“Which way?”Jem asked.
Francisca pointed, and Jem pulled Tean into a run.
18
The parking garage was located one floor down, and from what Tean could tell, it was the only part of the lodge that didn’t have windows.Unlike the rest of the lodge, with its earth tones and stonework and touches of copper, the garage was exposed concrete, with a fire suppression system overhead and ventilation that rumbled at the edge of hearing.It was cold but not as cold as it should have been, and wet tire tracks crisscrossed the pavement where vehicles had brought snow into the garage and it had subsequently melted.Daylight-white LEDs should have lit up every corner of the garage, but only a handful were on—a result of the switch to backup power, most likely.
Jem stood by the door to the lodge, glancing up one ramp and then shuffling a few feet over to glance down the next one.After a moment, he nodded and motioned for Tean to follow, and he started down the ramp.
“Why—” Tean began.
Jem shook his head once, sharply.Then he whispered, “Quietly.”
“What are we doing?”Tean asked, dropping his volume.
“Getting a look at that woman.”
“Right, but, um…” For lack of anything better, Tean simply said, “Should we be doing that?”
“Yes.Because if I’m right, then she started following me back in the valley.And she followed us up here.And she broke into our room and attacked us.”
“Well, she threw a coat on you.”
Jem shot him a look that mingled hurt and disappointment.“Uh, yeah.And that coat had a zipper.”
“I know.”
“It hit me in the eye.I might have permanent damage.”
“Well, you don’tseemto have any damage.”
“It’s called Hoffsted Zipper-Eye syndrome, and they can’t fix it, not even with surgery.”
“You didn’t have any problem spotting that bacon.”
“Babe!”
“I thought we were whispering.”
“We are!But come on—there’s rude, and then there’s mean.”
“It’s just that there were a lot of greens, and you never get enough vegetables.”
Jem was making a whining noise in his throat that sometimes precipitated various medical emergencies, most of which could only be cured by leaving him alone for a while so he could take a nap with Scipio.
A change of subject seemed to be in order, so Tean asked, “What if she’s, you know, dangerous?”
Jem snorted.“I’m more dangerous than anybody we’re going to meet on this mountain.”
They passed three more stalls before Tean said, “Wait, didn’t you recover from a case of tail eye at one point?”
“No more talking.”
At the bottom of the ramp, Jem rounded the corner and continued down without slowing.It took Tean a moment to figure out why—then he noticed, farther below them, a few scattered LEDs popcorning on.
“Motion activated,” he whispered.“She’s right ahead of us.”
Jem grunted.
