Chapter Seven

Seven

Renee squinted at her ceiling, wondering if anyone would notice if she used a marker to play connect the water spots to make a face. Today had been hard. Jackson’s promised “few hours” had turned into five, then twelve, then eighteen, until now, she lay on her bed, listening with a dull apathy to the people passing in the hall. From the sound of it, she now had two guards outside her door. Jackson was apparently taking her seriously.

Too seriously, she thought sourly as she rolled to her side and pulled her phone from the end table to check the time. It was all it was good for, at the moment. How everyone thought she could give Gorman access to the internet when she herself didn’t have any was a frustrating mystery. Him singing like a bird was a small comfort when she couldn’t even video surf.

That Tayler was blaming her was beginning to really piss her off. That Jackson thought he was helping by keeping Renee securely tucked away was even worse. The woman was cruel, not stupid. Chances were good that she’d gone to eliminate the evidence that she’d done anything wrong—as in killing Mikail. Tayler had taken ownership and apologized for torturing her original twelve. Mikail might know if Tayler had killed Han and Raphael—a different situation entirely—if Renee could get to him in time.

She had to get out of here. There was a way, but it was as scary as all hell, and she needed a working phone to do it. Peeved, she tossed her cell to the bedside table only to hesitate, listening. Will? In the hall? Okay. He wasn’t a phone, but he could get a message to August, and with that, the mer might be willing to snap to her room. August might not even know that Tayler was gone.

“Thanks. Much appreciated,” she heard Will say, and she sat up, swinging her legs to the tile floor, excitement tingling all the way to her toes. “Can I stay while she eats?”

Renee lurched to her feet as her door opened to show Will with a tray, the guard replacing the cover after his inspection. The soldier eyed her suspiciously and she dampened her excitement. “Hey, thanks. Is that my dinner? Come in.” She looked at the guard. “He can come in, right?”

“Yeah, Jackson cleared me to visit.” Will glanced at the guard and inched in. “And I can stay while you eat, too,” he said, standing in the middle of her room, probably looking for somewhere to set the tray.

She lurched forward, taking it before retreating to sit on the edge of the bed. “Have a seat,” she said, nodding to the empty chair. “Thanks for this. Lunch was a peanut butter sandwich and a salad. I think they’re trying to starve me.”

But when the guard shut the door, she set the tray aside, the cover unlifted.

“Thank God you’re here,” she whispered, and Will’s smile grew wider. “Can you get a message to August? I have to get out of here. He’s been to my room before. He can snap here, and then snap me out, maybe.” Her pulse hammered. Snap her out. No human had ever been snapped before. She didn’t even know if it was possible.

“I can do better than that.” Expression cocky, Will lifted the domed lid off the plate to show an enormous wad of sauce-covered spaghetti with grated cheese and little bread medallions. A tiny wine bottle said he’d gotten it from the officers’ mess and not the commons, and it was more than she could eat in two days.

“I don’t have time to eat,” she said, impatient. “If August can snap into my room, maybe he can fling me out of here. Jackson is waiting for Tayler to make a mistake, and she is too smart for that. She’ll kill Mikail to cover her ass, and that’s if he’s not already dead.”

“Maybe you should have some dinner first,” he said, almost laughing, and then he jumped when a little snake snapped in out of nowhere, red and gold wings flapping madly to stay in the air.

“Holy smokes!” Will exclaimed as Renee offered her hand to the little reptile and he landed on it. “Is that the same one from the interview?”

Renee nodded as she wove him in and around her fingers to stall the snake’s intent slither for her tray. “Yep. He showed for lunch, too. I’m calling him Digit because he doesn’t have any.” She beamed at the little guy, then offered him a tiny chunk of sauce-dipped bread. “Will, I appreciate you bringing me dinner, but I really need you to ask August if he would risk jumping to my room. I’ll clear the floor and hide in the bathroom so he doesn’t materialize in me.”

“Great minds think alike,” he said, warily eyeing Digit as he used the plastic fork they’d given her to shift the pasta. Underneath in a sauce-stained plastic bag was a phone.

Renee’s lips parted. Waving Digit off, she used two fingers to delicately tease the bagged phone out. “You are a genius!” she whispered, and the man grinned.

“It’s an embassy phone they keep on hand for visitors. It only works on the installation,” Will said, but she was loath to let it go when he held his hand out for it. “August isn’t happy about you being locked up. He says that if he can see that your floor is clear, he can snap here.”

“And then we can all snap out,” she said, elated.

“The correct term is ‘fling,’ and you are half-right,” he said as he took the phone from the sauce-coated bag and threw it in the trash. Digit launched himself from her fingers, almost knocking over the bin as he enthusiastically dove into it. “I’m staying here to run interference.”

She couldn’t stop smiling. “August heard about Tayler, huh?”

“Yep. This was his idea.” Chin high to look down through his glasses, Will sat beside her on the bed and punched in a number. “Jackson has been back for about three hours, all of them spent with Gorman. Gorman claims Tayler went to her old lab. The one where she’d been holding the missing Neighbors? He found it empty. If you thought Gorman was singing before, now he’s dancing.”

“Well, that’s good,” she whispered, and Will nodded, head down over the phone.

“Which brings me to August. He wants to look at Tayler’s secret lab himself and Jackson is refusing. August says if Mikail died there, his creation spark might still be present. If there is no sign of one, Mikail might still be alive. He wants you to come with him and see.”

“And you?”

“No. I’ve got the dangerous part of this plan.” Will sighed. “I’m staying here to keep Jackson out of your room. Soon as he knows you and August are gone, he’ll be on you like a stink on a skunk. I’m going to push that time out as long as I can.” His eyes rose to hers. “Jackson will put me in jail. I hope you know that.”

“Look at you, all ‘let’s break Renee out,’?” she teased as she reached for her shoes and slipped them on. “And I think you overestimated Jackson’s response. He’s going to be mad, sure, but he won’t lock you up.” Her thoughts went to the guard outside her door. “He thinks I’m a joke, or I wouldn’t be under house arrest.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.” Will put the phone on speaker as it rang. “You broke me out of the psych ward with a cupcake. Bullied yourself into a quarantine zone where they didn’t dare come after you. You successfully snuck August onto the roof and then to the zoo by borrowing Jackson’s Jeep. If he wasn’t taking you seriously, he wouldn’t have locked you up. Sneaking out of here is going to be…a snap,” he finished dramatically, and she stood, her good mood faltering.

August is going to snap me. The thought fell through her, becoming real for the first time. Lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, and imagining it was one thing. Knowing it was really going to happen was another. What if she couldn’t do it and she just…vanished?

The embassy’s phone connected, and her eyes darted down as Will held it between them. “August?” he whispered, and Renee’s breath caught as the mer’s face filled the screen, his wings high behind his head in worry. “I’m with her. We’re good for you to snap in.”

“Is Renee okay?” he asked, his voice sounding odd through the small speaker.

Will glanced at Renee. “She looks a little green, even if she had the same idea as you. I think she’s having second thoughts.”

“I am not,” she said, and August pulled the phone closer to his face.

“Show me the room,” he said, and Will went to put his back to the door and panned the room.

He’s going to snap me, she thought, quashing a sudden angst. Make me vanish.

And then she started as an odd sensation of stars and moonbeams pulled through her. A little squeak came from the trash can, and Digit’s head lifted, his tongue flicking as August was suddenly standing in the middle of her room, one of their old survival bags in his grip. A practiced smile came over his triangular face, and he reached out. “Renee…”

Eyes wide, she extended the back of her hand in greeting, but he took it, pulling her up and into almost a hug as his wings curved halfway around her. “We are going to get in so much trouble,” she said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Will chuckled as he closed out the phone.

“Sure.” August winced as he stretched his taped wings. “We go to Tayler’s lab. If Mikail is there, I’ll feel his spark. We bring him back. Mikail tells Jackson truth about Tayler, and you will be free from blame. Get a raise maybe? Jackson won’t care how you do it once done.”

Jackson not caring was questionable, but she nodded, pulse fast. “What about Noel? I don’t want to get you into trouble for snapping me.”

August’s wings drooped. “Gorman turned my words into a lie,” he said. “Once I fix that, Noel will…get on it.”

“Over it,” Will corrected, and August seemed to shrug.

“And I don’t snap you.” August set a hand on her shoulder. “I snap myself. I fling you.”

Like a sack of dirty clothes or a box of perishables. Renee took a slow breath. “I’m going AWOL with an alien,” she whispered, then steadied herself. “Let’s do this.”

“Okay.” Will tucked the phone in a back pocket. “I’m out of here. I’ll try to keep Jackson out of your room for as long as I can. I’ll tell him you’re really mad at him.”

“I am,” she said, then added, “Sure you don’t want to come? Might be safer.”

“We will go to the zoo,” August said as he handed his visitor-use phone to Will. “Outside the walls where we left Jackson’s Jeep. Should be okay.”

“There won’t be anyone back there this time of night,” Will said. “There’s a car rental a couple of blocks from there. I’ve had a car sitting for about a week and never picked it up. They left the keys under the mat. Blue SUV.” Will paused, his brow furrowed in worry. “Find him, Renee,” he said softly. “And Dr. Tayler. Someone told her to mutilate August’s people. We will never find out who until we have her and offer her a deal for a name.”

“We’ll find them both,” Renee said, and Will’s brow furrowed.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said. “Be careful. Pick up a phone when you can. You should be able to call in. It’s calling out that they block. August, I’ll drop yours in the old observation lounge. You know my number?”

Renee nodded, a sliver of worry finding her. There were a lot of ifs.

“I’m good at flinging,” August said. “I was first pick in the ring games. You’ll be okay. Promise.”

She wasn’t sure how the ring games related to all of this, but she smiled, not wanting him to think she didn’t trust him. I’m going to be the first human ever to fling, she thought as she wiped her palms off on her jeans. Well, at least in this century.

“Okay, then.” Resolute and worried, Will headed for the door. “See you on the other side.”

“Other side of what?” August asked, then went to stand where the guard wouldn’t see him.

Will gave them both one last look, squared his shoulders, and then opened the door, the covered tray balanced in one hand. “Hey, thanks,” Will said casually to the guards as he went out. “Will either of you be here in the morning? Princess there has already put in her order. I can add a coffee for you.”

Princess, she thought, annoyed, but it did get the wide-eyed panic off her face.

“Yes, sir,” one guard said, adding, “No thank you, sir, for the coffee,” as the door shut.

August slumped, and Renee put a hand to her middle as he came out of the corner. “August,” she whispered, feeling ill as she sat on her bed. “What if I can’t do this?”

“You aren’t doing anything,” he said. “I’m good at flinging, but it will be easier if you shhh your thoughts.”

“I’m too wound up to shhh my thoughts,” she said, and August pulled the chair across the room to sit before her, his wings draped down over the back. “I mean, you’re like disintegrating me, right? What if you can’t get me back together?”

“Disintegrating…?” he asked, and she met his eyes, started at how close he was.

“Like sugar in coffee,” she said, and he shook his head.

“No. It’s not like sugar in coffee. Space touches. You step through. I will teach you how, even if you can’t do it.” He reached to take her hands, and she noticed how different they were from hers. “Quiet thoughts fling easy. Noisy thoughts, not so much.”

The modern phrase sounded odd coming from him, and she managed a nervous smile. “Okay,” she said when he let go of her hands to draw a pad of paper and pencil from her desk.

“Labyrinths start and end at the same place,” he said as he began to draw a spiral. “Just as Renee starts and ends at same place when flinging. You walk the pattern when going world to world, but when going place to place on same world, you only need to think the pattern.”

“So…” She looked down as he continued his switchback pattern. “You don’t need to walk a labyrinth to snap.”

“Most times, no, but it’s always good to walk the pattern in head to shhh mind. The pattern shows thoughts how to go.” He turned the pad so it was upright for her. “Go from inside out, and then outside back in. If calm inside and out, the door opens and you walk from one to the other place.” He leaned back as she took the tablet onto her lap. “But I can only snap to where I’ve been before or can see, and only if the way is clear.”

“Or wait for an eclipse,” she added.

“Eclipse works only if a big population on other side opens door first.” He was silent for a moment. “Ready to try?”

Her head bobbed, and he smiled, his bandaged wings draped oddly behind him. “Like this,” he said as he took the pad and ran his finger between the lines, going in an ever-larger spiral. “Think quiet mind,” he continued as he reached the outside of the spiral, then started back in. “Outside calm.” His expression was placid as he followed the path to the center, right where he’d started. “Inside calm.”

“Sure.” She reached for the pad, nervous as she settled it on her knees. Slowly she traced a path between the lines, focusing on them and the meaning. August hunched closer over his knees. They were almost touching hers as she began the return to the center. When looked at in total, the figure appeared as a tree, the path beginning and ending at nearly the same place to create a two-dimensional line like a M?bius strip.

“Calm outside,” August said as he tucked his bag between his feet. “Calm inside. Sky is white. Ground is black. Do it again.”

His words were soothing and monotone, and her shoulders slumped as she finished one circuit and immediately started in on a second, eyelids drooping. She had meditated before, searching for peace from her chaotic thoughts, and she felt herself settle, ease.

“See the thin line of impossibility at the end where they join,” he said as both his hands touched her shoulders, and she shivered at the warmth rising from them. “Once more,” he said, and she began a third time. “See it in your mind,” he added. “See it on paper, see it in your soul. Reach the end—and step through the thin line.”

“Thin line?” she said as she finished her spiral and looked up. Her lassitude hesitated. August’s eyes were almost golden, as warm and liquid as the feeling that suddenly flashed. Like a molten river, it flowed, tingling and sparkling to her extremities. A drop of awareness fell through her, whispers of thoughts she’d never had, visions of places she had never seen, low clouds, a desert sand, trees with odd leaves, and sounds she’d never heard but knew had to be birds. An ache filled her, of someone she’d lost. It wasn’t her. It wasn’t August. It was the spark, and it almost hurt, it was so desperate to find them again.

“You are already there,” August said, and then…

…she gasped as she dropped, her butt landing on the hard street.

“August!” she shrieked as his grip pulled from her. She looked up. August stood over her, his survival pack in his hand, his wings high in mirth. Her room was gone. There was dark sky behind him, and the wind shifted his wing hem.

They were in the alley outside the back of the zoo.

Dumbfounded, she scrambled up, her mind trying to figure it out. She knew what had happened, but her body refused to believe it. It was easier to think that she’d passed out and someone had moved her.

“August?” she warbled, reaching for him, and then she froze, panicking. “Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick,” she added before she spun, putting a shaky hand against the zoo wall to steady herself.

“You are fine. You are fine!” August exclaimed as he gripped her shoulder. “You didn’t yell. Much better than my first fling. Give your body time. It’s confused.”

Confused is right, she thought as she held her breath to forestall the dry heaves, the acidic bite of her bile making everything seem sharper. But she had done it. She had escaped! She was outside the effing zoo.

“Water?” August said as he let go and began to rummage in his pack.

Shaking, she pushed from the wall to find August quietly waiting with a bottled water and what might be pride. She wasn’t sure why. She hadn’t done anything.

“You did good,” he said, and Renee gratefully took the bottle.

“ You did good,” she corrected him, and August shook his head.

“No. You’re not a sack of blok fruit,” he insisted. “You calmed your mind and made it easy. Next time, it will be more easy.”

“Let’s just hope there isn’t a next time,” she said.

He reached out, not the usual way with the back of his hand facing her, but as if to take hers. “Okay?” he said, and she slipped her hand in his, feeling his warmth and the tingling sensation of his creation spark slowly fading. “Let’s find Will’s car.”

“Okay,” she said, not letting go as she wobbled forward. She could feel the energy from his spark swirling in little eddies though her, soothing her middle and mind, bringing her back to peace. Familiar now, yet it was different. This was just energy. But when they’d jumped, she could have sworn that she’d felt anger, frustration, and regret.

And they hadn’t been August’s emotions, or hers.