Smoke Read online

  Vail stepped back from the bag, and punched at it again. “She’s a person. Not an answer.”

  Dicie braced the bag against her as Vail pummeled it. “I know that. They do too. I just wanted to reassure you that they have their own reasons for finding her.”

  He paused and wiped a hand over his brow. Dicie took advantage and stepped away from the bag, heading toward the door. “I’m going to go over the camera footage again, see if I can figure out where that van went.”

  Vail sighed. He knew she’d already been through the footage of Gertie’s kidnapping at least a dozen times, had tried to follow the van with traffic cameras. But she lost them after they moved into 2nd.

  “Hey, Dice?” he called after her. “Thanks.”

  She paused in the door and glanced over her shoulder at him, and smiled. “Anything for you, Vail.” She left and Vail went back to punching.

  If he was honest the face he was imagining hitting was his own. He shouldn’t have left her. He would have been able to see them coming. Literally. Where everyone else just saw empty air attacking Liam and Gertie he could see the outlines of the men, glowing blue like he did when he was invisible. He could see them slam her into the side of the van until she was dazed enough to stop fighting.

  He closed his eyes against the memory, but the image lingered in his mind, painted against the backs of his eyelids

  He shouldn’t have left her and he hated himself for it. If she was hurt or dead it would be his fault. He was supposed to keep her safe. That was his job, watch her and keep her safe. He’d failed in his job.

  He’d failed her.

  He paused again, breathing heavy. His muscles ached, begging him to stop. He’d been at this for over an hour. But his brain was still working, still overwhelmed with thoughts of Gertie.

  So, despite the screaming in his arms, he squared off against the bag and began again.

  32

  Gertie

  She lost track of time. The lights in the room stayed on, a constant glow filtered through her eyelids. She didn’t sleep. Not because she wasn’t tired, but because as soon as she drifted off, her jailer entered the room and prodded her awake to ask her more questions. Each time she nearly sobbed, she was so exhausted.

  This was a special kind of torture, designed to make her brain even more fuzzy than the medications that they pumped into her already did. Hoping that fatigue would break her down and she would give them an answer that they liked.

  If anything would make Gertie talk, lack of sleep over days would be it. She could handle the physical pain that they inflicted on her. When they wheeled in their cart of pain, she stared at the ceiling and counted the tiles. She knew how many there were by now, but it gave her something else to focus on. Soon she would start counting the grey spots in the tiles, like counting the stars in the sky.

  They fed her at odd hours. Sometimes she was sure that only twenty minutes had passed between meals. Sometimes it felt like twelve hours. Just another way that they kept her from any sense of how much time had actually passed.

  Her best way of keeping time was by the healing of her bruises. Her earliest ones were turning yellow and by her calculation they were probably five to seven days old. Of course, it was hard to tell because her skin was peppered with fresh bruises over the tops of the healing ones, like some strange abstract painting.

  At some point, they’d started using knives to slice small cuts into her flesh. They’d threatened to remove her fingers, but hadn’t followed through on it. Gertie suspected that their orders were to try to get her to talk, but not to inflict any permanent damage. Especially since they took care to bandage any lacerations on the skin after smearing a foul smelling salve over them.

  Who knows? They could just be waiting.

  “We’re going to take you off the medication.” Gertie jerked away from the voice, her eyes flying open. She hadn’t even realized anyone was in the room with her. “We have a feeling that your shade might be a bit more cooperative then you are.”

  Gertie couldn’t suppress the harsh laugh that came out of her. The one and only time her shade had shown itself it had slaughtered three men. This was one of the recurring questions that they asked her. What happened to the men in your apartment? Did your shade kill them? How did the shade manifest? She didn’t answer or steadfastly denied that she had a shade. To admit she had a shade, that she’d seen it, was to admit that she was a St. Clare. To admit she was a St. Clare was to immediately become an enemy of the state, and even more of a commodity then they already viewed her.

  Still, she sometimes wondered if the shade wasn’t protecting her in some way, bolstering her up from the inside. While she’d never in her darkest nightmares thought that she would be confined to a room and tortured for days, she was holding up surprisingly well.

  Then again, she had nothing to base it on. Maybe she wasn’t doing so well.

  “You think that’s funny?”

  Gertie shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. You think I have a shade, which I don’t, but if I did, it wouldn’t be able to tell you something that I don’t know.”

  Her cheek stung as his palm made contact. This was the way most of their conversations went. They asked a question. She gave an answer they didn’t like. And then pain followed.

  When her head stopped ringing, she glanced around. The little cart that held various knives and other torture devices wasn’t in sight. So, this wasn’t going to be one of the longer sessions.

  She settled back on the pillows, as the IV was pulled from her arm. “You’d think by now you’d realize that hitting me isn’t going to change my answers.”

  “It certainly seems so. It doesn’t mean we’re going to stop.” His voice sounded smug.

  “You like hitting girls that much, huh?” He didn’t answer. “I still don’t know what you’re hoping to get out of me.”

  There was a long pause and Gertie thought that he wasn’t going to respond. The door to the hall opened. “The truth.” The door closed and Gertie knew she was alone. Well, as alone as she could be with two cameras pointed at her.

  Her eyes flicked to the lenses, the red lights under them indicating that they were on. She wondered if Dicie was watching her. She hoped not. She didn’t want her or Vail to know, to see, what she’d been through.

  But you want to be found, the voice inside her said. Yes, of course she wanted to be found. But to have them see her chained and beaten, to know that they were just watching her, that would be too much. She knew that Vail would no doubt be blaming himself that she was taken. Despite, that had he been there he probably would have been killed, like Liam had been.

  She felt tears prick her eyes at the memory of Liam. She should have done more, fought harder, then he would be alive and she wouldn’t have the overwhelming sense of guilt for having got him killed.

  A tear leaked from her eye. None of that, the voice inside her said. You need to focus on getting out of here. They’ve reduced your medication so you should be less loopy.

  Gertie blinked and tried to focus. The lights on the cameras blinked at her. As soon as she tried anything they would come bursting through the door and tie her back to the bed again. You should at least try. Was it Gertie’s imagination or did the voice inside her sound snarky?

  Nevertheless, it was right. She had to at least try.

  She blinked a few more tears from her eyes, letting them drip down her cheeks and off her chin. Then under the guise of wiping them away she scooted down until her face was level with her right hand. She clamped her teeth around the strap that laced through the buckle and pulled. It came free of the first loop. Gertie paused, made a show of wiping her cheeks and waited.

  This was normally where someone came in and redid the strap, but the door didn’t open. She glanced at the red lights on the cameras again. Cautiously, she lowered her head again and tugged at the strap. She didn’t pull it out of the buckle all the way, just loosened it enough that she could easily slip her hand out. She straighten
ed up and leaned back against the pillows, taking a heavy breath.

  The first step was completed. But even if she got out of the bed. The door was probably locked. Her captors probably on the other side of the door, waiting to catch her. You should try, came the voice again. You can’t just sit here, wasting away, waiting for them to kill you.

  So, instead I should rush out and invite them to kill me? Gertie thought wryly.

  Better to go down fighting than strapped to a bed. Gertie’s stomach flipped. The voice was right. She looked around the room. Once she was out of the bed she would need a weapon. She would only have a few seconds before someone opened the door.

  She could maybe use the chair to push them back, but it would be too unwieldy to carry with her. The lamp on the table she could use to smash over their heads, if she could figure out where their heads were.

  Her gaze travelled up to the IV that hung above her. The liquid was clear but she might be able to use it to see their outline. She tried to think if she’d ever seen Vail in the rain, or if he somehow made water that clung to him invisible too, like he did with his clothes.

  She eyed the bathroom door, trying to think if she’d seen anything of use in there. Soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, a towel.

  She could maybe use the toothbrush to stab one of them in the eye, but to do that she would need to be able to see them and to have a tremendous amount of luck. An image flashed through her head of her stiletto protruding from the neck of one of her attackers. She fought the bile that rose in her throat.

  No, she wouldn’t be stabbing anyone in the eye.

  You really are such a little weakling.

  Shut up.

  The voice sighed. Just get out of the bed and I will do the rest.

  33

  Vail

  “I have her.” Dicie cried, her voice carrying through the office and to where Vail sat staring moodily at a map of the city. He was at her side in an instant, leaning over to see the screen better.

  “Where?”

  Dicie pointed to the center of a crowd of people. There he could just make out her pale bruised face, looking dazed. The people around her seemed to recognize her as the girl who had dominated the news recently. They were crowding around her, talking at her.

  She shook her head, looking around, trying to catch her bearings.

  “Where is this? 1st?”

  Dicie shook her head. “This is from a traffic camera in 3rd, just a few blocks from her apartment.”

  Vail gripped the back of Dicie’s chair, his knuckles turning white. She’d been in 3rd the whole time? He could have found her. He should have looked harder. He watched as she limped forward, trying to get through the crowd of people that seemed to not want to let her pass. She looked smaller, wasted away, a shadow of herself, unable to force her way out of the crush of people around her.

  Movement on the left side of the screen caught his attention. Guardsmen dressed in all black poured into scene, pushing people away from Gertie, creating a circle of space around her. Vail’s stomach dropped and his heart beat an unsteady rhythm. Had she escaped from one set of captors only to be arrested by the guard? Had the footage of him and Gertie in the alley marked her as a traitor to the Chancellor?

  A familiar figure pushed through the crowd to her side, sunlight glinting off his red hair. Gertie let out a soundless cry at seeing him, and stumbled into his arms, allowing him to catch her as her legs gave out. Vail could tell she was crying into his chest, while he held her close.

  Vail’s fingers ached, he was gripping Dicie’s chair so tight.

  An emergency vehicle pulled up next to the crowd of people. Liam bent and scooped Gertie off of her bare feet and carried her to the vehicle where he carefully set her into the back seat and then slid in next to her. The car pulled away from the curb and the crowd dispersed.

  Dicie clicked on the computer, switching between traffic cameras to keep the car in sight. After a minute, Dicie said, “I think they’re taking her to the hospital in 2nd.”

  Vail nodded. “That would make sense. McDonagh would want her to be checked out.”

  Atkins came up to them. “I suppose we should have someone make the trip up there to check out the situation.” Vail straightened, his mouth opening to offer to go. Atkins cut him off. “Not you, Denhelm. This would be strictly a reconnaissance trip so that we can figure out the best way to get her out of the hospital and out of the city, and something tells me you wouldn’t be able to help yourself.”

  Vail’s jaw tightened but he nodded. “You’re probably right.” Once he was in the same building as Gertie, he wouldn’t be able to just watch to see the rotations of the guards and nurses. He would need to talk to her, to touch her, to verify for himself that she was whole and healthy.

  “Who do we have available?”

  Dicie pulled up a list on one screen, a map of the city on the other. “Doctor Bailey is at the hospital.”

  Atkins considered for a minute, then nodded. “Have her check it out, but be sure she knows not to approach Miss Penn. We don’t want Gertie giving away that she knows the doc.”

  Dicie picked up her phone. Vail didn’t listen to the conversation she had with Doctor Bailey. Instead, he clicked on her mouse to pull up the camera’s outside of the hospital. He watched the emergency vehicle pull up in front of it, and Liam stepped out. Moments later, he was carrying Gertie into the sliding doors of the hospital.

  34

  Gertie

  Gertie didn’t want to let go of Liam’s hand. He seemed loath to release hers as well, to let her out of his sight, even if it was just long enough for Gertie to change out of the dirty clothes she’d been living in for days. The nurse glared at him. “Sir, you need to leave this room so that we can get the patient changed.”

  Liam shook his head. “I told you I’m not going anywhere.” He had a dark bruise over his temple where he’d been struck during the kidnapping. Gertie reached out and brushed the fingertips of her free hand over it gently, still marveling that he was alive. She’d thought that she was dreaming or hallucinating when she’d seen him walking toward her, had nearly lost her mind from relief.

  It seems he felt the same way. He’d yet to let go of her.

  He glanced in her direction at her gentle touch, gave her a tight smile. She smiled back. “I’ll be okay. I promise. You’ll be just on the other side of the door, and it shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.” He looked at the nurse who was still glaring at him, his thumb making tiny circles on the back of her hand. “Please? I’ve been in these clothes for days.” She would have wrinkled her nose, but her face hurt too much.

  He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” It was a warning to the nurse.

  By the time he’d returned, Gertie was draped in a hospital gown and tucked under the blankets of the bed. The nurse was carefully turning her wrist, testing to see if it was broken. “I think it's just sprained. The doctor will probably want an x-ray to be sure.” Gertie nodded. “He’ll be in shortly to examine you.” After one last glare in Liam’s general direction, she left them alone.

  He took the seat next to the bed and reached for the hand that the nurse hadn’t been looking at. He was silent, his eyes locked on their intertwined fingers. Gertie looked at the top of his lowered head.

  “You want to ask, don’t you?”

  His eyes shot to her face. “What?”

  “You want to ask what happened, right?” He nodded slowly. “Is it Liam asking? Or Captain McDonagh?”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Both, I guess.” Gertie pulled her fingers from his and rubbed the spot where the IV had been.

  “Do you need to record it or anything? Is it my official statement?”

  Liam sat back in his chair, and shook his head again. “That can wait.”

  Gertie looked down at her hands, resting on top of the yellow blanket. “What do you want to know?”

  He leaned forward and rested his
elbows on his knees in a posture that reminded Gertie of Vail. She felt a stab in the vicinity of her heart.

  “Everything. I want to know everything.”

  She told him as much as she could remember, which to be honest wasn’t a lot, considering her lack of sleep and the amount of drugs that they’d dripped into her. He wanted to know what kind of questions they’d asked her. She answered as honestly as she dared, though she left out their questions about her shade. “They asked a lot of questions about Vail.”

  “The guy in the video? From the bar?”

  Gertie nodded. “They wanted to know where he was, how well I knew him, his activities. I couldn’t tell them what I don’t know.”

  His eyes were sharp on her face. “You don’t know where he is?”

  Gertie shook her head. “I know you probably don’t believe me, and I know what the video looked like. But I know that he wasn’t involved.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “He wasn’t, huh?” Gertie shook her head again. Liam sighed and ran a hand down his face. “You don’t know him. You don’t know where he is or what he might be doing, but you know he wasn’t involved.”

  Gertie leaned back against the pillows. “I may not know the other things, but I do know that.”

  “You’re right, I don’t believe you.” Gertie opened her mouth to respond. “You lied to me Gertie. You told me you hadn’t seen him since that night at the bar. I know to a lot of people that looked like he was threatening you. But you didn’t seem scared. You knew… You knew he was an Extra and didn’t report it.” He stood up from his chair and began pacing. “Jesus, Gertie, he’s an Extra who can turn invisible. Do you remember what happened in the street? That we were attacked by invisible men?”

  “I remember and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. But just because he’s an Extra doesn’t mean he did this.”