Stu’s voice dropped as if he was on the razor’s edge of squealing with glee. “Do you have anything else for us? I mean, you were there in the middle of it, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I knew that wasn’t you wrapped up in that trial!”
“What trial?” Cole asked as a new urgency rushed through him.
“The trial in the news. There’s reports of you being put on trial for what happened to those cops, but no footage. Just a lot of talk about court dates, testimony, and you being held in federal custody until you’re put in front of a judge. That’s all crap, though, right?”
“Look,” Cole said impatiently, “whatever’s on the news, whatever’s on the Internet, whatever’s being gossiped about or shown on TV, it just doesn’t matter anymore. I need a favor.”
“Wait a second. If you’re not in prison and you’re not surrounded by cops, does that mean you’re running from those things that were on TV? Were those Full Bloods?”
“No, I’m not in prison, and yes, those were Full Bloods.” Before Stu launched into an overexcited meltdown, Cole asked, “Do you know where Paige is?”
“Oh! I just talked to her! She’s in Oklahoma!
Cole looked inside for Lambert and found him sniffing around the snack food aisle. “No time for stories,” he said. “I need to get in touch with some Skinners in the area, and since Paige isn’t nearby, I need someone who’s close and can get to me real fast. Can you do this now or should I give you some time?”
“I can call three more people, balance my checkbook, and play some
“
“Just because it’s not from Digital Dreamers doesn’t mean it’s bad. Besides, the new patch they just released fixed a lot of those matchmaking issues.”
More than once Cole had entertained the idea of going back to Seattle and trying to reclaim his position at Digital Dreamers, Inc. After all that had happened recently, he’d be lucky if Jason would ever talk to him again. For now, he could only indulge in some quick geeky banter. Suddenly, even that felt strange. It was like putting on an old skin. Those things never fit right and they all stank after being left alone for too long.
As always, Stu had a knack for keeping Cole on his toes. “Did you escape from prison?”
Deciding it would save time if he didn’t attempt to deflect that question, Cole said, “Yeah.”
“That’s so freaking cool! All right. Let me see here.” From the other end of the digital connection came the tapping of frantic fingers on a keyboard. Every now and then Stu would mutter to himself, but Cole didn’t interrupt the process. Before too long Stu declared, “Found a few that might be what you’re after. There’s someone named Maddy. Last time she checked in, she’d just flown into Arizona from Jersey.”
“Who else? Someone in Colorado or close to it.”
“There’s some guys who used to work out of Kansas, but they dropped off the grid years ago.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said,” Stu replied. “Not all of you guys report in regularly. Some are real jerks. I don’t think they trust us. Anyway, those guys from Kansas aren’t a very safe bet but Jessup is usually pretty reliable.”
“Jessup? I think I met him in Philly.”
“That’s the one! He went out there to get what he could from all of that Lancroft loot.” After a few more taps Stu added, “Looks like Jessup isn’t available or he’s outside of coverage. Could be his phone is off. If you’ve got stuff to do, I can keep trying and let him know you’re looking.”
“Can you connect me to Paige?” he asked.
“Sure, hang on.” After a few seconds Stu returned to say, “Voice mail.”
“Call right back. Maybe she’ll pick up this time.” That was the same trick he had used to get his parents to pick up the phone after they bought their first answering machine.
“I’ll dial again,” Stu said hesitantly, “but I don’t …Wait. Someone picked up. Hang on.”
Sometimes, even in the era of Smartphones and caller ID, the old tricks were still the best ones.
“Cole!” Paige said excitedly. “Where the hell are you?”
“I’m in Colorado, heading south on Highway 69.”
Lambert stepped up to Cole, tapped him on the shoulder and said “The best place to be when you’re fucked. Heh heh.” When Cole snapped around to look at him, the inmate added, “You know. Fucked …sixty-nine. I got the snacks and some clothes.” Holding up a bag containing a few Broncos T-shirts, he added, “Clearance sale.”
“Hey!” Paige snapped. “Remember me?”
“Yeah. Sorry about that.”
“Who’s with you?”
“Long story,” Cole sighed. “Before I start in on that, I want to know who you handed me over to.”
She paused for several heartbeats, and when she spoke again, it was in a voice as quiet as it was tender. Knowing Paige as well as he did, Cole had no doubt the former was to cover up the latter. “I was looking for help while all of that garbage went down with the Nymar. I had to find someone to take some of the pressure off of us because we were getting set up for killing those cops, and I wound up talking to a guy named Adderson. He runs a group that’s pulled together from police, feds, and some other law enforcement and media people. They’re called the Inhuman Response Division. Bob Stanze hooked me up with them and they seem to know their stuff. There’s not enough time to explain it all, but the IRD wants to prepare an armed strike force to be used against Nymar, shapeshifters, and all the other things that have been tearing up every other city lately. I wasn’t sure about it, but Adderson said he already had a team working on curing Nymar. After almost losing you to that Shadow Spore, I couldn’t pass on a chance to get you fixed up.”
Listening to Paige, Cole felt ashamed for all of the terrible things he’d wished upon her when he was in custody or getting beaten to within an inch of his life.
“Adderson believes Skinners weren’t killing cops,” she continued. “He was supposed to get you out of prison and to someplace where you might get cured. If someone was needed to take the fall for those cop killings to put all of that shit to rest, I was going to be the one. Please believe that, Cole. After I almost—”
Rather than make her relive those moments when she’d thought her only choice was to kill him before he became a full Nymar, Cole said, “I believe you.”
“What happened in prison?” Paige asked. “Why were you moved from Canon City?”
“That’s another long story,” he said.
“Did they cure you?”
“The guys running that place did cut me open. I think they honestly tried to get the tendrils out, but they didn’t succeed.”
“Damn,” Paige sighed.
“They’re also not who you think they are, Paige. I don’t know if they’re the same ones you talked to or someone else, but I wound up in some place run by followers of Jonah Lancroft. They used runes to hide themselves and were ready to cut me to pieces to learn whatever they could.”
She pulled in a deep breath. When Paige spoke again, her voice was cold steel. “What did they do to you?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Tell me, God damn it!”
“The place is leveled, Paige. Two Full Bloods got to it and tore it down. One of them was Mr. Burkis. Do you think this Adderson guy knew what was going to happen?”
“No,” she said, with some measure of relief in her voice. “I honestly don’t. He knew you were taken from the prison in Canon City and was trying to get me to tell him anything I knew about where you’d gone. I seriously don’t think he knew where you were.”
“Are they Skinners?”
“The IRD?”
“Yeah,” Cole said as he looked around. The fact that he’d wound up talking longer than he’d expected, combined with the subject matter, was making him increasingly uncomfortable standing in front of a busy door at a public truck stop. “Are those guys Skinners?”
“No. They barely know the first thing about us, but are plenty eager to learn.”
