Payback (16 page)

The door swung away from Yana, taking with it her hiding place. She raised the stun gun-but she was alone. The person searc hing the room had gone, shutting the door behind them.

Don’t move. Not yet,
Yana thought. She held herself so stil that her muscles screamed in protest. For a minute. Two.
Okay,
they should be finished with this hallway,
she decided. She stepped away from the wal and hurried over to the desk, knelt down, and pul ed out her box. She removed one of the cans of lighter fluid and doused the carpet, the sharp smel of the gas fil ling her nose, her mouth, her lungs.

“If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right,” Yana whispered. She opened the desk’s file drawer and started emptying the fi les onto the floor. She made a big pile under the wooden desk.

It wasn’t time to start lighting matches. Not yet. She had more gas to pour. And she had to find the N-Tetran samples. But when it was time, this room would make quite a bonfire. Yana took a backpack out of the box and slid three cans of lighter fluid inside, then put the backpack on. She grabbed the last two cans of fluid, then headed for the door and opened it a few inches. She co uld hear voices, close, but not too close. She slipped out into the hal way and started toward the next door, leaving a trail of ligh ter fluid behind her as she walked.
For you, Mom. And for you, Sam. And for you, Rae. And for your mother. And for Mandy
and her mother. And for Sam’s mother. For all of us.

I
can’t believe he actually said he loved me,
Rae thought for the mil ionth time. They’d driven al the way back to Atlanta, and she was stil reliving that moment. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought he loved her. The way he looked at her, the things he did for her. God, he’d stood guard over her while she slept. But she hadn’t thought he’d actual y say the words. It just didn’t seem like an Anthony thing to do. She glanced over at him, and her mouth curved into a smile. That’s what looking at him did to her. The least of what it did to her.

“What?” Anthony asked.

“Nothing,” Rae answered.
It’s just that you said you love me.
She felt like rol ing down the window and yel ing it to every car they passed.
Anthony told me he loved me! Anthony told me he loved me!

But with Emma in the backseat, breathing in that way you breathe when you’re trying not to cry, shouting about how much Ant hony loved Rae wouldn’t exactly be thoughtful. Neither was yel ing about how much Rae loved Anthony, which was the other thing she felt like shouting to every person in every car.

Rae twisted around and caught Mandy’s eye. “How are you guys doing back there?” she asked.

“I can’t believe I was almost married,” Emma said, staring down at her lap. “Married. I was only a few words from being marri ed.”

“But you’re not,” Mandy told her. “It’s okay.”

Emma scrubbed her face with her hands. “And Zeke. I don’t know if I’l ever even see him again.”

“Do you want to?” Jesse asked, sounding vaguely disgusted. Clearly he was in the Mandy zone-whatever she thought, he tho ught.

“I don’t know,” Emma answered. She wrapped her arms around herself. But her own arms weren’t strong enough to stop the shudders running through her body.

“Almost home,” Anthony announced as he turned onto Mandy and Emma’s street.

“Stop here, okay?” Emma asked. “I need to talk to Becky.”

“Her best friend,” Mandy explained. “From when they used to walk to kindergarten together.”

Anthony pul ed over. “You want me to come in with you?” Mandy asked. She didn’t want to let her sister out of her sight. Rae co uld see that.

“No,” Emma said sharply. She opened the car door and started to climb out. Then she turned back and gave Mandy a hard hug. “Thank you.” She got out and slammed the door before Mandy could answer.
Did she see it on Mandy’s face?
Rae wonde red.
Could she see how worried Mandy was? How much Mandy loves her?

“Hey, let’s go to Chick Filet or someplace,” Jesse said. “I’m starving.”
And you’re not ready to end your Mandy time,
Rae tho ught.

Anthony shot Rae a look that had a question in it. She nodded. Yeah, she’d rather drop Mandy and Jesse off at their homes.

She was dying to have Anthony al to herself. But how could she stand in the way of the sweet thing that was starting up between Mandy and Jesse?

“You mind if I wear your sweatshirt, Anthony?” Mandy asked as he made a U-turn. She grabbed it off the floor without waiting for an answer, and her face drained of animation. She began twisting her hands in her lap.

“She’s gone,” Jesse said, his voice cracking.

“Pul over,” Mandy croaked. “I have to throw up.”

Anthony changed lanes and pul ed over to the curb. Mandy clambered out of the car. Rae got out, too, and held Mandy’s long ha ir back while she vomited, vomited until everything in her was gone and her body shook with dry heaves.

“Here.” Anthony leaned out the passenger window and handed Rae a Coke. “It’s warm, but-”

“Perfect,” Rae said. She popped the top, ignoring the concerned Anthony thoughts she was picking up, and handed the can to Mandy. “Drink this.”

Mandy sucked down half the can, wiped her mouth with her arm, and turned to Rae. “I saw Yana,” she whispered. “She was gag ging on fumes. Gas, I think.”

“Where was she?” Rae cried.

“I don’t know,” Mandy burst out.

Anthony leaned out the window. “I forgot that Yana wore that sweatshirt the last time she was in the car. Are you okay, Mandy?”

“Do you think you can look again? Wil you be al right?” Rae asked.

“Yeah. My vision’s getting a little blurry. It hasn’t been long enough since the last time. But yeah,” Mandy answered. She wiped her mouth again. Then she handed Rae the sweatshirt and immediately took it back, squeezing it tightly to make the connection.

An instant later Mandy’s face went blank. Then she gasped, a sound that made Rae’s stomach try to crawl out of her body.

Slowly Mandy raised her arms.

Like she’s surrendering to someone,
Rae thought.
God, what’s happening to Yana?

Mandy blinked rapidly, then met Rae’s eyes. “She was starting a fire in a trash can. I don’t know where. A place with no win dows. And two men-in uniforms-came at her. Rae, they were pointing guns at her. I think they’re going to kil her.”

“Get back in the car,” Rae ordered as she jumped back in the front seat. “We have to go to the Wilton Center. Yana’s in trouble.”

“You caught me, okay?” Yana said, keeping her hands high but refusing to loosen her grip on the handles of the two metal bo xes she’d found in the lab. The N-Tetran samples were staying with her. “Take me to Cascone. I know she’l want to see me right away.”

The fire she’d lit in the trash can jumped to the trail of lighter fluid she’d splashed through the basement. Neither guard took his eyes off her. She heard a click, then another.
It’s the safeties on the guns going off. They’re going to kill me. Right here. Right
now.

Yana wanted to bolt. At least make them have to hit a moving target. But her feet felt like they had melded to the floor. The fla mes were scorching the skin of her right leg, but even that wasn’t enough to get her muscles to obey her screaming brain. “Do you two even know who you’re guarding?” she burst out. “My mother was murdered by-”

The hands of the guard on the left began to glow. He threw his gun behind him, his mouth dropping open in astonishment.

“What in the hel did you-” the other guard began. Then his hands began to glow, showing the bones and veins. An instant later he threw his gun behind him.

“Now would be the time to run,” a voice said from behind Yana. She snapped her head toward the sound and saw Sam stan ding there.

“How… You can’t be here. I changed the codes,” Yana cried.

“You don’t think I taught you
every
trick I know, do you?” Sam yel ed back. “Move! Now!”

Yana’s body jerked, and she was free. She raced toward Sam, the metal boxes bouncing against her legs. He grabbed her by the wrist and pul ed her to the left. “There’s another set of stairs,” he told her as they ran. They rounded the corner-and saw a wal of fire. Yana’s hair crackled, and her eyes burned even though she and Sam were several feet away from it.

“Back the way we came,” she barked. This time Yana took the lead, pul ing Sam with her. A chunk of sizzling plaster bounced off her shoulder. She looked up and saw that the fire had begun eating the ceiling.

“I can’t even see the end of the hal way,” Sam cried. Neither could Yana. The smoke was too thick. It felt as heavy as bricks as it invaded her mouth and nose and thudded down her throat into her lungs.

“Get down,” Yana instructed. She hit the floor, pul ing Sam down beside her, and started army-crawling forward, the metal boxes clanging. “I’m keeping one foot against the wal . When we get to the T-section of the hal , we go right.”

“Okay. I’l fol ow you,” Sam answered, his voice weak and raspy.

Yana kept crawling. So slow. She was moving way too slow. But she was afraid if she stood up, she’d pass out.
So don’t stand
up,
she told herself.
Who cares if it’s slow? As long as you keep going.

Left elbow. Clang as one of the metal boxes hit the floor. Right knee. Right elbow. Clang as the other metal box hit the floor. Left knee. Again. Again. Again. At least no guards were looking for them. She could hear shouts and footsteps, but as far as she co uld tel , everyone was only thinking about finding a way out. Left elbow. Clang. Right knee. Right elbow. Clang. Left knee. Again.

Again. Again. Should they have reached the T-section by now? Could she have missed it? “Sam, we didn’t go past the opening, did we?” Yana cal ed.

He didn’t answer. “Sam!” Yana shouted. She peered through the smoke. Her eyes were stinging so badly, she almost couldn’t see. She reached out her hand and groped along the floor, keeping the handle of the metal box looped over her thumb. Where was he? “Sam!” she shouted again. She used her hands to push herself backward along the linoleum floor. Every few feet she swept her arm to the side, reaching for him, feeling for him. Where was he?
Where was he?

Yana shinnied backward another few feet. Reached out and felt flesh beneath her fingers. She wriggled closer and saw that her hand was on Sam’s arm. He lay there, motionless. “Keep moving! You don’t want to die in here!” She shoved him hard. His body slid limply across the floor. “Sam! Wake up! Come on! Wake! Up!”

She heard him pul in a shaky breath, a breath that rattled up from deep in his chest. “Yes. That’s it. You’ve got to keep breat hing.” Yana wrapped her arm around his shoulders and started to crawl forward again. She was sure the metal box was cutting into his skin, but who cared about that? Left elbow. Clang. Right knee. Drag Sam forward with right arm. Left knee. “You don’t ha ve to do anything but breathe,” she choked out. “I’l do the rest.” She reached out and felt for the wal with her toe. They weren’t to the T-section of the hal yet. At least she didn’t think so. She kept crawling. Dragging. Checking with her toe. Checking with her toe until the wal wasn’t there anymore.

“Now we just go right and then we’re to the stairs,” she told Sam. He didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure if he was even breathing anymore. And she didn’t want to find out for sure. Not until she got him out of here. Out of the smoke and heat. Once she did that, he’d be okay.

Yana kept crawling. Her lungs felt like they were on fire themselves. Every breath she managed to pul in made the fire in them hotter.
Keep going,
she told herself.
Keep going. You have to get out. You can’t let them win. For Mom.
Left elbow. Clang.
For
Rae.
Right knee
. For Sam.
She dragged Sam forward with her left arm.
For Mandy.
Left elbow.

Wait. Her elbow had hit something. Yana explored with her fingers, her thumb cramping as she tightened it around the handle of the metal box. Her fingers hit flesh again. Blistered flesh. Hot bile hit the back of her throat.
Don’t think about it now,
she told her self.
You’ve got to keep going.
But she couldn’t crawl over the… the body. Not dragging Sam. She was going to have to stand up and carry him.

Yana staggered to her feet. And saw a tiny red light blinking through the smoke. The keypad for the door. The… body must have been trying to reach the door.
Don’t think about it now,
she told herself again. She brought her face as close to the keypad as she could, and the numbers came into focus. She punched in the new code, the metal keys burning her finger with each touch.

“Did it,” she muttered when the door clicked open. “We’re outta here, Sam.” Yana bent down and hauled Sam to his feet. She wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held it in place with one hand. Then she started up the stairs.

Her shoulder muscles screamed in protest, but Yana didn’t let go of Sam. Didn’t let go of the boxes. Right foot. Left foot. Up, up, up. “We’re almost halfway there, Sam,” she said. It wasn’t true. They were only halfway up the first flight, and there was stil another flight left to go. But Sam wasn’t looking.

Yana hauled in a deep breath. Better. The air was so much cooler out here. She sucked in another breath. It was like a fire hose had been turned on her lungs. Energy flooded her body. She started taking the steps two at a time. Sam’s feet were barely touc hing the floor. But he didn’t feel heavy. It was like she’d become a superhero or something. Like if she had to lift a car off a kid right now, she could do it. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Leftrightleftrightleftright.

And here was the door. Yana shoved it open. The air in the hal way of the first floor was even better. “Just a little ways more, Sam.” Yana bent down and looped one of her arms under his knees. She’d carry him the rest of the way. He was light, probably because he was sick. And she was flying, flying for the main exit. She bet she was pumping more adrenaline right that second than she had in the rest of her life combined.“Yeah!” Yana screeched as she shoved open the big double doors and burst out in to the night air. “We did it! We did it, Sam!” The adrenaline drained out of her body, leaving her limp. She gently lowered Sam to the ground. She’d just rest for a sec-A horrible sound fil ed her ears. Heavy footsteps. Running toward her. “No. No, no, no.” Yana didn’t want to look, but she had to.