by Natalie Reid
He walked up to where she stood and casually leaned his back against the wall a few inches from her. “I’ve been given orders by my boss to use whatever means necessary to find out who Jessie’s father is. Now, either we force it out of her when we finally catch her, or you can tell me now and save us a lot of trouble.” He shifted on the wall to face her. “So what’ll it be, Sarah? Protect daddy dearest? Or save your daughter from torture?”
Sarah rubbed at her wrist where the metal bonds clasped around it. She didn’t look up at him as she asked, “How did you cut your finger, agent?”
Ritter gave an incredulous laugh. “Excuse me?”
Sarah angled her head to face him for the first time. “There is a blue residue on your hands. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it came from picking up the shards of a broken vial of Harebells. Now what would a tough agent like yourself be doing with one of those?”
He folded his arms over his chest. “We aren’t talking about me.”
“That’s right,” she broke in swiftly. “We’re talking about breaking the law. About a government worker having a child. Downright treasonous, you could say. And how could you ever hope to hide it from your co-workers? The circles under your eyes, the stain on your shirt from where they threw-up on you, the tell-tale coppery smell of the Potentian Band soaked into your skin.” Sarah paused before asking, “How old is she, agent? Two?”
Ritter came away from the wall and loomed over her so that his breath was washing down her face. “If I were you, I’d tread carefully in what I say.”
“Lemons and sugar,” she replied, un-phased by his nearness. “It helps get the smell out. Of course, what’s more concerning is this.”
She held up her free hand, showing him the picture of Nel he kept in his pocket. Ritter’s hand shot to his pocket, but it was obviously no longer there. He snatched it from her angrily and shoved it back inside.
“All I would need to do is tell the men to search your pockets,” Sarah stated. “And then they would send men to search your house so fast you wouldn’t even have time to call over and warn them.”
Ritter jabbed his finger at her chest, trying to find the words that could possibly do the most damage, but in the end all he could come up with was, “Rack!”
“It’s very simple, agent,” Sarah said. “I don’t want much. All you have to do is lead your men away from my daughter. As long as she is out of the government’s grasp, then your secret will be safe.”
Outside the cell, several guards passed. One of them muttered that Ward would be touching down soon. Ritter punched the wall, cursing under his breath.
“Do we have a deal, agent?”
He gritted his teeth hard and clenched his jaw as he stared down at her. He wanted to hit her. To hit her in the head so hard she would never remember even meeting him. But Ward had given him the order that she was not to be harmed. So that only left one option available to him.
Grabbing her hand that was chained to the wall, he gave it a fierce squeeze…
Chapter 8
Missing
The wind was blowing harshly as Harper, Griffin, and Tom approached the north sector of Aero City from the forest. Griffin and Tom had the hoods on their jackets pulled nearly past their eyes, and had their scarves covering the rest of their faces. Despite the cold, Harper had her own face free and open to the wind. She reminded both boys, somewhat proudly, that of the lot, she was the only one that wasn’t a wanted fugitive. Griffin told her not to be daft, that law abiding citizens felt the cold just the same as cut-throat fugitives.
“Not that you’re law abiding,” he continued. “Back home, you broke the law at least twice every day! Not to mention spied on people.”
Harper’s face soured at these last words. She shot Griffin a harsh look, and then shifted to walk closer to Tom. “You know, it was getting a little cold over there,” she remarked, slipping her hands through the loop of Tom’s arm.
Entering Aero City through a small gap in the wall, they kept their faces low as they walked down the street. Harper had convinced Tom that morning to come out with her and Griffin to help them find a piece of scrap metal with the Aero government logo on it. It was a golden insignia with two wings that came together in a circle, which contained the outline of the city inside. Every piece of government property was branded with this logo. Though they might have been able to paint it for memory, it wouldn’t hurt to have an actual picture to work with.
Before they had reached the junk yard, Harper spotted a computer shop, and insisted that she had to go inside to check if they had something. She made the boys wait outside while she scampered in, nearly skipping with delight.
Tom and Griffin stuck their hands in their pockets and bounced up and down as they tried to keep warm.
“So,” Griffin said, taking a sniff through his frost-bitten nose. “How are things with you and Jessie?”
“There is no me and Jessie, Griffin,” he replied sadly. “She’s made it pretty clear she wants to be left alone.”
“That’s not what she really wants.” Griffin bounced a little faster as the wind found them again. “Women hardly ever say the thing they really mean. Most times they mean the opposite of what they say, and it’s up to us poor sods to figure it out.”
Tom turned his back to the onslaught of wind. “Jessie’s not like most women.”
“Well, most women don’t have the Bandit infected into their eye.” Griffin shook his head. “Imagine how scary that must be. From what I heard, smokers like her see the shadows everywhere. One guy nearly hyperventilated to death because he thought he was being eaten by a horde of spiders.” He caught Tom’s eye. “She ever tell you what she sees?”
He shook his head, deep in thought.
The door to the computer shop opened. Harper ran out, shaking her head. “That place’s not worth its weight in garbage. Come on. Let’s go get something to eat before we head to the junk yard.”
“Harper, we’re not here to enjoy ourselves,” Griffin pointed out. “We can’t just stop off for a cup of coffee. We’re wanted fugitives, remember?”
She looked down the street, her breath creating a cloud in the gusty wind. “The man at the Ancient Ramen won’t turn you in. Come on. Let’s just get a bowl. I’m dying to eat something that doesn’t taste like cardboard!”
Griffin jammed his hands in his pockets. “Fine! But if we get caught, you’re going to Task Force, same as us.”
They started to walk down the street, but Harper stopped when she noticed that Tom was not following them. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked.
Tom reached his hand inside his hood, burying his fingers in his hair as he stared off into the distance. “You go on ahead,” he said with a flick of his chin. “I’ll meet you back at the cabin. There’s something I need to do first.”
“Come on, Tom!” Harper pouted. “You promised you would come with us! Just stay for one bowl.”
“Sorry. I have to go.”
Harper let out a small growl of frustration as she watched him walk away. Then, spying the quizzical look on Griffin’s face, asked, “What?!”
“You do know he only has eyes for Jessie, right?”
She narrowed her eyes on her friend in anger. “Just what exactly are you implying?”
He shrugged lightly, starting up a pace down the street. “You seem eager to be around him is all.”
“Oh do I? Maybe that’s because I spent the last few weeks cooped up in a house where he was the only person I could talk to. And this may come as a surprise to you, Griff, but I was dealing with some pretty tough issues, and he helped me come to terms with them.”
He stopped and stared at her. “You’re mad at me, aren’t you? You were the one that ran away and didn’t leave me any way of contacting you! How was I supposed to help you if I didn’t even know where you were?!”
She stormed ahead again. “You could have tried!”
Griffin reached out and grabbed her by the arm. “I did! Why do
you think I’m a fugitive right now? I thought Task Force had you, so I broke into one of their buildings to try and get you out! I would have died if I hadn’t run into Jessie.”
Harper stilled, her face pointed towards the ground. She took a step back from Griffin and cradled her right hand in the palm of her left. Her thumb tempted the fabric of her fingerless glove. The small segment of exposed skin on her wrist turned pink in the cold.
“Can we just get some lunch please?” she asked, her voice weak and pinched.
Griffin let out a relenting sigh, his face softening. “Come on. Let’s go.” He wrapped his arm across her shoulder. “And cover up!” he added, throwing her hood over her head. “It’s freezing out here!”
Later that afternoon, Griffin and Harper returned to the training camp with their scrap metal and with pockets bulging in free fortune cookies. They found Jessie in the small cabin that had been set aside as the hangar for their government look-a-like ship. Laying the scrap metal against the wall, they asked if Tom had come by yet. She told them that she thought he was with them, and asked if she should be worried. They told her it was probably nothing, not to be concerned. He would most likely be back before dinner.
When Carver and Denneck arrived that evening, Tom had yet to show up. The sun had been set for over an hour, and Jessie grew restless with worry. Cornering Griffin, she demanded to know where Tom had gone, but he swore he had no idea.
“One minute we were talking about smokers and Ramen restaurants, and the next minute he said he had somewhere he needed to be. He left without telling us where.”
Denneck tried to comfort her, telling her that Tom was alright. He was a smart kid. He could handle himself. He was a doctor and a scientist after all. Yet, no matter what he said, Jessie didn’t feel any better. The last thing she had said to him was that she didn’t want him around. That he was the last person in the world she had wanted by her side. Maybe that had driven him away. Maybe he had lied to Griffin and Harper, and he never had the intention of returning.
She tried to slip out the front door in an attempt to look for him, but Denneck grabbed her and held her back, saying she would only get herself in trouble. She didn’t know where to look for him, and Aero City was a big place.
Both Denneck and Carver kept their eyes on her during dinner to make sure she wasn’t about to run away. Afterwards, they took her to the back room where Harper and Griffin normally worked, and locked her inside. There were no windows and no other way out of the room except for the one door.
“Please let me out! This is cruel!” Jessie yelled, pounding on the door.
“You’re not in your right mind, Jessie,” Denneck called back. “This is for your own good. I did the same thing to Tom when he insisted he go out and search for you. He nearly died of hypothermia the first time.”
Jessie stopped trying to test the door and stared at it in dumb silence. Tom had done that for her? But why? If he was so afraid of her…why did he constantly risk his life to save hers?
For several hours she stewed in that room with her raging thoughts. Tom deserved to be treated so much better. She had been a fool to try and push him away. He was the one man left on this earth that she felt she couldn’t live without. No matter what it took, she was going to get out of that room, she was going to find him, and she was going to save him.
Sometime before nine o’clock, there was a knock on her door. It opened a crack, and Griffin slipped inside. He held a pile of folded blankets and a pillow in his arms. He placed them on a bare patch of the floor that wasn’t riddled in computer parts and half-created inventions, giving her a guilty smile as if to apologize for the state of the room.
“I, uh, I didn’t really come in here to give you your bedding,” Griffin said, gesturing to the pile of blankets.
Jessie pressed her back to the wall, keeping a safe distance away from her cousin. She didn’t trust herself to get too close. If she did, she might be in danger of grabbing him and demanding that he let her out. And what kind of a cousin did that? Sure she wanted to save Tom, but he wouldn’t want her to become mean-spirited in the process.
“This is a little hard for me to say,” Griffin started, smacking his palms together in nervous energy. “Tom told me something in confidence and…well, he didn’t make me pinky swear or anything…”
“Griffin. Do you know where he is?” she asked hopefully.
He winced. “No. No that wasn’t the secret. It’s, I guess you could say, a bit more delicate than that.” He took a deep breath and pointed to the floor. “Mind if I sit down?” He didn’t wait for her answer as he sat on top of her bedding, causing the pillow to slant upwards on either side of him.
“Comfy?” she asked, trying to hide her impatience.
He wriggled in the pillow to get better situated. Then he gave out a long, uncomfortable sigh. “Where do I begin?”
“Start at the end if you have to, just please tell me!”
He pressed his palms together and stuck them between his knees, looking about ten years younger than he actually was. “A couple weeks back, we had a conversation, of sorts. It was about you.”
Jessie felt her heart sinking, realizing she probably already knew what he was going to say. “He told you he was afraid of me,” she said. Griffin’s head shot up in confusion, and she explained, “I overheard you.”
“And you heard all of it?” he asked.
“Well, no. I didn’t want to hear anymore.”
He tweaked his head. “So all you heard was that he was afraid of you?”
“I believe he put it as ‘shaking in my boots terrified.’”
“And you didn’t hear anything after that?” She shook her head and Griffin threw his hands up in aggravation, “Well that is the stupidest thing ever! If you’re going to eavesdrop on someone, you might as well do it proper! He wasn’t literally terrified of you, Jessie. Not like how people fear Task Force or the Bandit. He was nervous because he would always clam up around you. He told me that, back at BLES, he was supposed to be keeping track of a hundred different things in his head, drug charts and something-units, and a bunch of other sciency sounding stuff that I have no idea about. But all he could think about was you!”
Her back came away from the wall. Her head heavy, her voice breathless. “What?”
“If you had seen him those two weeks you were gone, you would have realized. I mean, he was a wreck. And there’s only one thing on this earth that can make a man act that way, and I’ll tell you something, it’s not fear. I thought you had already realized it. But this morning, he told me that you had given him the very strong impression that you wanted him to keep his distance. And I’m just afraid that…that he’s planning on giving you exactly what you want.”
“Griffin,” she said, taking control of her voice once more. “Let me out of this room right—”
“Why do you think I’m here?” he said with a grin. “But you have to swear not to tell Denneck that it was me that let you out.”
She held up her right hand, curling up her smallest finger. “I pinky promise.”
“Just get out of here,” he said, giving her a shove towards the door.
Sneaking out of the house, Jessie sprinted through the trees, heading straight for the city. She grabbed a few handfuls of snow along the way, trying to stay hydrated so that she could keep up such a fast pace. As she ran, she made a mental map of the different places that Tom might try to spend the night. Her first thought was of the north-side apartment where he had brought her after Ben died. That place held so many mixed memories now. She had once been filled with great sorrow there, but when Tom had kissed her…
Jessie felt her blood surge in hot waves, finally understanding his motives. She felt like an idiot. Deep down, she knew Tom couldn’t really be afraid of her. After everything he did for her, she couldn’t flat out deny that he cared for her. If she was being honest with herself, it was her eye that had driven him away. If it really was going to kill her, then what cou
ld she hope to achieve with Tom? And though she could say that nothing had really changed, that she might very well die soon, she found her heart untamable. Love was still love, no matter how shortly acknowledged.
The derelict apartment complex on the north-side was quiet when she first entered. She checked the ground floor and the stairwell for any sign of habitation, and could just make out a set of dusty footprints. They looked fresh, and they matched the same size and tread of Tom’s shoes. She had once made a note to memorize them in case she should ever need to track him.
Opening the door to the apartment, she found herself more nervous that she had ever been. If Tom was really there, she didn’t know what she would say to him. Clearing her throat, she weakly called out his name. There was no answer. It was dark in the room, so she walked to the far wall where he had once fallen asleep. He wasn’t there either. Running quickly around the circumference of the room, she soon realized that she had been wrong. Tom was not there. She would have sworn those were his shoe prints, so either he had come and left, or they belonged to someone else.
Thinking back to their time on the streets, she checked each place they had stayed the night, she even checked back at the house on Aileron, but he was in none of these places. For hours she searched, aimless and desperate. She began to fear that Tom was not hiding from her, but that he was in trouble somewhere. And the worst part was that she was helpless to do anything about it.
* * *
A cold breeze blew the fire in the small furnace out, casting the room in darkness. Matted strands of black hair fell over blue eyes as they stared into the shadows. The furnace door creaked, and the fire came back to life.
“He used to do that,” Katherine whispered. “The band was just long enough to reach from the bed to the furnace.”
A dark shape moved in front of the flames and towards the window.
