Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) (13 page)

Emily booted up the program on the
thumbdrive at the first terminal she found. It was back in the stacks in a
deserted section of the library. She selected the second number on the list the
program presented to her. Cardano would have destroyed the first phone already.
He answered on the second ring.

“Emily, is that you?”

“Yes, Mr. Cardano. I have to talk
to you. Is my mom there?”

“She’s in the other room. Shall I
get her for you?”

“No, not yet. I need to talk to you
first,” Emily said. She told him about the meeting on the road with the men in
the van, about the phone they gave her. “Do you know who those men were?”

“Yes. They must have been
Burzynski’s men.” Michael quickly explained who he was and guessed what he
might want. He told Emily about her father’s meeting with Porter, how he killed
him and his men, undoubtedly in self-defense, and disposed of the bodies in the
woodshed.

“If I call him, can I believe
anything he says?”

“It doesn’t matter, Emily. He has
no information you want. He just wants to know if his men were killed by
Meacham and what he wanted at the estate.”

“I think I have to talk to him, no
matter what. They’ll just keep looking for me until I do.”

“You’re probably right,” Cardano
said. He was impressed with her understanding of the situation. “But you have
to be very careful what you tell him. Let him think his men were killed by the
assault teams you saw that night. But you don’t know who any of those men were.
You’re just an innocent bystander who wants to know what happened to her
father, okay?”

“Yes, I understand. Thank you, Mr.
Cardano.”

“Emily, from now on, please call me
Michael. You are an impressive young woman, and I am honored to know you,” he
said in a grand gesture. She felt a little flushed.

“Okay. I’ll call back tomorrow.
Tell my mom I love her.” She broke the connection, then pulled up the website
for the university in Charlottesville on another terminal. She examined some
campus maps for a few minutes, before leaving the library and heading over to
the mall across town. In an isolated corner of the food court she pulled out
the phone, and took a deep breath as she looked at its one button. There was no
light or dial tone or any other indication it was on. Finally she pressed the
button, but there was still no sound. A few seconds later a man’s voice came
out of the speaker.

“Hello, Emily. I understand you
have something to tell me about the events of the other night,” the voice said.
It was disturbing to hear her name used familiarly by someone she didn’t know
and had no reason to trust. That was undoubtedly the effect he was hoping for.
She decided not to conceal her revulsion from him.

“I’ve already told your men I
wasn’t there. What exactly is it you want from me?” she asked petulantly.

“Perhaps I can be of some
assistance to you, maybe with finding out what became of your father.” Emily
already knew what had become of her father, but she didn’t let the man on the
other end of the phone know it.

“What happened to my dad? Where is
he?” she demanded with all the passion she could muster. She hated talking
about her father in this way, bandying his memory about with people who she
thought could not care less about him or her. But she imagined he would
approve, if it gave her a useful advantage over her adversaries.

“Maybe we ought to speak face to
face. I could come down to Goshen if you like,” he proposed insinuatingly.
Emily was taken aback by this suggestion. Was it just a guess? Or had he been
able to track her earlier phone call from Goshen?

“No. Someplace else,” she said, in
the defiant tone of a child. She wanted to see if he would name Warm Springs
next. How much did he really know about her living arrangements? Would he tip
his hand?

“You better tell me where you want
to meet then,” he said condescendingly, pushing past her little test. She
waited a moment before replying, trying to create the impression that she had
not had time to work out a place to meet in advance.

“Meet me at the university, on the
patio outside of Newcomb Hall tomorrow at noon. Wear red plaid pants, I’ll have
an orange ball cap on.” She hung up, not waiting to give him an opportunity to
argue. She removed the battery and sim card, wiped any fingerprints off the
phone, wrapped it all in a napkin and smashed it under her shoe on the floor.

Out in the
parking lot she looked for any sign of Burzynski’s men, vans or motorcycles.
She saw nothing. As a precaution, she rode around the entire mall parking lot
twice before heading home.

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Chapter 11:
Out with the Guys

As Emily pulled into the driveway
she noticed Danny, Billy and Wayne sitting on the front porch. They looked like
they had spent the better part of the afternoon there. But as soon as they saw
her, they all came tumbling off the side and ran up to greet her.

“Hey, Em! Where ya been all day?”
Billy crowed.

“Em, we’ve been wondering where you
were. Watcha been up to?” Wayne bellowed.

“I’ve just been running errands.
What have you guys been doing? Holding down the porch the whole damn day?” she
snorted.

“You hungry, Em,” Danny asked.
“Whaddya say we all go get some pizza down in Covington?”

“Whoa! That’s a great idea,” Wayne
bubbled, always ready for food of any kind.

“Yeah, let’s make a night of it.
This is the weekend after all,” said Billy. “Whaddya say, Em?”

“Yeah, that does sound good,” Emily
said. “Who’s driving?”

“I got my mom’s SUV for the
evening,” Billy said.

“I’m gonna go upstairs and change.
I’ll be down in a bit,” she said. After a quick shower, she changed into one of
Andie’s outfits, grabbed a leather jacket and headed down to the guys. Danny’s
mom was talking with the boys when she got there.

“Don’t you look nice, Emily,” she
said. “Keep these boys out of trouble, okay?”

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Rincon, I’ll
take care of ‘em.”

The pizza place in Covington was
jammed with teenagers, all looking at the same long weekend. The music was
loud, and the conversation even louder. The pizza was only so-so, Emily
thought, but she felt that same peculiar synergy again, as she had at the
concert. The same paradox was palpable to her: even when they craved
companionship, they remained isolated from one another. She thought she
understood something about human nature as she watched her friends together in
the crowded restaurant. In order to be together, they also had to be apart. In
order to have something of themselves to share with one another, they had to
hold something back as well. The more intense the rite that brought them
together, the more entirely they tried to give themselves over to the group,
the more resolutely they would hold something of themselves back. She imagined
the extreme case, the bacchanalian revel in which the revelers lose themselves
entirely. But the self they give to the revel is impersonal, generic, while the
truly personal self is preserved entire and apart.

Teenagers in a pizza joint, they
spoke of the same things that were on the minds of all the other teenagers:
cars, friends, school, college dreams, the urge to get away from home. Emily
found she only shared an interest in some of these topics, and sat quietly
listening to her friends’ aspirations. Billy’s parents wanted him to go to
Charlottesville to study pre-med. He just wanted to go somewhere and not get
stuck in the track his father had taken. Pre-med would be okay for awhile, but
his heart wasn’t really in it.

Wayne’s mom wanted him to go
anywhere. She was a real estate agent, and had no pre-formed ambition for her
son. She spoiled him a bit. His father had been an insurance salesman, and was
killed in a car accident a few years ago. Even though the real estate business
was slow, he and his mom lived comfortably, but carefully on the proceeds of
the insurance payout. Wayne just wanted to stay near home. He had no idea what
sort of thing he wanted to study. He hoped something would strike his fancy
once he got wherever he was going.

Danny was just adrift. He would go
to some school. He hoped he would get an athletic scholarship. Otherwise his
parents probably wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition. He didn’t have time to
lift his imagination beyond the practicalities of paying for college to imagine
what he wanted to study. Emily wasn’t sure he wanted to study anything. Maybe
he just wanted to follow his friends wherever they went under the pretense of
being a student. She hoped that wasn’t true, but he seemed directionless
whenever he talked about college. Danny’s mind seemed mainly pre-occupied with
the wish that his parents would get back together again. If only his father
would get his act together.

“What’re you gonna do after
graduation, Em?” Wayne asked. She thought about it for a moment and realized
she hadn’t turned her mind to this question at all in the last couple of weeks.
All her thoughts were focused on survival, about her dad, and her mom, and only
then about graduation. She was so focused on not allowing her parents’ enemies
to ruin her life that she had hardly even been able to imagine what she wanted
that life to look like. They all looked at her intently, waiting for a sign.

“I dunno. I’ll probably travel
around a bit over the summer, before school starts in the fall,” she said
cautiously.

“What schools you thinking about?”
Billy asked. Emily could have rattled off the usual list of schools, but she
realized she had not been able to talk to her mom about any of this stuff. She
knew her mom wanted her to go to college, study a science, be like her. Isn’t
that what all parents want? But she only knew vague generalities about what her
mother wanted for her. Would she have to formulate her aspirations without any
input from her?

“I dunno, really. I’m going up to
Charlottesville to check out the university tomorrow. Maybe I’ll end up there.”
she said blithely. She was surprised by the excitement this report produced in
her friends.

“Hey, I’d like to go too, Em.
Whaddya think, let’s make a day of it,” Billy burst out.

“Me, too,” chirped Wayne and Danny
almost simultaneously. “It’ll be like a mini road trip,” Danny added. They all
laughed. But Emily was worried about letting them tag along. She couldn’t let
them anywhere near her meeting with Burzynski. She figured it would be easy
enough to lose them if she insisted on checking out the library. They would
have no patience for that sort of thing. She’d also have to find a way to steer
them to one of the other food courts on campus. No, it was a crazy idea,
letting her friends come along. It was just too dangerous. She was prepared to
risk her own life, but not theirs, especially if they had no idea of the
danger.

“Guys, I’ve got an errand in
Harrisonburg in the morning. Maybe I should just go alone. We can go together
another time,” she offered. They were crestfallen.

“There isn’t gonna be another
weekday off before Thanksgiving,” Wayne said. “I don’t mind going with you to
Harrisonburg. We can meet up with you guys in the afternoon.”

“We can all go to Harrisonburg,”
Billy objected. “What’re you doing there anyway, Em?”

“I’m getting the truck repainted.
It’s supposed to be ready tomorrow morning,” Emily replied evasively. “Plus
there’s other stuff I gotta do.” She was beginning to see there was no way to
extricate herself from the boys’ plan. She decided to make the best of it.
“Look, I have to leave before eight to get everything done, and I’ve got an
appointment at the admissions office at the university at 11:30. Why don’t I
meet up with you guys at like one thirty by the library?” She knew they
wouldn’t like the sound of getting up that early. And she was right. Once that
ugly detail emerged, they were all compliance.

As they were leaving the
restaurant, they happened upon a tussle in the parking lot. It didn’t seem to
have anything to do with them. Just some tough kids from Covington High acting
out. Emily scanned the parking lot to see if anything looked out of place. Had
they been marked by Meacham’s operatives? Or Burzynski’s? Was this just a
setup? She didn’t see any suspicious vans, or cars or motorcycles, no older guys
in dark suits. All she saw was teenagers. She breathed a sigh of relief. While
she had been scanning the surroundings, Wayne waded into the middle of the
brawl. He was the biggest guy there. He got shoved a bit, he shoved back. One
guy tried to hit him. Wayne blocked and punched straight to the chest. His
assailant staggered back and crumpled next to a car. There was stunned silence
for a moment, then suddenly everyone turned on Wayne regardless of which side
they had been on before. He was outnumbered, at least seven to one. Danny and
Billy rushed in to help him. Together the three of them were pretty formidable.
Wayne was huge, and pretty much immovable. The other two were trained athletes,
strong and quick. And they’d all had some karate training. They knew how to
hit, how to block, and even how to take a hit.

There was one other thing they had
in common: Emily was there. They each wanted to be brave in front of her, to
show her what they could do. It also didn’t hurt that they knew she could bail
them out if they got into real trouble. Emily understood. She stood to the side
and watched. She owed them that. A few other girls stood nearby watching the
scene as well. They glowered at her occasionally. Emily supposed they were
wondering if they should try to hassle her. She was struck by how different
their feelings must be from hers as they watched the brawl. Emily admired her
friends for their courage. They entered the fight to keep people from getting
hurt. She imagined these other girls had provoked the original fight in the
first place, and now watched with satisfaction at how well they had been able
to manipulate the boys. The very fact that all of them had so quickly turned on
Wayne showed they felt no deep commitment to fighting with each other.