The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (59 page)

I dive from the rafter, screaming, looping, trying to
catch Shade’s eye…trying to draw his gaze to the sharpshooter.  He peers into
the factory and frowns at me, worry or anger in his eyes. 

Shift!
Hayli screams at me. 
Shift now!

But I can’t.  I can only watch.  I can’t even alert Coins
to the sharpshooter’s presence.  He is perched up on a side beam just at the
edge of my right eye vision, hands full of poppers, waiting for Shade’s
signal.  Hayli begs me to do something, or to let her out, but there is no
time.

Shade’s voice cuts over the noise of the engines.  I
cannot make out his words.  The workers rally behind him, and the foreman looks
to the police for help.  The coppers move into a line, driving the workers back
from the factory entrance where the foreman stands.  Some of the workers shout
in outrage, and the officers’ guns come up, warning them back.

The sharpshooter on the walkover smiles, and his finger
shifts to the trigger.

Shade’s fist flashes to his ear.

Smoke explodes all through the factory with a BOOM! that
shakes the windows and rattles the metal beams of the rafters.

I lose my grip on the air and spin downward.  The shooter’s
finger twitches.

I correct my course and dive straight at him, screaming
as loud as I can.  From my right eye I see Shade’s gaze jerk upward, then I’m
on the shooter, beating my wings, claws out, beak striking at his head.  He
pulls back, and the gun fires, and he swings the rifle toward me.  Pain
shatters through me.

I’m falling.

I can’t breathe.  My wings struggle, but cannot catch the
air.  Below, other guns are firing.  People are screaming, running everywhere. 
The people in the factory can’t get out.  The workers outside attack the
coppers, using whatever they can reach for a weapon, ignoring the guns firing
all around them.

I can taste blood in my mouth.

The factory floor flies toward me, and all at once I see
Shade running, his eyes on me, rage and fear in every line of his face.  I beat
my wings uselessly.  My toes curl, unfeeling, and all the world darkens.

Shade reaches out with a shout.  I think he is calling
Hayli’s name.  But the girl is silent.  I cannot reach her.  I do not know how
to call her out.  My fall ends, gently, as Shade’s hands flash under me.  He
draws me in and lays me on the concrete floor.  With all the world in chaos
around us, he kneels over me, murmuring quietly, running one finger over the
feathers beneath my eye.

Chapter 14 — Tarik

I could see Coins poised at the edge of the walkover,
staring down at me and Hayli.  In another moment he’d vault the railing to join
me, and I knew there would be nothing I could do to stop him.  But I couldn’t
let him be seen.  The coppers and newshawks and society folk had to believe I’d
acted alone.

So I did the only thing I could.  I laid Hayli’s crow gently
down on the concrete, brushing my finger over her feathers.  She didn’t move,
just watched me quietly through one unblinking eye.  I swallowed the knot in my
throat and took a step back, glanced toward Coins and met his gaze, then turned
and strode straight toward the churning mayhem at the factory door.

Everything was in chaos.  Smoke spilled from the factory
behind me, people screamed, guns fired.

Bodies lay strewn in the street.

In the gutters, the snow ran red with blood.

My pulse pounded in my ears, drowning out the sound of
gunfire.

“CEASE FIRE!” I shouted, spinning toward the nearest mill
worker who was firing a revolver into the line of coppers.  I grabbed the gun
from his fingers and pushed him away.  “
CEASE FIRE!
”

I must have screamed it loud enough, finally, that they
could hear it over the cacophony, because little by little the pulse of shots
faded away.  The haze of rage and madness dissipated, and we all stood a moment
in stunned silence, staring at what we’d done.  It took the coppers less time
than anyone to get their wits about them; they regrouped swiftly and moved in
to arrest the workers, but nobody had the energy to fight back. 

I stepped toward a body sprawled near the factory door.  It
was the foreman, shot through the heart, dead the moment the bullet had hit
him.  And beside him, face down in the snow, lay the police sergeant.  I knelt
down next to him and turned him over.

His eyelids fluttered and for a moment he just studied me
quietly, while I watched him, sick with grief, helpless.

“Don’t let the world see you fall,” the sergeant murmured,
his hand finding my arm.

I jumped.  My mouth turned dry.  “You know me?”

He let out a little puff of air that might have been a
laugh, or a cough.  “You’re a bit hazy around the edges, but I’d know Your
Highness anywhere.”

I flinched away, casting an anxious glance around the
street, but no one stood close enough to hear him.

“I’m sorry,” I said.  “I’m so sorry.”

“You’re not to blame.”

“Yes I am.”  I reached over to grasp his hand, my throat
turning raw.  “You’ve only ever tried to help me, even when I never seemed to
listen.  But I was listening, do you hear?  You were right.”  I paused,
struggling to steady my voice.  “I never would have wanted this to happen.  But
it is my fault.  Don’t take that from me.”

His brow creased.  “I don’t understand.”

I could barely hear him, his voice had grown so faint.  I
swallowed hard and stared up at the factory.  “If you don’t let me take the
blame, then how can you forgive me?”

His fingers tightened on mine.  “I do forgive you.  Go and
make things right.”

“Every time I try to do what’s right, people get hurt.  I
don’t even know what’s right and wrong anymore.”

“You know,” he said.

“But I don’t.  I—”

My voice trailed away, because his eyes had lost their
focus, and his hand spasmed in mine, then turned to stone.  I ground my teeth
and bowed over him.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized I was
bleeding, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“He killed him,” a voice behind me said.  “He killed the
sergeant.”

I winced and turned, and saw three policemen grouping
together not ten feet away, hatred and fear in their eyes.

“He’s still got the gun!” one of the others said.

“Drop the weapon and put your hands up!” the third shouted,
raising his rifle to his shoulder.  “Now!”

I stared at them, dazed.  So weary.  Twenty people lay dead
in the street and their blood poured from my hands.  Mine.

I set the gun down and lifted my hands to my head.

“
SHADE!
” someone shouted from behind us, in the
factory.

Jig.  God, no.

All the officers’ rifles shot up.  I could hear Jig’s
footsteps—Jig and Anuk’s—hammering toward us.

No more.  No more.

“Get out of here!” I cried, and my hands flashed out.

The guns clashed to the ground.  The coppers shouted and I
scrambled to my feet.

Vaguely I heard, “Shoot to kill, shoot to kill!”

Guns fired around me—I hadn’t taken their revolvers.  I
ducked and ran, ran as hard as I could, back into the factory.  I found Jig and
Anuk in the shadows and grabbed them both by a shoulder.

“Get the hell out of here!” I screamed.  “What’re you still
doing here?  Go, go, go!  Don’t wait for me!”

“We ain’t leaving without you,” Jig said.

“Not your decision.”  I shook them.  “Listen to me!  I can
take them on a chase, but only if I don’t have you two to worry about.  I can’t
let them follow us to the Hole.  I’ve got to lose them first.”

“Come on,” Anuk said, pulling Jig back.  “Do as he says. 
Move!”

I stepped out into the hazy daylight where the coppers could
see me, to give Jig and Anuk a few seconds of cover to clear out the back of
the factory.  Immediately a flurry of gunshots sounded, and I dove for cover
behind a piece of machinery.  Shouting followed, and the thud of hobnailed
boots on cobblestones.  I scrambled for the walkover, wincing every time the
crack of a shot fired behind me.  The metal floor clashed under my feet.

Dead ahead was the foreman’s office, its door smashed in, probably
from Anuk’s boot.  I slithered out the window onto the fire escape and looked
down.

And saw the sharpshooter who had almost killed Hayli waiting
for me at the bottom.  I stared, turning cold as I recognized his face.  He was
Vanek Meed’s man, the one I’d lamped to get to the sanatorium.

He lifted his rifle.

Inside the factory, the officers were racing down the
walkover.

I swore and climbed up.  My hands, slick from blood (I
couldn’t even tell whose anymore), slipped on the rungs.  A red haze seeped
over my vision, but I just gritted my teeth and kept going.  One step at a
time.

Just when I thought I’d never survive the climb, my hands
met the rough stone of the roof.  I hauled myself up, breath shaking through my
teeth, and stumbled toward the closest chimney stack.  Iron girderwork loomed
around me, making a maze of the roof.

Just get out of sight…and hide…hide…

My legs buckled.

It took me a moment to realize I had my face pressed against
the stone roof.  Somewhere in the distance I heard shouting and I realized the
police were already climbing up over the lip of the roof.  In a moment they’d
be in range, and then it would all be over. 

I took one long breath, staggered to my feet, and threw
myself into a sprint straight toward them.

It caught them by surprise.  They stopped to unsling their
rifles, but by the time they’d readied their weapons, I was already back at the
fire escape.  One of them got a revolver shot off at me.  The bullet sang past
my ear and I ducked, leaning out over the escape.  The sharpshooter had
disappeared, leaving my way clear, so I dropped over the edge, dizzyingly fast.

Another copper took aim.  Fired.  My hands slipped.

I felt my body crash against the rusting cage, falling,
falling…

Pain like venom ripped down my arm.

I scrambled at the rungs, fingers grasping, snatching…

My back slammed against the ground, scattering gravel
everywhere around me.  I gasped for breath but couldn’t fill my lungs.  Vaguely
I could see the coppers at the top of the roof, peering down at me.

Get away…get away…hide…

I winced and coughed.  I knew I had to move, but I couldn’t
feel my legs, couldn’t feel my arms.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw my
right arm pouring blood.  The sight of it made the world rock beneath me.

Oh God, I’m going to die…

Somehow, somehow I managed to twist onto my stomach, and
half crawling, half slithering, I dragged myself around the corner of the
factory and closed my eyes.  I prayed with every ounce of strength I had left
that I could disappear…just for a moment…just long enough to throw the coppers
off my scent…

I heard shouting, but no more gunshots.  Then nothing.  A
few minutes trickled by in silence, then I heard the crunch of boots in
gravel.  The noise shifted to a steady thud, and I opened my eyes just enough to
see the policemen run past, inches from where I leaned against the wall.  As
soon as they’d rounded the corner to the front of the factory, I got to my feet
and staggered for the safety of the alleys.

Chapter 15 — Hayli

Me and the lads all set off when dusk had settled, hunting
for Shade who still hadn’t gotten back.  I still felt a bit odd, and every bone
in my body ached like I’d fallen from a tree.  Coins told me that Shade had
caught me before I hit the ground, but I’d never know it from how sore I was. 
It’d taken me a good hour to Shift from the crow, he said, and after that I’d
got all dazey and out of sorts and hadn’t started making sense for near another
hour after.