Christa Faust: Fringe The Zodiac Paradox

“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz! Oh, what a relief it is!”

More shuffling noise, then May’s calm voice replaced Gary’s.

“Knock it off, Gary!” she said. “Sorry about that, Nina.”

“No problem.” Nina clicked off, then keyed in again. “Okay, Leslie, find a bathroom. Just get to your location as quickly as you can.”

“Roger,” Leslie said. “Over and out.”

Behind them, Walter saw the white passenger van peel off and take a left at the next street.

“We shouldn’t be splitting up,” Bell said. “It just multiplies what can go wrong.”

“Like herding cats,” Nina said.

Two blocks later, a red light stopped them. Walter looked out his side window and found himself staring at a cop in the next lane. The officer was an older man, with a thick salt-and-pepper mustache and aviator glasses, sitting in the passenger seat of a cruiser and talking with his partner, who was driving. Walter nearly jumped and drew back, but forced himself to move slowly, so as not to draw their eye.

He leaned back in his seat, hiding his face.

“Don’t look, but there are police next to us,” he said out of the side of his mouth.

Nina and Bell looked anyway, then turned back.

“Crap,” Nina said. “He’s looking.”

“Green light,” said Bell.

Nina nervously hit the gas too fast, and they surged forward. Then she eased off, and drove up the street with her hands white-knuckled on the wheel. Walter angled his head to look in the rear-view mirror. The cruiser was easing in behind them, putting itself between them and Kenneth’s Volkswagen bus, and the cop in the passenger seat was talking on the microphone.

“That’s it,” Walter said. “We’re sunk.”

“What should we do?” Nina asked. “Abort?”

“Keep driving,” Bell said. “Nice and slow.”

Another block of agonized crawling, with Walter’s fists clenched so hard his knuckles creaked, and finally the cop in the passenger seat nodded to the driver, and the driver flipped a switch. With a whoop that made all of Walter’s hair stand on end, the siren and lights came on, and the cop’s voice came through the cruiser’s megaphone.

“Please pull to the side and turn off your engine.”

“No way,” Nina said. “We’ll never talk our way out of this and even if we could, there’s no time!”

“But...” Bell began.

“Sorry, baby,” she said.

Nina stomped on the gas just as the light ahead of them was turning red and roared across the intersection to a cacophony of blaring horns. The cruiser leapt after them, but had to swerve and brake in order to avoid crashing into the crossing cars.

It was through in another second, but Nina had bought them a block and a half lead.

Walter put a hand to his chest. He could feel his heart thumping through his shirt, like an angry prisoner protesting unfair treatment.

Bell was clutching the door handle and the dash to stop himself from being thrown around.

“You’re out of your mind,” he said. “You can’t outrun the cops. It never works in real life. Never! Especially not in a goddamn Volkswagen Beetle!”

“Maybe not for long,” Nina said. Teeth clenched, she barreled through another red light and kept going. “But hopefully long enough. I have an idea.”

“Oh, God,” Bell muttered.

On the seat beside her, the walkie-talkie was a confused clutter of voices. Kenneth’s nasal whine won out in the end.

“What the hell was that?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

Nina snatched up the walkie-talkie, driving onehanded as she barked into it.

“Kenneth!” she said. “May! Listen to me. Don’t do anything stupid. They don’t know any of you guys. Just keep driving up Market. Act normal. I’ll check back in with you all as soon as I can.”

“Are you sure?” May asked.

“No,” Nina replied. “But do it anyway, will you?”

“Well, okay,” Kenneth said. “If you say so...”

He didn’t sound so sure. This could all go to hell at any moment. There were too many factors, too many variables.

Walter looked back. The police car was swerving through another intersection, and gaining.

“What are you going to do? What’s this ‘plan’?” he asked.

“Shut up,” Nina snapped. “I’m working on it...”

Bell hissed as she narrowly missed a car in an oncoming lane. Nina cried out so suddenly that Walter flinched, afraid they were about to hit something, but she was pointing excitedly ahead. Walter looked forward, following her gesture.

Down a long green mall that angled due west on the north side of the street, he could see the domed neoclassical massiveness of San Francisco’s city hall. And in front of it, what looked like a massive throng of people, all waving signs and banners.

“Perfect!” she cried.

She tore onto the next side street, Grove, which bordered city hall on the south, and roared toward the edge of the crowd that was spilling out of the plaza and into the street. Walter could make out some of the signs now. In fact, they were becoming clearer by the second.

Transportation Workers on Strike!

We Want a Living Wage!

Bell’s feet stomped the floorboards as if he could work the brakes from the passenger seat.

“What on earth are you doing!” he asked.

“Losing our tail,” Nina said. “I hope.”

41

Walter looked behind them. He didn’t see how it was possible. The police car was fishtailing after them into Grove, only a block and a half behind. There was no way Nina could lose them, when they had line-of-sight on her.

“Okay,” she said. “Be ready to get out. And don’t leave anything behind. Sorry, Nitida.” She patted the Beetle’s dashboard. “But we won’t be coming back.”

Bell looked incredulous.

“We’re getting out?”

“Stay if you want,” Nina snapped. Her foot was still all the way to the floor. “But I’m not coming to visit you in jail.”

Walter gripped the seat back.

“Nina,” he called. “Look out!”

Several seconds beyond the last possible second, Nina stomped hard on the brake, sending the car into a screeching skid that stopped just inches from the shrieking, scattering crowd.

“Out!” She grabbed the walkie-talkie and shouldered out through her door. “ Out!”

Walter and Bell threw open their doors and staggered out as Nina ran around the car and hooked arms with them.

“Into the crowd. Come on!”

Walter looked back as he followed her, and saw the police car skidding to a stop right behind her Beetle. The two cops spilled out, guns raised.

Nina raised her voice.

“Don’t let the pigs through, brothers!” she called. “They’re here to bust up the protest!” The crowd roared and seemed to fuse into a single, solid organism behind her as she dragged Walter and Bell through it and across the plaza.

Bell looked over at Nina, face lit from within with admiration and other, more complicated emotions.

“That... that was brilliant.”

She shook her head.

“Not unless we get to the park, it isn’t.” She raised the walkie-talkie and clicked in. “Kenneth. Are you there? Have you reached McAllister yet?”

“Uh...” A long crackly pause. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, take it when you reach it, and keep an eye out. There’s a protest going on at City Hall. A lot of traffic and a lot of people. When you arrive, look for us.”

“Uh, okay.”

“What about me?” It was May’s voice.

“Just head over to the park on your own, May. And just stay calm. We’ll meet you there.”

“Roger.”

Walter pulled up short, hauling the others back.

“Cops!” he hissed.