The server brought the check. I paid him from the pile of cash Alex had given us in New York. We had divided it three ways. I still had several thousand dollars left.
The station had gotten a lot more crowded. I was trying to figure out where we were going to sit when Kate grabbed my arm and yanked me into the tiny convenience store near the restaurant.
“I’ve already been in here,” I said. “They don’t have anything I —”
“Bella,” Kate said.
There were windows in the store looking out into the waiting area. I peeked out past the potato chips. Fifty feet away was a woman sitting in a wheelchair. She was facing the boarding doors.
I couldn’t see her face.
“How do you know it’s Bella?”
“Because Bill Ord is standing fifty steps to her right, facing the opposite direction, holding an open paperback like he’s reading. But what he’s really doing is scanning the crowd.”
Bill Ord. Black hair. Black beard. He was too far away to see the color of his eyes. He looked nothing like the sketch in the newspaper.
“How did they get here?”
“Train? Car? Bus? Airplane? Who knows.”
People were gathering their things.
Standing up.
A train was pulling in.
I walked over to the counter and asked the woman which train it was.
“Los Angeles,” she said.
Coop’s train.
Kate came up behind me. “You can leave the station through the restaurant.”
I stepped away from the counter. “Me? What about you?”
“Someone has to intercept Coop before he comes into the station. Someone has to warn him.”
“And that someone should be me. Not you.”
“You have no idea who these people are. What they’re capable of.”
“Exactly,” I said. “They’ve never seen me. I could walk over and offer to push Bella’s wheelchair, or ask Bill what he’s reading. Neither one of them would look at me twice. My disguise is that they don’t know who I am.”
She stared at me for a second, then gave a reluctant nod. I followed her back over to the window.
Bill and Bella had not moved from their positions.
“What’s your plan?” Kate asked.
I grabbed a bag of Cheetos. My third of the day.
“I’ll get in line like I’m catching the train. Hopefully I’ll spot Coop before they do. He and I will figure out a different exit strategy. There has to be another way out of the train yard other than through the station.”
I hoped there was another way out of the yard.
“And what am I supposed to do?” Kate asked.
“Voodoo Doughnuts.”
“What?”
“I just read about it. It’s not too far away. It’s just the kind of weird place that Coop would like.” I showed her the newspaper advertisement with directions. “We’ll meet you there.”
looked as innocent, and as common, as all the other train watchers. They could have been grandparents waiting for their grandkids. They might have been a little paler than those around them, but I’d noticed earlier that almost everyone in the station looked like they could use some sun. They weren’t wearing shades, though they were squinting a little in the dim light. To be honest, I’m not sure I would have noticed this if I hadn’t known who they were and where they had lived for the past forty years.
I got in the disorganized line and tried to work my way to the front without being too pushy and drawing attention to myself. I’d been watching the detraining and boarding process for hours and had a good idea of how it worked. Most of the people waited politely for the arriving passengers to get into the station before rushing the train, but there were always a few jerks who couldn’t wait to find a good seat and pushed through the incoming crowd.
I needed to be a pushy jerk. I didn’t expect Coop to detrain first. The only time his feet ever moved quickly was when they were tapping. He was always the last to arrive and last to leave. Going for a walk with him was a form of torture. A fifteen-minute stroll could last an hour or more. For him, getting there was a lot more interesting than being there.
But I couldn’t be sure of that now.
Coop might have changed since leaving home over a year ago. I’d barely gotten a chance to talk to him in New York. For all I knew he might jump off the train while it was still moving and sprint into the station. Finding Kate in the Deep might have changed him.
Coop believed, and it might even be true, that he had been heading into the Deep and to Kate his entire life. And I had to admit that there had been some very strange coincidences.
Like Kate’s parents being murdered and tossed into a Dumpster at the exact moment that Coop was born, during a lunar eclipse.
Like FBI agent Tia Ryan being the lead New York City detective for Kate’s parents’ homicide case before joining the FBI and busting Coop for blowing up our neighborhood.
Whether it was fate, predestination, or some kind of cosmic spiritual collision, two things were clear: Coop was smitten with Kate, and Kate was smitten with Coop, even though they barely knew each other.
Which is why I was rudely pushing my way to the front. I had an image in my head of Coop running in slow motion to get to Kate like they were in a sappy movie, only to have Bella wheel up and shoot him in midstride.
It seemed that after the long wait, everyone wanted to get onto the train as soon as they could. I blundered out to the tracks, fending off elbows and shoulders as I searched the incoming faces for Coop’s, hoping he hadn’t already hurried past me into the station.
I didn’t find him. He found me.
“Hey, Meatloaf.”
One of his many nicknames for me.
Mom is a former astronaut. Dad is a Nobel laureate. Here’s how Coop put it: “With their combined DNA, they expected filet mignon. When they opened the oven, they got two pans of meatloaf.”
Coop had done a much better job disguising himself than Kate or I. He hadn’t just had his hair cut. He’d had it dyed blond, like Kate’s, and styled. The scraggly beard he’d grown Beneath had been replaced by a trimmed, blond goatee. He was wearing round eyeglasses. His green eyes were now brown. He was wearing a suit and tie, an unbuttoned camel-colored overcoat, and a black muffler. He looked like a young banker. The only thing missing was a copy of the Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm and a leather valise in his hand. He had the backpack Alex had given him slung over his shoulder.
The only thing that was the same was his grin. He was obviously enjoying my complete shock.
“You changed your hair,” he said.
“And you changed everything.”
“During my last walkabout, before I got to New York, I met a stylist in Los Angeles. He always wanted to do a makeover. This time around, I let him. Where’s Kate?”
I told him about Bella and Bill. He didn’t seem surprised or upset about it.
“You think they’d recognize me?” he asked, still grinning.
“Mom and Dad wouldn’t recognize you,” I said. “But Bella and Bill might wonder why I fought my way out to the train, then came back into the station.” I looked up and down the tracks. There was a ten-foot chain-link fence topped by razor wire for as far as I could see.
“You thinking of scaling it?” Coop asked.
“No. I was hoping for an open gate, or a tear in the fence.” I was still having a hard time getting used to his new appearance.
“I think I know someone who can help us.”
We walked along the length of the train, away from the station entrance.
Stragglers climbed aboard.
Snow fell in big swirling flakes.
Coop waved at a conductor.
The conductor waved back. A big friendly smile on his face.
The conductor had been Cooped.
That’s what I call it when someone meets my brother and falls under his spell. I’ve seen it a thousand times before. W
e walked up to him.
“Otto!” the conductor said.
Apparently Coop’s nom de guerre was Otto, which happened to be the first name of the main character in Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, one of Coop’s favorite books.
“This is my kid brother, Axel,” Coop said.
In the book, Axel was Otto’s nephew.
“Pleasure to meet you, Axel.” The conductor shook my hand enthusiastically. “I’m Darien.”
I could see that by the nameplate on his uniform.
I could also see that he was completely enamored by his new friend Otto.
“I’m wondering if you can do me a favor,” Coop said.
“Sure. Anything.”
“Axel has been a train nut his entire life. Is there any chance you can take us through the back entrance to the station and show us around?”
“Not much to see anymore. Train travel is nothing like it used to be in the old days, with baggage, cargo, mail, and porters. But I’d be happy to walk you through.” He pointed at a small door next to the station entrance. “Wait for me over there. I’ll get this train on its way, then give you a little tour. My shift is over in a few minutes.”
The train pulled out. Darien punched a code into the door lock and took us inside. He was right. There wasn’t much to see in the cavernous building adjacent to the station. It was empty except for old, dusty baggage carts. It turned out that Darien had been working for Amtrak for nearly thirty years. He began recounting his long career, and it was interesting, but we really didn’t have time to stick around and listen. Coop appeared to be hanging on to his every word though, which is one of the reasons people fall in love with him.
After about twenty minutes Coop glanced at his watch (a technological breakthrough for him) and said, “I hate to cut this short, but we have a friend waiting for us outside.”
“Of course, of course,” Darien said. “I get carried away reminiscing about the old days.”
“It was fascinating,” Coop assured him. “I’ll look for you when I come back through. We can pick up the story where you left off.”
“I look forward to it. You have my email and phone number?”
Coop pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “Right here.”
“If you find yourself with nothing to do while you’re in town, I’m just a phone call away. It was a pleasure meeting both of you.”
He shook our hands.
I walked out the employee door first, looking right and left for Bella’s wheelchair. I didn’t see it.
“It’s clear.”
The snow was sticking to the sidewalk.
the main entrance, so I exited through Wilfs Restaurant.
The front of the station was crowded with people jumping into cabs and cars. A perfect cover to slip away unnoticed.
I started down the snow-covered sidewalk. It felt good to be outside, stretching my legs, breathing in the cold air, but I was worried about leaving Pat and Coop inside the station. They had no idea what they were up against. The Pod had always been dangerous, but they were even more so now that they were on the run. I was tempted to turn back, but Pat had a good point. Bella and Bill were Originals and former Shadows. They would recognize me as easily as I had recognized them. I was lucky to have spotted them before they spotted me.
Still, I wasn’t at my best. I was exhausted from lack of sleep, but it wasn’t just paranoia and tension that had kept me awake on the long train ride west. It was the land and cities rushing past the windows. For the first time in my life I was going someplace. I was free. I didn’t want to miss anything.
The bright snow on the ground hurt my eyes. I reached for my shades, then changed my mind. I was above now. This is where I lived. I needed to act like a normal person. I needed to get used to the light.
After a couple of blocks I started to relax. I passed the bus station, tensing a little as I walked by the people at the curb waiting for rides, or getting dropped off. No one looked familiar. No one paid attention to me. I was just a girl with a backpack. A fellow traveler on a wintry day.
My eyes stopped watering. I began to smile. I was on my way to a place called Voodoo Doughnuts. Soon I would see Coop. Everything would be okay … and that’s when he stepped out in front of me.
“You!” I shouted.
He took his pipe out of his mouth.
“Good to see you, Kate. We need to talk.”
to Voodoo Doughnuts, Coop stepped into a Chinese restaurant, saying he needed to use the restroom.
I waited outside. People walked past, bundled up, hunched against the blowing snow.
Ten minutes later Coop came out looking halfway like himself. The suit and tie had been replaced by jeans, a black hoodie, and a down coat. He still wore the round glasses, but he had removed the brown contacts. His green eyes were back. And there was a new addition, which had been previously covered by the black muffler.
A tattoo.
On his neck.
A colorful bird flying up from under the hoodie.
“You got a tat,” I said. “Pheasant?”
“Phoenix.”
“Mythical bird that recycles itself every fourteen hundred years.”
Coop nodded. “Emerging from the Deep into the light. Seemed appropriate. And it’s a good disguise. The Pod isn’t looking for a guy with a phoenix tattoo. People tend to focus on the bird and not on me.”
Coop had an odd way of looking at things. Sometimes very odd. “I think they look at the bird, then focus on you … closely. I don’t think this is what Alex had in mind when he said we should disguise ourselves.”
Coop shrugged. “Alex isn’t our dad.”
“Since when did we listen to Dad, or Mom, for that matter?”
Coop grinned. “Good point. But Alex isn’t out here with us. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate him getting us out of the Deep, but once we got up top he kicked us out into the cold.”
“Yeah,” I said. “With forty thousand dollars.”
“It wasn’t Alex’s money. It was Terry Trueman’s.”
“What are you saying?”
Coop shrugged. “It’s just that I don’t know about Alex. We’re on our own now. We need to do what we think is right, not what Alex wants us to do.”
There was no point in arguing with him. The ink wasn’t going anywhere.
Coop grinned and wrapped the muffler around his neck. “Better?”
I returned the grin and nodded.
“Did you get the tat done in Los Angeles?”
“Albuquerque. I got hung up there for a night. No place to stay. The tattoo parlor across the street was the only thing open, the only place that was warm.”
Only Coop would think to take shelter in a tattoo parlor.
“I was able to lie down, but I didn’t sleep. The tat took nine hours. It hurt.”
“I bet.”
Coop pulled his hood over his head and we started out again.
“How’s Kate doing?”
I couldn’t believe he had managed to hold off asking for this long.
“A little paranoid, but good.”
“Paranoia is just another word for heightened awareness.”
“Then Kate is very aware.”
“Sounds like she has good reason to be, with a couple of Originals scoping out the station.”
“But why?” I still didn’t get it. “We’re not a threat to the Pod. We don’t know anything about what they’re doing above.”
“Did you ask Kate about it?”
“I wanted to, but Bella and Bill showed up.”
“I guess there’s not much to discuss. Two Originals showing up at the station means they are after us. Why they are after us doesn’t really matter.”
“Did you meet Bella and Bill when you were in the Deep?”
“No.”
“So they might not know what you look like.”
“There were surveillance cameras all over the place, including the infirmary where they had
me cuffed to the bed.”
I’d been in the infirmary.
I had unlocked Coop’s handcuffs.
I hadn’t noticed the cameras.
Maybe I was wrong about them knowing what I looked like.
“Uh-oh.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Coop stopped and looked at me.
“You’re wondering if they saw you on the surveillance cameras.”
Coop was not clairvoyant, but he had always been a good guesser. Perceptive, I guess you would call it, at least when it came to me.
“While you were in the infirmary springing me, they were out looking for you. Slim chance an Original was paying attention to the infirmary cameras. And there’s a good chance that the infirmary cameras were broken. Lod hadn’t done any maintenance in the Deep in over a year, according to Kate. Why fix things if you know you’re leaving?”
“But why did he and the Originals leave?”
“Good question. I don’t have the answer.” Coop picked up his pace as we crossed Burnside Street, weaving our way through slow-moving cars on the snow-slicked pavement. On the other side he pointed at a group of people standing on the sidewalk about a block away.
“Voodoo Doughnuts,” he said.
“You’ve been there?”
“A couple of times.”
“Why are they standing outside in the snow?”
“Because there isn’t any place to sit inside. No tables. You walk in, order your doughnuts, and get out. I don’t see Kate. Do you?”
“No.” Now that we were there I could see that Voodoo might not have been the best place to meet her. “Are the doughnuts that good?”
“They’re okay. Voodoo is kind of the cool thing to do. People who work at Voodoo are cool, just like people who work at Powell’s City of Books up the street, or Trader Joe’s, are cool. In Portland it’s not necessarily about the money you make, it’s what you do to make your money.”
“How long were you here?”
“Six weeks. Thought about staying, but something told me to move on.”
“The Deep?”
“Maybe. Weird, I know.” He changed the subject. “You say Kate left the station as my train arrived?”