Page 81 of Heart and Soul
The road ahead is dark. I don’t mean dark as in no streetlights, I mean dark as in completely blank. A tunnel of black nothingness much darker than the moonlit sky.
“Elle told me they might do this. It’s a blackout ward. We won’t see, and we won’t be seen. Better for everybody.”
“What do I do?”
“Nothing,” Hillerman says from the passenger seat, checking the mag in her pistol, stuffing it into a crystal-beaded clutch bag. I feel an urge to check my own handgun again, but I’ve already done that twice since we left the house.
“Here goes…” Russo drives us straight into the blackness, and everything disappears—not just outside, but everything inside, too. It’s like we’ve just been blindfolded. I feel the seat next to me, relieved to find Jay’s arm. The car slows down, then takes a quick turn to the right.
“How are you doing that?” I ask. “Can you see?”
I hear Russo turn around in his seat. “I’m not doing anything. It’s driving itself.”
“Shayne, keep track of our location. Map it out in your head,” Hillerman says.
“No map needed. We’re only a block north of the ballroom. It’s right behind us.”
“We’re barely moving,” Russo notes. “Stop-and-go, like we’re in traffic.”
“A parking lot,” Hillerman suggests. “Waiting our turn for a spot.”
“It’s got to be at least two whole blocks they’ve completely cloaked, even from ourselves,” I say. “They’re really serious about keeping this anonymous.”
“Good for us.” Hillerman’s seat rustles. Her voice is now aimed back at Jay and me. “Last words. Remember that we’re supposed to be old money—filthy rich and obsessed with status—be sure to act like it. Don’t forget about the hundred-dollar bills I gave you. Tip generously and often. Understood?”
I flip through the stack of hundreds in my clutch. “Pass them out like candy. Got it.”
“We’re here to apprehend a target, any of the top three—Beyona, Tabitha Durran, or their necromancer, whoever that is. Let’s not get greedy. Their necro ring can only function with all three, so one’s all we need to break the chain. As soon as any one of us has got any one of them in custody, we get the hell out. Give me your hands. Feel that?” Into my outstretched palm she places something tiny and round, like a watch battery. “It’s a tracking device. Secondary objective. You see anybody or anything that looks important, you put that tracker on it. Sticks to anything, including clothes. If we can land one, we can track any of the worker bees back to the hive. Any questions?”
“What’s our exit strategy?” Jay asks.
“Good question. Exits are tricky in the best of scenarios, and this won’t be that. In fact, I think it’s fair you all know that I consider this to be one step above a suicide run. Demons and sorcerers working together means the entire building will be locked down and warded. Security will be everywhere, and they will be heavily armed. We can assume no cell phones allowed, so communication is out. There’s no backup, because we can’t trust anybody, even at the Agency. We are completely on our own, which means our exit strategy is simple. It’s Shayne.”
“Me? I don’t have any exit plan.”
“Not yet. But you will, or I wouldn’t be doing this. When it’s time for us to get out of there, we’re following you.”
“Geez. No pressure.”
The car comes to a stop and turns off. Russo and Hillerman step out and shut their doors. I hold Jay back. “Wait, Jay.” I feel around in the dark until my fingers find the bowtie at his neck. I straighten it.
“How do I look?” he jokes.
“Like ten million bucks.”
“Wow,tenmillion.”
“Every penny.”
“You okay?”
“That’s what I want to talk about. Where’s your hand? Let me hold it.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Just shut up and let me do the talking right now. I love you, Jay, but we can’t keep living like this. Looking over our shoulder, hiding behind wards. If we ever want to have any kind of life together, we’ve got to end this. You have to finish it, and you have to finish it tonight. Getting here almost killed us several times over, and we might never get another chance like this.”
“Babe, what’s up? Just say it.”
