The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (71 page)

“That kid, Tam, from the Bricks?” Anuk said.  “Just came
saying he saw Branigan with Shade up in Trip’s turf.  He thought at first that
maybe Shade had gone to him, but then said it didn’t seem to be a friendly
meeting.  More like Branigan had cornered him, got him defenseless.”

I caught Bugs standing still, some little distance from us,
staring toward the other skitters but not really watching them.  Listening in,
the little sneak.  I tapped a knuckle to my chin, signaling Anuk to keep his
voice down.  Soon as he saw it, his voice dropped clean away, and he flicked a
knowing glance at Bugs.

“Poor skitter,” I whispered.  “He just adores Shade.  I dan’
want him knowing what’s happening with him.”

“I know.”  He shoved his hands in his pockets.  “Just wish
there wasn’t anything to hide, so.”  He turned away, leading me along with him,
far out of earshot of the wee ones.  “What can we do?  If they’ve got him
glassed out.…he might want to get out of it but not know how, you know?  D’you remember
that kid Wick?  Same kind of thing happened to him.  Got tricked into a dose,
could never get himself out of it after, so.”

I closed my eyes.  I could barely remember the kid—I’d only
been about eight.  But I remembered one thing.  He was the last skitter the
Hole had buried.

“Do you think we should try to find him?” I asked, my voice
high and shaky.  “That man scares me.”

“Branigan,” he hissed.  “I’d send him straight to the Chasm
if I could, for what he’s done.”

“When did Tam come by?”

“Just before I came looking for you.”

“Why div’n he stay with Shade and help?” I asked.  “He
should have tried to stop them!”

Anuk tipped his head back, sighing heavily.  “What good
could he have done, Hayli?  One kid against Branigan and his toughs?  He
would’ve got himself killed, so.”

“What if Branigan wants to kill Shade?  Anuk!  We’ve got to
gan.”

“I know.”  He shook his head and gripped my arm.  “Wait
here.  I’ll just go find Jig and Coins.”

He strode off toward the Hole.  I wandered halfway back on
his tail, then stood waiting near the group of skitters.  For a few minutes I
watched them, all ruddy-cheeked and damp in the sparkling sunlight, kicking the
ball about in some kind of elaborate game they’d just invented.  Even the new
kid, Whip, seemed to be smiling for the first time I’d seen.  Bugs had probably
befriended him, because that’s just what Bugs did.

I frowned.

“Bugs?” I whispered.

I scanned the group of kids once, then twice, but Bugs
wasn’t among them.  My heart gave a lurch and I ran to little Kitty, figuring
that if anyone knew where Bugs was, it’d be Kitty.  She adored him almost as
much as Bugs adored Shade.

“Kitty,” I said, grabbing her  shoulder.

“Hayli!” she wailed, watching the ball sail past her.  “You
made me lose!”

“Listen to me a tick,” I said.  “You seen Bugs?”

She stopped squirming at that and scowled around the
enclosure.  “He was here just a bit ago!  Maybe he went in?”

Not likely
, I thought.  Bugs avoided the Hole much as
he could, except when there was chow or sleep to be had.

I released the girl and backed a few steps.  Everything
inside me seemed to sink straight for the pavement, because I knew, I just knew
where Bugs had gone.  He’d heard us talking.  He’d heard enough and now…

He’s gone after Shade
.

I didn’t even give myself a chance to think.  I didn’t wait
for Anuk and the lads.  I just turned and threw myself at the wind.

I skim the rooftops, heading straight for Trip’s turf
where Anuk said Shade had been spotted.  If I have any luck, I can get there
before Bugs and keep him from doing anything reckless. 

He’s just a kid
, Hayli whispers.  I can hear the terror
in her voice. 
He doesn’t know what he’s doing.

I can’t think of anything to say to her, so I fix my gaze
on the streets below and keep flying.  So far I have not seen Bugs, but I don’t
know how much of a head start he might have gotten.  I don’t even know for
certain that he is on the streets at all.  The little girl may have been right;
Bugs might have gone inside, maybe to try to convince Anuk and the boys to let
him come with them. 

That must be what happened.  I will do a sweep, and if I
don’t see him, I’ll return and search for him at the Hole.

As I get closer to Trip’s turf, I hear something faint on
the air.  Voices, maybe.  Yes.  Raised voices, arguing.  I try to catch a swell
of wind to speed my way, but my wings can only beat so fast.  My heart taps a
frenzied beat, and Hayli is screaming in my thoughts to hurry.  I try.

I’m still streets away when my ears first catch the
words.

“What’ve I told you?  Too much.  He’s useless like this.”

I hear a thudding sound once, then again.

“That’s enough,” the voice says.  “Breaking his jaw won’t
get him to talk.”

“You can’t kill me.”  That is Shade’s voice, slow and
broken, but defiant.

“Shut up!  You give me what you promised.  No backing out
now.”

“I could…tell people…everything you’ve done.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“What’ve I got to lose?” Shade asks.  “You’re nothing to
me.  I say…you are not human.  You must die.”

His voice slips, his words drifting into nonsense.

“Put that gun down, Shade.  Shade!  Put it down!”

I beat my wings harder, harder than I’ve ever flown
before.

“He’s going to kill all of us,” a new voice says, low and
rough.  “He’s no use to us anymore.  The bits aren’t working.”

“Fine.  I’ve done.  Just make it fast.”

I skim to the top of the roof, screaming, gasping for
breath, just in time to see one of the men kick the gun from Shade’s hand.  As
soon as it clatters away, another lifts his revolver and aims it straight at
Shade, straight at his head.  Shade doesn’t move, doesn’t fight.  He leans
against the wall, broken, blood streaming down the side of his face, his eyes
glassy and fixed on the sky with something like hope. 

Below me, another voice echoes my scream, shouting one
desperate word.

“SHADE!”

No
, Hayli whispers. 
No
.

A tiny figure bursts from the shadows, streaking straight
for the group of men, Shade’s revolver flashing in his hand.  The gunman spins,
his finger slips.  The air shatters, and the boy jerks back, stumbling, falling
to the ground.

I scream, beating the air, blood like rage pounding in
the corners of my vision.  I hear the gunman curse, and one of the others grabs
his arm and they all take off running. 

Hayli is beating at the walls of my mind, screaming—at
me, at Branigan, at Shade, at Bugs.  I cannot hold her anger.  I cannot fathom
her grief.  So I drift to the ground, gently, and release her.

“
Bugs!
” I shouted, soon as my feet hit the pavement. 

The word caught in my throat, turned me sick with it.  I
flew across the alley and fell to my knees at the boy’s side.

“Bugs, please…” I whispered, laying my hand on his back. 
“Oh, dan’ you dare… Shade!  Shade, you’ve gotta help…”

I twisted around to find Shade, but he lay slumped against
the wall, face bloodied and bruised, dazed.  And I knew that it wouldn’t have
mattered anyway, because Bugs lay still and pale, one tiny hand splayed in a
puddle by his head.  The sun shone off the water, and the wind stirred his
hair, but he stared away at nothing with a word frozen on his lips.  He didn’t
know how the blood flecked across his chin, or pooled on the ground beneath
him.  He didn’t know.  He didn’t know he had saved Shade’s life.

I choked on my breath and wrapped my arms around him,
lifting him from the pavement.  I couldn’t bear to look at his sweet face. 
Couldn’t.  I ran my fingers through the wild tufts of his hair, staring away
down the street that I could barely see.

“Why?” I whispered to him, or maybe to God.  “
Why?
” 

I bent over him, my whole body shaking, and pressed my lips
to his cold forehead.  Footsteps clashed on the pavement, shattering the
silence, and then I heard Anuk shouting, the steps breaking into a run.  I
squeezed my eyes shut and waited.

Anuk skidded to a stop in front of me.  Other footsteps
streamed past, heading for Shade.

“What…” Anuk started.

I opened my mouth, but for a minute I couldn’t conjure up a
voice.  I just stared at Anuk and he stared at me, the world around me blurring
into shadow.  Then all in a rush my grief shifted into rage.

“Anuk,” I said, my voice rasping a bit.  “Take him.  And get
Shade back to the Hole.”

“Bugs,” he murmured, his eyes searching mine.  “They shot
him?  They shot…a kid?”

I carefully moved Bugs into his arms, buttoning the top
button of his shirt to keep him warm, because he was always forgetting it and
the wind was so, so cold…

“Just take care of him,” I said.

“Where are you going?”

I got to my feet.  “Visiting.”

I turned, and Shifted.

*  *  *  *

The crow tracked Branigan’s men to a warehouse, and left me
on the front stoop with nothing but muttered complaints at my insanity.  She
was right, and I knew it.  I was a bitty sixteen-year-old girl, and unarmed to
boot, but right then, I didn’t care a jot.  They’d killed Bugs, and they might
as well have killed Shade that first night he met them.  They’d destroyed him,
and I would never forgive them. 

I slammed open the door and stormed inside, listening to a
handful of guns coming ready in the shadows.

“Branigan!” I shouted.  My voice had a shakiness, not from
grief but fury, but I knew it would sound the same as fear.  I swallowed and
clenched my teeth.  “I’m talking to you!”

I peered through the patchy darkness.  Crates and machines
towered above me, dust motes swam around me in the faint streams of light.  I
could just make out the figures of the three men clustered near one stack of
crates.

If they figure out that you know they killed Bugs…
the crow whispered, but I ignored her and strode straight toward them.

“What did you do to Shade?” I asked, coming face to face
with the man that had to be Branigan.

The man flicked a knowing kind of smile at one of his
toughs.  “What’re you doing here, little girl?” he asked me, staring down his
nose at me.  “You’re in so far over your head you can’t see which way is up. 
Get out before we have to deal with you.”

“Like Bugs?” I hissed.  “So, you like to kill children?  Or
does your man just not know how to handle a gun?”

“How—”

“What did you do to Shade?” I shouted, balling my hands in
fists.  “You could’ve killed him!”

“Should’ve killed him,” Branigan said.  “He’s outlived his
usefulness.”

“Usefulness?” I echoed, watching Branigan turn away.

One of the toughs, the one who’d killed Bugs, adjusted his
grip on his gun.  Panic exploded in my thoughts.  I had to stop Branigan and
keep him talking, or I’d be staring down a gun barrel myself.

“How was Shade useful?”

He spun toward me, so sudden-like I couldn’t keep from
jumping away.  But he followed me that extra step, looming over me with a
vicious smile.

“You would kill him yourself if you knew anything about him,”
he said.

I swallowed.  The hairs on my neck prickled.  “What’s he
done?  What d’you mean?”

“You think he’s one of yours?  Friend?  Ally?”  He snorted. 
“He’s a traitor.  Nothing but a filthy rat.  He’d sell out every last one of
you for a dose.”

“You’re a liar!”  I shoved him, hard, in the chest, but he
barely shuffled a step back.  “Shade’s not a stoolie.  You dan’ na anything!”

He chuckled.  “You’re Hayli, right?  The shape-shifter?”

All the blood drained from my face.

“I also know Kantian’s been hiding things,” he went on. 
“And I know you lot are sheltering Rivano.  That information would fetch a
pretty price, I’m sure…”

“What’s Kantian been hiding?” I whispered.

His eyes glinted at me, and he exchanged another glance with
his toughs.  “You know there’s something gone wrong there too, don’t you? 
You’ve already guessed.  Shade was supposed to bring us more evidence.  He said
he had something to tell us.  But then he never came, so we had to find him,
and that used up a lot of our time.  Our time is valuable, you know?  So we
found him, but then he refused to talk.  You know what he was doing?  Just
trying trick us out of bits, that’s all.  He’s nothing but a shell, and the
sooner you figure that out, the better it’ll be for you.”

I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling. 
“You dan’ na him at all.”

“Neither do you.”  He leaned a little closer to me, so close
I could smell whiskey on his breath.  “You know something, don’t you?  About
Kantian?”

“Maybe Shade made the whole thing up,” I said, shuffling a
scant step back.  “Maybe there was never any evidence.”

“Oh, but I know from…other sources…that that much is true,
at least.  So?  If you can tell me something, I’ll leave Shade alone.  Right? 
I’ll forget all about him.”

I shot an anxious glance at the two toughs, but they just
scowled at me and didn’t say a word.  “How’m I supposed to believe you?” I
asked Branigan.  “How do I know you won’t kill him anyway?”

“You’re questioning these fine men’s honor?”

“They killed a
child!
” I cried.  “Dan’ try to lie
about it!”

He grabbed me suddenly by both arms and slammed me back
against the tower of crates.  “You know too much for your own good, child.”

I stared up at him, heart racing, but all I could think was
how I needed to get my arms free.  If I had my arms free, I could Shift and
escape.  But I couldn’t get anywhere, not the way he had me pinned.