“Stop the car!” Will shouted.
He reached over and yanked on the door handle, but the driver had locked the doors when they started to move.
Leigh wrapped both arms around Will and held him as tightly as she could. Will fought her.
“Let me go, they’re dying,” he cried.
“Will, no, there are too many of them. You can’t go back. They’ll just get you, too. We have to go.”
“No, you don’t understand. Nothing will happen to me. The Site wants me alive!”
“Sir?” the driver asked from the front seat. “Is everything all right?”
The car had slowed. Will fought free of Leigh’s arms and gave the door handle a savage yank. He spilled out to the street,sprawling on his hands and knees. He pushed himself to his feet. Now that he was out of the car, he could hear the roars ofthe crowd—shouts about the Oracle, and God, and the devil. Will’s mind went white with fury.
“Will!” Leigh yelled behind him, from inside the car.
Will ran back down the sidewalk, toward the group surrounding Hamza and Miko. The second Town Car was still idling on thecurb. Through the windshield, Will could see the driver talking excitedly on his cell phone while watching the crowd.
With two great steps, Will leapt onto the hood of the Town Car. The driver stared at him in shock.
“Call the police!” Will yelled at the driver. “Now!”
Without waiting for an answer, Will took another step onto the car’s roof. He looked down into the crowd. He could see hisfriends. Miko was curled into a tight ball, and Hamza’s arms were around his wife, trying to shield her.
“Stop!” Will shouted. “I’m here!”
The men at the edge of the crowd heard him and looked. Eyes widened, and a moment later, almost as one, the rest of them turnedto see him. He could hear Miko sobbing.
“You know who I am,” Will said. “What I can do. Get the fuck out of my way.”
Will jumped down from the roof of the car. He stared into the face of the first person he saw, an older man, grizzled withstubble. The man stumbled back, and Will stepped forward. And so it continued through to the center of the mob, people partingto let him through, Will staring through anyone who met his eyes until they looked away.
He bent down over Hamza and Miko. Hamza’s eyes were closed, his face bruised and swollen. Blood leaked from his nose and mouth,giving a thin, dark shine to the lower half of his face. Miko looked up, saw him. She looked better than Hamza, but only just.
“Will . . .” she managed, barely.
“Come on,” Will said. “We have to go now. Can you get up?”
“I don’t know. I’ll try. Hamza . . .”
“I’ll help him.”
He slowly helped Miko to her feet. She cradled her belly protectively with one arm, and with the other she held out an armto help Will pull Hamza up. Hamza stirred briefly as he was lifted, but didn’t open his eyes. Will put Hamza’s arm acrosshis shoulder and looked up, half expecting the crowd to have surrounded them again. They hadn’t. The path was clear, and thepeople who had, just moments ago, been screaming with exultation as they beat two people to death now just watched in eeriesilence.
Will hobbled with Hamza and Miko to the street, grabbing their dropped bags on the way. The second Town Car was still at thecurb. Miko opened the back door, and Will pushed Hamza into the car. Hamza had come around enough to help—he dragged himselfto the other side of the car to make room for Miko.
Miko suddenly let out a cry of pain and clutched her stomach. She wobbled, almost going to her knees.
“Oh no,” she gasped. “No, please.”
“Here,” Will said.
He got Miko into the backseat as carefully as he could. Her breathing was rapid, and tears coursed down her face.
“Get them to the goddamn hospital!” Will shouted at the driver, who nodded, his eyes wide.
“Will!” Hamza managed. “Get out of here.”
“I can’t leave you two.”
“Yes, you can. You have to. It’s . . . safer. Just go.”
Will looked into his friend’s face, realizing that “safe” in this context meant as far away from the Oracle as possible, andunderstanding, and agreeing.
He stepped back and closed the car door. The Town Car peeled out from the curb. Will turned back to face the crowd. In thedistance, he could hear sirens approaching, and apparently so could they. People were glancing at one another, awakening towhat they’d just done, drifting away down the sidewalk in small, shamed groups.
“How dare you?” Will said. He looked from face to face. Not one of them would look him in the eye. “What are you people?”
“God is with us,” a man with long, gray hair said. “That’s all you need to know, monster.”
If Will had been holding a gun, he would have shot the man dead. As it was, he used the weapon he had.
“I am,” he said. “I am a monster. You’re all going to die. Horribly, and in pain. Every single one of you. You’re dead. Trustthe monster. The Oracle never lies.”
The crowd recoiled, shock on every face. Will turned and walked away, toward the first car. He could see Leigh waiting forhim.
Behind him, shouts of confusion and apology spiraled up from the crowd. Will didn’t look back.
Chapter 35
The Town Car moved north along Ninth Avenue, inching its way through heavy traffic on its way to the George Washington Bridge.
The Oracle was hunched down in his seat, his arms clenched around his torso, sunglasses on and a baseball cap pulled downlow over his face. He presented like a pill bug curled up into an armored ball after being poked.
Leigh wanted to talk
