Lesser Gods (47 page)

“Why not?”

“Because no Guardian phantom is going to help you without Mr. Baker’s explicit permission, which he will definitely not give.”

“How about Mr. Jenson?” I suggested. “He owes me.”

Technically, Mr. Jenson owed Alia much more, but I did pull the bullet out of his gut, after all.

“He’s a former Angel, Adrian,” Terry pointed out. “We don’t know if he really came here to find his son. How can you trust him?”

“That man risked everything to come here. I can trust in that.”

“It makes no difference,” said Terry, shaking her head. “Mr. Jenson is locked downstairs with two Knight sentries.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Only two?”

“Two very capable sentries,” Terry said seriously. “And you won’t be able to pull a stunt like you did last year when you busted me out of jail. We don’t have any official business to go down there in the first place, so they’ll be on their guard the minute we show our faces. And even assuming we manage to neutralize the sentries without anyone hearing, it would still take some time to convince Mr. Jenson to help. The sentries get regular calls from the command post, and if they don’t answer, someone’s going to come down to find out why.”

I looked at Terry unhappily. “You’re just one big bag of ‘no’ today, aren’t you?”

Terry shrugged. “I’m telling it like it is, Adrian.”

I wasn’t going to give up easily – or at all for that matter. There had to be a way in. I closed my eyes, and Terry kindly gave me a minute of silence to think it over. To my own surprise, I really only needed one minute.

“Alright,” I said slowly, “then I need you to find a way for Mr. Baker to secretly discover that I know that Cat is here. Think you can do that?”

“What for?” Terry asked in surprise. “We already agreed that we don’t want Mr. Baker to know about your sister.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want Mr. Baker to know that I know that he knows that I know that Cat is here.”

Terry gave me a blank stare. “Say that again.”

I did, and then I waited patiently for Terry to figure it out. Terry asked uncertainly, “You mean you’re going to use Mr. Baker?”

“No,” I replied, grinning. “He’s going to use me. Laila’s mother may not know the details of the Council’s plan, but as a member of the Council, she knows many of the Guardians’ other secrets. From Mr. Baker’s perspective, I’m definitely the safer bet because he thinks I’m as clueless as Mrs. Brown about the plan to kill Number Two. And being Cindy’s son, I’m just as good a reason for Mr. Baker to send a retrieval team into the Angel camp.”

Terry shook her head. “Mr. Baker would never deliberately risk you again. Not with Cindy waiting back home.”

“He would if he thought he could claim ignorance later,” I said confidently. “Mr. Baker is painfully pragmatic. He’s even worse than you, Terry. He’ll accept a calculated risk. If he knows that I know that Cat is here, and also thinks that I don’t know that he knows, then he won’t be in a hurry to stop me. Quite the opposite. He’ll
want
me to do something rash. As long as he could be rendered blameless, Mr. Baker would secretly help me make the crossing.”

Terry still looked skeptical. “You really think he’d do that?”

“I’d bet my left ear on it, Terry. If he knows I want to turn invisible, he’ll give me some official business with Mr. Jenson or find some other way to get another phantom to help me without making it look like the order is coming from him.”

Terry laughed. “Like I said, Adrian, you really are completely insane.”

“But it’ll work.”

“It
might
work,” Terry reluctantly agreed. “But you’re walking a razor’s edge here, Adrian. I never knew you to be such an optimist.”

I chuckled. “Optimism is a last resort when there’s no realistic plan.”

“Hold that thought,” said Terry, walking over to the door and deftly turning the lock and knob at the same time.

Alia tumbled into the room.

“How was your shower?” asked Terry as she roughly pulled Alia to her feet. “I see you dried your hair well. In fact, it’s hard to believe it was ever wet at all.”

“You forgot to change, too,” I said, telekinetically gathering Alia’s towel and nightclothes from the corridor floor and dumping them over her head. “How much did you hear?”

Alia closed the door and replied meekly, “Everything.”

Not knowing about the Guardians’ plot to kill Number Two, Alia probably hadn’t understood all of our conversation, but she had understood enough. “You’re going to risk your life again, Addy?” she asked with a worried frown.

I nodded. “She’s my sister, Alia. Just like you. If you were over there now, you know I’d go get you back.”

Alia’s frown deepened. “I know that, Addy. I just don’t want to lose you again.”

I knelt down in front of her and gave her shoulders a squeeze. “And I hope you won’t. But we all do what we have to.”

“Then I’m going too,” she said.

“Not this trip,” I said firmly.

Alia looked like she was about to protest, but I quickly said, “Believe me, I’d take you if I thought you’d come in handy. But I’m going in blind and possibly escaping by air. For once, I’m afraid you’ll just slow me down. Listen to me just this once. Please.”

“But I want to help you, Addy.”

I smiled. “Good, because I’m probably going to need you to bail me out again. And these aren’t dumb Slayers we’re dealing with this time.”

Alia, after a moment’s pause, nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Serving time for the evening meal was almost over, so the three of us rushed over to the kitchen motorhome to grab our dinner trays and then hurried back to continue our discussion. I glanced over at Laila’s camper on our way back to the office building. Had Mrs. Brown already told Laila about volunteering to be captured by the Angels? The curtains were drawn in the camper. I wondered how Laila was taking the news.

Back in our room, we ate quickly.

When we finished, Terry said, “We still need a real plan.”

As far as I was concerned, the best plan was always the simplest plan. “Well, if you don’t mind playing double-agent again, Terry, you could just straight-out tell Mr. Baker that you overheard me talking to Alia about this. If he trusts you enough to ask you to be beaten to a pulp, no doubt he’ll trust you to keep his secret on this too.”

“Fair enough,” said Terry. “Conveniently, I actually have a meeting with him and the Council later tonight and I can probably get him alone for a minute or two.”

“You’ll have to make sure he knows that I want some time alone with Mr. Jenson.”

Terry frowned. “The real problem is getting you out.”

“Meaning?”

“Like you said, Mr. Baker thinks you’re clueless. He won’t consider you a security risk, so chances are he won’t be in a great hurry to retrieve you once you’ve crossed over. Instead, he’ll take his time to get his Knights extra organized to raise the chances of successfully pulling off the hit on Number Two.”

“That’s not good,” I said. The longer I stayed in the Angel camp, the greater chance I would have of being caught and delved.

“It’s not good at all,” agreed Terry. “We’ll need to make sure that we can push Mr. Baker into acting when we need him to.”

I glanced at my sister. “Mr. Baker is a politician. All we need to do is push him politically. Alia will do it.”

“How?” Terry and Alia asked in unison.

In response, I grabbed a pencil and tore a sheet of paper out of Alia’s drawing book.

“What are you doing, Half-head?” Terry asked impatiently.

“I’m writing a secret note to Alia,” I replied. “After all, she has a right to know where I’m going.”

Watching me rapidly line the paper with little black dots, Terry ventured, “Braille?”

“Alia can sight-read Braille,” I reminded Terry. “When the time comes, she’ll tell Mr. Baker about this note. Because nobody else here can decipher it, Alia will have to read it aloud in front of all the Guardians. She’ll conveniently forget she’s telepathic.”

“What does the message say?” asked Terry.

Alia, looking over my shoulder, read aloud, “Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.”

I laughed. “You don’t actually read the words written here, Alia. This is just for show. I don’t want to write anything real on this paper in case someone finds it and actually does know how to read it. But when the time comes, you’ll pretend it says something like, ‘I’m going into the Angel camp to find my sister.’ If you read it in front of all the Guardian witnesses, Mr. Baker will have to send in his team immediately or risk Cindy thinking he deliberately left me in danger.”

Alia looked uncomfortable. “I’ve never talked in front of a large group of people before.”

“You’re not about to freeze up on me, are you?” I asked, looking carefully into her eyes.

“I’ll be fine, Addy,” Alia said determinedly.

“Good.”

“Just one thing, Adrian,” Terry said warningly. “Even if we publicly force Mr. Baker to send in his team, you’ll still be a secondary objective. The team will want to take out Number Two first.”

“I know that,” I said calmly.

“Then do you know that the Knights may be destroyed or have to retreat before they get to you? Just because Mr. Baker sends in the Knights is no guarantee that they’ll actually rescue you. What then?”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

“Fair enough,” said Terry. “How soon do you want retrieval?”

“That’s tricky,” I said. “I’m planning to go during your fight tomorrow. I don’t think I can bear to watch you deliberately lose to an Angel anyway, so I’ll leave you in Alia’s capable hands. Besides, Cat will probably be left behind in the Angel camp again, so that’s my only real window of opportunity. If I’m not back by, say, half an hour after the battle, then I’m going to need fast retrieval.” I smiled and added, “With any luck, I’ll be back with Cat well before that.”

Terry rolled her eyes. “With any luck, Adrian, you’ll just barely avoid being killed again.”

I shrugged. “I’m sure that’ll be fun too.”

Wanting to check up on Laila, I offered to return our dinner trays. Alia asked to tag along, but I refused. Levitating the stack of trays and dirty dishes in front of me, I left Alia and Terry in our room and quickly stepped out of the office building.

The sun had nearly set, and I could hear angry shouts and taunts beyond the motorhome barrier, punctuated by the occasional gunshot fired into the air. I knew it was mostly steam-blowing, but it still rattled me every time a shot rang out. Afraid that I’d lose my telekinetic focus, I gave up levitating the trays and carried them in my hands.

Once I was free of the dirty dishes, I doubled back toward Laila’s camper. The curtains were still drawn, and I hesitated to knock on the door. After all, I didn’t want to interrupt an important private conversation.

I knocked.

Mrs. Brown opened the door.

“Adrian?” she said, looking down at me. “Where’s Laila?”

“She’s not here?” I asked.

“She went to see you after dinner.”

“Oh,” I said. “How long ago?”

“A few minutes.”

“I must have just missed her. I was returning our trays. Laila’s probably in our room with Terry and Alia by now.”

Mrs. Brown smiled, but only her mouth. “I’m sorry, Adrian, but I told her not to stay out late tonight. This isn’t New Haven, after all.”

“I understand, Mrs. Brown,” I said. “I’ll walk her back.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Brown said stiffly, and closed the door.

I found Laila standing by herself near the office entrance, staring down at her feet.

“Laila?” I called softly.

Laila turned slowly. “Adrian...”

As Laila lifted her face, I noticed that her eyes were red and puffy. Suddenly I felt really uncomfortable: I had never before seen Laila in tears.

I stepped up to her and gave her a weak smile. “By the looks of it, you had a pretty rough talk with your mother.”

“Please don’t ask,” said Laila, putting her forehead onto my shoulder.

“It’s alright,” I said gently as I put my arms around her. “You don’t have to say anything.”

I certainly didn’t want to admit that I already knew, and Laila had obviously been strictly warned not to tell me. That was fine. Laila felt bad enough. I had no need to pry.

“I’m really sorry, Adrian,” said Laila, her voice cracked. “What my mother told me... I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

“It’s alright,” I said again. “You don’t have to tell me.”

I held her close as we wandered our way back into the parking lot. I didn’t want to return Laila to her mother just yet, and Laila certainly seemed in no hurry herself. Our feet eventually found our way over to Cindy’s sedan, where we sat side by side on the hood. Laila didn’t say anything, and though I was quite used to that from Alia, with Laila I strongly felt the urge to fill the silence.

A sudden burst of machinegun fire made me flinch violently, and I saw Laila jump a bit too.

“Some gathering, huh?” I said weakly.

Laila nodded. “Some gathering.”

Suddenly Laila turned to me and said, “I’m really glad that you came, Adrian. To this trial, I mean.”

“You said it yourself, Laila. Good guys don’t hide,” I said quietly. Then I grinned, adding, “Besides, you’re forgetting that I’m a Guardian Knight. I live for this kind of thing.”

Laila shook her head. “I know you better than that, Adrian. You’ll never really be a Guardian Knight.”

“Terry seems to disagree,” I said.

“Terry just sees what she wants to see. You don’t buy into this awful war. You don’t fight for ideals. You only fight for people.”

Laila might have been accusing me of being unprincipled, but I took it as a compliment anyway. I understood why she was so upset with her mother today.

Laila wiped her eyes and smiled at me. “I think that’s why I like you so much.”

“I sometimes wondered,” I mumbled. “I could never figure out what you saw in me, Laila. Especially after I went blind. Not that I’m complaining. I love being with you. But why me? There must be plenty of cool guys at your school.”

“No one like you, Adrian.”