Guardian Angel (27 page)

That was when we noticed the flashing red and blues of a police car coming up the road from behind us.

I heard the Seraph team leader call out, “I beg of you not to resist.”

“Run?” I whispered.

“Now!” shouted Terry.

We sprinted down the sidewalk, Ed Regis in the lead pushing people out of our way. The police siren began to blare. Over it, I heard the Seraph leader shout at his team, “No! Don’t shoot! You’ll hit him!”

Drivers slammed on their brakes as we cut across an intersection and into the park.

“Get off the path,” said Ed Regis as he picked Alia up in his arms without breaking pace. “Straight line to the other side!”

We ran through a snow-covered field, through a line of trees, across a jogging path and into another field.

“Angels on our nine!” warned Terry.

“I see them,” said Ed Regis.

I saw them too. Another small band of Seraphim had broken through a line of trees to our left and were headed our way.

As Ed Regis led us diagonally away from them, I heard one of the Seraphim shout, “Hold your fire! It’s Adrian Howell! Hold your fire!”

“They sure are hell-bent on keeping you alive!” said Terry as we followed Ed Regis through a clump of bushes.

“Lucky me,” I panted, using my telekinesis to help me keep pace.

“Fly, Addy,”
said Alia.
“They’re not after us.”

I shook my head. “Yes they are and you know it.”

There were no witnesses here and the only reason that the Seraphim weren’t attacking was because they didn’t want to risk killing me. If I flew away now, Terry, Alia and Ed Regis would either be shot to death or captured.

Crossing another small clearing and pushing through a few more bushes, we found ourselves on the sidewalk at the other end of the park. A few pedestrians stopped to stare at us as we brushed the twigs and snow off of our wet, tattered clothes.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Keep going,” said Ed Regis, setting Alia back down onto the sidewalk.

We jogged forward, but I had a feeling that even Ed Regis didn’t really know where we were going. Maybe the Seraphim couldn’t attack us in the open, but there was no doubt that police backup was on the way. Soon they would be joined by the Wolves, who also worked for the Angels now. I strained my ears for the sound of helicopters, but none had found us yet.

A distant voice from behind us shouted, “Adrian Howell! Stop!”

It was the Seraph team that had intercepted us in the park. They were still more than a hundred yards away but catching up fast. We picked up our pace too.

A deep telepathic voice growled into my head,
“Stop this nonsense right now, Adrian Howell, or we will be forced to open fire.”

Go ahead,
I thought savagely.
Save me the trouble.

“Hey! Stop!” another voice called. “Richard! Tiffany!”

At the sound of our aliases, we immediately stopped running and spun around.

A large black van screeched to a halt beside us, bumping its tires up onto the curb as the driver shouted, “Need a lift?”

“Raider!” I cried.

“Get in!”

Ed Regis opened the side door and we all jumped inside as the Seraphim closed in on us.

A fireball impacted on the back of the van, cracking the rear window.

“Go!” shouted Terry. “Go! Go! Go!”

As the van lurched forward, I heard the Seraph leader shout, “No! Goddamn it! Hold your fire!”

I telekinetically slid the side door closed as the van picked up speed.

“Marion!” exclaimed Alia.

Marion was sitting in the back seat, eyes closed and seemingly unconscious.

“Everyone, hang on!” shouted Raider.

Ignoring the lanes, Raider weaved his van through the traffic until we were clear of the Lumina area. I kept a tense lookout for police cars and military helicopters, but saw none, and soon Raider slowed down and joined the flock of cars headed toward the river at the city’s edge.

“Thanks, Raider,” I said, breathing easier. “We thought the Seraphim had arrested you.”

Raider grinned in the rearview mirror. “So did the Seraphim. But there were only two of them and they thought I would come peacefully. Lucky for you guys too, huh, Richard?”

“Adrian,” I said quietly. “My name’s Adrian.”

“I know that, Adrian,” said Raider. “But don’t expect me to tell you my name in return. You probably already know it from my daughter anyway.”

I did, but if he wanted to continue being called Raider, that was fine by me.

“What’s wrong with Marion?” I asked, incredulous that the kid could have slept through our escape. “Is she alright?”

“She’s fine,” Raider said reassuringly. “I had to drug her a little to keep her safe and quiet. She’ll wake in a few hours.”

“We were told to go to a safe house, Raider,” said Terry. “It’s–”

Raider cut her off, saying, “Forget the safe house! My cover’s been blown. I’m going to get us out of the city once.”

Raider’s black van had tinted windows. Terry and I sat in the middle seat while Alia sat between Marion and Ed Regis in the back. I looked at the empty seat next to Raider. If James had been with us, that’s where he would have been sitting.

There were still no police cars or helicopters in sight, but I couldn’t be sure that we weren’t being followed by Seraphim in unmarked vehicles. Still, I remembered that Raider was a psionic hider in addition to a delver, and that he would have put a hiding field around his van as we left the protection of Cindy’s giant bubble over Lumina.

“So, what happened to the command center?” asked Raider, keeping his eyes on the road. “I heard it was attacked.”

“Twenty Point Five is lost,” Terry reported bitterly. “They completely cleared us out.”

I heard my sister let out a quiet sob from behind me.

Raider asked, “How the hell did they find us?”

Not wanting to bring up Alia’s mistake, Terry said simply, “They just did, Raider.”

“I suppose it was only a matter of time,” said Raider. “Our casualties?”

“About half of us got out,” said Terry. “Proton was already outside, and Jacob made it out too. But we split up at the exit so I don’t know if the others reached their hideouts.”

“What about your buddy? Jack, was it?”

Terry didn’t reply.

“James,” I told Raider. “He’s dead.”

Raider nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” Alia whimpered from the back, “I’m sorry.”

“What?” said Ed Regis, who hadn’t heard the full story. “What are you sorry for, Alia?”

“I… I…” Alia broke down, sobbing into her hands.

Turning around in my seat, I told Ed Regis, “Alia thinks she’s responsible for what happened back there.”

“Why?” asked Raider.

Alia couldn’t speak, but I could tell that she wanted them to know. I retold her story as simply as possible. Ed Regis put an arm around my sister’s quivering shoulders as she continued to drip tears onto her shirt.

“I should have been more attentive,” said Raider. “If I had known about this Patrick boy, I could have called Jacob from Octavus and we might have been able to keep any of this from happening.”

“I trusted him,” cried Alia, finally finding her voice again. “I’m so sorry. I trusted Patrick and now James and Willow and her baby and everyone else is dead because of me.”

“That’s not true, Alia,” said Ed Regis.

But my sister was inconsolable. “It is true!” she wailed, pulling herself free of Ed Regis’s arm. “You know it’s true! Don’t say it’s not true! They’re dead and I killed them!”

“You didn’t kill anyone, Alia,” Ed Regis said forcefully, hugging her from the side again. “You might have made a mistake, but you didn’t kill them! Twenty Point Five was always a security risk. Every time someone went outside, there was the chance of discovery. It just so happened to be you. It could have been anybody.”

“But it wasn’t anybody!” cried Alia. “It was me! They died because of me! Just like Max and Felicity!”

“They died because this is a war,” Ed Regis said patiently. “They died because they’re soldiers, and sometimes dying comes with the job. There was no way for you to know that Patrick would tell his parents about you.”

Alia shook her head, her voice completely cracked as she said, “I should’ve known, Ed. Addy told me. Terry told me. I didn’t believe them. And James… James came back for us in there, didn’t he? He didn’t have to, and he did. That’s why he died when it should have been me. It should’ve been me!”

“James died saving my life, Alia,” I said firmly. “And yours, and Ed Regis’s. He died fighting. Like Terry would. Like a Knight would. That’s all he ever wanted. He wanted to be a Knight like his parents, and like us. Max and Felicity were no different. They wanted to fight. I will never understand that, but that’s what James wanted.”

“Don’t blame yourself for his sacrifice, Alia,” agreed Terry. “James insisted on going back into the command center alone, and I trusted him to get you out safely, which he did. He saved your life so that you can save others’. Don’t waste your time blaming yourself. Honor him, Alia. Honor his choice.”

“This is so wrong,” sobbed Alia. “Everything about this is wrong! Everyone is killing each other and Patrick was waving and smiling and…”

It was a nightmare inside a nightmare. Alia had lost her voice, but she continued weeping into Ed Regis’s shoulder. Trapped in the middle seat, I couldn’t comfort her, but Ed Regis was doing a good enough job. And as much as I felt sorry for my sister even while I was haunted by the image of James’s last moments, now burned into my memory for eternity, there was yet another horrible thought eating at me.

I looked past Alia at the damaged rear window and the dark road beyond. We had already crossed over the river and into the countryside. On one side of the road was a thick forest; on the other, a grassy field. For a few quiet minutes, I watched the empty road fading into the night.

Then I turned back around and said weakly to Raider, “Stop the car, please. I think I’m going to throw up.”

Raider immediately hit the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road. “Do it from the door, Adrian,” he said. “I have a hiding field around the van but it’s not big.”

Ignoring his request, I slid open the side door and stumbled out into the night chill.

“Come on!” said Raider, getting out of the van himself. “We have to stay hidden!”

I spun around and, throwing my arms forward, blasted Raider hard in the chest. He was knocked back against the van, and as he slid down the side, I telekinetically pulled his pistol out from its holster and flew it into my right hand. Flipping off the safety, I leveled the pistol on Raider’s head.

Terry jumped out of the van, crying, “What the hell are you doing, Adrian?!”

I ignored her, keeping my attention on Raider, who was coughing feebly as he looked up at the pistol in my hand.

“You’re really something, aren’t you, Raider?” I breathed, taking a step forward. “Willow warned me to always assume that there were at least two spies in the Resistance. You, my friend, are worth twenty.”

Terry let out a quiet gasp as Raider smiled up at me and asked, “How did you know?”

“I’m Adrian Howell,” I reminded him savagely. “So where’s the pursuit? There’s a whole city full of Angels out there looking for me, and you just conveniently show up and drive away with us in a car like this that anyone could follow? Where are the Seraphim? Where are the police?! Where are the goddamn Wolves?!”

Terry said in an awestruck tone, “This guy is one of Divine’s, isn’t he? Like the pair at Wood-claw.”

I nodded. “He isn’t a part of the Lumina Angels. It’s just like Mark said. Raider is working directly for Randal Divine. Even the Seraphim don’t know who he is. That’s why the Guardians never caught him.”

I looked down at Raider. “You knew about Patrick, didn’t you?” I asked, my voice shaking in cold fury. “You knew Alia had lied to you. You’re a delver.”

“I would never delve a child,” said Raider, sounding genuinely insulted. “But I did suspect that something was amiss.”

“You suspected that there was going to be an attack!” I spat back. “That’s why you brought Alia back and then left the building again with Marion.”

“Well, I had to choose one of them,” Raider said mildly.

I pulled the pistol’s hammer back.

“You should thank me,” said Raider. “If I hadn’t called King Divine and told him where you were, the Seraphim would have finished all of you off before you could leave Nonus.”

So that was why they hadn’t pursued us down the elevator shaft. When Randal Divine learned that I was in Twenty Point Five, he had sent an order to halt the attack on the command center and let all the survivors escape, hoping that I was still among them. Once Raider picked us up at the side of the park, the pursuit was ended there so that there would be no more risks to us as Raider quietly handed us in.

“But you could have had me anytime,” I said. “You knew King Divine wanted me alive. Why did you wait so long?”

“Because you were never my mission,” said Raider. “Every time the Seraphim clear out one of the Resistance hideouts, the Knights just slither into another. My mission was to map out all of the safe houses for one, final, clean sweep of Lumina.”

“Then you weren’t after me at all?”

Raider shook his head. “You just fell into my life by chance, Adrian. I’ve no idea why King Divine insists on getting you alive, but when Alia made her little slip today, I figured I couldn’t stand by and let the Seraphim accidentally kill you. My mapping mission has failed, but so long as I can’t go back to the Resistance anymore, I wanted to deliver you to King Divine in person.”

“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen now.”

“So go ahead and kill me,” said Raider. “Do it before Marion wakes up.”

I lowered the pistol and returned the hammer. “You say that I fell into your life by chance, Raider, but you’re the one who fell into mine. Get back in the car and drive. Safely. Remember that yours isn’t the only life at stake here.”

Raider silently stood up and got back into the driver’s seat, and Terry and I sat behind him.

Ed Regis had stayed in the back seat keeping a comforting arm around Alia, but he had heard everything. I wasn’t as sure about my sister, whose red, puffy eyes were open but unfocused, still slowly dripping tears as they stared off into space. Marion remained blissfully unconscious.