by Rob Cornell
“Let’s not waste time with bravado. I have no interest in harming your family. I want to help your city.”
“Why? What’s in it for you?”
Dolan laughed. “I expect to be paid, of course.”
“How much?”
“How much would you pay to be known as the mayor who saved Detroit?”
The mayor looked down at the glass again. Dolan gave it a turn, showing a view of one of the uglier city blocks. Abandoned houses falling to ruin. Buckled pavement. Trash blowing over dead lawns.
“You can fix this city. They will treat you like a king. At the very least they will reelect you for another dozen terms.”
The mayor smirked, his eyes lighting up. “Tell me how.”
“Yes, back to how.” Dolan almost let himself forget the disturbing message he’d received on his phone. “I had mentioned ghosts.”
“Ghosts?”
“Yes. Lots and lots of ghosts.”
Chapter Nine
They traveled north toward Vegas in a Lincoln Town Car Craig had found in a parking garage and hotwired. He chose the car both because of its good condition and the ability of such a car to blend in. The tinted windows helped, too. The car probably belonged to some private chauffer. He felt bad for stealing, but would have felt worse if he and the girl ended up in jail or dead.
Maybe the Agency would track down the owner and reimburse him for the car.
All things out of his control. He had to remain focused on what he could control. For starters, it was time to find out how Jessie had tracked him. The Agency had ostensibly erased Craig Lockman from existence. There was no paper trail, no moving orders, nothing, certainly, that a teenage girl could pick up and follow.
She hadn’t spoken since escaping the last vampire. Her silent obedience to Lockman’s directions spooked him a little. He still worried that shock had done some permanent damage to the young girl. Coming out of the car with that crucifix had shown some serious strength, though. So he let her stay quiet.
But a couple hours had passed. They were on the road now, temporarily safe as long as they kept moving. And he had to get answers.
He turned the volume down on the jazz station he had tuned to after discovering the car had satellite radio. A nice feature he’d never been able to afford.
“We need to talk. Are you ready?”
She stared out her window, her forehead resting against the glass. A dry, brown landscape rolled by outside, broken by the occasional Yucca tree, but otherwise barren desert.
“What are you?” she asked.
He hesitated a second. “I’m human.”
She snorted. “That’s fucked up you could even think that’s what I meant.”
“You really think you should use that kind of language?”
“You really think I give a fuck what language I use after what I saw today?”
He couldn’t help smiling. “No. I guess you fucking wouldn’t.”
She made a shuddering sound that could have been a sigh or a tired laugh. Probably both.
“You’re holding up well.”
She rubbed at one eye, further smearing her dark makeup across her cheek. “Don’t feel like it.”
“I’ve seen grown men turn into blubbering fools after their first introduction to the supernatural.”
She looked at him. “Is that what that was? My introduction?”
He took a moment to pick his words, decided it was far too late to sugarcoat. “Yes. Those were vampires. At least, that’s what most people call them. Essentially they fall into the same class as most other supernatural creatures. Intruders. Things that don’t really belong in our world but found their way here anyway.”
“I thought vampirism was a virus or something. At least, that’s the best explanation for it I’ve read about and seen in movies.”
“You’ll do better not to look for scientific explanations for the supernatural. Scientists have been trying that for longer than both of us have been alive and they all sound like a bunch of lunatics when you talk to them.”
Jessie blinked and shook her head as if she’d been splashed in the face with cold water. “This conversation is too surreal for words.”
“It’s a tough thing to reconcile. Luckily most people don’t have to.”
“You seem pretty cool with all of it.”
The afternoon sun came out from behind a cloud, the light shining into Lockman’s eyes. He pulled down the visor. “You never get used to it. Actually, the more you know the scarier it is.”
“You never once looked scared.”
“You might have figured this out already, but looks aren’t everything.”
They lulled into another silence. Lockman noticed he didn’t mind. He felt perfectly comfortable having the girl beside him. He wanted to ask about Kate. He wanted Jessie to tell him all about her own interests and her friends and school and how long she had known he was out there somewhere. He wanted to apologize for not finding her first, and if he’d only known he’d had a daughter, he...
No. He couldn’t. None of it.
He had thrown the interests of national security out the window by risking capture to save her. Now that she was safe, he had to return to old priorities. Getting her home fit in with those priorities. Getting answers to how she had discovered him also qualified. Catching up with the daughter he never knew, however, did not fit the bill. Self-interests had to go by the wayside. Which meant bringing this discussion back to where he needed it.
“How did you find me?”
“Why did you disappear on Mom like that?”
He fumbled for words, not expecting the dodge and return question. “I understand you have a lot of questions, but they will have to wait.”
“Why? My questions aren’t legitimate enough? I saved your life from a vampire of all things. I think you can tell me why you walked out on my mother after knocking her up. Why you’re living under some other identity across the country.”
“Those are all valid questions.”
“Nice of you to think so.”
“But there isn’t time for that right now. You saw what we were up against. You can’t pretend all that didn’t happen back there.”
She rolled her eyes, flipped a piece of her hair back. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll have nightmares the rest of my life after that, thank you much.”
“Then you understand the urgency.”
“You say those guys were vampires. Okay, it kinda looks like that could be real. I know what I saw. That doesn’t explain why they came after you with machine guns and tied me up and...” She covered her face. Her whole body shook as if standing wet in the middle of a blizzard.
Lockman gritted his teeth. The speedometer needle had somehow crept up to almost one-hundred. He eased off the gas and set the cruise control. “Leaving Kate was one of the hardest things I ever did.”
Jessie dropped her hands in her lap and rolled her eyes.
“A lot of guys probably say that, but it wasn’t like I was afraid of commitment or anything. The night I...left, I had asked her to marry me. Did she tell you that?”
Her shuddering calmed slightly. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. Wouldn’t look at him, though.
He kept his attention on the road but conjured that night in his mind as easily as if it had happened fifteen minutes ago instead of fifteen years. “I used to work for a government agency specializing in anti-terrorism, specifically terrorism that utilized supernatural elements.”
She wiped more tears away with the heels of both hands, finally looked over. Lockman could see the torrent of confusion in her eyes. No matter how fast he talked, he couldn’t answer all her questions to any degree of satisfaction. He could only do his best to keep her from coming apart. Then he would get the answers he needed.
“That same night, a terrorist named Otto Dolan had somehow discovered my identity and ambushed me at my home.”
He remembered stepping into the house, that electric feeling in the air, and
the metal taste on the back of his tongue. His instincts telling him something wasn’t right. Too late.
“I’d been so distracted. All I could think about was how wonderful life was going to be.”
Something had hit him across the head, smashing his right ear. He dropped to his knees, dizzy, stunned. Another blow to the back of his neck followed and he had blacked out. But not for long.
“See, your Mom had said yes. We were going to get married and that was all that mattered to me. I never saw them coming.”
He blinked away the memory and refocused on the road ahead cutting through the desert. He wanted to glance at Jessie, but didn’t. He felt warmth through his cheeks. After getting debriefed, Lockman never told anyone else about that night. Not until now.
Jessie made a final sniffle and cleared her throat. “What happened then?”
“A good friend saved my life. And then, my identity compromised, I had a choice. Take a desk job or retire, but either way I had to disappear.”
“You didn’t take the job?”
“Hell no. I hate desks.”
“How do you make a living now?”
He smirked. “I stand behind a desk. I guess that’s one good thing about all this. I won’t be going back to that job.”
She laughed. Lockman liked the sound of it and realized right away why. She sounded like Kate. He thought about saying as much, pulled back. He had her responding now. Time to get to his questions.
“You have to tell me how you found me. That should have been impossible.”
“Why didn’t you tell Mom you were leaving, or take her with you?”
Lockman sighed and clung to his patience. They had a long drive ahead, he could afford her a little more. If she kept asking, though, she was bound to get to some questions she didn’t like the answers to.
“I was forbidden. After I was rescued, I had to be immediately reassigned.”
“Bull.”
“The agency I worked for deals with state secrets more dangerous to our national security than anything the CIA, FBI, and DHS combined has on their plate. In other words, I know some pretty scary stuff we can’t afford getting into the wrong hands.”
“That’s why those vampires attacked you? For what you know?”
“Possibly. I think they were Dolan’s men. He’s had it in for me for a while.”
“Fifteen years is a long time to hold a grudge.”
“Well, he’s got a pretty good reason.”
“What?”
Lockman adjusted the visor, but couldn’t quite block enough sunlight to keep him from squinting. “How did you find me?”
“Come on. Why would this guy be after you still?”
“Why do you care so much?”
“Because I almost got killed for whatever it was you did to that guy. I think I have a right to know.”
He thought it over, but didn’t see any reason he should tell her. He didn’t want to waste the rest of the car ride trying to explain his motives. “You don’t need to know.”
She crossed her arms. “Whatever.”
“Why won’t you tell me how you found me?”
“Because you don’t need to know.” The petulance in her voice grated like the incessant drip from a leaky faucet.
He squeezed the steering wheel and took a deep breath. He tried to imagine Kate raising a teenager. Did the girl give her as much trouble? “Are you being difficult just to be difficult?”
She made a huffy teenager noise and crossed her arms.
Lockman could escape an attack by a unit of vampires, but he couldn’t get a teenage girl to answer a simple question.
“I know interrogation techniques,” he said. “I could make you talk.”
She gave him another dose of silent treatment.
“Fine.” He hit the brakes and pulled to the shoulder, kicking up a cloud of dust that engulfed the car for a moment. He reached over Jessie’s lap, opened her door, and gestured to the vast desert stretching to the horizon. “Get out.”
She glared at him, all that makeup on her face somehow making her look smug. “Yeah, right.”
“I’m serious. Get out of this car.”
“You’re not going to leave me on the side of the road in the middle of the dessert.”
“Try me.”
“Mom’s done this to me before. It doesn’t work. You might as well save your breath and get back on the road.”
The hinge of his jaw ached from grinding his teeth so hard. “I just took out a whole unit of vampires single handedly. You think I’ll have any trouble pulling a thirteen year-old girl out of a car?”
“You wouldn’t do that either. And it wasn’t the whole unit. You let one get away.”
“I...” Even though he knew she was pushing buttons, going for a reaction, he felt the heat swell up his neck and through his face. “Your mom might not mean it, but I don’t bluff.”
She stared him right in the eye. “Prove it.”
He tore off his seatbelt, got out of the car, and stalked over to her side. He grabbed her arm and easily tugged her out of the vehicle.
She shrieked, tried to wriggle free, but his grip didn’t slip. He pulled her, scuffling, away from the car and swung her around then gave her a gentle kick in the butt.
She staggered forward then whirled around to face him, lip curled and jaw dropped all at the same time. “You kicked me?”
He marched back to the car and slammed the passenger door closed. “Good luck finding a ride.”
“This is bullshit. You aren’t going to leave me out here.”
“Yes I am.” He got back in the car, turned up the radio, buckled his seatbelt. When she came over to the car he hit the power locks.
She tugged on the locked door and shouted at him through the window. “This isn’t funny anymore.”
He gave her a dopey fake smile, waved, put the car in gear, and left her behind in a cloud of dust.
He watched her screaming after him in his rearview and getting smaller with distance. He felt quite satisfied with himself. Teach her a lesson. See that? Dealing with teenagers wasn’t so hard.
She was almost too small to see when it hit him.
Aw, hell, I just left a thirteen year-old girl out in the middle of the desert.
He slowed down and made a U-turn.
Man, but he was making a hell of a first impression for his daughter.
Chapter Ten
They made the rest of the trip in almost total silence. She spoke to him only once to tell him what to order in the drive through of a fast food taco joint. The desert of California gave way to the desert of Nevada, and before long Vegas itself shimmered on the horizon, the first glimpse like a mirage flickering in the heat waves.
“This is it?” Jessie said, her voice rough from so much silence.
Lockman stole a glance and found her staring out at the city growing closer. “Doesn’t look like much from here, huh?”
“Trying to figure out why Alec comes out here so often. He says business trips.”
“Alec?”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners, mischief all over her face. “My step-dad.”
Lockman’s throat closed up on him a second and he choked on his words.
Jessie turned away, but he could see her smirk reflected in her window.
“Your mom’s married now?”
“Three blissful years.”
“You like him?”
Her smirk wavered. “He’s okay. We don’t hang out much, you know?”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think he likes kids. He’s not mean or anything. Just...not there.”
“Doesn’t sound right just the same.”
She burst out a loud “ha” and rolled her eyes. “You should talk.”
Lockman breathed deeply through his nose. He wouldn’t let her get to him again. “Since we’re chatting, you think you could tell me—”
“How I found you? Nope.”
“You’re being immature
.”
“I’m thirteen. I’m supposed to be immature.”
He shook his head and gave up. The Agency would have to deal with her. Somehow he had a feeling the presence of a bunch of federal agents in dark suits might make this a little more serious to her. Though how much more serious could something get than machine gun toting vamps?
“You do realize we’re still in real danger? Those vamps didn’t show up the same time you did by coincidence.”
Her brow creased. She folded her arms and stared ahead.
“If you don’t tell me, you’ll have to tell someone. They’ll make you.”
“They? You mean this agency you keep talking about?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. I’ll tell them.”
“But you won’t tell me.”
“You left me in the desert.”
“I came back.” He pointed a finger at her. “Besides, none of that would have happened in the first place if you’d just answered me.”
“You can’t bully me.”
“I’m not trying to bully you. I’m trying to protect you.”
She sighed as if he was asking her to get out and push the car the rest of the way to Vegas. “If I tell you...”
“What?”
She shrugged.
“What’s going to happen if you tell me?”
“It’s all I’ve got, okay? I tell you what you need to know, you won’t have to tell me anything more.”
“I answered your questions. What more do you want to know?”
“Don’t you want to know anything about me?”
He felt a pinch in his chest and actually winced. He took a moment to choose his next words. “I have a thousand and one questions I want to ask you. Finding out you exist...that’s huge. But I have to think of your safety and the greater good.”
“Greater good?”
“The world doesn’t revolve around what we want. There are bigger issues. I have to stay focused on the larger picture here.”
“That’s stupid.”
“It’s called being responsible.”
“For a secret agent dude, you are totally lame.” She went back to looking out her window. “Forget it. I’ll tell your agent buddies when we get there.”
Lockman just drove, baffled. He was never that crazy when he was a teen, was he? Unfortunately, much of Lockman’s childhood memories carried a lot of static and fuzz. For some reason he could never remember his younger days like others he knew. But there was no way he had ever acted as irrationally as this girl. Jessie had to have gotten that from her mother’s side.
