Fox Forever (17 page)

He smiles but I can see the defeat on his face. “A good lesson learned in any language,” he replies. “I’m glad to see you used your time abroad wisely.”

I just bought myself a little more credibility—and time.

But not much.

* * *

I emerge from the hallway with the nugget-head by my side. Apparently on my return trip the Secretary wanted to make sure I didn’t take any detours. Raine spots us, and smiles, but the worried questions are obvious in her eyes. She’ll have to save those for later. I give her the barest nod trying to reassure her.

The entire A Group has arrived, including two members, Brita and Carlo, who were absent at the other meetings because they were traveling. Introductions are made and we move to the living area where the newcomers are caught up on the proposed Virtual Collective projects.

Shane makes a point of sitting by Raine, hurrying to the empty spot on the sofa next to her before anyone else can take it. He smiles and stretches his arm out behind her, baiting me, obviously quite aware of my talk with the Secretary. I try not to let his antics bother me. I know Raine can handle him. One touch and she’ll humiliate him in front of the others—or worse. I’m almost wishing his arm would slip to her shoulder. But what I’m really wishing is that I could pop his head off and put it in the fruit bowl.

A better match? I suppose for a girl he’d be easy enough on the eyes—maybe someone even Vina and Cece would be all over if they didn’t know he already had his sights on Raine. And he and Raine do have similar backgrounds, similar educations …
similar anatomies.
Maybe even she would think they were a better match if she knew what was really inside of me. I’m not the flesh-and-blood person she thinks I am.

Ian doesn’t bother to keep the meeting on task. It’s clear he has lost interest in the official project, which will be decided at the meeting tomorrow night at Cece’s house once Brita and Carlo have time to read over the notes and weigh in. The unofficial project is never mentioned. The meeting devolves into chatter as Brita and Carlo share stories from their respective trips.

The Secretary makes an appearance, obviously checking on me to see if I properly absorbed his directive. I never glance in Raine’s direction and instead turn my attentions to Vina, who is more than appreciative. I hear the elevator door open and LeGru appears in the foyer. He silently shakes his head at the Secretary, whose face instantly reddens. He retreats back down the hallway, agitated, with LeGru following close on his heels. Something is brewing between the two of them and I don’t want to miss it. I excuse myself to make a call while Raine is occupied with serving the dessert that Dorian has brought in on a tray, and thankfully Hap has disappeared back into the kitchen with Dorian.

As Secretary of Security I can speed these things along.
Which means I need to speed things along too.

Knowing the layout of the apartment is paying off, especially now that I know how far his office extends. Instead of following them downstairs, I turn left at the end of the hallway and find the stairway that leads to Raine’s domain—the roof. I walk up the stairs and exit quietly, gently easing the door shut behind me. Even in the dark, I can see that the roof is a paradise. Greenery that I couldn’t see from street level creates pathways, alcoves, and sanctuaries. Raine’s exquisite pieces of bonsai, miniaturized windswept trees, sit on rocky pedestals in nooks. Twinkling lights as small as fireflies hover in arbors. Whatever Raine does, whether fencing, bonsai, or scaling down ropes, she does it expertly and fully. I cross to the side of the roof where she lowers her rope ladder and search for it. It’s easily found in a burlap sack stuffed in a pot, which must mean she isn’t fearful of the Secretary invading this part of her world. I pull it out and take it to another corner of the roof. It holds Raine’s weight. I hope it holds mine too.

* * *

My plan plays out almost too easily, except of course that I’m dangling eight stories above the ground. I’m hidden in the shadows and have a made-to-order view into the office—and seeing the Secretary’s cool blown to hell completes the perfect perspective. He and LeGru are looking at something on his desk and I have a clear shot of their mouths. It’s only his anger and the occasional flailing of hands that makes me miss any words at all.

Tonight, dammit … running out of time.

We’ve done this a hundred times. We can’t get anything. He doesn’t know it himself.

He knows. He knows something.… Only eight days left.… I’m not letting this slip through my fingers now. Do you understand, LeGru?

What about his wife?

She’s been underground for years. We can’t find her.

… never should have let her go.

It wasn’t really our choice, was it?

LeGru walks to a leather armchair at one end of the Secretary’s desk and sits.
There is some hopeful news. In five days we should have some promising new technology in place. I’m going down tonight myself to check on the details.

The Secretary raises his brows, waiting.

It can activate sleepers.

Dormant biochips?

Exactly.

I watch the angry red hue drain from the Secretary’s temples. He’s pleased with this news.

LeGru hesitates, like he’s uncertain.
These scans are considerably more painful, possibly risky.

As long as he survives, use it. The more painful the better after what he’s put us through.

And the girl?

The Secretary pauses, randomly shuffling V-files on his desk. His cheek twitches. He finally leans back in his chair, his expression grim.
Try it on him first. I’ll use the standard scan on her again. At least for now.

LeGru stands and walks in front of the Secretary so I can’t see either of their mouths anymore. I need to go anyway before someone comes looking for me. It would be hard to explain why I’m hanging down here on the end of a rope. I scale back up the wall, put the ladder where I found it, then slip quietly down the stairs. It goes so smoothly, I feel like now I’m the one who has orchestrated everything flawlessly. When I return, Hap is just starting down the hallway looking for me. He’s a Bot of few words. Scowls are more his specialty.

I hold my hand up. “No need to thank me. I took care of him,” I say. “Biggest cockroach I ever saw. We won’t say anything to the others. No need to spoil their dessert.”

Hap remains silent. Just as I thought. Some things are so timeless even a nugget-head can grasp it.

Yeah, flawless.

I join the others, hardly missing a beat, taking the raspberry tart that Raine offers to me on a delicate china plate, letting my fingers linger on hers a few seconds longer than I should, maybe bolstered by my success on the roof. I laugh at Carlo’s joke like I was never out of the room, and compliment Dorian on the tart when she returns for dishes. Carlo tells another story about his family being detained while on safari in Namibia. I sit back like I’m listening but my thoughts return to the dark shadows where I dangled from the rooftop.
Tonight
. LeGru is going down
tonight
. To the tunnels? Could he possibly lead me straight to Karden? Could I forgo searching the Secretary’s office for the exact location and let LeGru do my work for me? It would save time and time is running out. This might be a certain pathway to Karden and his freedom—if that’s who they were talking about.

I’m also hearing LeGru’s words over and over again.
And the girl?
Could the Secretary be so coldhearted that he’d hurt Raine to get information? He did hesitate. What was that I saw on his face? Concern? Earlier when he talked about her proficiency at fencing I was surprised that there was even genuine pride in his voice. Maybe on some twisted level he does care about her, but even considering hurting his own daughter for money makes him a ruthless bastard. He’s only holding off
for now
. He drilled into Raine that Non-pacts were animals. If only she knew who the real animal was.

Vina’s shrill laugh at one of Brita’s stories jerks me back to the conversation and I laugh too like I heard the whole story. I grab one of the tea napkins from the table and step away from the others for a moment, pretending I’m looking out at the sweeping view of the Commons and beyond. When Raine comes over a minute later to look out with me, she maintains her distance, knowing that Shane and Vina watch our backs. I drop the napkin on the table in front of us—the code for my iScroll quickly scrawled on the corner. “Just in case,” I whisper. Her fingers curl around it and she slides it into her pocket.

She loudly points out a few sights in the distance and then whispers, “Tonight?”

I don’t know how long following LeGru will take. “I’ll try,” I whisper. “But I might be late.”

Seeing Red

I wait outside the Tudor Apartments for almost an hour before LeGru appears. Xavier calls me twice, but I don’t answer. Let him think our meeting is running late. I don’t want him to catch on to my plans or he might try to stop me. Sure, they want me to find where Karden is being kept, but I think a personal vendetta that Xavier has nursed makes him think he’s the one who needs to actually go get him, no matter the cost to himself. But I’m more than a pair of eyes that can see in the dark, more than someone who can read lips and find out secrets, more than an “in” to get information for them. I have plenty of stakes of my own now. The clock is ticking—not just for Karden, but maybe for Raine too.

As I follow LeGru down Beacon, hiding in the shadows of the Commons, my iScroll alerts me to another call. This time Percel makes a worried appearance.

“It’s an emergency, sir. I am told to alert you at all costs.”

I duck behind a tree. If I lose LeGru now, I may not get any other chance.

“Who is it?” I say, my first thought rushing to Miesha. Has she taken a turn for the worse? Emergency calls are never good.

It’s Carver, Percel informs me, and connects us.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him.

“Nothing,” Carver says. “I just need news. What happened tonight?”

“You have to call
now
?” I ask. “I told you that when I—”

“Listen to me, you—” He stops, recomposing himself into his usual cool. He even manages a smile. “I’m sorry if this is an inconvenient time for you, but this is a team operation. And for now at least, I’m the head of that team. If I say I need news, I need news. Did you find anything?”

“No. Not yet. I found the Secretary’s office. Tomorrow night I go back. I’ll try to find something then. I have to go.” I sign off before he can answer and I tell Percel no more emergency calls.
My lesson for Carver: If you want things done just your way, do it yourself. Like me.
Any other time I might feel guilty for dismissing him—he’s been the most pleasant and level-headed member of the so-called team—but right now I don’t have time to worry about it.

I take off, running through the Commons and then the public gardens, trying to catch up with LeGru, and then I think I spot him, or at least a bony silhouette that could be him slipping down the tunnel entrance at Arlington. A shorter route for sure than going all the way to the Old Library. Is he in that much of a hurry? I remember the Secretary’s furious eyes. Yes, I guess shortcuts are in order and LeGru is giving me one of my own.

I continue running, trying to catch up, and then slow as I near the entrance. The tunnels are dark in the daytime. How much darker will they be at night? How can LeGru see anything at all? I make my way down the rough stone steps, trying to keep every part of me silent, including my breaths. When I reach the station area I see a small red light glowing in the distance and hear a faint high-pitched hum and then they both disappear altogether. I listen. There isn’t a single sound. Not a hum. Not a footstep. Not a breath.

I let my eyes adjust. My practice in the apartment helps me accelerate the process. I concentrate, forcing my eyes to search for scattered light. In seconds, the dim walls of the station come into view, and then, the still dimmer walls of the tunnels that lay beyond. Dead silence. Not even the skittering of small animals. Something has frightened them away.

I step forward. There’s only one place to go. Toward the red light that disappeared so suddenly. That has to be where he went. The air is dank, smelling of rot. I watch my steps, avoiding large pieces of rubble, but I can’t avoid the grit that covers everything and it crunches through the silence. I fight the urge to call out. I know it would be suicide to make myself known, and yet, the last time I was in such a dark place, that was all I could do, call out to Kara and Jenna over and over again, hoping one of them would come. I fight the instinct that ruled me for 260 years.

Did the red light lead to a doorway? I reach the entrance of the main tunnel for the green line. I walk farther in and run my hands along the wall where I thought I saw the light. I can’t find it. Was it an illusion? Light reflected from somewhere else? I make a decision. I’m down here. I may as well go for broke. I start down the tunnel. Karden’s here, somewhere. I can feel it. I don’t know how I know, but
I do.
Is this what my mother defended as intuition? If so, I’ve got it. Or maybe I’m still learning new things that my BioPerfect can do. Unfortunately it doesn’t keep my chest from feeling like every breath is trapped inside. I’m swimming against the current of survival mode.

The old broken track still runs down the middle of the tunnel so I stay to the left side, which has a wider, more intact walkway. The farther I go, the darker it gets, the danker the air, the tighter my chest squeezes, the faster my pace.
Get in, get out, Locke. Do it now. Find him. Do it for Miesha. Do it for you. Do it for Raine.
It’s a new kind of survival.

I come to a place where the tunnel forks. The path to the left is smaller and cruder, maybe a tunnel that was forged in haste during the Division. No trains ever went down this way, but what has? My gut tells me to follow it, so I do. Another ten yards and another fork. This dungeon is riddled with haphazard tunnels. Someone could get lost down here forever if they weren’t careful and I make a special effort to note my steps and turns. I follow my gut again, this time to the right. I can barely see at all now. Even these BioPerfect eyes need the smallest bit of reflected light to work with and here there’s none. My breaths are shallow in my chest, like the air has vanished along with the light. I remind myself:
I’m not there. There’s ground beneath my feet, a real world that’s only steps away.
I fight the temptation to turn on the light that’s in my iScroll, knowing it would set off alarms and bring Security Forces swarming down on me. Damn Carver for calling. I move forward more carefully now, listening for sounds. The only ones are my footsteps, but the sense is even stronger now. Something is nearby. Something important. Something like Karden. He’s alive. I’m close. I’m sure of it.