Chill Factor (15 page)

The black roller roared across asphalt. I watched it strip a Joshua tree out of the earth, shred it into toothpicks, and fling it up into the impenetrable darkness. Lightning flared blue inside the darkness, static electricity flaring off of every surface capable of carrying a charge, crawling eerily on the breaking edge of the wave, flaring in hot blue lines along the telephone wires. A frantically flapping hawk disappeared in an explosion of shredded feathers.

I watched the sun disappear behind that black storm front, and closed my eyes.

Sound came distantly. Inside my hardened bubble it was one long, inhuman scream, like metal being tortured. I was afraid to open my eyes, but I knew the sand around me was gone, scoured down to hard-packed earth, eroded in patches down to bedrock.
Dear God, please
…

I felt a sting of hot sand spurt against my face. Static electricity zapped at me, burning; I smelt the hot snap of it everywhere around me. I struggled to hold on to the matrix protecting me, but the howling monster outside was so strong, so
incredibly
strong
…I couldn’t hold it. Couldn’t…the pressure of the black roller was breaking down the bubble of air that was all that stood between me and being flayed alive.

I curled up tight, gasping in stale breaths, resisting the urge to add my scream to that of the insane wind out there. When I risked a look, I saw a black snake of razor wire flailing over me, held back from my skin by millimetres.

Another white-hot burst of sand broke through the shield, this one near my knees. I struggled to seal it, but the air was coming loose from its matrix, molecules spinning out of control; there were fiery strikes everywhere now, burning…

And then the shield weakened, and I was on fire.

It lasted for only a few seconds, but the pain was intense, disorienting. I couldn’t breathe. Instinct wouldn’t let me open my mouth or eyes. Sand quickly buried me, which in a sense was a blessing against the already abraded mess of my skin.

The pressure of wind against me slowed to a bully’s shove, then gusts, then a breeze.

Then silence.

The black roller had moved on.

My lungs were aching. I clawed sand away, convulsed my way up to a sitting position, and sucked in a hazy, dry breath. Coughed and tasted ozone.

It was unnaturally still. Nothing but a low-
hanging blur of dust so fine it barely qualified as talcum powder, and a landscape scoured clean of everything taller than the asphalt road, which had been worn down in spots to thin grey gravel.

I rolled over, took hold of the metal spike in my leg, and yanked it free. The world wobbled and went dark, and I saw stars, felt the hot spurt of blood, and fumbled my shirt off to tie it hard against my thigh. I managed to get to my feet and limped slowly into the devastation, looking for the Seville.

I didn’t recognise it at first. It had the ancient look of something that had been left out here for years, scrubbed down to base metal; the tyres were shredded into thin black fibres. The hood was gone, along with the doors and the trunk lid. The leather interior was a tattered, sand-heaped mess.

No sign of Chaz. I limped around the far side and spotted a heap of rags on the other side.

He’d crawled out and tried to take shelter against the back right tyre; it had been the only real cover available, but it hadn’t helped. He hadn’t made a shell the way I had, or if he had, it hadn’t worked long enough.

He was missing his skin.

His body was a glistening red-black mess with white bone showing in places.

I sank down on my knees and wished I could cry, but there was nothing left. Nothing but fear.

‘You stupid bastard,’ I whispered. ‘God, I’m so sorry.’

I checked, cringing at the contact of my fingers on his raw flesh. He wasn’t breathing, and there was no pulse. After a long, weary pause, I got up and limped back to the wind-scoured road, light-headed, wounded, sand-burnt.

Still alive, despite everything.

Stranded under the hot glare of the sun.

I didn’t tell them the rest. I ended it with Chaz’s death; there was more, but it was none of their damn business. When I was finished, there was silence in the poker room. Lots of it, flowing deep and cold. Most of the card players were staring down, up, away from me.

All except for Quinn, whose eyes were fixed on me in concentration so intense it was almost sexual, and Charles Ashworth, who looked drained. Tired. Old.

‘Thank you,’ he finally said, and turned back to the table. His voice sounded rusty and ancient. ‘I have no further need for her. You may do as you like.’

That had a bad ring to it. I shifted slightly in the chair. Nobody was holding me down, and I was mostly recovered from the last shock; despite the presence of Quinn and the big, burly guys outside, I was giving myself pretty good odds on getting out alive if I had to fight.

‘Don’t be alarmed,’ Myron Lazlo said, in that warm, gentle voice. ‘We don’t mean you harm, Miss Baldwin.’

I muttered something under my breath about ‘could have fooled me.’ Quinn heard. I saw the answering dark sparkle in his eyes.

‘Yeah, about that, what exactly
do
you mean, Myron?’ I asked. I didn’t sound particularly obsequious about it. ‘What the hell do you
want
with me?’

Myron smiled. It was unsettling, because it looked kindly and grandfatherly and yet there was a kind of entitlement about it that made my spine try to crawl away.

‘We want you to join us,’ he said. ‘We want you to report back to the Wardens and tell them all is well, the problem has been solved.’

‘Solved?’

‘That Jonathan escaped, Kevin died. We do
not
want you to report anything about our meeting, or the existence of the Ma’at. From time to time, we will have assignments for you that will require you to act on our behalf. That is the price of your freedom.’

I swallowed, wished I had a nice cold glass of water, and said, ‘Two problems. First, I don’t take orders from
you
. Second, no matter what I say when I get back, they won’t just believe me that our Kevin and Jonathan problem’s miraculously solved itself.’

The Ma’at, or at least as much of them as were gathered around a high-stakes table, looked at each other and smiled. Damn, they
all
looked smug. It must have been a requirement.

‘My dear, we wouldn’t expect they would,’ Myron assured me. ‘I promise you, Kevin
will
be dead. Quite thoroughly dead, before the end of the day. As for Jonathan…well, I expect you’ll just have to be convincing.’

One of the others said, ‘She won’t betray the Wardens. She’s as solid as a rock. About as thick as one, too.’

‘Rocks are easy,’ Ashworth put in. He brushed imaginary lint from his suit. ‘All you need is a large enough jackhammer.’

Boy, I wasn’t going to like him any more than I had his son.

‘You don’t have to decide now.’ Myron reclaimed the conversation, leant forward and looked presidential. ‘Joanne – may I call you Joanne? – you’re not stupid. Surely you know that the Wardens are riddled with corruption, that the situation you faced with Chaz’ – his eyes flicked to Ashworth, exchanging a silent message that contained a swift apology – ‘was hardly unusual. I understand that you also encountered one of the worst offenders in Florida.’

‘Bad Bob,’ I said, and immediately wished I hadn’t blurted it out. I got a slow nod from all the heads at the table.

‘Dangerous,’ Myron said. ‘You did the world a great favour by removing his influence.’

‘I didn’t do it for the world.’
I did it to save my
ass.

‘Regardless of why you did it, the results were good. Surely Bad Bob confessed to you that he didn’t act alone, that there were other Wardens engaged in illegal activities. You must be aware that it runs rampant throughout the organisation. You’d have to be foolish not to have concluded that to be the case. That’s part of why we were formed, and why we continue to exist. Because the Wardens have become a force for evil, not good. And they need countering.’

I didn’t like thinking about Bad Bob, what he’d said, what he’d done to me. I had a sudden cell-deep vision of his weathered face, his sharp blue eyes, his hands pouring a demon down my throat. I felt a sudden dry constriction in my chest, a desperate need to get
out
of here, away from these men who were starting to strongly remind me of that whole experience.

I stood up. Nobody panicked, not even me. Quinn stayed where he was, shoulders against the wall, arms folded. I walked over to the bar, looked the uniformed attendant in the eye, and ordered a spring water. He handed it over silently. I broke the seal and chugged it, tasting desert and fear and confusion. Handed the empty bottle back.

And then I turned back to Myron and said, ‘The Wardens aren’t perfect. What makes you think you’re any better?’

He just smiled. Wrong tactic. These guys weren’t going to feel anything less than omnipotent, no matter what I said.

I tried again. ‘You can’t kill Kevin.’

‘Why not?’

‘He’s just a kid.’

Myron studied me curiously. ‘Yet you’ve contemplated killing him yourself.’

‘I want to take away his powers, but I don’t think that means he has to die. Jeez, you guys are so damn smart, you can’t come up with a way to neutralise him?’

‘The Wardens failed to,’ said one of the poker players.

‘The Wardens were shut out.
You
were on the inside.’ I paced the room, letting them get used to the idea of me moving. It wouldn’t work with Quinn, of course; the cop was watching me with tolerant, amused eyes, but underneath that was a cold core of absolute competence. I needed Quinn on my side, or gone. What was his story, anyway? A cop, working for the anti-Wardens? There was a story there…and no time for me to learn it.

‘OK, assuming that I’m considering your proposition to work for you…what are you offering?’ I clasped my hands behind my back so
they wouldn’t see how badly they were shaking. The carpet felt soft and springy under my feet. I put a little more swing into my hips, a little more freedom in my walk. Being the only woman in the room had an advantage, especially among older men. ‘Money? Power? What?’

‘We’re offering you the chance to do what you’ve always wanted to do,’ Myron said. ‘We’re offering you the chance to do good.’

I smiled thinly. ‘Oh, my. And if I don’t want to take your generous offer?’

Quinn didn’t move, but he suddenly got a whole lot bigger. Nothing supernatural about it; it was a body-language trick, a cooling of the expression, the warmth draining out of his stare.

‘We’d have to resort to regrettable alternatives,’ Myron said. His eyes didn’t move to indicate Quinn, but I got the point. ‘I’m sure you’re aware that at least one Warden has already met his death here… We did not cause it, but neither did we act to prevent it. Jonathan and Kevin would do a very nice job of eliminating you, if we provided them with reason to do so. But really, my dear, there’s no need for any animosity. The Ma’at are dedicated to exactly the same principles that you honour. The Wardens are no longer the saviours of humanity; they’re parasites, perpetuating a cycle of violence and destruction, enslaving beings who ought by rights to be free. You can’t want to be part of that.’

I inched up into Oversight as I paced the room. It glittered in strings and strands of power, a treacherous spider web. Just now, they weren’t trying to control me, but the minute I started reaching for power, they’d shut me down. Physical attack was out; I was outnumbered and outgunned at every turn.

‘Miss Baldwin? I’m afraid that I require an answer.’

I was about to give him an unladylike one, but then there was a discreet knock at the door and it swung open. A woman looked in – businesslike, professionally coiffed, beautifully dressed – and gave them some kind of high sign. Shut the door gently as she left.

‘Ah,’ Myron said. He sounded ever-so-slightly disgruntled. ‘It appears we’ll have to delay this, Miss Baldwin. Our four o’clock is here. Mr Quinn? Please show our guest to her room.’

Quinn pushed away from the wall, walked to me, and took my arm. It looked gentlemanly, and it felt authoritarian. He steered me across the soft carpet to the door, opened it, and squired me out without another word.

I glanced back.

They were opening another deck of cards. I wasn’t even a topic of conversation.

Quinn took me out past the guards. If the old men of Ma’at had a four o’clock, he or she wasn’t
cooling their heels outside; all I could see was the normal business of the casino. I considered screaming
rape
or
fire
or
cardsharp
, but considering that the security all seemed to know Quinn – he exchanged friendly nods with each uniform we passed – I decided to wait for a better opportunity. Maybe Kevin would come to my rescue. That would be ironic.

The Luxor was full of things I wanted to see – beautifully reproduced Egyptian statues, the faux treasures of Tut, souvenir shops that held the glitter of gold and silver and gems – but Quinn didn’t even slow down.

‘Hey,’ I said as he hustled me past a storefront full of reproduction Egyptian furniture, ‘you know what all villains have in common? They don’t shop. They’re too busy being evil to shop. You guys need to learn the fine art of browsing.’

Quinn laughed softly and put his arm around my shoulders. No sexual intent – it only meant he could steer me more effectively. He smelt woodsy, a mixture of some sharp green aftershave and a dark hint of male sweat. Maybe some gun oil, too. No tobacco. He wasn’t a smoker.

‘Sweetheart,’ he said, ‘you are one lovely piece of work. I gotta tell you, I’ve seen rich men with power over major corporations break down and cry over less than you just survived. You gave as good as you got.’

‘If I gave as good as I got, did good old Chuck get electrocuted? I was too busy convulsing to see.’

He patted my shoulder. From some men, all of this physical contact would have been prurient, but Quinn seemed to not have any ulterior motives, not even the obvious. He was just friendly.

We arrived at a huge bank of closed steel doors. One opened, and Quinn steered me in.