“No!” Mia shouted, but the little blue plastic ball hit him square in the chest. Potion soaked his shirt and splashed up to his neck-and the man dropped. I danced back as he fell into the table, and from there to the floor. Coffee went everywhere. Thank you, God. Now for Mrs. Bitch.
The door jingled, and I turned. “Damn it!” I shouted as Mia’s silhouette raced past the window. Ford was tight behind her. What in hell was he doing? “Pierce? Jenks?”
Pierce was getting up, shaking his head from Remus’s blow. Jenks hovered over him, dusting heavily to stop the cut on his head.
“Jenks, stay put. Tell them to bring some salt water. I’m downing her.”
“Rache! Wait!”
He couldn’t come with me. My arm hit the door, and it crashed open. I raced after them in my feet, bare but for nylons, and my splat gun in my grip. To the left, a fast patter of heels drew my attention. I took a deep breath and ran through the snowy parking lot. In an instant, I’d passed the cars and was on the sidewalk.
The cold cement numbed my feet, and I ran faster. My breath puffed out, and my body fell into a rhythm I could keep up for an hour. My slit dress hiked up as I ran, and I was glad my stupidity in choosing fashion over functionality had stopped at my shoes. Ahead, the smallest movement in the light a block up told me where they’d gone. God, how had she gotten ahead so fast?
A toddler wailed, the odd cadence telling me she was being held in the arms of someone running. I couldn’t help but gain on them. Ford’s silhouette was clear in the light for an instant. Then they were past the light, and they were gone.
I gripped my splat gun as I followed, slowing so I didn’t run into them. Coming to a stop under the light, I listened. It was dark in all directions. New Year’s celebrations were going on all over the city, but here, on the outskirts of an old industrial park, it was dark.
A baby cried, and I heard the crack of cold metal.
Heart pounding, I spun. “Ford?” I called. He didn’t answer, and I jogged to the end of the street. A small cement hut surrounded by a chain-link fence was the only logical option. Though the chain-link door was shut, I could see in the snow the track it had made when it opened. Footprints marked the otherwise-pristine snow.
Slower yet, I approached, my feet hurting from the cold. “Ford?” I whispered, then edged into the tiny fenced yard. It was no bigger than a dog run, and I guessed this was a switching house for the city’s electric or phone lines.
But the small room was empty when I stood on tiptoe and looked in the high window, my fingertips numb from the cold. Two sets of prints had tracked in the snow. I licked my lips. Going in alone was really stupid. I looked back toward the coffeehouse. No FIB. No I.S.
I couldn’t wait. “Dumb,” I said as I started to remove my coat, then, shivering, hiked up my dress and stripped off my nylons instead, hanging them over the tall fence for them to find and know where I’d gone. “Dumb. You are a dumb witch,” I muttered, and, shivering, I pushed the heavy metal door open and went in.
Thirty
The smell of damp stone hit me, and I recognized the scent that had been coming off Mia and Remus tonight. They’d been here before, and I moved quickly to the conventional steel door at the back of the empty room. The doorjamb had been broken from the inside, and feeling this was really wrong, I pulled it open to see a staircase going down.
“Down,” I muttered as I hiked my dress up. “Why is it always down?” Gun in hand, I felt the rough cement walls as I descended. There was a bare bulb glowing, showing that the way was straight and even. Wires ran along the sloping ceiling, as if put in after the building was constructed. My steps were silent because I was barefoot, and my feet were numb on the old but unworn cement. It stank like mold and dust.
People were talking, their voices unclear but echoing. I heard a small, feminine gasp, and then Ford shouted, “Mia! It’s just me. It’s okay. I’m trying to help you. You have to come in, but I promise I won’t let them take Holly from you.”
“I don’t need your help,” Mia said tightly. “I never should have wished for love. How do you live like this? He’s dead. That witch killed Remus!”
“He’s not dead, Mia,” Ford said. “It was a sleeping charm.”
“Not dead?” Mia said.
It was a pain-filled whisper, and thinking Mia was ready to break, I ghosted down the rest of the stairs. The light from the bulb in the stairway was overpowered by the shifting beam of a high-powered flashlight. Slowing, I crept to the end of the stairway, and with my hands on my splat gun, I peeked around the archway.
The echoing room was huge, stretching fifteen feet high at least, with beautiful vaulted ceilings. Mia was standing in the middle with a lantern-like flashlight in her grip-Ford was before her with his back to me. I think he sensed my emotions, but he didn’t turn.
Behind Mia was a sunken tunnel stretching in two directions. It looked like a subway tube, but there were no rails or tracks. There was no electricity, no benches, no graffiti. There was nothing but empty walls and forgotten bits of trash smelling of dust.
Mia’s face was proud and determined in the light reflecting off the walls as she tried to soothe the toddler, to no avail since she was upset herself. She hadn’t had the lantern in the coffee shop. It must have been in the little room upstairs. And it suddenly hit me that this was how Mia and Remus had been getting around, moving under the city to evade the FIB and the I.S. I hadn’t even known the tunnels existed, but Mia had probably witnessed their construction.
Mia’s eyes flicked to mine, and discovered by my emotions, I stepped out. “Remus is fine, Mia. You have to turn yourself in.”
“No I don’t,” she said, the defiant pride in her voice telling me she wasn’t giving up. Ever. “This is my city.”
I shook my head. “Things are different.” I slowly moved forward. It was frigid down here, and I shivered, edging closer yet. Almost close enough to make the splat ball gun a sure thing. “If you don’t come in, the FIB will bring everything against you. I know they look stupid, but they aren’t. Without a show of goodwill, Ms. Walker will leave with Holly.” I stopped when Mia’s chin lifted. “Mia, I swear I will do everything I can to keep Walker from taking her, but you have to help me.”
Mia shook her head and backed up. The light in her hand swung wildly over the cold walls, and Holly started to cry. “Remus is right. I’m going back to the old ways. They’ve kept me alive for hundreds of years. Give me Remus, and leave me and my child alone, or there will be more deaths. You’ve been warned.”
Turning her back on us, Mia headed for the black arch of the tunnel.
My gun swung up, and Ford got in my way. “Mia!” he exclaimed as I tried to edge around him for a clear shot. “Think about your future.”
“My future?” The words were a cold, imperialistic bark, and she stopped at the edge of the three-foot drop. “You are children! You are all children! I saw the birth of this city, when she was a wallowing hole that pigs ran through heedlessly. I helped her grow by removing the people who would keep her ignorant and small. This is my city. I built her. How dare you think to put your laws and rules on me and lecture me about the future! I’m not running away. Tell Captain Edden that if the FIB follows me, his son will be in a casket, not a hospital bed. You,” she said, child on one hip and light in her hand, “are nothing. Animals to be culled and sucked dry. I am still living among pigs.”
I had my gun aimed at her, but I’d have to hit her face for it to do any good with her wearing that heavy winter coat.
“Mia,” Ford said in his best psychologist voice, “I’m not as old as you are, but I’ve lived more heartache and joy than you can comprehend. Don’t do this. Love is worth the trial. It’s what defines us. Nothing can stain your love for Holly. And you do love her. It is as clear as your voice. Isn’t that purity worth some pain? Don’t risk losing that from pride!”
From behind me in the stairway came the soft scuffing of shoes. Adrenaline surged, but I couldn’t take my eyes from Mia. I’d give anything for Edden or Glenn right about now. Mia’s eyes tracked behind me, and her face grew
