“So we call the police now?” Kathryn asked. “Turn her in?”
Ellie snorted.
“No,” Peter said. “This isn’t half over. She’s an asset.”
“It can be over if we leave,” Ellie said.
“You’ll die,” Alexis said, with a rough edge to her voice.
That roughness, the suggestion that she wasn’t doing well at all, was maybe a bit more credibility in the Thorburn’s eyes.
“The bombs-”
“You’ll die,” Alexis repeated herself.
A long, drawn out scream echoed outside.
I could see everyone react with fear, Eva excepted. She turned so the side of her body and face faced the front door. Presenting a smaller profile.
Nothing came of it. Seconds passed without further incident.
“Bombs aren’t the problem,” Alexis said, even though there was no need.
“I think we’re due some answers,” Kathryn said, stern.
I glanced at Peter. He’d dropped one line, which made me want to ask a hundred questions I didn’t have the time to ask. I wasn’t sure I didn’t share the same sentiment.
“We’re-”
Another scream occurred nearby. It was joined by an outcry, almost a cheer. A group. Soldiers on a battlefield, pumping themselves up before the charge. Whatever had started out there hadn’t finished.
A window at the back of the house rattled. Something fell over.
There was an impact that made me think a car had run into the side of the house.
“Gonna go check,” Ty said.
“Sure,” I said.
From direction and the impact, I could only assume it was Midge.
I wasn’t sure what it would be that would occupy Midge for more than a few seconds.
I spoke, “I need each of you in different parts of the house. Thorburns, you’re spreading out. Don’t pick a fight-”
“Ha,” Ellie said, agitated, “No chance of that.”
“Just call for us. Don’t run, don’t mess around, don’t make noise unless you’re spotted and you’re shouting for assistance.. Stay put, arm yourselves, wait.”
“Or we could stick together,” Ellie said.
“Ellie,” Peter said. “Listen to him.”
“Peter,” Ellie said, meeting her little brother’s eyes. “I trust you more than I trust any of the rest of these assholes except for maybe Christoff, who couldn’t lie to save his life. I still don’t trust you nearly enough to listen and obey some random fucking-”
Another crash sounded outside. A dull bellowing.
“They’re at a window, I think I can stall them!” Ty called out.
“-instructions,” Ellie finished, her voice a little smaller than before.
Peter pressed on, “Use your head, Ellie. I know you’ve got a brain, even if you don’t use it. Grandmother was into something big. Bigger than any of us want to realize. What we’re up against, they’re the sort of people who don’t want to be noticed. People who are very good at hurting other people without getting caught.”
“Spies?” Ellie asked, her voice arch. “I’m supposed to believe that James fucking Bond or the S.K. are outside our house right now, trying to break in for some-”
“Ellie,” he cut her off. “These are covert operatives who are nowhere near as polite as the spies you get from movies and books. When it’s all over, we’ll probably be in pieces in garbage bags, if we’re lucky. More likely, they’ll be really inventive in how they torture you, torture me, torture the kids…”
“Peter,” Callan said, speaking in a low voice, both hands on Christoff’s shoulders. “Don’t spook the kids.”
“I’m not spooked,” Roxanne said, with a note of awe.
Ignoring the fact that one eye was so swollen it was a puffy line in her face, she looked fascinated. Not unafraid, but more terrified and interested both. She was as tense as a guitar string, attention rapt.
“I’m spooked,” Christoff said, his voice small.
“Then man up. If your balls are going to drop, let’s have them drop now,” Peter said. “Ellie, these guys are going to fuck us up if we don’t listen very carefully. I’m pretty sure these assholes could and would feed us to hungry livestock or burn us alive.”
“In a small town in Canada,” Ellie said, skeptically.
“Think about it,” he said. “Why the fuck would a major covert organization set up in a big city, with thousands or millions of eyes around?”
“I can think of a lot of reasons,” Ellie said. “Don’t try to mom me, trying to derail me with bullshit. Let me think, spies have jobs? International jobs? This shithole doesn’t have anything resembling an airport.”
“Fuck me,” Peter said, under his breath, “Why are you only smart when it helps you be wrong? Help me out, Blake?”
“I never said it was spies,” I said, being intentionally vague, “Though some of those people out there make pretty effective spies. It is shady and it is a mess of secrets some people are willing to kill to keep.”
“Fine, whatever. When did you get this epiphany, Peter?” she asked. “You figured it all out, you heard or saw something, and now you’re just as much an expert as the asshole with an internet connection and camera-mirror shit that’s talking us all through this?”
“Obviously,” Peter said, “It was while you were sitting in the basement, pissing around.”
“Obviously,” she said, glaring at him.
She was getting scared, but she was exercising that fear as hostility. Probably a survival instinct she’d picked up somewhere along the way.
“Listen to him,” Peter said. “Trust me. I’m still on your side. Our deal stands.”
She scowled.
The plywood at the front window of the living room rattled as someone or something banged on it. I reacted instantly. “Back!”
Kathryn was the only one who hadn’t connected to exactly why I’d given the instruction.
The sound, the light, and the reverberation that knocked Alexis back were all out of sync by fractions of a second. Even my world was disturbed, as the surface of the water from the flooded and flooding house was distorted for a moment, reducing my territory to the few good sources of reflections I had available.
My view of the scene was limited to my ability to peer through the shaky, zig-zagging little circle that moved every time Alexis did.
I was only able to stop and peer through when she found her footing and stood straight. There were more shadowy figures standing outside. A half-dozen ‘people’ and what looked to be four or five children, standing far enough away that the light from the living room ceiling didn’t reach them.
Eva crossed the living room, while everyone else backed away. She stood at the window, looking down. “Got one of them. Hi, guys.”I couldn’t make out the response.
“Scared?” Eva asked, spreading her arms, gun in one hand, knife in the other. “Don’t be. Come on up to the window. I won’t bite.”
“Kathryn,” I said, in the quiet. “Take Roxanne upstairs. Bedroom across from the bathroom. Do not go in the bathroom. There’s a bag with knives in the closet. Stuff Ellie stole.”