Lone star standoff, p.10
Lone Star Standoff, page 10
He fought the sedan as it tried to slide one way and then the other. Its balding wheels wobbled and its engine argued against every maneuver. Nathan practically heard the old machine sigh relief as he turned into a suburban downtown with narrower streets that forced him to slow. But he refused to slow much at all.
The police, however, would not dare risk the lives of the locals. Instead of racing through the streets after him, they would attempt a more strategic approach — coordinating multiple cruisers to block off roads, intending to corral him into a location where they could apprehend him. All except one cruiser. Good ol’ Square Jaw remained on Nathan’s tail.
Nathan wondered if the man’s boss was shouting into a mic in some office, demanding that Square Jaw back off, that he was endangering lives, that he would be suspended if he continued a high-speed pursuit through a neighborhood with women and children. Nathan even considered asking Robin to patch into the police frequency and let him hear. But no. He had to concentrate on every turn of the wheel. After all, he was zipping through a neighborhood with women and children.
He entered an area thick with trees — thick for a Texas town that boasted one gentle hill. Then he heard the distinct and terrible growl. Distinct because it clearly originated from a Japanese motorcycle — the kind that forced the driver to bend far forward over a brightly painted gas tank. Terrible because only one person could possibly be the driver.
As Nathan crossed an intersection, the motorcycle launched off the sloped frontend of a sports car and slammed onto the sedan’s hood. Time slowed for one breath. Long enough for Nathan to see the spinning motorcycle wheels rip across the hood, the sudden weight dented the hood in, the thin leg of the rider dropped for balance, and though she wore a helmet that masked her face, he knew who stared back at him — Persenet.
In the next instant, the world resumed. Persenet dismounted the sedan with a controlled bounce. She hit the ground and swerved to avoid the police cruiser coming up behind. Though she had done no harm to the sedan other than cosmetic, she had succeeded. Her sudden appearance landing on the car had startled Nathan, causing him to overcorrect. He lost control of his vehicle.
Smashing alongside a row of cars, he hopped the curb with a loud clank. A sharp turn of the wheel and he managed to avoid a head-on crash into the trees, instead slamming the right side of the car across two pines. His body wracked sideways, rattling his head and nearly snapping his neck. With his shaken brain still attempting to refocus, he heard the cry of the police cruiser siren as Square Jaw spun uncontrolled into the trees on the opposite side of the street.
Nathan tried to think. But the world would not stop spinning. He felt all the pain and disorientation of being drunk without any of the pleasure. He heard a distant rumble grow louder until a blurry image of a motorcycle rolled by.
Oh, that’s right — Persenet. I’m in danger.
He bent toward the passenger side for the laptop, but it had fallen down the footwell and his seatbelt had locked. Keeping one eye on Persenet — she inspected the police cruiser — he released the seatbelt and leaned for the laptop. The darn thing did not cooperate, and Nathan finally had to duck fully down to pull it out of the footwell.
Snatching it up, he popped back, ready to find Persenet holding a gun at his head. But she still bothered with the cruiser. In fact, she dragged Square Jaw out of the wreckage. He was dazed and had a thin line of blood marring his good looks, but otherwise, he appeared fine. Until she pulled out her weapon.
Nathan shoved the sedan door open, letting its harsh squeak announce his presence. Whipping out Maggie, he opened fire. He had no expectation that he would come close to hitting any target — not with such a sloppy maneuver and not with his head still reeling from the car crash — but he would distract Persenet.
Keeping most of her attention on Square Jaw, she managed to return fire — equally sloppy with the main purpose of holding Nathan back. It would work, too. He could not afford to rush her. Not with the laptop in hand and every cop in three states searching for him.
“Sorry, Square Jaw,” he muttered as he scurried around the sedan and into the woods.
The sound of a single discharge told the tale. If she had failed to get her second soul before, she had one now. And she would be coming after him. He also heard the sirens approaching. Soon, the police would discover Square Jaw — shot in the head — and they would add cop killer to Nathan’s list of offenses.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
As Nathan emerged from the end of the wooded section, he stepped onto a roughly-drawn baseball diamond with a chainlink batting cage and bleachers only three steps high. Two bare soccer fields connected to each other nearby, and at the far end, a high school stood with the classic, blocky-brick design of the 1970s. By its massive size, Nathan suspected the school served several counties in the area.
Scurrying around the perimeter, staying inside the tree line, he worked his way toward the building. This late in the day, school had been out for hours. The place looked locked up, though he would have to be careful — a janitor finishing the hallways and classrooms before going home could cause an ugly problem.
Wiping the sweat from his eyes, and pleased to see that he could walk a straight line without drifting, he tapped his ear-comm. “Robin? You there?”
“Of course. I would never leave you alone. Not in this kind of situation, at least. I mean, if you ever went out on a date or were entertaining a lady in a room, then you can rest assured I wouldn’t be eavesdropping. Not that I’d be interested in hearing a man grunting anyway. Now if you had two women with you, that might be a different story.”
Nathan let her ramble on. She needed to get it out, and it gave him a little comfort. But at length, they had to return to his current situation. “I’m on foot.”
“I know. I’m monitoring the police band now. Are you feeling okay? The early report on your car worried me you might have died once already.”
“Still got two souls. My head’s starting to clear, but I’ve certainly been smacked around today. I’m near a high school.”
“Hawktail Regional High. I see it on the map. I’m trying to get ahold of another satellite so I can watch you closer and in real time.”
“Persenet’s here. She’s busy with the police at the moment. Either dodging them or killing them.”
“That explains the two murdered cops that are being attributed to you.”
“I figured.”
Nathan reached the edge of the school parking lot. Mostly empty. He thought about boosting one of the teachers’ cars but rejected the idea. Not only would the stolen car get reported quickly, thus defeating the purpose, but he felt bad about screwing over a teacher. They had a hard enough time on their own. They didn’t need him making matters worse.
But as he worked his way further around, he spied the backend of the kitchen. A large dumpster butted against a wall next to an access door. Two pickup trucks, white with the school emblem on the doors, sat in a small lot to the side — probably meant for groundskeepers or to haul kitchen trash after a long day. Nathan could work with those.
He thought about hotwiring the truck — a skill he had become better at though far from proficient — but hotwiring cars tended to ruin them beyond a single use. If he could manage to get the truck far enough away from the police, it would be advantageous to be able to park somewhere and later continue on in the same vehicle. Otherwise, he’d have to ditch the truck and steal another vehicle — making it more likely the police would pick up his trail. Or maybe it was all wishful thinking. Either way, he decided he would be better off sneaking into the main offices of the high school and swiping the truck keys.
Breaking in posed no challenge at all. Numerous classroom windows had been left open to keep the rooms from overheating. No principal wanted to pay for air-conditioning throughout a hot Southern night. Nathan shuffled across the short path from the tree line to the nearest window. Without breaking his stride, he leapt up and slithered in.
He dropped into a classroom that appeared to be focused on cultural studies. One corner of the room had been decorated with Spanish themes — Spain’s flag, bull fighting posters, and a mannequin wearing a Flamenco dress. The next corner over displayed the land of Israel — the blue-and-white flag, a poster featuring braided bread, and a model depicting a kibbutz. Along the middle of the far wall, Nathan saw a large section devoted to several Asian cultures — the Japanese flag, a yin-yang symbol, and a Korean Tae Kwon Do uniform.
“You okay?” Robin asked. “You got quiet, and I don’t hear any movement.”
“I’m fine.” He didn’t understand why these displays caught his attention until she had spoken. Then it hit him. As an Immortal, he would probably visit every inch of the Earth. These cultures would no longer be faraway ideas taught in a classroom but would become places where he experienced each one as deeply as he desired. He could spend a lifetime in each country and still have time for more.
Unless I end up in jail for a century because I was caught gazing at high school posters when I should be moving.
He peeked out the classroom door and saw a wide empty hallway lined with thin red lockers. Motivational posters and graffiti promoting a favorite band were among the decorations on the walls. It brought back memories of his own high school days — memories that would forever be receding into the distance.
He listened for any sound of movement echoing through the vacant school but heard only silence. Good. Whispering, he said, “You wouldn’t by any chance have pulled up a map of this place. I don’t know whether to go to the left or right.”
“Please, you are talking to me — of course I have it. What room are you in?”
He glanced up at the door. “Twenty-seven.”
“Make a left, go to the end, a right, go to the end, you’ll hit a stairwell. Tell me when you get there.”
Nathan took two steps into the hall, heard the echo of each step, and jumped back into the classroom. He holstered Maggie behind his back and took off his shoes. Padding down the hall in his socks, he knew that the few teachers still in the building, or the janitors or administrative people, would never hear him.
“If this is a bad time tell me,” Robin went on, “but it seems to me like the best time to update you on a few things. After all, you don’t really give a gal a lot of space to talk. And stop rolling your eyes. I can hear that. After you left the wind farm, Altman and I have been a little busy. We needed a way to extract her from the mess you’ve created. I figured the best thing to do was use the system against itself, and thankfully, the British girl agreed. You know, the more we work with her, the more I like her. Anyway, she stashed all her equipment and ripped up her shirt, hit herself in the face with a rock, and started walking on the streets until the cops picked her up. Nothing official in the system other than that she’s been brought into the station, but I expect they are interviewing her as she makes a full report. Our plan is that she’s going to say you kidnapped her.”
“Sheesh,” Nathan whispered. “Don’t you think they have enough reasons to come after me already?”
“At this point, there’s nothing we can add to your rap sheet that’s going to make a difference. But it will make a difference for Altman. She’s not a suspect right now. She’s your victim. You kidnapped her, beat her up, and tossed her aside when you were done with her. I don’t know if she’s going to claim you raped her, but that might go in your file, too. The important thing is that she will get a visit from a sketch artist. Now, they already have blurry images of you from security cameras, so she can’t go crazy making a different picture with the artist. But she can make it unique in important ways. Even little things, like putting a mole on your cheek or a scar that you don’t have might make the difference down the road. I’ve been working hard at building up a new ID for her, too. Once she’s done with the police, she’ll stay at a motel for a few days and make sure they aren’t watching her. By that time, I’ll have her all squared away and she’ll be able to slip into a new identity.”
Nathan informed Robin he had reached the stairwell.
“Then look up. There should be a sign pointing to a teachers’ lounge. It has a backdoor that connects to the main offices. I figured that would be a better way to get in then attempting to go through the front which has to be locked and probably has a camera aimed on it.”
Nathan glanced upward, and indeed a sign pointing to the Teachers’ Lounge hung off the ceiling. He entered the room — two beaten couches, a sink with a coffee machine, and a few tables with chairs. A wooden door to the offices was next to a refrigerator at least a decade old. Also, by the window, an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts.
As Nathan crossed to the door and into the main offices, as he kept low beneath the counters and worked his way around in search of keys, he listened to Robin continue.
“Your ID is going to be the tricky part,” she said. “For the next few months, you have to be vigilant because there is limited work I can do that won’t get noticed. After all, if a cop killer/rapist/kidnapper/possible terrorist goes from being the most wanted in three states to suddenly disappearing from all computer systems, well, that might draw a little focus. So far, they haven’t contacted the FBI, so the various state police are still seeing this as a local matter. But if they don’t broaden their view soon, I have no doubt Clockwork will do it for them. It won’t be long before they know that their problems have crossed state lines. Then the FBI gets called.
“What we need to do is not get you in any more trouble — obviously, after you’ve escaped the current situation — and then let things calm down. Let the trails go cold. There’s always going to be a detective or two who will spend the rest of their lives trying to find you, but you’ll outlive them. Once you’re no longer a matter of daily briefings, I can slowly eradicate you from all of their files. It’ll look like lost data from a glitch or two. Eventually, nobody will be accessing the files anyway, and I’ll be able to remove everything. It’s going to take a ton of time, though. The key thing is that once you get out of this tonight, you do not bring any more notice down on yourself.”
“Me? I just want to relax on the beach with a margarita and watch the waves roll in.”
Robin snorted. If he wasn’t in such a bad predicament, he would have played up the image more just to hear her snort again. Instead, he searched the office for those keys.
There were two obvious places to look first — any type of wall-mounted hooks holding all the school’s keys or the drawers of the main receptionist’s desk. With his head barely breaking the level of the nearest table, he panned his view around the office. No wall-mounted key hooks. Crawling on the floor, he made his way to the receptionist’s desk. The drawers were locked, but this was not a high security prison or even a low security convenience store. A little jangling with his pocketknife, and he had the drawer open.
“I’ve got the keys. I’m on my way to the pickup trucks. Once I know which truck I’m taking, is it possible for you to fake some kind of requisition so that nobody thinks it’s stolen in the morning?”
“You dear, sweet, dumb Immortal. That paperwork has been done for the last fifteen minutes. I’m just waiting on you to tell me which truck we’re sending out. As long as the cops don’t catch you at the school, you should be able to buy yourself at least half a day if not more. Not bad for a Plan B.”
“Nathan,” a voice sing-songed in the hallway. And underneath that playful tone, Nathan heard a familiar, mechanical growl.
“Um, Robin — you better be working on Plans C, D, and E. Persenet’s here.”
“In the office?”
“Not yet. But I can hear her in the hallways — and she’s brought her motorcycle.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Though he had been an Immortal for a comparatively short time, Nathan thought he had moved beyond being shocked. After experiencing the Cardinal, how could anything surprise him? Yet as he entered the hallway, as he witnessed a fifteen-year-old girl sitting on a motorcycle like a knight preparing to joust, he could not help but be startled. He certainly thought he would never forget the bizarre sight. Provided he lived.
“There are people in this building,” Nathan said. “You’re going to attract the wrong kind of attention.”
“You mean like this?” Persenet reached behind her and tossed a large ball at Nathan.
Not a ball, though. He knew the truth the moment he heard the dull, stomach-churning clump as it hit the floor. Even before it came close enough to identify, Nathan knew — a human head.
“Why would you do that? You don’t need a second soul. The staff here wasn’t going to get in your way. If anything, they’d see you as a girl in trouble, assaulted by a big man, a wanted criminal. They would’ve tried to help you.”
“We’re trying to protect our people, and you want to murder one of us.”
“I want to stop a crazed man from continuing to harm people.”
“You’re a hypocrite. So far, I’m counting at least five people killed since you arrived in the States — all because you insist on getting that laptop so you can hunt down one of your own. I don’t think you have any room for a discussion of Immortal morality.” She revved the motorcycle. “Not unless you want to hand it over and stop getting innocent people killed?”
Nathan’s fingers tightened on the laptop as if it were a weapon. With the motorcycle rumbling, he considered reaching back for Maggie and shooting, but he didn’t want to cause greater noise — especially with the police combing the nearby area. Hearing an engine in the distance would not pique their attention. Hearing gunshots definitely would.
