***
Maddie stood in a patient’s room in the vault infirmary watching Faye’s monitor. The blips on the screen were steady. The memory guardian’s heart was beating normally. She was in a deep sleep.
The door behind her opened, and Zach slipped in. “How’s she doing?” the boy asked.
The chatelaine shrugged. “As well as can be expected after tumbling down a flight of stairs.”
He came to stand beside her, staring down at his ancestor. In a nervous voice, he asked, “When is she going to wake up?”
“We don’t know, kiddo,” Maddie replied gently. “There was a lot of swelling around the brain. The doctors had to induce a coma. Until the swelling goes down, she’ll have to stay this way.” Changing the subject to take his mind off the problem, she asked, “Did you get the stuff?”
“Yeah, the two computers and her cell phone.” Turning to look Maddie in the eye, he asked, “Who did this?”
“If I had to guess, it was Leroy Hunt. He’s Abraham Metcalf’s hired gun.” She laughed bitterly. “All the time, I thought I knew what he was up to. I guess I made the biggest mistake a person can make. I underestimated my enemy. Turns out he wasn’t such a dufus after all. Somehow, he found a way to throw my people off his trail.”
“I don’t think it was one guy who pulled this off,” Zach said. He explained what he’d found in the backyard.
“Maybe Metcalf sent a few other lackeys along to help out.” Maddie shrugged.
Zach’s temper flared. “How can you be so calm about this?”
“Hey, kiddo, pipe down. Even if Faye can’t hear you there are other sick people in the vicinity.” She grabbed him by the elbow and steered him out of the infirmary and back across the Central Catalog to her office. Once there, she closed the door. “Have a seat,” she ordered.
He sullenly dropped into a chair.
Settling behind her desk, she said, “You’ve obviously got something on your chest, so let’s hear it.”
For once, Zach didn’t seem worried about the war club propped in the corner. He stared at the chatelaine angrily. “Gamma’s in a coma. Hannah’s been carried off, and you’re acting like it’s business as usual instead of grabbing every gun in this place and storming the Nephilim compound to get her back!”
“You think I don’t care?” Maddie challenged. “I think the problem is that loss is a new experience for you.”
The boy refused to back down. He returned her glare. “So, you’re saying that once I’ve lost as many people as you have, I’ll learn to shrug it off?”
Maddie enunciated her reply through gritted teeth. “I’m saying that I’ve learned not to bleed until I’m cut. Kid, try to remember. Faye is still alive. She might pull through this. Hannah is still alive too.”
“You don’t know that for sure!” he cast back fiercely.
“Yes, I do,” she retorted with conviction.
Zach paused in his tirade, stunned enough to look her in the eye. “How?”
“From what I’ve observed and what Faye has told me about her, Hannah is a very smart girl.”
“Yeah, she is,” the tyro agreed, softening.
“But she’s something a lot more important than smart. She’s determined and resourceful. When she was fourteen, she figured out a way to escape a compound protected by armed guards and razor wire. She’s got a powerful will to live and to live life on her own terms.”
The boy wasn’t entirely convinced. “But it’s not up to her, is it!” he challenged. “That old weirdo she was married to probably wants her dead.”
Maddie laughed outright at his statement. “Metcalf? Please. He dotes on her. He’s the last person on earth who wants to see her dead. Trust me on this. She’ll find a way to stay alive.”
The tyro lapsed into silence.
The chatelaine tapped her long fingernails on the desk blotter, considering. “My biggest problem, at the moment, isn’t what to do about Faye or Hannah. It’s what to do about you.”
A stunned look crossed the boy’s face. “Me? I didn’t cause this mess.”
“No, you didn’t.” Maddie cast an appraising look at him. “But you’ve got an overwhelming urge to finish it. And to finish it right now.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” he admitted.
“You’re so angry that you’re itching for payback.”
“Is that so wrong?’
Maddie smiled. “No, it makes sense given how much they both mean to you. But as it stands now, the only thing you’d accomplish by going off half-cocked is to get yourself killed.”
Zach jumped out of his chair. “So, what am I supposed to do? Sit and twiddle my thumbs while you and the rest of the Arkana bigwigs discuss strategy?”
Refusing to be offended, the chatelaine replied smoothly. “Aside from lots of experience with loss, I’ve had even more experience dealing with reckless young hotheads.”
“Don’t tell me,” he raised his hands in protest. “You’re going to assign me some more filing as penance for going off on you.”
“Nope. I’m going to give you something to hit.”
Zach was so surprised by her words that he sank back down into his chair and gawked at her. “Huh?”
“You’re a little young for this kind of training. I ordinarily don’t approve it til a candidate is at least eighteen, but this is a special circumstance. Tomorrow you’ll report to the Security Division. You’ll be taught hand-to-hand combat and how to use weapons.”
“And what am I supposed to do with all that?” Zach asked helplessly.
“In the short term, it’ll satisfy your need to pummel somebody, and you’ll learn how to do it properly. It will also tire you out enough so that you don’t get into mischief during your downtime. While you’re busy with that, me and the rest of the old fogies will have that strategy session you mentioned earlier. Once we figure out how to handle the situation, we’ll give you what you want most.”
“And what’s that?”
Maddie smiled sardonically. “A way to get your girlfriend back.”
Chapter 39—Arrivals and Departures
Leroy listened to
