Chapter 108: Sitdown
In the end, Lena and I put on parkas, snow pants, and gloves. She kept her cowboy hat but supplemented it with a pair of fuzzy earmuffs. My ears felt instantly better after I covered them with a snug wool toque. Best of all, though I hated to admit it, we traded our soggy shoes for new, thick woolen socks and waterproof boots.
Lena stretched in hers. “I finally get why you’re so into your parka.”
“Told you,” I said.
“Once we make it big, I am definitely buying myself one of these.” She did a twirl, testing the feel of her new gear. For a second, she grinned. It didn’t last. “How well do yours fit?”
“They’re okay.” All of the snow pants felt baggy, and I’d had to choose between an uncomfortably tight parka and the one I’d opted for, which hung too loose. Frankly, though, it wasn’t any worse than the one I’d bought myself back in Denver; when you see a parka in a thrift store, you don’t quibble over sizing. “Why?”
“‘Cause mine,” Lena said quietly, “fit great.”
I furrowed my brow. It took me a second to follow her train of thought, but when I did, I gulped.
She raised her voice. “That a coincidence, Gerry?”
He shook his head. “Prolly not.”
“That’s messed up,” Lena said.
“You want clothes that don’t fit?” Gerry glanced back at us. “What do you want me to say? I didn’t give the guy your measurements.”
Lena said, “Maybe try, ‘I’m not siding with the creepy kidnapper?’”
“I’m not siding with him!” Gerry groaned. “Look, now that you guys are kitted out, I’ll tell everybody you’re ready. If you don’t get it yet, maybe you will when you sit down and listen.”
“You never can tell,” Lena said.
I didn’t think she meant it, and I didn’t think Gerry thought she did, either. He slunk through the opposite door from the one he’d used before. I heard his voice raise on the other side. The thick wood muffled it too much for me to make out his words, though, much less whatever response he got.
Lena crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the door.
I wrapped mine around her. I rested my chin on top of her head.
Even with my new, well insulated clothes, I felt the beat of her wings against my chest as clearly as I did the tension in her back.
“On the plus side,” she said, “I guess this proves Erin was right. The Magnificent Ashbird legit is one of the most famous Third Eye players.”
“She’s got fans all over the world,” I said.
“Too bad that includes creepy stalkers.” She shuddered. “Creepy stalkers who can friggin’ teleport.”
I hugged her tighter. “We got this, Lena.”
“Uh-huh?” She craned her neck to look up at me. “Not gonna lie, Cam, I really don’t feel like we do.”
I raised an eyebrow.
She wriggled around to face me. With her on tiptoes and me bending over, our noses touched. She hissed, “How the hell are you so calm?”
Because you need me to be, I thought. I said, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because we’re stuck in the middle of who knows where? In some psycho’s murder cabin? Wearing the outfit he stole to put in his fanboy shrine to me? Surrounded by people we came to rescue who sound like they’re mainlining his Kool-Aid?”
I smiled. “Oh, is that all?”
“If you’re trying to calm me down, it isn’t working.”
Despite what she said, her wingbeats came slower. So did her heartbeats.
“I know this is going to sound crazy, Lena,” I said, “but I’m honestly not worried about almost any of that.”
“What, do you have some kind of secret plan or something?”
My eyebrow arched higher.
She clutched my back. “If you do, you gotta tell me!”
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“Nope,” I said. “Can’t.”
“Why?”
“Two reasons,” I said. “First, somebody might be listening at the door, or the room could be bugged.”
She winced. “Not making me feel better. What’s the second reason?”
“The one I know you’ll agree with.” I smiled. “If you say your plans aloud in advance, the laws of narrative causality demand they won’t work.”
“Ugh!” She buried her face in my chest to try to stifle her laugh. I felt more than I heard when it didn’t work, and it felt great. “I hate that I agree with you.”
I kissed the top of her head. “We got this. I promise.”
“We better.” My parka muffled her voice.
Did we?
I felt maybe half as confident as I meant to sound. Which was fifty percent more than I’d been before I realized Lena needed me to sound that way. In the process of comforting her, I’d talked myself into believing that we – had this?
No.
That we were in this with a shot.
Mask held plenty of cards. Thing was, I was pretty sure he thought he held them all, and if so, I looked forward to correcting him.
We’d officially accepted stolen goods. If we showed up back in Canyon tomorrow morning kitted out in this stuff, it might even come back to bite us.
Considering that I didn’t think I could survive another trip through the Key, that ranked even lower on my list of concerns than Lena’s worries.
Mask could hold our decision to wear the shit he’d provided over us if he wanted.
Thing was, except as a bluff, he wouldn’t. I’d gotten him to back down before by threatening to get the police involved. Not because he feared arrest – if I could teleport, I wouldn’t, either – but because he feared exposure. Him calling the cops on us was almost exactly as bad for him as us calling the cops on him.
I’d need to know real soon just how bad he felt that outcome would be. Then we’d find out how misplaced my confidence was.
Gerry opened the door. “Okay. Everybody’s ready.”
“Us, too,” I said. “Right, Lena?”
I felt her take a deep breath against my chest. When she looked up, she wore her cocky streamer’s smile. She turned it on Gerry. “We got this.”
He wilted beneath it and mumbled, “Hope so.”
We strode through the door.
On the other side, we found more of the same set up. Pitted, rough, dusty log walls and simple, sturdy furniture – this time, a narrow dining table long enough to accommodate ten chairs, as well as an old wood stove and a sink – mixed with stolen modernity. Three of the extension cords we’d seen stretched into here. They powered a heater, a USB charger connected to three phones and another of those LED lanterns, and seven laptops.
A person sat behind all but one computer. Gerry completed the set when he edged around us and took his chair.
I didn’t recognize the two girls, nor did I know two of the other guys. All four fell within the demographics I expected of Third Eye players: the younger, paler girl looked gangly enough that I might have bought that she was absent from high school. The other three I figured for somewhere between a hard twenty and an easy forty. All four wore the same mismatched winter wear Lena and I had accepted.
Our captor sat at the far end, looking like an even more ridiculous edgelord than usual with the light from his laptop reflecting off the porcelain of his mask. He had, of course, positioned himself at the head of the table. Although there was space for a chair at the opposite end, he left it empty.
You know, just in case somebody forgot that he considered himself the main character here.
Matt sat behind the final laptop, arms crossed, scowling. He had his fur-lined leather jacket on, so I had to assume Mask had grabbed him in the middle of an evening scouting trip. He looked at us and sighed. “Well, shit.”
Lena tossed her hair. “Nice to see you, too, Matt.”
“Under the circumstances,” he said, “is it?”
“Uh, yeah? Considering we came here to save your ass?”
“Huh.” His eyebrows raised. He stroked his beard. “I guess I should thank you.”
“Couldn’t hurt,” I said.
Mask’s voice changer scratched as he cleared his throat. “Sit down.”
Lena put her hands on her hips. “And if we’d rather stand?”
“Whatever.” He shrugged. “I don’t have laptops for you yet, anyway.”
Now that standing didn’t represent a power-play, Lena turned one of the chairs backwards and straddled it with her arms crossed on its back and her chin propped atop them. I took the empty seat next to her.
Mask spread his hands on either side of his laptop. “Now –”
“Before we hear your spiel,” Lena said, “who here has HP?”
She raised her hand. So did I, while I tried not to think about how few I had.
Matt’s hand stretched languidly upwards. Everyone else looked to either him or Mask, or back and forth between them.
After a moment’s hesitation, all but two hands went up: Mask’s own, which remained pressed to the table, and the younger girl’s. She tugged on the sleeve of her parka.
“Pretty good rate,” Lena said. She glanced at me. “You know what I’m going to ask, right?”
I nodded. “We’re both wondering about it.”
I didn’t expect Lena’s gambit to work, but if she hadn’t pulled it, I would have. How it failed would tell us loads about the situation.
She asked, “That being the case, how come you guys haven’t kicked the crap out of Mask already?”
While I tried to maintain a steely gaze, I watched as many people as I could.
Mask didn’t move, so whatever reaction he had, his outfit hid it.
The younger girl’s lip curled, which I figured marked her as a true believer. I saw no reason for her to have lost her HP in that case, so I assumed she’d left her hand down either because she didn’t want to back Lena or to try to hide her status as an active threat.
I couldn’t see Gerry from where I sat, but the older girl and the two other guys both turned to Matt.
Who sighed.
“What makes you think,” he said, “that we haven’t?”