Page 41 of Hellbent

There were sirens outside already, flashing lights coloring the parking lot. Lead responders spilled through the front entrance, bucking the stream of humanity.

“This way.” Evan grabbed Joey’s arm, ushered her up the corridor to the bathrooms.

They were halfway there when a service door swung open and two cops shouldered through. Their eyes lasered in on Evan and Joey, Glocks drawn but aimed at the floor.

Evan swung her around, reversing course. They didn’t get three steps when, up ahead, responding cops filled the waiting room.

They were trapped.

18

Short on Time and Short on Crowbars

Behind them one of the cops shouted, “Wait! Stop right there!”

Evan and Joey froze, still facing away. The corridor was empty, squeaky clean save for a dropped newspaper and fresh plug of gum stuck to the wall.

“What now?” Joey said to Evan out of the side of her mouth.

“We don’t kill cops.”

Ahead, PD started locking down the big hall. Behind them the cops’ boots squeaked on the marble as they approached cautiously.

“I know,” Joey whispered. “So what do we do?”

“Get arrested. Face the consequences, whatever they are. We go down before we break a Commandment.”

The cops were right behind them. “Turn around. Right now.”

Joey reached up and flipped her hair over, exposing the shaved side of her head in its entirety. She brushed against Evan as she pivoted around, and when he followed her lead, he saw that she had his RoamZone in hand.

“This is totally not fair,” she said. “Some big guy ran past us, all freaking out, and whammed into me. I dropped my phone and it’s, like, ruined.”

Her posture had transformed, shoulders slumped, twisty legs, head lolling lazily to one side, a finger twirling a tendril of hair—even her face had gone slack with teenage apathy.

And she was chewing gum. With teenage vigor.

Evan shot a look at the spot on the wall where the fluorescent green plug had been a moment before.

Joey yanked on Evan’s arm. “Dad, you are buying me a new phone. Like, now. There’s no way I’m going to school with the screen all cracked.”

Evan cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Officers.”

The cops looked behind them. “A big guy ran past you? This way?”

“Yeah. You, like, just missed him.”

The cops exchanged a look and bolted back down the corridor to the service door.

Joey called after them, “If you find him, tell him he’s paying for my new phone!”

The door banged shut after them. Joey swept her hair back into place, blanketing the shaved side. “‘Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.’”

“Odysseus?”

She took the gum out of her mouth, stuck it back on the wall. “Bruce Lee.”

He nodded. “Right.”