The way back took longer. Nate jogged slowly to keep the delicate Diffuser safe. He must have looked unhinged, clutching a box and half-covered in sludge and grime. The observation wouldn’t be far off. His mind reeled with thoughts of Reed cold and gone and all of them left alone.
All because he’d drawn attention to the gang and recklessly led trappers to their doorstep.
This morning, no one paid him any mind. People hung in doorways and peeked out windows, expressions wary—as if expecting something to explode. Nate covered the last few blocks as fast as he dared.
Brick met him at the bin. Sweat soaked through her baggy shirt and dampened her hair. The tangled strands stuck to her neck like fresh blood. “What’s that box?”
“Medicine,” Nate said. “Is he—”
“He’s breathing,” she snapped, mouth tight. “We broke the lock on a window four flights up. No one’s home.”
“Nate! Get up here!” Sparks called out from the fire escape high above them. “Your hour’s long up.”
The fire escape gave a sickening sway as Nate climbed ladder after ladder, following Brick. How had they made it up, carrying Reed? The old metal creaked as he scurried across a rusted landing.
Brick crawled through a narrow window, and Nate froze on the swaying metal outside. Reed was in there—dying.
What if I’m too late?
“Come on!” She snatched him by his coat and dragged him through the window.
He swayed a moment, eyes adjusting to the dim light. It smelled like rot and mold. Like sickness. Reed rested on a pile of blankets in the corner, Sparks kneeling beside him. Junk surrounded them—piled as high as the ceiling. Pixel cowered between two stacks of boxes. Tears streaked down her face.
“You said an hour,” Sparks said. “It’s been three.”
Nate scowled at her. “I went as fast as I could.”
“Tell that to Reed. He’s hardly breathing now.”
“I have medicine!”
“He doesn’t need medicine. Don’t you get it? He’s dying.” Sparks wasn’t the type to cry, but her heavy makeup was smeared below her eyes like bruises.
“Let me try,” Nate said. “This isn’t. . .Alden paid a lot for it. I think it’ll work.”
“Reed wouldn’t want chem, even now.” Brick hovered at the window, watching the path they’d climbed.
“Will you both quit prickling at me and let me concentrate? I need to mix this up—it’s like tinkering, and I have to pay attention. Start scouting somewhere for us to go.”
Brick straddled the windowsill. “You think we’re going to leave him here?”
“None of us can stay long.” Nate sank to the blankets beside Sparks. “What do you think’s gonna happen when whoever owns this place gets back?”
Sparks’s jaw went tight. “They won’t take kindly to us getting blood and filth all over.”
Nate pointed to the window. “Hurry and see if the bank’s clear, and come back and get him. We’re running out of time.”
“I’m not leaving him,” Sparks said.
Nate pulled his hair back in a tight ponytail. “I don’t care if you stay. But don’t blame me if we all end up nailed by A-Vols for squatting in here when we don’t have anywhere else to go.”
If he was the type to pray to the Old Gods, he’d do it now. He needed them to go.
Sparks’s gaze blackened, and she stood. “This isn’t on me. You’re the one they were after.”
“What would trappers want with a Tinkerer?”
“I don’t know!” Sparks scrubbed one eye, leaving a wild streak of makeup jutting to her hairline.
