The seconds moved with slow-ticking fury as David watched the last two Gothams stagger toward the exit. While his maimed right hand felt light enough to float away, his other wrist was burdened with a .40 caliber pistol and a vintage silver watch. It had been forty-four ticks since Rebel’s last gunshot echoed through the eastern arch, ample time for David to envision all the worst scenarios. The thought of Mia with a bullet in her eye—just one shade darker than the current reality—made his gun arm twitch with a vicious life of its own. Tick, tick, tick.
The hands on his watch hit 11:57 when he leapt out from behind his pillar and summoned a line of ghostly duplicates. Eight Davids aimed their pistols in synch, speaking with one firm voice.
“Stop.”
Rebel and Ivy turned around at the portal, freezing at the sight of the one-man posse just forty feet away. Ivy jumped in front of her husband.
“Don’t shoot us! We’re leaving! We’re going!”
“Try it,” David hissed. “See how well that works for you.”
Sixty feet above, Amanda wrung her fingers in screaming tension. Just let them go, David. You’ll get yourself killed!
Rebel dropped his empty gun and heel-kicked it through the portal. He tried to speak but could only groan a pained garble.
The eight Davids cocked their heads. “I’m sorry. Was that English?”
“He can’t talk,” Ivy explained. “Look at him.”
“Yes. I can see someone already had their fun with him. What’s he trying to say?”
“He’s asking you to let me go.”
“Does he expect me to believe you’re innocent in all this?”
“No. But our child is. Look at me.”
David narrowed his cool blue eyes at her bulging stomach. “What’s your name?”
“Krista.”
He raised his gun. “Try again.”
“Ivy! My name’s Ivy!”
“Well, Ivy, tell me something. Why should I care about the innocent lives in your family when you clearly don’t care about the innocent lives in mine?”
Rebel leaned forward in growling defense. Ivy held him back.
“You think we like doing this? We’re not assassins. I’m a network engineer. My husband’s a security consultant. Freddy was a college student.”
“Who’s Freddy?”
“The boy you shot in the face.”
David balked at her knowledge before hardening again. “You sent him to kill us. I was only defending myself.”
“That’s just what we’re doing! We’re defending ourselves and everyone we know! You have no idea what’s at stake here!”
“Nor do you,” he said, as he peered through the arch. “See, your man just fired seven gunshots and I’m anxious to know where they went. So we’re going to walk in that direction and find out together. I swear to you, if any of my people—”
A distant shriek echoed through the chamber, filtering down from the fifth floor. While the trio in the lobby looked up, Amanda turned her white gaze down the hall.
“Hannah?”
Seeing his chance, Rebel wrapped his arms around Ivy and threw them back through the portal. David aimed his pistol at the white liquid pool as it shrank closed. He muttered a curse, then waved away his mirror selves.
The door to the maintenance hall flew open with a kick. David watched Theo with blank-faced puzzlement as the augur bolted through the lobby like a champion sprinter. His urgent expression filled David with dread.
“Theo, what happened? What did you see?”
A second scream rang out from the fifth floor. David launched his troubled gaze back and forth, up and east, before forcing a hot decision.
“Goddamn it.”
He ran after Theo. His wristwatch ticked to 11:58.
—
Theo had no idea how long he’d been in the God’s Eye. For all he knew, he spent days on his backtracking path through time, analyzing every twist and turn of their impending escape. He knew how precarious these next few minutes would be. He didn’t have an inch of room for error.
He rushed past the reception desk of Nicomedia Magazines, over the broken glass, and into the cubicle where Zack cradled Mia in his arms. The two of them breathed the same shallow breaths in synch, wore the same bombshelled expression. Only Zack looked up and noticed Theo.
“Where’s Amanda?”
“Zack . . .”
“Where’s Amanda?!”
“She’s all right. Listen—”
Zack shook his head, venting all the notions that had stacked up in his mind like greasy dishes.
“I think the bullet missed her heart. If we can keep her from slipping into shock, she’ll have a chance. Amanda will know what to do.”
“I know what to do, Zack. You have to listen to me . . .”
They both turned at the sound of hurried footsteps. The moment David reached the cubicle, his jaw went slack and his gun fell from his hand.
“Mia . . .” He dropped to his knees and clutched her arm, his bloody face twisting with grief. “No. No!”
Mia kept her glazed stare on the ceiling, her consciousness swirling at the bottom of a deep, dark well. She could hear David’s voice far above her. She could feel Zack holding her dying body in his arms. Strange how she came into this world buried six feet underground and was now fixing to leave it like a nestled newborn.
From grave to cradle, she thought. I did it all backwards.
David brushed the bangs from her forehead. “You stay with me, Mia. You hear me?” He turned to Theo. “You said the Deps were coming.”
“They’re already here.” He glanced at the wall clock. “They’ll hit the lobby in eighty-two seconds.”