Sidekick (18 page)

I hoped she meant my suit well, but part of me suspected she had plans to stuff it with hay and burn me in effigy. Either way, I was suddenly too tired to care.

I fell into bed.

Before I knew it, I was dreaming of helicopters, bombs, and Godzilla-sized tarantulas.

***

I woke up energized.

I had almost died the night before, but something about the whole experience had felt so right—like I was finally, truly, alive.

Like I had a purpose.

I needed to get to Ryder’s.

As I hurried to pull on some jeans, I wondered briefly if Ryder had a morning ritual. She probably ran twenty miles before drinking her first cup of twigs.

I grabbed my phone off the toilet to put in my pocket. Again, I had to fight the urge to text Jenny. What would be the point? I still couldn’t tell her everything, and anything less would leave her, once again, hurt and angry.

But I had to talk to someone.

Just then my phone rang.

I looked at the number. Pierce. How did he keep doing that? Hopefully he couldn’t read my dirty thoughts too.

“Hey!” I said flopping onto my bed.

“Good morning Brenda.”

“Who?”

“Brenda,” he said. “You’re going by Brenda.”

“Right, um, thanks!” I hit myself in the forehead with the heel of my palm. “How are you?”

“Good. Good. Busy. Did you hear about the bombing at the opera house? The details are pretty sketchy, but apparently someone working with Ryder blew it up.”

I swung up so quickly I hit my head on the toilet.

“Brenda?”

“Sorry, yeah, I’m here,” I mumbled rubbing my forehead. “That’s not what I heard.”

“No?”

“I heard there is this really awesome girl working with Ryder—you know kind of like an up-

and-coming superhero? Apparently she saved everyone at the opera house from certain death.”

Pierce paused a beat before saying, “Really? We’re getting reports here of a crazy person with wild hair.”

My hair. My hair!

I jumped towards the mirror.

It was too much horror to take in all at once. My hand moved to the cloud of hairlike strands hovering above my scalp, but I pulled it away. Touching it would make it real.

“Anyway, this might be my chance to expose Ryder for the danger she truly is.”

I sighed. “I really think you’ve got this Ryder thing all wrong.”

“Perhaps we could fight about it over dinner?”

“I could be enticed,” I said in my purry voice. Then my memory swatted me with a rolled up newspaper. “Wait. Crap. I have to work.”

“Oh? Where do you work?”

“Um.” I heard the words The Pink Beaver in my mind, but what came out was, “The Children’s Hospital.”

“Uh, there isn’t a children’s hospital in the city.”

“Really? I thought I was pretty safe with that one,” I said before biting my lip. “Wait…did I say that last part out loud?”

“You did.”

“Oh.”

A few moments of awkward silence passed. The same sad feeling I had on our last date resurfaced.

This wasn’t going to work. There was too much against us. My secret identity. Ryder. My dad.

We had undeniable chemistry, sure, but how many lies could one man take? He was going to get tired of it all…tired of me.

The silence went on for so long, I thought maybe Pierce had hung up. Then I heard, “Brenda, are you some sort of spy?”

“No!” I blurted out. “But it is absolutely terrific that you would think that!”

“Not really. I was going to say that you’re not very good at it,” he said before quickly adding, “That came out wrong. I mean I have been worried about you. Those men at the press conference…I want to help.”

Aw, that was kind of sweet…and insulting. Then again, I probably could work on my ability to inspire confidence a smidge.

“Look, I only need to know one thing,” he said slowly.

“What’s that?”

“Will you eventually tell me the truth?”

“Oh yes, definitely,” I said quickly, not at all sure if I meant it.

“I can live with that.”

“Really?”

He paused again before answering. “Reminding me that I’m crazy probably isn’t a good idea at this point.”

“Right. Of course. I’m going to quit while I’m ahead. What about an early dinner?”

We made arrangements before hanging up.

This was good. Really good. Sure, I had a lot of plates in the air, but I hadn’t dropped one yet.

It was going to be a good day.

***

The walk to Ryder’s wasn’t as horrific as I remembered.

The sun shone brightly and a strong wind blew away some of the city’s stench. It helped me see the silver lining to almost every situation going on in my life.

First, Pierce. Here I had been feeling guilty about lying to him, but then I remembered that he knew I was lying. So it wasn’t really lying.

Next, in importance, my hair. Maybe it did make me look like I had been in a chemical explosion, but on the bright side, even scary people were now crossing the street to get away from me. It was almost like a new secret weapon.

Next came Bart and Queenie. It was starting to look like they were out to help me more than hurt me. That was good. In fact, it was almost like having my own Scooby Gang!

Things were definitely looking up.

Now, technically, I did still owe money to two psychopaths, and the person I loved more than anyone else in the world wasn’t speaking to me, but I had to believe even those issues wouldn’t be able to resist the momentum of positivity I had going.

I was on the right path. I knew it, and soon, everybody would know it.

I really believed that…until I got to Ryder’s.

Then all my good feelings vanished.

The world shifted.

An unthinkable had happened.

I stood in the empty lot by Ryder’s building and tried to force my brain to work.

It must have all happened in the last few hours. So where were the ambulances? Fire trucks? Police cars?

Half of the building had been reduced to smoldering rubble…and old newspapers skittered across the pavement like it didn’t matter at all.

Ryder.

Where was Ryder?

She couldn’t be in there. No. No way. Ryder didn’t lose. Bad things did not happen to her. She was in charge of every situation. Bad things ran from her.

I don’t know how long I stood there. The same questions tumbled over and over in my mind without catching the answers.

I was so lost I didn’t see the homeless man stumbling towards me until he was a few feet away.

“This is for you,” he mumbled through his tangled beard.

I looked at him, not comprehending.

His hand reached towards me. It held something, a folded piece of paper.

Everything about him looked uncared for, forgotten, but something in his eyes forced me to pay attention.

I took the paper and opened it up. An address.

“What is this?” I asked looking up, but he was already walking past the other end of the lot.

My blood suddenly felt like it was on fire.

I was running before I even realized it.

I needed answers, and now I knew where to find them.

***

The address led me to a building that looked a lot like Ryder’s.

Of course, that was it! She had more than one hideout.

The thought cheered me. I knew nobody could touch Ryder, not really.

I strode into the run-down building confidently this time. Even the layout of the empty lobby was the same. I walked straight to the elevator, pressed the button, and got in.

As I rode up to the top floor, I discovered my anger returning.

My father was behind all of this. I knew it.

When the doors opened, I found myself in an apartment that could have doubled for Ryder’s. Plush tropical plants waved softly in the breeze coming from the massive open windows and a string of prayer flags waved on the balcony.

“Ryder!” I called out. “I got your message. I’m here!”

Silence.

“Ryder?” I walked into the room. “Where are you? There’s something important I have to tell you. I probably should have told you sooner, but—Wah!” Suddenly the bald man from the bank was standing right in front of me.

“You!”

“Yes,” he said quietly.

“Of course, it’s you,” I said, trying to still my racing heart. “Finally it’s all making sense…actually…it’s not at all. I have no idea who you are.”

The man dressed in loose-fitting garments smiled gently.

“You may call me Choden,” he said, moving towards a carpet in the center of the room. “Please come in.”

“Where’s Ryder?” I asked as he sat cross-legged on the floor.

“Please,” he said again.

I lowered myself across from him. All the bad feelings I had been trying to will away returned.

We sat on either side of a low table staring at one another for a moment before he spoke.

“Destiny is calling you, my child. Are you ready to answer?”

I looked dumbfounded into his smiling face. I opened and shut my mouth a few times before I found the words, “Um, not until you tell me where Ryder is.”

“She is here.”

“Why…why isn’t she coming out?” Tears suddenly pricked my eyes.

“Much has happened in the last few hours.”

I took a steadying gulp. “The last I saw of her, she was hanging from a helicopter. Did…did she fall?”

“No, my child. Indira—the one you call Ryder—was able to discover the location of the Sultana’s whereabouts. She then returned to her apartment to make plans.”

“Who are you? How do you know all of this?”

He gave me the same gentle smile. “Ryder was orphaned as a small child. I found her and named her Indira…for she was full of splendor even then. She calls me Uncle.”

I didn’t know what to say. Ryder…a child? I knew it was stupid. She was an adult, so she had to have been a child at some point, but I had never thought of her that way. Finally, I gathered myself together enough to ask, “What happened? I saw the apartment. It looked like it was hit by a rocket.”

He nodded his agreement.

“What? That can’t be right. Who just has rockets lying around to blow up superheroes?”

He held my gaze in his own. “I believe you know already know the answer, child.”

Of course I did.

“Why?” My throat tightened. “Why would my father want to hurt Ryder?”

“I have my suspicions, but they are only suspicions,” he said.

I shook my head and stared at the pattern of the soft carpet beneath me. “I can’t believe this is happening. How did he know where to find her?”

“This, I do not know.”

My father had incredible resources at his disposal, but Ryder was just as capable. I truly believed she could not be found unless she wanted to be found. Not even Bart could do it. I was the only one who knew where she was, and I hadn’t told anyone…

But I had.

Jenny.

“Oh God.” I put my hand to my mouth. “It’s my fault.”

I said the words but disbelief was rolling through me in sickening waves. She couldn’t have. Jenny would never betray me. It was impossible. But somewhere deep down I knew the truth. Things weren’t the same between Jenny and me. I had hurt her. Now I knew how much.

Choden brought my hand gently down from my mouth and placed it onto my lap.

“You do not carry the weight of your father’s actions unless you chose to.”

“But you don’t understand. I told someone. I told—”

I stopped talking. He smiled in a way that told me he already knew.

“Now, when we began this talk, I asked you a question. Are you ready to answer?”

I stared at him shaking my head. It was all too much.

“Perhaps we should see Ryder,” he said rising to his feet in one fluid motion. He waved for me to follow him. “Come.”

Chapter Twenty-One

I followed Choden out of the main room to a corridor. I had initially thought the entire space was a loft, but I soon found myself walking through a maze of teak hallways. Finally, we came to a door. Choden reached out to turn the handle.

“Wait!” I said suddenly. “I can’t do this.”

Up until now, everything had felt so right…but Ryder had been in charge. I knew as soon as I saw beyond that door everything would change.

“It will be alright,” he said taking my hand, and then I was in the room.

All thoughts stopped as I took in the sight.

The floor swayed beneath me. Choden grabbed my elbow.

I mumbled something. I wasn’t even sure what it was.

Choden bent to bring his ear closer to my mouth.

“She should be in a hospital,” I whispered.

He patted my hand.

“She would not want that,” he replied quietly. “Indira has long understood sacrifice. She would not want the city to fear. She would not want its villains to sense weakness.”

“But…she needs help.”

Ryder lay on a bed in front of a wall of windows. Thin off-white drapes floated above her in the breeze. My eyes moved over the bandages swaddling her body. Even her face was covered, leaving only her right eye exposed.

The little skin I could see glared at me…mottled, scorched.

“The burns were quite extensive. I have given her a medicine to help her sleep. She needs time to heal.”

“But the scarring,” I said stumbling over my words. “You can’t do that her. She needs skin grafts. Hospitals can do amazing things.”

Choden smiled. “That would not be one of Indira’s concerns.”

We were to blame. My father and I. This was our fault.

Not Jenny though. She had just been mad at me. Hurt. She couldn’t have known what would happen.

“Will she be okay?”

He exhaled slowly. “In time, I believe so. Yes.” The words should have brought me relief, but they didn’t.

“You see now,” Choden said.

My heart thudded painfully in my chest. “See what?”

“Destiny is calling for you.”

I took a step back towards the hallway. “I don’t see that at all.”

“Indira has spoken of you often since you met.”

“Well, then she’s told you that I’m a complete screw-up looking to her to save me from my wretched life.”

His gentle expression didn’t change. “She told me that you wanted to help fight against those who cause harm.”