The Dark at the End Page 17

  “They’re all fine,” she says. “I promise. Well, if not happy. I just spoke with Abby and Myka this morning.”

  I take a breath. “Okay. I want to take your deal.”

  That makes her turn, her eyes stabbing at me. “What? Why? Why now?”

  We drive past a little post office, and Liesel accelerates in front of a car waiting to pull out. I squeeze the edge of the seat. “I miss some of the work we were doing. It was the only time it was useful, this thing.” I dare to meet her eyes. “But mostly I need to get them out of there. That needs to happen first.”

  She makes a small sound of victory, and I can’t help thinking of the predator scenario again. “You’ll really work with us? You’ll agree?”

  I clench my fists on my knees. “I’m not going underground. Ever again. It needs to be up here.”

  She nods once, considering. “I need to talk to John. He’s…not exactly as rational as he used to be. I’ll talk to him, feel him out and see if this can work.”

  I frown. “I thought you were promising it?”

  She blows out hard. “With John, I can’t quite promise. Stay out here, with your girl, and I’ll talk to him. Though you need to know…there was an unverified report this morning that Gareth Smith is on the way here.”

  Jesus. “He killed Dr. Milkovich. Did you know that? Shot her point-blank in front of me, because I wouldn’t do something for him.”

  Again the look, searing. “Dr. Milkovich? Why was she…?” She sighs, as she figures it out. “No. I didn’t know that.” She shakes her head. “Jacob. Sometimes I’m sorry I brought you into all of this.”

  “Sometimes?”

  Her lips tighten again, and we fly around a corner. “Yes. Sometimes.” She pulls onto a side road, bumping on the dirt track, barely slowing down. I hang onto the door handle. “I’ll let you know after I talk to him.”

  She screeches to a halt. There across the road, parked in an unassuming spot next to a trailhead sign, is Rachel, in our car. I see her sitting behind the wheel, her face a white blur.

  “I wanted to prove the point that you can’t really run away,” Liesel says, low. “We know where you are. He knows you’re close. He could take you in any time if he wanted to force you again, now that you’re near. He’s waiting for you to decide to come.” She rubs one hand across the steering wheel, slow. Her hands are rough, the nails short, neat. Unpainted. “I’m so glad you’re willing to work with us. That’s all he wants, Jacob. Even if he’s bumbling it.”

  She meets my eyes. “I’m anxious to work with you too. That’s my ultimate goal. It always has been.” She smiles, a flash of white. “See, I’m being honest with you. It’s a new leaf.”

  I snort. It definitely is.

  And I’m…not being honest. I’m not going to work with her. I’m going to destroy the power just as soon as I can.

  It almost makes me feel guilty, right now.

  I slip out the door and across the road to Rachel. She starts the car—ready to run, I guess—but I go to her window instead. She rolls it down, her eyes wide and deep in the shadows. “How did she find me?” she asks.

  I shrug. Lean through the window and kiss her, hard. It’s not romantic. It’s connection, a lifeline when you might be drowning. I pull away, rest my hand on the sill. “It’s done. I agreed. We’ll find out what he says.”

  39

  JAKE

  Had a Dad by Jane’s Addiction

  When the pager goes off and we come back to the meeting spot that evening, Rachel really doesn’t want to leave me there alone. We sit in the car, staring out at the trees.

  She leans her head against the headrest. “They proved they know where we are anyway,” she says. “There’s no point. Besides…I want to see what’s happening. What if your dad comes here? I’ve never even seen him.”

  I laugh, involuntarily. “When you see him, promise you won’t kill him with your mind.”

  “If I could do that,” she says lightly, one hand twisting her hair, “Don’t you think I would’ve by now?”

  “Point.”

  I wonder if I would, if that had been my power. Would I be able to kill my father, cold blood, after all he’s done? I don’t think so. I couldn’t even kill Smith. I should have.

  “Please,” I say. “If anything goes wrong, I need you to be okay.”

  She shakes her head, touches her lips. They’re red, still, from kissing. “I did this twice already. I don’t need you to protect me while you go out into the danger. Like you’re a knight and I’m the damsel.”

  “Not the reason.” I cup her beautiful chin in my hand, kiss her again. Lean my forehead on hers. “They want me, is all. Want what I can do. Simple as that, even if they’re wrong that I will help them. And if it all goes to crap, you’re the only one left. You’re our safety net. We may need you to rescue us.”

  She sighs, blowing my hair. “I hate it. But if anything happens…”

  “I’m not going away. I’m right here. I’m just talking to her. But if they try something, I’ll take the serum. Then they can’t use me anymore. So they can’t keep me.”

  “Oh God,” she says, eyes on the mirror. “She’s coming.”

  I pull away, hop out, and lean over the door. “Go now. Fast. Check back in an hour or two.”

  She nods and revs the engine. I slam the door and she jumps forward, Dedushka-style. I think maybe she picked up some of his driving.

  Before I can take another breath two cars pull up, two black Buicks. One in front of me, blocking the way, and one behind. This feels wrong. She was supposed to be alone, like before.

  I want to run, but there’s no escape. Liesel steps out of the car behind, with two soldiers in desert camo, guns at their sides. Two more soldiers get out of the front car.

  I get a hollow feeling in my gut. I know why there are soldiers, and it isn’t good. I take the vial out of my pocket, and hold it in my hand.

  Dad steps out of the passenger side of the front car. He looks the same as always, in casual military gear, his hair newly buzzed short. Eyes the same as mine. He stands there with his hand on the door handle and looks me up and down. I can see the disappointment from here.

  “Liesel?” I say. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re here to talk, Jake,” she says. “To discuss the deal.”

  I watch Rachel’s taillights go over a hill in the distance, swallow, and step forward.

  “Dad.”

  He stares at me for a long time, his jaw clenching, then shakes his head. “No, Jake. I can’t do it.”

  Liesel makes a noise behind me.

  “No,” he says. “I thought I could, maybe, but this—?” He waves at the trees, the road. The sky. “This is ridiculous spy stuff. I thought you would’ve outgrown this kind of thing. You want to work with me? You want Abby and Myka safe? That’s what I want too. You be straightforward and come in and work with me.”

  “That’s not the deal.” Dammit, my voice is shaky. “You let them go, and then I’ll work with you. From out here, not underground. Liesel said—”

  “Liesel is not running this project!” He shouts it, and the silence after is complete for a full thirty seconds before the birdsong trickles back in.

  “John.” Liesel steps forward. “Don’t be a fool. Listen.”

  “I’m done listening!” His cheeks are dark now. “You betrayed, me, Liesel. You were communicating with him behind my back.” He half-growls. “Don’t you see what you did, Jake? You set Gareth Smith after us. He’s got some sort of tracker on that boy—he has to. He’s heading this way. You think I’m going to let Abby and Myka, or that boy, or you…” He spits it. “…Out here with that lunatic stalking us? You’ve exposed two bases to him now, Jake. You’re ruining me. And I’m done with it.” He gestures to the soldiers, both sides. “Bring him in.”

  I hold up the vial, and pop the top off. “Stay back or I’ll take this. It’ll stop my power for good. Then what will you have?”

  I hear L
iesel gasp. Dad stops for a second. Then he shakes his head. “You won’t. You can’t live without your power.”

  I stand there for a heartbeat, deciding. But that’s all it takes. I can live without it. I will. There’s too much at stake.

  I drain the red liquid in one gulp. It tastes like battery acid, searing my throat all the way down. Sweet battery acid.

  There’s a swarm of soldiers. I’m surrounded, pinned with my hands before my back, before I can speak or move again. I can fight, though. I’m tired of people forcing me. I shove, and kick. I resist with every inch.

  And find myself face down in the dirt, handcuffs pinching my wrists. Dad’s shoes in front of me. Hands haul me up again, and I stare straight at him. “I won’t work for you now. Ever again. I won’t ever be able to tunnel again.”

  He grunts. “We’ll see about that. And in the meantime, Gareth Smith won’t have you. I’ll keep all of you safe, whether you appreciate it or not.”

  “This is wrong, John,” Liesel says. Her arms are crossed, her face pale. “This is not the way. This is not what we agreed to. And if his power is gone…”

  “Shut up, Dr. Miller. I will speak with you later.” He gestures again and the soldiers wrangle me into the back seat of his car, one on each side of me. He gets in the front and another soldier drives, turning us around in the little space and heading back the other way. To the base. To underground and stale air and handcuffs. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t let this happen, not ever again, but Smith and Dad—they keep taking choice away from me. Ripping rights away from me. No matter what I want my life to be, they can only see that one thing. Me as a pawn. The power. The tunneling.

  Thank God I don’t have that anymore. No matter what he thinks now, it’ll change everything.

  *

  The base door creaks up slowly, way slower than it seemed when I watched it open for Dedushka. No armed soldiers rush out to take us. No need. I’m already trapped, pinned in the car between them. When the door snaps to the top we drive straight in and down a slope.

  Inside is a vast room, not tall—restricted by the size of the hill, after all—but wide, and deep. There are lots of jeeps parked here, and even a tank and a helicopter on a flatbed truck.

  This place has to be multi-use. There’s no way Dad needs, or ever needed, a tank.

  There are about ten soldiers, some at attention and some just eyeing us. All with guns, in desert fatigues. We pull to the side and park, and the soldiers open the door and yank me out. I taste the air. Stale, cool. Underground. My feet don’t want to step away from the car. My hands twitch, an echo of the trembling they used to do underground.

  It’s temporary, I tell myself. They can’t use me now, and they’ll find that out soon. This is not for good, not ever again.

  I want suddenly, desperately, to see Myka, to make sure she’s really okay and he hasn’t done anything to her. To hug her whether she wants it or not, even if she’s mad at me for all this. To get her the hell out of here.

  And Lucas, too. He deserves a real life.

  I struggle every step of the way, while Dad watches. In the end the soldiers drag me down the hall, my hands still cuffed behind my back. Just like old times. I don’t see Liesel anywhere now. I wonder if she did know he planned this all along, in spite of her protests, and she just delivered me. If she did, she’s a fantastic liar.

  Wait, I knew that.

  Damn.

  They throw me into an actual cell, with bars and everything. One of the soldiers looks side to side, to make sure no one is watching, before he kicks me, right in the ribs. He must not have liked it when I bit his hand, I guess. Dad’s already gone.

  I choke and double up on the floor as they slam the bars. Close my eyes to shut out the fluorescent lights, the white, bare walls.

  I knew something like this might happen, true. I’m not as dumb as it seems right this second. But I thought at least if he decided to strong-arm me here, I’d be with my family. With Mom and Myka and Dedushka. And Lucas. And then I could figure out a way to get us ALL out of here, together. While Rachel was the back-up plan outside.

  I never thought he’d throw me in a cell by myself. Like a real prisoner.

  I wonder if that asshole soldier broke my ribs—it hurts like a mother—but after a while I move, sit up, and I can breathe okay.

  I’m alive, I’m not shot, and my ribs aren’t broken. These are the only things right now I have to be happy about.

  There’s plenty to worry about, though. Chief on my list right now is Dad’s comment about Smith. If he’s really got a tracker on Lucas, and he’s close, we’re in for a shitload of trouble. I’m not too worried about us here at the base, protected by a zillion soldiers.

  But Rachel’s out there on her own. And Smith has already used her to “encourage” me once. I know he’ll do it again.

  I’ve got to get me and everyone else out of here fast, and deal with Smith. He can’t find Rachel when she’s alone.

  And then I collapse to the floor, suddenly not able to breathe.

  “Help,” I gasp. My chest is caving in, squeezing tighter and tighter, like one of those big snakes is around me. I sit forward, trying to get air. My head is fuzzy, blurred around the edges. I can’t talk anymore. The serum. There’s not enough oxygen. Not enough room, in this tiny pinprick I’m trying to pull air through. I panic, gasping, and my head explodes with pain, worse than all the headaches I’ve had before…

  The fuzziness spreads, and all I can see is black.

  40

  RACHEL

  Two Against One by Danger Mouse & Danielle Luppi

  Jake’s gone. I saw the two cars in my rearview mirror, instead of one. That had to be bad. And when I came back, nothing. He’s been taken again.

  I’m really kind of tired of this happening. So you know what? I’m going to stop this whole cycle.

  It’s not the best strategy anyone ever came up with. It’s pretty simple. I prepare an account of everything that’s happened—not Vlad or the serum, but all the things to do with DARPA and John—and I write it in emails and letters to a whole ton of news organizations. Then I wait. If I don’t hear back from Jake in 2 days, I send them all at once.

  It’s the same idea, roughly, that Myka had to get Jake out of Montauk, if she needed to. But exposure is the only threat we have anymore. I’m out here on my own, with no way to fight against a big military organization except the only way military organizations are ever brought down: the press.

  Some newspapers and TV stations will ignore it, I’m sure. It sounds crackpot. But hopefully some won’t. It’s got lots of intriguing tidbits, including secret bases and menacing military groups throwing their weight around. Someone will be interested. It’ll be a big story.

  The most important bit right now is that I stay hidden, waiting, so they can’t come take me too. It was scary when Liesel knew where the car was, where I was.

  This whole thing is terrifying, no lie. I always thought I wanted to be in government, since Social Studies in 8th grade: poly sci major at Berkeley, volunteering as a campaign aide, getting elected to the Senate…all that’s in the long-range plan. But I never understood the power of the government before all this. The reach. Some days I think I should be an English major instead. Study Shakespeare. Or history, maybe. Something not dangerous or scary in any way. Stay far away from D.C. and all that I know happens there.

  Some days I want to be elected President so I can stop at least a little of the bad stuff from happening.

  Now: hiding. My thought is to stay near the car, but not in it, since they seem to be able to find it pretty easily. I found a nice piece of woods on the outskirts of town on the other side of the base, parked the car as far under the trees as I could, and then walked away from it. Far enough up the hill that no one who found the car would see me, not right away. But I can see the car. I sit on the leafy ground, my back against a cedar tree, my legs stretched out. The bark is itchy against my neck, but it smells fragrant
, relaxing. It reminds me of the old cedar chest my grandmother had at the foot of her bed. Her hope chest, she said.

  I have hopes too, but they’re nothing like any my grandmother ever had.

  I close my eyes, the sun dappling my face, and listen to the woods. Birds arguing, wind blowing through the tops. A creek trickling off to my right, somewhere. It’s hot, the middle of the day. Thank God there aren’t any ants. If I let my mind drift, I could almost imagine it’s a normal peaceful summer afternoon, that maybe everything’s going to be okay. It’s hard to picture darkness and cold and underground from here.

  But that’s where they all are, the rest of them. My new family. I still don’t know what Dedushka was thinking, giving himself up like that. Lucas. Myka and Abby.

  Jake. I didn’t actually see him taken this time, but I knew it was happening. I drove as fast as I could, far away. And then I pulled over and threw up in the bushes.

  I rub my belly, still empty, still upset a little. I was crazy to get into this, and maybe I was crazy to stay. But I have no choice now—there’s no running home. I’m the only one left in the sunlight, and I can’t let them down.

  The low sound of an engine cuts off the birds. I sit up, lean forward to see through the trees. Another car, a long blue one, pulls in behind ours—mine—and stops. The sudden silence when the engine is turned off is oppressive, pushing at my ears. I keep low, still watching as the door opens. It’s a tall man in a suit, though I can’t see his head. He stands aside, and someone else gets out. This suit is light gray. The new man leans on the car door, but I can still only see up to his arms.

  “It is the right car. They must be nearby,” he says slowly. “Search the woods. Find them.”

  A chill shudders through me from head to toe. I know that voice. It comes in my nightmares, along with the feel of a knife splitting my cheek.

  Gareth Smith.

  I stand, and run.

  41