“Dr. Plank?” a man said hesitantly, and Trisk could see a woman in the truck move across the long bench seat to slip behind the wheel. A little boy was with her, keeping the woman preoccupied as he tried to reach the open window.
“Do you know these people?” Trisk said, and Daniel’s expression smoothed out.
“I know the boy,” he said, and Trisk put the gun in her pocket.
The man shifted from foot to foot in front of the truck. “You want to bring him?” he asked, and when Daniel nodded, he grabbed Kal’s feet. Daniel took his arms, and they tossed the elf unceremoniously into the back, where he slid until he hit the cab.
“Is that her?” the little boy said, finally having crawled his way over the woman, his mother, presumably. “Is that the lady scientist who is . . . going to kill . . . all the tomatoes?” he said between his mother’s attempts to pull him back.
“Ma’am?” the man said, holding out a hand to help Trisk into the truck bed. His eyes were pinched. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
Faint over the night came the sound of wolves, and she shivered. What on earth did Daniel do in the day we were apart? she wondered as she fitted her smooth hand into the man’s work-calloused one and made the step up into the truck bed.
“Benson, get in!” the woman cried out as an attention-getting bark sounded.
“Drive, woman!” the man demanded, and Daniel lurched in beside Trisk. She held her breath as the man ran awkwardly to the passenger side and dove in. The Weres were rounding the corner, shouting as the truck sputtered into motion. It bumped onto the curb, making Trisk gasp and reach for the walls of the bed until they found the road and picked up speed.
Pulse fast, Trisk tried to corral the strands of her wildly whipping hair as the Weres howled in frustration, not giving up. But then a man on foot suddenly appeared at the corner, throwing a brick at the Weres before darting into flight. The Weres went after him instead. The truck leaned as they took a corner . . . and then they were gone.
Not believing what had happened, Trisk looked at Daniel beside her, then Kal, still out cold at her feet. Daniel’s eyes were wide, one hand on his hat to keep it from blowing off. Orchid must still be under it. Seeing her questioning look, he shrugged. Kal began to move, and panicking, she grabbed his arm, subtly spelling him into a more sure unconsciousness. There was no glow, no telltale sign of magic, and she sighed in relief when Kal went still again.
The wind kept putting her hair into her face, but she didn’t dare let go of the cold wood walls of the bed again. The window at the back of the cab slid open, and the little boy’s voice grew louder, then was quickly hushed. “Is he okay?” the man said, his face at the open window. “Does he need a doctor?”
Daniel’s expression tightened into a grimace. “He’ll be fine until he wakes up and I hit him again,” he said, then added, “He’s fine. Don’t take this the wrong way, but who are you?”
The man grinned, twisting even more to stick his work-grimed hand through the window. “Benson,” he said as he and Daniel shook. “And this is my wife, May,” he said, and the woman driving called out a cheery “Hello!” “And my son, Johnny, who you already met.”
Daniel smiled as the little boy pushed his way to the window and kneeled on the seat. “Is that her?” he said excitedly. “Is that the lady scientist who is going to kill the tomatoes?”
“It sure is,” Daniel said, and Johnny bounced back to tell his mother.
Benson scooted closer to the open window. “Johnny said you helped him get away from the collection gangs. That you were going to the police station to get a woman who knew how to stop the plague?”
There was hope in his eyes under his disbelief, and Trisk held her hair from her face and leaned closer. “It’s in the tomatoes,” she said, the relief at telling someone tremendous.
Benson’s smile widened as he glanced at Johnny and back. “That’s what he said. We came to help.” His eyes went to Daniel, then Kal. “Looks like we were just in time.”
Trisk’s throat tightened as they jostled through the empty streets, the sound of the engine echoing off the building faces. She could sense the new strength in them that her words had started. They had a way to fight. Someday this would end. They could endure it until then.
“My name is Trisk,” she said. “Thank you for stopping.”
“Benson,” he repeated. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am.” His smile widened, easy to see even in the dark. “It’s the least I could do for you saving my May and Johnny.”
“It’s not me you should thank,” she said, her attention shifting to the night at the bark of what she hoped was a dog but was probably a Were. “Can this truck go any faster?”
But Benson only smiled as May took a left down a dimly lit street, clearly headed for the outskirts of town. “We’ll be okay. We’ve got people running rabbit for us, getting caught by the collection gangs so you can get out of Chicago clean.”
“They’re getting caught on purpose?” Daniel said, aghast, and Benson nodded.