The Lifeline Signal Page 15

  “Sorry, Indra,” Shiloh murmured, remembering the dragon-ghost’s head looming high above xir. “We’ll get you some real help as soon as we can. How are you feeling?”

  “Fuzzy…hot…I don’t feel good,” Indra sniffed, suddenly looking about five years old. Then his eyes slipped shut.

  “Hey, you awake? Don’t go to sleep.” Shiloh reached forward to touch his uninjured shoulder, but Annie stopped xir with a shake of her head.

  “Don’t worry, sleeping it off is pretty normal actually,” she sighed, rubbing her forehead and shaved-smooth brow, as if she wanted to pick at hairs that weren’t there. “He’ll wake up in around fourteen hours, probably. Won’t be very symptomatic until after that.”

  She fell silent then and held perfectly still, staring at Indra’s unconscious form. Her face might have appeared blank, but it was the kind of deceptive neutrality that simply hid too big of a tangle of emotion, too intense, too overwhelming to express. Shiloh had seen this look on her face before and it wasn’t a good one. Xie remembered boosting a weak signal and tapping into Radio Angel’s broadcast. Then the strange, frightening voice that interrupted. When xie looked down at Annie’s hand, xie wasn’t surprised to see it holding onto the shark tooth around her neck in a white-knuckled grip and shaking.

  “I know you’re not okay, so I won’t ask,” Shiloh said quietly, not sure how much she was aware of xir presence anymore or wanting to startle her. “But I’m here.”

  Annie did not look up. But she did tuck the shark tooth into her shirt, hiding it from view. “Early symptoms are a lot like the flu,” she said, getting to her feet and starting to put the first aid kit back in order. “Fever, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, shakiness…delirium, hallucinations.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Shiloh resisted the unhelpful sarcastic note that wanted to creep into xir voice. “My mom and I have studied this a little bit, but not firsthand or actually treating anyone infected. Think someone could help back at Radiance HQ?”

  Annie shot Indra an appraising glance. Like people so often did when they slept, he looked peaceful, younger, free of worries or the effort of showtime deflection maybe for the first time since they’d met him in the flesh. “Pretty sure he spent a long time trying to avoid going back there.”

  “I know!” Shiloh said again. Xie let out a frustrated noise, hating the feeling of helplessness and indecision almost as much as the outright fear. “But if it’ll save his life, I think it’s worth the risk.”

  “I say we keep heading for the FireRunner.” Annie folded her arms tight around her upper body, as if trying to hold herself together. “We’re almost there and if there’s anyone who can help Indra, they’re on that ship. We get Indra there, everything will be fine,” she said like a declaration of an immutable fact.

  Shiloh nodded and tried not to let xirself shake. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Just gotta hold it together, for a couple more days.” She sucked in a deep breath through her teeth. “If we can just—not break down. For a little more.”

  “Just let me know how I can help,” Shiloh said quietly. “We’re alone here and we shouldn’t be. But we will get to a safe place, with actual adults, who know what they’re doing. I want us to make it. I want you to see your family again.” Xir voice nearly broke, because in speaking those words xie realized exactly how alike their desires were. Shiloh had never missed xir parents more than when Garrett had seemed to stand before xir just a few minutes ago, and the pain still settled deep in xir chest. Did Annie feel like this every day too?

  “Thanks,” she whispered. “I just want to go home. Right now that’s all I can think about. I want to stay alive and get to where things make sense. I’m so tired.”

  “You got this. You’re so much stronger than I ever—”

  “Stop it. I don’t want to be strong,” Annie said suddenly. “I’m strong because I don’t have a choice. None of us do.”

  “I know,” xie said, swallowing hard. “But you’re not alone. We’re not going anywhere. And soon you’ll be home.”

  She didn’t speak but she breathed a little easier. “We gotta keep moving.”

  Shiloh cast a concerned glance at Indra. “We’re not waiting for morning?”

  “Does spending another minute out here really sound like a good idea to you? No. Every mile we go is another mile we don’t spend out here.” She glanced at the giant wolf that waited patiently by her bike. “You did good, boy, you protected us. Who knows what would’ve happened if you hadn’t shown up.”

  “Well, the ghost might have told us what ‘exchange’ meant. Or ‘Icarus.’” Shiloh eyed Toto-Dandy’s huge paws with their curved, wicked-looking claws, protruding teeth and gleaming blue eyes. “He’s definitely friendly?”

  “What? Yeah!” Annie looked up, face still pale and shiny with cold sweat, but smiling. Still, her joy had a desperate, almost manic edge that threatened to overtake her as easily as fear. “Since I was a little kid. From Parole. Danae made him—she makes amazing machines. Like your mom, except Danae’s are alive. Kind of, they’re kind of alive. He’s alive.”

  “It’s okay, Annie,” Shiloh cut in, recognizing how close she was to being overwhelmed on either side, good or bad, terror or relief. If they were going to keep moving tonight, she had to stay in the middle of the road and they both knew it. “Breathe.”

  She tried, keeping her hand on the wolf’s thick neck and thicker fur. It seemed to help, and when she looked up again she seemed more grounded and focused.

  “The FireRunner crew must have sent Dandy after us when we didn’t come back right away,” she said, speaking at a slower, regular pace. “They must really be worried.”

  “Okay. Then let’s…move along.”

  When they did, Annie put the pedal to the metal even more than usual, gripping the handlebars so hard her knuckles turned white. Anxiety growled in the back of Shiloh's brain like an angry dog snapping at xir heels. Xie was sure xie could feel Indra’s fever burning through her jacket, hear his shallow, labored breathing in xir helmet even with the radio turned off. They passed the dark hours in silence.

  Shiloh did not try to remember xir father’s voice or mother’s eyes. The ones xie’d seen tonight weren’t real. Instead, xie focused on the strings of light above and the fact that real love, real warmth, and real, true safety and rest lay at the end.

  By the time the sun came up, the infection in Indra’s arm had spread out from under its bandage, up to his elbow and down to his wrist. His veins stood out, stark black under his skin’s dry, burnt-paper texture.

  “Sorry,” Shiloh said and quickly looked away, realizing xie’d been staring again. It was so hard not to look once xie caught a glimpse and felt the cold, tight squeeze of fear. Nothing compared to what Indra had to be feeling. “I’m—sorry.”

  “No, please, look, feel free.” Indra held his arm up and wiggled it, then winced and lowered it, instantly looking like he regretted the motion.

  “It’s just… any other circumstances? This would be really interesting, because I’ve never seen—no!” Shiloh grimaced, shaking xir head. “God, I can’t turn it off. This is what you get, growing up with a…foremost genius mom. Observe variables, take notes…”

  “I mean, it’s for a good cause,” Indra mumbled. “Make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I guess. So go ahead. Observe all you want.”

  “You won’t have to,” Annie cut in from in front of them. “There’ll be nothing to see in a little bit. We’ll get you help, I promise.”

  “Thanks,” Indra murmured, still staring at his arm and sounding not at all comforted. “Reassuring.”

  As the trio rode—at a breakneck, desperate pace down the empty highway—he leaned heavily back against Shiloh, who wrapped xir arms tight around Indra’s waist as if trying to keep him from disappearing. Annie drove in silence, opening up the throttle all the way, clearly pushing herself and her bike to their limits. The giant robotic wolf loped effortlessly alongside at sixty mil
es per hour, long metallic legs eating up yards of highway with every stride.

  They kept the glowing stream in clear view overhead as they drove. A shape slowly appeared over the horizon, and soon they recognized it—an energetic barrier dome encasing buildings. Annie pulled off the main highway about a mile away from the city, veering away from the iridescent light pathway above their heads. Traffic now lined up in a long queue to get in through turnstiles and security checkpoints—mostly semi-trucks and military jeeps.

  “We’re right on the edge now,” she said, sounding distracted as she stared out at the buildings in the distance and the scorched expanse beyond. “But Tartarus has never gotten this far out before. Transports resupply here, refill the water tanks that go out to whatever cities actually still exist in there. Pretty important to hold onto and keep safe from the ghosts and storms and…whatever else.”

  “How are we going to get in there?” Shiloh asked as they came up on the outpost bubble. “There’s no way they’ll just let us through. And even if they do, they’ll recognize us in two seconds and Turret will be on us so fast…”

  “Meridian’s barrier wasn’t airtight, was it?” Annie didn’t sound worried.

  “No, sections would burn out sometimes.” Shiloh frowned, trying to see where she was going with this. “But my mom would patch them ASAP. Kind of a long shot that would happen here, isn’t it?”

  “Not what I mean. There’s always a way in.” She brought them in close to the energy barrier—and luckily found a gap in the concrete wall to let a side street through. There was a gap in the shield, the kind everyone in Parole would kill or die for, but rarely went noticed unless the town it protected was right on Tartarus’ ephemeral edge. They (and the quietly trailing Toto-Dandy) slipped in through the side street unnoticed.

  “How the heck’d you know that would be there?” Shiloh couldn’t help but ask. “Did you scope this place out on your way?”

  “I’ve never seen anywhere besides Parole that’s totally locked down,” Annie said with a shrug. “I dunno why, it’s not very smart. But every place we passed had at least one way in or out besides the main gate.”

  “People like to pretend everything’s normal,” Indra supplied, sounding like he was trying to keep in a groan. “Even when it’s not. Especially when it’s not.”

  “To the point of leaving doors wide open?” Shiloh couldn’t quite believe that. People had to know better. After the past ten years, xie couldn’t imagine not looking over xir shoulder just in case. “That’s… really not safe at all.”

  Annie didn’t seem to share xir confusion or even interest. “Whatever gets us in.”

  The streets didn’t stay vacant for long. As they pulled out into the main drag, full of semi-trucks and other transport vehicles, the most noticeable thing was the sheer number of people on the sidewalks. Not driving, but walking or standing. In clumps and lines leading up to buildings and tents with Radiance’s insignia on them, in dirty, ragged clothes, with duffel bags and backpacks and small children and tired eyes.

  Medical staff handed out small disposable gas masks and eye flushing kits. Information sheets and diagrams on what to do if someone inhaled a lung full of toxic air hung outside—nothing to do really except get them back here for detox.

  “These are Shanni’s people, aren’t they?” Indra seemed to realize all at once, as if his feverish fog had cleared a bit. “This is what she was talking about, the Radiance relief teams, medical response.”

  “We saw a bunch of them on the way to Meridian,” Annie said, not sounding quite as impressed. “Nothing like that back home.”

  “Looks like they’re doing good work out here.” Indra sounded determined to hold onto this small bit of hope. “We might actually have a chance against Tartarus.”

  “Yeah. Someone should really tell them Parole exists.”

  In the slightly awkward silence that followed, Annie steered them into a relatively empty side street, a temporary refuge from the crowd.

  “See anything familiar?” Shiloh asked when she brought the bike to a halt and hopped off. Toto-Dandy continued ahead and rounded a corner a short distance away but Annie didn’t seem to notice or care.

  “I just needed a break,” she said, leaning against the nearest brick wall without removing her helmet. “Crowds. Never liked ‘em back home, then I got used to wide open space outside. Those are weird, but better.”

  “When you’re done, maybe we should ask around or something, try to find the the ship itself,” Shiloh suggested. There was no water here, or anywhere around, so xie wasn’t sure where to start looking, but surely someone would. “That’s gotta be hard to miss.”

  “Well, my friends are pretty hard to miss too. I mean, Rowan has actual…” She broke off, sucking in a loud gasp as Dandy reappeared from around the corner. The usually-calm, metallic wolf was dog-smiling and frolicking like an enormous puppy—and he wasn’t alone. Two people were following close behind: a towering man with long hair and a just-as-thick beard, and a much shorter, slight woman with very dark skin in a white hijab and what looked like a loose-flowing poncho. Both wore large, dark sunglasses and Shiloh thought of red-carpet movie stars. But Annie clearly recognized them from somewhere else.

  “Aliyah! Stef!” She pulled her helmet off, face lit up with more excitement and joy than Shiloh and Indra had ever seen from her. She started to actually bounce in place, as if unable to contain the happiness. Then she sprinted forward, arms outstretched. The woman was slightly ahead of the man and she threw her arms open wide, catching Annie as she leaped into them. Dandy sat down beside them, without a trace of predatory tension or sharp teeth, all wagging tail and lolling tongue.

  “I’m so glad to see you!” Annie squealed, a young-sounding, joyful noise neither Shiloh nor Indra ever expected to hear from her. “I missed you so much!”

  “And we you, darling!” The woman she’d called Aliyah squeezed her tight, planting a kiss on the top of her head. Aliyah spoke with an accent Shiloh had never heard before; xir inexperienced ear landed on some kind of English but wasn’t sure which, or even if that was right at all. Her words definitely came out faster than most xie’d heard, clipped but expressive and airy. “We’ve been counting the days.”

  “I got here as soon as I could,” Annie said, sounding like she was caught between laughing and crying. “I—I’m sorry if I made everyone fall behind schedule, I didn’t—”

  “Oh, no, don’t worry about a thing!” Aliyah was definitely laughing as she held Annie at arms’ length, taking a good, hard look as if expecting her to have visibly grown up in their time apart. The ends of her sentences tended to rise, making everything she said sound free and lively. “I meant that quite literally, had you pegged to meet us in six days since you left and, look, you’re right on time!”

  “Heard it was quite the trip,” the man said in a rich, gravelly voice, mock-stern but clearly covering laughter. He spoke much more slowly than Aliyah, in deep, earthy-sounding tones that fit the rest of him: a bear of a man with deep bronze skin, worn leathery from years in the sun and wind. His face was etched with deep lines from countless smiles and deeper laughs and a thick mane of black hair fell in waves from his head and beard. Whenever he looked at Annie he smiled, full and broad; everything about him was wide and expansive as the sea or open horizon. “The kind of road that’s good to put behind you.”

  “Hi, Stefanos.” Annie blinked hard as she looked up at the giant, meeting his gaze with a shaky smile of her own, seeming overwhelmed with more emotion than she knew what to do with. “Yeah, it was… We ran into a few bumps in…” She couldn’t make herself finish.

  “We heard. Bad bumps,” he said, and his voice was full of sympathy instead of reproach. It also had undertones of a soft, metallic whirring or some kind of tone adjustment, making it sound as if he were talking through some sort of speaker.

  “But you made it through,” Aliyah said, her voice natural and a good deal more energetic. “Just like we
knew you would.”

  Annie opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

  “You got there and back again, didn’t you? You recovered the data?” Aliyah asked, tone softening. It sounded as if she already knew the answer, not at all surprised when Annie nodded. “That’s right. You did all of that. And I never doubted for a second, I mean it.”

  “Well, I did,” Annie said thickly, hands beginning to shake. “I doubted for a lot of seconds.”

  “You’ve never let us down before.” The man removed his sunglasses to reveal golden eyes that shone like a pirate’s doubloons. They were made of metal, intricately crafted with multiple layers of delicate moving parts. They looked like the lights that burned in Dandy’s mechanical, intelligent wolf eyes, and moved with the same gyroscopic rotation. “And you’re not starting now.”

  “Yes I am,” she whispered, eyes filling with tears. Her hand went to the chain around her neck, the shark tooth. “I let him down. He was… I just…”

  Annie ran out of words. Instead, head hanging low, she took a step toward him, and Stefanos bent forward, huge hands going under her arms to pull her into a bear hug and right off her feet. Shiloh caught a metallic flash, and realized one of his hands looked artificial, made of intricate metal parts. Annie’s arms went around his neck and she buried her face in the thick mane of his hair. When he set her down, she swiped her forearm across her face.

  Annie turned, eyes widening as she saw Shiloh and Indra, like she’d forgotten they were there. “Oh. Sorry. She’s Aliyah, and he’s Stefanos. They’re…” she shrugged, words not seeming to come easily. “They’re family.”