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Thin air

Кейн Рэйчел

My paralysis snapped, replaced by a quivering all-over tremor. She knew my name.

“I don’t care who you’re with,” I interrupted, and started pumping the jack again. The tire crept upward, cleared the asphalt, and I repurposed the jack to start removing the lugs. “Get lost.”

“Ma’am, do you have any comment about what happened back there on the beach?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “And I don’t know any Joa

“I interviewed your sister a few weeks ago. She gave us a photo,” Sylvia Simons interrupted, and held out a picture of me and Sarah, which had been removed from its frame. We looked happy and stupid. I still felt stupid, but I certainly wasn’t very happy. “She told us that you’re a member of an organization called the Wardens. Can you tell me something about that?”

“No,” I said. Four lug nuts off. I kept moving, careless of the grease and grime on my hands or what was getting on my clothes.

“My understanding is that you have some kind of responsibility for protecting the general public from natural disasters,” Simons continued. Lug nut five came off, then six, and I slid the tire free with a screech of metal and let it thump down on the road between us. I wiped sweat from my forehead and ignored her as she leaned closer. “She claimed it was magic. Care to tell us exactly what that means? We’ll get the information some other way if you don’t, but this is your chance to tell your side of the story…”

Crap. I put the other tire on and began replacing lug nuts. “I don’t have a side,” I said, “and there isn’t any story. Leave me alone.”

I could tell they weren’t going to. They’d been digging, and struck gold. Sarah had dropped the dime and taken the money after ensuring that the white van and the reporters knew to keep on my trail. And maybe she’d called somebody else, too. Somebody who’d dispatched a killer to silence me before I could talk. That way she’d have the money from the reporters free and clear, and no Wardens after her.

“Tell you what,” I said, spi

Simons made a surprised face, and looked at the camera as if she wanted to be sure it caught her amazement. “Are you threatening us, Ms. Baldwin?”

“Nope.” I finished finger-tightening the nuts, and released the jack to let the car settle back on four tires. I began applying the tire iron to finish the job of making the wheel road ready. “But things do happen.”

And right then, things did happen. The camera guy said, “What the…?” and a whisper of smoke suddenly oozed out of three or four places in his equipment. I heard a cooking sound from inside the electronics.

Nice. I sure did enjoy some things about being a Fire Warden.

“What’s wrong?” Simons asked, and moved toward him. Together, with the sound guy craning in for a look, they reviewed the damage. Which, I could have told them, was catastrophic. Yay, me.

I shoved the old flat tire and all the equipment in the trunk, slammed it, and said, “I think the phrase I’m searching for here is ‘no comment.’”

Simons stared at me with a grim, set expression as I got in the Camaro and headed off down the road.

When the van tried to follow, its engine blew in a spectacular white cloud of steam.

“I should be ashamed. That,” I said to Ve

“Perhaps,” she said. “But you needed to know. So you won’t trust your sister again.”

“No,” I said grimly. “I don’t think I will.”

<empty-line/>

Driving is therapy for me. Interesting thing to discover about yourself…There was something hypnotic about the road, the freedom, the feeling of being in control and having a direction. I drove fast, but not recklessly, and if Ve

I had a lot of time to think. After a couple of hours of that, I said, “Ve

She raised her eyebrows. Pint-sized haughtiness. She was still wearing the blue jeans and pink shirt; I was getting used to the less formal look, but I didn’t let it fool me. There was nothing informal about Ve

“You couldn’t handle it,” she said. “Dji

“But…you can become human, right?”

“We can take human form. That doesn’t mean we become human. Not really.”

So even though David had fathered a child with me, he hadn’t been…human. Not inside. Comforting thought.

I edged a bit more speed out of the accelerator. “You said David would be on her side, not mine. Are you guessing, or do you know that?”

She didn’t answer me.

In a way, I supposed, that was answer enough.

<empty-line/>

The countryside began feeling weirdly familiar. If I’d put together the pieces properly, Sedona had been the last place I’d been seen before my absence from the world, followed by my appearance, naked and memory-free, in the forest. I felt like I ought to remember it.

I was, quite simply, too tired. Sedona had motels, and I had cash, and although Ve

Ve

“Well,” I said as I zipped up my black jeans, “I guess now I know who the target audience is for reality TV.”

If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought she was embarrassed. She slid off the bed, and the TV flicked off without her hand coming anywhere near a remote control. She folded her arms. “Are you done sleeping?” she asked.

“Obviously, yes.”

“Good. It’s such a waste of good time.” She moved the curtain aside and looked out. “We should go.”

We pulled out of the parking lot and cruised slowly through town. Ve

“Are we close?” I asked. I was still tired, but it was a pleasant kind of tired, and for the first time in a long time I felt like I was going into trouble with a clear mind. The road vibration was almost as good as a massage.