Shattered (20 page)

Trinity glanced over at the news vans, slowly cruising the parking lot, apprehension coursing through her. “I’ll just drive away before they see me,” she told Luke, making for her vehicle.

“Not a good idea,” Luke said shaking his head. “They know what your van looks like. Everyone does. If you pull out of the parking lot now, they’ll totally see you. And they
will
chase you down.”

“You’re kind of, like, the story of the century, you know,” Natasha added a little apologetically.

Trinity glanced at the live trucks with growing dismay. “Then what I am supposed to do?” she asked. “I can’t just leave Emmy here.”

“Of course not,” Luke replied. “But don’t worry. We’ll just load her up in our truck and sneak both of you out. We can come back for the van later.”

Trinity frowned. “So you expect me to just go with you?” she asked. “I don’t even know you.”

“And you won’t have a chance to get to know us if you don’t come with us now,” Luke pointed out. “Because the cops will come, and you will be locked up, and they will throw away the key.”

“You’re not only the story of the century,” added Nate. “You’re, like, America’s most wanted, yo.” He posed in exaggerated, fake gangster style.

Trinity bit her lower lip. As much as she’d like to deny it, she knew they were right. And though it was risky to trust these strangers, it would be even riskier to stay behind and get caught. Making up her mind, she dashed to the back of the van, unlocking and opening up the door. A moment later she found herself face-to-face with Emmy, who was blinking uneasily in the sudden bright sunshine.

We’ve got trouble, Em. We’re going to have to switch vehicles, okay?

Emmy looked at her in alarm.
We’re going to leave the van?

It was the last thing Trinity wanted to do. The van was the last connection she had to her grandpa. His rust bucket pride and joy. If they left it behind now, there was no telling what would happen to it—along with everything she owned inside.

But then she caught sight of the news trucks, turning into their row. “We have no choice,” she told the dragon. “We’re running out of time.”

For a moment Emmy stared back at her doubtfully. But finally she nodded her head. Trin let out a breath of relief as the dragon flapped her wings and half flew, half jumped into the cab of the pickup that had pulled up behind the van. Once she was inside, Trin slammed the door behind her.

“Okay,” she said, turning to Luke and his friends, who she realized were gawking at her with astonished faces. She gave them a puzzled look. “What?”

“I can’t believe it!” Nate whispered. “It was her. It was really her.”

Oh. Right. Of course. Emmy had become so familiar to Trin at this point, sometimes she forgot how exotic she actually was.

“I’ve seen the dragon with my own two eyes.” Natasha made a mock swoon. “I could totally die now and I wouldn’t even care.”

“Or, you know, you could stay alive and get us the hell out of here,” Trinity suggested wryly. “Anytime now would be great, in fact.”

“Right. Let’s do it!” Luke cried, dashing to the passenger side and popping open the door. Trinity hoisted herself up and dove into the backseat, with Natasha and Nate piling in behind her. Luke ran around to the driver’s seat.

“Free Emmy!” he crowed as he dove in and turned the key in the ignition.

“Dot com!” chorused his two friends, high-fiving one another as he stepped on the gas and they pulled away.

Trinity glanced back at Emmy, who was peering at her with marked skepticism.

I
don’t know either
,
Ems
, she said with a sigh.
But
it
beats
being
caught, right?

The truck pulled away seconds before the news vans pulled up. Trinity craned her neck to watch as reporters and cameramen spilled out of the vehicles, surrounding the van, cameras rolling. A moment later, they were followed by a few police cars. Thankfully none of them seemed to notice the lone truck rolling out of the parking lot and onto the street.

Her heart ached in her chest as they pulled out of sight.
Oh, Grandpa
.

“You okay?” Natasha asked, catching her look.

“Yeah,” she said, shaking herself. “And thank you. I appreciate the rescue.”

“Of course,” Luke said. “We appreciate the chance to help.” He glanced over at her with a small grin, brushing his bleached blond hair from his black eyes. “After all, that’s what the Order of the Dracken is for!”

Trinity’s heart lurched. She looked from Luke to Nate and Natasha, then back to Luke again.

“Excuse me?” she managed to stammer.

Had they really just said what she thought they’d said? There was no way. Absolutely no way.

Except, what if there was?

“I…thought you said your website was Free Emmy.”

“Our website, yeah,” Luke agreed. “But we already sorta had a group name. You see, we originally all got together because of this video game we play. It’s called
Fields
of
Fantasy
and—”

“She knows
Fields
of
Fantasy
, you tool,” Nate interrupted. “Remember? We looked up her character?” He gave Trinity a slightly accusing look. “We tried to friend you like five different times.”

“I…haven’t been able to play lately,” Trinity sputtered, her mind whirring with the implications of what the boys were saying. “I’ve been a bit…busy.”

“Of course you have!” Natasha agreed comfortingly, giving her brother a dirty look. “After all, who has time for video game dragons when you have the real thing?” She giggled, peering into the back of the truck where Emmy was pacing nervously.

“Anyway, yeah, so you remember the Dracken Heights dungeon that they put into the ex pack, right?” Luke continued. “The dragon one? That was the first dungeon we rocked as a group. When we formed our guild, it seemed like a natural name.” He grinned at his gamer buddies.

Trinity somehow managed a weak smile, even though on the inside she felt like throwing up. She thought of all the movies she’d seen about time travel over the years. The ones where despite everything you tried to do, things ended up exactly the same in the end. The ripples you made in the pond weren’t enough to stop the huge-ass tsunami on approach.

According to Caleb and Connor, she’d gone and founded the Order of the Dracken the first time around, after discovering the abuse Emmy was suffering under the hands of the government. But since the government never took Emmy this time, there had been no reason for the Dracken to ever be formed.

And yet, here it was. Here
they
were. A group who had formed for the sole purpose to “free Emmy” just like before. Could something like that possibly be a coincidence? Or was the time line trying to smooth itself back out? If only Connor or Caleb were here, they might be able to explain the significance—or hopefully insignificance of something like this. But she was alone.

She realized Natasha was staring at her worriedly. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s been a long day.”

It was funny; when she thought of the Dracken now, she pictured Darius and Mara and their strange dragon-worshiping friends from the future. But the original Dracken hadn’t been a bunch of cult crazies looking to purge the world by fire. Just a couple of kids who wanted save the dragons.

Kids like Luke, Nate, and Natasha.

She didn’t know whether that was a comforting thought—or a more worrying one.

In any case, there was nothing she could do now, and at least she knew she was in no immediate danger. So she forced herself to settle into her seat and not look longingly back at the Wal-Mart as it disappeared in the distance. She harbored no hopes of returning to her van; by evening, she was positive it would be impounded by local police or Homeland Security. All she had left now were literally the clothes on her back…and her dragon in the back of the truck.

They headed down a main road, lined with strip malls for a few miles, then drove into a neighborhood of modest, flat-roofed adobe houses, shaded by a decent number of trees. Luke pulled up to a small bungalow, enclosed by a chain-link fence. Parking in the driveway, he ushered everyone out then headed toward the garage’s side door. Trinity went around to the back of the truck and opened it. Emmy blinked at her, still looking a little worried, but she obligingly hopped down and padded into the garage.

Trinity stepped inside behind her, not sure what to expect. What she wasn’t expecting was the garage to have been converted into the ultimate geek cave. Vintage
Star
Wars
posters hung over threadbare couches, while rickety computer desks were piled high with cables and mice and monitors and other equipment. And the
pièce de résistance
, at the center of the room was a huge projector screen TV.

“Welcome to the Dracken Lair,” Nate pronounced, coming in behind her. “Where all the magic happens.”

“Yeah, you wish you could get some magic to happen,” Natasha scoffed, following them inside. She turned to Trinity. “The only kind of females he ever manages to score are pixelated.”

“Oh yes, but you’ve got
all
the dudes knocking down your door,” Nate shot back. “What with your sexy mastery of Tolkien Elvish and all.”

“What’s that?” Trinity interrupted, her eyes locking onto a bulletin board across the room covered with newspaper clippings and computer printouts. She stepped closer, startled to see a collage of photos of herself thumbtacked to the board. From last year’s high school yearbook picture to an action shot from an old track meet, to a shot of her standing in front of the museum for the debut of Grandpa’s unfortunate
Chupacabra
Corpse
exhibit that she’d actually managed to get some press to come out for. (She’d later had to issue an apology when the corpse in question turned out to be nothing more than the remains of a mangy coyote.)

In addition to photos, there were newspaper articles, with headlines blazing about Emmy’s touchdown of terror. Some of these articles came from legitimate old-school newspapers like the
New
York
Times
and the
Wall
Street
Journal
. Others looked a little more conspiracy theory–esque.

But it was the photos tacked under the headline “Emmy?” that really intrigued her. Some had obviously been taken at the football field the day Emmy made her grand debut. Others seemed to be screenshots of Emmy taken in some kind of woods. Still others were completely unrecognizable and didn’t look anything like the dragon. Blurry shadows rising above trees, glowing eyes in a dark cave…

“What are these?” she asked curiously.

Luke peered over her shoulder. “Eh,” he said. “Most likely fakes. We’ve been getting a lot of those lately, as our hits have gone up. In fact, there have been close to a thousand Emmy sightings reported since the whole football game thing.” He laughed. “Our girl makes more appearances than a dead Elvis these days.”

“It’s our job to investigate each and every sighting,” Natasha chimed in. “They need to be verified before we put them up on our site. After all, we have a reputation to uphold,” she added a little proudly.

“Right,” Trin said, swallowing hard. “A reputation.”

“Check it!” Nate cried from the other side of the room. He’d sidled up to one of the computers and had pulled up MSNBC and FOX News, running both streaming videos from different browser windows. Trinity watched with sinking dread as video of the van she’d recently abandoned popped up simultaneously on both screens.

“According to police, this van is registered to Charles Foxx, the man who is wanted by Homeland Security in connection with an alleged terrorist plot,” the announcer was saying. “Police have evacuated the parking lot until the bomb squad can make a sweep.”

A photo of her grandfather popped up on the screen, making Trinity’s heart ache all over again. It was hard to believe it’d been only a little over a week since the barn fire in Vista. It seemed like both yesterday…and a lifetime ago. Would it ever stop hurting her heart to see his face? She wondered if he was looking down on her now from somewhere. Keeping watch over her and Emmy. She smiled a little at the idea of her guardian becoming her guardian angel.

The reporter had finished talking, and the station rolled the video, beginning with a rather unattractive junior high photo of Trinity when she was still in her braces. (Seriously, that was the best they could dig up?) The photo was followed by a grainy video of the Vista football field, replaying someone’s home video of her jumping on Emmy’s back and flying through the skies. Trinity still couldn’t believe she’d actually gone and done that. It looked ten times as dangerous from this third person perspective as it had felt at the time. And it had felt pretty damn dangerous then too.

But
I
didn’t let you fall,
Emmy reminded her. She could feel the dragon nudge her leg and she looked down. She smiled at her.

“That’s very true,” she said, scratching her snout. “You did good.”

She looked back up to see the three kids staring at her in amazement.

“What?” she asked, a little confused.

“You just answered her, didn’t you?” Natasha said in an awed whisper. “She talked to you with her mind and you answered her!” She let out an excited whoop. “Oh my God, it’s just like Eragon and Saphira! Or one of those Anne McCaffrey books. Trinity, you’re like Lessa! A twenty-first century Lessa and Ramoth! Or maybe Laurence and Temeraire—”

“And now you see why
she
doesn’t get many dates,” Nate concluded smugly, giving his sister an affectionate look.

Trinity laughed uneasily then turned her attention back to the computer monitor. The reporter had come back on camera.

“Authorities are asking the people of Fauna to stay indoors and use extreme caution,” she was saying. “The creature is considered extremely dangerous. If you do have any information, please call 911.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to be doing that,” scoffed Natasha, pointing a remote control at the monitor. The volume muted. Natasha gave Trinity a comforting look. “Don’t worry,” she said. “You’re safe with us.”

“How can you be sure?” Trinity asked doubtfully, glancing at the closed garage door. After all, what if someone had seen them leave the parking lot and had followed them here? Were they, even now, only moments away from being surrounded by a SWAT team? Once again she wished desperately for Connor or Caleb. Why had she thought it was a good idea to leave them behind? She turned to her new friends. “Do you have any guns?” she asked hopefully

“Please. We don’t need no stinking guns,” Luke scoffed. “We have computers.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Computers that shoot laser beams from their webcams?”

“Better.” Luke gestured to Nate. “Can you pull up that video we got the other day of Emmy at the Grand Canyon?”

“I thought we weren’t going to run that one,” Nate said, jabbing at the keyboard anyway. “We couldn’t determine origin.”

“Change of plans,” Luke said briskly. “The Feds are probably watching us. The media definitely is. I mean, you posted that shot of the van and they were on the scene in like ten minutes. I think it’s time to feed them another bread crumb.”

Nate grinned at that, obviously getting the idea. Trin watched as he pulled up a video of a dark shadow crossing the sky. “This is so obviously CGI’ed,” he said with a snort. “Not that any of the lamestream media will be able to tell.”

“Wait,” Trinity interrupted. “I’m confused. What are you doing?”

Luke turned to her. “Come on now, don’t you remember?” he said with a sly wink. “You ditched your van yesterday in some random Wal-Mart parking lot in good old Fauna, New Mexico. You were feeling the heat closing in—and decided you needed a new ride. Then you took off with your dragon, never looking back. Last we know, our little touchdown of terror was miles and miles away from here, taking in the sights of the great and glorious GC.”

“That’s what the Google says anyway,” Nate proclaimed, pressing a few buttons and publishing the video to their site. “And we all know the Google never lies.”

Huh. Trinity watched as the video looped on their site. That actually was a pretty smart idea. Maybe she should have been posting a little faux travelogue of her own from the start of this whole thing.

“Can I see your website?” she asked, overwhelmed by curiosity at this point. She couldn’t believe there even was a website about Emmy—no, hundreds of websites, they’d said. All devoted to her dragon.

You’re a superstar
, she teased Emmy, this time remembering to speak through their bond.

Nate offered up his chair, and a moment later she was staring at the FreeEmmy.com blog page, which began with a fantastically stylized illustration of her and her dragon—done up as if they were manga superheroes or something. Below that was a list of blog entries full of alleged sightings, background information on her, and some pretty good fan art of Emmy. The sidebar listed a whole bunch of links to similar sites.

“You guys did all this?” she asked, more than a little amazed. She noted the number of comments on each posting—in the hundreds—and gave a low whistle.

Luke nodded, plopping down on a chair beside her, his cheeks flushed with pride. “Pretty cool, huh?” he asked. “We used to do an alien conspiracy website until it got shut down by the NSA when they decided we’d gotten too close to the truth.”

“Wait, I thought you said we forgot to pay our web hosting bill?” Natasha objected. Luke’s face reddened.

“Yeah, well, whatever. Aliens are lame, anyway.”

“And dragons are so hot right now!” Nate quipped. “Especially after that video.”

“What video?” Trinity cocked her head in question. “You mean the football stadium thing?”

“No, no!” Luke shook his head. “This was before that. Look.” He loaded up the archives and selected one of the entries. A shaky cam, nighttime video, obviously taken by a cell phone, of Emmy walking through the woods then taking flight. It was only about thirty seconds long, but it was definitely her. Probably on one of the nights Caleb had taken her out. Trin’s eyes narrowed as she caught the uploader’s screen name.

Scarlet. Of course. She must have taken it the night Emmy found her and healed her. The night that had started it all.

Trin frowned, stealing an involuntary glance over at Emmy, wondering yet again what the deal was between her dragon and this girl. Did Emmy just feel bad for her? Was Scarlet just especially needy? Or did they really have a true connection between them? She felt an involuntary stirring of jealousy. Scarlet had traveled all the way from Vista to San Angels to find Emmy. How soon before she showed up in Fauna? And what would happen once she did?