She retrieved the gun, then ran down Sierra to College, made a quick right, then a left onto Ralston, where she slowed to catch her breath. At Alicia’s, she started for the back gate and the side entrance to the garage, but came to an abrupt stop when she saw Amy’s vintage Beetle. And parked in front of it, Alicia’s Beemer. This wasn’t right, why would the girls take their cars out of the garage?
And if they were up, how come the lights weren’t on.
Something was wrong.
Izzy tightened her grip around the gun in her left hand. The last thing she wanted to do was to kill anybody else, but she would if she had to. She hoped there was a logical explanation for those cars being out front, but try as she might, she couldn’t think of one.
At the side gate, she stopped, listened, but the house was quiet. Had she not seen the cars parked in front, she’d’ve walked right in, but walked right into what? She pulled back on the latch and even though she eased it back, it clicked on release, not loud, but the sound seemed to reverberate through her.
She would have left the gate open, but she was afraid the wind would blow it closed and the last thing she wanted was the sound of the slamming gate advertising her presence, so she eased it shut after herself and again she felt the sound was unnaturally loud. She hadn’t thought of it as loud when she’d left, but she did now. She hoped, if there was an intruder inside, that they hadn’t heard, because she wanted the advantage of surprise.
At the side door, she found it unlocked, like she’d left it. She eased it open and it too sounded horribly loud, but Izzy knew it wasn’t. Were her ears more sensitive to noise? Was that part of this age reversal thing that was going on with her?
Door open, Izzy moved into the dark garage, easing it closed after herself. She was surprised at how well she could see. Almost as if the room were being lit by a hurricane lamp. What was happening to her eyes? All of a sudden she could see in the dark and what she saw was a four door Ford sedan like the police drove. No extra antennas though, so it wasn’t an unmarked cop car.
The trunk was open.
Izzy approached, saw Amy inside, hands tied behind her back.
They’d found her. She didn’t know who they were, but there was only one reason she could think of for Amy to be bound and in that trunk. Somebody-who knew about what had happened to her, about her sudden youth-wanted the secret and they’d come here, hoping to capture her alive, but instead they’d gotten Amy.
She heard someone moving around upstairs. She took a breath, held it, listened and instinctively knew the sounds were coming from Alicia’s bedroom. How could she know that?
Seeing in the dark, enhanced hearing, what next?
Gun in hand, she started up the stairs, moved down the hall toward Alicia’s bedroom. Holding the forty-five out in front of herself, she moved past the bathroom, stopped at the door to Alicia’s master suite, peeked in the door, saw Alicia in the middle of the bed, hands bound behind her back with some kind of plastic cable tie.
“ Ouch.” Something stung her. She ran a hand to her rear, pulled out a dart. Turned and saw Lila Booth holding a strange looking gun. Izzy pointed the forty-five at her, but Lila ducked into the bathroom.
Why? She had that gun, it didn’t make sense. Izzy was thinking at the speed of light. It was a dart gun, like rangers used on bears. It only had one shot. Soon she’d be as out of it as Amy and Alicia. She couldn’t wait for that. She had to act. She had to do something. Now!
She tossed the forty-five on the bed, charged down the hall, reached the bathroom door as Lila Booth emerged, dart gun reloaded.
Lila pulled the trigger. The dart hit her square in the chest, just below her breasts. Izzy ignored it, grabbed the dart gun by the barrel, ripped it from Lila’s hand, tossed it behind her, heard it hit the wall as she shoved Lila into the bathroom.
But Lila was turning to the side as Izzy shoved on past. Izzy hit the toilet with her shins, fell, head hitting the towel rack.
Lila grabbed her by the hair, jerked Izzy to her feet, wrapped an arm around her neck, chocking her.
Air! She was suffocating. She needed air. She stomped on Lila’s foot.
Lila grunted, but held on.
Izzy slammed an elbow into Lila’s stomach, felt the whoosh of air flee the woman’s lungs, hot on the back of her neck, but still Lila held on.
Izzy hit her with the elbow again, then again and then she realized she wasn’t breathing. Lila had choked off her air, but instead of making one last desperate struggle, a sort of calm descended over Izzy. It was as if she were someone watching from afar, almost like she was outside her body, seeing the struggle from above, however she wasn’t, but somehow she knew exactly what to do.
She reached a hand over her shoulder, grabbed Lila by her long hair and with a strength she had no business having, she bent into a crouch and pulled Lila over her shoulder and finally Lila let go, her body landing on the toilet bowl.
Izzy, with her hand still fisted in Lila’s hair, backed out of the bathroom, dragging the stunned Lila Booth after her. She’d intended on dragging the woman into the bedroom and somehow binding her so she could question her. She was thinking at light speed again. She was in the present. She was in the future. She was in her body. She was out of it.
All of a sudden she felt dizzy, nauseous, her stomach muscles clenched, she gagged, then vomited all over her captive as she doubled over, letting go of Lila’s hair.
And Lila reacted like a scalded cat, cat quick and cat smart. Despite the fact that she was covered in vomit, she grabbed Izzy’s left foot, jerked and Izzy felt as if the ground was being jerked out from under her as she fell onto her back.
Lila jumped on top of Izzy, vomit from her hair dripping onto Izzy’s face. She grabbed onto Izzy’s wrists, tried to pin her, but Izzy bucked, driving her pelvis upward, knocking Lila aside.
Lila scrambled backward, back toward the bathroom, pulled a gun. She must have had a holster in the small of her back.
“ Don’t move!” She had the gun pointed at Izzy’s chest. Both women were sitting on the floor, facing each other. “How come you didn’t shoot me when you had the chance?” Lila Booth said.
“ I don’t know, maybe I should’ve.”
“ Tables are turned now.”
“ You’re not gonna shoot the golden goose.” All of a sudden Izzy couldn’t take in enough air. She started panting. Her body seemed to be demanding oxygen now and she was having a hard time getting enough. She felt a pain in her chest, right about where Lila had her pistol aimed. She still had the dart in her. She pulled it out, started breathing normally. “Not very effective.”
“ That would take down a bear.” Lila Booth was out of breath, too. “It put your friends right out.” She wiped vomit from her forehead with the back of her hand. “But it didn’t affect you and that makes me curious.”
“ Yeah.” Again thinking faster than any human should be able to, Izzy put it together. Lila was the one who’d shot her. She didn’t die and somehow her masters had learned of it. They needed her alive. “You shoot me in the heart and I not only survive, but I walk out of the hospital over half a century younger than I went in and you’re wondering why your tranquilizer dart doesn’t knock me out.” Izzy smirked. “Well, I’m wondering, too.”
“ You’re Isadora Eisenhower?”
“ Oops.” Lila hadn’t known.
“ Dr. Isadora Eisenhower, the seventy-seven year old heart surgeon?”
“ Call me Izzy.”
“ This is a shock.” Lila looked lost in thought for a second, but her gun never wavered. She sighed. “And I find it hard to believe.” Then, “You assumed I knew.”
“ You didn’t?”
“ I’m still not believing it. But at least it explains why Mansfield wanted me to drug you and the other one. He didn’t want me talking to you. He didn’t trust me.”