“A little.” I sighed. “Seriously, though. I’ve been through the ringer with Perugini, Zollers, and now you. Can we just…talk about his later?”
“Yeah.” He looked down at his feet. “Ariadne wanted me to tell you that they assigned you a different room and moved your stuff.”
I took a slip of paper from his proffered hand. “Good timing, actually. This drug Zollers has me on to suppress Wolfe really takes it out of me.”
“Sleep tight,” he said. “I gotta get back to guard duty.”
“Zack,” I called after him when he started to leave. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded his head, just slightly, causing it to bob as he looked back to his shoes. “I know.”
“But it’s all out there now.” I looked at him hopefully. “I don’t think there’s anything else. No more secrets.” I smiled. “Now it’s just decisions to make.”
He smiled. “Get to making ‘em, will you? Kinda curious if I’m gonna be working with you or not.”
“You think you could handle that?” I smiled at him impishly. “You might have to partner with me someday.”
He looked up as though he were thinking about it, then slowly nodded, only a hint of a smile visible, arching his lips up. “I think I could handle that. You know, for the good of the team.”
I flung my napkin at him in mock outrage. “For the good of the team, eh?” He laughed, retreating. “Keep yourself out of trouble, will you? Watch out for men on fire.” I looked at my hand, now covered in a glove and felt the itching that was coming from the last layer of skin returning. “They tend to leave a mark.”
He nodded and gave me a playful salute as he left the cafeteria, Kurt trailing behind him. I rubbed my eyes. Zollers’ drug was putting me down. I looked out one of the windows; it was probably midday, the cloud cover overhead still masking the sun from my sight. I walked back to my room across the grounds, the white blankets of snow still covering to the horizon. It wasn’t quite as oppressive today, for some reason.
I followed room numbers in the dormitory to the one on the paper Zack had given me. I opened the door, feeling like I was ready to collapse. I found a room inside that was the same as the one I’d had before, which gave me a moment’s pause. I unlaced and then kicked off my boots, pulled off my shirt, throwing it straight to the garbage, then stripped off my jeans.
I fell on the bed, on my back, not bothering with the covers. The cool air tickled my exposed skin and below me I felt the silky smoothness of the bedspread. The slight smell of construction was in the air; my old room was just down the hall, after all. I still had the faint aftertaste of Swedish meatballs lingering in my mouth and I hoped that when I woke up there would be more in the cafeteria. If there weren’t, maybe I could order them directly from the caterer. Or that nice girl in the cafeteria who thanked me. Saving her life had to be worth a few Swedish meatballs.
I stared up at the lightbulb above me as my eyes started to shut. They squinted as I tried to force them open one last time, but it didn’t work. I saw the light and it distorted and glared, reminding me of the rising flame in the darkness that was Aleksandr Gavrikov, hovering above me like what the sun must look like, lighting up everything around.
I closed my eyes, and he was there, on fire, just like all the times I had seen him but one. The flames flickered where his skin should have been, an inferno in place of flesh. I could almost smell the burning, taste the ash that should have been in the air. He edged closer to me but there was no heat, and for a bare moment I couldn’t figure it out, then I did. “Dreamwalking,” I whispered.
He floated closer, and I watched the fire recede from his hands, from his face. His dark hair appeared, then his nose and eyes. He looked less pallid than he had when I’d seen him in real life, and the world around us coalesced into my old room. Fire crawled up the walls, slowly burning around us as his feet touched the ground. The silence consumed me like the flames, surrounded me. He stood in front of me, staring into my eyes. “You said you would help me.”
I felt the burn of his almost accusatory stare. “I was trying to save your life.” I looked away, walked a few feet in the other direction, as though placing distance between us could absolve me of my promise. “Not to mention the lives of the others.”
His voice came back to me, cold and empty. “Did you tell them? Do they know what I want?”
“I did.” I turned back to him. “They’re not going to release her. They think you’re a dire threat.”
I saw the haunting in his eyes, the guilt in his face. “I am a dire threat. I am more than that. I am death; more death than they can handle.”
I didn’t blink away from him as he said it, but a part of it hit home. “Sounds familiar. I don’t think they’re going to just give her up on your say so, though.”
He took a deep breath, in and out, closed his eyes and smiled. “Then I’ll convince them. I’m in Glencoe. It’s only about fifteen minutes west of you. Tell them to come and see me and we’ll talk.”
Something about how he said it raised the little hairs on the back of my neck. “You just want to talk? Why do I doubt that?”
“I have a message for them,” he said with an icy calm. “Tell them. I’ll be waiting in the middle of town. Bring as many of their men as they’d like.”
I felt a chill of fear. “I don’t love the way you’re saying that.”
He burst into flames again, his brown eyes replaced by soulless, dancing fire. “Tell them. Tell them to come to me. I’ll be waiting.” He remained afire, but dimmed in my sight until he was gone, replaced by the light over my bed.
Chapter 23
Less than an hour later I was cruising west along a highway with Zack and Kurt. In front and behind us were vans, one filled with agents and the other carrying M-Squad. It was early evening, the sun was already down and a bitter cold had followed with the darkness. The thermometer on the rearview mirror said that it was already -4 degrees and I had to guess it was falling. We had streaked through a small town already and now there were snowy fields to either side as we chugged along the highway. I could see the lights of another town in the distance, and as we drew closer the car slowed.
“He said he’s waiting there for us?” Kurt looked back at me, nerves plain on the older man’s pudgy face.
“Yeah. You scared?” I didn’t put much venom into it, but I didn’t need to. His gave me a nasty look anyway.
“If you’re not, you’re stupid.” He turned forward again. “In case you missed it, he burned your damned hand off.”
“I can see why you’re worried; that’d be a fatal blow to your sex life.”
I heard the seething noise he made in the front seat, but he didn’t turn back around. Zack let out a soft chuckle and when Kurt turned on him, he said, “What? It was funny.”
We turned off the main highway at an intersection. After passing a few cross streets, we turned left onto the main street of the town. There was a bank across from a flower shop and a jewelry store. It looked idyllic as we pulled into the empty parallel parking spaces. I stepped out onto the curb, over the small mountain of accumulated snow, onto the sidewalk.
I felt my breath catch in my throat. My coat was buttoned, my hands were covered with gloves, but I could still feel the frigid air creeping in. I felt like I was going to turn to ice. I looked down the sidewalk, but it was empty, the streetlights shedding the only illumination. There was not another running car in sight. Agents exited the van behind us, their weapons concealed under heavy coats. Clary stretched as he got out of the vehicle in front of us, Parks and Kappler joining him as Bastian walked around from the driver’s side.
The agents huddled around Bastian, who didn’t order anyone to come over to him; they just did it automatically. I watched and nudged my way into the circle next to Zack as Roberto started to speak. “We’re gonna sweep Main Street. If you find him, do not engage. Keep eyes on target and maintain a healthy distance.” I watched him touch his ear and realized he had some kind of miniature microphone in it. I looked around the circle and saw the others with the same and felt a little irritation that I hadn’t been offered one. “We’re sticking with the same strategy. This guy can kill any of you faster than you can pull a trigger, so Clary is our point man when we find the target.”