Firewall (Magic Born) (4 page)

Chapter Four

Tuyet left a tiny, dormlike room in the Magic Born underground and grabbed a quick breakfast in the kitchen. She ate while talking to Zinnia, a young midwife who grew up in the FreakTown zone with Calla and worked with the underground. After letting Zinnia press one more biscuit into her hands, Tuyet headed for the clinic. The secret rooms once used to hide people being transported through New Corinth and on their way out of the country had been repurposed since the ordinance. One of the larger spaces now served as a secret clinic for the Magic Born trapped inside FreakTown. Medicine was strictly rationed in the official zone clinic, and with off-zone jobs a thing of the past for residents, another point of access was needed. The underground smuggled in meds as well as food and other supplies. Tuyet and her nighttime raids also helped.

The clinic was also where infant formula was distributed. The small room was full of parents holding babies. Some of the children slept peacefully while most were awake and occupied in a makeshift play area. A few were crying and fussing.

Vadim Bazarov paced with a baby in his arms, lightly bouncing the child as she continued to fuss. The tightness around Vadim’s eyes told Tuyet it had been another sleepless night for the newly adoptive father. She weaved through the crowded space and smiled at the sight of Vadim and his daughter.

“How is sweet little Danika today?” Tuyet rubbed a finger across a tiny hand that peeked out from a lavender blanket.

“Full of evil,” Vadim said. “An evil that’s green and smells of some forgotten corner of hell.”

Tuyet clucked sympathetically. “Is she sick?”

“She’s three months old. Apparently they’re all disgusting at this age. It’s the liquid diet, I guess. Nothing but foulness in her diapers.” He made a tortured face. “As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lizzie made me clean the kid’s nose out this morning. I’m never eating again.”

“Poor tough guy, brought low by a ten-pound girl.”

“I don’t know why I let Lizzie talk me into this. Calla did just fine growing up in the orphanage. So did Zinnia. I’m not allowed to smoke in my own home anymore. What kind of tyranny is that?”

“Did you sleep at all last night? You’re verging on manic.”

“We slept in shifts. It’s Lizzie’s turn to nap right now. That’s all we get anymore, naps. Gods. We’ve had her for two months and I still can’t believe we did this. I’m too old for this nonsense. I need my rest.”

Tuyet couldn’t hold back the grin any longer. “You’re loving every second of this, aren’t you?”

The new father winked. “Don’t tell anybody.” He shifted the delicate bundle to his other shoulder. “Hey, good job bringing in that formula. Nate told me what happened.”

Tuyet’s smile faded. She’d postponed the inevitable conversation as long as possible, maybe too long. While grabbing a quick shower in the underground dorms, she’d decided what to do. Now for the hard part—getting Vadim to accept it.

“We need to talk.” She looked around for a more private area.

“That sounds ominous. What’s up?”

She led him to a quiet corner, carrying two folding chairs. Once settled, sure the baby was finally asleep, she leaned her elbows on her knees and stared at the floor. “I have to leave town.”

“The hell you say.” Vadim’s anger was evident despite the softness of his voice. “What’s going on?”

“Someone found me. It would be best for everyone if I just disappeared.” Tuyet sat up and met his gaze.

A vein throbbed in Vadim’s forehead. “You know I want more detail than that. Cut the cryptic crap and tell me what happened.”

“I came home this morning and my old commanding officer was waiting for me. I got away but that apartment is burned as a hiding place and he’s determined to find me again.” Something inside twinged at the loss of the apartment but she ignored it.

“How did he find you?”

“No idea. I’d like to know that myself but not bad enough to chat with him over coffee.”

“What’s he want? Does he think he can take you in?”

Only three people in New Corinth knew she’d been in the Magic Rangers. Of those three, Vadim knew the most, but she’d still been sparing in what details she shared. He knew there were charges against her for escaping.

Desertion, they called it. As if she’d really had a choice about joining in the first place.

“I don’t know what he aims to do. I didn’t stick around to ask.”

Vadim was quiet for a long moment. Gently, he stroked his sleeping daughter’s back. It amazed Tuyet to see such gentleness and devotion from him, but at the same time it seemed to fit.

“You told me once about a man you knew then,” Vadim said. “That he loved you, so he let you go. Is this him?”

An image of Hayes flashed behind her eyes.

The streetlight threw shadows in the dark alley.
Her breath fogged in the cold
,
icy pellets hitting her skin and slicking in her hair.
He shivered in just a shirt
,
having given her his heavy coat.

“
We’re almost to the pickup point.
Can you make it?
”

Exhaustion pulled at her.
All she wanted was to curl into a ball and sleep
,
but they had to keep going.
She nodded
,
not having the energy to speak.

With no warning her legs went out from under her.
In her confused state
,
she thought she was falling
,
but then she realized he’d picked her up.

She found her voice.
“
You can’t carry me.
”

“
I’m the team leader.
That means I get to do what I want.
”

She knew she should argue
,
refuse to be carried and get to the pickup point under her own power.
But he was warm and safe and smelled of sandalwood and now all she wanted was to curl up in his arms and stay there.

How many times had he shown her favoritism? Usually just in little ways, things no one else saw. Sometimes things only witnessed by Gibson or Halif. They were always careful around Channing.

Tuyet shook her head to clear out the memories. Briefly she considered lying to Vadim, dissembling some vague nonanswer. But then she asked herself what would be the point, and answered truthfully.

“Yes.”

“Your commanding officer?” Vadim wore a slight smile.

“Team leader, whatever. Yeah, he was the one who let me go.” Not that she’d given him much choice. Basically it had come down to who was willing to shoot the other. Tuyet cringed inwardly at the memory.

“So why’s he here now? If he was willing to let you go then, it doesn’t make sense that he would want to arrest you now.”

The same thought had plagued her since walking out of the apartment. She couldn’t fathom an answer. “I don’t know. It’s been three years. A lot can change in that kind of time.”

“Did he seem inclined to slap cuffs on you?”

“He said he wanted to talk.”

Vadim raised his eyebrows. “And how did you respond?”

“By knocking him out with a stun blast.”

“Well. Okay, then.”

“Look, if he’s here something is going on. I know too much about the underground. He can’t bring me in.”

“You don’t even know if he wants to bring you in.”

“Why else would he be here?”

“I’m not gonna call you an idiot, because you could break me into little pieces, but I am going to think it really hard in your direction.”

Tuyet swallowed a flash of anger before speaking. “I don’t know what he wants. There’s no reason to think he’s here for anything other than an assignment to bring me in.”

“Are you sure about that? Really sure? Seems to me like you should at least talk to him before leaving town.”

“I can’t afford to let him find me again. I have to leave as soon as possible.”

“Damn it, we need you.” The baby made a soft noise in her sleep and Vadim froze. Danika settled and he resumed slowly rubbing her back. In a much quieter voice, he said, “You’re in a unique position, Tuyet. Our allies are mostly Normal. You and Jason are the only Magic Born we have on the outside.”

Jason Beckwith, Calla’s secret brother, used his family’s wealth and influential name to help the Magic Born as best he could. He had also become a fairly decent trancehacker under the tutelage of his sister, Vadim and Tuyet. He’d never be as good as them, however. He simply didn’t have the same level of talent.

What he did have was money and his name. “Jason is a huge help,” she said. “I’m sure he’ll continue to be so.”

“Everything he does is appreciated, by the few who know. And by the ones who just know someone out there is helping. But you—you have some very specific skills that we badly need. You can go places he can’t. You can do things he can’t. We need you, Tuyet.”

“What am I supposed to do? Tell Hayes, ‘Hey, do you mind not arresting me?’ He found me once. He won’t stop looking until he finds me again. I can’t put the underground at risk.”

“And if he’s not here to arrest you? Do you even want to know, or are you too fu—” Vadim stopped himself. “Are you so eager to walk out on us that you’ll take any excuse?”

Tuyet had to grit her teeth for a moment to keep from yelling. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You were a sojourner. You never stayed in one place long enough for people to recognize you. Always on the move, hiding behind glamours half the time. Until the ordinance passed and FreakTown became a prison. You promised me you would stay and help us. You promised.”

The New Corinth city council had passed an ordinance forbidding Magic Born from leaving the zone, the only law of its kind in the country. Before the ordinance, FreakTown had been like most zones. Plenty of people either worked at low-paying jobs off-zone or sold wares in the bazaar, an outside shopping area now closed. The ordinance changed all that. Economic turmoil and general unrest weren’t confined to the zone. The entire city was sitting on a powder keg, ready to explode.

Tuyet had made a promise, and it was one she’d kept diligently since. With her fake Normal ID, she was able to go places the rest of the Magic Born couldn’t. Under cover of night and glamours and through secret tunnels was the only way the witches confined to the zone could see the outside of it now. Since the ordinance, there were fewer of those tunnels still open, and the ones left were old and dangerous. One of her regular jobs was to strengthen the enchantments that kept them hidden from Normals. Vadim was right about the difference between her skills and those of Jason. She had done good work to help the Magic Born, but there was nothing she could do from inside a cell.

“I don’t want to leave,” she said. “This is probably the closest thing I’ve had to a home. I hated Gehenna.” The laws governing the zones had all been the same until the New Corinth ordinance, but that didn’t mean the zones were all exactly alike. The Cleveland zone where she’d grown up had a well-deserved reputation as a nasty, scary place. She would have died there an addict if her talent for electric magic hadn’t brought her to the attention of a Magic Ranger scout.

She’d never talked to Vadim or anyone else in New Corinth about that. Only Hayes knew.

Vadim sighed. “It’s true we need you. But you’re also my friend and I don’t want to lose you. Find out what he wants, see if you can throw him off your trail. Maybe convince him you’ve left town, or you’re only passing through. I don’t know. I’m tempted to say kill him but what with you being in love with him and all, I guess that’s not really an option.”

Was she really that transparent? Vadim knew her too well, and she didn’t know how to feel about that. “I never said I was in love with him. I said he loved me and that’s why he let me escape.”

Vadim made a skeptical noise. “Right.”

“Did you really stop yourself from saying the
F
word because of your sleeping baby?” Any change of topic sounded good to her.

His lip curled. “Lizzie made a swear jar. I have to write it down and put it in the jar every time I swear in front of Danika.”

Tuyet smiled. “You have money to pay for all the foul language out of your mouth?”

“It’s a barter economy these days. I either have to forfeit sexual favors or change diapers at Lizzie’s discretion. As you can imagine, she always picks the diapers with a demon in them.”

Tuyet had to cover her mouth to keep from waking the baby with her laughter.

Vadim said, “Look, I don’t want you to endanger yourself. Or the underground, for that matter. If there’s any way you can stay, that’s my preference. But we’ll all understand if you have to go.”

Tuyet stood, gazing at the baby. “If it winds up I have to leave, I’ll contact either you or Calla in a chat room and we can make sure you’ve got any information I have that you need.”

“Can you do one more thing? Something’s coming in Friday night.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “Surely someone else can handle it.”

“Not according to the message I got last night.” He moved closer and dropped his voice to barely above a whisper. “It’s a box of tech. Your kind of tech.”

Magic tech. Either stolen or illegally imported. Silver Wheels had finally come through on her request. Whatever was in that box would be a huge help to FreakTown, and they would need it. Especially if she had to run. “Okay. I’ll handle the pickup, get the stuff ready. I’ll have to teach someone how to calibrate and use it.”

“Calla already volunteered for that, so she and Nate will go with you.”

Tuyet raised her eyebrows. “I’m surprised you’re not going.”

Vadim kissed his sleeping daughter. “You’d be surprised how much one little thing can change your outlook on what constitutes acceptable risk.”

She nodded. He had a hell of a lot more to lose these days. Whereas she had nothing to lose, as always. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you.” He held out his hand.

After a moment’s hesitation, she took it. Neither of them were sentimental people; they couldn’t afford to be. No tears, no long speeches. It wasn’t necessary. He was one of her few true friends. She could read it all in his eyes.

She turned and left before he could see the tears welling up in her own.