Page 12 (1/2)
TWELVE
Eve was right: liht down to it
Oliver drove fast, which was alar through the extres and seat belts and all the nice safety features that car manufacturers built in these days Vas, could they? Well, at least there were seat belts That was solanced over at her "Why not you, oraffected by this ," he said "An influence"
"I don&039;t know," Claire said "To be honest, I don&039;t knoe&039;re ier for some people, or if it&039;s just completely random But it could be that because eren&039;t here three years ago, it doesn&039;t affect us"
"Hannah Moses wasn&039;t here, either"
"Yeah, but she&039;s from here Maybe there&039;s a connection We&039;re both--"
"Outsiders," Oliver finished "Interesting I&039;ht not, for er," Claire said "It hit Myrnin sooner than Aht off the bat, and others days later I don&039;t think it&039;s following any kind of pattern Maybe we&039;re going to get it after all"
"Are you arlanced down at her backpack and instantly, instinctively held back "No"
"Lie to ain and I&039;ll put you out on the street and do this myself"
Claire sed "Uh, yeah"
"With what?"
"Silver-coated stakes, wooden stakes, a crossbow, about ten boltsoh, and a squirt gun with sorirenade launchers?"
"Would they work?"
"I choose not to comment Very well, I will take your crossbow Try to use nonlethal h disaster in this town recently Also, I assume you&039;re still fond of Myrnin, in soht be the case Well, she could understand that, from his point of view
"I won&039;t kill him," she said "But I&039;ll hurt hiy, except that if you hurt him, he will kill you, most likely So leave Myrnin to me You do your job, and this will soon be over" His voice faded as hehappen in his face, which was an eerie blue-white in the car&039;s dashboard lights She just wasn&039;t sure what it was "Get down, Claire"
"What--"
He didn&039;t tell her again, just reached over, grabbed her head, and pulled her sideways on the seat, then pushed her down into the wheel well
The windshield rattled, and all of a sudden there were holes in it, sunlight strea So had hit the car
Bullets had hit the car Oliver swerved the limousine and accelerated, but there was unfire The entire windshield fell out, and Oliversun
But he kept driving, until they hit so with a crash Above her, Claire saw a flash of white as she was thrown forward against the carpet
Great, the air bags had deployed, and she was in the wheel well But at least she hadn&039;t had far to go, and in fact, she didn&039;t think she was hurt at all, though there was soet free of his seat belt and the deflated air bag, but he didn&039;t uessed they cut the seat belt, or broke it, because they dragged hi, but their attackersaway
They don&039;t know I&039;m here, Claire realized, and stayed where she was, curled into a very small ball in the shadows under the dash Her backpack had slid off the seat and was next to her She carefully unzipped it and pulled out the sot out the bolts She did it very carefully, hoping the noise of the fighting outside would cover up any sound of what she was doing It rab her
She heard Oliver being dragged off, and finally risked slithering out of her hiding place to peek over the dashboard, out the sharp-edged hole where the windshield had once been
There were valoves Soly practical of the in the shade of a building
Amelie had an umbrella, but she didn&039;t carry it herself She had a minion for that Her umbrella, like all the others, was black, but the silk suit she earing was icy white, with hints of blue The color of dead lips, Claire thought, and wished she hadn&039;t A there, hands folded, watching as Oliver was dragged over and dumped at her feet
"I kneas you," she said She sounded viciously angry Claire could just barely hear her, but she certainly didn&039;t want to try to get any closer "think you wouldn&039;t be suspected? Such an obvious"
The wind kept blowing, and iton Oliver said so, and it ers and a couple of other varabbed his arms and raised him to his knees Claire couldn&039;t help but think hoildly all this had reversed First Amelie had been at his mercy; then he&039;d been at hers; and now she had hiain
That wouldn&039;t make Oliver happy Not at all
"Don&039;t spin your tales with me," Amelie said "I don&039;t believe ere ever" More wind, and Claire lost the words "co here You were invited, once You refused Now you think you can just cohed It had a raw, desperate sound to it Whatever he said then, Amelie drew back a step, and then she shook her head "Useless," she said "Take him to the cells I&039;ll decide how to deal with him later"
There ay tooany kind of rescue Oliver was clearly hurt, and she didn&039;t think he&039;d appreciate any Rambo-style heroics, anyway
But she&039;d just lost her chance to stop all this Without Oliver, she had al past Myrnin Unless Myrnin was more hi Oliver with the Claire and the shot-up limo where it sat, in the middle of the road She sat back and dialed her cell phone, but the lab nu Just as she was about to hang up, there was a click, and Myrnin&039;s voice said, "Hello?"
"Myrnin, it&039;s Claire Claire Danvers"
Silence
"Myrnin, do you knoho I am?"
More silence, and then Myrnin said, very softly, "My head aches"
"Myrnin, do you knoho I am?"
"Claire," he said "Yes, Claire I know you Of course I know you"
A feeling of hot relief made her just about ht hi for o down to the ht now"
"My head aches so Do I have to?"
"I&039;o now"
She heard noises that she assu through to the cavern, and then he said, "All right, I&039;m here Claire? Could you come here to help me? I really don&039;t feel at all well"
"In a o to the keyboard and enter the password you put on the system so we can turn it off Can you do that?"
"Password," Myrnin said "I don&039;t thinkI can&039;t remember any passwords with this headache Could you come help me?"
"I can&039;t until you do this Just concentrate Remember the password, okay? Put it in and then I can cohtI thinkit off now" She heard sounds of clicking, of what sounded like switches being thrown, and then Myrnin said, "All right It&039;s safe You can coe about his voice It wasn&039;t right "Myrnin? Did you turn it off?"
"Of course I did just as you asked Now coht, and Claire felt a shiver working its way up her spine "Myrnin, are any of the lights still on? Are you sure you turned it off--"
"Coht now!" Myrnin roared, and she was so shocked she dropped her phone and scrarown teeth "Come here, little Claire Juicy, sweet little Claire who thinks she can fool et your reward!"
Claire folded up the phone and ended the call She sat clutching the crossbow, feeling cold even in the sunlight
She&039;d never felt so alone, never Not even when she&039;d first coanville
She couldn&039;t stop this She was helpless Co and cried
Eventually, crying wore off, but the feeling of overwhel failure didn&039;t She kept the crossbow ready, just in case She thought she&039;d go to Eve, find herbut then she realized that although Oliver had knohere they were going, she had no idea where Eve&039;s house o back to the Glass House It see around, ry, or terrified She tried to avoid them, but sometimes they confronted her and wanted to knohere their wives, husbands, sons, daughters, moms, dads were Or what had happened to their houses Or their cars Or their jobs
She could have sworn so, running as if her life depended on it, and there was such a surge of pathetic hope when she saw the Glass House up ahead that she felt sick She unlocked the door and sla her head in her hands
It&039;ll happen to ht Maybe in an hour Maybe toet, too And when I do, nobody will be able to stop this
She felt a rush of war to respond to her misery She wiped her eyes and sniffled and said, "That doesn&039;t help Nothing helps"
But soh she kneas as useless as a hug during an earthquake She sucked in a deep breath and got up to go upstairs No Michael, of course Not yet And no sign of Eve, so she probably was at her parents&039; house, after all Her door was open, and her clothes were all thrown around It was impossible to tell whether that was panic or just natural behavior with Eve