by Steven Gould
“I warned you!”
It was Jason. He was standing beside the Hummer with a gun held toward me sideways, gangsta style. Marius and Calvin pulled Jade and Tara out of the rear hatch and down to their knees. Like me, the girls still had their hands secured with cable ties. Marius and Calvin were holding them by the hair, guns pressed against the girls’ temples.
Dammit.
I wondered what Marius or Calvin would do if I jumped Jason away. The trouble was, they could flinch and shoot either girl. I could move one or the other gun away from the girls’ heads, but not both, not at the same time.
In my sleeve, my phone vibrated, a single pulse. I shook both arms until the unit slipped down, out of the sleeve, and dropped onto the floor by my knee, face up. It showed a text message from Mom, upside down but I could read it.
INCOMING.
Mom and Dad must have started swinging before they even jumped.
The first Marius or Calvin knew of their presence was when the bones in their gun hands broke as the baseball bats knocked the hands and guns away from the girls’ heads. To me it looked like the guns smashed into the floor and then Mom and Dad were standing there, Mom with a shiny red-anodized aluminum bat, Dad with a beat-up thirty-three-inch Louisville Slugger. In maple.
I knew that bat.
Calvin fell back, releasing Tara, clutching his hand and screaming.
Though Marius’s gun was now a good ten feet away, he didn’t let go of Jade’s hair with his good hand.
Mom pivoted, raising the aluminum bat, but before she swung, Jade twisted and brought both fists up into Marius’s crotch.
He doubled over, gagging. Tara staggered up from her kneeling position and kneed him in the butt, knocking him forward. Marius tried to catch himself with his good hand, curling the injured hand close to his chest, but he ended up smashing down onto his shoulder and rolling over onto his side, knees curled up, good hand cradling the injured.
Jason, eyes wide, started to swing his gun around, toward the girls, toward Mom.
Dad appeared beside him.
On the way down, Dad’s bat did to Jason’s forearm, what I’d done to Jenkins’s. On the way back up I suspect it broke Jason’s jaw.
Saw that coming.
Don’t threaten Mom when Dad is around.
Dad’s eyes were wide and his head was swiveling back and forth, looking for something else to hit.
I almost jumped back to Jade and Tara, but controlled the impulse and limped over instead. They were both standing by the time I got there. Like me, they were still bound at the wrists.
Mom was gathering up the guns, ejecting the clips, then working the slide to eject the round in the barrel. She put them on the hood of the Hummer, then turned to us, but angled so she could also watch Marius and Calvin. I noticed she and Dad were wearing blue nitrile rubber gloves.
I held up my cable-tied wrists. “Little help?” Mom nodded and stepped behind the Hummer. When she came back she had a pair of kitchen shears. Snip, snip, snip, and then all three of us were rubbing our wrists.
Tara threw her arms around Jade. “Oh, God.”
I stepped closer to Mom. “We need an ambulance.” She looked at me, Jade, then Tara. I shook my head then pointed at the hole in the wall. “In there. Jason beat Caffeine half to death.”
Mom leaned closer and pulled my jacket open, her eyes widening as she looked at my neck. “What happened to your neck?”
“It’s okay. Guitar string garrote. To keep me from ju—” I stopped, licked my lips. “To keep me in one place.”
Mom’s eyes hardened and her grip tightened on the bat. She pointed at Jason and said, “Was it him?”
I shook my head and pointed at Jenkins’s still form between us and the hole in the wall. “It was him and that woman over there—”
From across the room Dad’s voice said, “Son of a bitch, it’s—”
And we both said, “—Hyacinth Pope.”
* * *
“You are the spitting image of your mother!”
I was really getting tired of hearing that.
Rebecca Martingale looked more like someone’s grandmother than an FBI agent. Mom fetched her from DC, though not in front of the girls. As far as Jade and Tara were concerned, Mom had walked outside and returned ten minutes later with the older woman.
It was Agent Martingale who did a quick physical assessment on the suspects (breathing with regular pulse) and then called 911.
Tara asked Dad the question I’d been holding in my head.
“How did you find us, Mr. Ross?”
Dad looked a little calmer. He’d frisked Jenkins and Hyacinth Pope for weapons, adding multiple handguns to the pile on the hood of the Hummer. Agent Martingale had used her one set of handcuffs to secure Marius and Calvin, the only two conscious suspects, to each other at the ankle, staying away from their swelling hands. Dad still stood where he could watch Jenkins and Hyacinth Pope and Jason, his bat resting on his shoulder.
“I texted the phone locator app on Cent’s phone. If you send the right code word, it returns GPS coordinates. I had to do it several times because you were still moving.”
“You spying bastard!” I said, and hugged him.
He squeezed back hard, kissing my hair.
The first siren sounded in the distance.
Dad let go. “Time, Cent.”
Mom was standing to the side lightly swinging her aluminum bat. She handed it to Agent Martingale. “In case you need to persuade anyone. Without shooting them, that is.”
I ran across to the passenger side of the Hummer. Besides Joe’s phone, I found Tara’s and Jade’s there, too. I scooped them all up and ran back. I passed them their phones, then held up Joe’s. “Give this to Joe?”
Tara took it. “Why can’t you?”
“We have to go.”
“What? Why?” said Tara.
I pointed at Hyacinth Pope. “The people who sent them have been after my parents for years. And they won’t stop coming. And they threaten anyone close to them, just like Jason did, to try and get to them.”
And now me.
Jade blinked. “Uh, should we say you weren’t here?”
Agent Martingale cleared her throat. “I didn’t hear that.”
Mom shook her head. “Tell the truth to the police. And in court, if you have to testify.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For leaving?” Tara asked.
“For getting you involved in this.” The sirens were getting louder and I saw that Dad was getting more and more antsy. I hugged Tara and then Jade.
“Won’t the police see you leave?” Jade asked.
Mom shook her head. “Hope not.”
We went through the hole in the wall to the office, stepped off to the side, and jumped away.
* * *
Dad helped me clear the books out of the New Prospect bedroom while Mom kept an eye out upstairs, jumping from window to window, looking for any sign of them.
We finished the books and shelves, then started on our clothes and some of Dad’s specialty cookware.
I took a moment to empty my school locker. It was dark outside and only a few lights were on in the school as the custodial staff moved from classroom to classroom, cleaning. I thought how much trouble it had been just walking through the crowded hallways and teared up.
I dragged my shirt sleeve across my eyes and jumped the last of my school supplies back to the cabin before returning to the house.
Dad and I were looking at some of the downstairs furniture, wondering if it was worth moving to the warehouse, when Mom called down the stairs, “Police unit in the driveway!”
Dad jumped away, probably upstairs to where Mom was looking out the window.
I took the ceramic box off the top of my dresser and tucked it under my arm.
Were they looking for us as material witnesses or as felons? Victim of kidnap or assault with a deadly baseball bat?
Didn’t matter. We left befo
re they knocked on the door.
* * *
I sat on one of the couches before the cabin’s fireplace and waited for the inquisition.
Dad, standing with his back to the flames, began with, “What were you thinking?”
“Objection,” I said. “Counsel’s question is vague and ambiguous.”
Dad’s eyebrows drew down but before he exploded, Mom said, “Why don’t we find out what actually happened before we start getting into cognitive philosophy?” She was sitting on the other couch.
Dad opened his mouth and then shut it with a click. He turned his hand over, palm up, toward her, then interlaced his fingers.
Mom pointed to the couch beside her. “Sit. You’re looming.”
Dad rolled his eyes and slumped down onto the cushions, his hands shoved into his pockets.
Mom looked at me and raised her eyebrows.
“Where should I start?”
Mom said, “How about the first time you jumped in front of somebody who isn’t in this room?”
“Ah.”
It had really started with Caffeine, in PE, that first day of school, and, since everything else had really followed from that, I started there.
Dad muttered, “First day of school.”
Mom elbowed him. “What should she have done? Taken a beating?”
Dad said, “She could have told us about it!”
I shook my head. “No, I couldn’t. You would have pulled us out of town in a New York minute. And then I would have to go off and find another school on my own. Without you.”
Mom intervened. “I want to know what happened. Not what could have happened. Shush.” She gestured for me to continue.
I told them about shifting a foot to the right when Caffeine had attacked me in the cafeteria after I joined the snowboard club. Dad wasn’t actually upset about that. “Good call,” he said. “They just saw you move really fast. Their minds filled in the interval.”
Then I told them about being adopted by the three freshmen, when Caffeine was suspended, and the incident in the alley, where I’d pretended to take the picture of them assaulting Dakota and Tony. “I did jump to keep ahead of them, but never where they could see.”
“But you made an enemy,” said Dad.
Mom corrected, “She was already Cent’s enemy.” She looked over her glasses at me. “This didn’t help, though.”
“I asked the boys why they didn’t go the cops. Dakota let slip about a video, but they clammed up and wouldn’t say anything more, so I left. But when they left I was watching. I followed them.” In for a penny, in for a pound. I told them about decoying Caffeine away from Dakota and Caffeine’s resulting fender bender.
“They didn’t know that was me, though,” I said, trying to justify it.
Dad’s expression made it clear he wasn’t buying.
“Next time was when they came after me in the girl’s locker room. They were after my phone. They thought I’d really taken that picture.”
Mom raised her eyebrows. “Oh, that was part of all this?” She’d talked to Dr. Morgan about the incident.
“Yeah. Caffeine led them. I didn’t know their names, then. While the boys tried to flank me around some lockers, I pointed behind Caffeine. When she turned, I jumped closer. When she turned back, I was right there,” I held up my hand an inch away from my nose, “and it scared the crap out of her. I ran past her, then Coach Teichert took over. But nobody saw me jump.”
Dad muttered, “A distinction without meaning.”
Mom elbowed him again.
“Caffeine upped the pressure on the freshmen, then. Tony ended up with a broken nose. Dakota ended up with a broken finger. No witnesses. They said they fell down. That’s when I talked to Grant, trying to find out why the boys wouldn’t testify, and he’d said he’d talk to me if I went out with him.”
“So that’s why you went on that date,” Mom said. “No wonder you were sure it was just practice.”
“While we were still at The Brass, Hector and Calvin came after Grant and me. I jumped in place, adding speed, and shoved Grant into them, like bowling. Didn’t jump away, though. We walked out of The Brass while they were still picking themselves up. I convinced Grant that he’d done most of the leaping and I had just pushed a bit.”
Mom asked, “Did you find out what was on the video?”
“Videos. Yeah. I found out most of it. Didn’t find the last little bit, until later.”
“So what was it?” Dad asked.
I looked at Mom, then back to Dad. I was already blushing, I could feel it in my ears. I took a deep breath, then said, “Sex, Dad. Caffeine seduced each of them and recorded it.”
Mom nodded, like she’d figured this out already.
“Oh.” Dad frowned. “Just sex, though?”
I looked down at the carpet. “Some of it was, uh, outside the normative range.”
Dad’s eyebrows went up.
“Do you really want your sixteen-year-old daughter to be more explicit?” I pointed at myself.
Dad blushed. “S’okay.”
I moved on. “Uh, right. Next time was when Marius came after me at the coffee shop. I was walking up the stairs and he was walking down. He tried to knock me backward, with his shoulder. That time I jumped past him, a few steps up. He fell down the stairs. Nobody saw me jump.”
“Marius saw,” said Dad.
I shrugged. “Maybe. As you said, the mind fills in gaps. Maybe he thought I dodged him. Well, I did dodge him, but maybe he thought I just twisted around him.”
Mom looked as angry as Jade had. “He was going to push you down the stairs? Backward?” Her hands clenched.
“He went down the stairs pretty hard.” I smiled. “Also, you hit him with a baseball bat, Mom. Broke his hand, I’m pretty sure.”
She looked over to where Dad’s bat leaned in the corner. “He has other bones.”
“I got revenge on him. The whole gang was waiting for me the next morning at the edge of the woods, on that path that leads from the house to the school grounds. I armored up, covered my face, and then threw Marius, Calvin, and Hector into a snow-filled gully down the hill. I covered their heads with lentil bags first. Caffeine ran away, freaked. I was wearing a coat over the armor and they thought I was bigger—a guy. Then I did a quick change into a skirt and got back to school within minutes. Almost as fast as Caffeine. That confused ’em.
“They may have had their suspicions of me, but now they thought there was someone else.” I looked at Dad. “Hyacinth Pope thought the someone else was you.”
Dad said, “Huh. So, when did they go after you again?”
I licked my lips. “Next time, I went after them.”
“Why?” It was Mom this time. “What were you thinking?” She blinked and covered her mouth with her hand.
Dad laughed. “Uh, gotta agree with that. Why?”
I told them about Tony’s suicide attempt and the smile dropped off Dad’s face.
“I didn’t jump into the ER, though. Carried him. Left before they got my name or a good video. Grant told me they were still trying to figure that out.”
“Perhaps it was time for an anonymous call to the police?” said Mom. “About Caffeine and her activities?”
“And have the video come out? Tony already tried to kill himself once, thinking it would.”
“So you went after the video.” Dad didn’t ask, he stated.
“Indirectly. First I scared the shit out of Caffeine.”
“Even more than you had?” said Mom.
“Yeah.” I described dropping the boys into the water in the pit, leaving the splashes of fake blood behind. “But the pit was a mistake,” I said.
“Why?” Dad asked. “Someone didn’t drown, did they?”
“No. It was their description of the pit that let Hyacinth know that this report was on target. Apparently they have a standing reward for information, and various organizations and gangs know about it. Fortunately, they report a lot of false pos
itives.”
Mom and Dad exchanged glances.
“I wiped Caffeine’s computer and backup drive and her thumb drives and I deleted her net storage accounts. I think I got all the copies of the videos. I know I put the fear of God into her, telling her to leave them alone, delete any other copies she had, and stop selling drugs. Then I let them all go.”
Mom nodded. “Certainly.”
The corners of my mouth wrenched down. “I didn’t know Jason would do that to her!”
Mom moved over beside me on the couch and put her arm around me. “Shhhhhhh. Of course you couldn’t know that.”
“Dad would’ve known!” I said.
Dad looked away. “Not necessarily.”
Mom pulled me closer. “You already saved Tony’s life once. Maybe twice, by going after the video. Also, you didn’t beat Caffeine bloody, did you? That was Jason.”
“You’re not responsible for the evil others do,” Dad said. “I never killed anyone, but people have died because of some of my actions. Not by my hand directly, but … people have died.”
Mom looked over at him. “And hundreds have lived who would not. Thousands perhaps, if you count relief efforts.” Mom let me sit back up but stayed close, her arm still around my shoulders.
I got my breathing back under control, “When it went down, today, I jumped Joe from the coffee shop to the school.”
Dad sighed. “Of course.” He no longer sounded angry, just resigned.
“They called me using Tara’s phone. Joe and I were still at Krakatoa, but they’d grabbed Jade and Tara as they were walking home. Marius wanted both Joe and me to come down and get in the Hummer but I wasn’t going to hand them another hostage. That’s when I called you guys.
“You know everything else.”
Dad shook his head. “Not everything.” He touched his own neck. “Mom told me about the garrote. How’d they get that on you?”
“It was dark. Jason was taking me into another room. I thought it would be a great opportunity to remove him from the equation, then go after Calvin and Marius. I didn’t even see the wire until I felt it tighten around my neck. It was that guy who came with Hyacinth Pope. Jenkins.”
