Evie and I used to have this plan to go to Europe one day once she was free from her contract, and we’d spent hours researching how we’d make it work. We planned to rent a cheap car in Barcelona and then drive until we hit Amsterdam, sleeping in the back whenever we couldn’t afford a hostel.
My heart twinges painfully at the sight of others doing what we’d planned. I suppose we never will now. Either I’ll be in jail or the world will end, and either way, not a lot of room for road trips there. Evie hasn’t heard from me in weeks now—as far as she knows, I’m still on Gaia. As far as she knows, I never even made it to Gaia. She could think I’m dead.
And if she doesn’t—then it’s because the IA have taken her, detained her, and now they’ll never let her go so long as Jules and I are on the run.
I swallow the stabbing in my heart at that thought, and focus.
I pull the car off the road to join the others. The crunch of the gravel under the tires is the only sound that’s interrupted the silence for at least an hour. In the rearview mirror I can see Atlanta, whose eyes are scanning the darkness as if she can see through it. Her expression suggests she’s not pleased with what she sees.
I cut the engine, and we all sit in silence for a few seconds, listening to the metal ping erratically as it cools.
Behind me, Dex lets out his breath in a long, steady exhale. “You two are sirsly resourceful.” He sounds impressed.
Atlanta, when she speaks, does not. “You,” she says, nudging at Jules’s seat with her knee, “how far are we from Prague?”
“My name is Jules,” says Jules. His voice is quiet and even, but I can hear the anger and fear simmering underneath the calm. “And I don’t know.”
I watch in the rearview mirror as Atlanta’s eyes narrow. “Guess,” she suggests in a low voice.
“Why are you trying to get to Prague?” I interrupt. If Prague has something to do with their assignment here on Earth, it’s a good bet their “destin” has something to do with sabotaging the International Alliance, which has its headquarters there.
Atlanta’s eyes flick toward me, then up to meet my gaze in the mirror. “You fooling? You think we’re gonna tell you all our plans now, like we’re friends? You’re prisoners—shut up and drive.”
Dex clears his throat. “Slow it, Peaches,” he says softly.
Atlanta whirls on him. “Stop calling me that.” In this moment she looks as sulky as any human teenager, and the effect is chilling. “Not in front of the protos.”
I unbuckle my seat belt and turn to lean against the door so I can see both of the aliens in the backseat. The strangeness of it all is starting to get to me—I can feel a giddy sort of semi-hystericalamusement bubbling up, and I press my head back against the cool window until it passes.
“We’re out now,” Dex is saying. “Let’s shift by ourselves. No one will believe them if they try to warn anyone—they didn’t believe them when we were sitting right there in that cell.”
“We can’t drive the car,” Atlanta retorts. “We wouldn’t have known where to look for the car in the first place. And what do we say to the men in the little house there? I know your Earth geography is sirsly shaky, but we can’t walk to Prague and get there before—” She glances at me. “In time.”
“I can’t drive there either,” I say, raising my voice. I can see where Atlanta’s heading, and I donotlike it. “Those men in the little house? That’s the border crossing. None of us have papers, and we’re probably wanted criminals at this point anyway,andwe’re in a car somebody’s bound to report as stolen at any moment, if they haven’t already.”
Atlanta considers this, then glances at Dex, who just shrugs as if to concede defeat. “They’re resourceful, like you said,” she says finally, raising a defiant eyebrow at Dex. “They’ll find a way.”
She’s turning something over and over in her hands, and as something metallic catches the light, I realize she’s got a Swiss Army knife. She must have found it in the seat-back pocket, or else in the first car that turned out to be too fancy to hotwire. It’s not exactly a deadly weapon, not like Dex’s gun, but as she examines attachment after attachment with interest, suddenly that miniature corkscrew seems a lot scarier than it ever has before.
Dex draws breath to reply, but before he can speak, Jules’s voice breaks in.
“We need rest first,” he says firmly. “We can’t drive through the border right now, we don’t have the right documents. If we leave the car here and try it on foot, we can’t rely on just managing to steal a third car in one night. If we stay here, we can blend in with the others who are spending the night here while they figure outwhat to do. We might as well stop for a while too, until we have a plan.”
I’m about to protest, to remind him that every minute we waste brings the International Alliance that much closer to tracking us down, but he catches my eye and I fall silent. I know that look—I’vegivenhim that look. Thatshut up, I’ve got thislook.
So I shut up.
Atlanta glares at him, and then at me, and then at Dex. She glares a lot, I’ve found. Finally, she speaks. “Beno. I’m gonna put the knife away, for now. But both of you, think on this: You run, we’ll find you. We’re stronger, we’re faster. And if I gotta waste time tracking you, Iwillkill you when I find you.”
When.Notif.
My legs are shaking when I step out of the car, and I lean heavily against the door while Jules circles round to my side. I don’t doubt Atlanta’s telling the truth.
The two Undying move away a few steps, ostensibly to examine the tree we’re parked by, but they’re conversing in low voices. I can’t help but notice, though, that even while he’s talking to Atlanta, Dex is running his fingers down the bark slowly, wonderingly, studying the tree like … well, I guess itisthe first one he’s ever had a chance to look at up close.
I keep my body relaxed, leaning against the car, and my voice low. “If we get back in the car and lock the doors, I think I could get it started before they think to break a window. We can’t outrun them on foot, but we could drive away.”
Jules turns to lean against the car next to me. “We have to go with them,” he says softly.
