyway.

“Hold it right there!” growled one of the soldiers, as he spun about and aimed his taser at us.

“Halie, watch out!” shouted Zack. His shoulder slammed into me so hard that Jon and I were sent crashing into the wall beside us. The first taser blast struck the wall a foot above my head. The second caught Zack full in the chest. Without so much as a yelp of surprise, he crumbled to the dirt and lay motionless and blank like another piece of discarded trash.

“Zack!”

Screams echoed through the alleyway. Jon and I were already reaching for his still body when Jennie and Kelly fell on us, sobbing.

“Oh Halie, he’s
dead!
There’s not even any blood,” Jennie wept as she turned him over.

“Hannigan! You son-of-a-bitch!”
snarled Rainor as he opened fire. “They’re nothing but a bunch of damned kids!”

The soldier that had shot Zack fell first under Rainor’s attack. Startled by an attack by what they considered one of their own, the other soldiers barely got off a shot before they joined him on the floor of the alleyway.

“Hey girls, I’m really sorry about your friend, but we’ve got to get out of here.” Rainor put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to my feet.

“He’s right,” added Carl, “Zack was a friend, but he’s gone now, and I know he wouldn’t want us all to stand here and get killed.”

I glared at Carl, feeling a hard knot of hatred forming for him. “He’s right, we’ve got to go.” Spinning about I faced the grey agent. “Rainor! What are you
doing
here?” I demanded. “You were supposed to meet us at Pelican Pier later tonight.”

“Hey, I’m real sorry for following you and all, but when I saw you girls heading off into the streets alone I got worried, and then I heard the all-points bulletin being issued for you,” he told me apologetically. “I used the hover-craft to follow you to the library but when the quake hit I lost track of you for a while. When I did pick up your trail, you already had a pretty good head start on me. Almost lost the hover-craft back at that old zoo, though,” he shook his head and scowled. “By the time I got around to the back exit you were on the railroad trestle and I had to back-track into the city to find a safe crossing for the craft. If I hadn’t picked up the radio communications from this bunch, well, I never would’ve found this building in time to intercept you.”

“Look, pal, we appreciate the help and all, but we don’t know you,” Carl growled as he shouldered the girls aside. “For all we know you could be one of those bounty hunters trying to trick us all into going with you.”

“Bounty hunter? Are you mad?” Rainor bristled and squared-off with Carl as if he expected him to attack him. “Look, I’ve already explained myself to the girls. There isn’t much time, so you really need to make a quick decision here and trust me if you want to live.”

O’Malley had been standing off to one side, listening intently to the interchange but now he stepped forward. “Stand aside, boy, let me get a closer look at this dude,” he growled. Cocking his head from one side to the other he studied Rainor for a moment before declaring, “Yep, I was right. He’s one of those humanoids from the under-world.”

“You know about Tereus?” I demanded in surprise.

“Oh sure, lots of folk do,” he told me with a smirk. “‘Specially if they had anything to do with the government in their past lives.” He chuckled at the surprised looks on our faces. “What? Do you think I just hatched out of some turnip-patch or something last week?” He shook his head at our naivety. “Hell, I was
employed
by our mighty government for more than thirty years until I finally decided couldn’t stomach them and their policies anymore. So I just up and disappeared on them one day and holed-up down here in the inner-city, right under their noses.”

“Well, government agent or not,” Jennie said incredulously, “how can you know that he really is from the under-world?”

“Well, heck, its plain as the nose on his face,” he laughed. “This boy’s nearly transparent.” When we just stared at him like he’d lost his mind he reached a hand out and turned Rainor so that the light from the moon above was at his back. “See that? You can almost see the light shining through him.”

We all stared at the grey-clad man and his luminescent silhouette.

“He’s right,” Jake said incredulously.

“Damned right I am, and if you all intend to stay alive like he said, then you’d better accept his help, at least ‘til you all have a better plan,” he informed us curtly.

“Well I haven’t heard the whole story here, but considering our options I vote for going with him and working out the details from somewhere a little bit more secure,” Carl agreed.

“Great! I’ve got a flitter waiting at the end of the alley,” Rainor informed us as he anxiously began herding us toward the street.

“But what about Zack? We can’t just leave him here like this,” cried Jennie.

“Hey, I’m really sorry, but right now we need to take care of the needs of the living,” Rainor told her sadly.

“He’s right, Jennie.” I put an arm around my friend’s shoulder and urged her on. “Zack would understand.”

Keeping a close hand on the smaller children, we quickly made our way past the thick piles of debris. I was handing Merry up into the hover-craft to Jake’s waiting hands when my eye was drawn to a gleam of metal in the shadows at one side of the alleyway. A second look showed me the darker outline of a black-clad man crumbled against the wall.

“Must be Sarge,” I murmured. “Come on, Jon, hurry it up,” I urged the little boy dawdling along behind everyone else.

I had hoisted the dog up and into Kelly’s hands and was halfway through the flitter’s door when I heard the crunch of gravel and shuffle of feet coming around the side of the building.

“Over there!” someone shouted. “Stop where you are or we’ll open fire!” the voice commanded.

“Get in!” Rainor ordered as he pushed me from behind and slammed the door. Before I was even seated he’d thrown himself into the pilot seat and the engine was blasting dust and bits of debris over the dozen figures converging on the craft.

Dropping into the front passenger seat, I silently watched the streets buzzing past. Wherever Rainor had been spending his time it was obvious that he’d been well trained in the piloting of the quick little flitter. “Where are you taking us?” I asked after a bit. I
didn’t
question him about the
unusually large swarm of phantoms swimming along at our side like dolphins at the side of a sea-going schooner.

“We’re headed towards the warehouse district along the riverfront. I’ve made a few contacts in the city and I think they might be able to help us right now,” he told me. “I was planning on—”

Whatever Rainor had been about to say was drowned out by the explosion of blinding light that suddenly engulfed the flitter.

We were all thrown against each other and the walls of the cramped cabin, forcing us to grab hold of anything we could. We were nearly out of range when the frame of the small craft shuddered and the engine sputtered. The flitter lost speed and flew canted to the left for several heartbeats.

Cursing softly, Rainor pushed buttons and shifted levers—and the engine coughed again, stuttering to life.

“Looks like they aren’t going to give up all that easy now, are they,” commented Jake as he grabbed hold of the back of my seat to keep from being thrown across the cabin when Rainor unexpectedly spun the small steering wheel.

The flitter banked sharply to the right, making the thin metal-frame of the structure vibrate. “Hang on, everybody, we’re going to have a bit of a rough ride! I’m going to try to put us down in that old parking lot over there.”

Another flash of light washed over the craft, making it shudder and whine like an animal in pain. The engines coughed one more time and were silent. There were a couple more bright flashes off to the starboard side but nothing struck home as Rainor guided the craft in a bumpy glide toward a dark patch of ground just barely visible in the pale moonlight.

“Everybody stick close to me!”
ordered Rainor as he kicked the door-hatch open and jumped out.

“Halie, are you okay?” he called anxiously when a loud bang from the other side of the craft told him that the escape hatch on the passenger side had been activated.

I turned my head in time to see him take a step in my direction but Jennie jumped from the flitter in his path. “Nobody seems to be hurt,” I heard Jen tell him as she began helping the two smaller children from inside. She ducked to help Merry with her pack, allowing me a clear view of the agent as he turned and headed to the back end of the flitter.

“Halie?” Jen called as she straightened up and made eye contact with me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, we’re all good.” I grabbed my sister’s arm and headed her towards the back of the small craft. Dusty was panting and clinging close to my side and I had already forgotten the agent’s unusual amount of concern for my welfare when I nearly ran into him. Startled, I moved past him, giving the burned, crumbled fender of the small craft a pat as I passed it.

“This flitter does not look like it’s going to be taking us anywhere soon,” I noted as I released both Kelly and the dog to free my hands.

“No, I’m afraid not,” Rainor responded. He looked like he wanted to say something else but a pair of phantoms fluttered across the top of the craft and drew our attention to the score of ghostly images that had already arrived to caress the warm metal of the wreck.

I jumped when several of the backpacks smacked into the ground at the back of the flitter and turned to see who was making so much noise.

“Get outa my way, you stupid dog,” growled Carl as he appeared in the broken back window of the flitter. He was trying to crawl out but Dusty kept jamming her nose in his face, her lips curled and a soft rumble of warning rising from her throat. His eyes locked with mine and he raised his voice to be sure I could hear him. “Whatever possessed you to bring home that damned flea-bag is beyond my understanding, Halie,” he griped as he kicked at the dog and side-stepped her. “Even you should have more common sense than to bring home another damned stray that we have to feed.” He jumped away from the window as small flames leapt to life within the interior of the flitter.