Текст книги "Trammel "

Автор книги: Anah Crow

Соавторы: Dianne Fox
сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

back there in Wildwood, and those people, they wanted to do some kind of experiments on me or something. That woman, the doctor, she...” Zoey shook her head, trailing off.

“She’s been at this a while,” Noah said dryly. “The mess wasn’t your fault. Can you say what happened? Before she came. Was there anything strange?” He looked like he was busy with what he was doing, but Lindsay could feel him listening for something.

Zoey’s face scrunched up, and she picked her nails as she thought about what Noah was asking. “The punch clock broke again. It’s supposed to interface with the computers, but it’s glitchy, and it wiped out all my hours for the second time this month. I got screwed out of money I needed last time it happened.” She looked uncomfortable. “It was funny at first, with the computers acting weird, but I got scared. I could see what was in my head spilling out everywhere, on the screens, over the speakers. And then everything kind of...went crazy.”

“That sounds about right.” Noah shrugged and looked over his shoulder at Lindsay. “The focus is rare, but the rest seems normal for someone raised mundane.”

Lindsay nodded. His own manifestation hadn’t been much different from what she was describing.

“Noah’s right. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

Zoey didn’t look like she entirely believed them. “Um. Ylli said... He said some people got lost when you guys got me out of that place, that the, um, Cyrus, he wasn’t the only one who got hurt. I’m really sorry. If there’s anything I can do...”

Lindsay swallowed hard and looked down at Noah. No, Cyrus wasn’t the only one who’d gotten hurt.

The loss of Cyrus was awful, and Lindsay kept shoving it out of his mind. He didn’t have time to deal with it right now. But Dane...and Noah.

Noah reached back and found one of Lindsay’s hands with his, tangling their fingers together. The touch soothed him. At times like this, Lindsay missed Dane so intensely it felt like the only thing keeping him sane was knowing Noah understood him and wouldn’t let him lose Dane completely.

“That wasn’t your fault either.” Lindsay met her eyes. “We knew what we were doing when we went to help you. I wouldn’t have let her keep you.”

“You’re not the first one she’s tried to add to her collection of experiments,” Noah said without looking up. The coins were all laid out in front of him now, waiting to be permanently marked. “We have more to do before we can rest. I’m sorry we can’t take the time to let you get your bearings. You’ve been feeling all right, other than the problems associated with living in a tree?”

That phrasing prompted a little laugh from Zoey, and she nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay. Even with the whole ‘living in a tree’ thing.” She tilted her head, dark hair spilling over her shoulder and gathering in the bunched-up hood of her faded varsity sweatshirt, yet another thing Kristan had dug up from a thrift shop somewhere. “More to do?”

Anah Crow and Dianne Fox

Lindsay squeezed Noah’s fingers and drew them up to his mouth to kiss them, then let them go so Noah could turn his attention back to his runes. This time, Zoey seemed unfazed by the display. “We lost Dane the night we took you away from Moore—the doctor. She has him, and we have to get him back.”

“Who is—?” Zoey’s eyes widened and she looked around the room. “The big guy. I remember him now. I guess I thought he’d show up. Is he the one– Ylli said somebody didn’t come back and that’s why we had to leave with Cyrus and then...”

And then the Hounds had found them anyway, Lindsay knew. “Yes. He’s my... My mentor, I suppose.” And much, much more. But he didn’t need to share that with a stranger, even one he’d risked everything to help.

“Dane comes first.” There was a little flare, that of two dozen matches striking at once, and the light was gone. Noah looked over his shoulder at Lindsay. “Yes?”

“Yes.” Lindsay couldn’t imagine doing anything else. “Now that you and Ylli are safe, we need to focus on finding Dane.” They didn’t have a damn clue where to start, and Lindsay had been trying not to think on that too hard.

“Can I—” Zoey picked at her nails again, seemingly unconcerned by the line of red forming between the chipped pink paint and her brown skin. “Can I help? I mean. I’ve got this magic stuff, right? Is there anything I can do with it that would help you guys find him?”

“Moore and her creatures seem fixed in the new ways.” Noah scooped up the runes and jingled them in his hands. “I see few alternatives, especially since our magic has been matched by her followers. Your magic might prove useful, if we can see where to direct it.”

Lourdes and Jonas had certainly kicked their asses, but Lindsay knew there were ways for him to deal with them. They could use stealth and strategy, as well as the sheer force of Noah’s magic, to deal with being overpowered. It was how Cyrus had managed, with the help of his precognition. There was nothing Lindsay could do about their lack of information now—that was the real problem. Moore had so many resources at her disposal, and they had so little.

“Oh, Cyrus gave Ylli some stuff before– Before we left.” Zoey looked down at her hands and seemed to notice the damage she had done, and tucked her hands into her lap. “A bracelet, stuff like that. I think he still has all of it. If that will help anything?”

A bracelet. Lindsay gave a moment of thanks for Cyrus’s foresight. He hadn’t let the barre fall into Moore’s hands. And in the process he’d given Lindsay a way to track down Moore.

When Moore held Lindsay prisoner, back in New York, she’d been using artifacts. The kuni studs in her ears to identify mages, the runes she’d copied from the Shackles of Tehut etched into the walls. She’d need more than copied runes to control Dane, especially after Lindsay had shown her those runes weren’t

worth more than the cement they’d been drawn into.

“She’s going to need artifacts to control Dane, something strong.” Dane and Jonas both, from what Lourdes had said. “She must be using something magical to help her make those Hounds too.”

“She’s probably getting what she needs from humans.” Noah sounded sour about that. “It’s one thing for a mage to work for her, it’s another to sell her things she could use against mages. She couldn’t just acquire things like the Shackles of Tehut without bringing a lot of attention to herself from more than just Cyrus.”

Lindsay watched Zoey for a long moment, trying to figure out how they could use that to their advantage. Zoey squirmed and Lindsay realized he was making her nervous. He started to apologize, but one of the newspapers caught his eye.

Exhibition Brings Stolen Art Back to Detroit

“There are a lot of museums around here. They must try to track black-market deals. An artifact is an artifact.” Lindsay looked at Zoey. She seemed like a mind mage who could influence computers instead of the human brain. “Would you be able to use a museum’s computers to track who’s buying a lot of artifacts?”

“I—” Zoey’s eyes widened. “I think so. They’d have the information in a database, right? We used things like that at work. I remember how it felt to talk to the computer when it lost my hours—before I knew I was actually talking to it. I think I can do it again. I’d like to try.”

“I should be able tell what things are more likely to be magical artifacts instead of mundane things.”

Noah was polishing the new runes on the hem of his T-shirt. “I know what sources and eras produced most of what we would own or use now. It’s a start.”

“What’s a start?” Kristan came in with a handful of fresh newspapers and tossed them by Lindsay’s chair.

“Tracking down the artifacts Moore’s got to be using.” Noah answered before Lindsay could open his mouth. “The black market has moved online.”

“That’s a good idea.” Kristan snapped her fingers at Noah and he threw her the coin he was inspecting. “I haven’t heard from Vivian but I’ll drop another message. She’ll get it when she can.”

“Where is she?” Lindsay couldn’t imagine that Vivian didn’t know what had happened to Cyrus by now. She had been the one to tell them about Dane. Vivian always knew more than any of them.

“Busy. If she surfaces, she’ll blow her cover.” Kristan passed the coin back to Noah. “Make me some.”

“In time.” Noah leaned back against Lindsay’s chair and Lindsay found himself petting the back of Noah’s neck, to settle himself more than Noah.

“Who’s Vivian?” Zoey looked lost. “Did she—I mean, is it my fault she’s not here?”

“None of it is your fault.” Lindsay surprised himself with how forcefully the words came out.

“Kristan and Ylli belong to Vivian. She and Dane and Cyrus were...”

“Family.” Kristan finished the sentence for him. “So, where do we start looking for Moore?”

“I thought the computers at one of the museums would be the right place.” Lindsay should have thought of asking Kristan for help sooner than this. “Do you know which one would be best?”

“I can find out. Come on, kid.” Kristan nodded at Zoey. “We’ll take a field trip.”

“Okay.” Zoey scrambled to her feet. “I can, right?”

Lindsay realized that she was looking to him for answers. “Kristan knows Detroit better than the rest of us. Go on.”

“Awesome. Thanks for letting me help.” Zoey was almost bouncing with excitement.

Kristan rolled her eyes and nudged Zoey toward the stairs. “Save your energy, girl genius. We’ve got a lot of walking to do.”

“I’ll collect the barre from Ylli.” Noah stood and dropped the runes into his pocket. “That’ll be one less worry.”

“Noah.” Lindsay waited for Noah to face him. “Is there any way to get rid of it? Send it back to your family, maybe. I don’t want it here.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Noah ran a hand over his growing hair, and spoke carefully. “It goes if that’s your preference, but it will also work on people who would do us wrong.”

“There are other ways.” Lindsay knew he’d never be able to use it. The idea made him want to claw at his scars. “We’ll find other ways, if it comes to that.”

“As you wish.” Noah seemed satisfied with the answer, and he left the room, his soft footfalls sounding on the stairs a moment later.

Lindsay picked up his tea again and sighed. How had he ended up being the one everyone looked to for answers and decisions? He didn’t know anything more than the rest of them did.

He’d just have to try not to screw it up.

Night in the city was neither dark nor quiet, but it brought a little peace with it. Noah came back from meeting with the courier Patches had arranged for him and found the house dark. He used the scrap wood hand-and-foot holds nailed into the side of the house to get up to the balcony and swung over the rail.

Lindsay would have felt him come into the illusion. No need to announce his arrival.

Noah wasn’t happy about getting rid of the barre. He trusted Patches’s man to get it back to Rose, that wasn’t a problem. It was knowing they’d given up some small advantage that sat wrong with him. But that wasn’t his concern. He was Lindsay’s now, and his concern was Lindsay. He padded past the bedroom with the glow of candlelight creeping out from under the door, and headed downstairs to do some chores.

He had a little time to clean house. Lindsay had been convinced to get in bed early once Noah had lit a dozen candles to give him some light by which to read. Kristan and Ylli were out with Zoey again, for the

fourth night in a row. They hadn’t found anything yet, but Kristan had heard from Vivian just that morning.

Vivian had managed to come through for them—somehow, in the midst of her own work—with some kind of breadcrumb trail for Zoey to follow through cyberspace.

Noah took their tightly bundled trash out to the end of the narrow yard and stashed it under a piece of a fallen shed. Every day, Ylli took it somewhere else to get rid of it. There was no trash collection in an area with no service, and garbage was a sure way to pinpoint an occupied house. While he was out there, Noah made sure they had enough water in the shower cistern for the next day.

When the others came home, they’d make their way in by the window over the porch. Noah checked the downstairs doors and windows one more time. Being lost in a sea of humanity was their real protection.

Noah grabbed a couple water bottles and headed upstairs.

“Hey.” Noah closed the door behind him. Lindsay looked terribly young and serious in the candlelight. “Anything interesting today?” The newspapers that Lindsay had already sucked the life out of were folded tightly and stacked at the foot of the bed.

“A few missing-persons reports.” Patches had mentioned a woman who’d disappeared from a hair salon near Apollo 11; a tiny article in the paper said she hadn’t yet been found. “The homeless and the mentally ill have been going missing for months, but this is a new development.”

“If she’s taking people who will be noticed, that’s a bad sign. Means she has people to help her get away with it.”

“Not for long, if we can help it. She lost a lot of support after what happened in New York.” Lindsay folded the paper he was reading and turned to Noah. “All locked up?”

“Everything’s settled. Pretty quiet out there tonight.” No sirens for the last few hours. The moon was fading away, finishing its monthly cycle, and superstition suggested that had something to do with the lull.

Noah peeled off his T-shirt and slipped out of his jeans. “Did you need anything else?”

“I don’t think so.” Lindsay gathered the newspapers and stacked them next to the door to be taken out in the morning. “Quiet in here tonight too. It feels strange to wait around while the others are out working.”

“It’s good for them to go out and do their own thing. Zoey is more comfortable around them, anyway.” Noah leaned back against the wall at the head of the bed and soaked up a little of the cool from the drywall. It had gotten quite warm today, not that he minded. It was good for Lindsay. “I feel like an old man, though,” he admitted, looking over at Lindsay with a grin.

Lindsay raised his eyebrows as he shed his clothes and came back to crawl into bed next to Noah. He lay on his belly, propped up on his elbows to look Noah over. “Oh? You certainly don’t look like an old man.”

Noah laughed at him. “You should have seen Zoey’s face when she found out I had another life before this. Like, ‘wow, you’re really old!’ Maybe I just feel it, though.”

He reached out and petted Lindsay’s silky hair. It hadn’t taken long to figure out that Lindsay was a sucker for it. He liked Lindsay. Not only because Lindsay had saved his life or because Cyrus had given him to Lindsay, but for the most basic reasons—Lindsay was smart and funny and had a lot to like about him. Liking Lindsay didn’t cover attraction, but that was there too.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing that you had time to have a real life before all of this.” Lindsay leaned into Noah’s hand. “Two of them, from the way you talk about where you grew up. The rest of us... It’s strange for me to think that, except for Zoey, I probably had the closest thing to a normal life before...

Before.”

Any mention of life before Cyrus was a rare thing. Noah petted a little longer because he could see it was working. And it kept him from leaning over to kiss Lindsay. He had no real understanding of where Lindsay wanted the lines. “What do you want normal to be now?”

Lindsay looked startled by the question, and he was silent for a while before he answered. “I don’t know. With Cyrus, I knew where I belonged. I belonged to Dane. You and the others, you’re depending on me right now, but what happens when we get Dane back and all this is over?” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to expect. Cyrus is gone.”

Cyrus’s death was an immense loss. Noah couldn’t imagine how Dane was going to react. As for Lindsay, Noah could see how hard this was for him.

“Don’t think of me as depending on you. I’m trying to follow your lead while giving you the support you need.” Noah slid down and propped himself up on one elbow to face Lindsay. “If you need more, I’ll do more. About the future, the past is the best fortune teller...short of a good fortune teller.”

“I’m trying not to get used to any of this. I don’t want...” Lindsay stopped and swallowed hard. “I want Dane back. I want to know where I belong.”

“Oh, Lin.” Being adrift was terrible and frightening—like being lost at sea. Noah couldn’t know exactly how Lindsay felt right now, but he’d been there in his own way. “I’m not leaving. I don’t want to leave. I don’t have to ask ‘why me?’ when I’m with you.”

It hurt to say that, to take another step away from the human, mundane, joyful, hedonistic life he’d shared with Elle. The life that had held its own magic would never return. He would never hear her laugh again, never follow her on red-eye flights halfway around the world, never throw another dinner party, never dance with her until they were giddy with exhaustion. This was his reality now, his purpose, and his home.

Lindsay seemed surprised at that, and he searched Noah’s expression for a long moment. Slowly, he nodded and leaned forward to rub his cheek against Noah’s. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I don’t want you to leave.”

“I want Dane back too. We’ll make it happen.” If Dane was gone, dead, they couldn’t fix that, but knowing that would be better than the empty space where Dane belonged.

Lindsay’s answer came in the form of a slim, chilly body tucked up against Noah, and Lindsay’s face pressing into the curve of Noah’s neck. He sighed softly, with a tiny hitch in his breath, and stayed there.

“I like that,” Noah murmured in Lindsay’s ear, in case Lindsay wouldn’t take it for granted. Noah loved that feeling of being someone’s safe place, a wall against the world.

“Me too.” Lindsay raised his head and Noah felt soft, cool lips brush his jaw before he settled down again.

Tonight felt like the eye of the storm. Any time now, Zoey and the others would uncover something or Patches would bring some news, and they would be on the move again.

Noah shifted enough to be able to see Lindsay cuddled up to him, head on his shoulder. He ducked his head and pressed a kiss to Lindsay’s lips, and Lindsay made a pleased sound. It was good to be reassured that there was more than chemistry under pressure between them, but Noah could feel Lindsay falling asleep and he stifled a quiet laugh. They were both exhausted, and the uneasy city nights were full of sounds that woke Lindsay far too often. The candles were burbling quietly in the back of Noah’s mind, and he turned out their flames one at a time, then gave Lindsay one last kiss goodnight.

Feeling Lindsay’s cool form limp and heavy with sleep sent a spike of fear through Noah at the realization that he was on a path leading to the kind of devotion that would destroy him again if things went terribly wrong. But Noah wouldn’t try to stop it. He knew Lindsay in a way he couldn’t explain, like he’d felt Lindsay’s inner self meet his when Lindsay was trying to keep him alive. He remembered feeling the echo of his own loneliness and uncertainty there.

That was something he’d had with Elle—she had known him in a way that meant he never had to be ashamed of who and what he was, even if she hadn’t known the details. He’d never expected to find that level of intimacy again. Lindsay’s dedication reminded him of her, the way she’d loved him until he loved himself. She’d always had faith in his ability to do the right thing. The right thing now was to give up the cowardice of isolation.

Noah listened to Lindsay breathing until the rhythm of it pulled him down into sleep as well.

Peace came to a sharp and sudden end as Lindsay jerked out of his arms to sit up, facing the door.

Lindsay didn’t speak and, when he listened carefully, Noah could hear the others banging around on the way down from the room over the porch, arguing about whether or not to wake him and Lindsay.

Too late.

“I’ll go see what they have to say.” Noah got up, lighting a couple candles as he did so he could find his jeans. “It might be nothing.” The last thing he wanted was to get Lindsay’s hopes up over something that didn’t hold water.

Lindsay nodded, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I’ll get my clothes and be down in a minute.”

Noah grabbed his shirt as well, but went back to give Lindsay a kiss. Lindsay cupped his cheek and leaned up, making it last. They’d been having such a nice night too. This had better be something, but he

guessed Kristan wouldn’t interrupt over nothing—not right now. Any other time, all bets were off. Tugging his shirt on, he left the room and headed downstairs.

“Hey, kids. What’s going on?”

Zoey looked guilty. “I think we found something. I mean, I know we found something.”

“But we didn’t mean to wake you,” Ylli added hastily.

“Well, next time you want to not wake us up, how about you remember that Lindsay sleeps like a guard dog, and actually not wake us up?” Noah grabbed the kettle he’d picked up at the thrift store and started filling it with bottled water. “He’ll be down and you can tell us both. No trouble tonight?”

Zoey glanced at Ylli and Kristan, then shook her head. Noah wondered how much happened that actually got back to him and Lindsay. Kids.

“No, nothing that matters,” Zoey said, after the hasty, silent consultation. “I figured out where they are. I mean, I figured out which computer is tracking and purchasing those artifacts you said were magic.

Vivian’s message was a little weird but when I trusted it, it ended up making total sense. The, um—” She looked at Ylli again. “MAC address? Yeah. It’s the same when I trace back all those deals. Ylli said that means it’s the same computer every time. I just know that it looks the same every time. I think it belongs to Dr. Moore.”

She seemed to realize she was babbling and pinched her lips together, looking embarrassed.

Noah nodded as he set the kettle on the stove. He’d provide the heat, but it was good to be careful. He didn’t trust himself. The ball of fire he slipped in before putting the lid on was quiet, at least, humming and bubbling obediently.

“It’s in Ohio,” Kristan said. “Not the place where we found these two, though. Vivian made it sound like she and Cyrus had been keeping an eye on the area.” She came over to pull the lid off the kettle. “You can do that?”

“That makes sense.” Noah put the lid back on and scowled at her. There was all kinds of magical activity around there. “What city?”

“Miamisburg.” Ylli’s wings stirred as though he was uncomfortable. “They have one of those mound things. Like the one Cyrus sent us to. Those things give me the creeps.”

“It’s got a lot of other stuff going on too.” Kristan hopped up to sit on the counter next to where Noah was making tea. “Tell him.”

“This is going to sound weird,” Ylli said tentatively. “But some of the websites I read, for finding out strange stuff that doesn’t make it in the news, they say that there are a lot of busses that go there. The coach kind. There’s nothing to go to, though.”

“Patches said that a couple of the guys that went missing around here, the homeless ones, were last seen getting on a coach bus. No one remembers the company,” Kristan said. “Ylli’s freaky internet friends say those busses had no company markings. Maybe that’s why no one here remembers.”

Zoey piped up again. “That mound thing, the one in Miamisburg, they built a big lab on it back in the forties. Like, Manhattan Project kind of lab. It’s huge, and it’s all closed up now, but it’s still there. The computer that’s tracking the artifacts, that mound-lab thing is where it usually lives. I’ve tried to talk to it before, but it’s really—” Zoey blushed. “It’s shy and kind of nervous. I think if I had more time, I could get it to come around, but the computers near it were pretty talkative, once I matched Vivian’s numbers up to the gateways I had to take to get there.

“Anyway,” she continued, “that computer isn’t at the mound right now. The other computers can’t talk to it anymore. I don’t think it’s online at all. She must have left, and she took it with her. The other computers said that it leaves a lot, but never for very long. A couple days. It left this morning.”

“We have two days to get down there and get him back,” Lindsay said from behind Noah. “Are you ready?”

“I am.” Noah turned around to face Lindsay. He just needed his shoes. But the others... He looked over at Kristan.

“Let’s get going.” Kristan shrugged. “Nothing I need to do here. Make sure we have what we need to get around once we’re there. We could probably use computers for these two. That way we don’t have to find a library to check in on things.”

Lindsay looked at his watch, a cheap plastic thing they’d picked up at a pawnshop. It looked too big on his wrist, but it covered the scars even when his sleeve slid up his arm. “Nothing will be open yet.

We’ve got a couple hours. I’ll go downtown with... Ylli, you can come with me, pick out whatever you need.”

“Everyone who isn’t me or Lindsay should be trying to get some sleep in that time.” Noah poured boiling water into a cup with a tea bag and drew the fire out of the kettle. “We might not get another night to sleep before we have to get down to business.” He caught Kristan’s pitiful look, sighed, and made another cup of tea.

“We can’t take the car,” Kristan said. The ride back from the Great Circle had redefined uncomfortable, and if they got Dane out, it would be worse. Beppe’s sedan had been plenty big enough for three, but with Ylli’s wingspan, five was pushing it and six would be ridiculous. “When you guys go downtown, drop me off at Apollo 11, and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Be careful,” Lindsay cautioned. “We might not be back here any time soon, and I don’t want to end up with a debt I can’t repay.”

“Hey, don’t teach Grandma to suck eggs.” Kristan took her cup of tea and poked the teabag with her finger, sinking it deeper. She looked over at Lindsay, her expression guileless. “I can get what we need without any problems. Trust me.”

“There’s some famous last words.” Noah gestured at Zoey. “Come on, kid. Nap time.”

“Let’s go.” Ylli waited until she was up and followed her out of the kitchen.

“I’ll go get pretty.” Kristan hopped down off the counter, tea in hand. “Before you say it, don’t.” She eyed Noah and Lindsay and then huffed with annoyance on her way out. She’d set herself up for an insult, but Noah managed to keep his mouth shut. “I can hear you thinking it.”

Noah finished making Lindsay’s tea and offered him the mug. “One for the road?”

Things were about to get very hectic, and if luck was with them, next time they could relax, Lindsay would have Dane back. That was what Noah wanted more than anything, though he was going to miss having first rights to cuddling Lindsay. He’d have to cuddle his fill before they left.

There was tension around Lindsay’s eyes, but he gave Noah a smile as he accepted the mug.

“Miamisburg. That explains the Hounds I felt when we were looking for Ylli and Zoey,” he said quietly, looking over at the stairs. There were still footsteps and shuffling sounds from the others moving around upstairs. “And something else was looking for us—it was like the Hounds, but I felt it hunting in my head. I knew Moore’s people were somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t figure out where without risking that they’d notice me.”

After a moment, he shook himself and took another sip of his tea, then set it down on the counter as he came over to stand in front of Noah. He didn’t say anything, just leaned up on his toes and nuzzled against Noah’s cheek like a cat.

Cat kisses. Noah remembered Rose calling it that when the family cats would rub against her. He wrapped his arms around Lindsay and nuzzled back. Really, they were marking their territory, but it was all the same as far as he was concerned.

“It’ll be okay,” he murmured in Lindsay’s ear. He would have been surprised if Moore hadn’t been hot on their heels. She had more resources than they did, and all the same information. Knowing gave him certainty about what they faced, and how much it needed to be destroyed.

Lindsay hummed his agreement and nodded. “It has to be.”

Chapter Fourteen

This rest stop looked a lot like the one Lindsay saw last week. Maybe all the Ohio rest stops looked the same. The similarities made it hard for Lindsay to shake the feeling he’d been here before—caught in a loop of failing and surviving, but never catching up to Moore...

This time, though, they’d already seen where they were going. The site of the former Mound Labs was down the road, and they’d scouted it as best they could before coming back here to regroup. Ylli had a camera, and Lindsay had risked hiding him under the illusion of a turkey vulture to get some shots of the installation.

“We’re going to have to use one of those busses to get in,” Lindsay said, turning away from the highway to look at the others.

“You can make sure no one notices if I board the next one.” Noah was sitting on the ground, back to a tree, watching Zoey work. The girl had bonded with the sparkly pink computer Ylli had put together for her to the point that Lindsay half-expected her to disappear into the screen like Alice down the rabbit hole. “We can’t take her in, and that means someone needs to stay with her. As much as I want to get Dane back, that has to be a priority.”

Lindsay looked around. Neither Ylli nor Kristan would be able to get themselves out if things went wrong, and sending Zoey in was a ludicrous proposition. Lindsay wasn’t sure what he’d consider things going “right”, at this point, except all of them walking away alive and whole.

“I should go.” He’d escaped Moore more than once. He could do it again.

“Over my dead body,” Noah said flatly. “First, because it will be my dead body if I get Dane out but lose you. Second, because that girl you said talked to you... How the hell do you think she found you? She can do it again, she’ll feel you if you get into her sphere, into the place she considers hers.”

Lindsay didn’t want to send Noah in there, hated the idea, but Noah was right. Lourdes knew him, and she might not be the only one. The hunters were still out there searching for him, the feel of them growing stronger in Lindsay’s mind the closer he was to the lab.