Dead and Gone - Andrew Vachss [119]
Finally, he looked up. “Tell me what you have so far.”
“Leave him alone!” Gem’s voice. From somewhere outside … me.
I shook my head. It wouldn’t clear. My eyes wouldn’t open, or I’d gone blind. But then my mind started to clear, and I realized my body would catch up—I’d been down there before. I concentrated on staying quiet, letting the air in my lungs bring me to the surface.
They were all standing around me in a loose semicircle. Only Lune hadn’t moved.
I took deep breaths through my nose, coming the rest of the way back.
Everyone watching could see it happening. Maybe they knew what they were seeing, maybe not. Maybe some of them had been there, too.
They all breathed in rhythm with me, helping.
I felt Gem’s hand against my cheek, her little thumb against the bullet hole, rubbing it in tiny circles.
My screen cleared. I knew where I was. Why I was there.
And where I’d been.
I turned to Lune. “You broke me out, brother,” I told him.
His eyes looked wet. Or maybe my own were still cloudy from the trip.
I told them the whole story, exactly as it had just flashed back to me. How the freak had stumbled into the trap I’d set and found out his “immunity” was as real as his “love” for little boys. I knew he went down, heard it was a pretty significant jolt.
“He fits either side of the pattern,” Lune said. “He might want vengeance for what you did to him. Or he might believe you would be coming after him, anyway, once you connected him to Darcadia.”
“Or both,” the Latina said.
“Or both,” Lune acknowledged. “He knows you are dangerous in ways your ‘reputation’ does not indicate. And he knows you have resources within law enforcement. This Wolfe … the prosecutor who—”
“She’s gone,” I told him. “Off the job. Fired for not kissing political ass. Wolfe wouldn’t be a problem to him.”
“The way you describe her, she sounds like a fierce woman,” Heidi said. “What does she do now?”
“She runs a private network. Mostly info-trafficking.”
Clint and Minh exchanged looks, but it was Levi who put it into words: “And she still has deep law-enforcement contacts, yes?”
“She does,” I admitted.
“And if she came across this Darcadia thing, she’d know who to take it to, right?” Clint asked.
“Yeah,” I said, seeing the tiles drop into the mosaic.
“This man knows you have a … relationship with Wolfe, as well,” Lune said. It wasn’t a question.
I just nodded.
“And he must have considerable resources. Indicated by several authenticated factors in addition to his financing of the assassination attempt. But the Darcadia project has already taken in …?” he asked, turning to Heidi.
“No less than twenty million. Double that would not be beyond probability,” the math girl answered.
“I got it,” I told them all.
And I did. It was a familiar song. I’d learned it as a tortured baby, and heard it the rest of my life.
What it always comes down to.
Them or me.
Just before we were ready to pull out the next morning, I went to see Lune. He was in the command center, working at his charts.
“Lune, will you do something for me?”
“I would do anything for you,” he said. “If it wasn’t for—”
“If it wasn’t for you, I’d be a walking target, stumbling around in the dark until they finally took me out,” I cut him off. “I know what to do now. That isn’t the favor.”
“Just tell me.”
“Tell me, Lune. Tell me about your real parents.”
“Why?” he asked, topaz eyes bright with something I’d never understand.
“Because, as soon as this is over, I’m going to try and find them for you, brother.”
And for the next couple of hours, I listened while the beautiful crazy man with the desperado’s searching heart told me all about his parents, who never were.
We went out the same way we’d come in. Not the same route, but with Heidi and the Latina pack-muling, while Levi led the way, his sniper’s eyes checking the path. Indeh trotted alongside, happy to be out working again.
Even though it was pretty much downhill, it was a good thing we had help lugging out our