Red Queen (24 page)

We kept the windows rolled up and the air conditioner on full and still the heat penetrated the SUV. Fortunately, we didn't have to drive far before we reached Inferno.

The makeshift town stood with low, sloping hills on one side and a barren plain on the other. I assumed the open area led in the direction of ground zero. In the distance, in a straight line toward the spot where the bombs ignited, I saw two smaller towns that looked as if they had absorbed far more damage.

I understood in an instant why the government had staggered the towns. It was trying to gauge the degree of destruction each bomb caused relative to how far it was from the target. Since Inferno was at least three miles away from ground zero, it was still largely intact.

Yet that was not saying much. It looked like a ghost town that had been ravaged by locusts. The structures that had been made of wood were sagging skeletons of soot and ash. The cement-and-brick buildings had fared better, although the paint had peeled away, probably from a combination of the blasts and dust storms. More than half the windows had shattered and the bulk of the tar-based roof shingles had melted through to the ceilings.

However, in a strange way, Inferno was impressive. It had been pulverized by dozens of nuclear weapons, yet it had survived to tell its tale.

Besides normal buildings, on our side of town there was a kids' park that had a few swings and slides that would have been serviceable if not for the thick layers of rust. Plus, of all things, in the center of town there was a stone fountain that
was bubbling with a modest amount of underground water. I assumed that was where the water was coming from. I doubted there was any electricity in place to pump the liquid from a nearby pond or stream.

I sensed instantly that the town was inhabited. Yet the mind, or minds, I picked up felt alien. And I couldn't help noticing how Jimmy stared at the town. He was not connected yet but he was no dummy. He studied the town closely before he suddenly turned to me.

“We're being watched,” he said.

I nodded. “You're right. Are they good witches or bad witches?”

He hesitated. “There's danger here but also something else.”

“What?”

“I don't know. Why did you bring us here?”

“I don't know,” I said.

“Well, we make a fine pair.” Jimmy opened his door. “You stay here, keep the engine running, be ready to bolt at a moment's notice.”

I grabbed his arm gently. “You must realize by now that I can take care of myself.”

He shook his head. “Don't get cocky. If someone shot you through the heart, I doubt it would matter how many witch genes you have.”

“Good advice.” I let go of his arm. “But I'm still coming with you.”

We walked together toward the town. Jimmy was smart, he brought along two Evian water bottles. He also had a white baseball cap, to shade his head from the sun, but he put it on top of my head.

“If you knew we were coming out here, why didn't you buy a Geiger counter in town?” he asked.

“Because the thing would probably be beeping so loudly by now you would have driven off and left me no matter how much you say you love me.”

“Not funny. I was serious when I said radioactive elements can hang around for thousands of years. The fact the government stopped nuclear testing in the sixties means nothing.”

“It especially means nothing because they haven't really stopped.”

“Who told you that?”

“My father,” I said.

“Wonderful. If we ever get married and have kids, they're probably going to be born with two heads.”

I had told Jimmy about everything in witch world except Lara. Somehow, after Huck, I didn't think he could take any more.

I suddenly held up my hand. “Did you hear that?”

“What?”

“Footsteps. Someone running.”

“Toward us or away from us?”

I listened closely. “They're near. They're watching us.”

Jimmy spoke seriously. “Every minute we stay here increases our danger. You could inhale a stray particle of plutonium. Just one particle could give you breast cancer like Debbie's mom.”

His remark sobered me. But it was right then I noticed a trail of muddy liquid leading from the central fountain toward what was labeled a drugstore. It was the best-kept building in town and I suspected someone was using it as their home.

“Somebody just had themselves a little drink,” I said.

Jimmy knelt and studied the trail. “They've got small feet.”

“Yes.” I stopped and shut my eyes. The sensation of being watched intensified, and on top of that, I began to sense the mind behind the person who studied us. He or she felt young. I opened my eyes. “We're being watched by a kid.”

“Are you sure?”

“He's alone and he's curious about us.”

“How many eyes does he have?”

It was supposed to be a joke but I didn't smile.

“I don't know,” I said softly.

We found him in the drugstore munching on a protein bar and a bag of barbecue potato chips, drinking water from a jug he had filled at the fountain. He was not naked but close. He wore a torn piece of canvas that was held to his waist by a piece of dirty rope. He was maybe six, filthy, and extraordinarily tan—either burned by the sun or other forms of the radiation. He had ten fingers and ten toes, and seemed okay in that respect, although he had a dry cough and his skin was badly
marked. Lesions, maybe. His cobalt-blue eyes seemed to glow.

I gave him a warm smile. “Hi, my name's Jessie and this is Jimmy. What's your name?”

He heard me, definitely, he went still at my question. But he didn't open his mouth to reply. Instead, he reached for a notepad and picked up a blue marking pen and wrote out four letters. He struggled to form them, like a right-handed person being forced to write left-handed.

WHIP.

“Your name is Whip?” Jimmy asked.

The boy nodded and smiled shyly at Jimmy. He stood and offered him a protein bar and some of his potato chips. The food was all fresh; I could only assume someone was bringing it in from the outside.

Jimmy accepted the food graciously. I assumed he would be worried the kid had some kind of infection or disease—his cough appeared chronic—but Jimmy showed no such concern. His behavior made no sense, especially after the lecture he had just given me. Of course the food looked fine, like it had been recently delivered. For sure, Whip had not scavenged it from the local buildings. But then I realized that Jimmy's desire to accept the kid's food went deeper. Jimmy was thinking of Huck while he was with Whip. I don't know how I knew this, but I was sure it was true. And he wanted the boy to like him.

“This is good, thank you,” Jimmy said, as he chewed on the protein bar and potato chips. But he hesitated when Whip
offered him a drink from his water.
That
I could understand.

“Whip, do you live here alone?” Jimmy asked.

Whip nodded, then reached out and squeezed Jimmy's arm.

“Do you know where Las Vegas is?” I asked.

The boy's eyes grew brighter, if that were possible. He nodded vigorously.

“Have you ever been to Las Vegas?” Jimmy asked.

Whip stopped nodding, he fell silent, just stood there, not even eating. The light in his eyes faded. Seeing how the question had stung, Jimmy quickly added, “Would you like to go to Las Vegas with us?”

Whip got so excited he jumped up and down. The response made Jimmy smile but it worried me. I leaned over and whispered in Jimmy's ear.

“We've known this child only a minute and we're talking about taking him out of his natural environment. We should discuss this. It's obvious that someone's bringing him food on a regular basis. How are they going to feel the next time they come here and Whip's gone?”

Jimmy shrugged. “We can take him for a visit, we don't have to keep him there.”

“You might end up freaking out his caregiver.”

“We'll leave a note saying we took him.”

“Great. Will you leave your cell number?”

Jimmy hesitated. “That would probably be a mistake.”

“Duh. We can't leave our names or our numbers.” I paused.
“The Lapras use these towns because of their high levels of background radiation. They use them to mutate people. For all we know, Whip is one of their experiments.”

“He looks like a discarded experiment, if you ask me,” Jimmy said. “Look, I agree we have to keep an eye out for these evil guys you told me about. But even if they are feeding this child, they're abusing him. He needs a bath and he needs a doctor to check him out. Didn't you say your father was flying in today? Your father in this world?”

“That's what he told me last night. But . . .”

“I understand. You haven't seen this version of your dad in years. You don't know if he's going to show.”

“Exactly.”

“Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's coming. He can give Whip a thorough physical without us having to take the boy to an official clinic.”

“I have never seen this paternal side of you before.”

Jimmy rubbed the boy's head. “There's a lot of things about me you don't know.”

I sighed. “All right, we'll take the boy with us. But on the trip back to Vegas, please try to make it clear to him that he's only coming with us to visit the city. Neither of us is in a position to adopt this child.”

Jimmy nodded. “I agree. Anything else?”

“I definitely want to leave a note for whoever brings his food.”

Tearing a page from Whip's notepad, and borrowing one of his pens, I came up with a note that stated the basics but which I hoped would not place us in danger.

WE HAVE WHIP AND ARE TAKING GOOD CARE OF HIM. DON'T WORRY, HE WILL BE RETURNED SOON.

“What do you think?” I asked Jimmy.

He frowned. “It wouldn't reassure me if I was a parent.”

“What kind of parent would leave him all alone out here?”

“An asshole.” Jimmy stood and offered Whip his hand. “Let's load him in the Expedition and get out of here.”

“Why are you suddenly in such a hurry to leave?”

Jimmy turned and looked me straight in the eye, and in that moment I felt he was every bit as connected as I was. “Because I just realized we have found exactly what it is you came out here to find. And he's more important than either of us realizes.”

Jimmy's words touched me deeply. Silly, I know, but I had a warm glow in my chest as I watched the two of them walking hand in hand to the SUV.

ON THE DRIVE BACK TO
Las Vegas, jimmy challenged me to call my father and see if he was flying into Las Vegas as promised. I don't know if Jimmy was testing the validity of my story or my father's word or both. In this world, the man had not sent me a birthday card in years.

I had to go through Dr. Michael Major's emergency service to get his cell number. Even then they handed it out reluctantly. I have to admit I felt nervous dialing the number. The previous night, I had spent hours talking to him, but that had been in witch world, and the rules were different there.

Fortunately, he answered promptly. “Hello?”

“Hi. It's your long-lost daughter.”

He didn't seem surprised. Obviously the transition from one world to the other was nothing to him. “Where are you?” he asked.

“In the desert, driving back to town.” I paused. “Where are you?”

“I got to Vegas two hours ago. I called your hotel but Alex said you went out with Jimmy.”

“He's with me now.”

“Did you try explaining what happened to you?”

“Sure.”

“How did that go over?”

“Like a ton of bricks. But I think he's opening up to the possibility that there's nothing wrong with me a lobotomy won't fix,” I said.

“Don't worry, I have experience in this area. I'll talk to him. But I have to be careful no one knows where I'm staying. I'll text you my address in a few minutes, using an encrypted phone. Still, when you reach town I want you to drive around for a while, see if you're being followed. Try to
sense
if someone is tailing you. If they are, park your car at a hotel and hurry through the casino floor and immediately grab a taxi on the other side. Repeat this trick a few times—it's the best way to lose a tail.” He paused. “When you're absolutely sure you're in the clear, come see me.”

“I'm glad you're here, Dad.” I found it interesting that he had told me to sense if I was being followed. He had to know of my intuition gene, and that it was already beginning to work.

“I promised you I was coming,” he said.

“I know, it's just . . . It will be great to see you in this world.”

“I told you, I only stayed away to keep you and your mother safe. But for now, I don't want to talk any more on this phone than we have to. Expect my message soon.”

My father hung up suddenly. Jimmy was smiling.

“I'm impressed,” he said.

“What impressed you more, my lifting up this SUV or my talking to my father?”

“Hearing you and your dad talking was more of a miracle.” Jimmy reached over and stroked my arm. Whip was sound asleep in the backseat. “How come you didn't tell him about our guest?”

“I'm beginning to get the impression these witches, on both sides, behave like spies. He doesn't trust cell phones. In fact, he wants us to make sure we're not being tailed before we go near him.”

“No one's going to tail us. They'd have to pick us up the second we drove back into town.”

Someone latched on to us the moment we reentered Vegas—a black Mercedes sedan. Swearing under his breath, Jimmy tried to race away from them but that didn't work. Finally he swung up to the front of Circus Circus, to valet parking, and the three of us jumped out, grabbed the parking ticket, and raced across the floor of the casino. I was pleased to see Jimmy pick Whip up and run like the devil. I had given the child my shirt to cover him—I had a tank top on underneath—and it went a long way toward hiding Whip's filthy rags. We
caught a taxi outside the back of the hotel and took the cab down to the Tropicana, where we repeated the process.