Continuance (34 page)

“Mandy.” Michelle’s
voice sounded frail, hoarse in her ears.

“Mom. I’m so
sorry. I got here as quickly as I could.”

“I’m so happy
you’re here” There were others she wished could have been there, too. But in
this moment, more than anyone else in the world, she wanted Mandy by her side.
So
many loose ends
. She looked at her daughter’s face. Those eyes. That pain. It
wouldn’t do. “I think I may have dented the car.”

Mandy gave an
involuntary laugh, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

“There’s my
smile,” Michelle said. She’d always felt she could bear anything life could
throw at her – as long as she could draw strength from that amazing smile. “So,
how bad of a mess am I? I’m supposed to be at your wedding shower next week.”

Mandy was having
none of the feeble humor this time. With a visible effort, she gathered herself
before speaking. “The doctors took care of your arm and leg, but…” Her voice
quavered and broke. “The internal injuries…” She scrubbed a hand across her
eyes, unable to go on.

Michelle felt no
surprise, no fear. If the broken feeling inside hadn’t been enough, the look in
Mandy’s eyes was all the confirmation she needed.

“It’s okay, Mandy.”

“No. It’s not.
It’s
not!
I don’t want to lose you, Mom.” Michelle felt Mandy’s grip on her
hand tighten – one moment reassuring, the next, desperately clinging.

“Miss Baxter?”
One of the doctors stood beside Mandy, speaking to her in hushed tones. “I’m
afraid there isn’t much time. If you want us to move forward with the protocol,
we’ll need permission.”

Mandy looked to
Michelle as if waiting for an answer, and realization dawned.

She hadn’t
really wanted this for herself, but as she saw the pain mirrored in Mandy’s
eyes, it no longer mattered. If this made things a little easier for her, that
was a small price to pay. Besides, the last thing she wanted was to spend these
precious moments arguing with her daughter. She gave Mandy a smile, squeezing
her hand in affirmation.

“Go ahead,” Mandy
said to the doctor, an undercurrent of relief in her voice. He nodded in
response, resuming his duties.

“Remember that
time when you were a little girl, and you left a note for the tooth fairy
asking for her signature?” Michelle asked.

Mandy’s smile
returned. “I think I even included a diagram to show how much more molars were worth
than regular teeth. But that was nothing compared to the time…”

As they spent
the minutes talking of happy memories and days gone by, Michelle found herself
wishing for more time, for this moment to go on forever.

Sleep came.

2089

Impact.
With a jolt, Jason
felt the car crunch against the retaining wall. But rather than watch the cabin
buckle as it compressed to crush him as he’d feared, he felt his body rock forward,
almost gently. Then all was still.

My god. I’m
stopped.
Jason looked out the window to make sure he hadn’t imagined it. Cars blurred past
his window as the rest of the field crossed the finish, just fifty meters down
the track. He didn’t care.
I did it! Holy shit, I did it!

He unfastened
his harness and stepped out into a circle of hoverflood light, tearing off his
helmet and letting it fall to the ground. Beyond the wall behind him, the crowd
erupted in a deafening roar, delirious at his appearance. Sweat slicked his
hair and face. His legs felt wobbly beneath him, and he kept a trembling grip
on the door to steady himself.

Ignoring the
cheers, he searched the track beyond. Three shafts of hoverflood light
converged on a point in the infield, illuminating the white wreckage of the Tesla.
Nothing more than mangled scrap remained of the front end, and it sagged to one
side where the missing wheel had left it looking like a maimed animal. Jason couldn’t
see Craig Knight.

He must still be
in the car.

Jason’s blood
ran cold. Memories triggered, old and strong, and a sickening sensation welled inside
him. In his mind, the wreckage morphed as he remembered, no longer that of the
Tesla, but a similar scene from another night, another time.

Emergency lights
sliced through the night air. Patrick ran across the street without bothering
to shut the car door behind him, his eyes intent on the ruined Nissan. Hopelessly
entangled with another car, it lay smashed across the median as if thrown there
by some enraged titan out of myth. Police officers and emergency techs milled
around with the leisurely pace of a cleanup crew after a sporting event. The
crash had happened a while ago.

He rounded the
wreckage to the other side, stopping short when he saw what remained of the
driver’s compartment. The frame had been peeled open like popcorn foil by
hydraulic jaws or laser cutters, and the seat sat empty. He could have almost
made himself believe she’d gotten out okay if not for the deflated airbag
hanging from the steering wheel. Crimson smears covered its sagging shape.

No. No, I knew
she was upset. I shouldn’t have let her come. I should have given her time to
calm down first.

“Sir, you need
to clear the area.”

Dazed, Patrick
turned to face the officer who had grasped his arm. The man only came up to his
chin, and freckles covered his young face.

“They got her
out,” Patrick said, realizing he’d stated the obvious. “Is she okay?”

Impatience
flashed across the officer’s face. “MedEvac just left. I’m sure they’re doing
all they can. She’s in good hands now.”

Not dead then. Thank
God, not that. “Which hospital?”

“Sir, you…”

“Please, which
hospital?”

“Are you
family?” When Patrick hesitated, the officer’s face grew firm. “Sir, if you
aren’t family I can’t give you any further information. You need to clear this
area. Now, please.”

Patrick felt
numb as he let himself be led away from the crash. He craned his neck to look
over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from the wreckage as the officer took
him back to his car. Inside, he continued to stare long after they’d hauled the
remains of the Nissan away. Only broken bits and pieces remained where Michelle
had once been.

The sound of
cheers swelled once more, and Jason’s eyes focused on the wreck of the Tesla
again. A figure in a white helmet had emerged under the hoverfloods in the
infield. He waved a hand at the crowd, and Jason breathed a sigh of relief. He
may not have liked Knight, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see him killed.

And he would
have been if I hadn’t…

Hadn’t what? Jason
had no idea what he’d done a moment ago. It didn’t matter. He’d made it out
alive and had what he needed to get the bastards who were responsible.

Neal and Grieves
will wish they never screwed with me.
Adrenaline he didn’t know he had left
prickled his skin as he remembered they were still there somewhere. Both of
them.

He grabbed his smartglasses
from his jacket pocket and got back in the car. A safety crew in yellow
jumpsuits ran up, one of them tapping on the window, but he started the engine
and waved them off. Cruising the length of the straightaway, he opened a voice channel
to Dr. Fairchild and Darren.

“You need to get
out of here.” The professor’s voice sounded urgent. “Now.”

“I’m not going
anywhere. The inhibitor didn’t give them what they needed. They don’t have
anything on me.”

“Jason,” Darren
said, “You just gave them something a million times better. Not many people
have ever seen perks, but anyone who has will recognize what you just did.
Especially Isaac Neal. Maybe even Lindsay. It’s evidence enough.”

“It doesn’t matter,”
Jason said. Had it been a perk? Definitely, but somehow it had felt different.
Like it came from a deeper place somewhere within himself. He set the thought
aside. Time enough for questions later. “Did you get the data we need? Does it
show the inhibitor?”

“It does.” Dr. Fairchild’s
voice held an edge of annoyance. “I’ll upload it to a cloudspace once I can
encrypt it with a bioprint hash.”

With a bioprint
hash, only one person would be able to access the data. Jason liked the idea. “Whose
print?”

“Mine,” she said.
“That should make it secure, but there’s no guarantee it will protect you if
they come for you. Let’s get you out of here and deal with Neal and Grieves later,
on our own terms. Otherwise, they may try to silence you before we can go
public.”

“Let them,”
Jason said. “These bastards ruined Alex Richman. They shut down the lab.
Your
lab. They Arkived Ivory. And they nearly just killed me. We need to put an end
to it. There’s never going be a better time to nail their asses to the wall than
right now.”

Dr. Fairchild’s
frustrated sigh came through the channel. “I’m not trying to sound like your
mother, but act your true age for once, Jason. Don’t let that stunt tonight go
to your head.”

Jason laughed as
he pulled the car off the track. “Small chance of that.”

He ended the
call, content to let her and Darren make what they would of it. He pulled up to
the automatic gate to the staging area, and his eyes grew wide when it opened
to a reveal a cheering throng waiting behind. They poured through, surrounding
the car, forcing him to slow to a crawl as onlookers gave him thumbs up and applauded.
Some even kissed the windows.

 A woman burst
through the crowd outside, looking in horror at the missing hood, the scrapes
and dents along the side of the car.
Chaela.
She met his eyes, relief
flooding her face. Shoving through the bystanders, she forced her way around to
his side as he stopped the car. He barely had time to get out before she
crushed him in a fierce hug. The crowd erupted in cheers and hoots, sure they
were seeing a Hollywood moment unfolding.

“I’m sorry.” Her
voice sounded muffled against his chest as he felt the warmth of her breath.
“I’m sorry.”

He folded his
arms around her, drinking in the feeling as he returned the embrace. He pulled
away, just enough to look her in the face. Her up-done hair was tousled now,
and unshed tears welled in her ice blue eyes.

“I was on a call
with Stuart,” she said. “I overheard someone saying there was a crash, a black
car. They said it flipped and hit the wall, and… I didn’t mean what I said
about seeing you crash and burn. You know that right? I’m sorry. I…”

Jason put a
finger to her lips. “I know. Don’t worry about it. Besides, it was all
crashing, no burning.”

She punched him
in the chest. Then she hugged him again, tight. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.”

“Kiss her!”
someone yelled.

Jason did. The
crowd cheered as he pressed his lips to hers, felt her pull him even tighter
against herself. Whereas Ivory’s kiss had been thrilling and electric, Chaela’s
was a kind of vitalizing radiance – sunlight mixed with adrenaline. After a
moment he pulled back, smoothing a strand of hair with his hand as she looked
up at him. Her eyes didn’t seem icy at all.

Something drew
his eyes away, and he panned the crowd, coming to rest on the man staring back
at him just over her shoulder. At first glance, Lindsay Grieves didn’t stand
out from the those around him. A little older than most, he had longish sandy brown
hair and a handsome face. The dark suit Jason remembered from the lab was gone,
replaced by synth-denim jeans and a black half-collared shirt. Maybe a little
on the conservative side for the usual racing crowd, but nothing that would
have made him stand out. A closer look at his eyes, though, locked on Jason
like a vice, marked him as something different. A wolf among lap dogs.

Darren and Dr.
Fairchild had been right. The spiders would bring him in now. A feeling of
anticipation mixed with fear inside him. Anticipation of the chance to use their
evidence against them. Fear that somehow it might not work.

Looking back at
Chaela, Stuart’s words echoed in Jason’s head, flogging him with guilt.

“You want Neal
to be the one to tell her the person she thought she knew – and cared about –
isn’t who he said he was? That he’s been lying to her about everything? Trust
me. You don’t.”

Yet here he was,
about to let it all go down right in front of her. Why did she have to come
back and find him right at this moment?
Too late now.

With a sigh, he
looked to Grieves, ready to let the man take him into custody. He’d ask them to
keep Chaela out of it – she hadn’t known anything. But something had changed in
Grieves’s face, and the anger was gone. He stared at the pair of them, taking
stock as if trying to decide something as they stood there in each other’s
arms. Then, he turned and melted into the crowd without a word.