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Pansy came back with cups of instant soup all around, and by the time they were emptied, the four of them had formed a fragile kind of trust.
For now.
Manny kicked them out as soon as Bryn’s IV was finished. So much for trust.
Pansy walked them down to the van. “Sorry about this,” she said. “Once he gets in this mood, I can’t talk him out of it. We’ll move the lab; he’ll settle down; things will go back to normal. But I can’t take you with us. I can’t even tell you where we’re going, because he won’t tell me either. I’ll contact you later. ” She passed Bryn a bundle of things. “Here. I think they’ll fit. You can’t run around in some numbered paper jumpsuit and expect not to get noticed. ”
“Thanks. ”
Fideli nodded to her, too. “Thanks, Pansy,” he said. “Nice working with you. ”
“You too, Joe. It was good to get out and stretch my legs again. ” Pansy hugged Bryn, and she hugged her back, surprised but pleased. “You, girl, you take care of yourself. I’ll see you in a week for your booster. ”
“Promise?”
Pansy silently crossed her heart. “Get going. The moving vans will be here soon, and that makes him extra paranoid, even with all the background checks. ”
“How the hell do you put up with it?” Joe asked, climbing into the van’s driver’s seat.
“I love him,” she said. “And he’s not just paranoid. People really are out to get him. And hey, seems like we’re all in that boat now, right?” She leaned in to put a kiss on Joe’s cheek. “You take care, sweetie. Call me anytime you need a partner in crime. ”
Bryn buckled her seat belt and rolled down the window as they left the safety and shadows of the warehouse to let a fresh breeze blow through the van. The inside of the vehicle frankly reeked; the smell of her blood made her a little light-headed, or maybe that was the inhibitors taking hold. She was feeling herself again, finally; her leg’s ache had subsided, and when she ran her fingers over the back of it, she felt only a faint and fading scar.
“You can change clothes in the back,” Fideli said. “I’m not gonna peek. ”
“You saw it all anyway. ” She sighed. “It’ll be nice to not be dressed in paper. ”
And it was, very nice, from the soft cotton underwear to the long-sleeved thermal tee and jeans. Pansy had included a pair of slip-on flats for shoes, which would have to do, for now. At least it wasn’t cold outside.
Bryn climbed over the seats and buckled herself back in place. “Where are we g
oing?” she asked.
“Safe house up in the hills,” Fideli replied. “Strap in; we don’t need a ticket when the back of the van looks like a butcher shop died in it. ”
“Is McCallister there …?”
“I don’t know where Pat is,” Fideli said. “When he’s ready to contact us, he knows my number. We’ve both got disposable burner phones. It’s the best we can do, for now. ” He was quiet for a moment, watching traffic, watching the rearview mirror. Road noise hissed through the cabin. “You probably ought to know something. ”
“What?”
“McCallister made me promise something. If I couldn’t get you out, or if … if you were too far gone, he made me promise to …”
“To end things for me,” Bryn said. “So I wouldn’t suffer. ”
“Yeah. I thought you’d want to know that. ” He pulled in a deep breath and let it out, slowly. “These are some fucked-up times if that’s romantic, Bryn. ”
It made her smile, and it made her eyes well up at the same time. She turned her face away and let the wind whip against her cheeks to dry them as tears rolled down. “Thanks,” she said. “I did want to know that. ”
He turned the radio on after that, and surprised her by singing along to it. He had a good voice, baritone, and did a mean version of Harry Nilsson’s song about the limes and coconuts. It almost felt … normal.
That was something Bryn realized she craved most. Normality. The feeling that her reality was still the same one that all these other people shared, the ones driving on the freeway next to them. They were headed to work or play or home or shopping. They had lives, goals, plans, challenges that didn’t include rotting away inside a dead shell of a body.
She envied them all, so strongly that it hurt. Somehow, without ever meaning to, she’d become an alien, stranded in a strange yet achingly familiar landscape.
“Bryn?”
“What?”
