Catch the Lightning (8 page)

He sat down on the bed, propping his elbows on his knees so he could rest his forehead on his hands. As he closed his eyes, I felt his mind straining. I saw it as a translucent image, water on the ground. It lay deep around us but grew thinner as it extended away, until it evaporated into nothing.

“It doesn’t work,” Althor said.

“What are you trying to do?”

He looked at me. “I fly this Jag many years. I can reach it, in a limited sense, even if we have no physical link. But the farther away I am, the weaker the interaction. It is too much far away for me to reach it now.”

“What happened to your English?”

“My English?”

“Your accent got heavier.”

His unease shimmered in the air. “I never separated. I left my brain running as a subshell on the Jag’s EL”

I blinked. “Its what?”

“El. Evolving Intelligence. The Jag and I, we are one brain that evolves together. I provide the ‘human’ component. Creativity. Ingenuity. Imagination.” Sweat rolled down his temple. “When I leave the ship, I can centralize my programming into my own brain. I ‘put it back’ into myself. This is what separating from the Jag means.”

“But you didn’t do it this time.” Because he hadn’t expected to meet me.

He nodded. “A large part of my brain is still in the ship.”

“But you were fine before. Your English was great.”

“I think my mind, it has been in a subshell.”

“A what?”

“You know what is a supercooled liquid?” When I shook my head, he said, “If you lower the temperature of „a liquid below its freezing point and it doesn’t freeze, it is supercooled. Perturb the system and it freezes all at once. My biomech system makes an analogous state to protect me if I am cut off from the Jag. A subshell. But the shell is unstable. One disturbance and it collapses all at once.”

“And trying to reach the Jag made it collapse?”

“Yes.”

I spread my hands. “I don’t know what to suggest.”

“I need information. About the Yeager base, to start.”

“I’ll call in sick today. Then we can go to the library. Maybe we’ll find something.”

Althor exhaled. “I hope so.”

The San Carlos branch of the Los Angeles Public Library was in a small mall, sharing a plaza with the cleaners on its left and a bowling alley on its right. As we crossed the plaza, heat rose from its tiles. The sunlight had lost its freshness. It felt tense, like glass under stress.

I saw the librarian, Martinelli, through the window, a plump man with gray hair and glasses. He was cleaning off the counter where people checked out books. The library was empty except for an elderly couple at a nearby table. As we came in, they were setding down to read the newspaper.

Martinelli glanced up. “Hi, Tina—” He looked past me and his smile vanished like a cigarette stubbed out in an ashtray.

The elderly couple were suddenly getting ready to leave. Following their looks, I saw Althor standing in the doorway, over two hundred pounds of muscle, dressed from head to foot in black, bare arms bulging, leather guards on his wrists, purple hair uncombed. He looked hardcore, ready for the state penitentiary.

I drew him next to me and spoke in a low voice. “Try to look less threatening.”

“How? This is the way I look.”

I didn’t have an answer to that. We went to the counter and Martinelli came over, giving me an odd smile. “Got a late shift at the bank today, Tina?”

I had no idea what he meant. He knew I worked in a restaurant. I didn’t understand why he was giving me that strange smile, either, as if his face were too stiff for it.

Then it hit me. Martinelli was frightened for me. He was trying to give me a way to send him a message if I were in trouble but couldn’t talk. I gave him my most reassuring smile. “I’m not working today. This is my friend Althor. From, uh, Fresno.” Martinelli nodded to Althor, and Althor nodded back. Then Martinelli turned back to me. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you have any books on Yeager Flight Test Center?” I asked.

He motioned toward the card catalog. “You can look there. If you don’t find what you need, I’ll check the computer.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I took Althor over to the catalog. As I pulled out a drawer and set it on the table, he sat in a chair next to me. Then he tilted his head toward where Martinelli was working behind the counter. “Why does this man distrust me?”

“He thinks you’re one of Nug’s friends.” I sat at the table. “They come in here and bother him.”

“Nug?”

“Matt Kugelmann.” After a moment, I said, “He killed my cousin Manuel.”

Althor stared at me. “I’m sorry.”

Back then, every time I thought I was over Manuel’s death it turned out I was wrong. Enough years have passed now that I only remember the good he taught me. He had been as strict as a father: no swearing, no late nights, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs, no running with anyone he didn’t like. Nor had he been much on talks about life. But I heard words in the way he treated me, words like respect and loyalty. That was before the crack silenced him. It was his way of dealing with my mother’s death, but it took him away from me too.

“Tina?” Althor said.

I swallowed. “It’s okay.”

“You say this a lot. It’s okay you live in a building unfit for animals, it’s okay they murder your cousin. It’s not okay. You deserve better.”

“I’m just trying to get by.”

“Where are your parents?”

“I do fine on my own.”

“Tina—”

“You’re lucky to have a father.” I said it too fast, needing to change the subject.

Althor watched me for a moment, but he didn’t push. Instead he said, “My father and I spent half the time arguing. Ragnar understood me better.”

“He’s the admiral who encouraged you to join the military when your father didn’t want you to?”

“It was my choice.” He shrugged. “My father isn’t always rational about Ragnar.”

“What does he do?”

“Lose his temper.” Althor frowned. “Once, when I was a boy, Ragnar came to see me. He is my doctor, after all. My father, when he saw Ragnar talking to my mother, exploded. My father is most times a calm man. But with an old friend he becomes irrational.”

I understand it now: apparently coveting thy neighbor’s wife isn’t unique to Earthbound humans. At the time, though, I said nothing. For all I knew, it could have been completely different from the way it sounded.

Instead I said, “There’s something I have to ask you.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t soldiers kill people?”

“Yes.”

“Have you?”

“Yes.”

I shifted in my chair. “How many?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is that because you were in your ship so you couldn’t see, or because you killed so many you lost count?”

“Both.” When I stiffened, he spoke quiedy. “Tina, people die in wars.” He exhaled. “Our enemies executed one of my uncles, the man my parents named me for. Althor Valdoria was a military hero. My father’s brother. A part of me wanted to avenge him.”

I thought of my cousin. “Revenge is no good. They kill, you kill, they kill, you kill. It never ends.”

“If that had been my only reason for joining the military, I would have retired by now. I stay because it’s necessary to protect my people. I feel—” He stopped, as if searching for the right word. “Obligated.”

In a way, he reminded me of Manuel. “I understand.”

“But last night I felt so relaxed with you.” He took my hand. “At peace.”

“With me? Why?”

“I don’t know.” He smiled. “After all, you want to make me into a frog.”

I laughed. “You’d make a handsome frog.” I glanced at the cards I had been flipping around while we talked. “These air force books are mostly in the same place. Why don’t you go look while I keep going through the cards?” I took a pencil and paper off the table and wrote down a few call numbers. “Just find those.”

“Cards,” Althor grumbled. “Paper books. Walk to shelf.”

I smiled. “You have a better idea?”

“Go home. Relax. Have the web look up what you want and deliver a microspool. Plug spool into book. Choose font, graphics, and holography.” He kept grumbling in his own language, but he took the paper and went to the stacks.

I laughed and bent over the card catalog.

A moment later someone spoke behind me. “Hey, Tina. You got a new boyfriend?”

I looked up. Nug stood there, dressed in jeans and a jacket.

String and Buzzer were with him, two guys who looked like their names: String was taller and skinnier than Nug, and Buzzer looked like a stocky old buzzard.

“He’s coming right back,” I said.

Nug smiled. “New guy, looks like.”

I didn’t like it when Nug smiled. “From Fresno.”

“Fresno?” Nug laughed. “Shit. That’s worse than coming from Cleveland.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Talk nice to me.” Nug stepped closer. When I tried to scoot my chair back, he closed his hand around my arm. “What’s the matter?” He wasn’t smiling now. “You can’t take that pretty nose of yours out of the air for two fucking seconds?”

Martinelli spoke from behind the counter. “Leave her alone, Matt.”

Nug looked up, his lips twisting in a scowl. But he did let go of my arm. Then he put his hand inside his jacket.

He pulled out a 9-mm. Luger.

Both Martinelli and I froze. Nug stretched out his arm, pointing the gun at Martinelli. “Shut up, old man.”

I couldn’t believe he was pulling a gun on Martinelli in the middle of the library. I should have known something was wrong, with Nug wearing a jacket when it was so hot.

Nug glanced at String. “Make sure he doesn’t bother us.” String ran to the counter and hauled himself over it. Drawing his knife, he tilted his head toward the wall, an area out of our view. Martinelli retreated and String followed.

Nug turned back to me. “Well.” He smiled again and it didn’t look any better now than it had the first time. “So you got a new boyfriend.”

I swallowed. “He doesn’t like me talking to other guys.”

“That so.” Nug stepped closer. “What does he like?”

I leaned back. “Don’t.”

“Don’t,” he mimicked. He shoved the gun into his jacket, then pulled me out of the chair and put his arms around me. “This what he wants, chiquitita?”

“Stop it!” I lurched away and thudded into Buzzer. He grabbed my upper arms and held me in place.

“Sweet Tina.” Nug was gritting his teeth. “We can’t have her, can we? She’s too pure. You think I don’t know, don’t you.”

I stared at him. “Know what?”

“You never gave me the time.” His mood cut around him in angry black and red streaks. “But I gave you slack. I thought, ‘She’s different. Try harder.’ Well, I tried, and you didn’t even look at me, like you thought you was too good. Even then I gave you slack. Thought maybe that cousin of yours told you shit about me. I gave you more slack than I’ve ever given anyone.” He pointed at me. “I seen you this morning, slut. I seen you come out with that guy. He there all night, Tina? You fuck him all night?”

“Nug, please,” I said.

“What’s wrong?” Nug said. “I got everything he has. Maybe better.”

I was sure he had sent his men after Althor. They probably pulled him into one of the back rooms. And Nug wasn’t stupid. Although we were in a library with a large window, Buzzer’s body hid me from view. Anyone outside would see only what looked like Buzzer and Nug talking Nug glanced at String and jerked his chin. I heard a thud, metal hitting muscle, followed by a grunt, and the bigger thud of a body hitting the ground.

“Come on,” Nug said. “We’re outta here.”

As they took me to a side door, String jogged up next to us. We came out in an alley between the library and the cleaners. No windows broke the walls on either side, no place where someone might look out and see I needed help. A mist of furious red sparks hung around Nug, smelling like vinegar and soot. Another one of his men was waiting in the alley, a skinny guy named Pits.

“Get the car,” Nug told him.

Pits took off, sprinting toward the parking lot in back of the library. Jerking up my foot, I stabbed the spike heel of my shoe into Buzzer’s leg. As he yelled, his hold loosened and I twisted out of his arms. I ran for the plaza in front of the library, lurching in my high heels. If only I could get out of the alley. San Carlos was a busy street Once I was in the plaza, someone had to see me. They had to. I could run into the street even, make a car stop.

Another of Nug’s men stepped into view, blocking the end of the alley.

With a cry, I skidded to a stop in front of him. Footsteps sounded behind me, and I spun around to see Nug. Buzzer came up on his left and String on his right, chests heaving as they gasped for breath.

“I’m getting real tired of this,” Nug said.

“No!” I said. “People will see—”

“Shut up.” He grabbed my arm and threw me back into Buzzer. I tried to scream, but Buzzer clamped his hand over my mouth. An engine rumbled, and an old car turned into the alley from the back parking lot, with Pits driving. He rolled toward us and stopped a few feet away.

Nug glanced at me. “We’re going to my place, baby. For a party. All of us.” He looked around, then scowled at the guy who had stepped into the alley. “Go find the others.”

As the guy took off, Buzzer dragged me to the car and opened the back door. He pushed me down on the seat, on my back, pressing one hand over my mouth and holding my wrists. The other door opened, bringing the greasy auto shop smell Nug carried around with him. Buzzer let go of my mouth, but as soon as I opened it to scream, Nug stuffed in a wad of cloth and covered my mouth with duct tape.

String opened the front door and tossed Nug a rope. “That’s all we got.”

Nug caught the rope. “It’ll do.” Leaning over me, he took my wrists from Buzzer and pulled off my bracelet.

I struggled to yank my hands away from him. My mother had given me that bracelet, and her mother to her, and on back for more generations than anyone in our family knew. It could never be replaced.

Buzzer motioned at the bracelet. “Think it’s worth anything?”

Nug watched me struggle. “She thinks it is. Maybe we can hock it.” He laughed. “Hey, it’s a prize. Whoever does her the longest gets it.”