Sidekick (6 page)

I grabbed the lip of the floor with my left hand and made a blind grasp for the railing with the right. Sickeningly, the movement forced me to lean away from the ladder, my back facing nothingness, and the railing was further than I thought. I stepped up onto the last rung of the ladder and made a full body reach. I was still a half an inch short. Seriously, did the Sultana have the wingspan of a pterodactyl? And who designed this ship? I had a sudden urge to beat up an architect.

“Hey! Look at that girl!” someone shouted from below.

Great, now I was performance art. I stretched even further, wiggling my fingertips towards the railing.

Then it happened.

I don’t know if I heard it, or if I felt the barest of shifts in my jacket—or maybe I was just getting used to the feeling that the universe was about to kick me in the metaphorical nuts—but whatever it was, something made me look down. There, half in and half out, of my jacket pocket was the wad of money Mr. Raj had given me.

It teetered…teetered…and then spilled out into the air.

Instinctively, I grabbed for it with the hand that had been holding the floor. My precarious balance shattered. My right arm pin-wheeled through the empty air. I used the last pressure I had from my tiptoes to launch myself towards the railing. My hand whacked a rung. I squeezed my fingers shut as my body dangled and swung in the empty air.

“Money!” voices shouted from below.

I spared a stomach-turning glance down. Hungry hands were shooting up into the air to snatch my helpless little bills from their flight.

I looked back and quickly swung my other hand to the rung. Missed. The pressure on my fingers was unbearable. I didn’t want to die. I really didn’t. But the laws of physics were in charge now. I couldn’t hold on for much longer.

My phone chirped.

I sent my sister a mental
I love you
. Maybe it was better this way. She would get over it in time. I wasn’t sure if I really believed that. I wouldn’t if the situation had been reversed. Still, maybe it was better she never knew the truth about our father.

Father
.

Rage washed over me. This was his fault.

A sudden jolt of energy shot through my muscles. I swung my hand again.
Got it!
Now I just needed to swing my feet over to the lip. I could do this. I could actually do this.

I swung my legs with all the core strength that I had, and my right toe caught the edge of the platform. It was enough. I wriggled my entire foot up. The weight was taking some of the pressure off my hands. Just a little more, and I’d get my whole body up.

Suddenly I felt a cold shadow move over me.

“Well, looky looky. Who do we have here?”

Chapter Six

I rolled my eyes up to the demented clown’s face.

I had lost focus and was dangling again. I still had a firm grip with both hands, but I didn’t have the strength left to even try to get my foot up again.

“Little help?” I wheezed as a gust of wind rocked my body.

The clown hooted.

Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying.

I decided on a new approach.

“My father…he won’t be happy if I die.”

I didn’t know if that was true anymore, but I had seen the way the Sultana looked at me in the bank. She had recognized me. Maybe the clown had too.

Sure enough, a comic look of concern crossed over his face.

“He’ll blame you,” I gasped out. “Look up. There’s a news-copter. It’s filming us. My father will know you could have saved me.”

Fake concern melded into disappointment as the clown reached a hand towards me.

Another gust of wind blew. This time it was strong enough that my left hand lost its grip. I looked frantically to the clown.

A smile spread over his face as he pulled back his hand. Disappointment had switched out with crazy-ass craziness. He didn’t care about the consequences anymore. He wanted to see me fall.

I felt my life sliding away in tiny fractions of inches. The fingers on my right hand were slipping. And here I had really thought I was going to make it. I had truly believed that Mr. Pushkin would get his money. Queenie would be my friend. Mr. Raj would find me a desk job that didn’t involve a furry thong. And I would make it in this mean city.

Then I was going to get Jenny.

I closed my eyes and saw her face. I hoped that one day, if she ever did find out about my father, this would all make sense.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

My fingers lost their grip.

A half-second of free fall sucked the air out of my lungs right before I was jerked from oblivion.

I snapped my eyes open. Yup, the view was the same, still up high, still a few feet from the platform, but I was dangling like a puppet. Something had me by the jacket. I tried to see what it was but air didn’t make for good leverage. I looked to the clown instead.

Oh wow, he did not look happy.

He had leaned over the railing to see what had happened. “You!” he said with venom.

Who? I thought. Who? Who?

“It’s my job to look over this city.” It was a strong feminine voice, accented, maybe something African, and coming from behind me. “I tend to notice when someone drops a ship on it.”

“Goodie! Goodie!” the clown said switching from anger to maniacal glee. “My mistress was hoping you’d stop by, Dark Ryder.”

Dark Ryder! Dark Ryder was holding me! This was awesome! Maybe Santa Claus was real too. Maybe I could ask her once she put an end to all this nasty business. Wait, how was she holding me? Could Dark Ryder fly? I had so many questions. Like, how—

“I can’t say the feeling is mutual. Now lay down your weapon.”

“Humpty Dumpty, don’t be grumpy. My mistress and I have a job to do that can’t wait.” The clown raised his semi-automatic. I could feel Dark Ryder tense, and I suddenly realized I could actually help her with this.

“Don’t worry!” I shouted. “The gun’s fake!”

And that’s when all the gunfire broke out. Bullets tore through the air. We would have been hit for sure, but something had knocked the clown off his feet, and the bullets went high. Before I could process any of it, Ryder launched me into the air in an arc, sending me up and over the edge of the railing. I landed hard on the wood floor of the small platform. I whirled around just in time to see the clown flying through the air. Well, he seemed to be flying for a few seconds, then he was falling over the edge of the ship. Hopefully he had some training in acrobatics.

I turned my focus back to my own surroundings to make sure I was safe…and that’s when I saw her.

Standing in front of me was six feet of pure female awesomeness.

It was a freeze frame moment. She stood tall, feet slightly apart, ready to fight. Head to toe shiny black leather glided over her muscled curves in an intimidating display of beauty and power. Her skin, almost as dark as her catsuit, gleamed in the dying sun while her flame-colored hair burned down to her waist in a long braid. Incredibly, her ice-blue eyes were even more startling than the rest of her. Contrasted against the dark of her skin, they were terrifying…almost alien. Hey, maybe she was an alien? If that reporter guy ever called me, I’d tell him to look into that. If I was still alive.

I struggled to find my voice. “How did you—”

Suddenly I felt movement behind me. We had the Sultana’s attention now. She looked nearly as fierce as Dark Ryder. She had dropped the boy to the floor of the deck above us and was readying her gun to aim.

Ryder stepped over me to the stairs without looking down. I felt a little like a mud puddle, but a happy, honoured mud puddle.

“Take one step more, Ryder, and I’ll shoot the child.” All of the Sultana’s flowery language was gone and I caught a glimpse of the woman hiding behind the character—a hard, deadly woman, who would do anything to survive. She slowly lowered the weapon to the little boy sitting cross-legged and sucking his thumb.

Ryder froze. “You don’t want to do that.”

“I have done much worse. It wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.”

“It might when I throw you over the edge of this flying nightmare.”

Dark Ryder spoke the words quietly, but the threat was palpable.

“Well, then, we’re deadlocked,” the Sultana said with a pout, channelling a character once again. “However should we pass the time? Maybe I could have my Pulcinella do some tricks. Oh, but I guess he had a flight to catch,” she said with feigned sadness, but she also flicked her eyes over to the edge of the ship, looking almost worried.

“Enough of these distractions,” Ryder said sharply. “I know your real game, Delilah. Where is the detonator?”

Wait. The what?

The Sultana smiled.

“I saw your people plant the bombs around the square, but I’m sure you wouldn’t let them have all the fun. The detonator. Where is it?”

And here I had thought the dark band was just causing chaos, but I could tell by the look on the Sultana’s face that Ryder was right. But why would she want to blow up the square? I was missing something.

The Sultana said nothing. She stared at Ryder, mentally weighing her options. Suddenly she leapt for the door leading into the belly of the ship and disappeared into its darkness.

Ryder chased after her in a flash, with me right behind her.

She stopped short. I stumbled trying not to slam into her back.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

What
was
I doing? Ryder was just so cool. I guess I wanted to be swept along with it.

“Oh…uh…sorry.”

“Stay here. Help the boy get to safety,” she said pointing behind me. With the Sultana gone, a supersized fire truck was making its move towards the ship, its ladder barely reaching the bottom of the deck.

Ryder was halfway through the doorway when she turned once more. “Don’t follow me,” she commanded.

Easy enough.

Don’t follow her. Right. Done. Only a crazy person would follow her.

And I wasn’t crazy.

A cute and very brave fireman came to the edge of the railing in his little bucket, and I thought nothing more than
Hmm
,
why not go for a ride with the fire-hottie in his little fire-bucket. Who knew? Maybe he had a thousand dollars stuffed in his pants from eager women wanting a calendar that he could lend me
. But as I lifted the toddler into the cab, I heard a loud crash come from inside of the ship. I turned but could see nothing.

I spun back to my fire-hero. He had the little boy tucked safely at his feet and a big yellow glove held out to me. I reached for him when an even louder crash sounded behind me.

I froze.

I suddenly knew what I had to do.

“I’ll catch the next one,” I said, then ran for the door.

Chapter Seven

When I saw the inside of the ship’s cabin, my first thought was
Holy crap this balloon is awesome
!

It was like some Bedouin tent from the seventeen hundreds. Dim windows filtered light through hazy air, rich with incense, revealing a lounge area furnished with oversized silk pillows and low-lying tables. This had to be their permanent hideout. Maybe they just floated around thinking creepy thoughts and smoking hookah pipes.

My second thought was that something about all this didn’t make sense. Make that a lot of somethings. For starters, how had they bankrolled this thing? It would take a lot of robberies to afford this puppy. Not to mention the fact that for all of her seductive and terrifying attributes, the Sultana seemed a little too whacka-doo to put all of this together. Something more was going on.

But right now, there were bombs to consider.

Just beyond a circle of tables, the Sultana and Ryder were facing off in the most beautiful pre-game show ever. Each had a completely different energy. The Sultana came off a little like a cornered animal, wild and dangerous, whereas Ryder’s calculated and controlled aura radiated deadly confidence.

Suddenly the Sultana picked up a glass lantern and threw it at Ryder. She dodged it easily.

The fight was on.

While I watched spectacular blow after spectacular blow unfold before me, I couldn’t help but wonder, again, exactly what I was doing here. Maybe I wanted to make sure Ryder was okay. After all, she had saved my life just moments before.

Yet here she was, totally okay.

The intelligent part of my brain that wears glasses and sits in a library by the fire was saying it was time to go, but my feet stayed planted to the spot. Probably because there was another part of my brain that liked to drive motorcycles and get tattoos. That side was still stuck on the fact that the Sultana was responsible for me losing, now, two thousand dollars. That part wanted to see the bitch who dangled toddlers by the ankle go down, and if I could help Ryder do it, well, that side liked it all the better.

“The show is over,” Ryder said with the certainty of a supernova.

“You can’t even begin to understand what is really going on,” the Sultana replied smoothly. “I deal in illusions. It is you who should be worried.”

Oh, I really hoped that this was the part where the evil villain spelled out her entire plan for no apparent reason.

Nobody said anything for what felt like a full minute.

Guess not.

Ryder held out her hand. “The detonator.”

“Come and get it.” The Sultana straightened her arms and reached towards Ryder. Thin snakes slithered down from her neck to her wrists.

I stood agog wondering where the snakes had come from, but thankfully, Ryder wasn’t so easily distracted. She snapped her right hand. A black whip lashed out and wrapped around the Sultana’s ankle. Ryder yanked it back, and the Sultana hit the floor hard.

“That was so cool!” I shouted. “But watch the snakes! It’s not their fault.”

Ryder’s gaze turned my way. There was a confused look on her face…and something else. It kind of looked like annoyance, but maybe she had bitten her tongue or something.

While Ryder’s head was turned, the Sultana managed to sit up, her snakes slithering off into dark corners. She bent her knees into her chest. Now, I was no expert, but it looked like she was about to kick both feet out at Ryder’s legs.