by JA Huss
“Oh,” I say.
O’Neil doesn’t look at any of us. Just stands there in his shackles and handcuffs, staring at his feet.
“You know Randy?” Dick Cage says, talking to the former chief.
“Sure,” the chief mumbles.
“Tell him what you told me last night about Lincoln Wade.”
But O’Neil just shakes his head slowly. “They’ll kill me if I talk. Just you calling me in here right now is enough, you know. They’ll kill me.”
“Who?” I ask, walking over to him. I know he’s a corrupt asshole and he deserves to be in here. But it’s not fair that he has to fear for his life.
“Who do you think?” he growls back at me. “The other inmates. I’m already on their shit list for being the former chief of police, so you can see that I can’t afford to piss them off any more.”
“Well, O’Neil,” Randy says, “it’s not up for debate. And quite frankly, I don’t give a goddamn about your prison status or relationships. If you’ve got information that will help us, you will be telling us all about it before we leave.”
O’Neil looks at me, nodding his head towards Warden Cage. “Don’t believe a word he says. Yeah, the other guys took care of the eyes, but his guards”—he sneers at Cage—“did the rest.”
I look at Dick Cage, then Randy. “We do not threaten prisoners,” I say calmly, but firmly. “Or beat them,” I say this with my gaze directed to the warden.
“Lulu,” Randy says. “Do you mind stepping outside for a few minutes?”
“I certainly do,” I say back. “I won’t be a part of this, Randy. Not what I signed up for.”
We stare at each other for several seconds, both of us standing our ground.
“I’m happy to tell you,” O’Neil says, interrupting our standoff. “But I want out of this prison.”
All of us laugh at that statement. Even me.
“Not out of my sentence,” O’Neil continues. “I want a transfer to Cathedral County Minimum.”
The Pen, where we are now, is maximum security. Where all the hardasses go. Normally a former police chief wouldn’t be sent to the Pen, but O’Neil’s crimes were too numerous to ignore. His corruption spanned more than a decade.
“I hardly think,” Randy says, “what you’ve got to tell me is worth all that trouble.”
“Ask him,” O’Neil says, motioning to Dick Cage.
“Is it?” Randy asks the warden.
“It might—”
But just then the lights all go out.
“What the fuck?”
Pretty much everyone in the room says that at the same time.
“See,” O’Neil says, standing still in the dim lights coming through the half-open blinds covering the window. “What I have to say really is worth all that trouble.”
Warden Cage walks over to his desk and picks up the phone. He stares at it for a second, then sets it back down. “Dead,” he says, pulling out his cell phone. “Shit,” he says, looking at Randy. “My cell is dead too.”
Randy and I both get our phones out and just as Randy says, “Mine’s out as well,” my phone rings.
Everyone looks at me, including the prisoner, and I shrug. “I have SkyEye Satellite.” And then I point west, towards the mountains. “I come from Wolf Valley, remember? No service out there except satellite.”
“Answer it,” Randy growls.
The screen says unknown number, but I know who it is. There is only one person it could be in a time like this.
Case.
“Hello?” I ask the phone.
“Hey, Lu,” Case says, voice calm, like he hasn’t a care in the world. “Do you have time to meet me for lunch today?”
I stare at my boss and then say, “Uh, sure. What did you have in mind?”
“I’ve got a shitload of meetings this morning, but if you can swing by ToyBox around noon, I’ll squeeze you in.”
He says it… sexy. Squeeze me in. It shouldn’t be sexy. Those words shouldn’t fill my head with images of him grabbing my breasts last night.
But they do.
“OK,” I manage to whisper back. “I’ll do that.”
“Great,” Case says. “See you later.”
I end the call and all three men are looking at me. But before they can say anything, the door bursts open and a woman prison guard is standing there, barking out a status report.
“Power’s out, water’s out, phones are out. We’re on back-up generators. There’s a riot breaking out in Cell Block H, all the rest of the prisoners are in lockdown.”
“Randy,” Dick Cage says. “I’ve gotta handle this. Take your time in here and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
The warden disappears, closing the door behind him and drowning out the building commotion.
“I want to be kept in solitary confinement until my transfer,” O’Neil says, picking up like this interruption never happened. “And I need to be the fuck out of this place by the end of the week. Those are my terms. This,” he says, nodding his head up, like he’s referencing the lack of power, “is him. You can bet on it.”
“Who?” Randy asks, eager for a name.
“Wade. Lincoln Wade is most definitely the one behind all this bullshit. And I can prove it. Pull my collar back,” O’Neil says. “Look at my neck.”
Randy walks over to the chief and pulls down the collar of his bright red jumpsuit. There is an ugly scar on his throat. Like a… burn. Almost like a… handprint.
“He did that to me,” the former chief says.
“Who?” Randy and I ask at the same time.
“Wade. He did that to me with his hands. They burned me. Through his gloves. He came in my office last winter to threaten me about the way I was talking to his girlfriend, Detective Masters. And he choked me. His hands lit up red,” he says. “My neck blistered in a matter of seconds. When I went to the hospital, they said second-degree burns. From his hands.”
I suddenly have a vision of Case’s hands on my body last night. The unnatural heat coming from them, even through his gloves.
His gloves.
Just the way O’Neil describes Wade.
“There’s something really wrong with this city,” O’Neil says, echoing my thoughts the other morning. “And it begins and ends with Lincoln Wade, Case Reider, and Thomas Brooks. They’re the bad guys here, not me. I want my transfer, Randy. And I want it now, or I’m not saying another word and I’ll deny everything I just told you. You’re gonna look crazy as fuck if you try to sell this story to a judge and jury without my support.”
CHAPTER TWENTY - CASE
Thomas is standing in my office looking out the large floor-to-ceiling window, talking on his phone. Well, he’s not really talking. I’m guessing Linc is the one doing all the talking right now because Thomas just mutters, “Mm-hm,” every now and then.
“OK,” he says, done listening. “We’ll be up there tonight. And get the…” He stops, searching for words. “The… you know, that cave shit. Get that ready for Case. He’s agreed to let Sheila do whatever the fuck it was she wanted to do to him.”
He ends the call and turns.
I shoot him a dirty look. “I didn’t agree to anything.”
“But you will once I tell you what just happened.”
I point at the window. “Power’s out. I can see that.”
“Not the power, Case. The power is almost the least of our concerns right now. The water treatment plant has been… sabotaged.”
“Define that,” I say, frowning.
“The pumps that power the treatment cycles…”—he waves his hands as if conjuring up all the technical words he doesn’t have to describe the situation, and then moves on—“have been shut down, apparently.”
“Has the water been tainted?” I ask.
“Not that Lincoln can see at the moment. But even if we get the power back on so the water starts flowing again, the water won’t be flowing for long. It’s got to be treated and that’s offline.”
“What else?” I ask, looking down at the city.
“The cell phone towers east and west of Cathedral City are no longer standing.”
“Jesus Christ. So no one has cell service?”
“Only SkyEye customers.” And then Thomas screws up his face. “Which is going to make me look like a prime suspect.”
“Anything else?” My words come out as a sigh.
“We still need to carry this plan out, Case.” Thomas is serious most of the time. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen him smile at something that struck him as funny, and not just to be polite. But right now his expression is something more than serious. Grave and intent. Intent on his revenge, I realize.
“I’m not backing out,” I say, walking over to stand beside him. He turns to face the window with me.
“I’m not accusing you of backing out. What I am worried about is what might be going on in that head of yours.”
“Explain,” I say, looking at the chaos down below. The ToyBox offices are built into the side of the mountain on the western edge of the city, so I have a pretty good view of everything. I can’t see the street level around downtown, of course. Too many tall buildings in the way. But this side of town is where all the corporate tech offices are located and it’s busy enough to know that shit is spiraling out of control down there.
The traffic lights have stopped working. I can count seven accidents just from where I stand, so I can only imagine how bad it is closer to the city center.
“Something is happening to you.”
There’s no question mark at the end of that statement, but it is a question. He doesn’t know anything other than what I tell him and I’ve been tight-lipped lately.
It bothers him. A lot.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I feel… off.” There’s no way I’m going to admit to the cutting bullshit. That’s… crazy. Like… it will change things between us. He will lose confidence in me and want to make new arrangements. And I’m not going to let that happen. I want what he wants. Just as much as he wants it.
“Do you think it was due to the jellyfish… stuff?” I almost smile as he struggles to describe the procedure. “Or do you think it has something to do with the fact that Molly…” He lets out a long exhale of tired breath. “That Molly touched you with that lariat thing the Blue Boar had her whipping around that night?”
“Hmmm,” I say, thinking this over. “I haven’t thought about that very much. But I should. She didn’t take it with her, right?”
“No,” Thomas says. “It went down with the building.” He turns to look at me, his fingers coming up to touch my throat.
I flinch and back away. “What are you doing?”
“She had it around your throat. Do you remember that?”
“She did?” I ask, reaching for my neck. “No, I don’t remember that.”
“She was about to behead you, Case. I shot it, snapped it, and saved your life. If she had pulled a little harder I have no doubt it would’ve cut you in two. But look,” he says, taking both my shoulders and turning me towards the window. “You have no scar. Do you find that weird?”
I can barely see my reflection in the glass as I reach for my throat again. But I don’t need to see myself to know he’s right. There is no scar on my neck from that rope thing Molly was using as a weapon that night.
“Weird?” I ask. “I guess. Do we even know what that thing was?”
“No,” Thomas says. “But it cut your skin. It might’ve been laced with something.”
“Did anyone else get cut by it?” I ask, unable to remember all the details. “Everything happened so fast. And then I took that hit in my shoulder and… that’s all I remember about the end of the fight. The next thing I knew we were flying back up to the helicopter on that grappling wire.”
“Lincoln did. On his arm. But most of what the barbs tore off his flesh was… the new kind, you know?”
The new kind of flesh. I wonder what that is, exactly?
“He told me it grabbed onto the steel plate, punctured a gas canister, and then embedded into his skin for a few seconds before she pulled it out and tried to behead you.”
“He has a scar?” I ask, still stuck on the fact that I don’t.
“Yes, nasty one, too. But you don’t.”
“Maybe the jellyfish stuff healed it?” I ask.
“Maybe it did, Case.” Thomas studies my face for a few seconds. “But then again, maybe it didn’t.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I don’t know, which is why you’ve agreed to let Sheila do whatever it is she wants to figure it out.”
“She’s checked me out a dozen times already, Thomas. She never finds anything.”
“Because she needs to use other tools.”
“I don’t want those nanites in my body. It creeps me out.”
“Something is already in your body, Case.” Thomas frowns at me, looking kind of… sad. “And I’m not going to lose you over something as stupid as a diagnostic test. We’ve been together too long, brother. We’ve been through too much to let some manageable health issue rip us apart. You’re getting those tests.”
Our shared past flashes between us as we study each other.
Prodigy School. The maze, the Omegas, the pain, the killing, the escape. And then everything that came after.
If I hadn’t had Thomas back then to sterilize my emotions and keep the situation rooted firmly in his unwavering logic, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be dead. Long time ago.
“What are you afraid of?” Thomas finally asks, breaking the silence.
I shrug. “Everything,” I say.
“She can fix it, Case.”
“You don’t know that.”
Thomas places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “I do know that. Sheila is the most amazing piece of technology humanity has ever built. Let her do what she can. We’ll fix it, Case. We will. I promise you. I’m not going to let you die now. Not after we got this far.”
“You’re right,” I say, sighing. “She is pretty amazing.” And then I look Thomas straight in the eyes. “But she wasn’t made by humans, Thomas. She was made by Lincoln.”
“He’s still Lincoln,” Thomas says quietly.
“I know that,” I say. “I’m not giving up on him. Just like you’re not giving up on me. But we’ve got to face facts here. Lincoln isn’t human. Hasn’t been for a very long time. And the Blue Boar wasn’t human either. I think there’s a lot more nonhumans running around this town than we even realize. So whatever happened to me—whatever is still happening to me, Thomas—it’s got nothing to do with being human. That’s what I’m afraid of.”
He turns away and walks back to the chairs in front of my large steel desk. Takes a seat and crosses his legs. “Lulu Lightly is going to be a problem.”
“How so?” I ask, a little stunned by the change of subject.
“Molly says the DA’s office is out to get her and Lulu Lightly is on the team handling this case.”
“What case?” I ask. “There’s no case. No charges have been filed.”
“Not yet. But Lincoln had her plant some code in the CCPD computers so he can track things and they link up with the DA’s office in some instances. They’re on to us.”
“We haven’t done anything yet.”
“Right,” Thomas says. “But we’re about to. We’re only days away from Stage One and this—” He waves his hand flippantly at the window. At the outside world. “This stuff going on right now. The power outage, the phones, the water. It’s them, trying to set us up for failure.”
“Nah,” I say. “Who’s left aside from us? I mean,” I correct myself quickly, “who’s left who knows what we know?”
“We probably missed a few people that night.”
I squint my eyes at him. “Missed a few people? How? We blew the school up that night. We killed everyone.”
“We didn’t get Molly.”
“No,
but Lincoln—” And then it hits me. The Blue Boar. “She was under his control?” I ask. “That whole time?”
“Molly has disclosed some very interesting things to Lincoln over the past several months about what the Blue Boar told her. He always knew where she was. And Will was there too. Not to mention my… mother.”
He spits that word out with contempt. We don’t really know for sure if Martha Masters was Thomas’s mother. All we know is that Atticus, Thomas, and Molly are genetically related through the Blue Boar’s DNA. All three of them could have different mothers. But Atticus seemed convinced that Martha belonged with him. At least enough to save her in the end.
“And now Atticus and Martha are missing.”
“Or dead,” I add.
“Not likely,” he quips. “They’re still alive, I feel it.”
“You think this is them?” I ask, waving my hand at the window. “Doing all that bullshit down there?”
“Who knows? But it’s not us, Case. That’s the only thing that matters. Someone else has a plan that doesn’t involve us. That’s the important part. We’re close and we’re not going to let some outsider take what’s ours. You need to rein in Lulu Lightly.”
“How the hell would I do that? Just go up to her and say, ‘Hey, Lulu. I know we haven’t seen each other much over the past seven or eight years, but my supervillain friends and I have this really great revenge plan for what they did to us out at Prodigy School, and could you do us a solid and just back off until we’re done?’”
Thomas actually smiles. Like… maybe a real one. His phone beeps and he looks down at it for a second before giving me his full attention again. “You’re kind of a genius, Case.” He pans his hands around at my massive ToyBox office. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. But I’ve been here long enough and my helicopter is here to take me downtown. I have things to do back at SkyEye, especially since the cell towers are all down. This plays perfectly into our hands, you realize that, right?”
I nod. Smile. “Go get ’em, asshole.”
Thomas gets up and walks to the door. He’s got his hand on the knob, ready to turn it and leave, when he stops and looks at me over his shoulder. “Be up at Lincoln’s house tonight. I mean it. Sheila will fix it, Case. Whatever it is, she’ll fix it.”
