Night Betrayed (31 page)

“Smart. Good for him.”

Selena looked at Theo. “Maybe. It’s dangerous, you know. If the snoot catches someone with anything they call dangerous . . . there are always consequences. People disappear, most often, if the snoot think they’re in too deep—they take them away. Or they take the stuff away and destroy it. That’s why I think you’re taking a big risk, Theo, playing around with those things in the arcade.”

“I’m not afraid of them,” he said. “I know a lot more about them and what they stand for than they realize.”

Selena was taken aback by the ferocity in his face. She would have asked more, but Vonnie appeared. “Sammy’s asking for you,” she said.

All other thoughts fled and Selena rushed off, terrified that the death cloud had changed and she had missed saying goodbye to him.

But when she got to Sam, she found him looking better than he had since he’d opened his eyes earlier. Jennifer was gone; and although the death cloud still lingered, he was animated and seemed more comfortable.

Selena turned back to thank Theo for his intervention, but he wasn’t there.

Lou heard the footsteps on the threshold of the door and turned back to the computer screen.

It was either bad-ass Theo returning for another round, or that bossy woman with the curly hair who kept trying to feed him while giving him the hairy eyeball at the same time.

He had work to do, trying to figure out how to get into Blizek’s deepest secrets. And his damned eyes were tired, because his glasses had been smashed in the rout with the gangas last night.

“Hey.”

It was Theo. Lou turned from the computer to look at him. All of the last bit of anger he’d been holding on to evaporated when he saw his brother walking across the floor.

“Geez, that was a stupid argument,” Lou said, at the same time as Theo spoke: “What the hell were we fighting about?”

He stood and met his brother halfway, and they hugged, clapping each other on the back the way they did when their emotions were high and they didn’t want to get weepy. “I’m sorry,” Lou said.

“I was out of line,” Theo replied, shaking his head as he stepped away. “The things I said were stupid.”

“Yeah, but I was even more whacked. I never realized you felt that way about being . . . the way you are.” In fact, Lou had been beating himself up about it for the last few hours. How could he have missed that? How could he have been so dumb? Fifty years of being in his brother’s head and he didn’t get that he felt like a freak of nature. Fucking idiot.

Theo shrugged. “Whatever. It’d just be nice to know if I was going to die, or live forever. You know? And the way things are going, I’m starting to get the sense that someone up there doesn’t want me to die.”

“Well, I’m seeing a lot more stubble on you,” Lou said. “And a few more gray hairs. So I wouldn’t worry too much about living forever. Pretty soon, you’re going to look like me.” He swiped his hand over the ponytail that reached just past his shoulders.

“So you figure that out yet?” Theo asked, gesturing to the computer. “You had all afternoon.”

Lou snorted. “No. Blizek’s security’s ridiculous. Whatever he had on them, he had to have buried it deeper than China. But did you see those prototypes and screencaps in there for Jolliah’s Castle? That game would have been sweet.”

“I know. I wonder if we could figure out how to build it,” Theo said, pulling up an extra chair. “Maybe even improve on it.”

“Improve on UniZek? That’s blasphemous!”

Theo gave a gruntlike laugh. “You hear anything from Sage or Elliott?”

Lou sobered. “Not yet. She’s trying. But I don’t think there’s much chance of getting him here in less than a week, even if she gets in touch with him. Jade knows how to log on to the network, but I’m not sure where she and Elliott are.”

“I don’t think he’ll last that long,” Theo replied, already tapping on the keyboard. His face was set, and Lou recognized worry and grief in his expression. “I’ve got some news.” Theo paused in his work to look at Lou. “Ran into a couple of old friends just over that way, in Yellow Mountain—the settlement there—this afternoon.”

“Who?”

“The guy who tried to kill me when I was with Fence and Quent—bounty hunter named Seattle. And guess who was with him?”

“Ian Marck.”

“And that woman Remington Truth.”

Lou’s eyes widened. Remington Truth had been in Envy for all of a few hours before she ran off. She’d thrown a snake at Wyatt, in fact—a fact that still didn’t fail to amuse Lou. No one understood exactly why she was running, and what she had to hide—but there was obviously something because she kept giving them the slip. “They were all together? What were they doing?”

The twins had automatically settled next to each other, each working a different angle, on a different computer, and Theo described what he’d seen in Yellow Mountain.

“Hmm,” Lou said. “No one was hurt, though?”

“Interestingly enough, no. But there were a couple of guys who looked like they’d been trying to build a car. The snoot destroyed it.” Theo sighed and settled back in his seat. “Damn, Lou. I want to go after those bastards and fucking kill them. Or something. Especially Seattle. And the fact that Remington Truth is hanging out with the bounty hunters doesn’t bode well.”

“Why don’t we follow them? They can’t be far. We might find out something. It’s the first chance we’ve had to do something like that.” He had taken one of the Resistance’s three Humvees when he left Envy. Unfortunately, it had gone into a ditch about fifteen miles from here and he couldn’t get it out alone—which was why he’d been on foot when the zombies attacked. But it would be easy for the two of them to remedy that.

Theo was nodding. “I’d be out of here in a minute if it weren’t for Selena, and what she’s going through. I don’t want to leave her right now.”

“So, she’s definitely it,” Lou said. “The one?” Thank God.

“Yes. She is.”

There was silence except for the clickety-clack of the keyboards and a few punctuated curses for a time. Then suddenly, Theo started chuckling to himself.

Lou looked over. “What?”

“I don’t know why, but I just remembered Beagle McAnus.”

Lou smiled, then couldn’t hold back a guffaw of laughter. “And Joe Schlong.” He was cracking up, remembering the mischief making in high school. They’d hacked into the school email system and changed the names on the emails of the principal and one of the vice principals, so that when Betty McArdle sent an email, it appeared in the recipient’s inbox as being from Beagle McAnus. And Don Schlueter’s name was changed to Dick Schlong.

“And we never got caught,” Theo chortled. “We were fucking good. Remember that time we changed the receipts at Wal-Mart?”

Lou laughed harder. It had been a summer job for both of them, each in different departments. But on their last day, as a parting joke, they managed to log into the operating system and changed the wording at the bottom of the company’s receipt from “Have a Nice Day” to “Shit Happens.” For hours, every single receipt from every single transaction at that store popped out, saying “Shit Happens”—with a big Wal-Mart smiley face after it—until one of the cashiers noticed and called it to the attention of the manager.

“If we’re that good, then why the hell can’t we get into Mr. Blizek’s deep secrets?” Lou asked.

“I dunno, but some of those game prototypes are fucking sweet—and it looks like our boy Brad might have been gay, too, based on a couple of very explicit emails to one Tony Filletti. And here’s a bunch of things— Hmm. I didn’t know he was working on a geocaching thing. Looks like he was going to tie it into another game; make it a sort of online and real-world treasure hunt. That would have been sweet too.”

“Tony could be a girl’s name,” Lou commented, trying yet another variation on yet another layer of security. “Sonofabitch. This guy was paranoid.”

“Well, if I were in the Cult of Atlantis and planning to double-cross it, I’d be paranoid too,” Theo replied wryly.

And then suddenly, it hit him. Lou stopped, resting his hands on the keyboard. “Geocaching.” He said it out loud. “That could be it. That’s got to be it!”

“What? Are you in?” Theo rolled his chair over to look on his computer screen. “What?”

But Lou had already started to dig into his pack for the list of the strings of numbers he’d been trying to decode for weeks. “I’m so stupid. I’ve been a complete idiot. They’re decimal degrees. Coordinates, on a map.”

“You mean those numbers from the Strangers? From Remington Truth’s old notes?”

Lou pulled out the handwritten information. “Yes. When you said geocaching, you made me think of it. I bet these numbers identify locations of—something. Something important to the Strangers. I have no idea what, but if I had to guess, I’d say either strongholds or locations of supplies or something like that.”

Theo was nodding, his eyes excited. “Yes. That could make total sense. Yes. The only problem is,” he said, “now that everything’s all fucked up and the earth’s axis is changed, how the hell are we going to interpret them?”

Selena wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or not when Sam’s cloud turned blue.

Pain had etched deep grooves into his face even in this short time, and his breathing was labored and rattling. He’d opened his eyes more than once and spoken to her quite lucidly. And the visit from Jennifer had been a godsend, eliminating his lingering hurt. Selena felt another wave of appreciation toward Theo. For whatever it was worth, Sammy would die with what he needed from the woman he loved.

But now, just over twenty-four hours after the zombie attack, the light was fading from his eyes.

Selena hadn’t left his side since Vonnie called her back. And, in these last few hours of energy, so common in the dying, she and Sam had actually had a few laughs, remembering stories from when he was young.

“They’re ready for me, Mom,” he said finally. “They’re waiting. It’s your . . . mom and dad . . . you know.”

She nodded, fighting to keep the tears from her eyes. With Sam gone, her life would be so empty. She wouldn’t have anyone of her own. “I’m glad you’ll be with them.”

“I won’t leave you . . . Mom,” he said. He smiled, and for a moment, she saw the baby, and the toddler, then the years of the young boy flash through his face. “Not . . . really. Will . . .”—he drew in a staggering breath—“ . . . always . . . be . . . with . . . you.”

“It’s okay, Sammy. You can go now,” she said, knowing how important it was for him to hear these words. “I love you. I know you love me. There’s nothing to forgive. Be at peace.”

“Love . . . you . . .” he said, and he closed his eyes.

Selena now allowed the tears to trickle down her cheeks, to plop onto her hand, the one still holding his. It was so different, so awful to sit through this with someone she loved. Someone who’d come from her.

She felt as if her insides were being torn out.

The guides moved from the corner, where they’d been keeping their vigil, and the blue cloud sparkled and twinkled and whirled in a gentle vortex.

He breathed, in . . . and out . . . in . . . and out . . . in . . . and out . . .

And then, nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Theo arrived a moment too late . . . or perhaps it was the right time after all for her to have her privacy.

Selena was drawing the sheet over Sam’s face, and all was silent. There was no one else about. It was the darkest part of night and, somehow, mercifully, there were no other patients in the ward that needed her attention.

“He’s gone,” she said, turning as Theo approached.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and stood there, his arms spread open at his waist, waiting to see if she wanted him to hold her or to be left alone. “He was a great kid.”

She came into his embrace and he folded his arms around her so that she could shake with silent sobs, wetting his shirt as she curved her face into his shoulder.

“He said he’d always be with me,” she said after a long time, pulling her tear-streaked, swollen face from him. “And I saw my parents. They went with him.”

He nodded. “That must have been comforting to you, knowing that he wouldn’t be alone.”

She nodded too. “And it was odd,” she said, her voice surprisingly steady. “When he went, I didn’t feel anything . . . like I normally do. When someone leaves. I usually feel a little jolt, and . . . it’s strange, but I see their memories flash through my mind. It was different with him.”

“Maybe that’s a blessing,” he said. “In a way.”

Her head moved against him in affirmation. “I think so too.”

“I wish I’d known him better.”

“He wanted to learn about those computers,” Selena told him. “I wouldn’t let him, but he wanted you to teach him.”

“I would have.”

“I know.”

He held her for as long as she let him, and then, when she pulled away, he resisted the need to kiss her, sensing that it wasn’t the right time. Instead, he let her slip free and return to her son’s side.

When he asked if she wanted anything, she shook her head and told him to get some sleep.

She was going to sit with Sam a little longer.

“Remington Truth is dead.”

Remy froze, then continued raising the spoonful of stew to her mouth. She looked at Seattle, who’d been the one to make the pronouncement, because it was the obvious thing to do, and their other companions were doing the same. But her mouth went dry and all of a sudden, her stomach was no longer interested in food.

Damn it. She’d been itching for her and Ian to get away from this group of men now that they’d done the annual raids on Yellow Mountain and a few other settlements, collecting the harvests and checking on what was going on there. Policing them. Seattle made her uncomfortable, with his heavy gaze and the way it followed her all the time. But Ian had seemed to be in no hurry to ditch his companions now that they had come together, despite the fact that his distain for them was clearly evident.

“The old man, I mean. The one we’ve been searching for all these years,” Seattle continued, chewing on a piece of bread.

“How do you know that?” asked one of the other bounty hunters, a guy name Rake.