The Phantom City

Chapter 7

Having determined that I probably shouldn't drink caffeine with the pain medicine in my system, I was left enviously eying their steaming cups. Asha blew across the top of his, then took a little sip. "Okay. Where do we start?"

Dana's fingers drummed on her armrest. "From my end, I guess. It was hard to tell what was happening through the footage. I was watching it the whole time, as soon as you got the cameras active."

I frowned. "And what did you make of the timing?"

"She didn't know anything about it, Owen." Asha interjected. "You should

know that. All of the info we got was solid, should have been solid. It was totally random."

I fingered the rough blanket under me. "No, I get it. I don't blame you, Dana. None of us could have guessed what was going to happen. It just seems strange that the one hour we were there was the one they chose."

Her shoulders slumped. "Yeah. I... I called the police as soon as I saw Race's men pulling in, but they didn't get there in time to keep him from finding you, and putting the drug in your system."

"So you know about it?" I asked, feeling suddenly anxious. I pointed at Abel. "He told you, didn't he?"

Dana's eyebrows drew together sharply. She twisted her neck to look in Abel's direction. "Who?" She asked, at the same time as Asha said, "About what?"

Oh. Abel folded his hands together. "If you'd given me some time, I would have explained that I remain a projection in your visual cortex. They can neither see nor hear me."

I coughed awkwardly. That should have been more obvious to me. "Sorry. Still kind of confused, I think the pain medicine is messing with my head."

She kept her gaze on where Abel appeared to me, her cheeks pale, then finally looked away. "Sure. Okay. Anyways, I assumed it was some kind of a suppressant at first. Something to make you pliable, obviously."

"Well," Asha said. "Suppressant turned out to be the wrong idea. You really don't remember anything that happened?"

I shook my head.

"The police got there a couple minutes after Race injected you, Owen. I couldn't call them myself, since Mayic had his dumb scanner."

"But Race got away?" I asked.

"Everyone got away, because the minute the policemen stepped out of their cars..." He hesitated. "Look, it's not your fault, okay?"

A knot of ice tied itself in my stomach. "Race mentioned something about me protecting him from them, when we were driving."
"Yeah." Asha said. "He said something to you, and you went all ninja on them. It's all on the footage."

"Which is when I knew something was up," Dana noted, the small wrinkles of laughter around her eyes returning. "Because you can't throw a punch to save your life."

That was fair. I'd almost ended my life by punching Race. I still didn't smile. "But... are they okay?"

Asha opened his mouth, but Dana beat him to it. "Before he makes you feel better about it -- no. But they will be, after their bones heal. You didn't do any permanent damage."

"I swear to God, Dana," Asha growled. "He just woke up."

"No, I'd rather know." I said, staring at the window. The skyline glimmered with pale, golden light. "I'm the one who started this. If something happened, I want to know about it."

Asha glared at Dana, who ignored him. Rustling through a bag slung on the side of her wheelchair, she pulled out a sheaf of newspaper. "Right. Then you should know that justice has also been served."