“That’s your big revenge plan? Throw me off a ledge?”
“No, the plan was to throw your girlfriend off the ledge, after I was done with her, and then throw you over after her.”
It flashed through my mind to say something, something involving the word ‘limp’ maybe. But then in my head I saw the way he’d jerked Jeff’s head, heard the crack, remembered how Jeff lay still with his eyes staring at nothing.
“I can’t believe you just fucking killed Jeff,” I heard myself saying.
Marco shrugged. “He had it coming.”
“He was your friend. Almost as long as I was. And you just reached out and fucking ended him. Over something he said.”
“Whatever.”
“Whatever? Really? Is that what your crew can expect from you now? He was loyal to you.”
“Just shut the fuck up. You don’t get to talk to me about loyalty. You know who was loyal to me? Tony. He was my fucking cousin, man. My family. And now he’s fucking dead. And that’s because of you. The Syndicate went after Tony because someone ratted Vivian out to the cops. You think I don’t kn—”
“Actually…”
A shot rang out as we were turning toward the voice. It echoed in the cavernous, concrete room as Nathan slid sideways from the stool. Blood pooled on the floor beneath his head while we all stood frozen, looking from him to Mr. Dobbs who was standing at the top of the stairs clutching a gun in both shaking hands.
“What. The. Fuck?” Marco rasped, almost in a whisper, as full of disbelief as everyone else looked. Dobbs pointed the gun at him and he threw up his hands, took an automatic step back and was caught by the railing. Light from one of the lanterns caught Dobbs at just the right angle that it bounced off his glasses and I couldn’t see his eyes, couldn’t tell if they were fixed on Marco or darting around at everyone else in the room.
“Well I couldn’t very well threaten you without getting rid of the kid who could turn the gun into dust, could I, Marco?”
“How…how did you know that?” Corey asked.
“You would be amazed at the things I know, Corey. For example, I know that you can walk through walls. And since I don’t want you running off…”
The gun went off again. Since my eyes were kind of glued to it, the muzzle flare in the dark burned an after image that floated over Corey as I watched him crumple to the floor.
None of us said anything and it was Dobbs who broke the silence. “I wondered if he’d be able to…how would you put it? Phase out? I wondered if he’d be able to do that before the bullet got there.” He shrugged. “Guess not.”
Still, none of us said anything. Curtis was standing against a wall and he kind of turned into it, huddled into himself, like he could make himself a smaller target or maybe he was trying to convince himself he wasn’t really seeing any of this happen. He was crying.
Marco came out of his shock and grabbed me, yanked me in front of him like a shield. “What do you want?”
“Marco, I gather that you and Dylan have been, shall we say, on the outs lately, but is that any way to treat a friend? First of all, I think I need to clear up a little misconception. While your deduction that the Syndicate killed your cousin in retaliation for the arrest of their associates makes sense, the fact is that I’m the one who killed Tony D’Attaviano.”
“Why?”
“The same reason I’m going to kill you and the rest of your friends: because you ruined my life!”
“Look, man,” Marco said from behind me, “you got it all wrong. I’m not the one who turned your girlfriend into the cops.”
“So you knew. About Vivian and myself.”
“Well, yeah, man, everyone knew.” Dobbs mouth firmed and so did his grip on the gun and Marco’s grip on me. “I mean, it was cool, you know? Hey, any time a regular guy gets with a hot piece of a—I mean, with a beautiful woman like that, hell, you want to shake his hand or something. But look, why would I turn her in to the cops? I’m the last person who’d want to see that happen. I’m not your guy. If I had my way, she’d still be here and you guys could be together right now.”
“Is that what you think this is about? You think I’m mourning the loss of that…Jezebel? I’m talking about NIAC! The loss of my position! And don’t bother acting like you didn’t know. She must have known. It’s why she pursued a relationship with me. And if she knew, you knew. NIAC fired me because of our…involvement, not only because I was involved with an unregistered ability-affected individual, but because I had an association with a known Syndicate operative. I’m the one who’s supposed to be finding these people, turning them in, and here I was dating one!”
“Hey, you and me, we both want to know who fingered that bitch, right? They ruined both our lives. We’re on the same side.”
“We’re not! You think I’d ever side with Talent scum like you?”
“Look, I don’t know where you’re getting your information—”
“Just…shut up. Let me think… Maybe if I could find a few ability kids to give them, they’d give me another chance.” He swung toward Curtis. “You must have an ability. What do you do?”
“N-nothing. I swear!”
“He can put people to sleep,” I told Dobbs. If he came around to thinking he could trade information on Talents to get his job back, it might at least keep Curtis from getting shot right now. He might end up in State School, but hey, the kid had been working for Marco, knocked out me and Joss when we might have escaped. I didn’t owe him anything.
“No! That’s not true!”
“Interesting, Dylan. That was a test. To see if anyone here would be honest with me. Now tell me about your girlfriend.”
I’d broken into Dobbs’s house, seen his Joss file. If he knew anything for sure, it would have been there. I hoped. “You’ve been suspicious of her, right? She told me about some of the talks you’ve had. Now that I know what your real job is, that all makes sense. But Joss is just a regular girl. And she’s in trouble, Mr. Dobbs. Tony’s girlfriend, Trina—she has a Talent for manipulating dreams—she hates Joss. And she’s crazy over Tony’s death. She’s got Joss somewhere, I don’t know where, but we need to get to her. Help her.”
“Do we?”
“Yeah, we do. I mean, this is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Being part of NIAC? It’s about protecting people—innocent, normal people—from these people who have abilities. Who have this unfair advantage. From Talent scum like Marco. Look, he’s super-strong—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Marco hissed.
“—and he’s still got my hands bound behind my back. And he’s using me as a human shield! Before you got here he was threatening to throw me over the edge.”
“Which I’m going to do just as soon as I don’t need you anymore. Shut up before I break both your arms.”
Like you’d chance that right now.
“Let him go, Marco.”
“No way. No way I’m just letting you shoot me. Are you really buying this? You think him and Joss are just normal kids? This guy can turn invisible.”
“Yeah, sure, invisible,” I scoffed. “Guy walks in and starts shooting and I’m just standing here. If I could turn invisible—if I could do anything—wouldn’t I have done it a long time ago?”
“Let him go, Marco. Don’t make me tell you again or I’m going to shoot the last of your associates,” Dobbs waved the gun at Curtis who whimpered pitifully, “and then I’m coming after you. And while it will be somewhat regrettable if Dylan gets caught in the crossfire, I’m ready to consider him collateral damage. Turn him loose and we may be able to discuss turning you in to NIAC instead of your immediate execution.”
“To Hell with you, I’ll take my chances.”
“Very well. Unfortunate news for you, Curtis.”
I phased out as I kicked Marco hard in the knee. When his foot flew back under the railing and off the edge and he reflexively reached out for the railing to catch himself, I bolted forward and tackled Dobbs.
&nbs
p; The gun went off. I wasn’t sure if it was before or after I connected with him or where it was pointed. All I knew was that it cracked so loud in my ear that it wouldn’t surprise me if I’d been the one shot. Dobbs and I hit the floor and the gun spun away, bumping up against Nathan’s body. With my hands bound there wasn’t much I could do. I rolled away from Dobbs right before Marco grabbed him up off the floor.
I ran to Curtis who had sunk to the floor but wasn’t bleeding anywhere that I could see.
“Get up!” I told him. I didn’t have time to be decent about it. I kicked him in the ribs and said it again. He tried and fell, catching himself on his hands near a pile of loot from the Army/Navy store. “Get one of those knives. Do it now!” I phased back and crouched down beside him. “I need you to cut me free. I just saved your life. You owe me.”
He darted a glance at Marco, who was smashing his fist into Dobbs’s face and not paying attention to us. “You ratted me out and almost got me killed,” he gritted out, but he had a knife and was pulling it from its packaging.
“Whatever.” I turned my back to him and held out my wrists. Marco yanked Dobbs’s limp body off the floor. He was back at the rail in a few, quick strides. Before I could decide if I should do anything to stop him, he raised Dobbs over his head and threw him over the railing.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I said to Curtis, giving him a shove toward the stairs.
“All right, that was a good practice run.” Marco rolled his shoulders. “Felt good. Distraction over. Your turn, buddy.”
I phased out again as Curtis and I darted toward the stairs. But Marco was faster, blocking them before we got there. I peeled off to the side, but Curtis tried to skid to a stop and bumped into Marco who caught him by the shoulders.
“Stick around, kid. Pick up that gun.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Didn’t ask you what you wanted. Yeah, I was busy, but do you think I didn’t see how Dylan told you to cut him free and you did exactly what he wanted?”
“I…I…”
“Yeah, I get it. Lots of people are stupid enough to do what he tells them to do. I used to let him talk me around, too. But you screwed up, Curtis, and now I need you to show me where your loyalties lie. So pick up the gun.”
Curtis’s eyes darted all over the room, searching for me as he moved over to Nathan. He was trying not to step in the blood, trying not to actually touch Nathan’s body. He picked up the gun like it was a dead rodent.
“Now come back here.”
Curtis did as he was told and Marco turned him by the shoulders to face the room.
“Now you’re gonna want to shoot Dylan.”
Even though I could have guessed that was coming, hearing Marco say it froze the blood in my veins.
“But…but I can’t see him.”
“Life’s full of challenges. Just lift it up, point and click. If you hit Dylan, we’ll know. At the least there’ll be a thud. And he’ll probably phase back. Even if you wing him, he’s gonna bleed and he won’t be able to keep the blood invisible once it’s spilled. So that’s cool. Thing is, it’s kind of a big room and you’ve only got so many bullets. So you’re going to want to really try.”
I stayed as still as I could, tried not to breathe. There was a knife in my hand. If I were Joss I could make it fly into Marco’s throat. Hell, if I were Joss I could probably throw it without using Talent and get Curtis out of danger. But I wasn’t Joss. She wasn’t here and she needed me. I had to get out of this and get to her. I couldn’t help Curtis.
I’m sorry.
Marco raised Curtis’s arms, put his finger around the trigger, told him to listen, aim, and shoot. Everything was deathly quiet. Curtis’s eyes were squeezed shut.
The first shot exploded into the room. I don’t know if I could actually feel it move past me or if that was just my imagination.
“Missed. Again.”
Curtis aimed at another spot, fired. Then another. He kept going, the shots coming closer together like he just wanted to get it over with, his aim changing so fast it was hard for me to follow. Two of the shots came close, but finally luck was on my side and I was still in one piece when the big gun clicked empty.
Marco plucked it from Curtis’s grip and chucked it into the room, still hoping to hit me, but his aim was way off and I ignored it, keeping my eyes trained on him and Curtis.
“You lose. Big surprise.” Marco snapped Curtis’s neck without another word. There was that moment’s pause, like the world stopping to absorb the enormity of it—or maybe that was just me. Then Curtis slid to the floor. “Well, would you look at that.”
I looked down. The empty gun was lying next to my foot. Or, where my foot should have been, if it had been visible. Marco’s throw must have bounced it off the wall and it slid across the floor. If I’d been paying attention, I could have sidestepped it.
Marco was already barreling toward me. I reached out instinctively to block him. Or maybe that’s bullshit. Maybe I knew the knife was in my hand. Maybe I meant to stab my best friend.
Why did my brain want to call him that again, after everything that had happened, right now while his blood was pouring over my hand? I let go of the knife and stumbled backward, phasing in again, unable to keep myself invisible for the moment.
Marco was stumbling back too, his eyes wide, hands clutching at his gut as he pulled out the knife and dropped it to the floor.
“You fucking stabbed me!”
I didn’t say anything. What was I supposed to say?
“I can’t believe you fucking stabbed me, you piece of shit!”
“You can’t? Really?” Was I really such a wuss in his eyes that he thought he could do all this shit to me and I’d never retaliate? But then, maybe he was right because the sight of him, standing there bleeding, knowing I’d done that, was making me sick. “Tell me where Joss is.”
He laughed. He was turning pale, starting to sway on his feet. “Fuck you. She deserves everything she gets and more.”
I saw red. I went at him, grabbing him by the shirt and shoving him backward until we were stopped by the railing. “What’s Trina’s plan? Where did Corey take her?” I shook him hard. His head snapped forward and back. He was getting heavy in my hands quickly and I was trying not to understand what it meant.
He grabbed onto my jacket at the shoulders, like he was trying to steady himself. His head lolled back and he looked up at me. “You were like my brother. For life or longer. I took care of you.”
“Until you didn’t. Until you could only care about yourself.”
“And why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I take care of myself, look out for number one? Is your way so much better? It’s all about her for you now, doing what she wants, jumping through her hoops. She doesn’t care about you. Not like I do. Doin’ you a favor, man. She’s gonna get you killed.”
“Not like I do”? His speech was slurring, his voice getting fainter. Did he know what he was saying? A thousand pictures flashed through my head as his blood oozed onto the floor between us. A lifetime of him being my friend and not a monster. I was looking for the turning point I had missed. The place where it had all started to go wrong. The point when I had failed him.
“We need to get help,” I heard myself saying. “Just tell me where she is and we can—”
Marco laughed weakly. “A deal? Just tell you where to find your girlfriend and you won’t let me die?”
“No! Jesus Christ, would you—?”
“I think it’s too late. For all of it. Except for this.”
With a strength I wouldn’t have believed he still had, Marco tightened his hold on my shoulders and pitched himself backward over the railing. I was taken by surprise, and yet I let go of him immediately and grabbed for the rail, as though some instinct for self-preservation was still on guard. One hand caught, wrenching my arm, and I had the other hand on the rail and my grip adjusted before I even fully realized what had happened and that Marco was still cli
nging to me with his arms wrapped around my hips, gripping my belt.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled at him.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m taking you with me.”
“You’ve got the strength to take us over the rail like that, you can climb back up. You need to do it now, because you know I can’t hold on like this for long.”
“Oh yeah, I know it.” He smiled up at me and jerked his body. My arms screamed from the effort of holding our weight. I started to think about my hands sweating.
“Marco, come on, man, don’t do this. I’ve already made this choice. I’m not going down with you.”
“That’s the problem with you. You still think you have a choice.” He jerked again and I almost lost my grip. “But you never did. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine, and if I have to lose everything else I’m going to hold on to you until it’s over, feel your skull crack against whatever’s down there and know that I did that.”
I didn’t say anything. I needed all my strength just to hold on and there wasn’t anything I could say to that.
Marco jerked his body again and I just reacted, bringing my knee up hard into the wound in his gut with as much power as I could get. Air huffed out of him as his hands came free, and again the world slowed. It seemed to take forever for him to fall, his face a mask of rage and hate, screaming my name down into the dark. It seemed like he screamed my name for a long time before it was cut off.
I hung, my arms on fire, imagining his broken body lying down there somewhere, still hearing that last scream echoing in my head, even while the silence of the dead pressed in against me. It was creeping over me now, the insanity of everything I had seen tonight: a guidance counselor on a killing spree, kids executed at gunpoint, the crack of Jeff’s neck, Joss brutalized.
Joss.
I started to swing my legs, my head crowded with crazy. With all the horrible images. With the sure knowledge that I would never be able to get myself back onto the ledge, knowing that I wasn’t strong enough, that I would fall too and maybe no one would ever find me, and Marco and I would rot here together.