Runaways

by Christopher Golden

  “We’re not going to be afraid,” Nico scoffed.

  Zeke shrugged. He closed his eyes, hung his head, and muttered something Nico couldn’t hear, a guttural word or phrase that sounded nothing like English. There came a noise—a wet sort of pop—and abruptly Zeke vanished. In his place stood a fourteen-foot horned giant, a stinking, sweating thing with skin like wine-red leather.

  “Holy—” Nico shouted, jumping backward. She grabbed the heated pan off the stove to defend herself.

  Old Lace snapped and hissed and lunged for the giant, but Gert grabbed her around the neck and held her back, soothing her. Molly stepped in front of both of them, fists bunched, ready for a fight.

  The giant stooped over but its horns still scraped the ceiling. It carried a blood-crusted battle-ax in one hand. In the center of its forehead was what appeared to once have been a third eye, though at some point that eye had been sewn shut with thick black twine and now leaked yellowish tears. The other eyes, though—those eyes were on Nico.

  “I did warn you,” the giant said with Zeke’s voice.

  “Look at his hands,” Molly said. “Six fingers.”

  “Gibborim,” Gert said. “Somehow he’s—”

  “No,” the giant rumbled, still Zeke’s voice but as if two people were talking, one of them huge and ancient. “I told you about the Kurdogrim. My mother made a pact with them when she got pregnant with me. When I turned twelve she showed me how to do it, gave me the words the Kurdogrim gave to her. They’re still in their weird limbo, but I can swap bodies with one of them. Once or twice I’ve actually gone physically—swapped places with the Kurdogrim—but that’s dangerous, since it brings one of them into our world while I’m over there. Much better to body-switch. My mind, monster flesh. Giant ax. Tess always calls this body ‘Kurdo-Zeke.’”

  Nico stared at the monstrous thing, at the ax in its hand and the scars on its wine-red hide, at the thick iron ring through its nose, and tried to make sense of Zeke’s voice coming out of that ancient, terrifying body.

  “Your mind stays here,” she said. “Which means that wherever that Kurdogrim is, it’s in control of your body right now?”

  The giant Zeke pointed the ax at her. “You got it.”

  Gert visibly shuddered. “That’s—”

  Molly did a fist-pump. “So freakin’ cool!”

  Kurdo-Zeke turned to glance at her, still bent over. “Right?”

  Before Nico could say another word, Chase wandered into the room, tugging a sweatshirt over his head. His face was lost inside the hoodie and he seemed to be having trouble finding the hole for his head.

  “Guys,” he said, voice muffled inside the sweatshirt. “What is that smell? I mean, no offense to whoever’s cooking, but it smells like sweaty elephant ass in here.”

  Gert started to say his name, but then he found the head-hole in his hoodie and his face popped through. He shouted, started swearing, and immediately ran for Gert and Molly. Eyes wide, he reached out toward a knife rack as he passed and slipped out a massive butcher knife. He skidded into place and spun, still swearing at the giant, glancing around at them like they were crazy for just standing there.

  “What are you doing?” he barked. “We’ve gotta—”

  “Chase!” Nico snapped. She’d been saying his name over and over but he didn’t listen until she shouted at him.

  “It’s one of the Gibborim!” he shouted back. “One we haven’t seen—”

  “No,” Nico said. “It’s a Kurdogrim.”

  “What the hell difference does that make?” he snapped, moving in with the knife, ready to die.

  The giant Zeke crouched and stared at him. “Dude,” he said in that rumbling version of Zeke’s voice. “Do you not see the blood on this huge frickin’ ax? You really think that knife is gonna be the thing that takes me down?”

  Chase stared, open-mouthed. “Is that…”

  “Zeke,” Nico confirmed. “Yes.”

  Chase began to laugh. Sighing, snickering, he shook his head and turned around, walking back the way he’d come.

  Gert started to explain. “He can swap bodies with—”

  “Yeah. I don’t really care,” Chase said. He put the knife back where he’d gotten it and went to the kitchen door before he turned to gaze in amazement at the crouching, horned giant. “I figured I could deal with it.” He started laughing again. “I guess that’s never gonna happen.”

  “Chase—” Gert said.

  “I’m going to finish repairing the Leapfrog,” he replied, turning to Nico. “I assume you’re working on a plan to save Tess and Carlos.”

  “Yes.”

  Chase nodded, then pointed at Zeke. “He’s not going to fit on board the Frog like that.”

  “I can change back,” Zeke replied. “It’s not…I mean, it’s not difficult or anything.”

  Chase gave him a look dripping with sarcasm. “Good for you.”

  Then he left.

  Awkwardness filled the kitchen. Zeke growled some words and with that same, damp popping noise, he was himself again. He stuck his hands in his pockets, looking like he wished he could be anywhere else. Nico stood there with the cooling frying pan dangling at her side. A little flame still flickered on top of the stove. The smell of the Kurdogrim had gotten into her nose and mouth, spoiling her appetite, but she glanced around at the others.

  “Who wants my omelet?”

  Gert started laughing then. When Molly joined in, so did Nico and Zeke. After a moment, Old Lace sniffed and scratched the floor, irritated that nobody was paying attention to her.

  Nico went back to cooking. She made western omelets for everyone except Karolina, who was vegan. She turned out to be the lucky one, since Nico burned them all, and she’d used way too much salt. Whatever magic she had, it did not extend to the making of omelets.

  The plan turned out to be more of an inclination. Hours after the scene in the kitchen, they’d gathered in the conference room again and Nico outlined everything she’d learned from a long conversation with Zeke. The Nightwatch was staying at the Trumbull Bel Air, a classic hotel from the early days of Hollywood that had enjoyed a resurgence of popularity. It was the sort of place that producers and stars had gathered for daytime meetings in the 1940s, drinking gin and tonics around the courtyard pool while the staff scurried back and forth, hoping to get noticed. To be discovered.

  Gert had always loved old Hollywood. The movies, the culture, the fairy tale image of the place, so seeing the inside of the Trumbull held a certain interest. But it all rang false to her.

  “Are we seriously thinking the Nightwatch is keeping prisoners—or hostages, or whatever—inside their hotel rooms?” Gert asked. “That’s just dumb.”

  Chase pointed toward her. “Thank you. If they’re trying to take over where the Pride left off, they’d need some kind of secret base. They wouldn’t be staying in some hotel, and they wouldn’t keep whatever-their-names-are—”

  “Tess and Carlos,” Zeke said, visibly irritated.

  “Yes,” Chase agreed. “Them. What if they escaped and told people? All it takes is for one person passing in the hall to hear a noise or a maid to ignore the Do Not Disturb sign or whatever—”

  Zeke leaned over the table. “You know, if you’d let Nico finish you’d know the answers and you wouldn’t be wasting all this time.”

  Gert glared at him, but in the back of her mind she knew that her tension came partly from the night before. Flirting with him had been her own choice, but he’d known she had a boyfriend, so she felt angry and guilty in equal measure, and it was fueling her impatience with him now. She took a deep breath and forced herself to be objective, or at least to try.

  “Nico?” she said.

  “The answer’s pretty easy,” Nico replied. She glanced around at the others—Molly, Karolina, Chase…even Allis was in the room, because whatever they decided now affected her as well. “The Nightwatch own the Trumbull Bel Air. They bought it years ago and have been using it as a
base since then, through its redesign and return to popularity. The staff are mostly operatives they were using to keep tabs on the Pride. When our parents died, they started making the plans they’re executing now.”

  “So the hotel is their base,” Karolina said. She glanced at Zeke. “Any idea where they’d be keeping Carlos and Tess locked up?”

  “I bet it’s the basement,” Molly said. “It’s always the basement.”

  “Actually, it’s not,” Zeke said. “The basement would be easier. There’s a parking garage underneath the hotel with a special loading dock—a delivery entrance. If they were in the basement we could probably get in and out before anyone could stop us. But like I told Nico, the top two floors are the VIP suites, which sounds swanky—and it is, but it’s also the highest security. There are ‘safe rooms’ that are really more like inescapable prison cells with unbreakable doors—”

  “Nothing’s unbreakable,” Chase said. “Not really.”

  “Thor’s hammer, hello?” Molly said derisively.

  “Anything can be broken,” Chase told her. “Everything has a flaw, even things that are supposed to be flawless. It’s just a matter of time.”

  “Which we don’t have,” Gert said.

  Nico placed her hands flat on the table, something she did to calm herself. Gert felt halfway proud of her for practicing patience and halfway pissed off because it just emphasized how much Nico felt like she was babysitting them sometimes. Gert could be sharp and impatient herself and she knew she was smart. She sure as hell didn’t need Nico Minoru babysitting her.

  Except maybe last night, she thought. She could’ve used Nico around last night to tell her not to get stupid with Zeke.

  “Sorry, Nico,” she said, glancing around the table. “You and Zeke have obviously given this some thought. Just tell us the plan and let’s get moving.”

  Nico gave her a look of gratitude. “The walls, doors, and windows are reinforced, so we’re going through the roof.”

  “Won’t any doors up there be just as reinforced?” Karolina asked.

  Zeke smiled. “We’re not using doors.”

  Nico tapped on the table, as if it were the hotel roof. “We’re going through the roof. Karolina’s going to give them a light show outside the north side of the hotel. Zeke thinks Carlos and Tess are being held in the top floor penthouse, south side. His mother’s suite.”

  “Possibly sedated,” Zeke said. “So we might have to carry them out of there.”

  “We’ll go in the Leapfrog, get as much altitude as we can,” Nico continued, “and then Zeke will jump. He’ll body-swap with the Kurdogrim on the way down, smash through the roof, and then the rest of us follow.”

  “Not exactly subtle,” Chase said.

  “Understatement of the year,” Gert muttered. She wanted to support Nico, but Chase was right.

  “These kids are us, basically,” Nico said. “Maybe their parents won’t kill them, or maybe they will. Now that they know their kids aren’t willing to accept the crazy ritual inheritance they had in mind, maybe they’ll just sacrifice them to the Kurdogrim. We’ve got to stop the Nightwatch, guys. And if we can do that tonight, great. But that’s the long-term goal. The short-term goal is making sure Carlos and Tess survive their trip to L.A.”

  Karolina sat forward. “So Chase lands the Frog on top of the hotel. Zeke’s the first one inside, followed by the rest of us.”

  “Not Chase,” Gert said quickly. “His Fistigons were destroyed—”

  “I’m working on new ones,” Chase said quickly. The Fistigons were essentially multipurpose tech weapons the user wore as gloves. Chase’s parents had made the originals, but they’d been destroyed, and Chase had been tinkering away on replacements for a while.

  “They aren’t ready yet,” Gert reminded him. “Plus you’ve got to be the wheel man, right? We’re going to be moving fast and that means we need a getaway driver. You can’t go in without weapons, babe, and you can’t leave the Frog unattended on the roof.”

  Nico gave Gert what seemed like a reluctant glance. “Actually—”

  Gert held up a finger. “No. I’m not staying behind like last night. Old Lace and I are coming. Yes, I’ll let you and Molly and Karolina go ahead of me, but Old Lace and I are going to back you up. The Nightwatch aren’t a joke. These aren’t Russian gangsters or drug dealers. They’re on the level of the Pride and we’ve never fought them before. You got lucky against the Crimson Cowl last night, Nico. If we’re doing this at all, it has to be together. All for one and one for all.”

  Nico hesitated.

  “She’s right,” Chase said.

  “Definitely,” Molly added.

  “I agree,” Karolina said. “There’s only one problem. If we’re all going…”

  One by one, they all turned to glance at Allis. She had taken the seat next to Karolina. For the first time Gert noticed how close they were sitting and wondered if a romance might be brewing. It was sweet. After what she’d been through, Allis needed someone she could trust and confide in. More than a romance, she needed a friend. Gert frowned, thinking how quickly she’d accepted that Allis was a friend. She didn’t usually warm up to people quickly, but something about the girl made her seem like she was already one of them—like she’d always been one of them.

  “What?” Allis said, shifting in her seat.

  Chase shrugged. “We bring her.”

  Karolina shook her head. “No way.”

  Allis glanced between them, and realization flickered across her eyes. “Wait—you think I’m coming with you? Not a chance. I’m grateful to you guys for letting me crash here, but wasn’t the whole point of that to keep me from getting killed? I mean, okay, turns out these Nightwatch people weren’t the ones who wanted to sacrifice me to their dark gods, but they didn’t seem too interested in saving my life, either.”

  The whole room went quiet, contemplating. Karolina seemed especially conflicted.

  Gert said what she figured most of them were thinking. “You’re probably right, Allis. But we’re all going, and we can’t leave you here by yourself. No offense. You seem nice, and I feel like we can trust you, but we’ve known you like a day and a half.”

  “We can trust her,” Karolina said suddenly. “She’ll be fine.”

  “How do you know?” Nico asked.

  A furtive look passed between Allis and Karolina. Gert had never seen Karolina trust someone so quickly, either, but she understood. Karolina clearly liked Allis and the feeling seemed mutual. Karolina wanted to help the girl, but that didn’t mean they could leave Allis here alone.

  “Even if we do trust you,” Gert began, “there are a lot of ways you could get hurt here without us. Only Chase really knows this place well. The rest of us are figuring it out. There’s no way of knowing what the Pride built into this place. Leaving you alone…if anything happened to you…”

  “Maybe we should let her stay,” Molly said. “We won’t be gone long.”

  Allis seemed nervous instead of relieved. “Gert seems to think staying here’s just as dangerous. I mean, I don’t see it, but I also don’t want to get sliced up by some home security laser grid you guys haven’t discovered yet.”

  Chase raised his hand as if they were in a classroom. “There’s no home security laser grid. I don’t think. But if I have to stay on board the Leapfrog, you can stay with me.” He smiled at the girl. “You’ll be safe. Mostly.”

  “Mostly? Well, that’s reassuring,” Allis said.

  Karolina put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Allis sighed. “Okay. I guess I get to be a Super Hero for the night.”

  “We’re not Super Heroes,” Gert said, knowing she sounded a bit prickly.

  Allis smiled. “Okay.”

  Gert caught up to Zeke outside the room he’d slept in. Nico had told them they had ninety minutes to use however they wanted before the mission began and Gert really wanted to head into the cavern to be with Cha
se. He’d be prepping the Leapfrog or maybe working on his new Fistigons, and given the afternoon they’d had that she wanted to stay close. But this conversation needed to happen first.

  Zeke had just opened the door to his room. He wore a tired smile. She figured he was happy to have help in rescuing his friends, but it surprised her that he didn’t seem more nervous.

  “Hey,” she said, making him flinch. “Can I talk to you?”

  Zeke smiled cautiously. He stood in the open doorway of his room. “Sure. Out here, or do you want to come in?”

  “No, no, here’s good.”

  Gert felt a rush of heat to her face. The corridor lights were dim and she was grateful that Zeke wouldn’t be able to see her blushing.

  “That’s a shame,” Zeke said. “What did you want to talk about?”

  “That,” she said, pointing at him. “That right there.”

  “Can you maybe elaborate?”

  “The innuendo. No more of that. I told you last night that I have a boyfriend.”

  Zeke nodded sagely. “You did, Gertrude. Absolutely. You made sure to explicitly state that you have a boyfriend. Then you went and flirted with me anyway. Which is bound to make a guy wonder.”

  “I didn’t mean anything by it. That’s why I told you—”

  “You told me you and Chase were together so you could flirt and consider it harmless.”

  Gert blinked. He’d taken the wind out of her sails by sounding so reasonable. “Well, yeah.”

  Zeke moved closer to her—close enough that she felt like she could feel the warmth of his body. “I’m not going to try to touch you, Gert. I’m not going to kiss you unless you tell me you want to be kissed. I’m not some sketchy freak and I’m not so full of myself that I think every girl wants me to kiss her. But last night…you thought maybe it was safe, that mentioning Chase made it okay, that we were just playing.”

  He turned and went into his room, stood with one hand on the bedroom door as he studied her.

  “I wasn’t just playing,” he said, and he closed the door, quietly but firmly. The click seemed to echo like a gunshot in her ears.