Bite Marks

push.

Vayl sped forward to catch the seinji. Who was a dense little man. The impact sent them both through the tower’s floor.

I began to pick gnomes off the ladder. Already breathing heavily from the exertion of climbing, holding, hanging, and fighting, they couldn’t seem to function when I punched them in the diaphragm. One after another they dropped, falling prey either to their awkward landings, or Cole and Kyphas’s attentions.

Finally I was in.

I took a quick look around. Plush seats on either end. Poles in the middle with handholds on the sides.

Where the hell are the controls? I felt along the smooth backrests and footkicks. Then I tore the cushions off. Under the second one I found a set of indentations in the seat, beside which had been written words in a language I didn’t understand. But above them, for the illiterate or slow-on-the-uptake, color pictures of the various destinations at which one might expect to arrive if she thumbed one of those hollows. I jammed my finger into the one next to a pristine white beach. The sky car lurched.

I looked out. Saw Kyphas grab Johnson by the collar and begin to whisper to him. He shook his head.

She bit a gaping hole in his ear. He screamed, but his hands didn’t go to the new wound. They were at his chest. Ripping his shirt open so he could watch his skin split.

“Kyphas!” I yelled. “Kill him now!”

She smiled, pretending not to hear as he fell to the floor, convulsing, blood staining his thighs and shoulders as the larvae began to emerge. A single loud shot. Cole, at least, had heard my order.

“Watch for larvae!” I called as a new section of roof began to retract and the sky car turned, performing an automatic cable change that hardly even made it sway. He nodded, saw one inching toward a downed guard and stomped. Jack had found another, taken a bite and pronounced it yummy. Holy crap, what kind of food would that mutt ever snub? While my dog ran around the room, snapping up snacks, I watched the distance between the sky car and the roof narrow. If I timed it just right I’d be able to jump back onto the tower supports. If not, I’d plummet to my death.

“Jaz!” Cole called.

I looked back. He cracked a stirring guard in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. “What?”

“We’re missing one!”

“Gnome?”

“No! Carrier! I think Tykes went out the hole in the floor!” No big deal. Probably. I mean, Vayl had gone first with Ruvin. No doubt they had him surrounded.

“You going to be okay?” I asked, not looking back. It was almost time for my jump.

“As long as Jack doesn’t puke right away I think we’re good. Meetcha on the other side!” I slid to the edge of the sky car’s door. And jumped.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

The sky car lurched just as I left it, throwing me sideways so that I hit the tower’s maintenance platform rolling. I scrabbled for a hold, my fingernails digging in so deeply that splinters flew. But I was moving too fast to stop my spin. I fell over the side, reaching for any kind of hold that could slow my momentum. My hand punched into empty air, my fingers flailed. Then my forearm hit a support beam and I locked my elbow around it, grabbing my wrist with my opposite hand to complete the circle just in time to stop my descent.

“Jesus!” I screamed as the wood dug into my joint, making me wonder briefly if my muscles and tendons were going to rip free, forcing me to go hook hunting before my next mission. They held.

I dangled there for a second, my knees banging into the tower’s supports, trying not to blubber from the pain and relief. Then I found a foothold and began a more controlled descent, wishing I had time to rub the sore spot. Or at least pout a little.

That’s it, Pete, you and I are going to— I stopped. Pete had died. Murdered in his own office. And I would never get to mentally bitch-slap him again. I took a deep breath.

Later, I promise. I will cry for you until my lungs bleed. And after that I’ll find your killer. That’s another promise, my friend. But for now, surely you’d want me to do this.

I hoped so. But even if my late boss would’ve preferred me to fall into a useless heap of snot bubbles I’d have kept climbing. Because that was the only way I knew to survive.

Vayl and Ruvin weren’t hanging out under the tower. Okay, then. Maybe my sverhamin was slamming Tykes into Crindertab’s porch-side wall while Ruvin clapped his hands in delight. Which wouldn’t last long once he heard about Tabitha.

Maybe we can get one of the Resistance gnomes to tell him.

I’d taken a couple of steps toward the restaurant when I heard the command.

“Stop where you are, Lucille.” I turned toward Wirdilling Drive. Where Tabitha stood holding a little girl in her arms. It was Alice, the barefoot wonder from Crindertab’s, looking sleepy and somewhat confused as she realized her mum was nowhere nearby. She began to struggle, but Tabitha had a firm grip. Behind her stood the last living carrier, Tykes, looking pale and nauseous. Kneeling before her—

aww no! —Ruvin and Vayl.

“Do you see what I have done?” she exulted as I slowly walked toward her. “I have sent your leader to his knees. And all it took was the life of a little child.” Her wrist moved slightly and I saw the steak knife she held, probably stolen from a drawer of the house from which she’d nabbed the girl while her mom and Lymon were distracted.

I should’ve told Bergman to kill her when he had the chance. Not that he’d have been capable.