“Are the survey-ants part of the surprise parade?” Bo asked in a small, trembling voice. “And we can… we can feed them? Like a petting zoo?”
If Jayne had woken Everett’s protective instinct, Bo’s timid voice had jacked it into overdrive. Everett glanced over his shoulder to look at Bo, but traffic started moving again, and he had no choice but to keep his eyes on the road.
“You know, that’s a good question, bud,” Everett said, trying to keep his voice confident and cheerful. If he could hold the car together for a little longer, they’d hit Lindscott and everything would be okay. “I don’t think there’s a petting zoo, but it’d be fun if there was one.”
Penelope started to cry.
“The cameras are battery operated,” Shep said, raising his voice so he could be heard over the sounds of juvenile despair. “The only way all the feeds could go down at once is if something happened to the central hub, but I’ve got it connected to a backup generator I rigged up, so even if the power to it was cut, the supply should have kept it going.”
“So maybe the backup generator failed.”
“Uncle Ev-rhett?” Frenzied worry grew in Bo’s voice until it strained his words. “Why is Penny crying?”
Lindscott wasn’t going to happen. Everett couldn’t pretend to understand what was happening between Jayne and Shep, but like Penelope, he was able to discern meaning from their tone of voice. Something was going down, and whatever it was, it wasbad.He needed to park so he could figure it out, and he needed to do it now.
“It’s okay, kiddo.” Desperate for a place to park, Everett turned onto the nearest street, Trefore Avenue. It was a mistake. When traffic did move, it did so a fraction of an inch at a time, and it didn’t take long to notice why—three fire trucks and a police cruiser had blocked off much of the street, leaving only enough space for a single car to pass by. One of the apartment buildings on the street belched black smoke from its upper windows. Several people wrapped in heavy blankets had been led onto the street to take refuge near the trucks.
“Holy shit,” Jayne gasped. In a flash he undid his seatbelt, and before Everett had time to react, he’d thrown the car door open. Jayne launched himself from the vehicle and hit the ground hard, almost falling in his haste. The motorist behind them leaned on the horn, but Jayne paid them no heed. He cut in front of the adjacent car and bolted down the sidewalk. A police officer in the midst of cordoning off the area stopped him, but barely. Jayne, incensed, waved a hand at the burning building and tried to get past. He was stopped by force.
Everett’s gut churned. If it hadn’t been for Bo and Penelope, he would have bolted out of the car after Jayne.
“It’s the Feds,” Shep uttered, horrified. “It has to be. Simon was right. He wassoright. You need to turn this car around right now andleave.”
“TheFeds?” Traffic had turned the street into a parking lot—getting out wasn’t going to be an option. Everett turned in his seat to look at Shep. “What are you talking about?”
“Uncle Ev-rhett?” Bo croaked.
Penelope cried harder. The shrill sound of her terror and confusion chipped away at Everett’s composure and made him want to make rash decisions based on instinct alone.
Bring Jayne back to the car.
Settle the kids.
Keep Bo and Penelope safe… but keep Jayne safe, too.
Parker, taking his cue from Penelope, started to cry as well. Traffic wasn’t moving. Jayne gestured wildly at the burning building—it looked like he was shouting. The sights and sounds whittled Everett down until he knew he couldn’t take any more. If he didn’t do something, he was going to go crazy.
So he did the first thing he could think to do.
After putting the car in park, Everett flung off his seatbelt and reached into the back, freeing Penelope from her car seat. When he brought her to his chest, she gripped at his collar and buried her face against his shoulder, too inconsolable to be soothed. Everett tucked her head beneath his chin and stroked her soft hair regardless. Uncertainty paralyzed him. Stubbed toes and skinned knees were one thing, but this?
He had no idea what to do.
Jayne, fierce and fearless, hadn’t hesitated before acting. He’d run headfirst into the fray, sure in everything he did, and gone up against the authorities without a second thought. He fought his battles bravely, and while Everett couldn’t understand why he’d flown into a panic over a building several streets from his own, Everett envied his conviction.
If Jayne were still in the car, Everett thought to himself, he’d know what to do.
“It’s going to be okay, bud.” Everett kept his voice as cheerful as he could, still clinging to the hope that if he acted normal enough, the kids would go back to thinking that nothing was wrong. Careful of Penelope, he reached back and ruffled Bo’s hair. “Life’s a little crazy sometimes, huh? But it’s not going to stay this way forever. Your Uncle Ev-rhett’s got this under control.” Everett flicked his gaze to the rearview mirror to look at Shep, who was pale as paper and looked seconds away from bolting out of the car. “Shep, dumb it down for me. Way down. What’s going on?”
“That building over there?” Shep pointed a shaking finger at the smoking building. “The one that looks like it’d be right at home as part of an oil refinery? That’s our apartment building.”
“I don’t understand. Jayne asked me to drop you off on Lindscott.”
“Yeah, because he’s smart enough not to trust some guy he met, like, two hours ago with his address.” Shep let go of his phone and threaded his fingers through his hair, then let loose a sigh and sagged onto the floor, reaching his arm overhead to calm Parker. “I told him to do it. We’ve already got enough trouble as it is trying to deal with his ex-boyfriend—I didn’t want anyone else coming in and fracking things up.”
“Fracking,” Bo mumbled. He laid his head against the window and looked miserable.
“I didn’t know to expect something like this.” Shep gestured at the smoking apartment building. “Our other brother, Simon, warned me that if I wasn’t careful the Feds might get involved, but I was sure that they couldn’t really do anything because I’m a minor. I didn’t realize they’d set fire to the whole apartment. Everything’s going to total shi—”
