Shift: A Novel

stopped when he saw who he faced.

“Nancy?”

His voice was confused, but then a light went on in his eyes. He whirled, just in time for BC to smash his own newel ball into Garrison’s forehead. The guard seemed to freeze in place, his fingers still holding his gun, until BC whaled him a second time, and he fell on top of Chul-moo.

BC dropped the ball, was reaching for Garrison’s weapon when a voice came from the hallway.

“Back away from the gun.”

He looked up. Song stood just outside the door, pistol in hand and aimed at his head. She advanced as he retreated, retrieved Garrison’s weapon and tucked it into the waistline of her skirt like a demurely dressed Annie Oakley. Before she could do anything else, though, Naz spoke.

“You bitch.”

Loathing dripped from her voice like venom. BC could feel the hatred roiling off her in palpable waves. Song actually shuddered, as if she’d been struck.

“Nancy?” Song turned halfway, trying to look at Naz without losing sight of BC. “I don’t understand. You volunteered. You—you insisted.”

BC couldn’t figure out what was happening. A despair as great as any he’d ever felt had gripped his brain and body. It was like his father’s death and mother’s death and his demotion from Behavioral Profiling to COINTELPRO had all been mixed with liquid nitrogen and poured into his veins, freezing him in place. If he’d had a knife in his hand, he would have stabbed himself, just to end the suffering. Just like—

Just like Eddie Logan.

He stared at Naz. Her hands were balled into fists, and she took tiny steps toward Song, heedless of the madam’s gun, which was trained directly, if unsteadily, in her direction. Despite the whiteness of her slip, she seemed like a demon from hell. Her hair had come loose and radiated out from her head in inky waves, and her eyes were two dark coals burning into Song’s body.

BC turned to the madam. Whatever he was feeling, it was obvious she was feeling something a hundred times worse. Her normally taut body had gone slack and the gun dangled from her twitching fingers. She pressed her left hand against her temple.

“Stop it,” she begged. “Stop it, please, stop it!”

In the depths of his own blackness, BC recognized what he was feeling as the same terror that had gripped him at Millbrook. He’d thought the fear had come from the disorienting hallucination radiating from Chandler’s brain, but now he realized the feelings, if not the images, had been coming from Naz—

—who was trembling, he saw, nearly as much as Song. Sweat beaded her face, and she grabbed a chair back for support. Whatever she was doing, however she was doing it, it was costing her dearly. BC knew he had to act.

“Here!” he yelled, staggering to his feet. He needed to draw Song’s aim. She jerked in his direction, squinting in an effort to concentrate, but BC was faster. He knocked her wrist to the side as she squeezed the trigger and a hole appeared in the floor.

BC fixed Song in the eye. “I apologize, ma’am,” he said, then decked her with an elbow to the—

But Song wasn’t there. In the half second it had taken BC to move, she’d recovered, ducked, and now he felt her heel in the small of his back. He went reeling forward and sprawled on his stomach. He rolled over to see Song bringing the gun up to aim.

“No!”

BC and Song whirled in Naz’s direction, just in time to see Naz’s arm flash. The wooden newel ball was a blur in the air until it slammed into Song’s temple and she fell to the floor.

Sounds of commotion were coming from the rest of the house, but Naz’s screams were louder, as she fell on Song and began beating her with her fists.

“If he’s dead, I’ll come back for you! I’ll make you suffer in ways you can’t even imagine!”

“Miss Haverman!” BC pushed through the waves of fury rolling off her to grab one of her wrists. “We need to go.”

Naz looked up wildly, her teeth bared in a snarl, and BC fell backward as if he’d been struck. Then Naz’s eyes cleared and her face softened.

“Agent Querrey?” She seemed surprised to see him in the room, in his underwear. Especially that underwear.

BC shook his head. “It’s just Mr. Querrey now.”

Naz shook her head dazedly. “I’ll get your pants.”

They dressed quickly. BC checked the hall for the third guard, but all he saw was an open door to one of the bedrooms. A half-naked man peeked out, saw the gun BC had taken from Song, and ducked back inside. BC motioned to Naz, and they went for the stairs.

He heard Naz’s “Oh!” just before a blow caught him squarely between the shoulders. He slammed against the spindly banister, which broke beneath the impact, and he fell half a floor to the stair treads and rolled the rest of the way down. He had the presence of mind to hold on to his pistol, which turned out to be a mistake—he squeezed so tightly that it went off and a bullet whizzed by his ear. He dropped the gun just as he smashed into a pedestal table at the bottom of the stairs. An enormous vase flew into the air, narrowly missing BC’s head before smashing into the floor.

His attacker was on him before he’d stopped moving. Like Chul-moo, he was Asian, but full grown: tall, muscular, and very, very fast. He seemed to fly down the stairs, grabbing a pair of broken banister railings as he went and brandishing them like swords.

BC felt a momentary surge of relief—at least the man didn’t have a gun. Then the guard began hitting him with