Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls - Jane Lindskold [40]
Abalone considers this. “What do you have in mind?”
“I was thinking we could go out into the countryside, get Sarah to a place where she doesn’t have to be walled in but where she can go out of the house without someone identifying her as the Brighton Rock girl.”
“I’m not sure that she’ll be any safer,” Abalone objects, “and I’ll find hiding my tracks harder away from a city. Here I can go to any of a thousand places to link my computer—anyone traces me and they find a rented room or a closed office. Out there…”
As Abalone trails off, Professor Isabella nods.
“Perhaps there is safety in numbers. We’ll need to dye Sarah’s hair and she’ll need to wear contacts to recolor her eyes. We can’t take risks with wigs now.”
I strike a pose. “I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair.”
“I was thinking of red—a less-flamboyant shade than those that Abalone favors—it would go well with your coloring. Perhaps we can manage dark brown eyes.”
I nod, well pleased with the image. I had been disappointed that they hadn’t disguised me more thoroughly earlier—the romantic image of it enthralled me, but then I had heard Professor Isabella saying, “It broke my heart to have to hide her this way—at least at home she can be herself.”
But two days later finds me with auburn hair and dark brown eyes and red corneas. The cosmetic contacts that Abalone has brought me burn somewhat. She promises me that she will bring me other sets.
And then we go on living. Professor Isabella takes me to museums and as February moves into March, the Brighton Rock ads are withdrawn from the market. The candy stays on, however. Apparently, the ad campaign had been useful for something.
One afternoon, I am changing myself into the brown-eyed stranger in the mirror when there is a banging in the direction of the living room window. One contact in, one contact out, I rush into the living room, bumping into Professor Isabella.
As we are jostling to get through the door, Abalone, still scrubbing sleep from her eyes, steps into the room.
“Damn!”
She runs forward and shoves the window open. Two small figures fall into the room. I recognize Chocolate’s dreadlocks and hear Conejito Moreno cursing indignantly from the bottom of the pile.
“Peep! Chocolate!”
Forgetting that we are in hiding, I joyfully raise the boys to their feet, removing Conejito Moreno’s ears from beneath Peep’s foot and handing him to his friend.
Close to tears, the little Tail Wolf clings to me.
“Abalone! Sarah! We be of one blood, ye and I, and Madre de Dios, they have the Head Wolf!”
Her eyes widening and suspicion bordering her mouth, Abalone checks outside before shutting the window. Flicking the lock into place, she turns.
“Slow, Peep. Don’t flip. How’d you find us?”
“We look for two days, Abalone,” Chocolate says. “It not easy to find you, but we got lotta ears and eyes, but this no matters. What we here for is not friendly visit. They got Head Wolf.”
“They?” Professor Isabella asks, simultaneously with Abalone.
“Yeah,” Peep is shaking too hard to continue, so Chocolate fills in.
“They, the Home from where Sarah come. Two days ago. Come and get him with the police and all when he go to do some fix-up on the tromp the eye painting over the east Jungle entrance. Take him so fast that not even the Four can help. We come here ’cause Sarah know that Home, maybe she know why they want Head Wolf.”
“Shit!” Abalone has hooked up her tappety-tap and is fingering icons and pulling files. “Let me tap into the Home.”
Professor Isabella leads the frightened boys to the sofa and I go for coffee with lots of sugar and cream. As I pour and mix, I listen.
“What is the Pack doing about this?” Professor Isabella asks.
“Not much good,” Peep says. “Most of the lupos were sleeping when Head Wolf got taken—y’know the Law.”
“Why was Head Wolf out in the daytime?” Professor Isabella asks. “He’s usually fairly strict about keeping his own rules.”
“Some gang come and slash and spray,” Chocolate says. “The canvas need quick fix now and then Head Wolf was checking how much