CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Chaz:
I waited forever, waited for the elevator doors to open. Outside, the sirens reached a fire-bright crescendo, an explosion of noise and light that demanded attention. The lobby filled with a cheap hothouse collection of real/not-real mugs, some dressed in VR skinsuits, some wearing actual flesh and blood.
Despite all the frenetic activity that pulsed around me, I stayed focused on the light above the door, the light that told me where the elevator was.
Third floor and descending.
Muscles tensed in my chest and arms.
Second floor. A pause.
I glanced again at the stairwell. Sweat on my brow, my neck.
First floor. A ringing sound. Gears grinding to a halt.
I heard the swoosh of the doors before they actually opened, I leaned forward, ready to push the inhabitants aside, to punch the elevator button and shoot up to thea€”
The doors were open now. A body lay crumpled in the corner. Long white-blonde hair, slender figure in a black dress and boots.
A dart in her leg, the feathered plume tagging her like a prize.
Angelique.
My heart thundered out the rest of the world, pushed aside the sirens and the cacophony of voices. I rushed to her side, gently took her wrist, caught my breath when I felt a pulse.
She blinked her eyes, wearily, glanced up at me. Tried to smile. Whispered my name. Sounded more beautiful than I wanted to admit.
She was in my arms then. I was carrying her into the lobby; a medic with a big red cross on his white coat was running toward me; her head was on my shoulder and she whispered my name again.
I placed her, ever so gently, on a stretcher, my lips brushing her cheek as I did.
A kiss, I think. Unintentional perhaps.
But then again, maybe not.
Rules are meant to be broken sometimes, I think, when life and death collide on the street corner, when everything we value gets mangled in the wreckage.
At that point I decided that all the Babysitter rules didna€?t matter anymore.
The medic nodded at me. Angelique was wearing an oxygen mask and had an IV running in her arm. a€?Shea€?s gonna be okay,a€? he said, a€?but I gotta get upstairs. Gutter punks shot darts up there too.a€?
a€?Upstairs?a€?
Already his team was charging across the lobby toward the open elevator. I grabbed a nearby mug, shoved him beside Angelique. a€?You watch over her,a€? I ordered, then showed him my tattoo. It was a command given by a superior. He nodded. a€?Make sure nobody touches her,a€? I said.
Then I caught up with the paramedics, slid in behind them just before the elevator door slammed shut.
?
The moment I stepped off the elevator I saw the door to my suite hanging open. VR mugs shimmered in the hallway, then abruptly zapped away as they were each replaced by their real live incarnations. A couple of bodies lay on the carpet, like bits of hurricane debris ignored because the storm still raged. Wind swirling, howling, beast-like and voracious.
I could feel a chill on my skin as I drew nearer, a low-pressure zone that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I rounded the corner, saw an instant replay of the scene in Isabellea€?s bedroom. I wanted to shove my fist through the fabric of the universe.
a€?God, noa€”a€?
Somebody was coming after the Domingue clan with a fierce determination, and now a hurricane vortex threatened to suck me in. I fought against it. Felt my muscles lock, turn to steel.
Fresh Start guards that I had personally trained lay scattered across the floor, some breathing, some not, all tagged with a variety of darts. Like this had been an experiment. Leta€?s check out that new batch of blowguns, any darts will do, they all take down a man in less than two seconds. No matter if they get back up again.
a€?Took you long enough to get up here.a€?
Skellar. The real thing this time, hands on his hips, he was surveying the room, stopped to focus on me.
A medic leaned over Pete, put an oxygen mask on his face. The guy gave a thumbs-up to someone across the room, then moved on to another prone body. Petea€?s eyes batted open, then closed again.
My brother lay on the floor a few feet away, a team of three white-coats surrounding him, all working furiously. It didna€?t look good.
a€?That was your sister-in-law on the ground outside,a€? Skellar said.
a€?What the hell happened?a€? I looked at him like he was guilty. He shot the same look back at me. a€?Wherea€?s my niece?a€? I demanded.
He shook his head. a€?We havena€?t found her yet.a€?
The dark cloud lowered, pressed heavy, squeezed all the oxygen from the room.
Without realizing it I grabbed something and threw it across the room. It broke with a loud crash. Startled heads looked up, then went back to work. This was not my reality, I was not going to accept this.
a€?Isabelle!a€? I called as I jogged toward my bedroom. a€?You can come out now. Ita€?s Uncle Chaz.a€? I searched through the closet, looked under the bed, remembered games she used to play: hide-and-seek, tag. Little girls like to hide, please let her be hiding somewhere, let her be safe.
Let her be here.
I paused in the doorway, scanned the living room full of people, some working, some dying. None of them mattered. None of them had the answer I wanted. I kept seeing Isabellea€?s face as I sprinted to the VR room, then the bathroom, then Angeliquea€?s bedroom. I stopped again in the kitchen, glanced over the counter toward the living room, back where I had started.
Skellar was watching me. I could feel it, vicious heat on my skin. He moved closer, inside my danger zone.
a€?She aina€?t here, Domingue. Ia€?m sorry,a€? he said, something like pity in his eyes. The last expression I wanted to see on his face. a€?Wea€?re gonna have to work together from here on out.a€?
I didna€?t want to listen to him, Ia€?d rather he be my sacrificial lamb, Ia€?d rather toss him over the balcony like somebody had just done to Marguerite.
a€?This herea€?s the work of gutter punks, nobody else in New Orleans uses darts,a€? he continued, as if he didna€?t notice that I was about to explode. a€?But it doesna€?t make sense. Gutter punks deal in illegal drugs and they use darts in gang wars, not in a a€?sittera€?s hotel suite. And I cana€?t remember the last time they kidnapped a little girl. Doesna€?t fit their code.a€? He paused. Maybe trying to see if I was paying attention, if he was getting through. a€?Somebody led them to your doorstep. Question is why.a€?
I could smell it then, for the first time I recognized something that I should have noticed the moment I walked through the door. The sugary-sweet odor of flesh hovering on the brink of decay. One of the medics had ripped Russa€?s shirt open and an automated external defibrillator was slamming two hundred joules into his heart, trying to shock him back to the land of the living. I could even see the bands of muscle across his chest, rippling, expanding. I dona€?t know how he had hidden it from me or how I had been so blind.
My brother was a spike addict.
For an instant I was fifteen again, helpless in the dark night, surrounded by a chanting mob, rocks flying.
My father dead on the ground.
And somebody had been standing just inches away, high on spikes. I never saw him, but I knew he was there. Heard his laugh, echoing hollow and cold.
The nightmare that wouldna€?t go away was alive and well. Somebody was playing games with my family, knew all of our weak spots. Even mine.
a€?Domingue, hey,a€? Skellar called from the other side of the room. a€?Take a look. They was watchina€? this.a€?
I snapped back to attention. He turned on a VR news video of a dog. I watched a news clip, saw a black German shepherd rise from the dead, then somehow resurrect a second wild dog, a silver wolf hybrid. I watched the video, but in my mind I heard echoes of a previous conversation. Last night, that Newbie in Russa€?s front yard. a€?Wherea€?s the dog?a€? she asked, but I had been clueless. Never heard of a dog. Never heard about any of this, whatever it was.
a€?That must be the dog theya€?re looking for,a€? I murmured.
a€?Whoa€?s lookina€? for it?a€?
I stared at him, didna€?t realize that I had spoken out loud. a€?The Newbie that self-destructed over at Russa€?s,a€? I said. a€?She was asking about a dog. Right before she zapped herself to another clone.a€?
He scratched the stubble on his chin, glanced around to see if anybody nearby was listening. They werena€?t. a€?Same thing happened down at the station last night,a€? he said. Like he stood in a midnight confessional. a€?Somebody downloaded, usina€? a handheld gizmo. He got in to see your brother, right before he was released. We found the body in the interrogation room, but all the video had been wiped clean.a€?
a€?Somebody on your team is playina€? both sides.a€?
a€?It wouldna€?t be the first time.a€? Skellar lifted his gaze toward the balcony, where several of his men were sampling for DNA residue, then he glanced back at me. a€?Look, whoever took your niece is gonna try to contact you. Or your brother, if he pulls througha€”a€?
The medics took the defibrillator pads off Russ, slipped an IV in his arm and strapped an oxygen mask over his face. He was breathing. He was alive. For now anyway.
a€?a€”and youa€?re gonna let me know when they do. Got it?a€?
I nodded, wondering if I was willing to partner up with him. Didna€?t seem to matter what I wanted. All of a sudden, my options got pretty limited.