Don't Let Go (11 page)

A searing sensation in his lower back made him howl.

“Try to stay still,” Noa said tightly. “It might be a little deeper than we thought.”

The next stab of pain almost sent him bucking off the table.

“Steady,” Loki warned, bearing down hard on his shoulders.

Peter let loose with every curse he knew. The agony just kept growing. It felt like Noa was digging around, gouging his entire back with the knife. A shriek built inside him, and his whole body went rigid and tense.

“Maybe I should get hold of some morphine,” Loki mused. “This would be easier if he was out cold.”

Noa didn’t answer. Peter felt light-headed, his view of the room tunneled and refracted. “Oh, God,” he gasped.

“I need him to hold still,” Noa said through gritted teeth.

“One sec.” Loki’s hands released; Peter saw him dig around in his pocket. “I was saving this,” Loki said peevishly, drawing out a small pill. “But I guess he can have it.”

“I’m not eating something that was in your pocket,” Peter protested, but Loki popped it in his mouth while he was speaking. He nearly gagged on the pill; it left a chemical taste in his mouth as he choked it down. “What was that?”

“The last of my oxy,” Loki grumbled. “You’re welcome.”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t do drugs.”

“Well, you do now. Enjoy.”

Peter’s whole body felt sick and trembly. Sweat coursed from every pore. Aside from the hospital stay last fall, his only previous injury had been a twisted ankle on a ski run when he was eight years old. This was about a million times worse.

“Almost done,” Noa said, still sounding strained. Peter felt something running off the sides of his back: Was that
blood
? The thought made him even more light-headed. This had been a mistake. God, if she hit something critical, like an artery . . .

He shrieked as a spike drove into his spine.

“Got it!” Noa said triumphantly.

The pressure abruptly eased, replaced by a dull throbbing. “Let me see it,” he gasped.

She lowered a pair of tweezers down in front of his eyes. Peter frowned: They were clamped around something way too tiny to have caused so much pain. “That’s it?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“You’d think it would have ten fingers and ten toes, the amount of noise you made,” Loki grunted. “Christ, no wonder women have the babies.”

“How badly am I bleeding?” Peter asked as air slowly returned to his lungs.

“Not too badly,” Noa said reassuringly. His back throbbed; it felt like gallons must be spewing out. “I’ll keep the cotton on it for a few minutes, then we can bandage it.”

“Too bad I’m not you,” he muttered, suddenly completely drained. He sank back down on the table, his cheek sticking to the trash bag as he mumbled, “You’d probably be down to a scar by tomorrow.”

“Huh?” Loki asked.

“Nothing,” Noa said sharply. “Peter’s a slow healer, and I’m not.”

“You should see,” Peter mumbled, feeling himself drift away. The oxy was definitely kicking in. He was really wishing they’d started with it, then maybe he wouldn’t have felt anything at all. “She’s like Wolverine, cut her and she heals instantly.”

“That’s not true.” There was a warning in her voice, but Peter was too far gone to notice or care.

“Seriously, they made her into a superhero, man. She barely eats or sleeps, she . . .” He tried to remember all the other changes in Noa, but at that moment something about the way his hands looked struck him as hilariously funny, and he dissolved in a fit of giggles.

Which is why he didn’t notice how quiet the room had gone around him.

“What’s he talking about?” Loki asked after a beat.

“Nothing,” Noa said dismissively. “He’s just high.”

“Yeah. Guess that was a lot of oxy for a little guy like him.” Loki was smiling, but his eyes looked concerned. “So you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said curtly, silently cursing Peter.

“Great. Because from the looks of things, these kids need you.”

Noa shifted uncomfortably, then mumbled, “I don’t know. Lately it hasn’t felt that way.”

Loki’s voice was unusually compassionate as he said, “I think anyone who could go up against what you have, and still come out fighting, well . . . not bad, for a kid your age. Not bad for anyone.”

“Thanks.” The praise made Noa uncomfortable, but at the same time, it helped. Because these past few months, she’d started doubting herself more and more. “And thanks for letting us stay, too.”

“Sure.” Loki grinned. “You can operate on me anytime.”

“Ugh.” She shuddered. “I never want to have to do anything like that, ever again.” The bug had been tiny, but that was the problem; every time she tried to grab it, it had slipped through the tweezers. Peter’s howls still echoed through her head.

“How’d it go?” Teo appeared in the doorway.

“Teo!” Peter called out. “You’re the man, man!”

“What did you give him?” Teo’s eyes widened as he took in the scene. “Oh, man, that’s a lot of blood.”

“I’m what we’re having for dinner!” Peter chortled. “Just grab a knife!”

“He’s fine,” Noa said. “Grab some bandages from over there, I need to get this covered.”

She eased the gauze away from Peter’s lower back. The incision was about an inch long; she’d traced the line of his scar as closely as possible. The bug had been all knotted up with scar tissue, and she’d been forced to slice through that to remove it. The whole time, she’d been fighting the urge to vomit; it was probably a good thing she hadn’t been able to eat for a couple of days. A career as a surgeon was definitely out.

Still, she was feeling pretty pleased with herself. The bug had been removed, and Peter wasn’t bleeding that badly; it would probably only take a few butterfly Band-Aids to close the wound. He’d be sore later, but then, they were all sore. She gingerly poured saline over his lower back, then slathered it with antibiotic ointment. The oxy must be working even better than she’d hoped, because Peter’s only reaction was to start singing, loudly and off-key.

“Wow,” Teo said, handing her bandages and gauze. “I kind of want what he’s having.”

“There’s none left,” Loki growled.

“Kidding, dude. Chill,” Teo mumbled.

Loki tugged at his beard and said, “Feels like beer o’clock to me. You in?”

“I’m fifteen,” Teo said. “And I don’t drink.”

Loki shifted to Noa, raising an eyebrow. She just shook her head. “All right, then. Change your minds, I’ll be in the cantina.”

“Beer o’clock? Isn’t it, like, ten in the morning?” Teo said wryly after he left.

Noa managed a small smile. She’d slept the night before, but not nearly as long or as deeply as she would have liked. And the adrenaline of operating on Peter had left her exhausted and shaky. “I guess you lose all sense of time down here,” she said, peeling off the gloves and tossing them in the trash can.

“I’ll bet. That guy should really spend more time up top. Is this it?” Teo asked, bending over to examine the bug. When Noa nodded, he shook his head in wonder and said, “It’s so small.”

“It’ll be a lot easier to carry than the drives,” she pointed out.

“Yeah.” Teo straightened and looked her in the eye. “Listen, I feel badly about leaving. I know we’d agreed to stick together, but I just can’t do it anymore.”

“No, you’re right. You should go.” Noa got a flash of how he’d looked when they first met: just another terrified, grubby kid in a homeless encampment. His eyes had aged eons since then. “Staying with me just puts you and Daisy in danger. And the others . . .” She bit her lip, then forced herself to say it. “They’re probably dead.”

“Yeah,” Teo said softly. “I know.” Without warning, he pulled her into a hug. Startled, Noa stiffened. After a minute, he released her and said, “Once we get to California, I can get a phone and post the number on The Quad. If you need us, just call.”

“I will,” Noa lied.

“Great.” Teo sounded relieved. “Seriously, anything you need, we’ll come running.”

“It’s not like you’re leaving right now, though.” At the look on his face, her heart sank. “You’re leaving right now?”

Teo looked uncomfortable. Avoiding her eyes, he said, “We just figure the sooner we can start leading them away from here, the better. We don’t know when they last got a signal off the bug, right? What if they’re close?”

“Sure,” she said faintly. “That’s smart.” The realization that her group was being sliced in half again was hard to process. Four months ago, there had been ten of them. Now it was down to just her and Peter.
Same way we started
, Noa couldn’t help thinking. She wished that felt like a good thing.

Teo looked desperately uncomfortable. “We could hang out for a day, I guess.”

“No,” Noa said firmly. He was right, delaying their departure would only make it harder. Last night, she’d helped them map a route to Los Angeles that would hopefully throw their pursuers off track. She’d also given them most of the remaining cash, although they didn’t know that. “Be careful with the bug, okay? And take care of each other.”

“Of course,” Teo said, drawing himself up. He was taller than her now; when had that happened? “You, too.”

On the table, Peter was bobbing his head in time to music only he could hear. Teo smiled. “Tell him I said good-bye, all right?”

“Sure. Same with Daisy.”

“If she comes in here it’ll be the full waterworks.” He threw her a grin. “Figured I’d spare you that.”

“Thanks.” Noa was having a hard time swallowing past the lump in her throat. They’d been through so much together. Without their help, she probably would’ve been recaptured in Santa Cruz, and another half dozen times after that. It was hard to repress the ominous sense that this was the last time they’d ever see one another. “Take the car, but ditch it soon,” she advised. “Stick to busses.”

“That’s the plan.”

She wiped as much blood off the bug as she could, then carefully set it in the box Loki had left for them. It was made of copper wire, a genuine Faraday cage. That was as much protection as she could offer them now. “Here.”

“Thanks,” Teo said, carefully taking the box from her. He paused on the threshold. “Bye, Noa,” he said in a choked voice. “See you on the other side.”

Noa stood staring at the empty doorway for a long time.
People are always leaving me
, she thought, fighting a familiar pang of abandonment. This time last year, she could’ve proudly claimed that there wasn’t a single person in the world she cared about, or who cared about her.

But that no longer seemed like something to be proud of.

“Yo, can I get some water?” Peter called from the table. “Dying of thirst over here. God, you’re gorgeous. Did I ever tell you that before? I mean it, you are seriously—”

“Shut up before you say something you regret,” Noa warned, walking over to the sink.

“Yeah, but God. You should see yourself now, you’re all glow-y. . . .”

As he rambled on, Noa found a clean mason jar and filled it with water. She caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink: hollowed-out cheekbones and pronounced circles beneath bloodshot eyes. It was the face of someone who was gravely ill. “Glow-y, huh?” she said, handing him the glass. “I’m going to make sure you remember saying that when this wears off.”

PART TWO

HIDE

CHAPTER SIX

“A
ll right,” Teo said. “You ready?”

Daisy nodded, even though her stomach was churning. This was the second time they’d unveiled the device. She couldn’t stop picturing it as a literal bug, some dangerous insect that might come to life after Teo unwrapped it and sink pincers into his palm, then crawl under his skin.

They were hunched in the doorway of a slum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As far as she was concerned, they couldn’t get to Los Angeles fast enough. She’d had qualms about leaving; it felt strange, waking up in a room without Peter and Noa close by. But she hadn’t been keen on staying in that creepy bunker, either. And from the sound of it, they’d be there for a while.

She’d never been to Los Angeles, even though she’d only grown up a few hours away, right outside Las Vegas. In her mind, it was all palm trees and beaches and famous people. The Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, Laguna Beach. Most of her favorite TV shows were set in Los Angeles. She used to be obsessed with all those rich teenagers who dated and fought and went to exclusive nightclubs; she would have given anything to trade places with them for just a day.

Still, Daisy was fully prepared to be disappointed. In her experience, nothing was ever as nice as it appeared on-screen.

But even the worst part of LA would probably beat Albuquerque by a wide margin. “This place is disgusting,” she said, wrinkling her nose as the smell of garbage wafted past on a breeze.

“We’ll be out of here soon.” Teo carefully unwrapped the small box Loki had given them. The box was made out of copper, and Loki had promised it would block the signal all by itself; but he’d also muttered that there were no guarantees in life. She and Teo had decided it was better not to risk it, so they’d created a shell made out of aluminum foil and cardboard. They were taking enough of a chance as it was.

“I hate this,” Daisy said, staring at the box.

“I know,” Teo said grimly. “I shouldn’t have offered to do it.”

“If you hadn’t, you’d be whining about feeling guilty.”

“Hey!” he protested. “I never whine.”

“Oh, please.” Daisy rolled her eyes. “Like I didn’t hear you complaining about the bathroom last night.”

“That was a bathroom?”

Daisy laughed, and Teo smiled at her. For a minute, it was almost possible to forget that they’d spent the afternoon trying to sleep next to a Dumpster in an alley.
Déjà vu all over again
, she couldn’t help thinking. Maybe when they got to their next stop, she could convince him to spring for a motel room. It had been three days since they’d left Loki’s weird underground shelter, and they were both starting to get ripe.

On the plus side, Teo’s mood improved with every mile they put between themselves and Colorado. He no longer seemed as tense, like there was a slap waiting for him around the next corner. The dark circles under his eyes were easing. He’d fallen asleep on her shoulder during the last bus ride, so deeply she’d had a hard time waking him when they’d arrived. She’d stroked his hair, touched by how sweet his face looked when he slept, like a little kid.