Long Division (22 page)

‘Right. Well, suppose I’ll leave you, then. Get some sleep. You look absolutely knackered. If you need anything…?’

James was still looking at the spot where I’d just been. His fingers groped towards one of the blankets I’d brought out for him. ‘I will be fine, thank you.’

I nodded and walked stiffly towards my own bed, struggling to not look back.

Once there I lay for a long time, tossing and turning in the dark. My mind was all too active to allow me sleep; too disturbed by what had happened, too worried that my own flat might be broken into again. That I might be dragged from my bed with a gun to my head, a voice demanding things of me I didn’t know.

But, beyond all that, there was another reason I could not sleep.

And that was because I couldn’t stop thinking of James Nightgood sleeping so close by.

13:RAVs

‘I’ve got it.’

James’s eyebrows went down over his closed eyes in a tight frown. ‘What have you gotten?’

I slid into the room and bumped into the end of the sofa, allowing my gaze to travel down his lanky form, from his spread toes to his face. His eyes were still shut. ‘I’ve figured out what RAV is.’

He let out a groan of disappointment and scrunched his brows tighter downwards. For someone as addicted to the cause as he was, he was being irritatingly disinterested about the whole thing. Perhaps the destruction of his flat had been the final straw. Having his comfort and familiarity crushed about him like eggshells—with his constitution, such as it was—was probably more than he could handle.

‘Come on, now. This is important!’ I gripped the arm of the sofa, near his curled toes.

‘Is it?’ he grumbled.

I directed my eyes to the ceiling. ‘Listen here. I was watching the news yesterday, and they were talking about how more and more people are acting up. They are blaming it on some new virus transmitted by birds. Get it?
RAVs? Rare Avian Virus?
It is the only thing that makes sense.’ I grinned, a bit proud by how clever I’d been.

He let out a clipped breath through his nose and I watched his eyelids flutter. He was rolling his eyes. ‘No. Don’t be ridiculous.’ His neck stretched as he rested his head back against the opposite arm rest.

My eyes automatically fell to tracing the bands of tendons; his pronounced Adam’s apple as it bobbed with a swallow.

I blinked, attempting to get my mind back on things. ‘How is that ridiculous? James, it makes perfect sense! I don’t get it, but maybe…maybe the signals from those devices of theirs are making…I don’t know, viruses mutate or something.’

He huffed his breath and pushed himself to a sitting position to finally look me in the eyes. His hair was a wild mess. It gave him a comfortable, fitting image to me, in such a dishevelled state. Like he belonged here, looking like this, waking up from sleep, bare-chested and uncaring of how he appeared. There was something desirable about that. Something I wished I had. Yet, his eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep. He hadn’t slept well either. I wondered if it was over the same things I was tormented with. Probably—save for thinking of me. I was sure that thought was far from his mind, much to my chagrin.

I felt a small knot of guilt for having him kipping out here on a ratty sofa where he hardly fit, but really, what other option was there? Seeing the cross look on his face, however, my pity dried up.

‘It would make no sense for that to be what they are referring to. Why else mention viruses and RAVs completely separate? Why not just use one term or the other?’

I spluttered. ‘I don’t know!’

‘If you would have read it more carefully, you would also have seen the word
“Columbidae”
in the board report, in reference to the virus, which, if you would have looked into, would have noted is the scientific name for pigeon; you would see it is two completely different topics. Nothing about birds and RAVs together. Separate issues, yet somehow related, I will concede that.’

My jaw suddenly began to ache and I realised I’d been clenching it to the point my teeth ground against one another. He had a way of doing that—when he wasn’t having certain
other
effects on me.

‘So, you told me that it wasn’t important, but then you went ahead and researched it yourself, is that it?’

His eyes fluttered closed again. ‘Helps when one can’t sleep.’

I crossed my arms. ‘So what do
you
think it means?’

He sighed. ‘I don’t know. Some sort of cover.’ He pulled his hands over his head with a snarl, eyes screwing tighter shut. Those long fingers of his knotted in his hair.

Something about his expression made me pause. ‘You all right?’

‘Headache. Bad one. No different than usual.’

His toes curled further.

‘Want something for it?’ I asked, after a second of watching him battling in silence. I got them just as often as any other person, but most of mine didn’t cause me to curl up into a miserable ball on the sofa. I wasn’t sure if it was simply James being dramatic, or something worse. I didn’t like witnessing it. I hadn’t known he got them this bad. A nervous prickle remembering his alarming catatonic states came to mind. I did not want another episode of that.

He suddenly pushed himself up from his position and wove, on wobbly legs, to the bathroom. The door didn’t shut so I followed after, worried about the stricken look on his face. I heard myself repeating his name, concern bubbling inside of me.

By the time I’d reached him he’d collapsed in front of the toilet and I froze, no longer knowing what to do, as he became sick. I turned away, the smell wafting up to me.

I supposed no one truly knew what to expect when they took someone in for the night but I certainly hadn’t been ready for this. It took me a moment to compose myself before I could turn back to him. He’d finished with a rattling heave and had slumped to the floor, wheezing for breath. I flushed the toilet and then helped him up to a sitting position. I was feeling ill myself, thanks to the smell.

‘Okay, just calm down…’ My fingers shook.

James obediently leant back against the wall, head in hand. He sniffed heavily.

‘Does this happen often?’ I asked, standing nervously. I wasn’t good at this, taking care of people, but I couldn’t leave James in such a state. I knew that much. I handed him a wet cloth for his face.

‘Often enough.’ He swore, which was unusual for him, dabbing his face.

‘Migraines? Have medication for that?’

‘No.’

I opened the cupboard and searched through the messy piles of boxes and bottles. Ointments, bandages, condoms, toothpaste, random pills I didn’t even know. I began swiping the bottles up, reading over the labels, growing more frustrated with each I grabbed, for the right one seemed to be nowhere to be found.

The box of condoms fell to the sink. I winced and swiped it up, trying to stuff it back in the cabinet. Hadn’t used those in a while. I’d wondered where they’d gotten to. My cheeks burned as I felt James patiently watching me like a hawk with drooping eyes.

‘There has to be something for headaches in here somewhere,’ I grumbled, blushing.

I finally found the right bottle and cried in triumph. ‘Right.’ I spun from the room to fill a glass with water before coming back to James with several of the pills.

The wall separating us from the neighbours gave another alarming rattle, as it had done the previous night. I paid it no mind, instead tipping two of the pills out to my hand and offering them to James.

He gulped them down and looked up at me with watery, red eyes. ‘I have to go back to my flat today…clean it up.’

I shook my head. ‘Oh, no. Not in this state you’re not.’ My watch began to beep. I sighed. ‘Look, I’ve got to go to work. You stay here and rest.’

‘But—’

I shook my head and waited till James wobbled back to the sofa, then dressed and had a wash myself. My head was starting to ache as well with all of the new issues. I hoped whatever he had wasn’t catching—not that headaches could be contagious. I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking.

As I made ready, I could not ignore the increasing sounds of discord coming from my neighbours. It bothered me. Here I was having James stay over and they were making my place seem…unwelcoming, and worse, giving a wrong impression of just what a shit hole I lived in. Not to mention the noise certainly couldn’t be doing James’s headache any favours. I’d never really minded them but honestly their timing for a row couldn’t have been worse.

I swept up my keys and made it to the door, casting one last look to James, who had already passed out, before stepping out.

A loud
crash!
made me recoil back the way I’d come. The door to my neighbours flat burst open and a television went tumbling to at my feet. I swore as it shattered, leaping back. James was on his feet with surprising swiftness, starting from sleep, and hovered just over my shoulder as the shouting grew worse. I braced myself in the doorway, making a barrier between James and whatever lay beyond. I didn’t think he’d take it well, whatever it was. He was unstable enough without this.

Mr Carson’s wife came stumbling out amidst a tirade of swears and smashing dishes. I swore again and pushed out of the shelter of my doorway to pull her—Maud—to the safety of my flat. She already had her mobile out.

‘I’m phoning the police, Charlie!’ she screeched, making James jump.

Charlie stumbled out of the room, glass crunching beneath his bare feet.

I put myself between them again, heart thudding. I wasn’t good with confrontations. ‘Whoa, hey, Charlie! Calm down, mate.’ I held up my hands, trying to be as disarming as possible. A chill sweat began at the small of my back. ‘What’s the problem?’ I cast a glance over my shoulder to Maud. James was gaping at her in complete bafflement, one of his hands curled in his hair, clearly stressed.

Charlie lunged forward, pointing a shaking finger at me violently. ‘That…that
bitch
is the problem!’

She let out a shriek; the mobile pressed to her ear, then went back to talking to the police.

‘Enough with the language,’ I barked, feeling James’s eyes burn into the back of my neck. ‘What has she done?’ I felt my spine straighten. If a fight was coming, I was not sure I was ready for it, but I’d be damned if I let him try anything without me resisting in some way.

‘She used up the last of the milk!’ he spoke so constrained I would have thought he couldn’t breathe.

I blinked. What? Had bringing James to my flat—a completely not-me thing to do—somehow disrupted the universe? Charlie and Maud had always been the kindest, quietest neighbours—Christians, I’d thought. So what was happening now was completely inexplicable. ‘She…
milk?
’

He lunged and I—surprising myself—knocked him back. He swore: a foul string of profanities boiling from his mouth, totally alien, as was the rest of this situation. I braced myself for him to strike, and then, suddenly, James was by my side. I gaped at him in surprise. He was lanky, and ill, but he was tall and had a way of presenting himself as towering, menacing. And Charlie took notice of it.

‘I think we all just need to calm down,’ I said slowly. I hadn’t expected James’s move and now I wasn’t sure who’d strike who first. I had never been in a situation of such tension and I was at a loss of how to handle it. After seeing James having had a go at Fox with no warning, I didn’t trust him now.

Much to my relief, sirens began to whine outside. Thank God.

Charlie looked about him in a sort of wild fright and then sank to his knees. He burst into sobs. Maud pushed past me and headed for the stairs to let the police in. Charlie did absolutely nothing to stop her.

James and I exchanged a glance as the police came down. We both numbly gave accounts of what we’d seen. My head was spinning. I looked to my friend. He was clearly tensed, ready for a fight, even now. I timidly tugged at his sleeve in an attempt to make him budge. He obediently, docilely, trudged in after me.

‘I—I don’t know what happened. He is never like that. Never!’ I looked to James. ‘D—D’you think it’s the
virus?
James?’

He ignored me. ‘Go to work, Mark.’

I paused. ‘What?’

‘It’s nothing for you to worry about.’

I looked up at him, confused. ‘How would you know?’ I didn’t want to ask.

‘RAVs.’ His shoulders went up and down in a little shrug. ‘Random Acts of Violence.’

14:Mad Town

It’s difficult to describe exactly what I was feeling those next few days. Some things had changed dramatically, and some stayed the same. To name one, James had not left my flat. He hadn’t really been well enough. And given the circumstances, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to.

About the RAVs, he was right. I knew he was. The devices were doing just as he’d said. Causing random acts of violence, for some inexplicable reason; and InVizion had somehow put it into people’s heads that it was all that damn pigeon virus.

They were, more or less, becoming common. Not that the media was giving them much attention, but one saw the results of it everywhere. Every day. I was very properly frightened. The idea that I—or James—or hell, anyone, could snap at any moment, put me constantly on edge. If I wasn’t so wary I’d be set upon for who I was, I would have become numb to it.

Added to that, there was one thing I’d not been able to shake from my mind: Slater.

James and I hadn’t exactly been quiet since I’d bumped into the man. But
someone
had been responsible for James’s ransacked place. Someone was tasked with digging back up that information on the flash drive—and I could only suspect its contents had more to do than simply chimps tearing each other apart, as horrible as that was.

Yet, we had been left alone, for the most part. Things had been quiet. Eyes watching across the streets weren’t as noticeable and I was tempted to be lulled into forgetfulness when I was at peace, away from James. But that was only hopeful thinking because I knew we’d gone too far.

Somewhere, deep down I knew that.

‘Hello, Mark.’

I jumped, just reminding myself in time to
not
swear violently. It was not often people approached me at work, or called me by name.

When I whirled round I was confronted an unfamiliar—yet all too familiar—face which sent the floor dropping from beneath me. Oh, God
.
I struggled to keep my expression as neutral as I was able, but my insides were trembling, turning to water.

A man, in black, was standing several feet from me, a smile fixed on his plain face. Movement out of the corner of my eye and I turned; another man was at the opposite end of the aisle. I was trapped.

I prayed my face was blank as I turned, warily, to face the man nearest me. ‘May I help you?’

The man smiled again, a look that was much too charming, friendly. ‘You know a friend of ours, don’t you? James Nightgood?’

I felt my throat go dry. ‘The mathematician.’

His mouth was fixed, that same dry, patient smile again. ‘That’s right. How is Jimmy keeping, these days? We don’t see him anymore. We miss him.’

I felt hot all over; my skin crawled. Were they so bold as this now? My brain began to race. Did I dare lie? They
knew
where James was. They had to! And they were all well aware of all we’d been up to.

‘He’s…fine,’ I managed, shifting; hating having both of them between me. There was nowhere to run. Not that I
should
have to run anywhere. All of these incidents had turned me paranoid. They couldn’t do a thing to me.

‘You and Jim have been spending quite a lot of time together, haven’t you?’ The man at the opposite end of the aisle stepped closer.

I bristled, feeling more than a little pugnacious at the moment over this cornering and wondered if the Godlinks were having an effect on me. Was I more prone to RAVs than I’d imagined?

‘He’s been dragging you into his little games, hasn’t he? His little fantasies.’

Each of his words was like a spike punched through my spine. Games. Fantasies.

‘I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I said, wary.

James Nightgood is a liar.

He chuckled, and I got the distinct impression of a shark: dead eyes, toothy grin, dangerous. It was not a nice look on a human. ‘Oh, come now. You’ve been with Jimmy long enough. You should know his…quirks…by now. Know how he tends to exaggerate. Rather…neurotic about things?’

I felt a distant, tugging hesitation begin inside of me. He was right. He did know James well. James did have, as he’d said, quirks not to mention a tendency to obsess.

But no. No. He was right about InVizion! He was right about all of it! I mentally shook my head. There was no bloody way I would ever doubt that. ‘I know people have been made to think so.’

The man smiled that same sharky smile. ‘Perhaps rightly so. After all, a thousand people can believe a fool, but that still makes him a fool.’

My mouth pulled down. ‘Fine way to talk about your
friend.
’

The other man clamped a hand on my shoulder, making me whirl round. ‘Tell him we said hello, would you?’

The back of my shirt was starting to cling to me with a cold sweat. ‘And who exactly shall I tell him is saying hello?’

His head tilted to one side. ‘His old friends.’

I squared my jaw. Friends my arse.

‘Do you have the message?’

I stiffened. ‘Yes, I should think so.’

He gave my shoulder a little pat. I quickly turned the other way. No one. Just as suddenly as they’d appeared, they’d gone; I was alone.

All seemed too quiet now. There hadn’t been many patrons before that I’d been aware of, but now, now they might as well have all dried up and disappeared completely. It concerned me that the reason for their quiet have been they’d heard my tense discussion just now. Were they all frozen, listening for more?

Eventually I made myself ignore it.

It felt so long till I would be able to leave this demandable, dull place and go home to James.

A thought hit: What if they were visiting him, too? What if I’d have no one to go home and tell?

There was a
thud!
at the end of the row and, as pent up as I was, it drew my attention. A book was lying crumpled on its pages several feet away. It made me pause and glance up. Where the hell had that come from? I abandoned my work and took an irritated step towards it, grumbling. I was sick of this day.

Another book slipped, directly above my head.

Just in time I was able to sidestep it as it fell. The
thump!
sending me more rattled then I knew I should have been.

I peered through the stack, trying to see what wanker was pulling this. It happened every now and then. Yet no one was there. Something about it sent my skin crawling and as my hand closed round the spine of the book a very low
creak
came from the shelf. As I stared at it, it wobbled oh, so slightly.

‘Oh, shite.’

I didn’t have time to move before the entire thing went toppling over, smashing straight towards me. I dove for the opposite shelf with a cry as a hail of heavy science books came raining down. The shelf hit the adjacent one with a loud
CRASH!
and sent the next one tipping. Below, I rolled away from it with a panicked swear, thinking for sure I would be crushed. The first was caught on the second, which had now caught on a third and I was trapped in a cave of fallen, musty books.

I let out a cry that I could only
pray
someone heard. My own struggles to free myself were doing little good.

My thoughts were, understandably, a bit disjointed about the whole thing. All I could hear was my shallow breathing. That and the shifting of books, the creaking of shelves. The occasional crash. One of my arms was bent beneath me and it was giving me terrible pain.

I struggled to rein in my wildly racing mind. Okay. This had happened. Why, I didn’t know. But it hadn’t been an accident. I’d just had a rather sinister conversation with two InVizion agents. And I’d be damned if they didn’t know how to move things, as James did.

So what was this? Some sort of threat? If so, it was a rather drastic one. And why target me? What the hell was I capable of doing? I understood nothing of InVizion’s plans, and I was sure that anyone who was keeping an eye on James would certainly know that about me. I was nothing to them.

James. If they were so brazen as to do this to me, what were they going to do to him? He was at home, unaware of any danger. They could break in or do God knew what whilst I was trapped here like an idiot, unable to warn him. My vision blurred. He was all I could suddenly think about and a new panic had seized me to get out.

I struggled a bit beneath the mound I was buried in and a book slid, hitting me on the back of the head. The metal shelf wobbled, freezing me in my escape. It was heavy, and I didn’t think I’d be able to shift it on my own.

‘Hullo?’

Someone from beyond my darkened world called out to me and I shouted, relieved. My voice sounded humiliating and strangled, but really, being buried under a mountain of books, I didn’t have much dignity left.

At last, to my great relief, the shelf was lifted from my back and I struggled free from the volumes on—ironically—mathematics. I stared at my rescuers, feeling sheepish.

There was no explanation for what had happened. The cameras caught nothing. No one to blame it on. We could only clean it up. Needless to say, my nerves were shattered from then on.

On my way leaving work, I did my best to keep my head down, still feeling like a target. My phone flashed with a text from James. He was all right. Bored.

I didn’t get farther than the foot of the stairs before I heard Ashely calling my name. I turned and admittedly felt a relaxing relief flood my muscles at the sight of her. God, someone who
wasn’t
entangled in all of the shit that I was; all of the drama and danger and end of the world plots. Normal. And I needed her right now.

‘Mark! I just heard what happened at the library! Some sort of accident?’

I stood a little straighter. It was nice, having someone worry about me for a change. I gave her a weak smile. ‘Yeah…just some wonky shelves I think. Bit of a mess, really. Thinking it might have been one of those RAV incidents or something.’

She reached out and touched my face, setting it hot. ‘You’ll have an impressive bruise in the morning. You must have been hit pretty hard.’

A shaky, nervous laugh, thanks to her thumb now brushing against my mouth, escaped me. ‘I’ll be fine.’ I couldn’t help but tilt my head ever so slightly to her fingers.

She stepped in and kissed my cheek, where she’d been caressing, which was a step even better. ‘I know you will. You’re tough. Always have been.’

Wasn’t so sure about that. I passed a hand through my hair. A silence had followed and I decided to jump at it, perhaps blurting too quickly, ‘You want to go out tonight?’

She blinked in surprise. ‘You mean out for a drink?’

I shrugged. ‘I was thinking more along the lines of dinner.’

Ashley grinned, a beautiful, warm smile that I felt I hadn’t seen in a long, long time. There was something so reassuring in knowing that I could make a girl smile. That there was something else out there besides hopelessness. It was a relief.

‘Yeah! Yeah.’ She cleared her throat. ‘That would be really nice, Mark. Really.’

For one night, I could relax. Relax, and forget.

And I would have done, if the constant thought of James that persisted in gnawing at the back of my mind. But it would keep for now. He would keep. He wasn’t going anywhere.