Dearly, Beloved (51 page)

“How do you think I knew about my father’s guards, their tactics? You think planning for things like this hasn’t been part of my life since I was an infant?” Michael gloated. “AG’s probably the safest place on earth for me, and the deadliest for you. My dad’s teams are going to march up here and fill you with so many holes, there won’t be a square inch of you left to bury. Then I’m going to head out there, and
I’m
going to save Miss Dearly! You just
handed
me a way to make up for all of this!”

I stared at him in utter horror, realizing what I’d done. I’d dared to half trust the little bugger—dared to think that even though I was going to punish him later, he
did
want to do what was best for Nora. And look where it’d gotten me. Potentially dead. So far away from Nora I might as well have been on Mars.

Just as I was cursing myself, a hand appeared and tapped Michael on the shoulder. Michael turned around, only to be met by the business side of a stainless steel tray.

He spun to the ground, unconscious. Elpinoy stood behind him, blood-splattered tray in hand, his round stomach heaving
with exertion and terror. He looked at me and dropped the tray with a clang, before touching his wrist to the pad near the door, which sprang open.

“My clearance is still good,” he said. “Pick him up.”

I did so, throwing Michael over my shoulder. “Did you tell Allister about me, Dick?”

“No.” Elpinoy led the way to the emergency staircase, and together we half flew, half fell to the first floor. “No, I never told him anything about Company Z. Only about Dearly’s research, which was all made public anyway.”

“This is insane.”

“He must know you from the news, or some other source.” Elpinoy opened another door, which let out into the parking garage. “Go straight across. It will let out on the same side as the employee entrance, if you know where that is.”

“This is where we came in.” I turned to look at the man. “Thanks.”

“I don’t agree with Dr. Dearly’s methods, but I do love you all. As foolish as that might sound.” Elpinoy waved me on. “Go. Find Miss Dearly. I’ll figure out what I can.”

“No. Get someplace safe,” I told him as I left.

Crossing the parking garage was easy—the guardhouse was empty, and I suspected maybe everybody’d been recalled to deal with the “hostage situation” on the eleventh floor. Just as I finished strapping Michael into the Rolls, though, a new and immediate siren went off, and I looked up to see black-clad soldiers spilling into the garage from all sides and a reinforced door lowering to block off the way we’d come in.

“Brilliant,” I muttered as I slammed his door shut and ran to the driver’s side. They must have finally started paying attention to the security cameras. I was trapped.

Luckily, again—I could shoot my way out.

By the time I’d gotten into position behind the steering wheel,
the soldiers were converging on me, shouting and shooting rubber rounds, the bullets traveling fast enough to shatter the windows of Sam’s beloved Rolls. A few slammed into my chest, doing little aside from compounding my anger. I turned on the engine and reached under the ignition, opening the console Sam had told me about. Blindly, as I gunned the engine and started moving, I pushed a few buttons.

The railguns went off without a hitch. Lightning seemed to leap from them, and a sound like thunder rolled through the car. I swear the entire thing lifted off the asphalt. I hit the button again and again. The projectiles slammed through the lowered door, punching a broad, combined hole in it for which I drove like a madman, swerving to avoid the soldiers in front of me as best I could. I managed to pull off a couple of maneuvers Nora would beg to hear about in detail later and shot out of the building, the ruined door scraping the top of the car.

As far as I could tell, as I peeled out onto the employee road, I hadn’t actually hit anybody—but I’d sure as hell scared them. It took a minute for the guards to regroup. By then I was well on my way, and I slowed down just a tad, hoping to lure them out. Sure enough, a few seconds later a couple of massive armored trucks appeared behind me. This time they didn’t shoot—though their exterior speakers were on overdrive.
“Pull over!”

“Let’s go, boys,” I said as I floored it again. Beside me, Michael shifted in his seat belt, moaning. Okay, this was no longer a “hostage situation.” It was now a full-fledged
hostage situation
. Kidnapping, too. And extortion. And assault. And … was it only vandalism? Seemed like blowing a hole in somebody’s building deserved a bigger word than that.

Maybe I’d wait for the money to hit my account before I gave him back, after all. A million seemed fair.

I awoke to find myself bound hand and foot, like the living girl next to me.

For some reason, I found it hard to care.

For the longest time, I didn’t open my eyes or move. I just listened. I could hear the camp becoming a carnival once more, zombies gossiping as preparations were made. None of them seemed to know what was coming, but they must have thought it would surely be thrilling, since the stage was being assembled. I heard the pieces being unloaded from the carriage next to our tent, dead men laughing as they hauled them past.

In contrast, the living girl never stopped moving or talking. She didn’t cry, she didn’t scream, but fought the ropes that held her, her body twisting endlessly back and forth across the pallets. She called my name repeatedly, but I never responded. She got the same reaction from Smoke.

“Smoke? Are you all right?” He didn’t speak. The girl cursed, and tried me again. “Laura? Listen to me.
Look
at me. Laura!”

“She won’t help you.” Hagens reentered the tent, and I opened my eyes to find her smirking. “She knows better. She knows she’s going to die tonight.”

That was it. I did know. And it had frozen me.

“Oh, do shut up,” Nora said, turning herself around to glare at the woman.

Hagens seemed to obey her, striding across the tent until she could kneel beside Smoke. His legs weren’t bound, but his wrists were connected by rope to the tent pole. She corrected that, using a second length of rope to tie his ankles together. “Sorry about this, but I need to make sure you don’t get away again.”

“You can’t keep him here,” Nora said. “If he gets free, if he starts the plague again, there’ll be a backlash against the dead. Innocent zombies will be hurt.”

Hagens rose and ran the rope to the tent pole, tethering it there. That done, she studied Nora, who glared defiantly up at her. “Innocent zombies are already being hurt, you little fool. Now it’s time for payback.”

“Payback? How?” Nora tossed her black hair out of her face.

“Fear,” Hagens said, smiling sickly. “Just as you said—now that we have him back, we could start the plague again. And fear can paralyze even the strongest person, the strongest tribe.” I bent my head.

“You underestimate people,” Nora responded. As she spoke she tried to catch my eye.

“Do I?” Hagens knelt down and dug her nails into Nora’s wrists, where her struggles had already reddened her skin. The girl twisted anew, this time in pain. “When I made my way out of the Siege, I was scared for my life. I thought I got used to the fact that I’m dead a long time ago, but the living made me feel that terror all over again. I have been frightened for too long.”

“I don’t blame you for feeling that way!” Nora tried to shake her wrists free. “But this isn’t the way to make up for it!”

“How do I make up for it, then?” Hagens’s voice was low, almost friendly, and that frightened me. “How do I make up for it, when humans are still trying to control me? Us? When they
sought me out, and had the audacity to act like I should lift a
finger
to help them?”

Nora searched her eyes. “What do you mean? Coalhouse talked about that—is Company Z in danger?”

Hagens made a derisive noise. “Like I’d tell you.”

“If you don’t tell me, tell the others! Bram fought for you! If you’d told him about this, he would have helped you!”

“We’re beyond that now.” Hagens shifted closer to Nora and let go of her wrists, causing the girl to try and back up. Her bindings wouldn’t let her get far. “I don’t want to infect the entire nation. I don’t want to wipe humanity off the face of the earth, end civilization as we know it. I’m not that stupid. I will keep Smoke very, very close to me. I just want my people to be safe, him included. I have fought, and screamed, and killed to get to a place where I can protect the dead. I have my own army now. Humans leave us alone? Humans let us live out the rest of our limited days in peace? No one gets hurt.”

“What about me, then?” Nora demanded. “You still haven’t told me.”

“Smoke is my sword.” Hagens cast her eyes down at the huddled prisoner. “You can be my shield. I served the New Victorian army with all my heart, and that same army turned around and told its living members that I was to be hunted, destroyed. I followed Griswold loyally, and he left me to die. I came to a new city, tried to build a new life, and still I was chased through the streets. You will make that stop!”

“I’m sorry they did that,” Nora said. She was white as a sheet, saucer-eyed, but still she argued. “I’m on your side. Why won’t you believe me?”

“Who said I don’t believe you?” Hagens shook her head. “We might agree, but we are still fundamentally
different
. That’s the point. That’s the thing people need to be reminded of, and I can do that through you. Griswold loves you. The army loves your
father. At the very least, you can send a message to them. So I’m
not
going to kill you, not unless I have to.” She caught Nora’s chin and her injured shoulder, squeezing both until Nora was forced to release a cry. “And if I do? It’ll be death by a thousand bites. If the army comes after me, or anyone from Z-Comp, I’m going to let every member of the Changed snack on you. Hundreds of shallow little bites, one at a time, while you’re still alive. What’s left of you will be so ugly even Griswold will be too disgusted to look at it. It will haunt him until he dies—like the faces of the people he left behind should.”

Nora’s eyes rounded, her chest starting to fall and rise rapidly. She tried to turn her body, writhing uselessly in Hagens’s direction. “Notice how you only say this crap when I’m tied up or Bram’s there to hold me back? What’re
you
afraid of?”

“So
brave
,” cooed Hagens. “And so stupid.” Music started to play outside, pounding drums accompanied by loud, looping cries of celebration. “It’s starting! We’re having a little party before we head to one of those mansions out there, take it over, and use the richies’ equipment to let the humans of the world know who’s got the upper hand now. Because I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I don’t want anyone to come near us.” Nora glowered at her. Hagens laughed, before turning to me. “And you. You I’m just going to get rid of. A lesson for the others. Get ready for the compost heap.”

With that, she stomped out of the tent, leaving us alone. The minute she was gone, Nora hissed, “Laura!”

This time I looked at her. Her face was dirty, her eyes bright. “What do you want?”

“The obvious,” Nora said. “We have to get out of here. We have to warn people!”

“We can’t,” I said, turning away from her.

“Yes, we can!” Nora said. “You don’t know me, and I don’t expect you to feel sorry for me. But there has to be at least one
person in this camp you want to help. We can get out of here. There’s always a way.”

“We can’t. No one can.” I turned back to her. “I can’t believe anyone anymore. Hagens killed my sisters. She’s turned the Changed against humanity. I thought Coalhouse was sent to help, but he only made it worse. Mártira was the only person I could believe—I even believed her when I knew she was lying!”

And I had to admit it now. She’d lied to me. About so many things.

Looking deeply into my eyes, the girl said, “Coalhouse didn’t kidnap me. I came to protect him.” She leaned her head in Smoke’s direction. “I swear.”

Confused, I said, “Why? Why would you do something like that?”

“Because Hagens is right. Smoke needs someone to look out for him.” She swallowed. “After tonight, if Hagens goes through with this, there’s no turning back. Your people will be hunted down. The authorities could be on their way here right now. If she goes near any of the houses around here, the cops will come, the army. The very thing that angered her to this point—she’s
making
it happen again. Help me get Smoke out of here, and I will help you save whoever you want to save.”

Her words struck me as very odd. “You would do that?”

“Of course I would!”

The music picked up outside, and Allende started to sing, female voices providing a haunting backup chorus. I shuddered, for tonight his song sounded like a chant for the great god Moloch, like the start of a human sacrifice. He sang of punishing the humans, of blood for lifeless blood, an eye for a rotting eye.

His song told a story I didn’t want to hear.

“What are you waiting for?” Nora asked, and her question hung around me, heavy, suffocating—because I had no answer for it. Hagens had asked me the same thing, and I’d had no answer
then. I’d waited and waited for somebody else to rescue me. I’d waited and waited to see how the tale would unfold, never lifting a hand to try and influence it. I’d taken everything at face value, and so eagerly.