She followed Thomas through the clusters of tables, the self-assured patrons of the arts, the lipsticked smiles, the jeweled fingers, until they were alone by the bar. Glancing over Thomas’s shoulder, she caught Jade’s eye.
“How are you, love?” Thomas asked.
She rolled her eyes. “What a chore. I swear to God these people all have large sticks up their asses. I feel like I’m talking to a bunch of corpses.” She imitated a wide-eyed stare with an excessive head nod. “‘And how are you, Darby? You look great—I mean fantastic. And Thomas is all right? Good, good. And has your son embalmed anyone this week? Oh. Good, good.’” She made a quick gagging gesture, bringing one finger to her open mouth.
Thomas smiled at her, shaking his head. “I recognize that the strain of being charming must wear you down considerably,” he said. “But, you know, you do look quite lovely.”
“Thank you, honey. I don’t mean to be ungrateful, it just seems like there are no real people here. You know what I mean?” Her shoulders dropped. “Not many real people anywhere for us anymore.”
She ran her open hands over the lapels of his tuxedo. “And you look very handsome. Are you here with anybody?” Rising to her tiptoes, she kissed him gently on the lips.
53
JADE watched the Atlasias from across the restaurant. They had agreed that they should move to the bar area if nothing happened during the first half of dinner. They’d be more visible there, more vulnerable.
Now that they were in position, Jade was having second thoughts. There was so much activity at the bar that there was no way he could keep an eye on everything. He drummed his fingers underneath the table and grimaced. It suddenly felt wrong again, like it had in the theater. It felt risky.
He moved to a table that was closer to the bar, signaling Travers to head outside and watch the street. He was convinced that everything was safe among the tables behind him, so he wanted to shift their coverage to the front of the restaurant and outside. Travers exited the bar casually, turning a few heads on her way.
With Travers outside, it was up to him to cover the entire restaurant. The other agent, who was casually watching the crowd above the bottom half of the Dutch door, was not to leave her post. They were daring Allander to strike. The Atlasias were dangling like bait on a hook.
After Travers left, Jade felt a sinking in his stomach. The early taste of panic flooded his mouth. As he watched the smiling faces moving in all directions, he felt his control of the situation slowly slipping away.
His sweat seemed to come in waves, as if his hammering heartbeat was pushing it through his pores. He thought of Darby outside the movie theater, her smeared makeup and tired eyes, trying to face the crowd of jostling cops and reporters. We’re more than this.
One of the waiters bumped into Thomas, and Jade almost left his seat in a sprint, but the fellow righted his tray, apologized, and moved on.
Once they got to the bar, Darby and Thomas knew not to return to their seats. The front door opened and swung closed slowly, and Darby felt a breeze blow across her shoulders. “Honey, I’m a little chilly. Would you mind getting my coat?”
Jade had told them not to separate, but force of habit made them forget their instructions. A crowd of women headed for the bar to refresh their glasses of wine, blocking Darby and Thomas from view. Jade sat up straight in his chair to keep his eye on them. He felt a tingling down his spine as he waited for his view to clear. When the women parted, he saw only Darby.
Jade stood up, knocking his chair over clumsily and scanning the restaurant for Thomas. Darby looked over at him, concern written in the furrows of her brow. With a tilt of her head, she indicated where Thomas was. Jade turned and saw Thomas heading for the coat closet.
The restaurant flooded in on Jade, and he pivoted to try to hold the scene together, to keep control of the surroundings. The Atlasias were split apart, people hustled at the bar, the waiters and bartenders clamored around noisily. The glow of cigarettes flicked through the air, and for a moment Jade saw only the cigarettes, tracing orange lines through the smoky air. The necklace around his neck felt like an albatross.
For the first time, Jade felt doubt lower, like a cloud, over his intentions. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t risk the Atlasias like this, even to catch Allander. He knew something was wrong—in his gut, in his bones, in the raised hair on his arms he felt it. Then he realized. The top and bottom of the coat-closet door were both shut.
As Thomas placed his hand on the doorknob, Jade sprang forward shouting, “BACK OFF. IT’S NO GOOD.” He wanted the Atlasias side by side, and he wanted himself in front of them. He ran toward them.
All the people in the restaurant turned to stare at Jade. He could have sworn the crowd took in a huge collective gasp of air. Then, they were still.
Thomas froze. He noticed a slight movement at his feet. Blood seeped slowly out from beneath the door, the edge of a growing pool. It rippled slightly, and as it reached his shoe, Thomas saw the reflection of the ceiling fan in its glassy surface. He released the doorknob, its click echoing through the silent restaurant.
He took a cautious step back and then the door swung open, crashing against the wall. A silver arc slashed through the air and a neat slit appeared across Thomas’s tuxedo jacket and shirt. He stumbled back, a vacant look in his eyes, his hands clutching his chest. Blood oozed from beneath his fingers as he fell to his knees.
And then Allander was on him, an arm around his neck, a hand gripping the back of his head. Thomas felt the coldness of a blade at his throat, pushing the skin as far as it could go without breaking. He knew he was going to die.
How did I beget such a cursed thing? he thought.
Allander looked fiercely at Jade, warning him with his eyes.
Jade stopped in his tracks right beside Darby, feeling the backs of his knuckles brush her arm. They were about twenty feet from Allander, so close Jade could see him breathing. He fought every instinct in his body to hold his ground, lowering his Sig Sauer to his side. Allander made a jerking motion and Jade dropped the pistol to the floor. It bounced to his right. A full panic rattled through his body, but he forced himself to stay still.
He saw the smudges of dirt on Allander’s chest and thighs. The crawl space, Jade thought. Allander had come up through the fucking floor. From the amount of blood on the floor by the closet, Jade was sure he’d killed the agent.
Travers was on the street, probably with an eye on the parking lot and the side alleys. Jade prayed that she’d notice the sudden stillness of the people in the restaurant.
Still on his knees, Thomas closed his eyes and listened to the silence of the room. Then the voice came, slicing the air like a sickle—the voice that he had carried in his head over the years, day and night. And now it was with him, inches from his ear. He could feel breath on his cheek, the exhaled air making the words sail tangibly across his face.
“You betrayed me. You betrayed me as father to the son who is father to the man. It was your responsibility as my father and keeper to protect me from trespasses, from things that go bump in the night, from the urges and yearnings of other grown men. You didn’t fulfill your duty and I was sold at the ripe age of seven to a carnal circus.
“Perhaps you were just protecting your investment in Mother; I understand. But I’ve waited for years to stand before you not as equal but as superior, and I PASS MY JUDGMENT ON YOU!” Allander’s voice rose to a yell, and he raked Thomas’s head to the left, drawing the blade deftly to the right.
“WAIT!” Darby screamed.
Allander froze, the point of the knife sticking an inch and a half into Thomas’s throat. A trickle of blood ran down the blade and dripped from his cuff as Allander held Thomas’s lolling head in his arms.
Slowly, he faced his mother.
The restaurant was completely silent. Everyone was frozen, watching Allander with terror.
Darby looked at the blood and almost fainted. For a moment, she thought she had lost Th
omas, but then she heard him emit a dry, rasping noise and she knew he was still drawing air.
Allander was planning to end her also, to drive the point of his blade through her rib cage, to stop at last the pulsing of her heart. What he couldn’t possess, no one would. But the moment he saw her, he knew he would not be able to carry out his plan. He would surrender his due reward. Closing his eyes tightly for a moment, he thought of his impotence. His performance would not end as he had wished. His elaborate game, his mockery of the violence and psychology he had been forced to endure, seemed suddenly empty before his mother’s eyes.
He raised his head to look at his mother, and it was just as it had always been. Allander stood abashedly before her, a naughty child. He could almost feel the years fleeing his body, the small lines departing from around his eyes, the potency draining from his organs. He was helpless again, a frightened boy lost in the forest of his own sexuality.
It was her cursed inconsistency. She was so uneven, so rounded. As he gazed on the drifts of hair around her neck, the movement of her flushed chest, the fullness of her hips, he was reduced to a weakkneed helplessness. It was all he could do not to flee.
Darby opened her mouth as though to scream, but nothing came out. A tear rolled from the corner of her eye. She stared at her son and felt no anger, only fear. No matter what they do, she thought. I felt him grow inside me for eight months, three weeks, and a day, and he stands before me still as my child. She understood that he loved her in some way, that this was all because of her, and she would have to carry it, alone, until the end of her days. She stood erect, almost proudly, with the force of her natural dignity about her like a shield.
Allander blinked back threatening tears and felt the softness of his emotions washing around inside him as he lowered his eyes from his mother. He was disgusted by his weakness. Glancing at Jade standing right beside her, he felt his rage reemerge, as pure and fresh as a torrent of water.
When he looked back at Darby, she caught his eyes and held them. He saw in them a coldness that he didn’t recognize, as if she were looking right through him. She kept her eyes glued to his with a force he could almost feel in the air. And then, with excruciating slowness, she moved her hand two inches to her right, into Jade’s.
Jade barely had time to be surprised when he felt Darby’s skin against his—he was too focused on Allander’s reaction. Allander’s face seemed to tear itself apart in a scream as he kicked his father aside and lunged forward. He bellowed something but it was unintelligible; his throat was closed like a sobbing child’s.
Jade was fully extended in the air, diving for his pistol, before Allander had staggered into a second step. He gripped the weapon by the stock before his body hit the floor, and he dug his finger through the trigger guard, whipping it to aim it at Allander’s shoulder.
Jade struck the ground as he fired and the impact jolted his gun hand upward. Rolling onto his back, he heard a scream and the knife clattering to the ground. He came up in a crouch.
Allander’s hand was leaking blood, but he could see that the bullet had only grazed him. Allander blinked twice, as if remembering where he was, and then sprinted for cover in the crowd by the bar. As he ran, he pulled Jade’s Glock from where it was tucked in his jeans.
He fired blindly in Jade’s direction and the bullet ricocheted off the metal vat behind him. People were screaming now, some still frozen in place at their tables, others standing, unsure where to run.
Darby’s expression did not change, but she rocked on her feet to keep her balance. She didn’t even turn her head to watch her son disappear.
“GET THE FUCK DOWN!” Jade yelled, firing once in the air.
The crowd broke, scattering behind stools and tables. More screams pierced the air. Everyone sank to the floor except Allander, who bent at the waist and scurried for the door, trying to shield himself with other people. Jade waited for a clear shot to open up, but Allander kept fading behind tables and crouching guests.
As Allander got within ten feet of the front door, it banged open and Travers swung into the restaurant, gun leveled at his head.
Allander was still pointing his pistol blindly behind himself in Jade’s direction, and he didn’t have time to swing it around at Travers. With a scream, he ducked behind a woman and hurled her toward Travers. She toppled forward on her high heels and smashed into Travers, knocking Travers’s arms above her head and causing her head to bang against the door frame as she sank to the floor.
Jade lined his sights on the back of Allander’s hip, but before he could fire, Allander had moved behind the staggering woman, jumped over Travers, and disappeared through the door.
Jade followed, screaming over his shoulder, “Someone call an ambulance.” Travers was on her feet by the time he reached the door and she followed him out.
As they ran onto the sidewalk, two gunshots echoed loudly up the street. They went down over their right shoulders in exactly the same way, and completed their roll in a crouch behind a red Nissan parked out front. They glanced at each other over their weapons for a second, surprised.
“Agent down?” Travers asked.
“And out,” Jade replied, straining to see up the street.
Allander was behind a taxi that was stopped a short distance down the block, and he fired in their direction a few more times. Jade grimaced as he recognized the sound of his pistol. One of the cabdrivers yelled out in broken English as Allander pulled him from his car and smashed his face with the butt of his gun. The driver sank to the pavement, limp.
Crouching behind the taxi, Allander fired again. The back window of the Nissan exploded, spraying Jade and Travers with fragments of glass. They were pinned down; with no immediate cover other than the car, they couldn’t get off any clear shots. We’ll have to wait until he breaks for it, Jade thought.
“I think I got him, Jade,” Travers said.
Jade rolled his eyes and banged the back of his head against the door of the car. “Are you kidding me?” He turned his pleading gaze to the sky. “I’m not gonna let you do this, Jennifer.”
“What did you call me?”
“Travers.”
“I think I’ve got an angle on him.”
He glared at Travers. “Look. You stay put. I’m calling the moves. This is not a time to fuck around. You are my backup, and I’m going to need you later. You will get killed if you break cover now.” As if to accent his point, a bullet split the passenger window right above their heads.
She peered around the side of the door again, toward the street. “Jade, I feel it. I’m telling you I got it and I’m going.”
“Goddamnit. You are not going.”
Travers smiled and raised herself slightly from her crouch. “What’s the matter, Jade, don’t you trust me?”
“I trust you, Travers,” Jade replied. “I just don’t think you’re that good.”
She frowned at him and turned to go. Jade slipped the handcuffs from his pocket and slid them around her ankles, fastening them with a click. He threw the key into the street.
When she turned around, he saw a burning in her eyes he hadn’t thought she was capable of. Her cheeks were red, her hair fell in sweaty spikes over her forehead, and her upper lip was raised in a snarl. She was absolutely breathtaking in her fury.
Her pistol flashed forward from her side. Jade knocked it out of her hand before she could bring it down on his head. She would’ve done it, he thought. She really would’ve done it. Something about that filled him with respect.
“It was no good,” he said. Staring at her scowl, he couldn’t resist a smile. “Try to hold on to your gun a little tighter next time.”
The cab peeled out from the curb and Jade was up and running for his car, which was partially hidden behind a Dumpster in the small alley that ran between the parking lot and Singspiel’s kitchen. The driver’s door was snug against the wall, so he opened his passenger door and leaped across the emergency brake to the driver’s seat.
&n
bsp; As he sped away, the door kicked shut with the force of his acceleration. He turned left out of the alley and peeled past the front of Singspiel’s, leaving Travers still on the ground. She rolled over to a sitting position, feeling the handcuffs dig into her flesh, drawing blood. She was unaware of any pain, however; she felt nothing but rage.
54
THE oncoming cars were passing so quickly that they looked like one long blur as Jade’s car flew through the streets of San Francisco behind the yellow cab. They raced up Van Ness, then turned left on Geary, heading toward Fort Miley, the VA Hospital.
Allander accelerated through a yellow light and continued out toward the ocean. Jade blared his horn, as though daring the cars at the intersection to move. I still can’t believe he fired at me, Jade thought as he kept his eyes fixed on the brake lights of the yellow cab. He’s not a gunman.
They raced over the uneven road, bouncing into the oncoming lane to pass cars. Jade was certain that Travers would call for backup. There were probably a dozen cars and a helicopter on the way right now. The backup wouldn’t have trouble locating him; a high-speed chase through the city was something eyewitnesses loved to talk about.
They crossed Twenty-sixth and Allander cut right suddenly, bouncing the cab over a curb and almost hitting a woman who turned screaming and disappeared into a corner deli. Jade hit the brakes and made the turn, gripping the steering wheel tightly and praying the car wouldn’t skid out.
When he rounded the corner, he saw a group of children crossing the street two blocks up. On bicycles and holding balls and Frisbees, they looked like they were just coming back from a park.
Allander accelerated toward them and the boys scattered, leaving one little girl on a tricycle frozen in the middle of the road. Jade heard a smash as the side of the cab clipped her tricycle and then he saw her flying through the air. She landed in the road and Jade slammed on the brakes, his front tires skidding to a halt no more than two feet from the little girl.
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