The Man Who Crossed Worlds (A Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) Page 14

  I pulled myself up and ran to Tania. Blood poured from a gash across her forehead. Her eyes swam in her head, half-closed and not seeing. A not-insignificant part of me was terrified she’d kill me as soon as she was no longer stunned, but I had to take the chance. Other figures dashed through the smoke, ghosts on the edges of my vision, but I pushed all thoughts of them aside and focused on Tania.

  I caught her before she fell. My heart pounded as I lowered her into a sitting position. Her face was coated in blood, but I didn’t know how much was hers. She looked like a Vietnamese refugee, half-naked with only torn rags remaining of her clothes. I had no way to describe the guilt that crashed around inside my skull, upturning memories and breaking windows. God, why hadn’t I got someone to protect her? Why had I been so goddamn stupid?

  The track mark in the crook of her elbow was the proof of my shame. I didn’t want to see it, but now that I had, it was all I could see. The hole where the needle had made its mark was surrounded by swollen skin, swirling with color even as I watched. I reached trembling fingers to the point where the Chroma had entered her body.

  I knew this wasn’t a dream. My mind could never imagine something this horrifying.

  Her eyes snapped open. For a moment, I thought there was recognition, and then her face was filled with madness. Everything slowed down like I was looking down the barrel of a gun, and I knew without doubt that she was going to kill me.

  An arm appeared around Tania’s throat. Her insane wrath gave way to shock, her eyes widening and rolling in her head.

  Vivian pressed her arm against the arteries in Tania’s neck. Her hair was coated with dust, making her look like she’d aged a hundred years. Maybe she had. I certainly felt broken and crippled as a weathered skeleton.

  “Easy,” Vivian whispered in Tania’s ear. “Just go to sleep.”

  Tania was too weak to struggle. It only took a few long, horrifying moments before her eyes closed and she slipped backward, breathing heavily. Vivian embraced her as a mother does her daughter.

  Right then, looking at the two of them, I’d never felt more alone.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I wrapped Tania in my jacket and carried her out of the destroyed wine lounge, stepping among the bodies and debris. She was light as a ghost, and pale as one too. She didn’t move or talk in her sleep. I prayed the Chroma would be out of her system by the time she woke. I prayed it hadn’t fried her brain completely.

  The stairs at the entrance to the wine lounge were half-destroyed, so I climbed down first and let Vivian pass Tania down to me. I was too numb to think, to do anything except deal with the immediate practical matters. All my anger had been burned away. John Andrews and the surviving gangsters had fled to God knows where, but they’d be back.

  Crowds of Vei hovered around the streets surrounding the wine lounge, watching us leave. They parted as we moved through them, not speaking. The fear on their faces was obvious, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was playing rabbit and getting Tania the hell out of town.

  My shoulder stung like crazy where Andrews had sliced me, and my old jacket had earned itself a few new holes which I’d need to stitch up. My shirt was a write-off. Blood coated it—some of it mine and some not—and it had more tears than an orphaned child. Vivian had come out significantly less bloodstained, but she’d need to wash her clothes about a million times to get out the smell of burnt flesh. Whatever that wine lounge was made of, it sure as hell stunk when it got torn apart.

  We left the city on foot, crossing the same bridge we’d come in on. It seemed as good a place as any. Vivian and I didn’t say anything, but I think we both knew there was no point staying here. It was obvious the gangsters had been duped as thoroughly as we’d been. We’d find no answers. Not here, anyway. We were at a dead end, with emphasis on the dead. All that mattered to me right now was getting Tania to a hospital. Doctor Dee and John Andrews could go fuck themselves.

  Still, as I felt Tania’s shallow breath against my neck, I couldn’t help but let my mind drift into the darkness. Bluegate was in for a world of hurt. This whole situation had gone from firecracker to armed nuke. John Andrews and the other gangsters would be arming up for full-scale war. Doctor Dee had betrayed them, not telling them the havoc a Tunneler on Chroma would wreak. In the end, that basically amounted to attempted assassination. Gang bosses don’t generally take such things lightly. Blood would flow in the streets, and who knew how many innocents would be caught in the crossfire.

  And even if none of the gangsters Dee had tried to kill made it back to Earth, Bluegate would still have to deal with the influx of that deadly drug. If it drove normal people mad, the violence would be horrifying. If Tunnelers got their hands on it…

  I shifted Tania’s weight in my arms. She was too deep in her sleep to notice. What the hell had the Chroma done to make her so powerful? Just a couple of days ago she could barely manage a Pin Hole with half a bottle of Kemia. Now, with one dose of Chroma, she could punch holes in reality with no more than a flick of her wrist. It was unthinkable, and it made me shiver to consider what would happen when people who craved power more than safety started shooting up.

  Vivian’s face was blank as we walked. The day was cooling now as the sun-analogue dimmed in brightness, but streams of sweat rolled down her face, creating rivers in the dust. She stared ahead, looking at something beyond the strange landscape.

  “You thinking about how screwed we are?” I asked

  She blinked and glanced at me, as if she’d forgotten I was there. “This thing, this Chroma, the power of it…” She took a breath and rubbed a sleeve across her forehead. “This won’t stop at Bluegate. The other Bore Cities will start getting it as well. Before long we won’t be able to stop it. It will be everywhere.”

  Jesus. I hadn’t thought of that, though now she said it, it seemed so obvious. How many people would this thing kill?

  The thought of it was overwhelming. God, I was tired. I opened my mouth and let out a jaw-cracking yawn. I felt like I was going to drop down right there. Every inch of me ached, new bruises duking it out with old ones for the right to cause me the most pain.

  I needed a vacation.

  I found us a nice Tunneling location about a mile from the city, in a deserted patch of red dirt surrounded by tall, sharp rocks. It would hide the Tunnel from any passersby, and hopefully prevent a repeat of the journey here.

  I drew the circle in the packed dirt with a sharp stone, and hummed while I splashed the last of my Kemia on it. Vivian wasn’t as amazed by the opening Tunnel this time, and she didn’t appear afraid either. I have to admit, I was feeling a little nervous about getting back into a Tunnel so soon after my recent brush with being sucked into an interdimensional abyss, but Vivian didn’t seem to have any of my trepidations. Maybe she just didn’t care anymore.

  Despite my fatigue, I pulled open the Tunnel without difficulty, letting the familiar blackness leak out. Together, Vivian and I swung down into the Tunnel, and began the long journey back to Earth.

  The trip was uneventful. Vivian spoke as much as a gagged hamster, and to be honest I was grateful for it. Tania stirred once or twice, but never woke fully. Imagining the devastation she could cause if she awoke here, mad and infused with power, made my palms sweat.

  I didn’t know how I was going to explain this to her mother. If she was still alive. The thought sent a shiver down my spine. Ugly said they’d come by looking for me, and Tania had confronted them. What if Denise had been there too? What if she’d tried to stop them from taking her daughter?

  Denise was a fierce woman. The rumor in the apartment building was that she’d beaten her first husband—Tania’s father—half to death when he lost their savings on a poker debt, then attacked the gangsters that came to try to collect the rest of the debt. Ugly and Butch didn’t seem like the sort of guys to take resistance quietly.

  I shook my head like a dog trying to dry itself. I couldn’t let the thoughts take hold, or they’d des
troy me. I’d find a way to stop all this, to make everything right. I had to.

  We reached the end of the Tunnel sooner than I expected. I’d been so wrapped in my thoughts I hadn’t noticed time pass. Without a word, Vivian and I slipped out of the Tunnel and back onto familiar earth.

  It was nighttime. Clouds swept across Bluegate, obliterating the light from the stars and moon. A chill breeze cut through the air, and the air felt damp. Another rainstorm would be hitting soon.

  I’d decided to bring us back to Earth at my secondary Tunnel site. I would have been able to construct a Tunnel back to my apartment basement even if the circle was compromised, but I didn’t want to take the risk of someone nasty meeting us when we got back. I assumed it had been one of Andrews’ men who’d tried to collapse the Tunnel on us. I didn’t know how they’d worked out what we were doing, but it was the only thing that made sense. They knew where I lived—they’d proved that when they came poking around and snatched Tania—so I didn’t want to take the chance of our internal organs being replaced with bullet holes.

  I peered into the darkness around us, but all I could see were old steel beams and half-broken concrete. I could hear the low rumble of constant traffic and a siren blaring past in the distance. My secondary site was in an abandoned, skeletal construction site a couple of blocks from my apartment. It wasn’t ideal, since it sometimes got used as a hangout by teenagers playing at being gangsters, but it was invisible from the street and generally uninhabited.

  “What now?” I asked, the words sounding strange in the quiet night. Tania shivered, and I pulled my jacket closer around her. “We need to get Tania some help.”

  Vivian rubbed her eyes with her fists and nodded. “My car’s at your apartment. Are we close?”

  “Couple of blocks. This way.”

  We were back outside my building in a few minutes. There were no cop cars or gangsters around that I could see, and I relaxed a little. Maybe my fears about Tania’s mother were unfounded. I’d check on her later, but first we needed to get Tania to a hospital before she woke.

  While Vivian drove, I sat in the back of Vivian’s car with Tania’s head in my lap. I stroked her hair, more to calm me than her. The night rolled past the windows. It was eerily quiet, the stare-down before the fight. We were running out of time.

  Tania’s eyes flickered. Instinctively, my hand jerked away from her. “Vivian. I think she’s waking up.”

  Vivian glanced back, muttered something under her breath, and sped up. My heart thudded as Tania slowly opened her eyes. Crap. I was out of Kemia, and there was nowhere to run. If she was still crazy…

  Her pupils shifted size as she focused on me, and she frowned. “Miles?”

  Jesus Christ, I could have cried. Relief drained the tension from my muscles, and I suddenly found it hard to support the weight of my head. I heard Vivian sigh as well. Everything had gone wrong, but at least we still had this. She was all right, at first glance anyway, and it didn’t look like she was going to explode us. Given my luck, I counted that as a success.

  She tried to sit up, then groaned and put a hand to her temple. “I…What happened?” The jacket I’d wrapped her in slipped open. She yelped and clutched it closed. “Where are my clothes?”

  “You remember what happened?” I asked.

  She got fully into a sitting position, bent over at the hips with her head in her hands. “My head hurts.”

  “I know. You got hit pretty bad.”

  “Huh?” She was still pale, and she swayed a little as we drove. She scraped some of the dried blood from her forehead and stared at it, frowning. “What’s going on?”

  “Do you remember…Do you remember getting taken? The drug they gave you?”

  She frowned at her hands for a moment, then her eyes went wide and she stared at me. “I…There were people, monsters attacking me. I was so scared. They were everywhere, all around me. I had to defend myself. I held out my hand and…and I could see. I saw everything.”

  She clutched her head again, as if thinking too much hurt her. Anger overwhelmed my fatigue. How could those bastards have done this to her? I wasn’t looking to gangsters to be paragons of virtue, but this…

  I was surprised to find tears prickling behind my eyes. I blinked and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand before Tania noticed. I wasn’t no crybaby. I couldn’t afford to be. Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I touched Tania’s arm.

  “We’re going to get the ones who did this to you, okay?” I pointed to Vivian. “This is Detective Reed. I’m helping her on a case. Right, Vivian?”

  “Helping. Sure.”

  I glared at Vivian, but it didn’t help much because she wasn’t looking at me. Giving up, I returned my attention to Tania. “Some gangsters kidnapped and drugged you, but you’re okay now. We’re going to take you to a hospital, then we’re going to stop them from doing the same thing to anyone else.”

  Tania licked her lips and pulled my jacket closer around her. “I remember the drug. There was a little bottle.”

  “Like this?” I pulled the vial I’d taken off Ugly from my pocket.

  She stared at it for a moment, then looked away. “Yeah. Like that.”

  “Do you remember anything else about it?”

  She stared out the window for a few more seconds, then shook her head. “Sorry.”

  “That’s okay.” I had to admit I was disappointed, but I didn’t let it show on my face. She’d been through enough. Still, what I wouldn’t have given for a location to track this son of a bitch down and sic Vivian and Todd on him.

  We pulled into the parking lot of Bluegate Hospital a few moments later. It was the biggest hospital in Bluegate, with an undeserved reputation for being somewhat medieval in its practice. I’d been there once, getting treated for a couple of broken fingers I took when some kids rolled me for my wallet. I hadn’t seen a single leech. I was kind of disappointed, to be honest.

  The solidly-built triage nurse in the Emergency Department greeted us with a sour face and a clipboard. She glanced over at Tania’s attire, gave me a look that suggested I was at best a pedophile and at worst Satan himself, and began interrogating us.

  Vivian answered the questions in a quick, professional manner, much more politely than I would have done. Eventually, after much scribbling on forms, she directed us to take a seat and wait to be seen.

  Vivian gave a polite smile and nodded. “Thank you, Miss…” She glanced at her ID card. “…Davies.”

  “What?” Tania said, her face snapping toward Vivian.

  Vivian glanced at me, puzzled. “What what?”

  “Her name. Davies. One of the gangsters, I remember him saying it to the others.” She screwed up her face. “He was reading from a letter, I think. ‘Gotta be a fake,’ he kept saying.”

  Holy shit. The light bulb above my head could’ve blinded everyone in the room. I stared at Vivian, and she met my gaze, eyes gleaming.

  I shoved my hand in my pocket and retrieved the vial of Chroma. There it was on the label, “Dr. D”, written in the same cramped handwriting I’d seen earlier that day. I’d seen it on a dozen notebooks scattered about a room that stunk of ammonia. Jesus H. Christ. Why hadn’t I seen it?

  “Spencer,” I whispered, and Vivian nodded. “Spencer mother-fucking assclown Davies. He’s Doctor Dee.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Breakthroughs had one hell of a rejuvenating ability. I clutched the bottle of Chroma in my hands so tight it hurt and tried to work out which of the swirling thoughts I wanted to deal with first. My sleep deprivation was gone in an instant, replaced by a sense of determination that burned through my veins. I wanted to leap, I wanted to hug Vivian, but most of all I wanted to see the cops slap handcuffs on Spencer and haul him off to jail.

  A dim part of my brain remembered that I’d once considered the chemist a friend, or at least a business acquaintance, but I shoved that thought aside. He was a liar, that’s what he was. He’d hurt Tania. He could’ve kille
d her, goddamn it! And he was going to do it again and again. No, I had no qualms about seeing him banged up.

  “What are we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s go.”

  Vivian started to nod, but then her face dropped, and she touched her bottom lip with her teeth. “I’ll call Detective Todd. But…”

  “But? But what?”

  “You’re not coming.”

  It felt like she’d just offered me a million bucks then set it on fire. “What the hell, Vivian? I’m in this case as much as you. You think I won’t risk a little more danger?”

  I was getting close to shouting, but I didn’t give a damn about the stares I was attracting from the other patients. The triage nurse glared at me, and it took all my self-control not to scream obscenities at her.

  Vivian raised her hands in what she probably thought was a soothing gesture, and spoke in a quiet voice as if hoping that I’d follow suit. “It’s not the danger, Miles. You know Davies—”

  “So do you,” I said, waving my arms around. “The hell does that have to do with anything?”

  “Damn it, Miles, you’re not a cop, all right? I don’t know what Davies has got rigged up there. If Tania knows who he is, so do the gangsters. What if they show up? You haven’t got a gun.”

  “I’ve got my nightstick.” I pointed to my jacket, still wrapped around Tania. She was staring up at us with eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. She pulled her knees up to her chest as I looked at her, and I realized in my current state I must look like I’d gone twelve rounds with a brick. The shock and fear on her face cut deep, dulling my anger at Vivian.

  Vivian shook her head. “Someone needs to stay with Tania.”

  Tania opened her mouth, a pout already forming on her lips, but Vivian gave her a look that sent her jaws smacking back together. Why could I never get anyone to shut up like that?