Don't Let Go (15 page)

The road they were on dead-ended at a cross street; the metal gate of a closed auto body shop yawed up in front of them.

“Which way?” Daisy yelled, frantic.

He hadn’t a clue, but there wasn’t time to mull it over. “Left!”

Daisy hooked left, and Teo pounded after her. As they turned down the next block, he glanced back over his shoulder. The boys must have split up, there was only one pursuing them. Which gave him a really bad feeling. They knew the area, and could easily try to cut them off.

Daisy skidded to a stop, and he nearly crashed into her. Teo groaned: Joe and Watch Cap blocked the road ahead. There was no way around them, and Teo didn’t hold out much hope that they’d be able to plow through.

“Daisy,” he said in a low voice, “grab your Taser.”

“Already got it,” she said, taking a step back so they were side by side.

Footsteps behind them, slowing to a walk. Daisy spun to face Suns Jersey, while Teo kept his eye on the other two. He clenched his Taser in his right hand; it should be recharged by now.

Joe and Watch Cap stopped fifteen feet away, clearly wary of the Taser. Teo swept it in an arc in front of his body. At this range, against a moving target, it wasn’t a very effective weapon. Still, if they managed to take out two of them, the third might cut and run. . . .

But seeing their expressions, he reassessed. Before, the boys had been messing with them mainly out of boredom; they had nothing better to do than shake down saps who had inadvertently infiltrated their camp.

Getting tased had changed that; now they were intent on revenge.

“What kind of pussy uses a Taser?” Joe called out. Teo’s heart dropped into his gut; they were no longer unarmed. Joe was holding a knife, and Watch Cap had a pipe.

“The kind who just wants to be left alone,” Teo said.

“Too late for that,” Joe said. “Should’ve stayed away from our camp.”

“Idiots!” Daisy screamed in exasperation. “We were there for like five minutes, and we didn’t touch anything! Get over it!”

“You scared, princess?” Joe sneered. “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.”

“Stay back!” Daisy yelled shrilly.

Teo whipped his head around; Suns Jersey had edged closer, just out of range of her Taser. He danced toward her, mockingly bobbing from side to side.

“Okay, Daisy,” Teo murmured. “When I get to three, you go for him, okay? I’m going to take out Joe.”

“Then what?” Daisy asked, an undercurrent of fear in her voice.

“Run like hell back the way we came,” Teo said. “We need to get to that bus station. I’ll be right behind you.”

He brandished the Taser like a sword. Truth was, he’d probably have to hang back to give her a head start. There was a pretty good chance she’d be getting on that bus alone tonight, if at all.

But Teo wasn’t going down without a fight, not this time. The way he was feeling, he could almost imagine dispatching them all by himself. They’d been pursued and shot at by professionals; scrawny street kids armed with pipes and knives weren’t nearly as terrifying as they’d seemed a few short months ago.

Joe and Watch Cap seemed to sense the shift, and they put more space between them. Watch Cap was closer, but Joe was the leader. Take him out, and the other two might reassess. Teo fought to keep his face blank, trying not to broadcast his movements.

“Teddy!” Daisy suddenly shrieked, and just like that it was settled. He heard the familiar clicking sound of a Taser engaging. Reacting immediately, he lunged for Joe, hitting the button that sent the barbs airborne. Even if they just latched on to his clothing, the prongs would deliver enough of a shock to incapacitate him.

Joe’s eyes widened as the barbs flew toward him. In Teo’s peripheral vision, he saw Suns Jersey drop to the ground. Daisy was pounding back the way they’d come. He braced to follow, his muscles primed. . . .

But Joe dodged sideways at the last minute. The barbs clattered to the ground harmlessly, sparking off the pavement. Teo hit the button to retract them, but it was too late; the charge had been dispensed.

Joe pointed the knife at him and jeered, “That’s why Tasers are for pussies.” His eyes flicked to Watch Cap. “Go get that bitch.”

Watch Cap raced down the street. Teo shifted like a boxer as Joe circled, keeping him ten feet away. Suns Jersey was slowly recovering, blinking his eyes.

“Cute girl,” Joe said, with steel in his voice. “Bet she’s a lot of fun, too.”

Teo prayed that Daisy had gotten enough of a head start. “I wouldn’t mess with her, she’s tougher than she looks.”

“Yeah?” Joe’s grin widened. “Well, Rat’s feeling motivated. I promised he could go first.”

“Go to hell,” Teo spat.

“What, you’re gonna try and tase me again?” Joe snorted. “Good luck.”

Teo lunged forward with the Taser, parrying with it. It was a bluff, though; the Taser was still recharging. Joe reared back, and Teo tried to get past him.

He’d only gone a yard when there was a searing pain down his left arm. He gasped and tried to keep running, but someone tackled him from behind.

Teo struggled to extricate himself, but Suns Jersey had him pinned. He barely had time to wince before the kid’s fist connected with his jaw.

The punch knocked him senseless, he literally felt his brain rattle against his skull. Teo blinked in an effort to clear his vision, but before he could focus, another punch slammed into his right temple.

The whole world spun like a kaleidoscope. Teo heard Daisy’s voice, frantic with fear, and tried to get up, tried to help her. But he couldn’t move, he was trapped in some sort of quagmire. Distant laughter, someone trying to tell him something; but the words sounded funny, like everyone was suddenly speaking a foreign language.

A blinding light overhead.
Oh no
, he thought.
I’m dying. . . .

Daisy needed him, he had to stay here for her; but the light kept coming closer, accompanied by a growing roar in his ears.

Shouts, and pounding feet. A yelp close by, and the pressure on his body abruptly released. Someone yanked him upright.

“Daisy?” he asked, staring blearily at his rescuer.

A pair of blank eyes gazed back through the slits in a wasp helmet.

By now, there was a good chance that Pike’s people were inside, stalking them. Peter prayed that Loki really did have an escape route; it would be refreshing for the guy’s paranoia to work in their favor.

“How much farther?” Noa asked, keeping her voice low. She seemed to be flagging; Peter kept fighting the urge to snap at her to move faster.

“Not far,” Loki huffed.

“Then what?” Peter demanded. “How are we getting out?”

“There’s a hatch at the base of the hill,” Loki panted without looking back. “South side. It’s my bug-out route, in case the zombies ever got in.”

“Right,” Peter said, thinking,
Zombies? Seriously?

“There it is,” Loki said, slowing.

The hallway ended in a huge metal blast door, exactly like the one they’d originally come through. Incongruously, a laptop lay on a rickety metal table a few feet from the door. Loki opened it up and brought the screen to life.

“Uh, not sure we have time to check email,” Peter said.

Loki shot him a look. “This is connected to the security feed. Gotta check and see if they’re outside.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “How do you keep it charged?”

“Switch it out every day.”

“Of course you do,” Peter muttered, picturing Loki lumbering through the halls every night with a fresh battery pack.

Noa was leaning against the wall trying to catch her breath. Looking like she was on the verge of collapsing, she gasped, “Are they out there?”

“Still checking,” Loki muttered. “Give me a sec.”

Peter hunkered down in front of her and dug a water bottle out of his pack. “Here,” he said. “Probably a good idea to stay hydrated.”

Noa managed a weak smile. She took a few gulps, then passed it back. “Same old, same old, huh?” she said wryly.

“Hell, I was kind of starting to miss these guys,” Peter said. “Maybe they brought us a housewarming gift.”

“Crap,” Loki muttered.

Noa pushed off the wall and joined him; Peter peered over their shoulders. The base of the hill sloped into a large, overgrown field. Trees in the distance.

And six of Pike’s men spread out across the monitor. Their heads moved back and forth in a way that made them appear even more like insects.

“So that’s right outside this door?” Noa asked faintly. “Can they get in here?”

Loki shook his head. “They won’t see the door unless they’re right on top of it, it’s hidden by a bramble thicket.”

“How are we supposed to get through that?” Peter demanded.

“Crawl,” Loki said. “Hell, it’s easy. I’ve done a dozen test runs. You get a few scratches, but that’s it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Noa said, gesturing to the screen. “We’ll never get past them.”

She was right, Peter thought with a sinking heart. They had two Tasers and a shotgun between them, against six armed commandos. The element of surprise might buy them ten feet, but after that they’d be toast.

Noa’s eyes were heavy with defeat. The sound of distant boots echoed through the corridor; they were getting closer. Peter swallowed hard. This was it. The end of the line.

“Well,” Loki said gruffly. “Looks like it’s time for Plan B.”

“There’s a Plan B?” Peter said, a spark of hope igniting in his chest.

“I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” Loki said forlornly, gazing up at the ceiling.

“Loki,” Noa said. “What is it?”

“I got the whole place booby-trapped,” he explained.

“Sure,” Peter said, as if that made total sense.
The crazy never stops with this guy.
“But how does that help with the guys outside?”

“I got other countermeasures out there,” Loki said. “Don’t want to use those, though, unless we have to.”

“Why didn’t we do this in the first place?”

“This program brings the whole place down,” Loki growled. “And everything inside it.”

Peter swallowed hard. “Sorry, man.”

Loki still looked like he wanted to punch him, but he said, “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for Firefly.”

“What?” Peter asked.

“You think something happened to her,” Noa said slowly.

“I
know
something happened to her,” Loki barked. “One day she’s in jail, the next she’s just gone. And she never came back online. Takes a hell of a lot of power to swing something like that.”

“You think Pike somehow got her out, then made her construct an encryption framework for him?” Peter asked skeptically. They’d seen what Pike was capable of; he clearly had highly placed contacts in the U.S. government. But did his tentacles extend far enough to spring a notorious hacker from a foreign prison?

“That was Firefly’s framework,” Loki said obstinately. “I don’t know what those bastards did to her, but I sure as hell am gonna make ’em pay for it.”

“So how do we set off the booby traps?” Noa asked impatiently.

Loki had already turned back to the keyboard. “Just gotta put Serenity on DEFCON 1. . . .”

“Serenity?” Peter asked.

Noa shushed him, muttering, “Let him concentrate.”

They waited in tense silence as Loki cycled through screens. Peter sipped more water, trying to still his racing heart. His whole body was screaming at him to run; sitting here staring at a computer felt like the exact opposite of what they should be doing.

The sound of an explosion in the distance, followed by screams. Loki looked up and said with satisfaction, “Phase one.”

Peter stifled an involuntary shudder; he hated Pike’s thugs, but that didn’t mean he was comfortable with people getting blown up. “Bombs?”

“A little bit of everything,” Loki grunted. “Gotta cover your bases.”

“They’re leaving!” Noa exclaimed.

Peter checked the screen: the men outside were racing up the hill like their lives depended on it. Their buddies inside the bunker must have called for help.

The last guy vanished from the corner of the screen: The field outside was wide open. Peter tightened the straps on his pack and said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Teo tried to fight back, but his head was reeling so badly he could barely stand. “Daisy!” he shouted, but a deafening roar drowned the words out completely. He was half shoved, half carried forward. Someone pushed his head down as he stumbled into a small, metal cage.

Not a cage
, Teo realized as his vision finally cleared: a helicopter. That explained the glaring light, and the roar that seemed to swallow every other sound. He was on a helicopter.

He’d been caught.

Teo’s captors yanked his hands behind his back, securing them tightly with plastic ties; the stab wound on his arm throbbed painfully. Before he could protest, they jammed a thick black bag over his head. He screamed out, but it was no use; the rotor wash swallowed it up.

The only consolation was that Daisy had gotten away. Teo wondered what had happened to Joe and his flunkies. If it hadn’t been for them, he and Daisy would be on a bus headed west right now. Teo gritted his teeth; the whole life he’d planned out for them was gone, all because a few punks had showed up at the wrong time.

The floor lurched below him—the helicopter was rising. The sudden motion inspired a wave of vertigo, and Teo had to swallow hard to keep from throwing up. His legs cramped, and the zip ties dug into his wrists. Blood ran warm down his arm. The throb of the helicopter’s engines was like the pain in his body made manifest. Teo slumped forward in defeat.

All that running, only to end up here.

And worse was coming. They’d try to make him betray Peter and Noa, probably torture him until he pinpointed Loki’s hideout.

Honestly, Teo didn’t know how long he’d be able to hold out. It had been nearly a week since he and Daisy split off and headed west. Silently, he prayed that Peter and Noa had found what they were looking for, and were already long gone.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“O
ne more minute,” Loki said, holding up a hand for them to wait. Snaky tendrils of foul-smelling gas started to crawl along the ceiling.