Robert Crane - Alone

“Excuse me?” Ariadne stared back at me open-mouthed. “Did getting strangled cause you brain damage? Don’t you think that your house would be the first place Wolfe would try to re-acquire you?”

“Re-acquire?” I scoffed. “He didn’t acquire me in the first place.”

She looked at me with something short of astonishment. “He damned near did – if it hadn’t been for our agents showing up when they did—”

“No,” I said with a vehement shake of my head. Old Man Winter hadn’t shown the slightest reaction to our entire exchange. “By the time your boys showed up I had pumped Wolfe so full of tranquilizer darts he’d have had a hell of a time fighting off a grasshopper, let alone carry me away.”

“Wolfe jumped a ten foot tall fence to escape from Kurt and Zack,” she said, her jaw clenching. “Maybe you missed that too, since you were unconscious in a pool of your own blood when it happened.”

I rolled my eyes. I am a teenager; might as well fight like a one. “I want to go home – not permanently, but I have some personal effects I’d like to retrieve.” I turned an irritable gaze from Ariadne to Old Man Winter.

He stared back, still unblinking.

“No,” Ariadne said. “You’re far too valuable to risk Wolfe getting his hands on you. We have no idea who he works for, if he works for anybody – or what he wants with you, but it’s nothing good.”

“Ah ha!” I crowed. “So you do intend to keep me here against my will!”

“No,” came the quiet, accented voice of Old Man Winter. “If you want things from your home, perhaps we can come to an agreement.”

I looked at him. “I’m listening.”

He turned to Ariadne, who spoke in his stead. “We send agents to retrieve whatever you want and bring it back here. In exchange, you do the tests.”

I thought about it for a minute. “Counter-offer – and be assured, I’m not really offering so much as telling you what I’ll accept. You send your agents to the house to confirm it’s clear and I go in and get what I want and need, and we leave in five minutes or less. I do the testing after.”

“Are you suicidal?” Ariadne looked at me in amazement. “You know Wolfe will be there somewhere, watching. At least if we’re going to engage in this madness, let’s wait until M-Squad returns—”

Old Man Winter cut her off, soft voice firm. “They will not be back for some time. We will send agents – ten should suffice to scout and keep a perimeter.” He looked back to me. “Your terms are acceptable. Dr. Sessions will test you when you return.”

“No cutting,” I said to him, finding that this time his expression hinted at amusement, “nothing invasive, my hands will be free at all times, and don’t expect me to drink anything.”

He nodded once more and she bit back her response but shot him a look that indicated great displeasure. “Very well.” With a curt nod of her head that reminded me of a bow of submission, she backed toward the door. I followed her and cast a last look at Old Man Winter before I left. He stared back, unapologetic, watching, surveying, who knew what for.

The door closed with a soft click and Ariadne rounded on me. I could tell by the fire in her eyes that she was preparing to unload. “Stick it,” I told her. “Call me when your boys are ready to leave.” I didn’t bother to look back to see what reaction my words had caused. Well, maybe a little peek. Not sure why antagonizing her was so enjoyable; it wasn’t like she’d done anything to wrong me.

I was sitting on my bed a few hours later when I heard a knock on the door. When I opened it, Zack was waiting with a dour look. “Ready to get killed?” His expression did not show any hint of lightness.

I smiled, trying to lighten his mood. “I thought you guys were going to sweep the house and the area first to make sure Wolfe isn’t around?”

He gave me a kind of exasperated shrug with a marked exhalation. “Kurt and I get to sit in the car with you until we get the all-clear, but let’s not fool ourselves. If Wolfe’s strategy is to not be seen, he won’t be seen – until it’s too late. If his strategy is to take one of our guys and squeeze him until he lies and says it’s all clear, then that’s what he’ll do and we still won’t see him until it’s too late.” His eyes blazed. “Wolfe is the most dangerous meta I’ve heard of and it’s insane that we’re going into this without M-Squad for backup.”

“Have you guys run across him before?”

“Nope,” Zack said without emotion. “But one of our other branches did, and it ended bloody. Just like every other story in his file.”

I scoffed. “He’s not some invisible boogeyman. He has weaknesses, and he can’t be everywhere at once. Maybe he’s watching my house, maybe he’s not.” I stared him down as another possibility occurred to me. “Why couldn’t he be here, watching the Directorate campus?”

Zack’s hand crept up to his face, covering his eyes as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know that he’s not, but I know we stand a better chance of taking him here than in the middle of a South Minneapolis neighborhood. What could possibly be in your house that’s so damned important that you’re willing to risk your life and ours?”

I didn’t answer him. He shook his head and gestured for me to follow him, which I did. The truth was, I didn’t need anything from my house. When we got there, I was going to load up as many weapons as I could carry from the basement, but I didn’t really need any of them. And it’s not like any of my clothes were so amazing that I couldn’t live without them; nor personal items, none of it.

I wanted to go back because I thought Wolfe would be there.

I hated the way I felt after our last fight, that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about it – about how he beat me down, made me fear him. I wanted to run into him. This time I’d be ready. Mobility and agility were my weapons. I couldn’t beat him for strength, but I moved faster than him last time and if I hadn’t rammed my head into the iron wall of muscle that was his stomach…I think I could take him. I wanted to. I was faster than him, I knew it. Not by much, but enough. I just had to aim for the weak points – eyes, groin, kidneys.

At least it would be better than sitting around the Directorate for tests I didn’t really want to do, waiting for a mom who probably wasn’t going to show up.

I followed Zack to an underground parking garage where I found ten guys, all dressed in suits, carrying rifles and shotguns. Kurt was standing there waiting and he greeted me with a scowl and a grunt that bordered on rude. I waved coquettishly with a big, fake smile. “I should get a gun too,” I said as Zack and I walked up to their car.

“No,” they both chorused. I shrugged; I hadn’t expected them to say yes and I didn’t press the point. If I was facing off against Wolfe and needed one, I’d take it from an agent. When Wolfe showed, I knew I was going to have to move fast; I didn’t want any of these guys to die, after all.

We drove to a gate that opened for us, the entrance to the Directorate compound, which was surrounded by a high brick wall. I counted three security cameras without difficulty and I had a suspicion that those were for show; I would have bet the real cameras were much smaller.

We drove down straight roads in a convoy, empty fields of rolling hills on either side. After about twenty minutes we hit a major highway and followed it for another twenty minutes until we hit a suburban area replete with malls, stores and retail outlets. Another few minutes and we exited a freeway into an area of older homes that looked familiar. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was the same cross street where Reed and I entered the freeway a couple days before.