left him and Eerie to watch TV, while they held a hushed conference in the hall outside the room. Alex had resented it; actually, he was still resenting it. But, on another level, he did kind of understand. He was virtually defenseless, after all, and Eerie was bat-shit crazy. It had irked him a bit, though.
Eerie hadn’t seemed slighted by being left out, but she’d been weirdly reticent all morning, hardly speaking at all, and going out of her way to avoid him. Admittedly, lodging in Anastasia’s suite for the afternoon had been awkward despite its spaciousness, but that still didn’t explain it.
On the cab ride here, Eerie had made it obvious that she was trying not to sit near him, practically insisting that Renton take the back seat instead, resulting in near-constant knowing glances from him for the whole drive. Even now, she wandered around on the other side of the vacant office, walking aimlessly from room to room, occasionally pausing to examine where the walls had been crudely torn open to allow wire stripping, or to rummage half-heartedly through the personal effects and scraps of paper that remained, abandoned in the ruins of the office furniture deemed too worthless to sell. She’d hadn’t spoken since they’d arrived, the hood of her sweatshirt pulled up, and Alex was pretty sure that it wasn’t Anastasia that she was avoiding — or, rather, that it wasn’t
Alex tried to follow her stare through the glass, hoping to pick out which part of the park she was looking at. He didn’t like that Anastasia had sent him out with Margot to make that phone call last night; he hadn’t given it any thought at the time, but when he’d come back, he’d found Renton and Edward bringing a bunch of heavy duffel bags up to the room, so he knew that Anastasia had worked things out to be alone with Eerie. Whatever had happened between them, Eerie didn’t seem to want to talk to him anymore.
He snuck a look at Anastasia out of the corner of his eye — she was sort of pretty, he had to admit, in a rigid sort of way, her hair pulled tightly back in a bun, her black dress excessively formal for the occasion, frilly and fringed with ribbon. Her sober demeanor and her childish appearance were constantly at odds. When she was focused on something else, like she was now, the cell phone in the palm of her hand as she waited for a response, her gaze fixed on something below, he could pretend she was a regular teenager — a bit spoiled, maybe, and probably awkward around people, the kind of bookish girl that he usually felt a little sorry for.
Something about the idea of pitying Anastasia struck him as amusing, and he found himself grinning. Anastasia caught it in the reflection, and shot him a look that combined curiosity with annoyance, but Alex didn’t care. Lately, he’d been feeling that he was spending too much time worrying about what Anastasia thought.
It was funny, in a way. He’d always thought of himself as independent, maybe even a bit headstrong, but then things got scary. And then, all of a sudden, it became very easy to take orders, when the person giving them sounded like they knew what to do. If they were good at it, like Anastasia was, Alex worried that he might not even notice himself obeying.
“Alright.” Renton’s voice crackled through the hiss of static. “She’s parked herself. As far as I can see, we’re all clear.”
Anastasia pursed her lips for a moment, looking out the window. This time, Alex was able to follow her gaze, to a figure shaking out a red picnic blanket, not far from the near edge of the park. Mitsuru, in trainers and a white t-shirt, her eyes hidden behind overly-large sunglasses, the kind they sell in the drugstore, looking uncomfortable amidst the sun and crowds.
“Boss? You sure you want to be the one to meet her? Ed says that he’s closer…”
“No,” Anastasia said curtly into the radio. “No, I’m going.”
“But, what if this is…”
Anastasia looked angrily at the radio, as if it could convey her glare.
“If it is,” she said firmly, “then we already discussed how to deal with that. Follow the plan, Renton. Everything will be fine.”
Anastasia put the radio down on the desk top, and then sat up, brushing off her dress and looking mildly perturbed.
“Very well,” she said, gathering herself with an effort, and dispelling any trace of nervousness. “I shouldn’t be long. If things go poorly, take her,” she said, pointing at Eerie, who was still sulking at the far end of the office, “and run. Get out of the state, to a city, somewhere big. Check into a hotel, and call Alistair. He’ll bail you out.”
“Right,” Alex said, nodding.
“No, ‘What about you guys?’ No worrying over your friends, or wanting to play the hero? We are here to rescue you, after all.”
“Friends? No,” Alex said firmly. “I can’t imagine there’s anything out there more dangerous than you, Anastasia. And if there is, you can be sure that I’m not going to try and fight it.”
Anastasia shook her head, as if she had tired of tolerating his foolishness.
“What, haven’t you met Mitsuru? Don’t be so dramatic, Alex. They come worse than me, I assure you.”
Alex waited until the door shut behind her before he went back to looking out the window. Despite the big talk, he did feel nervous, and yes, a tad bit guilty. It wasn’t that he had some particular desire to risk his life, in fact, he was still scared after his last encounter with the Weir. But, the idea of watching people that he knew fighting and dying in front of him, even if he couldn’t exactly call them his friends, well, that made him very uncomfortable.
Not that he wouldn’t run, though, if things looked bad. He’d worry about feeling guilty over it later.
Alex turned his attention back to the window. He knew that Renton was on the roof with some sort of scoped rifle. Edward had gone up with him initially, probably to help with the bags, and then had come down a bit later, alone and empty handed. He wasn’t sure where Edward had gone after that, but it couldn’t have been far. Alex got the impression that it was rare for Anastasia to not be under the watchful eye of at least one of her guards. There was no way, he knew, that they were letting her walk out alone and unprotected, no matter how it looked to him.
Alex had to admit, however, that was exactly how it appeared, at the moment.
Anastasia seemed a bit tentative when she stepped outside, before squaring her shoulders and crossing the street, marching firmly through the throng on the sidewalk at the edge of the park, ignoring comments from a group of teenagers clustered near a fire hydrant. Alex couldn’t decide whether she was actually worried, or whether it was an act, for the benefit of their unseen observers.
“Anastasia looks jumpy,” Eerie observed, causing Alex to start and glare at her resentfully. She was standing next to him with her fingers pressed up against the glass, staring down below them. “She’s not into being out in public.”
“Go figure. I thought you weren’t talking to me?”
Eerie looked surprised, and then a bit sad.
“Not talking to Alex? No,” she said, shaking her head emphatically, “I talked to you this morning at breakfast.”
Alex turned to her and stared in frustration.
“You asked me for the salt,” Alex objected. “That doesn’t count as talking to me, damn it!”
Eerie glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow.
“Picky. Alex is so sensitive.”
Alex winced without meaning too. He wanted to yell, but he bit his tongue, and forced himself to calm down. He’d been getting angry too easily lately, and he had the feeling that he was being played every time he did. At a certain point, it became difficult to say who was doing the manipulating, but Alex couldn’t discount the notion that there was someone who preferred him angry and impulsive.
“Whatever,” he said, shaking his head irritably. “What did Anastasia say to you last night, anyway?”
Eerie pointed at something outside the window.
“Anastasia and Mitsuru are coming back this way,” she said, nodding at the window. “Aren’t you supposed to be watching this?”
Alex shrugged.
“My only job was to run away with you, assuming everything went south,” Alex said wryly, sitting back down on the desk, his back to the window. “Given the lack of screaming and dying, I think it’s safe to say it won’t come to that.”
Eerie stared at him, her expression unreadable. After a moment, Alex looked away, feeling unaccountably embarrassed.
“Run away with me?” Eerie said, wonderingly. “Alex gets all the good jobs.”
