AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 56
Chicago
I WAS ON my own again. After telling me the truth about who she was that afternoon, Kira had disappeared into her room. I just kept on with my training routine. What else could I do? Whatever had gone on in Kira’s past, she wasn’t ready to get into details. Not yet. So I just kept pumping iron and thinking about all the other questions I needed answers to. What was the threat? Who was coming for her? Would it ever be over? Was I ever going to get my life back again?
I finished my last workout at about 8:00 p.m. and took a shower. I was getting ready to lock myself in for the night, following the rules. I put on some old sweats to sleep in and sat down on my bed. That’s when I saw Kira standing outside my cell, holding a bottle.
“Join me in the kitchen,” she said. So I did.
In six months, my kidnapper had never poured a glass of wine without quizzing me about tannin levels, complexity, and region of origin. She never let me drink. Just taste and spit. But tonight was different. Maybe because she wasn’t pouring wine. She was pouring mezcal.
“Sip it. Don’t shoot it,” she said. Good advice. The taste was smokey and fierce. I almost coughed it back up. My eyes were watering.
“How long has this stuff been aging?” I asked.
“About a hundred years,” she said. “That’s why it’s so mellow.”
I picked up the bottle. The glass was thick and heavy, and the label was all in Spanish. The vintage year was handwritten. Sure enough.1922.
“Did you steal this from a museum?” I asked. She shook her head.
“From a private collection.”
I took another sip. This one went down easier. I started to feel warm all over. Anybody looking at the two of us would have thought that we were just a regular couple enjoying a quiet evening together. Not quite. For one thing, I was still adjusting to my companion’s name. Herrealname. As I looked at her across the counter, I pictured a giantKon her forehead so I wouldn’t slip up and call her Meed. There were so many blanks I needed to fill in that I didn’t know where to start. But she beat me to it.
“How much do you know about Doc Savage?” she asked.
It was a loaded question. I’d basically spent my life trying to pretend the guy never existed. It was a pain in the ass to be descended from a legend as big as my great-grandfather. Genius. War hero. Crime fighter. Soldier of fortune. You name it, he did it. Hard to live up to. Even harder to live down.
“I know he was brilliant,” I said, “and a great inventor. But I think he depended on brawn over brains too much. From what I’ve heard, he was a pretty violent guy. After my folks died, I thought about changing my last name to get rid of the connection once and for all. Fresh start.”
“So why didn’t you?” Kira asked.
The reason was pretty embarrassing.
“BecauseSavagewas already on all my diplomas,” I said.
Kira gave a quick laugh. “Right,” she said. “I guess all that calligraphy would be a bitch to redo.” I realized that I’d never heard her laugh before. Maybe it was just the mezcal, but it sounded terrific.
“Look,” I said, “I know there’s probably a ton of exaggeration in the old Doc Savage stories. Pirates? Ghosts? Phantom cities? Evil hunchbacks? That stuff can’t be true. It sounds like pure fantasy.”
Kira took a slow sip and raised her eyebrows, like she was holding back another secret. I leaned toward her over the counter.
“Wait,” I said. “How much doyouknow?”
Kira put her glass down on the counter.
“Follow me,” she said.
By this time, the rest of the loft was mostly dark, except for a dim glow from inside my cell and a few under-counter lights in the kitchen. And with all that mezcal on board, my vision wasn’t super-sharp. Kira led the way through the kitchen and stopped at the metal door that said UTILITY. I’d never paid much attention to it. Why would I?
Nothing but circuit breakers and HVAC equipment inside, I figured. Besides, it had a pretty sophisticated electronic lock. Kira tapped the lock with her finger.
“Open it,” she said.
Open it? I could barelyseeit. “I have no idea how to do that,” I said.
“Sure you do,” said Kira. “You learned it in your sleep two nights ago.”
