Vanished (29 page)

Her face flushed. "For goodness' sake, we almost got blown
up. I want to take Kimmie home. To Walden. It's not safe down
here in the Flats."

"Why do you alwa-"

Kimmie burrowed her face into his shoulder, stopping him
cold.

Hilary softened her tone. "Up there we have armed security,
guard dogs, an alarm system. We've even got a generator. No
bombs, Jae."

"Let me check it out, make sure nothing's going on up there.
When I get back we'll discuss it. Please, Hil."

She bit her upper lip, blessedly showing restraint. "OK.
Fine."

Logan passed Kimmie to her. "Stay right here with Mommy,
OK? And no wandering off."

Minutes later, the disaster team-Logan, Pappas, Wells, Hal
Monroe, Chet Babin, and Kaya-gathered in one of the classrooms. As they discussed how to allocate the few resources
they had, Kaya stitched up the wound in Pappas's forearm.

They put together a duty roster for the next three hours. Hal
would give Leah a break guarding the back door, and Wells
would go over to South Spire to spell Jamie. Pappas would
do another sweep of the church, make sure there weren't any
surprises, and then get out on the street.

"Not until I'm sure we've stopped that bleeding," Kaya said.

Pappas squinted at her. "Are you always this bossy?"

"Kaya, where's Ben?" Logan asked.

She bit her lower lip, trying to hold back tears. "He's somewhere safe. He can't be involved in this, Jason. Surely you
believe that. I don't know why those people think he was ... but
he couldn't be."

Logan pulled her aside. "He thought he was going on a
picnic with Jasmine Ramirez. She had a backpack, talked him
into carrying it. She thought it was a drug drop, but when they
opened it, they saw the bomb. Ben called me, Kaya, but it was
too late. Kids just being dumb kids. Word got around that he
was warning people out of the Circle."

"So ... he tried to do the right thing."

"I'll make sure people know that, and then we can get him
back here."

Kaya grabbed his arm. "You knew, didn't you? When I
came to the substation and told you he was missing. You
already knew."

"I didn't know it was Ben. Pappas and I put it together when
you told us what he was wearing. I'm sorry, Kaya. We needed
you desperately. And we weren't sure yet what Ben's involvement was." He met her gaze. "Can you forgive me?"

"It's a terrible day for all of us, Jason. We'll get through it."

Back at the table, the crisis team decided which volunteers
could be trusted to go house to house. They needed to account
for children separated from parents and bring them here to be
taken care of, assist the elderly who depended on home health
aides, or find people who may have been injured or suffered
medical crises.

Paul Wells would take volunteers with him to do the same
on South Spire. Logan said he'd worry about West University
and North Spire as he did his survey.

"Those people out there have got to be getting hungry," Hal
said. "I know I am."

"Johnny Beck took care of our volunteers," Kaya said. "Maybe
he can get something going."

"Hey, Sarge. What're we going to do when the looting starts?"
Wells asked.

"Maybe it won't," Logan said.

Pappas shook his head. "Come on, Logan-all these stores
with their windows blown out? The owners are sitting in their
shops even now, shotguns ready to blast the first thing that
moves their way."

"Logan, you gotta get going," Hal said. "These people won't
wait forever for the information you promised."

"Wait," Kaya said. "I want you on antibiotics for those burns.
And you need a painkiller."

"I'm OK," Logan said.

She stripped off her gloves. "You are not OK. You will take
your medicine and you will let me wash out those burns."

Pappas laughed. "Now we know who's really running this
show."

Logan followed Kaya to the kitchen, where he pulled off what
was left of his shirt. His bulletproof vest was crusted with ooze
and, as she cut it away, it pulled at his blisters. He clenched his
jaw, trying not to cry out.

"Hey, pal. That strong-silent thing gets old."

"What's it look like back there?"

"Ugly. Nasty first-degree, some second, but nothing we can't
get started on."

As she poured bottled water down his back, he thought of
the river he had seen on the far side of Tapley. If he were to dip
into that water, would it wash away his pain-or would it strip
off his skin and expose him to the marrow?

Kaya wrapped his burns, bringing the gauze up over his
shoulder and around his upper arms. Each time she leaned over
him, he smelled the salt of her exertion and the fragrance of her hair. Her skin was shiny with sweat, her eyes bright even
though she had to be exhausted.

Logan cleared his throat. "Not too tight. Make sure I can use
my arms.

"Shush. Relax." She kept working, her breath warm on his
neck, her hands gentle.

Logan forced his focus back to the work at hand. He scanned
the fellowship hall. There were twenty-nine people with significant injuries and nineteen volunteers to help care for them.
The walking wounded were still out on the street-those who
couldn't get home would have to be persuaded to go up to the
sanctuary.

Kimmie sat in the corner with Natasha, helping her drink
juice through a straw. Hilary-cheeks flushed with angerhuddled with Marita. Probably firing the poor woman even
though Kimmie's disappearance wasn't her fault. She had told
Marita she was going to the bathroom. Instead she had gone
outside, looking for flowers to bring to Natasha. She spotted the
fire in the Circle and was drawn to it.

His throat still clenched at the thought of her getting trapped
in the mist. Logan had sheltered her with everything in him,
but his strength and determination weren't nearly sufficient. All
it had taken was a child's faith.

His faith was even less, and yet he had a man's job to do.

Kaya leaned over his shoulder, careful not to touch him. "You
OK, big guy? You're a little green behind the ears."

Hilary looked over, caught his eye-caught Kaya pressing
her cheek to his-and scowled.

Logan was too spent to do anything but whisper, "Pray for
me. OK?"

"Yes, of course. By the way... " She came around so she could
face him and took his hands in hers. Holding his gaze, she said,
"I'm coming with you."

EGINNING AT GRACE, THEY HAD RIDDEN BIKES EAST,
following the inside perimeter of the mist. Every couple
of blocks they stopped and marked a map with the
margins where the mist intersected the city.

By the time they had gone all the way down to Tapley
School and then followed the mist back to the Circle, a
pattern had formed.

"This is bizarre," Logan said.

"Like a wide flower petal," Kaya said, connecting the dots
on the map. "The area bordered by the mist is narrowed at the
Circle, gets widest about eight blocks down, and then narrows
again."

"Egg-shaped might be a better description. An oval with the
point at the Circle."

For a split second her gaze shifted north, and then back.

"You sent him to the Ledges, didn't you?" Logan said.

She brushed her hair out of her eyes and nodded.

"He'll be OK."

"As long as he... " She wrapped her arms around herself.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Logan put his arm around her. "Leah told me you were lost
in the mist."

She nodded, her gaze again shifting to the Ledges. The
mist arched down so that the top third of the rocky hills was
obscured.

"Me, too. A couple of times. It was brutal. I can't explain it
and I'm not sure how it happened, but I think this whole blast
area is lost in the mist. And that scares me. Because things are
in that mist. Terrifying, hellish things." A vicious chill seized
him so that he pulled Kaya closer, not to comfort her this time
but to be comforted.

"What else, Jason? I can see it in your eyes-there was something else."

"God was there, too. He found me. And somehow, I found
Him."

"Hmm. Thought so."

"With all you had to deal with, you still prayed for me."

Kaya grinned. "Just doing my job."

"Speaking of which-we need to keep moving."

Unless they wanted to go through the mist, the only way
to get to South Spire Boulevard was through the Circle. They
made their rounds of that area and again marked the map,
revealing a mirror image of the one they had drawn around
East University Avenue.

As they headed back to the Circle, they spotted Paul Wells
and some volunteers pushing elderly people in office chairs.
"We're taking these people to Grace," he said. "But since you're
here, Sarge-you gotta check something out."

Logan and Kaya followed Wells into the North Middlesex
Bank building. Just a couple of hundred feet from the Circle,
its top floors were obscured by the mist. The bank's bulletproof
windows had withstood the blast, but the office windows had
all blown out.

Wells led them up to the third floor. "We came up here to
make sure that no one had been too injured to go looking for
help. We didn't find anyone-this building is like a rock. I guess
everyone's gone to Grace or tried to go home. But this is just so
freaky, you gotta see it."

Wells opened a door marked DANIEL STEVENS, ATTORNEYAT-LAw. Pictures on the wall were askew and a vase knocked
over, but otherwise nothing seemed amiss in the reception area.
Then he opened the door marked ATTY. STEVENS.

The mist seemed to cut the office in half.

"I wondered, how the devil did this stuff come in here?"
Wells said. "So I walked slow-really slow-toward it, keeping
my hand to the wall. And that's when I felt it."

"Felt what?" Logan said.

"Nothing. That's the problem."

"I swear, Wells-"

"I can't explain it, Sarge. You just need to do it."

Logan glanced at Kaya. She offered no encouragement at
first, just nibbled on her lip. Then she extended her hand.

He took her hand, inching along the wall with his other
hand. When his fingertips touched the mist, Kaya squeezed his
hand and he reached deeper in.

Suddenly the wall ended, a perfectly flat line going up into
the ceiling at the same angle as the mist.

"It's gone," Logan said. "Just like that, it's gone."

Wells nodded. "Weird, huh? Like the mist was a giant sword
that came down and-whack-cut us off."

Kaya squinted at him. "And this doesn't scare you, Paul?"

"What good is being scared gonna do me?" he said, but
Logan saw the tightening of his jaw.

"OK, here's what we'll do," Logan said. "We'll get people
settled and finish our map, and then we're going over to the
Polytech. We're going to rouse a couple of those profs out of
their labs or wherever they're hiding and make them figure
this out."

"Wouldn't they have come to the meeting?" Kaya asked.

Wells snorted. "They live in their own little world. Even have
their own so-called security force. Don't have the time of day
for anyone without letters after their name."

"We'll worry about them later," Logan said. "For now, we've
all got a job to do. So let's do it."

Logan and Kaya took their bikes around the Circle to West
University. A knot of people stood on the bike path, trying to
get up their courage to go around the fire.

"We heard something about a meeting," a woman with frizzy
gray hair said. "But we're afraid to go near that thing."

"The meeting has been postponed," Logan said. "And
honestly-there's not much to report yet anyway. If you still
want to go to Grace, you just stick to the bike path and you'll
be OK. But it would be far better if you could help out here."
He gave them a pep talk about organizing to go house to house
and promised to send someone back in an hour or so to see if
they had any injured.