Sidekick Returns (10 page)

‘Choden, no,' I whispered. The cold was back. ‘I—'

‘I know this is painful for you to hear, but it is necessary,' he said, looking at me with such warm eyes. ‘I know you have been patrolling the streets.'

‘Yes, I have! I wanted to show Ryder, show you—'

He cut me off with a smile. ‘I know. I admire your determination. It is quite fierce.'

‘I don't understand what is going on right now,' I said, leaning back against the hard plastic fabric of the booth. ‘I don't understand any of this. What changed?'

‘Indira—'

‘Indira, what?' Heat flared to my cheeks. ‘She wants nothing to do with me? Now that my father's threat has been neutralised, I am no longer needed? Of course, I think that's rather short-sighted seeing as, you know, my father is probably cooking up some new evil plan,' I said, voice picking up both speed and intensity, ‘and I could be useful once again in that capacity, and in many other capacities, like, oh, I don't know, facing down the next army of techno rage-robot-zombies that come to town, but you two are the experts … so you know, whatever.'

Choden's eyes twinkled sadly. How he could pull that off was just another one of his mysteries. ‘Once again, I am sorry, Child.'

I stared at him a moment, before I raised a finger off my lap towards his face. ‘No. No. You know what you two are?'

He raised his eyebrows.

‘Hope peddlers.'

The somewhat sad smile returned to his face, making my eyes well with tears. I wiped at them harshly with the back of my hands. ‘I am not some stray puppy, you know, that you give kibble and a doggie bed to, and then just dump in the park to fend for itself with the muggers and drug dealers because you're all like,
It's not working out
. It's not fair. It's too late. I'm already hooked on the smack!'

He again gave me his bemused confused look. Most of his looks had a little bemused mixed in. ‘Bremy, I would like to offer you an explanation.'

‘Oh, would you now,' I said, nodding. ‘What are you dealing now, shady peddler?'

‘First,' he said, smiling, ‘perhaps you would like to finish your pie?'

‘No way. I know that's code for
Calm down Bremy
, and I will not calm down!'

‘Your ice-cream is melting.'

I looked down at my pie. It was getting a little mucky. No sense wasting all those good calories. I picked up a spoon. ‘Okay, but then we're going to talk about what's really going on here because none of this is making sense.' He truly was the master.

A few moments later, Choden asked, ‘Is it good?'

I opened my mouth to speak, but only pastry flakes came out, so I just nodded.

‘Good. Child, in our time together, we talked a great deal about your relationship with your father.'

I let my spoon clatter to my plate.

He held up his hands in submission, but I knew he was going to keep going. ‘I have been thinking a great deal about the man he is, and what motivates him. Have you had any contact with him since the night at the prison?'

I picked up half an egg roll. ‘Nope,' I said, poking the tail end of it into my mouth.

‘None whatsoever?'

‘Sometimes I think he might be having me followed,' I mumbled with a shrug. I squirted some plum sauce in after all the egg roll in order to grease the wheels of the lump it had made.

Choden nodded. ‘I was honoured when you choose to share with me the story of your mother's death.'

I froze for a moment then forced myself to look up to meet his eye. ‘Why are you bringing that up?'

‘I am afraid there is no delicate way to say this,' Choden said. ‘Your father takes perceived disloyalty quite badly.'

‘Yeah, like murderously badly.'

‘And yet,' he paused again, ‘he has let you go.'

Everything stopped for a moment. I studied Choden's eyes. ‘What are you saying? You think my father's going to hurt me? Kill me? Because he's had plenty of opportunities. He—'

Choden sighed. ‘I don't think he has anything so straightforward planned.'

My stomach clenched painfully. ‘Then what?'

‘I couldn't begin to guess.' He folded his hands on the placemat. ‘Any more than I could have imagined what he did to your mother.'

My eyes darted around the table as ugly, cold fear seeped into my bones. My father had designed a biological weapon and orchestrated a situation where my mother could take it so she would kill herself as he watched. And he had done it all simply because she had questioned him. I had done a lot more than that. And yet, he had just let me go. I knew exactly what Choden was getting at. I wanted to argue with everything he had said, but I just couldn't. In fact, I was starting to get really angry with myself for not seeing it sooner. My father hadn't let me go at all. He would never let me go. He was planning something, and I had stupidly just gone on with my life as though the man who had sired me wasn't out to obliterate my existence.

‘What I have to say next may come as a shock,' Choden said, ‘but I would like you to consider it carefully.'

I nodded.

‘Have you ever been to Nepal?'

Chapter 11

‘I'm sorry,' I said, blinking. ‘Did you say Nepal?'

‘I hope you will forgive me for not consulting with you first, but I took the liberty of asking my sister if she would consider having you live with her for a while. She does live quite far away in a remote mountain village. I cannot think of a safer place for you.'

‘Nepal?' I repeated.

He smiled. ‘She could train you if you'd like. The way you have always spoken of. She will even tie a log to your back and have you run up snow-covered hills.'

‘Don't you use my Rocky fantasies against me!' I suddenly shouted. ‘No way!'

‘It is remote, but—'

‘It's not that, Choden!' I said, shaking my head. ‘Look. I appreciate that you are trying to protect me. I really, really do. But I'm not hiding. Not from him. Not anymore. No way am I letting my father have that kind of power over me.'

‘He already does have power over you,' Choden countered in his gentle persistent way. ‘I once asked you if you thought you would ever be able to forgive your father. The question is more important than ever now.'

‘Okay, soon, this ice-cream is going up your nose,' I said, gripping my plate. ‘You just told me you think it's likely he's cooking up some twisted scheme to destroy me! Uh-unh. Is this why you and Ryder are kicking me out of the club? To keep me out of harm's way? No way. I'm not leaving. I plan to spend the rest of my life getting right up in his face. I don't care what he has planned.'

He smiled sadly. ‘You are not your father, Bremy St. James.'

‘I know that!'

He nodded.

‘No. I really know that. In fact, my life's goal is to be nothing like my father! That is pretty much the one thing I'm sure of.'

‘Which gives him a great deal of power in your self-definition.'

My mouth opened, but nothing came out for a moment. ‘You … you suck.'

He nodded. ‘I have been told that before.'

‘Really?'

‘No.'

I shook my head and slumped back into my seat. ‘I don't want to hide, Choden.'

He pressed his lips together before saying, ‘My desire is not to be cruel, but when it comes to your father, in this case your emotions may cause you, and others, more harm than good. Training with Ryder was certainly dangerous before, but now you are no position to protect others. You are the target.'

My leg bounced up and down as I looked around the diner. Suddenly my eyes flashed back to his. ‘What does Ryder have to say about all this? Why isn't she here?'

Something in Choden's face changed, but I couldn't read what it meant. ‘I assure you that Ryder is in agreement.'

‘Really?' I asked, licking my lips. ‘I want to hear her say it. To my face.'

‘I'm afraid that's not possible right now.'

‘So, that's it?' I threw my hands in the air. ‘That's all you're going to tell me? I'm afraid that's not possible right now?' I didn't expect an answer. I already knew I wouldn't get one. He wasn't going to tell me what was going on with Ryder, maybe, because he knew I couldn't handle hearing the answer.

He reached over again and touched my hand. ‘Think about it, Child.'

‘Nepal?' I repeated, my voice barely a whisper.

‘The mountain air is quite lovely.'

***

I spent the entire night dreaming I was running up a mountain covered in mouths with razor-sharp teeth. Nepal.

Choden wanted me to go to Nepal. I mean, what the hell? Nepal?

Don't get me wrong, part of me really liked the idea of devoting myself to awesomeness training, but it just seemed so
extreme
, and I was tired of being subject to my father's control.

But there was the fear to consider.

I was scared. Really, really scared. Scared for me. Scared for my sister. Scared for everyone who had come in contact with me since I had left home. My father was a puppet master at heart, and God only knew what he had already set in motion. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days I were to wake up chained to a bathtub with a hacksaw in reach. He'd probably make sure it was encrusted with diamonds just for, you know, irony's sake.

Choden was right. Loyalty was everything to my father. I was being completely naive to think he didn't have something planned for me. But then again, in fairness, I had been so completely irrelevant to him most of my life, it was odd to think I would actually be worth his time now. But then again, again, it really wasn't about me, was it? It was all about him. How could he dominate the world if he couldn't even get me, his own daughter, in line?

I couldn't just leave though. What about my life? My friends? Pierce? Jenny? I especially couldn't leave with things being the way they were with my sister. There had to be another choice between hiding, and waiting for my father to enact his twisted revenge. There had to be. Just then my phone buzzed on the toilet.

‘Hello?'

‘It's Tanya from The Pink Beaver.' Oh yeah, and then there was my job. How could I forget my job? Who'd give that up voluntarily? ‘You need to get your ass in here now.'

‘What?' I asked, rubbing my eyes. ‘I'm not scheduled to work today.'

‘Mr Raj wants to see you now. He's says if you're not here within the hour, then don't bother coming in at all.'

Suddenly mountain air did sound appealing. ‘Alright, I'm coming. I just n—'

She hung up on me.

Half an hour later, I was hurrying down the street, clutching my new eighties windbreaker tightly against the cold wind. Yes, it was horrifically ugly, but I had learned that there were more important things in life than fashion. Not freezing to death was one of them. Who knew?

Not even the cold, though, could stop me from thinking about my conversation with Choden.
Nepal!
kept flashing in neon pink in my mind. It was crazy, totally crazy. But it might get me closer to my goals. I wanted to be like Ryder. What better way than to train like her?

Ryder.

Suddenly my foot thrashed out and kicked a nearby garbage can. It made a pretty awesome metallic sounding clang. So awesome I kicked it again.

‘Hey!' somebody yelled.

‘Sorry!' I shouted back, before continuing on my way.

This was all Ryder's fault. Showing me what it was like to be awesome, and then cutting me off. Well I say, forget it. No way. It was decided. I wasn't going anywhere until Ryder told me face to face that we were done. Choden had been a little sketchy on the details of what was going on with her, and that did not sit well with me.

As I got closer to the street that would take me to work, I was finally distracted from my thoughts by the strangest sensation that had been building since a few blocks back. It was hard to put a finger on it, but something in the air of the city felt different today.

I stopped and focused my senses. Hmm. What was it? Everything looked downtown city-like. The alleyway I was currently in was definitely dirty, what with all the overflowing dumpsters. My eyes caught an old newspaper skittering along the pavement. Totally appropriate. I took a sniff. Yup, cat urine and rotten cabbage. That seemed right. But still, there was something … off.

Wait a minute! I knew what it was. Where were all the people? I did a quick scan in all directions. Hmm, no one but me, myself and I. And it was quiet … deathly quiet … except for … what was that? I cocked my head. It sounded like …
rushing
? Yup, definitely rushing, and, oh boy, it was getting louder. I looked up to the mouth of the alley. People. People running! All in the same direction!

What the hell was going on? I watched the people tear past the slice of space between the buildings. Were they running away from something?

I listened again. No Godzilla footstep sounds in the distance. That was good … and the people, they didn't seem panicked, really, just in a hurry. I took a tentative step forward. The few people still straggling behind didn't look scared, but this was definitely not normal human herding behaviour.

The thought suddenly occurred to me that I should probably go home. I didn't have good luck with strange happenings on city streets. Then I noticed a businessman, walking normally in the opposite direction of the way the people had been running. He didn't look scared. If anything, he looked kind of annoyed. So obviously death couldn't be
that
imminent. I bit my nail, racked with indecision. I
did
have to get to work, and work
was
that way. Really, it seemed silly not to at least go check it out. I watched as the number of people racing past dwindled down to nothing. The street at the mouth of the alleyway was completely vacant.