Exposure

by Kathy Reichs

  I faced the detective again, now in position. “Try to keep up.”

  “Enough of this mess.” Hawfield leveled his pistol. Closed in slowly.

  Faster than thought, I launched myself out into space, hands grasping a rafter beam.

  Swing. Tuck. Release. I flipped in midair and landed smoothly behind him.

  Hawfield spun again, trying to aim, but I was already moving. Grabbing the flagpole, I couched it in one arm like a lance and charged, jamming the eagle headpiece into his gut.

  Crack! Crack!

  Both shots flew high.

  The air exploded from Hawfield’s chest with an audible oof.

  The detective collapsed, the HK45 jarred from his fingers.

  A scarlet blossom spread from where the headpiece had pierced Hawfield’s shirt.

  Hawfield stared at me a beat. Two. Then he scrambled for the gun.

  But I was too quick.

  Moving with canine speed and grace, I kicked the weapon across the barn, then slammed my heel down on his hand. Hawfield howled in pain.

  I almost pitied his predictable, glacial movements.

  He was a plodding dinosaur. I was lightning made flesh.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the twins huddled together, frozen in shock. My flaring ears easily detected their panicked breathing and thundering heartbeats.

  “Get out of here!” Watching the detective. “My friends are somewhere outside!”

  Peter started, as if waking from a dream. “Incredible! How did you—”

  “Just go!” Back to the twins so they couldn’t spot my irises. “Find Hi, Ben, and Shelton. I’ll deal with this clown.”

  But Lucy shoved her brother toward the back of the barn.

  “The tunnel,” she hissed. “The boat should still be at the dock, we can take it. Let’s go!”

  “No!” I shouted, but couldn’t risk turning to face them. “Check the woods. My friends can help us!”

  Too late.

  I heard a door slam behind me, followed by footsteps pounding down stairs.

  Whatever bolt hole was back there, the twins had taken it. They were gone.

  Detective Hawfield had risen to his feet. I streaked toward the window, pulled the drape back into place. Then I slapped off the light. The room became shrouded in gloom.

  Darkness. Advantage Tory.

  “You’re quite the gymnast.” Hawfield’s voice floated across the chamber. “Come try that trick again.”

  “You’re not much without a gun,” I taunted, slinking from shadow to shadow.

  Hawfield was trying to circle, but I could hear every scuff of his boots. Could see his hulking form without difficulty.

  Hawfield barely looked at me, eyes searching furiously for his HK45.

  I mirrored his movements, keeping the tent in the center of the room between us.

  The gun was behind Hawfield, against the baseboard of the opposite wall.

  He was closer, but couldn’t see it.

  Keep his focus on you. Away from the weapon.

  “You lost, Fergus.” My hunch was right—his clenching jaw revealed how much he hated that name. “The twins are gone. They’re probably calling your buddies in blue right now.”

  “Not a chance.” Still circling. “They’re running for the hills.”

  Hawfield’s sweat permeated the air. Heavy. Earthy. Sour. Metallic.

  I knew those odors. My flaring nose could easily decode them.

  Fear. Anger. Worry.

  Hawfield was off balance. I had to keep him that way.

  I neared the window. Hawfield tensed, no doubt expecting me to dive for it. He’d try to grab me before I scrambled out. That or locate his gun, then hunt me through the woods.

  Run? Then what? How would I find Ella?

  Hawfield would kill her immediately, then disappear forever.

  No. I needed the gun. With it, I could prevent Hawfield’s escape.

  I could force him to tell me where Ella was.

  An ugly snarl curled my lips.

  And I would. This monster wasn’t going to hurt my friend.

  Suddenly, Hawfield stopped moving.

  “Your eyes.” His voice was taut. “What’s wrong with them?”

  Whatever it takes.

  “You made a mistake, Fergus.” I forced a low chuckle. “I’m not your average girl.”

  I gave him the full force of my lupine gaze.

  Hawfield staggered backward. “Demon!”

  Then he surprised me.

  Trampling the tent, Hawfield barreled right for me.

  I leaped to the side, ducking his outstretched hand while extending my legs into a split.

  My foot caught his.

  Hawfield tripped. Flew headlong into the wall with a bone-jarring crash.

  As he lay in a dazed heap, I hurried to retrieve the gun.

  By the time the detective sat up, I had him in the crosshairs.

  “Thanks for showing me how the safety works.”

  The detective rose to one knee, lung billowing. He spat a bloody glob into the corner.

  “Just get out of here,” he fumed. “Go now, before I lose my temper.”

  “I don’t think so.” I clasped the gun two-handed like Aunt Tempe had taught me. “My friends will be here soon. You’re going to tell us where Ella is.”

  “You’re alone.” Hawfield rose unsteadily. “If your pals were here, they’d have come by now. I was wrong after all.” He took a step toward me. “You’re just a nimble girl with strange eyes. You don’t have what it takes to pull that trigger.”

  He took another step.

  I pulled back the slide on the HK45. “Try me.”

  Hawfield froze. Our eyes locked. One heartbeat, then he took a step back.

  Suddenly, my temperature skyrocketed. Sweat erupted all over as my senses lurched into overdrive. Information poured into my brain.

  Scents. Smells. Sounds. Impressions.

  I felt each Viral pause where they stood. A blast of thoughts nearly wiped my hard drive.

  Tory?

  Tor, where are you?

  Hey, you oka—

  Too fast. Too much. I staggered.

  Sensing my body was about collapse, I tried the only thing I could think of.

  Closing my eyes, I reached out to the other Virals.

  The flaming cords thrummed like lines on a ship in a storm. I couldn’t grasp them. Couldn’t harness the connections.

  Something untethered with an explosion of black.

  SNUP.

  A flash of red exploded in my mind. Pain seared across my forehead.

  I felt myself falling, My eyes opened to see the hardwood rising to meet me.

  Hawfield was above me, holding the gun. He lifted my dead weight, then flung me over one shoulder.

  I tried to resist, but my mind was Jell-O. I couldn’t remember how my limbs worked. How to make sounds. I was carried, helpless, through the barn door and out into the trees.

  A police car. An open trunk.

  Falling. The slam of a lid. Screeching tires.

  Then my eyes rolled up and I slipped away for good.

  I heard Hi shouting from a hundred yards away.

  “What’s that fool done now?” I muttered, digging a rock from my sneaks. These retro Jordans might look cool, but they were light on padding.

  Adjusting my glasses, I ran in the direction of his howls. Ben and I had already scouted the phosphate mine, and were just finishing a circuit of the old cemetery.

  Not my favorite assignment. Freaking graveyards. Next time Tory wants some ancient crypts inspected, she can have the job.

  “Come on, Devers.” Jogging over to join me, Ben cocked his head toward the riverbank. “Sounds like Hiram’s about
to wet himself.”

  We found Stolowitski down a ten-foot mud slick, gripping a clump of vines for dear life. His lower body was submerged in the fast-flowing Ashley River.

  “About time!” Hi yelled. “Get me out of here. I think I lost a shoe!”

  “What in the world?” I almost broke down laughing.

  “Where’s Tory?” Ben dropped to his butt and scooted down the incline Hi had obviously failed to notice. Halting ten feet from the water’s edge, he considered how to get closer without following Hi into the river.

  “How should I know?” Hi grumbled, red-faced. “We split up. She was headed for the old barn. Go check the dangerous riverbank, Hiram. There might be secret caves. No one said anything about fifty-foot cliffs!”

  “You let her go alone?” Ben scolded, slowly working his way down to where Hi was beached. “That defeats the whole purpose!”

  “I’m aware of that, Benjamin.” Hi tried slinging a leg up onto the riverbank, but it flopped back into the roiling current. “But she’d figured out you sent her away from the mine on purpose. You try telling Tory what to do when she’s pissed.”

  “I’ll pass.” But I shook my head at Hi anyway. He looked like a giant fishing lure.

  Ben wrapped one arm around a low-slung willow branch, then extended a hand toward Hi, who stared at it dubiously. I shuffled clockwise to get a better view.

  “Don’t drop me,” Hi pleaded. “I can’t swim all the way back to the marina.”

  “Relax.” Ben planted his feet and steadied himself. “On three. One. Two—”

  Hi leaped too early, but Ben was ready. Locking arms with Hi, he dragged him up onto dry land, then pushed his portly frame back upslope.

  “Just carry me,” Hi wheezed. “Be my knight in shining armor.”

  Ben kicked his rear. “Keep moving, you dope.”

  Hi collapsed at the top, then pointed to a knobby root at the crest of the slope.

  “Him,” Hi informed me solemnly. “That’s the one that got me.”

  “We waited on the path for like ten minutes,” I said, cleaning dirt from my lenses with the tail of my shirt. “Ya’ll didn’t show, so we checked the graveyard real quick. Where you been?”

  “I’ve been floating in the drink for at least that long.” Hi was pulling off his drenched socks. One shoe was definitely AWOL. “Tory must’ve heard me yelling. I think she’s punishing me for colluding with you guys.”

  “Wait.” Ben straightened. “No one’s seen Tory since we split up?”

  “There’s nothin’ up this way,” I pointed out. “That’s why we sent her to the barn in the first place.”

  “Then where is she?” Ben rose, scanning the tree line. “Could she have doubled back?”

  “And left Hi to drown?” I felt a hand rise to my earlobe. “No way. She’d have come right by here.”

  I glanced at Hi, sitting in a puddle on the grass. “You been shouting the whole time?”

  “Like an opera singer,” Hi confirmed, squeezing river water from his socks.

  I was about to say more when it happened.

  A slap of cold jolted my system.

  Strange buzzing filled my head, like a fax machine attempting to connect.

  Ben’s eyes went wide. Hi popped to his bare feet, then crouched like a hunted animal.

  Suddenly, I knew what was happening.

  Tory was flaring.

  “It’s her!” I whispered, unsure why I’d dropped my voice. “She must be in—”

  Something brushed against my mind, making me dizzy.

  A blast of heat filled my chest.

  BEN! HI! SHELTON! I NEED—

  The message abruptly ceased.

  Tory!

  I tried sending thoughts back, sensed Hi and Ben attempting the same.

  Brief contact, then my mind recoiled as if struck. The connection was gone.

  Hi staggered against a tree trunk.

  “Tory!” Ben shouted, spinning in a wild circle. “Where are you?!”

  My brain seemed to spin inside my skull. Then I was on my knees, vomiting in the tall grass. When the world finally righted itself, I felt hands beneath my armpits, holding me up.

  “You’re okay, buddy.” Hi’s voice cracked. “Shake it off. We have to find Tor.”

  Ben was pacing, frantic, at a loss for what to do.

  “The barn!” I gulped, straightening my glasses. “That’s where she was headed!”

  Ben took off without a backward glance. Hiram and I followed, racing through the brush and into deeper woods.

  “No shoes!” Hi yelped, hobbling away from a pinecone. “Worst birthday ever!”

  Ahead, I heard an engine rev.

  Squealing tires.

  Then the sounds of a car tearing through the mud.

  We caught Ben at the barn, which was no hollow wreck after all.

  Oh damn. This looks new.

  A window had been smashed. The door stood ajar. Ben raced inside, only to reemerge seconds later, firing over to a set of sloppy tire tracks.

  Ben screamed in anger and frustration.

  And I knew.

  Tory was gone.

  • • •

  “I’m telling you, she’s been taken!”

  Ben slapped the intake desk, causing everyone to jump.

  “Take it easy,” I whispered, fingers tugging at both ears. “We won’t help Tory by getting locked up ourselves.”

  I imagined Moms bailing me out. Nearly lost my lunch.

  The duty officer rose, his face a thunderhead. “Another outburst like that, son, and you’ll get your own special room to cool down in. Understood?”

  “Yessir,” Hi answered for Ben, who was hovering close to tilt. “We’re just worried about our friend. She’s been missing for at least an hour.”

  The officer spoke with forced patience. “She’s only been gone an hour?”

  “Tory was with us,” I answered quickly. “In the middle of nowhere. No ride of her own, no other way home. We were doing . . . something important. She wouldn’t have run off alone.”

  The officer rubbed his chin. “You’re the same kids who came in here yesterday, right?”

  I nodded, nervous, not liking where this was going.

  “And you don’t have any proof your friend was kidnapped? You didn’t see it happen?”

  Ben’s mouth opened, but I clamped his arm.

  “No, sir.” But she didn’t just bail without telling us!

  That settled it for the cop. “We’ve been warned that you four like to tell fantastic stories. Always have something crazy to report. I’m sorry, but without more, I can’t help you. Hawfield’s orders. We’ll call your parents, and they can sort this out.”

  Ben tensed. I cringed, anticipating an explosion. I kept a grip on his forearm, though my glasses nearly slid off my nose.

  “Is Captain Corcoran available?” Hi asked.

  I tried not to cringe. Hiram, why?

  “He might be,” the officer answered warily.

  “Great.” Hi smiled as if the issue had been settled. “Carmine and I go way back. Since his Academy days. We’ll just pop by his office and fill him in on the new info.”

  “Now hold on a—”

  “Officer—” Hiram’s eyes dropped to a shiny silver name tag, “—Shinn, is it?”

  The cop snapped a curt nod.

  “Great work down here, Shinn. You’re a credit to the intake desk. On the ball. I can tell you’re heading places.”

  Hi leaned forward and lowered his voice conspiratorially, forcing Shinn to bend closer as well. “Thing is, Captain CC made us promise to bring him any intel we might learn about the Zodiac kidnappings, no matter how trivial. I’d hate to upset such a powerful man by failing to follow his orders, wouldn’t you?” />
  I coughed into my hand, hiding a smile. I saw Hi’s play now.

  Corcoran was our last chance. Hi knew the captain—and his sour attitude—and was hoping young Officer Shinn did as well. We had to get past this stupid desk.

  With a world-weary sigh, Shinn pointed toward the elevators. “Top floor. No stops.”

  Snagging Ben’s arms, Hiram and I hustled him from the desk.

  • • •

  “What did I do in life to deserve you kids?” Corcoran grumbled.

  I kept my mouth shut, though I felt the exact same about him.

  Ben planted his fists on Corcoran’s desk. “Tory’s been taken, Captain. Do your job!”

  Corcoran pointed to the chair Ben had vacated. “Sit your butt down, you little cuss. Or else you’re out of here. I’ll not be scolded by some whippet who can’t even shave.”

  Ben dropped back with an exasperated grunt. I could tell he was nearing the edge.

  We all were.

  Tory had been snatched, miles from here, by who we couldn’t even guess.

  And we had no idea how to get her back.

  This is the worst.

  “Think what you like about us personally,” Hi said, “but we’ve got history together, Captain. Without us, you wouldn’t be sitting in that cushy chair at all. You know we wouldn’t be here unless we truly believed Tory was in danger.”

  Corcoran bristled at Hi’s mention of the past, but refrained from comment.

  I added my voice. “We told you everything we know. Just tell us if you can help.”

  Corcoran crossed his meaty arms. “Fine. I’ll look into it.”

  “How?” Ben pressed. “What are you going to do?”

  “Honestly, boy, I have no idea.” Corcoran’s forehead wrinkled as he considered options. “If she was grabbed in the woods, as you say, then I don’t rightly know where to start. You’ve given me nothing to go on.”

  Ben threw his hands up. “You’re the police! There’s has to be someone you can—”

  He stopped dead. A faraway look entered his eyes. Then, “Thank you for your time, Captain. Please do what you can.”

  Ben popped up and strode for the door, motioning us to follow.

  I glanced at Hi, who shrugged. Baffled, we hurried after our friend.