“When this nightmare is done, we’re all going to group therapy,” Farley muttered. Her words earned her the briefest smile from Daniel.
Cassie’s small chuckle only sounded half-forced. “No amount of head shrinking is going to make you lot normal. So, what do you say? Shall I try and talk to Anna? She’s my friend. This is partly on me. You have to let me help fix it.”
Daniel looked to Kayden, thinking. “Did you see the paper?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, “she was giving television interviews this morning about how she fought off a group of superhuman freaks on the beach.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Do you know where she is?”
“She’s in the Tower. For some reason they let her back in. I’ve been following her around all day, glamored, of course. She’s spent a lot of time standing in front of mirrors pouting at her shattered nose. I don’t think they’re going to try and use her to get to us again.”
“No,” Daniel agreed, “that wouldn’t make sense. What else did you see?”
A troubled look passed over Kayden’s face. “Is Tess here?” Farley shook her head, no. “Good. I saw Oliver. He’s… I didn’t exactly get to talk to him, but things don’t look good.”
Awesome. First Simeon, now Oliver. Farley wrung her hands. “How do you mean?”
For a second she didn’t think Kayden was going to tell her. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. “He’s been venting all his power into the Immundus. Like, non-stop. There’s a queue coming out of the Great Room that almost laps to the West Quarter corridor. Simeon…”
“What about Simeon?”
Kayden kicked at the rug some more. “Simeon’s a grade A wacko. He keeps screaming about finding the Soul Child, and no one’s listening to him. He’s stalking around the Quarters terrifying the children. He keeps talking to his invisible friend and tearing the place apart looking for his wife.”
It was just like Agatha had said it was back when she was a kid; they’d told the children scary bedtime stories about Simeon coming to get them if they didn’t behave. And now Simeon, in all his paper-skinned, terrifying glory, was wreaking havoc there for real.
“What do you mean, no one’s listening to him?” she asked.
“Exactly that. The Immundus are fighting in the hallways, literally killing one another to get ahead in the line for Oliver’s handouts. They act like they could care less about Simeon. It’s bedlam down there and it’s only going to get worse.”
Farley rocked back on her heels. She hadn’t had chance to mention Simeon’s theory about the Immundus, and now it seemed like it wasn’t so much a theory as a cold, hard fact. She had to tell them right away. “That’s because the Immundus are just regular people.”
Kayden, Daniel and Cassie all stared at her.
“How are they just regular people?” Daniel asked.
“Because Simeon would never kill any of them by taking their souls. He doesn’t control any of them. He managed to influence them for a while by hooking them on his power, but now Oliver’s on the scene they don’t need Simeon anymore. It sounds like Oliver’s not asking anything of them, so as soon as they get their hit they’re just re-joining the back of the line again for round two. You see?”
Daniel’s body sagged. “No one’s manipulating them from the inside? That makes a hell of a lot of sense.”
“So what are we going to do?” There was no way she was going to let her brother live out the rest of his days down in the Tower, even if he had gone to the other side.
Daniel picked up his leather jacket from the back of a bar stool and threaded his arms into it. “We have to get Oliver back. Sounds like without him around the Immundus are going to go crazy. Kayden, you’re not going to be able to transport him, are you?”
Kayden shook his hair out, so very blonde it was almost silver. “No chance. I’m on lockdown. The Quorum are monitoring everything I do. If it’s not directly related to keeping Farley safe, it’s a no-go zone. I was only able to go down there earlier because they sent me themselves.”
“Typical.” Daniel sucked his teeth. “Okay, we’ll have to figure something out.”
“I have an idea,” Farley offered. It was a pretty sketchy idea, but still. “You could get Cassie to leave a message for Anna. She could pretend she’s angry with you and tell her that she wants to come across to the Reavers too. We could let slip that we’re going to try and storm the Tower in order to get Oliver back. The access point we feed Anna will be wrong, though, and while the Immundus are in one place trying to protect their drug supply, we can sneak in from another access point and snatch up Oliver.”
Farley held her breath. She’d never been a great strategist before, but then again she’d never needed to be. She watched Daniel and Kayden eye each other, considering her suggestion.
“It might work,” Daniel said eventually. “But there is no we. I’d be going alone. There’s no reason for anyone else to come. I can overpower Oliver if I have to. Getting him out will be easy.” He looked to Cassie. “You think Anna would believe you?”
Cassie shrugged. “We’ve been friends for a long time. I think she’d believe me. I’m not sure how I feel about lying, though.”
Daniel pulled an incredulous face. “Well, I’m sure you’ll get over your moral outrage if it means you can help us get Oliver back, right?”
She huffed loudly. “Right.”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
Daniel told Cassie what to say in her message to Anna, and she actually followed his instructions without complaint. She snapped her flip phone shut and placed it down on the counter. “I hope you know what you’re doing. It doesn’t sound like Oliver’s going to be too thrilled by the rescue attempt.”
“I can handle Oliver.” Daniel zipped up his leather jacket. “I’ll have to leave now if I’m to make the window we just created.” He came and pressed a kiss onto Farley’s forehead. “Please stay here. I won’t be long, I swear, and when I get back, I’ll have Oliver.”
Farley nodded her head, conscious of the fact that she was only half lying if she didn’t form a promise into words. There was no way she was going to stay locked up here in the hotel, especially when she was doing exactly what Simeon had suggested she do: using the Immundus’ lack of control to her advantage. Because if Oliver was going to be somewhere down there on his own, that meant crazy Simeon was, too. She needed to be down there at the same time as Daniel. She needed both the power of the Talisman inside him combined with her own body in order to kill Simeon. Daniel would never suspect she’d follow him, and once she was down there it would be too late. He’d have to help her.
Cassie slipped into the elevator alongside Daniel. He gave her an agitated look that bordered on hostile. His scowl made Farley unreasonably happy. The look disappeared when he turned back and gave her a small wave as the doors closed.
That left just her and Kayden. When she turned around, he was watching her with a disapproving frown. “That really isn’t a smart idea.”
Farley felt pinned to the spot, like she’d been busted stealing. “What? What do you mean?”
“Don’t give me that crap, Farley. I told you once already, you’re an open book, remember?”
He had been pretty good at calling what she’d been thinking that day on the basketball court. But this wasn’t the same. He’d have to be a freaking mind reader to guess what she was planning now, and he swore up and down he wasn’t. She locked her jaw. “No, Kay. I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Kayden threw up his hands, walking towards the kitchen. “Okay.” He rifled around behind his back, extracting a folded bolt of cloth from the waistband of his faded jeans. He set it down onto the counter next to a phone- Cassie’s phone. “All I’m saying,” he mused, “is that, should you be intending to pick a random access point into the Tower to mess with Daniel’s plans, it’s not going to end well. But perhaps,” he tapped the folded square of material, “you could come up with another plan that might
be more likely to succeed.”
He stepped away from the counter and stood before her, squinting his eyes. It reminded her of the time he’d shone the reflection of the sun at her with the blade of his knife and she’d been blinded by it. Except now it looked like he was blinded and she was the one who’d done it.
“Are you still mad at me?” he whispered.
Farley suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to cry. She shook her head and stepped forward to fold herself into a hug. Kayden kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tight.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
She didn’t say anything for a while, just buried her face into his shoulder. When she eventually looked up, it was to catch sight of his tattoo. She absentmindedly traced her finger across the back of his neck. “What is it?” she whispered.
Kayden tensed. “A contract. My contract. It’s called a Catena.”
“What does it say?”
“What I did. What I have to do now.”
“Why can’t I read it?” Even as Farley said the words, Kayden’s tattoo shifted slightly, the black spirals of the characters twisting in lazy swirls.
“Only I can. I’m the one that needs reminding.”
She blinked. “Of what?”
He sighed, long and sad. “My guilt.”
Farley didn’t want to say anything; he didn’t seem to need her to. He drew in a deep breath and held it, like he was considering saying something himself. Eventually, he exhaled, “Y’know… if things were different…”
Farley froze. She had no idea which ‘things’ he was referring to, but she was suddenly panicked. Kayden let out his breath and squeezed her tight.
“God, I hate that she was right. I hate…” he sighed, tightening his hold around her. “Actually, don’t worry about it.”
“I worry,” she breathed. “You hate that who was right?”
“Agatha, she said something about me that I didn’t want to be true. I…I just have terrible luck is all.”
Farley clenched her eyes closed. She could kid herself all she wanted, but she knew what he was talking about even if he didn’t say the words. “That’s all it is, Kayden… bad luck.”
He laughed silently and pressed his lips against her temple. His voice was a whisper when he said, “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, letting him go and get you.”
Come and get me?
“But I love him. He would never have forgiven me, so I let him go get you. You ought to know, though. It took everything I had.”
Kayden dematerialised right out of Farley’s arms and left her holding onto herself like he’d never been there in the first place. She rocked from the pressure of her own arms clasped around her for a second, suddenly alone. It took a minute to figure out that he’d meant when Daniel had pulled her out of the ocean. The heavy way in which Kayden had spoken left a lump in her throat. Why did he have to tell her that? He could have simply left and everything would have been okay again. That would have been safe.
Now those words were out there and there was no taking them back. No way in hell could she think about what that meant- that he apparently felt something for her; that Agatha knew; that it made her stomach twist anxiously when she thought about his arms wrapped around her only seconds ago. Half of it felt like a betrayal to Daniel, letting him hold her like that, but the other half… the other half felt like it was completely normal. The one question blazing in her mind, the one she really didn’t want to answer, was had she liked the way it felt? She shook herself and pinched her arm hard. Anything to prevent the response forming in her head. She wasn't ready to deal with that.
There were more important things to worry about right now, anyway. Seriously important things. She went over to the counter and unwrapped the folded parcel Kayden had left there. When she opened it out, Farley felt the world shift.
Inside was the Pax blade.
Forty Five
Against Better Judgment
If Cassie minded Farley borrowing her phone, frankly it was tough luck. The seed Kayden planted in her head had already taken root and flowered. If only she could pull this plan off, she wouldn’t need to go to the Tower at all.
If.
It was a stupid plan; she was smart enough to know that. It was even more reckless than the plan she’d had before. At every juncture over the past few months, she had known when to ignore the ridiculous voice in her head suggesting she act against her better judgement. Believing that this crazy, half-baked idea would unfold without something going wrong was monumentally stupid. Maybe that’s why her hands were shaking. But she had to try. Even the faintest hope that this might work was worth the risk.
She fumbled with Cassie’s flip phone, scrolling through the contacts until she found Anna’s number. It didn’t take long. Anna was tenth on the list, right underneath Allied Pest Control. The cabin had probably had an infestation at some point, but good old Allied had obviously neglected to exterminate Anna along with the rest of the roaches. Farley typed in the text rapidly, like she expected Daniel might appear out of nowhere and catch her in her duplicitous act.
Anna, Daniel’s left me guarding Farley back on Point Dume beach. Do us all a favour- tell Simeon, get her out of our lives once and for all. C x
She hit send and the phone buzzed instantly, making her jump out of her skin. In her surprise, Farley fumbled and dropped the phone. It landed on the counter and made a profound crack, the screen shattering into a fractured spider web. Farley peered at it, barely making out a delivered message notice. It was done.
Point Dume beach was a fair trek away. It didn’t take long to stuff a sweater and a flask of coffee into her rucksack and hurry out of the apartment. Tess and Grayson’s conjoined room was on the sixth floor at eye level with the steam vents from a Chinese laundry across the street. It was a miracle Tess hadn’t complained about it yet; she was probably too busy worrying about Oliver. Farley rapped on her door, praying Grayson didn’t stick his head out of the one right next to it. He had this sixth sense when she was lying and he no doubt knew Daniel had asked her to stay in the apartment.
Thankfully, Tess’ door was the only one that opened. Well, almost opened. An almond shaped eye appeared in a crack in the door, more green today than blue. The door chain was pulled across the gap. “Hold on.” She drew the door closed and rattled the chain for a full twenty seconds before appearing in all her dishevelled glory. Her hair was electrically big today. “Hey, Farls. Why do you look like that?”
Farley looked up and down the corridor, nervous. “Like what?”
“Like you’re up to no good.”
“Tess!” Farley shoved her back into the room, pulling the door closed. “I am up to no good. Care to join me?”
For the first time in the history of their friendship, Tess looked at Farley like she was the reckless one. “What do you have in mind?”
“I’m going to kill Simeon.”
“Oh.” Tess pulled the corners of her mouth downwards, nodding her head from side to side while considering this. “Okay.”
*****
The Griffith Observatory out past Glendale sat directly on top of one of the oldest entrances that led to the Tower. It was also one of the busiest, which was ironic because the observatory was always packed with tourists and stargazers. Probably had something to do with the fact that whenever people went there it was for the specific purpose of looking up. No one ever really bothered looking down.
Daniel weaved his way through the hordes of people vying for position to get into the main building. The Gotleib Transit Corridor lay off to the right, the Samuel Oschin Planetarium to the left. There was no queue to gain entry to the maintenance corridors (surprise, surprise) and Daniel slipped through the unlocked door without a problem. No one approached or challenged him; he’d discovered a long time ago that as long as you looked confident, people rarely questioned you. It was only when you acted like you were breaking the law that they got uptight.
The servi
ce hallway stretched out in both directions before Daniel, stark and brilliant white. It smelled like grease and machine lubricant back here, familiar smells that made him feel at home. In the distance to the right, an exit sign indicated the door down the corridor led to the parking lot outside. Daniel went left. The access point he was looking for was via a maintenance hatch in the main observatory. If his luck was in, there wouldn’t be a show in progress. The sound of his shoes echoing down the corridor grew louder as he picked up speed and started a slow run towards the planetarium. It didn’t take long to realize his footsteps were echoing in duplicate. Daniel pulled up sharp, listening with pricked ears. Sure enough, when he stopped, a second set of footsteps kept on going. The whispers inside Daniel started hissing all at once, but Daniel ignored them. He knew who it was.
“Come to take a closer look at your constellation?”
“Actually,” Cassie said, breathing hard as she pulled up beside him, “I wanted to check out that Leonard Nimoy exhibition, but the tickets were all sold out.”
Daniel scowled. Why did no one ever listen to him? People expected him to come up with a solution to everything, and then, when he told them what to do, they blatantly disregarded it. This was a prime example: he’d told Cassie to go back to her room and wait there until he got back with Oliver. Somehow Cassie had interpreted that as, wait until I leave and then follow me all the way across Los Angeles. He grabbed her by the arm she hadn’t been shot in. “You have to leave.”
Cassie’s brown eyes went round, unblinking as she stared up at him. “I’m not going anywhere, Daniel. If you don’t let me come with you, I’ll just go in via another access point. Like I said before, Anna is kind of my responsibility, so it’s my fault she was able to do this to us. We have a score to settle. Now, you can either let me come with you where I’ll be that little bit safer, or I can go in on my own. What’ll it be?”
Daniel growled, letting go of her arm. “Fine. But don’t even think about wading into a fight. We’re going to be covert, okay? That means no shooting at people, no shouting or hollering, no big acts of heroism. We’re going to sneak in and get Oliver and then we’re leaving. If we see Anna on the way, we’ll consider how to proceed then. Agreed?”
Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) Page 30
