Wings to the Kingdom (Eden Moore 2)

“Yes. I don’t care how, but get them not looking into the park. If everything goes well, you’ve got a scoop. ”

He caught on quick, and his eyes went big. “You guys can’t go in there. You’ll get killed. I think I’m in enough trouble already here. ”

“Wasn’t your last investigative piece for Channel 3 something about fainting goats? Wouldn’t you rather report on something important for once? And hey, if nothing works and we all wind up dead, it’s not on your head—and then you definitely don’t have to worry about me coming around to beat you senseless for dragging Jamie into this. So help us out here and redeem yourself. ”

Nick looked out into the darkness beyond the flashing lights and intermittent buzz of police radios. He looked back at me, and whatever he saw in my face, he believed. With something like resolve, he picked up his microphone and turned his head hard to the left, then hard to the right. I heard a small cracking noise.

He shifted his shoulders. He fixed his eyes on a spot on the other side of the street. “You need distracting bullshit? All right. Watch this. ”

Nick raised the microphone like a banner and yelled, “Bobby! Bobby! Holy shit, Bobby, check that out!”

Bobby must have been his camera guy tonight, because an overburdened fellow carrying a camera the size of a small suitcase lurched to attention.

“This way!” Nick shouted, and took off running towards nothing in particular. “Hey you! Stop right there!”

What followed looked like the media version of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Every information-greedy reporter—horrified at the prospect of being second to the story—immediately leapt into a gallop, tearing after Nick, who was following his microphone as if it were a divining rod.

All the police paused what they were doing and stared; then a few began to make an uncertain chase.

Through the chaos, I sought out Benny and Dana. Our eyes connected. We weren’t going to get a better chance. So we took it.

Off past the cars, and around the nearest ambulance, and into the grass we charged—finally meeting up together in the midst of the first open field. Behind us a couple of people called out, but whether they were talking about us or whatever Nick was doing, I didn’t know and I didn’t look to find out.

“How do we get back to the Tower from here?” Benny panted, fumbling for his flashlight switch as he ran. We were getting far enough from the headlights and flashing siren lights that we were starting to have a hard time seeing.

“Where’s the road?” Dana asked.

“We should hit it at any minute,” I said, hoping I remembered correctly. “If we follow the road, there’ll be, um, there’ll be a turnoff to the right. But not for a while. ”

The fog was rising around us, coming in close up against us. It was not the perfect dense blanket it had been during our last rampage through the park, but there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t be blinding within an hour. Since Benny had the least-detectable light, Dana and I let him take the lead. We fell into a flight pattern behind him, slowing to a jog as we all began to wear out.

The grass whipped at our legs, and sometimes our thighs, and occasionally it slapped us around the middle. It was too tall to even wade through—it felt like swimming through a tide of reeds or a very dry swamp.

“Slow down. ” Dana was the first to suggest it. “Jesus, slow down. I can’t keep this up. I can’t, I can’t. ” Her sentiment petered out, but we got the gist anyway. I knew she hadn’t been sleeping, and she was older than us besides.

“Right,” Benny agreed, but then he abruptly went facedown and hands-down with a cracking clatter.

“Benny!” I tripped over him, but caught myself before I stepped on his hands. He’d fallen over the edge of the road, at the startling hard place where the pavement strip began and the ocean of grass ended.

“I’m okay! I’m okay!”

“What was that sound? What the hell did you break?” Dana asked, dropping to her knees beside him out of concern or exhaustion.

“Nothing—it was the light. It’s okay though. ” He retrieved it and knocked it against the road. “See? Army surplus, remember? You could run over this thing with a truck. Ow. My hands. ”

“Let me see,” I said, taking the one that wasn’t holding the light. “Let me look. ”

I flipped on my own light and aimed it at his hands, where raw, red scrapes marred the bottom of his palms and one set of knuckles.

“Ow,” he complained, pulling away from me and wiping the ooze on his pants. “It’s okay. I’m okay. A little Bactine and I’ll be good as new. And hey, look—I found the road. ”

“That you did, my lad. Well done. ”

“How far do you think it is to the Tower from here?”

“Not far,” I mumbled. It had to be the better part of a mile still, if not farther. “But I bet we can use the regular light for a while. I don’t think we’re within shouting distance of it yet. ”

Dana didn’t say anything to contradict me, though she must have known better. “Does it strike anyone as strange how quiet it is?”