“Thanks for that.” Looked around. The view was breathtaking. The sun was just starting to set and lights were coming on, and we were so high up it was like we could see forever. But, as with all the cool places I went while working, I had no time to actually enjoy it. Because we were looking at water, ergo, we were on the wrong side of the building.
The four of us moved off quickly but cautiously. Despite being a hybrid, Mahin didn’t have hyperspeed. She’d been the person who’d made us realize that not all hybrids were even close to alike, particularly anyone sired by Ronald Yates. And while any one of us could have just grabbed her and run, we had other hybrids in the Crazy Eights and we weren’t sure if they could see people going at hyperspeed or not.
We slunk around and I noted a couple of the “Closed for Maintenance” signs. They looked slightly wrong, in part because they were in English as well as Arabic. “I don’t think that the people who actually run this tower closed this floor off.” Looked at Mr. New Watch. “How do we use these? I mean that seriously.”
White tapped a button. “Malcolm, Missus Martini feels that this level is closed due to foul play.”
“Affirmative,” Buchanan said, voice coming softly through White’s watch. “Have already found dead bodies. Throats are slit.”
“Kellogg is on-site.” White hit a button on my watch. Stopped talking into his and talked into mine. “That’s another one of his moves.”
“Agreed. Sending the Minister of Sulky Looks up to the top to verify who and what we’re dealing with above us.”
That was Buchanan’s nickname for Christopher, seeing as I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed his glaring. Controlled the Inner Hyena, mostly so that we wouldn’t be given away to our enemies by my snickering. “Good plan.”
My team started off again. At its base, the Burj Khalifa had the cross-section of a rounded Y. But up this high, most of that outline was gone and it was more like a giant, rounded arrowhead. There were wide sections of walkway that hugged the exterior glass walls, and interior walls that were also mostly glass because people came to this floor to look at the amazing view. There weren’t a lot of corners, just curving walls, meaning we could come upon someone at any moment.
Which we did. He was in the spot I figured Mahin would have chosen, at the far end of this side of the deck, where the scene was all desert in the near distance. His back was to us, but I recognized his shape and stance—arms out, head tilted up.
We’d found our first Crazy Eight—Darryl Lowe, Air Bender to the Stars.
Pulled the others back so that he couldn’t see us. “We’ve found Lowe.” White somehow shared this via his watch without speaking into it. Decided he had the Communications Post from now on in. “Mahin, he’s doing what we want essentially, creating a haboob. Can you help him do it?”
“Do we want that?” Abigail asked. “If Cliff wants a haboob, maybe it’s because that’s when he plans to kill everyone—when there’s no chance that help can come.”
“That makes far too much logical sense to be ignored.” Dug into my purse and found my Glock. My iPod was there, too. Hit play to see if the earpiece worked like Serene had promised. “Hot Shot” by Shaggy came on. Worked for me.
Wasn’t enough to let me know if I was on the Algar Channel or not, though. However, I wanted to get rid of the Crazy Eights, and I was willing to start with Lowe. He’d tried to kill far too many of us far too often for me to want to give him another chance.
Started to head back and had him in sight, when White put his hand on my shoulder. “Wait a moment.”
“Why? Do you think he’s going to give us intel or something?”
“No, I saw something, or someone. I don’t believe he’s alone.”
Abigail concentrated. “I feel . . . supremely confident. But it’s more confidence than I’ve ever felt from one person before. And before you ask, Kitty, think of how confident your Aunt Carla normally is. This feeling is easily ten times what I’ve felt from her.”
“Wow, I don’t think Aunt Carla’s had an unconfident moment in her life. So, there are more people than I saw there?”
Abigail shook her head. “That’s just it. I only feel one person.”
“Okay, well, we can’t dally. Let’s move forward. Mahin, start revving up the earth bending prep. Abby, before we go, can you shield Jeff and the others in the restaurant?”
“No. I can’t feel them at all. This one confident person . . . he’s almost blocking me, it’s so strong.”
White still had my rolling purse, though he was carrying it over his shoulder. “You need me to take that?” I asked him.
He chuckled. “No, I’m secure enough in my masculinity to carry the bag. Besides, I’m not joking—I believe it will make an excellent blunt instrument.”
“Then, let’s get rid of our air bender once and for all.”
Took the lead since I had the gun. Hunched down and headed out, hugging the inner wall. My music changed to “Double Vision” by Foreigner just as Lowe was in my sight again.
There were several chairs here. Walked slowly and quietly toward him, keeping my eye on the chairs so I didn’t bump into one and alert Lowe to our presence.
Which was a great plan. What I hadn’t realized, however, was that White was right—Lowe wasn’t alone. There were people sitting in those chairs.
I froze as soon as I saw that the chairs were occupied. But it didn’t matter—we’d been spotted. The people in the chairs stood up. Then they all turned around. Lowe turned, too. In fact, they all turned in unison.
There were ten Darryl Lowes standing there.
CHAPTER 72
“OH, HELLO,” Lowe said. All of them. In unison. The unison thing again. This was, by far, the creepiest it had ever been. Resolved not to care about normal people talking in unison ever again in my life as long as I could ensure I’d never have to deal with unison like this ever again. “We’ve been expecting you.”
Managed not to scream but only because I’d been focused enough on being quiet that I could control it.
Mahin and Abigail both gasped, but quietly. White didn’t make a sound, but his expression shared that he was controlling himself.
“Um, nice to see you. All of you. Clones?”
Lowe nodded. They all nodded. “It’s amazing how much more powerful I am now,” all of them said.
Was fairly sure that the Lowe that was standing nearest to the glass was the original. But it was hard to be positive. For all I knew, the original was elsewhere. “So, which one is the real you?”
“This one,” they all said as they all pointed to themselves. They all looked over my shoulder. “Oh, Mahin, how funny you are, trying to stop my storm. You can’t, you know. Air is stronger than dirt.”
“And paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors, and scissors cut paper.”
All the Lowes stared at me. “You’re stupid. You and Mahin both. You had your chance to join us and you threw it away.”
“I feel all terrible about that, too. Mahin, what’s our status?”
“He’s right,” she said quietly. “I can’t stop it. The storm is now a storm of its own.”