Living with the Dead
Page 92

Rhys's eyes saucered, a choked "wait!" burbling up as Hope flew forward, shouting for Karl to stop. He spun... and threw Rhys at the nearest guard as he lunged at the other.
Rhys hit the first guard, bowling him down in a shower of gravel and dust. Karl knocked the second one flying.
Hope ran for Rhys's gun, dropped near the door. She made sure it was loaded with darts, then shot both the Cabal men.
It wasn't as easy as it sounded, but she managed... after missing once and lodging a second dart in Karl's pant cuff.
Afterward, as she held a torn scrap of Cabal SWAT uniform to Karl's newly re-split lip, she said, "Next time you plan a fake out, warn me."
"If I did, your reaction wouldn't be nearly as authentic."
Rhys returned from dragging the second guard behind the rooftop shed. "I'd appreciate a warning, too, though I'll settle for not being used as a missile."
Karl shrugged, committing to no such promise.
* * * *
Karl and Rhys hauled up the men on the stairs – both unconscious and given a second shot to be sure they stayed that way. Then Hope told them about the woman and the guard on the third floor, and said, "Irving came down looking for the guard."
"And?" Rhys prompted.
"I tranquilized him."
"And?"
Karl's head whipping around. "What'd he ask you to do?"
Hope touched his arm. "I didn't. Rhys says Irving will come back after us, and he's right, but that's when I heard you, so I left him."
"Good. You two check for more guards. I'll look after Irving."
"I-I can. I should."
"No, you shouldn't. And you're not going to."
He strode off to take care of it for her... as always.
 
FINN
 
Finn hated to be ungrateful. But if there were people with other supernatural powers, he couldn't help wishing he'd been blessed with a more useful one, like teleportation. Having a phantom partner who had to rely on public transit seemed rather mundane. And, under the circumstances, rather frustrating.
He'd sent Damon on ahead with Adams and the man Robyn had called Rhys. But when Finn lost their car in traffic, Damon had to bail, then hitch rides back to the spot where he'd last seen Finn, find him and tell him which direction Adams was traveling. Now they were stuck canvassing the area, searching for the car.
 
Or, Finn should say, he and Robyn were searching. When Damon got near his wife, he was as useless as a twelve-year-old boy with a naked supermodel. He just sat there beside her in the backseat, staring and fidgeting, frustrated beyond reason, able to see and not touch.
"Did you get her shoulder checked?" Damon slid to the edge of the seat and leaned over.
"Couldn't. She seems fine with it, though."
"Didn't I warn you that as long as Bobby's conscious, she'll say she's fine? She needs to see a doctor."
"And she will, as soon as we're done. That's her decision."
When Finn had first started talking to Damon, Robyn would look up sharply, listening just long enough to realize he wasn't speaking to her, then nod and turn her attention back to the window. After a few exchanges, she'd caught on to the tone he used with Damon and stopped looking up. A fast learner. A fast adapter, too, already acting as if she'd spent her life around people who talked to ghosts.
"She looks good, don't you think?" Damon asked.
Finn looked at Robyn in the rearview mirror. She did look good. But a grunt seemed the safest answer.
"She seems to be getting back on her feet," Damon said.
Finn could agree with that, too. He had no idea what Robyn had been like before or after Damon's death, but the woman beside him – keenly watching out the window, stopping periodically to pepper him with questions – was far from the shell-shocked widow he'd expected.
"Hold on," Robyn said.
Finn hit the brakes.
She jolted forward, then gave a pained smile as she adjusted her lap belt. "I thought that would be less alarming than screaming 'Stop!' I was just going to say I recognize this area. Ahead is that bookstore I told you about, where we first saw the boy."
"Rhys's son."
"Why would he bring Hope – ?" Her chin jerked up. "Hope was on the roof when his son jumped. She was trying to talk him down."
"But Rhys wasn't there."
"He's clairvoyant, remember?"
It took Finn a moment to make the connection. Apparently some people were adapting to this stuff slower than others. "That means he gets a, uh, vision of people. In the present. So he could have seen Hope."
"He did. He said as much in the motel. If he blames her for him jumping and he's taking her back there now..."
"Direct me."
She did.
 
Robyn led Finn to a medical office building. There were three vehicles in the lot. One was the car they'd been tailing. There was also a van and a car that Finn thought he'd seen earlier.
"Is that the van they put Marten in?" he asked Damon.
"Uh..." Damon popped into the front seat for a better look. "Shit. Yeah. It is."
He parked at the far end of the lot. "Get closer and take a look."
When Damon left, Finn picked up the radio receiver.
"What are you doing?" Robyn said. "That's their car. They're inside the building."
"I know. I'm calling for backup."
"What?" She shot to the seat edge.
"I've just confirmed that's the van your friend Karl was in. That means we have a potential double hostage situation, possibly with two separate and hostile parties. I can't go in there alone."
"Fine." She grabbed the door handle and wrenched. "Unlock this."
"Calm down."
The moment the words left Finn's mouth, he knew they were the wrong ones. Now she turned her glare on him, her eyes flashing.
"I am calm, Detective Findlay. Calm enough to know that you're going to sit on your ass while my friend's life is in danger, and calm enough to know that I'm not going to do the same. Now open this door."
"I need backup. Standard – "
" – operating procedure." She twisted the words, wringing out a bucket of contempt. "Fine. You follow procedure, except on one point. You forgot to lock this door and I escaped."