Keystone (20 page)

Garrett and I stand in the middle of the empty storage lot aisle, the paper inside the opened garage flapping. The tiny breeze even stirs a few oily hairs on the Fury Man’s head, as he remains flattened out on the black top. I keep circling him, waiting for the man to hop up and attack again. But he doesn’t. It’s deadly quiet.

Garrett walks over and flops the guy onto his back. I look into the Fury Man’s face from over Garrett’s shoulder and I get this feeling that I wouldn’t be able to look away if I wanted to. But all I want to do is see what we’re up against.

The man doesn’t look that old, even with his sunken cheeks, full of acne scars. He’s got a black goatee, that doesn’t match the color of his hair or his blond eyebrows, and a white line of a moustache that floats thinly over his thick upper lip.

“I wonder how long he’s been waiting for us,” Garrett says.

“Then the Fury knows we’re here?” I glance down the storage lot aisle, expecting the Fury to come charging at us from one end or the other, but my eyes are drawn back to the man, out cold, on the cement.

“Not if this is the only guy that was going to let them know.” Garrett laughs, but it sounds almost too easy. “Finding one of the Fury usually isn’t any big deal, Nali, but we aren’t taking any chances with attacks on the Addo. It’s pretty normal to have one of them show up like this. The Fury always sends out scouts to try and keep tabs on where we’re at and what we’re doing. Sometimes they get lucky and actually find us, like this one. But more often, Fury scouts have a really consistent habit of wandering off to the bars or getting sidetracked by the opposite sex or just running off to do something that is more interesting to them. Unless there is something directly in it for a scout, 99% of the time, they don’t see any point in finishing the job.”

“How do you know that?”

“The Fury aren’t the only ones that keep tabs.”

“Then why didn’t this one wander off?”

“Don’t know.” Garrett shrugs. “Sometimes it’s all about bragging rights. Someone bets someone else that they can’t find a Contego and take one down on their own. This one could’ve stuck around if he was homeless or if there was something in it for him.”

Garrett’s voice drifts away.

“Something, like the Key?” I say. A cold flame flickers through my veins. “Would the Fury think it was here?”

“It’s a shot in the dark theory,” Garrett says. “We won’t know unless he comes to.”

I can’t stop looking at the Fury Man. His mouth is still hanging open.

“Are they coming back for us?”

“They will, once the Addo is safe.”

I nod, kind of shocked that I didn’t get shoved in the van too. That Mrs. Reese would consider me part of the line of defense even though I haven’t been trained yet, says something. It says I really, really am Contego. I’m not The Waste anymore. It’s a big thing to go from being a no one to being someone who can look after everyone else. I’m not sure how many times I’ll have to remind myself of what I am before it sticks.

“Is he breathing?” I ask. I’ve been staring so hard at the man that I can’t make out the rise and fall of his chest anymore.

“He’s alive,” Garrett grins. “Just checked out for a while.”

Garrett leans down and grabs the Fury Man’s arms. My nerves shoot up, as if the guy’s going to jump up and take a bite out of Garrett like he did Sean.

“Let’s move him inside, so we’re not out in the open,” Garrett says.

“What if he wakes up?”

“Oh, he’s not waking up,” Garrett says. “Guaranteed.”

As much as it makes my skin crawl, I lean down and grab the guy’s ankles. He’s wearing shiny, leather boots that are slippery in my hands. The Fury Man’s head flops around as we drag him back into the storage shed. We dump him down inside and Garrett pulls down the shed door. It is as still and dark as a tomb until Garrett pulls his phone from his pocket, flips it open and texts something.

“I’m letting Mrs. Neho know where we’re at,” he says. I watch the corner of his mouth lift in amusement as his face is lit by the phone screen’s glow. “Guess it’s going to be a busy night for her. She’s the only one available to do the rings.”

“Rings?” I ask. Everything goes black again as Garrett slips his phone back in his pocket. I focus on him right away, but his gaze is far away and thoughtful, like he’s working through a tough math equation.

“Yeah, you’ll see. There’s no way to really explain them. You just have to see them.”

It’s hard to take my eyes off the Fury Man. He hasn’t moved since Garrett did whatever he did to him, but I still can’t look away.

“You can’t look away, can you?” Garrett says. “That’s instinct kicking in.

I glimpse at him and then back at the man. The Fury Man is like a bear trap and my gaze is snared. “Huh?”

“You can’t take your eyes off him, can you? You’re wired to ensure that he won’t be a threat again,” he says. “I’ll show you how to override it…”

But before he can tell me, someone bangs on the aluminum door. My field orbs around me and I hear a woman’s voice.

“You in there?” Mrs. Neho calls through the door. My body sucks up my field and I’m back inside myself with such a jolt, that I grab my head. Garrett opens the garage door and I squint to see Mrs. Neho, standing alone, outside.

“Hi hi,” she says with a quick wave as she steps in with us. Garrett slides the door back down behind her. I focus on seeing and Mrs. Neho pops into my sight. She stands over the unconscious Fury Man.

“This only one?” she asks. “No other?”

“He’s it.” Garrett says and then, with pride he adds, “Nali took him down by herself.”

“Hardly.” I grunt, but Mrs. Neho gives me a smile.

“Ah. Qweek learner,” she says. She turns back to the Fury Man with a more serious face, even though she is still talking to me. “You see this already, Nalena? What I do? I put energees on man. Rings. And he decide what he do. You don’t put hand in or touch rings, okee?”

I nod and take a step back.

“Stand back is smart.” Mrs. Neho says. “Garrett, you back little more too, okee?”

Garrett and I stand together behind her like trainees at Burger Shack. I wish I could hold Garrett’s hand, but besides the fact that we’re not supposed to touch, he’s mesmerized, leaning in to watch everything Mrs. Neho does.

“Hee we go.” Mrs. Neho says. She rubs her hands together, fast, as if she’s trying to make sparks. “We see what he want to do, okee?”

She closes her eyes. I glance around, figuring I’m supposed to be doing something again, but I have no idea what. Garrett doesn’t have his eyes closed like he did during the Memory. I follow Garrett’s gaze back to the Fury Man.

The man is still passed out on the floor, but his hand twitches. I squint, trying to be sure it’s not my eyes playing tricks on me. But there it is again, another twitch. My eyes go so wide they pull at the corners. The Fury Man’s body begins to roll, one section at a time. It’s like his bones are made of rubber. His limbs keep rolling, pushing his body until he’s finally in an upright position, but his head flops around like a stuffed wet sock.

My eyes dart back to Mrs. Neho. I expect to see rays of light shooting out of her, but there’s nothing. Her eyes are still closed. The Fury Man’s body wiggles around like a stirred worm, but Mrs. Neho looks so peaceful, she could be sunbathing.

“Okee. Up you go, Joe,” Mrs. Neho says. Her palms pull back only a millimeter, but the Fury Man’s body shoots up, stick straight, into the air. His head clunks against the ceiling.

“Whoops,” Mrs. Neho says as he drifts back down a couple inches. His head leaves a greasy little crop circle on the white ceiling and his dirty, untied shoes dangle at eye level.

“Okee, Joe...hee we go.” Mrs. Neho sighs and closes her eyes. That’s when I see them. The rings are silver and they reach like ribs from behind the Fury Man. When they reach all the way around, touching in front of him, they begin to spin. They pick up speed and when I focus, I hear them hum like fan blades.

“Not worry this part, okee, Nalena?” Mrs. Neho says. She’s looking at me. I feel my eyebrows bunched up toward my hairline and try to force them back down.

“Okay,” I say.

Then the Fury Man’s eyes pop open and his mouth drops and he screams as if he’s being stabbed. Shot. Tortured. Killed. All of it, all at once. I jump back. I know I’m not supposed to be worrying, but I can’t trap the shriek that bursts out of me.

Garrett moves closer, I feel him there, but he doesn’t touch me. I still feel him, like warm waves of the sun. The Fury Man screams again.

“Oh now,” Mrs. Neho says. “He extra trouble, this one. He gonna scream lots. He got to get it all out, before he decide.”

The man shrieks again and my shoulders hit the wall. I didn’t even realize I’d backed up so far, maybe because Garrett is still next to me. His hands are clasped, resting against his body, but when I glance at them, his knuckles are white and his fingers are knotted. I think he’s holding his hands like that so he won’t reach for me.

“This is normal,” he says, moving even closer. There is not enough space between Garrett and I to squeeze a fist, but we’re still not touching. I want him to break the rules, even if it is just a wisp of his hair brushing my cheek or his breath over my lips or a fingertip on my elbow. But he doesn’t. His hands stay clasped.

“Is he dying?”

“No,” Mrs. Neho says. “He reviewing life and the bad choices he make.”

“Look at his eyes.” Garrett whispers to me. “If you look, you can tell that he’s not really in there. He’s not in physical pain. He’s literally out of his mind right now.”

“Then why does he keep screaming?” My last word is drowned by another shriek from the man.

“We seeing he emotion.” Mrs. Neho says. “He reviewing he life. Inside he mind. Selfish make you numb, but now he not numb. He standing in shoe of other people he do wrong and he finally understand consequence of actions.”

The Fury Man’s face crumples from the last scream, his skin sags, and his mouth quivers open. He begins to sob.

“Crying good sign.” Mrs. Neho adds pleasantly over her shoulder.

“Is he going to die?”

“Maybe.” Mrs. Neho shrugs. “Depend on him. It depend on if he want to face what he done. If he want to try and change or if he got too much to handle. He might decide…pass on. We just here to make sure he go through it and has choice.”

The Fury Man shrieks again.

“I’d just die.” I say, rubbing my arms. Some non-existent draft jumps up in the room.

“It seems like it’d be easier doesn’t it?” Garrett’s eyes travel over my frantic hands and his voice becomes deeper, more soothing. But his face says dying wouldn’t be the easy way out at all.

The Fury Man suddenly shuts his mouth. His eyelids droop. The rings slow down until they’re wobbling around him like bent bicycle tires.

“Oh no, Joe. You sure you want go that way?” Mrs. Neho says. Almost in the same instant, the Fury Man drops right through the bottom of the rings and crashes on the floor. Mrs. Neho drops her hands at her sides with a shrug and a sigh. “Guess so.”

“Is he dead?” I ask.

“Like doe-nail,” Mrs. Neho says. “Okee. I go now, but you call Emen quick, okee, Garrett? They busy and you don’t want dead guy wreck you rental floor.”

Mrs. Neho’s gone as fast as she showed up and we’re sitting in the pitch-black storage shed with
the body.
Garrett gets on the phone the minute she’s gone and calls for the people Mrs. Neho said would pick up
the body.
I’ve never been this close to a dead body in my life, never been to a funeral with a casket and a dead person inside.

And the creepy thing is that even though the Fury Man is dead, I still can’t look away. When I try, my eyes rivet right back to the dead guy on the floor.

“He’s not going to do anything to anybody now,” I say. “How come I can’t look away?”

“It takes a while to register,” Garrett chuckles. “So let me just teach you how to override your protection instinct, so you’ll stop looking at other men.”

I would like to laugh at it, but looking at the guy on the floor, I can’t. All I can do is focus on being sure the dead guy is actually dead and every time I blink I swear he’s twitched, even though I know he hasn’t. Garrett starts talking even though I don’t look at him.