BY THE TIME I dug my knife and mask out of the mud and made it to the street, she was gone. I twisted through the neighborhood, searching every side street, yard, and alley, but came up empty.
No matter where I went, I could see the peak of Lucy’s Promise and the arrow-shaped notch in the trees that marked Greer’s camp. They were probably already back there, safe and dry in their cabins. I thought about giving up, telling myself that the girl would eventually run into a guardsman who would help her, but I knew that the other, more likely possibility was that she’d be found by Tommasulo or one of his friends, so I kept going.
I’d just passed the high school and was heading back toward Monument Park when I finally saw her.
An hour had passed, maybe two. The rain had stopped, leaving a junglelike fog. She was on Elm Street, drenched and panting, barely managing to run the length of a few houses before she had to stop and catch her breath. I trailed her until she fell against the stone wall at the edge of the park. She slid down it and collapsed over her knees.
I was half a block away when she saw me. Her exhaustion vanished in a flash. There was a softball-size chunk of rock sitting by the wall. She grabbed it and jumped to her feet.
“It’s okay! I’m not with them. My name’s Cardinal. Cardinal Cassidy.”
“You called that man by name,” she shouted. “I heard you.”
I took a step toward her and she hoisted the rock, ready to swing at my head. I stopped and raised my hands in front of me.
“I know his name. That’s all. I promise. I was trying to help you.”
The girl kept the rock hoisted, ready to swing, as she put more distance between us and searched the surrounding streets.
“Where am I?”
“A town called Black River.”
“How did I get here?”
“You live here,” I said. “I know. It sounds crazy. Just listen. This town has been quarantined for months because of a virus called Lassiter’s. It makes people lose their memories. That’s what happened to you.”
“Those men said I was going to get sicker. They said—”
“They were lying. The virus makes you lose your memory, that’s all. I promise.”
There was a snap behind me. I whirled around, one hand dropping to the hilt of my knife, but no one was there. I told myself it was a branch knocked loose by the storm, nothing else.
“Look,” I said, trying to keep the nerves out of my voice. “There’s a National Guard shelter just a few blocks from here. I can take you there. They’ll let you stay with them while they figure out who you are and where your family is.”
The girl considered. Her fingers had gone white on the rock. She searched the park and the hill above it.
“But those men who attacked us, they live here too. Don’t they?”
“There are people running the shelter. Soldiers. They can protect you.”
“So I’ll be safe there.”
The voice in my head said yes, but I couldn’t get the words out. In the first weeks of the quarantine the Guard had hundreds of men, but their numbers had gradually dwindled until there were only forty or fifty for the whole town. There were never enough of them to keep an eye on everything, not even at their own shelter. If I left the girl there, it would only be a matter of time before Tommasulo and his friends found her. And then, as soon as one of the guardsmen turned his back . . .
I scrambled for options, but they all came to dead ends. All except for one. I drew in a shaky breath.
“No,” I said. “You won’t. But I think I know somewhere you will be.”
I nodded toward Lucy’s Promise.
“Me and my friends live up there. In a camp on the mountain. You can stay with us until we find out where you belong.”
By then the girl’s arm had started shaking. She was having trouble holding up the rock. Having trouble standing, it seemed. Still, she didn’t say anything and she didn’t move. Who could blame her? Minutes earlier she’d nearly been kidnapped by two strangers, and now another one wanted to take her away to an isolated mountaintop. As far as she knew, Tommasulo and I were just using slightly different versions of the same con.
Voices came from somewhere in the neighborhood. Men’s voices. Three or four of them, shouting to one another. Tommasulo’s friends, no doubt. They were a few blocks away, but closing in fast. I did the only thing I could think of.
The girl jumped back when I pulled my knife from its sheath. She was about to run, but I flipped it so the blade was in my palm and the hilt was facing her.
“Take it,” I said. “This way you’ll be the only one who’s armed.”
She didn’t make a move. I set the knife on the ground and backed away.