by Elise Noble
The monkey paused long enough to put the chain around his neck, and then he headed for the parakeet enclosure. I’d say he must have lived in a house before because he sure got the door open quickly. A whole flock of parakeets flew out, and I knew from experience how difficult those little bastards were to catch.
A trio of wild-eyed teenagers wearing SciPark polo shirts ran in our direction as the keeper frantically scanned the trees for the bloody monkey. Whoever said never to work with children or animals was absolutely right, and if they’d ever met Bradley, they’d have added him to that list as well.
“We’ll have to evacuate the rainforest,” one of the rangers said as a parakeet swooped past inches from his head.
Bradley was already halfway to the door. I picked up the bags of shopping, and that’s the story of how we got kicked out of the monkey house.
CHAPTER 3
BRADLEY HAD PRACTICALLY brought luggage with him, so while he went to the bathroom to fix his hair and change into fresh clothes because whatever was on his ass didn’t smell so good, the rest of us ventured farther into the park. I was strongly considering breaking my “no alcohol” pledge. Surely one gin and tonic this early in the day would be okay?
Fuck, Bradley had turned me into a morning drinker.
“Want the wheel,” Tabby announced. At three years old, she had the determination to rival most teenagers, but her manners were sadly lacking. “Bradley said wheel.”
Mack had downloaded the app by that point—with her being Blackwood’s number-one IT geek, I’d have expected nothing less—and while the rest of us were experiencing nature’s wonders in the pseudo-rainforest, she’d been busy scrolling through the features.
“Y’all, the top-rated restaurant in this place is right next to the wheel, and according to the blurb, it has a terrace and a cocktail menu.”
I crouched down in front of my niece. “Going on the wheel’s a great idea, sweetie. Your mama can’t wait to take you.”
“Mom, can I go on the wheel too?” Josh asked.
Carmen smiled at him. “Of course you can. Ana would love it if you went with her.”
Ana’s jaw clenched, but she wouldn’t turn down a kid.
“I’ll buy you a cocktail,” Carmen promised Ana.
“This might not be so bad,” I said. “The wheel’s almost in the centre of the park. If we start there with alcohol, by the end of the afternoon, we’ll be sober and also near the cars for a quick getaway.”
The other girls nodded their agreement, and Mack pointed us in the right direction. Not that we needed much help. The centrepiece of the park was impossible to miss, the towering silver globe designed by some fancy architect I’d never heard of. They’d named it “Inside Out.” On the outside, it was the earth, and on the inside, it was space. If you queued up for long enough, you could traipse through a tunnel billed as a wormhole and ride a gravity-powered roller coaster that took you on a tour of the Milky Way.
“We can do this, people.” Dan checked her watch as the kids got distracted by a giant model of a human being. According to the signs, you were meant to walk into it through the mouth, and I dreaded to think where you came out. “Only six more hours to go.”
Six more hours… I guess it could have been worse. I could have been staking out a Taliban stronghold, or trekking across Siberia, or skulking around a secure facility with armed guards at every turn. Or shopping. This was better than shopping.
The staff at the Steampunk Saloon welcomed us with open arms and bar snacks. Dan’s boys headed for the space sphere, where the line snaked out the door at the bottom and wound through the surrounding grassy park. A handful of groups had already set out picnic blankets, chairs, and even an inflatable sunlounger, although I couldn’t see them staying there for long if the black clouds on the horizon crept much closer. Ana headed towards the Ferris wheel with Tabby and Josh, and thankfully the line for that was much shorter. On a scale of bad to terrible, I figured her mood would rate as “foul” by the time we left at the end of the day.
The drinks menu contained a variety of mixological delights. Dan ordered a Steam Engine, Mack picked a Clockwork Orange, and Carmen decided on a Molecular Marvel.
“And for you?” the waitress asked me.
“Two Death in the Afternoons. Or should that be Deaths in the Afternoon?”
She giggled. “Two? Are you sure? Those have absinthe in them.”
“One’s for my friend. And could you bring a few bags of chips?”
A blur of turquoise streaking across the plaza below caught my eye. Good grief. Bradley had tamed his hair, but now he’d found a matching jumpsuit and he looked like a speeding crayon. Somehow, he managed to spot Ana in a sea of hundreds and made a beeline straight for her, squeezing under the barrier near the front of the line. Josh unhooked Bradley’s manbag when it snagged on the railing.
“Uh, excuse me?” I waved the waitress back over. “Would you mind making that three Deaths?”
Ana wasn’t driving, and she’d sure as hell need the drinks. At least the gondolas were enclosed glass. I’d have feared for Bradley’s safety otherwise. When they climbed on board, he was yack-yack-yacking and Ana’s expression was blacker than the ever-nearing storm clouds. Hmm. If it started raining, would Bradley let us go home early?
The bar was nearly empty at that time of day, and our drinks arrived quickly. Mack already had her laptop out, and Carmen was texting someone. Probably Nate. Dan sipped her Steam Engine while she watched the boys edging closer to the sphere. Race in particular, judging by the quiet smile on her lips.
“Enjoying motherhood?” I asked softly.
After a moment, she nodded. “Still getting used to it, but yes.”
“Guess it’ll take a while. Three months ago, your whole life got turned upside down. The non-Blackwood parts, at least.”
“Tell me about it. I used to have a routine—get home, change, go out for dinner, hit a club. Now I have to make dinner.”
“How’s that working out?”
“I understand why Mack’s on first-name terms with most of the fire department.”
“Is Race settling in okay?”
“I think so. We’re all still getting to know each other. I wish I’d been around for his early years, but I can’t turn back the clock.”
“At least you missed the terrible twos.”
“I suppose that’s a blessing.”
“Ethan seems smitten. With both of you.”
Dan actually blushed, which was a first. But she’d changed a lot since she started dating Ethan White. “He’s everything I always thought I’d never have.”
I squeezed her hand. “I’m glad you’re happy.”
“I—”
“¡Caramba!” Carmen burst out laughing. “The wheel has stopped.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Dan asked. “Ana can get off now.”
“No, I mean it’s stopped, stopped. Kaput. It jolted then shuddered to a halt, and now the rangers are looking confused.”
“Where’s Ana?”
We all turned to look. Ah, shit. They were on the right at roughly three o’clock. Ana and Tabby, a baby T-Rex, and a human peacock. Bradley’s jumpsuit was a beacon of bad taste on an otherwise grey day.
Mack held an imaginary phone up to her ear. “911? I’d like to report a murder.”
“It’s not funny,” I chided. But it was. Mack got the giggles, and as soon as I looked at Dan, we both started laughing too, and none of us could stop.
“Uh, is everything okay?” the waitress asked.
“Do me a favour and bring another Death?”
“But your friend hasn’t drunk the first two?”
“No, but she’s trapped on the wheel. Trust me, she’ll drink them when she gets off.”
The waitress peered past us. “It’s stuck?”
“Seems that way.”
“It must be those darn monkeys.”
“Monkeys?” Like, plural?
“I heard a m
onkey escaped in the living rainforest, and then he let his friends out. One of them got into the mechanical room and started pulling out wires.”
Oops. Good thing Ana wasn’t aware of that little tidbit of information.
“Have they caught the monkeys yet?”
“Not yet, but all the spare rangers have been called over to help.” The waitress pasted on a bright smile. “I’m sure it’ll be sorted out in a jiffy. SciPark never normally has problems like this.”
“Perhaps I should have shot Jimbo when I had the chance,” Carmen muttered as the waitress hurried off.
Sometimes, I worried that Carmen was a little too trigger-happy.
“You mean with a dart gun, right?”
“Of course.”
Because I couldn’t resist, I picked up the phone and dialled Ana. “Having fun?”
“Idi nahui, suka.”
“I’ve ordered you a drink.”
“I don’t need a drink, I need a roll of duct tape.”
“Why don’t we all try meditating?” Bradley asked in the background. “I have an app on my phone.”
“Is the duct tape for you or for Bradley?”
“Find out what’s going on. Please.”
It wasn’t like Ana to beg, but since she was stranded in a closet-sized space with three children, I could kind of understand why she’d slipped out of character. Although she was an excellent assassin, the best, her upbringing had been unconventional to say the least, and as a result, she didn’t do so well in social situations. Chatter drove her crazy.
“Guys, I’m gonna try and find out how long the power outage is likely to last.”
“Want some company?” Dan offered.
“Why not?”
Now that Mack had her laptop open, she showed no signs of wanting to leave it, but she did give us the briefest of smirks.
“I’ll have a snoop around electronically. SciPark has three private Wi-Fi networks as well as the guest one. I’ll bet there are emails flying around.”
I raised an eyebrow in Carmen’s direction, and she raised her glass.
“We shouldn’t let the drinks go to waste. How about I call you if the wheel starts working again?” She focused over my shoulder. “Looks as if the sphere has a glitch too.”
Dan and I turned in time to see a man placing a temporary barrier in front of the doors. The waiting crowd didn’t seem happy, but they began to move backwards.
“Did the boys already go in?” I asked.
“Just a minute ago,” Dan said.
“Let’s hope they’re not hanging upside down on a roller coaster, eh?”
“Ah, shit. I’d better call Caleb.” A pause. “No answer.”
“Does the roller coaster have lap bars or one of those restraint systems that goes over your shoulders? If he’s on board and strapped down, he might not be able to reach his phone.”
Of course, with Dan being Dan and second in command at Blackwood’s investigations division, she checked. A quick Google search showed that Inside Out did indeed have bulky over-the-shoulder restraints. Safety first. Then again, it also had a height restriction and I was pretty sure Race must have stood on tiptoes to get around that.
“I guess that’s possible,” she admitted.
“Or perhaps the ride’s still going and he’s having fun? Phoning Mom probably isn’t top of his list of things to do. Why don’t you send him a text?”
“Just did.”
I spotted a ranger scurrying in the direction of the rainforest and jogged after him. He clearly didn’t appreciate being stopped, but he also wasn’t openly rude, so I forced a smile.
“Any idea what’s going on with the wheel?”
“It’s stuck.”
No kidding. “Is there an ETA on it getting unstuck? I’ve got friends on board.”
“Probably a while. We’ve been told to catch the monkeys and the parakeets first.”
“What about the Inside Out ride?” Dan asked.
“The supervisor radioed to say there’s been a power failure. He said they’ve closed it down.”
The aforementioned radio on the ranger’s belt bleeped, and a panicked voice crackled through.
“One of the monkeys let the capybaras out. Lorinda saw them running towards the lake.”
Capybaras? I didn’t know much about those, but the ranger broke into a jog. We were on our own again. Would they close the park? As far as I knew, there weren’t any really dangerous animals here—only Bradley’s nemesis the caiman, plus a few snakes—but this was fast descending into chaos. One time, just one time, couldn’t we have a day out without drama?
Dan’s phone rang, and she checked the screen before she pressed it to her ear. “Caleb,” she mouthed.
Well, that was one small piece of good news.
Or was it?
As Dan listened, the colour drained out of her face, and I began to get a bad, bad feeling in my gut. Dan had trekked through the jungle to start a war with a drug-peddling psychopath with barely a hint of nerves. She chased terrorists for fun.
“Hide.” She listened a moment. “No, no, no! Promise me you’ll hide. We’re on our way. Love you, okay?”
On our way to do what?
Suddenly, being stuck on the wheel with Bradley was beginning to look like the more attractive option.
CHAPTER 4
“WHAT’S WRONG?” I asked the instant Dan hung up.
“There’s a man with a gun inside the sphere, and he’s taken everyone on the ride hostage. Fuck, I feel sick.”
Oh. Fuck indeed.
I was already evaluating. The sphere was closed, cordoned off due to a technical fault. Was there genuinely an electrical or mechanical problem? Or was that a ruse? If it was the latter, that suggested at least some degree of organisation rather than a total nutter acting on impulse. Plus he’d managed to sneak a gun past security. Sure, we’d all managed it too, but we’d also had plenty of practice at that sort of thing. Who were we up against?
And more to the point, how the hell were we meant to get inside the oversized ball bearing? Apart from the entrance at the front—now closed—I couldn’t even see a door.
“What else did Race say?”
“Not much. I didn’t want him talking. The train pulled up to the empty platform, and the man was there waiting. Race was sitting at the back with Vine, and he managed to wriggle out of his restraints and crawl back along the track, but everyone else is stuck in the cars. Last thing Race heard, the fucker was demanding everyone’s phones.”
“Any idea what the guy wants?”
“No clue. We’ve got to get in there.”
This was as shaken as I’d ever seen Dan, and considering she’d nearly been burned to a crisp by a madman earlier in the year, that was saying something.
“And we will get in there, but we’ll do it the right way. We’ve spent half our lives training for this shit. It’s one guy and a roller coaster. A walk in the park.”
Quite literally, and as we hustled back across the plaza to the Steampunk Saloon, I called Ana with an update. I was in two minds about developments. Yes, I’d been bored out of my skull, but did I really want to get into another gunfight?
“Hey, suka. So there’s a teeny problem.”
“They can’t find an engineer? Everyone just ran off to the east side of the park, and Bradley won’t stop singing.”
In the background, I heard three voices mullering one of the songs from Frozen, and when I looked up at the pod on the right-hand side of the wheel, Ana was sitting on the floor at one end with her knees drawn up to her chest and her hands over her ears. I took her foul mood and raised it to heinous.
“They’re probably chasing the capybaras.”
“The what?”
“Never mind. We’ve got bigger things to worry about—apparently there’s a hostage situation in the giant silver sphere. Can you see any unusual activity from up there? A guy came out and closed it ten minutes ago, but I wasn’t paying much attention after t
hat.”
Now Ana got to her feet, and her assessment took seconds. We’d both done it a thousand times, looked over a scene a regular person wouldn’t blink twice at and identified areas of concern. People out of place, objects where they shouldn’t be, counter-surveillance, possible dangers.
“Nothing’s happening. Doors are locked. A teenager just tried them, but now he’s walking away. There’s a notice pinned to the outside. What kind of a hostage situation?”
“Not sure at the moment. Race got away, but he couldn’t talk much. One guy with a gun that he saw, but maybe more.”
“Is he in danger?”
“Depends whether they realise he’s missing or not.” Dan stiffened beside me. “Can you see any other doors?”
“Not on this side.”
“Keep watching, okay? We need to get gear from the cars.”
And brief Mack and Carmen. And keep Dan calm. And come up with a coherent plan, all while avoiding packs of marauding wildlife. No biggie.
Mack and Carmen were relaxing with their drinks and a platter of nibbles when we jogged up the outside stairs to the terrace. Thankfully there was only one other occupied table, and that was in the far corner. I did not want to be having this conversation with an audience.
“A bunch of capybaras escaped,” Mack told us. “Did you know they can run as fast as a small horse, and if they get into water, they can stay under for five minutes?”
“We heard, but there’s a more pressing matter right now.” I took the cocktail out of her hand. “You need to put that down.”
Her smile faded. “Why? What’s going on?”
I gave her a brief overview. “Can you find us any more info? I know damn well you can’t spend more than five minutes in front of a computer without attempting something illegal. Are you in their network?”
“Just the outer fringes. But the security was set up by a first-grader, so it shouldn’t take long. Can you believe their Wi-Fi passwords are only six characters long?”
