it as intact. No flames. No half-destroyed walls or screaming, crying people. The parking lot was quiet around me, the black-and-white squad cars orderly beetles in the dark.
Everything was calm.
It was only then that I realized I didn’t know quite what to do.
I still vibrated with the sense of some imminent danger. But if I wasn’t pulling Checker out of a burning building … then what?
Did I even know he was still here? It was the middle of the night. If he’d been released, he would have gone straight to Diego’s house, where Rio was, but if not … I was foggy on police procedure. If they were still holding him without charging him—and they’d have to do anything official during daylight hours, wouldn’t they?—he’d probably still be here at the station. Unless they moved people around for other reasons.
I punched a hand against the dash. This was exactly the time I needed someone like Checker—to find out where Checker was.
However, I did know someone who might not have Checker’s particular skills, but was pretty damned good at acquiring information. I just needed a way to reach him.
I got out of Pilar’s car and took a walk toward the shopping center on the corner. Not many people were about at this time of night, but the grocery store was a twenty-four-hour one, with the odd customer hustling in and out with their head down. Ten minutes later, I had pickpocketed a cell phone within hailing distance of a police station while leaving a bomb in the front seat of the Yaris I had parked in front of it.
I’d started hurrying back with my prize when something moved in my peripheral vision.
Without thinking, without considering, my Colt whipped out of my belt and I pulled the trigger without even registering what was behind my sights. The white fire of the gunshots rent the night, engulfing every thought.
Glass shattered and alarms pealed in echo. My brain finally caught up with my hands after the third shot and—what the fuck had I just done—
The large front window of the grocery store had come crashing down. Screams echoed from inside.
I managed to pry my grip looser on the gun and wrench my finger away from the trigger, and I ran, hunched into a stumble, until I hit the relative safety of a nearby alleyway. Sirens already wailed down the street. The grocery store wouldn’t have long response times, not with a police station practically next door.
I cradled the Colt to my chest, my hands shaking … and panic chewing around the edges of my vision.
The same panic that had incapacitated me at the wellness center.
Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.
The shadow I’d seen out of the corner of my eye … I was a good enough shot that if I’d been aiming at him, he’d be dead. But I’d only managed to kill a building’s display window.
I’d targeted a reflection.
The man from the wellness center had been behind me.
I twisted suddenly, frantically, trying to see along all axes at once. But if the smallest gleam of the man’s face in dim glass had caused me to lose all control—what could I do? How the hell could I hope to fight someone like that if I saw him before I had a chance to fire?
Fight. Run. Kill.
You make me proud, Vala, said the memory of the man in my head.
Oh, Jesus Christ. Who was this guy?
And he was here—I was right, Checker was in danger—
I pushed myself away from the alley wall. It felt like it took much more effort than Newton’s Third Law dictated. Then I shoved my gun back in my belt, under my jacket, which felt like it took even more effort. But I had to circle around to get eyes on the police station. If this man had come to attack, the police wouldn’t be able to do anything against him—but then, I wasn’t sure I could either …
My feet managed a staggered wobble around the next block until I could circle back the way I had come. Fortunately I’d managed to hang on to the phone somehow. I disabled the GPS—it would still be trackable, but with more difficulty—and tried Simon’s number first.
Still no answer.
A horrible foreboding closed its jaws around me.
I could see the police station by then. It wasn’t quiet anymore, uniforms shouting to one another as a pair took off toward the shopping center. I stayed enough in the shadows not to draw attention, anxiety clawing its way out