Infernal Revelation : Collected Episodes 1-4 (9781311980007) (6 page)

She saw, too, a familiar spark in the way
that Delilah looked at her, that spark of jealous resentment. Lily
saw it all too often in the faces of friends whose boyfriends or
crushes paid her a little too much attention. She was pretty, she
was popular, and that made some girls jealous. Insecure girls.

She had no designs on Gideon, and didn't
think he was helping her out of anything other than kindness, but
that familiar jealousy was something she knew and understood in the
sea of strangeness she felt herself drowning in.

"It's okay," she said again, sitting up and
leveling her gaze towards Gideon. "You're doing what you can,
Gideon. I don't know what I'd be doing without your help."

"Yeah," Gideon said, putting a hand on her
shoulder. "We'll figure something out. Maybe I can break into my
dad's office at home, find the password for his city account."

Lily placed her hand on top of his, watching
the other girl out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't be stupid," Delilah said, slapping
Gideon lightly on the chest. She sat back down in front of her
computer. "You're going to get yourself arrested, idiot."

"I can't just..."

"Just keep an eye on the door." Delilah
started typing. "Lily, do you have a case number or anything?"

"No, I--"

"Doesn't matter. Not like there's a massive
police blotter."

"You'd be surprised," Gideon said.

"Most of what you and your idiot friends
doesn't even get..." Delilah trailed off.

"What?"

"Quiet. This is... they've changed their
security protocols."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "You've done this
before?"

"Whole town runs off of one network," the
hacker said distractedly, slipping a memory stick into the
computer's USB drive. "Police, sanitation, records, they're all
just subsystems."

"And you... hack into it often?"

Delilah stopped and regarded Lily coolly. "I
get bored."

"Thanks. For helping."

"Yes, well, we orphans have to stick
together."

"You were adopted?"

Delilah turned, hands still at keyboard
level. "Yes, I was adopted. Jesus Christ, there are only a few
adopted kids in this whole town and you don't know them? How can
you be so self-absorbed?"

Lily held her hands up. "Sorry!"

She felt bad for manipulating the girl. It
wasn't normally what she did, who she was, but Barny had put her
off her game. Was she the same way? Manipulative? Sadistic?

She closed her eyes. No. This was important.
Not some game. She couldn't just... go on wondering if she had
gotten Lauren killed. She had to know, one way or another. If it
turned out that she was guilty, that she was responsible... then
she wouldn't hide from it. She'd deal with it. She could make her
penance with that. But the not knowing? That she couldn't
handle.

Gideon stood near the door, watching for Mr.
Gonzales or any other interlopers. He was harder for her to figure.
She was used to boys and their attractions to her, both overt and
covert, expressed and hidden. It was something she'd learned to
identify, learned to manage, and learned to ignore when necessary.
She'd never use that to manipulate them, though some of her friends
did. Lauren had no qualms about it. But Gideon... she didn't
understand his interest. He was nervous around her, but it wasn't
because he had a crush. He was hard to read -- he seemed motivated
by compassion and concern, but that was at odds with his reputation
as a troublemaker and all-around bad seed.

What was he after? Why was he helping her?
She didn't know, and for now, she didn't care. She couldn't do this
on her own, as hard as that was to admit.

"Okay," Delilah said. "I couldn't find any
police records about the accident."

"Well, shit," Gideon said, walking over to
join her.

Hopelessness settled like a heavy weight in
Lily's gut. "That's okay. You tried, and I'm grateful."

Delilah stared at her. "No, you don't get
it. I couldn't find any police records of the accident."

"Yeah?" Gideon said.

The young hacker rolled her eyes. "I
couldn't find any records. There aren't any."

Gideon and Lily stared at her.

"No records?" Delilah said. "There's nothing
to find? Nothing saying that an accident ever happened?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Lily said.
"It was a bad crash. Someone died."

"Yeah, no kidding," Delilah said. "That
tells us something right there."

"What?" Gideon asked.

"That..." Lily paced back to the computer.
"It tells us that either someone erased the record or that nobody
filed one to begin with." She sat next to Delilah. "Why wouldn't
they file a report?"

"It's a cover-up," Gideon said.

"Okay, but why?" Lily asked.

"Because damn the man, that's why."

"Shut up," Delilah said. "I'm checking the
hospital records."

"You can do that?" Lily asked.

"I can do anything," Delilah said. "I'm
smart."

"Can't reach the top shelf at the
supermarket," Gideon said.

Delilah rewarded him with a single finger.
"Shut up. Okay. I'm finding records for you, Lauren, and
Ashley."

"What does it say?" Lily asked. "What...
what were our blood-alcohol levels?"

"It doesn't say," Delilah said.

"What?"

Delilah pushed her chair back and gestured
towards the screen. "It says you were admitted in critical
condition, but there's no records of tests or treatment or
anything."

"Why not?"

"I don't know," Delilah said. "There should
be."

"What the fuck," Gideon said.

"I know!" Delilah said.

"There has to be more to it." Lily stared at
the screen, concentrating.

"Sorry," Delilah said, tugging at the
strings of her hoodie. "That's all there is to it."

The older girl took the mouse, clicking to
tab between her admittance records and those of her friends. A
small note put Lauren's time of death at only minutes after they'd
arrived. She clicked over to Ashley's.

"What's this about?"

Delilah leaned in. "Looks like they're
transferring her. Tonight."

"What? Where to?"

The younger girl studied the screen.
"Doesn't say. It should. But there's nothing there."

"Odessa, my guess," Gideon said. "They
probably have better facilities in the city."

"Would they take weeks to do it?" Lily
asked.

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"I have to go see her."

"Why?" Delilah asked.

"Because she's hurt and being moved
somewhere and I might not have another chance--" to say goodbye
"--to see her before they do."

Delilah glanced back at the screen, biting
her lip. "You might just make it if you head out right after
school--"

"No," Lily rose. "I'm heading over now."

"Cutting school?" Delilah asked.

"I don't want to chance missing her. Not
if... not if she's being transferred."

"Are they going to allow her visitors so
close to moving her?"

"I haven't been able to see her at all since
waking up." Lily felt tears welling up in the corners of her eyes
and forced them back, curling her hand around the back of Delilah's
chair. "This might be my only chance."

"Okay," Gideon said. "If you're going to be
sneaking into a hospital, you'll need help. I'm in."

"I can't ask you to--" Lily said.

"Gideon, no--" Delilah said.

Gideon held up a hand. "No, I'm down. Let's
do this."

"This isn't like skipping school," Delilah
said. "You get caught, you get busted, and you're looking at
serious trespassing charges."

"I'm not scared."

"Why?" Lily asked in a soft voice. "Not that
I don't appreciate it, but you hardly know me. I can't ask you to
risk jail for me."

"It's not about you."

"Are you just lashing out at your dad?"
Delilah asked.

"It's not about him. It's about me, okay?"
Gideon's face reddened. "Maybe I'm sick of just spray-painting
billboards. Maybe I want to help someone, do something that matters
for once."

"Gideon..." Delilah trailed off.

"It's about me."

"Okay," Lily said. "I don't get it. But
thanks anyway."

"Yeah."

"Gideon?" Delilah grabbed his sleeve.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

"I will."

"If the cops are after you, you can hide in
our basement."

Gideon nodded, then walked to the
doorway.

That spike of guilt returned to Lily's gut.
As much as Gideon claimed to be helping her for selfish reasons,
she couldn't help but feel like she was taking advantage of him. If
anything, it was worse now. Like she was goading him on, enabling
him. She could easily, she knew, turn him down, push him away,
spare him the risk of involvement.

But she wouldn't, because she needed his
help. And for that, she hated herself just a little bit.

CHAPTER SIX

A pair of police cars
sat in front of Laton General Hospital's non-emergency entrance,
accounting for almost half of the small town's police
presence.

"Shit," Gideon said. "What are these
assholes doing here?"

He and Lily were crouched behind the brick
divider the hospital's sign was bolted to, on the hill facing the
hospital.

Lily shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe
there was another accident."

"Maybe."

She risked another look past his shoulder,
but didn't see any deputies sitting in the cars. "Maybe we should
back off."

"We can handle it."

"So what's the plan?"

"Plan?" Gideon picked up a handful of
pebbles. "Right. Well, I'm going to distract them and you go inside
and see your friend."

"That's it?"

"I'm good distracting."

"I don't doubt it, but what about the
doctors and nurses inside?"

He let the pebbles rain from his hand. "I
can be very distracting. Don't worry about it. Laton General is a
huge hospital for a town this size -- what, fifty rooms on the
ground floor, half that on the second floor? Like, why do they need
to have beds for half the town? What are they expecting? Why waste
so much money on facilities we don't need, especially when Odessa's
hospital isn't that far and has much nicer equipment."

"It was built with donations from the
Church. You know they like to go big."

He paused. "Whatever, look, I've only seen
three or four doctors there, and maybe twice as many nurses and
orderlies. Point is that it's a big place, but actually kind of
empty."

Her belly felt leaden. "I don't know."

Gideon pivoted to face her. "Look, just act
like you're supposed to be there. That's like, half of sneaking
around. Look busy, grab a clipboard. Nobody bothers someone with a
clipboard."

Lily gestured down at herself. "Yeah, well,
I sort of stick out."

Gideon tugged at his copper-colored hair.
"Yeah, well, so do I."

She stifled a laugh, realizing that this was
the first time since awakening from her coma that she'd felt the
slightest levity.

Gideon smiled, then glanced back at the
hospital. When he looked back his face was grim.

"What I said before... that this was for
me... not entirely true. You're in a rough spot, Lily, and I don't
mind helping out a little."

"It's more than a little."

"Yeah, well, now we've got this full blown
conspiracy with missing police reports and people moving Ashley out
under mysterious circumstances--"

"Conspiracy?"

"Whatever it is. That kind of thing just
really pisses me off, you know? I mean, all I want is to do what I
can to make the world a better place. And since there wasn't an
Occupy Laton, this'll have to do."

Lily smiled. "You're punk rock, Gideon."

Gideon grinned broadly. "Fuck yeah I am.
Ready?"

"No. But let's do this thing."

Gideon flashed her a final crooked grin,
then stepped out of hiding and started walking toward the police
cars.

***

Gideon inserted his
earbuds in as he walked, hand in his pocket flicking the controls
on his ipod, looking for some appropriate theme music. Looking for
inspiration. Most of his play-list was classic punk, the atonal
shitty stuff recorded a decade before he was even born, so he
didn't have to flip far to find something that fit.

There. Dead
Kennedys.
Riot
.
Perfect for a little old-school mayhem. His brisk walk slowed to a
saunter matching the song's pacing.

Laton was a peaceful place, and you couldn't
really tell from Odessa either, but the world was changing. All
over the world, people were standing up to the capitalist-military
system that sought to exploit the working class. A lot of people --
even Hugh and Juan -- had missed Occupy Wall-Street's point. They
thought it was a joke, a failure for not accomplishing much, but
that wasn't what was important. People were standing up. They were
spitting in the face of the power elite in a way that couldn't be
ignored. Occupy wasn't the end of it. Someday, a revolution was
going to rise up and sweep away all the trash. Gideon wanted to be
part of that wave.

For now, he'd do what he could. Little
things, here and there. Like helping Lily. She might be part of
Laton's elite, but she was also scared, confused, and, Gideon
believed, in the middle of some messed up town conspiracy.

He stopped at the base of the hill and
picked up a fist-sized rock. It would do.

Time to smash the state.

***

Lily watched Gideon
approaching the hospital and police cars, wondering what he was up
to. She froze when he picked up the rock. She winced when he threw
it at one of the police cars. She cringed when it bounced off the
windshield.