Live to See Tomorrow (39 page)

She went still. “I don’t know about any fireworks factory. I don’t ask, and I prefer not to be involved.” She paused. “How did you happen to hear about it? I can’t see Catherine’s discussing it around you.”

“She didn’t. I heard them talking, but I didn’t hear it all. I didn’t know it was tonight. She should have told me.” His hand tightened on the French doorjamb. “She should have
taken
me. But I knew she wasn’t going to do it.”

“So you decided to do a little eavesdropping?” Celia asked shrewdly. “What did you hear, Luke?”

“Enough. She should have taken me. We should be together. I should be able to take care of her.”

“I’m not sure how mothers usually think, but I don’t believe that’s the way it goes, Luke.” She shrugged. “Anyway, it’s too late. You’ll have to make the best of staying with me until Cameron gives me a call. He made it very clear that all of these guards were here to keep you safe and sound.”

“And what about Catherine?”

“Cameron will make sure that nothing happens to her.”

“But that’s not his job, it’s
mine,
” he said fiercely. “Catherine belongs to me.”

“Discuss it with him.” Celia moved toward the kitchen. “I believe he may have a different view. Now I’ll go in the kitchen and start the water boiling. We’ll have tea, and I’ll try to keep you amused for the next few hours. I’m not good at chess, but I’m one great poker player.” She hesitated at the door. “She’ll be fine, Luke,” she said softly. “You’ll have lots of time to take care of your mother when you get a little older. I’ll call you when the tea is ready.”

What was she doing babysitting a boy like Luke? Celia thought with frustration as she moved toward the kitchen. She liked the kid, but she knew nothing about what made boys his age tick. He was older in some ways than the men who were her customers, and there were depths that she had not been able to reach. But she couldn’t treat him as she did—

Her phone rang. Cameron.

“I don’t like this, Cameron,” she said crossly. “You told me to keep him busy. You didn’t tell me that he has some kind of obsession about protecting his mother. How the hell am I supposed to soothe him and make everything alright?”

“Soothe him?” Cameron repeated. “Why?”

“He knows what’s happening, dammit. He eavesdropped and came up with answers that didn’t compute when he didn’t see Catherine after dinner. I don’t know if I can—”

“He knows about the fireworks factory?”

“He mentioned something about it.”

“Shit,” Cameron snapped. “Where is he now?”

“In the dining room. I just left him glaring at two of the guards in the garden that you sent over. I’m in the kitchen making jasmine tea and trying to lure him with a poker game.”

“You left him alone?”

“He’s in the next room.”

“Celia, go and find him,” he said slowly and precisely. “Now. Keep him with you until I get there. Don’t let him out of your sight.”

“I’m on my way.” She moved back down the hall. “But it’s not as if—”

The dining room was empty.

“He’s not here,” she said blankly. “I’ll go upstairs and see if he went to his room.”

Cameron muttered a curse. “Do that. And then go out and see if any of those guards saw him. I doubt if they did. Luke has had experience evading surveillance. He’s probably on his way here to the fireworks factory.”

“He said he had to protect Catherine. It was his job.” She paused. “And not yours, Cameron.”

“Just call back if you find him.” He hung up.

Running up the stairs, she hoped she would be able to call back with good news. She didn’t like the idea that she had failed to keep Luke safe. She’d be a lousy mother. There was supposed to be some kind of instinct that told you when a kid was wandering off.

But Luke was not the usual kid, and if he had left, it was deliberate.

Be in your bedroom, Luke. Don’t let me be responsible for losing you. Or worse. Cameron had been very curt. She didn’t even want to think about what else could happen to Luke.

FIREWORKS
FACTORY
7:45
P
.
M
.

“I’m going to go and check out a few things, Catherine,” Cameron said as he got off the third-floor freight elevator. “I won’t be long. And I’ll be monitoring you.”

“What? Now?” She stared at him in bewilderment. “Kadmus should be calling any minute. Where are you going?”

“Something has come up that I can’t put off.” He moved toward the window leading to the fire escape. “I have to see to it.”

“Orders from your damn committee?” she asked. “Did they find out that Kadmus is going down?”

“No.” He was swinging out onto the fire escape. “It’s nothing like that.” His face was without expression. “Look, I’ve put Blake’s men in the shops across the street, and they’ll come if they see anything suspicious. I should be back before Kadmus puts in an appearance.”

He was gone.

“Most unusual,” Hu Chang said from across the room where he was sitting with Erin. “But I’m sure that we can handle everything without Cameron if it comes down to it. After all, we are extraordinary people.”

“And Cameron is a secretive bastard who thinks no one is extraordinary but himself.” She drew a deep breath and moved toward the freight elevator. “I’m going to go check all the floors and make sure we’re locked up tight. I want to hear any entry.”

“Would you like me to go with you?” Erin asked.

She smiled. “No, you’re bait. Stay with Hu Chang. That’s all you should have to do tonight.”

“It doesn’t seem like much.” She looked around the dark warehouse. “I don’t like sitting here doing nothing.”

“Then Cameron should have taken you with him. Maybe he would have told you what the—” Catherine stopped. It wasn’t Erin’s fault her superhero was behaving as if he was the only one who was capable. She was just nervous and on edge and wanted this meeting with Kadmus over. She pressed the elevator button. “I’ll be right back.”

*   *   *

He had to move swiftly, Cameron thought.

Head toward Celia’s neighborhood.

Stay off the main streets. If Luke was heading toward the fireworks factory, he would not be doing it stupidly. The way he’d been brought up was close to the training of a guerrilla fighter according to what Cameron had learned about the boy. Luke would find out his destination, discover how to get there, then proceed in a way that would not endanger Catherine.

That meant alleys and side streets.

But Cameron had no time to go on the usual hunt. He had to get back to Catherine.

And he had to find Luke quickly.

He tried to reach out and locate him.

Nothing.

He had touched the boy’s mind once on that mountainside when he had first met him. Once was usually enough to locate him and go in again.

Usually. There was nothing usual about Catherine’s son. He had sensed signs in the boy that were definitely above and beyond the ordinary.

Concentrate …

There he was. He
had
him. Luke’s mind was not as clean and singing as Catherine’s, but he was better than nine-tenths of the people Cameron encountered, and he had the same crystal sharpness. And that sharpness was leveled at Catherine.

“She should have taken me with her.” Rage. Indignation. Fear. Not for himself but for Catherine. “I explained it to her. Why didn’t she listen?” Then the emphasis shifted. Find the fireworks factory. It should still be several blocks away. He had checked the address in Celia’s phone book before slipping out of the house.

Keep off the main streets. He didn’t see why anyone would be interested in him but he’d been taught by that bastard, Rakovac, to never take anything for granted.

And to never be sure that you weren’t someone’s next target.

Target.

He was feeling a tenseness between his shoulder blades.

He glanced over his shoulder.

A dark-haired man in a yellow Windbreaker jacket and scarlet baseball cap was a block behind him. He was moving fast and with purpose.

Luke didn’t like it. See if he had reason to worry. He cut down the next street and started trotting.

He took another glance behind him.

The man in the yellow jacket had just rounded the corner.

Luke could feel his heart jump.

Lose him. He couldn’t lead the man to Catherine.

He turned into an alley near an all-night movie theater and began to run.

Cameron kept in close contact though there was little to monitor. During these first frantic minutes, he wouldn’t be able to control Luke, and he had to wait until he could insert guidance without letting him know that it was being done. The kid was doing well. The last thing he wanted was for Luke to go into shock and throw him off with Kadmus’s man on his heels.

But the man was gaining, and he had to get Luke away from him.

Luke didn’t know the streets, alleys, and general terrain, but Cameron did. There should be another alley in the next block, and if Luke took it, he’d pass a six-foot cedar fence bordering the backyard of a butcher shop. Time to take control.

*   *   *

Luke’s breath was coming in harsh pants as he ran down the street. Why couldn’t he get away? He had no doubt that man in the yellow jacket was after him. And he had seen him talking into a cell phone. That meant he could expect one or more of the man’s scumbag buddies to be after him, too.

Maybe he should double back to that movie theater and slip inside and go out the back exit. No. Maybe not.

No, definitely not.

Where, then? Right or left at the next corner.

Right.

He turned right and quickened his pace. He saw a small alley in the middle of the block. He might have to take it.

Yellow jacket was gaining on him again.

Take the alley.

That seemed right, he could only rely on instinct.

He turned down the alley.

*   *   *

“Ellis says he just got a visual on Luke Ling,” Brasden said as he turned to Kadmus. “He said the kid was on Clement Street and heading east.”

“Is he sure it’s Ling’s kid?” Kadmus could feel his excitement rise. “Is he following him?”

“Yes. He said there was no missing the closeness to the photograph. He said to alert the rest of the team that the kid’s wearing a blue sweatshirt, jeans, and tennis shoes.” He grimaced. “But the boy saw him and took off. Ellis is right behind him.”

“He can’t lose him. I’ll castrate the bastard if he screws this up.” He pushed back his chair from the table in the bar where he’d been waiting for word. And what a good word it was, he thought with fierce pleasure. Everything was coming together. He was right on Ling’s heels, and with any luck, he’d be gathering in her brat to use to negotiate. What a fool she was to let him run around and right into Kadmus’s hands. But she wouldn’t have let him go far, so the circle must be narrowing even more.

He moved toward the door. “Let’s go, Brasden. We’ll head for the place where Ellis spotted the boy and I’ll make my call to Catherine Ling. We’ll be able to zero in on her when she picks up.” He chuckled. “And I may have ammunition by that time that will make her cave even before I get my hands on her.”

“She’ll know that we’ll be able to find her within five or ten minutes,” Brasden said. “She might not pick up.”

“But she will. She wants to take me down as much as I do her. It’s only a question of who will get there first. And if the boy’s not with her, she’ll be worried. That gives me an edge.” He glanced at Brasden. “I always have the edge. You knew that when you first came to work for me. You seem to have lost that realization somewhere along the way.”

“And you seem to have forgotten that you’re now in a vulnerable position with me.”

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten.” He smiled blandly. “I’ll have to attend to that problem right after I deal with Ling and her son.”

*   *   *

The alley was pitch-dark.

Luke’s heart was pounding, his lungs struggling for air as he ran. He could see the brightly lit cross street up ahead.

No yellow jacket yet.

He was passing a cedar fence.

Go over it.

He slowed, uncertain.

Better to go on to the street?

No, go over it, then double back to the street where he’d entered the alley. It might catch the hunter off guard and let him lose him.

He veered to the side and began to climb the cedar fence.

The soles of his tennis shoes dug into the wood as he shinnied over the fence and jumped to the ground on the other side.

He knelt there, listening.

Running footsteps, muttered curses.

Then the steps passed on down the alley.

Get up, move. Take advantage of the moment of confusion. Yellow jacket might come back and check on the fence.

He jumped to his feet and ran back toward the butcher shop. He was out the gate and turning left at the street.

Go straight for another couple blocks then turn east again, he thought. Try to find other alleys and byways that would lead toward the fireworks factory.

It had been the right thing to do. He was on the right track.

He didn’t know why he was so certain, but there was no doubt in his mind.

He just had to follow his instincts, and he’d be okay.

*   *   *

Catherine glanced at her watch. “It’s been forty-five minutes. Where the hell is Cameron?”

Hu Chang shrugged. “Why are you concerned? He said he’d left men across the street if there was a problem.”

But they weren’t Cameron, she wanted to tell him. He was trained in mayhem and was a bloody expert at this kind of trouble. She had wanted him here, dammit.