Luckily, they were far enough from the closest tree that no harm came their way. Still, Mrs. Walker screamed and Mr. Walker shouted. Eli, still on the ground, tried to crawl away, and Zach stepped over and kicked him once in the ribs.
“Shit,” Zach said to Hogan, reaching for his phone. “That’s going to draw attention.”
He dialed Tyson, and when the tech answered, he said, “You’re going to need to divert all emergency calls on the island for the next several minutes.”
“What happened?”
“Eli and his kid set charges on the trees around the house. They just went off.”
“Eli and his kid?” There was both incredibility and excitement in Tyson’s voice.
“Yeah, that sort of threw us, too. Unfortunately, the Walker girl and John Smith have taken off. But it’s not like they’re going to get far. It’s an island, for Christ’s sake. We have anybody across the water who can wait for them at the ferry?”
A slight pause as Tyson checked the database. Finally he said, “No, but I can get someone there in twenty minutes.”
“Do it. Also any marinas nearby should be monitored.”
“We don’t have the extra people for that.”
“Make it happen. I want them found.”
“Are the Walkers okay?”
“They’re fine. Just a little sick from the tear gas.”
“Tear gas?”
“We’ll be headed to the airport in the next minute. Make sure the jet’s ready for us.”
“I’m on it,” Tyson said, and clicked off.
Zach slipped the phone back in his pocket. He noticed Eli was trying to crawl away again, and again Zach kicked him in the ribs. He leaned down, grabbed a fistful of Eli’s hair, and yanked him to his feet.
“What are you up to?”
Eli said nothing.
“How did you find this place?”
“I told you,” Eli said, his voice screwed up in pain, “I’m selling magazine subscriptions.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Hogan called. He was helping the Walkers to their feet. “We’ll get our answers later.”
“What about the other two?”
“They can’t leave the island without us knowing. We’ll get them.”
They started toward the front of the house, smoke and dust thick in the air, Hogan helping Mrs. Walker as she sobbed, “Our home-our beautiful, lovely home.”
fifty-eight
“The lighter, huh?” Ashley laughs, shaking her head. “And all this time I thought smoking would eventually get me killed, not save my life.”
We’re parked behind a restaurant. It’s been fifteen minutes since we made our escape. I had expected to pass some police cars, even a fire truck or two, but there was nothing, just normal sporadic traffic.
A beat of silence passes, and Ashley says, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Saving my life. I didn’t think I’d ever see you guys again.”
“The way Eli explained it to me, you were probably better off playing along with your parents.”
She shudders. “I don’t even want to think about it. But, well, I do feel kind of guilty.”
“About what?”
“Having those trees fall on the house. I understand the need to do it, but I … I wanted it to be worse. I wanted the whole thing to go up in flames.” She frowns. “Why didn’t we blow up the cars, too?”
“Remember, we just wanted enough time to get away. We didn’t want to leave them without a vehicle, for Eli’s sake.”
“Right,” she says, nodding, then gives me a curious look. “Have you accepted it yet?”
“What?”
“The truth of where you came from.”
“I’m still working through it, I guess.”
“I keep thinking about it. Had they told me I was adopted, that would be one thing. I could deal with that. It wouldn’t be a big thing. But to find out that I …” She shakes her head again. “They really do love me, though.”
“You want to go back?”
“What? Hell no. Not after everything I now know about these people. And my parents, somehow being part of all this …”
She shudders again.
The back door of the restaurant opens and a guy comes out, carrying two garbage bags. He takes the bags to the dumpster, throws them in, then pauses to light himself a cigarette.
Ashley says, “I’m sorry about Eli.”
“I told you, leaving him is part of the plan.”
“You really think it’s going to work?”
“He said there would be surrogates there. Women pregnant with babies just like us.”
“But …”
“How can I trust him? Yeah, he’s lied to me too many times. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him for a lot of things, but I do know the one thing he wants above all else is to stop Matheson.”
“But these people,” Ashley says, “they’re too well trained. You and I won’t be able to stop them.”
“Like I told you, we won’t.”
“Because that’s not part of the plan.”
I nod. “That’s right.”
The guy ditches his cigarette and heads back inside. He barely even glances our way. There are a dozen cars parked back here, probably all belonging to employees.
“The main thing right now,” I say, “is getting off this island. The problem is, we can’t take the ferry.”
“Right. So, what, we swim?”
She says it with a smile in her voice, trying to ease the tension, but I only shrug.
“If we have to.”
There’s another beat of silence, and then Ashley speaks again.
“I think I have an idea.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s this guy I know who still lives on the island. Or at least he did the last time I checked. We went out a few times years back before he got married and had kids. If I tell him I need to use his boat, I’m sure he’ll let us take it. In fact, he might even offer to drive it.”
I pull Eli’s phone from my pocket. “You don’t have the number memorized, do you?”
“No, but if that thing has Internet, a quick search will bring it up.”
I go to hand her the phone when headlights splash the vehicles to our left. A car is coming this way around the restaurant. A police cruiser, actually, two cops inside. In another second their headlights will be aimed right at us.
“Shit.”
I go to turn on the car-why, I’m not quite sure-but before I can, Ashley leans forward. She touches my face and tilts it toward her, and the next thing I know her lips are on mine. Automatically my eyes close and I’m lost in the moment, and it’s right then the police cruiser’s headlights hit us. They pause a little too long.
Ashley breaks the kiss and stares out the window, holding up her hand to shield her eyes from the light.
The police cruiser doesn’t move for another moment, and I’m certain that these cops are not cops at all, but members of the legion, just like that cop back in Hoboken. They’ve been instructed to look for us, and now they’ve found us and are either going to kill us or take us away.
I try to remember how many bullets are left in the gun, whether they will be enough to give us a fighting chance, but then the cruiser continues forward, completing its sweep of the parking lot. We can just make out the two cops inside smiling and shaking their heads at having stumbled across our amorous display.
When it’s clear the cops aren’t going to make another sweep, Ashley sits back in her seat. “Sorry about that.”
“No need to apologize.”
“It just … it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“You don’t hear me complaining.”
She smiles at me, and then, just as quickly, the smile fades. “You don’t even know me.”
I’m not sure what to say to this, so I don’t say anything.
“So why … why try to save me?”