“I can kill us all,” Jane growled, gripping the wheel tightly, and resisted the urge to drive the production truck into the ditch to prove her point.
Somehow they reached downtown without her killing anyone.
The EIA had Hummers blocking the on-ramp to 376 and then again at Second Avenue where it ducked under the Boulevard of the Allies. She avoided the EIA for the outsiders that they were. She cut up Forbes Avenue to the Armstrong Tunnels. There was a Pittsburgh police cruiser and a wooden barrier blocking the inbound lane. Luckily it was Bo Pedersen. He started to wave her away until she rolled down the window. The motion turned into a greeting.
“Didn’t recognize the truck. What happened to yours? Hal blow it up?”
“I didn’t do a thing to our truck, Bowman!” Hal shouted from the backseat, leaving out that he’d set himself and a good portion of the neighborhood on fire.
“He’s still on pain meds,” Jane said.
Bo laughed. “Yeah, I heard that Hal set himself on fire yesterday.”
Hal started to say something. Jane held up a hand to silence him without looking. Now that they’d stopped moving, she could and would climb into the backseat to beat him. Judging by his quiet, he knew this.
“I need through, Bo,” Jane said.
Bo shook his head. “The elves are on the warpath, Jane, and that means EIA is being pissy about who has access.”
“Oh, Jesus, Bo. Just open the gate and let me through, or I’ll drop Hal on you and let you babysit him.”
“Hey, hey!” Bo backed away. “My wife’s expecting. I’m going to be a daddy. You keep Hal.”
“Congrats, Bo. Tell Patty to let me know if she wants my place for the baby shower.” The price of taking over Hyeholde was constantly being asked to host family weddings, showers, and birthday parties. Since every single party triggered old nightmares, she hated the invasions. Still, if offering up her house would get her through the tunnel, she would just have to suffer.
Bo’s huge smile indicated she’d just made someone very happy. “Will do!” He glanced toward the tunnel. “I suppose since WQED is on the ‘approved’ list, I can let you in. Just be careful! Tie Hal down or something.”
“Thanks! I just might do that.” Jane waited for him to move the barrier and then drove into the tunnel.
“I take it you know him,” Taggart murmured.
“His wife is my second cousin.” Far enough out that Patty probably wouldn’t have asked Jane but would be overjoyed at the invitation.
“Jane is related to everyone,” Hal said.
“Not everyone,” Jane growled. “It just seems that way. Most of the people who stayed in Pittsburgh after the first Startup did so because they had a shitload of family staying. My family on both sides has been here for hundreds of years.”
“Anyone that she’s not related to went to high school with her or one of her five brothers.”
Boo would have started high school soon. No one would have the chance to sit beside her in class, write in her yearbook, or ask her to the prom.
At the end of the tunnel, Jane turned left onto Second Avenue and drove down to the parking lot. The elves were still clustered around the viceroy by the river’s edge. At a safe distance were the human camps: the police, the EIA, and, of course, the news crews. Jane really didn’t want to park near the reporters. They were bored and looking for something of interest. Taggart and Nigel were something new. If she avoided the reporters, though, it would be like blood in shark-infested water. She pulled in and parked beside the WQED news van.
Leaving Chesty to guard the CBM truck, she got out with her camera in hand. Hopefully she could get to the viceroy without attracting attention. The more people who knew that she wanted to talk to him, the more likely she would be blocked by them. After the news crews there were ranks of police, the EIA, and the viceroy’s guards.
Complicating her attempt was the fact that Hal, Taggart and Nigel chose to trail behind her. Mark Webster already knew everything about Taggart and Nigel. He recognized their truck and waved in uninterested greeting. Kimberly Shotts was intent on filming the elves. She glanced over, saw Mark wave and dismissed them.
Chloe Polanski, however, locked on target. She was the type of person that gave reporters bad names.
“What are you and Hal doing here?” Chloe closed on them quickly. “You’re not news—unless you run over your own cameraman.”
“That was an accident,” Hal said.
“Hal!” Jane tried to get around the woman but Chloe kept shifting at the same time, blocking her. “It’s none of your business what we’re doing here, Chloe.”
“I want to know because I am news. What do you two walking accidents think you’re going to do? Help kill river sharks?” There was a huge booming explosion and water fountained upwards nearly a hundred feet and came raining down with dozens of silvery fish of all sizes. “Because the viceroy is doing well enough on his own.”
“It’s none of your damn business,” Jane repeated, gripping her left fist tight. She normally didn’t hit women, but normally women didn’t need hitting. Chloe had been a bitch after Boo had disappeared, something Jane had worked hard to ignore at the time. She’d been under the mistaken impression that news coverage would actually help find Boo. All it did was make everyone in Pittsburgh think her mother was a horrible person, her mother included.
Chloe flicked her gaze down to Jane’s fist and smirked. “What? Are you actually going to try and hit me? You do realize I’m filming this?”
Jane snapped her fingers over her shoulder at Taggart, trusting that he still had his camera in hand. “Film this. There, now so are we.” She gave her camera to Hal. “Either get out of my way or I’m going through you.”
“Oh, the college dropout is going to try and make me move.”
“Was that supposed to make me mad? I’ve seen your interviews, Chloe; you can do better than that.” Jane gave a “come on” with both hands. “You want to fight, we can fight.”
Chloe smirked and shifted into a karate stance. Being that the reporter knew all about Jane’s upbringing and high school sports medals, her confidence could only mean that she was even better trained.
For a moment Jane was sure that she was about to get her ass kicked but was equally sure that if she could get one good punch landed on Chloe’s face, it would all be worth it. But then Chloe dropped out of ready stance and slid sideways, alarm filling her face.
Jane shifted, bracing for whatever third party was joining the “discussion.”
One of the viceroy’s bodyguards was suddenly in their midst, a tall female with her hair dyed the same color as the protective spells tattooed down her arms like Celtic knots. Anyone with half a brain cell skittered backwards, hands raised in the universal sign of being unarmed. The female elf was one of the sekasha-caste, a holy warrior thought to be perfect, and had the freedom to kill anyone that pissed her off.
“What’s going on here?” the female snapped in English that sounded pure Pittsburgh.
“We have something that the viceroy needs to see,” Jane said.
“It’s important that I see it.” The female held out her hand.
Jane reluctantly gave her the photograph of the winged man holding Tinker. There was no way she could fight her way past the female.
The warrior stared at the photo and then gave Jane a hard look. “If this is faked, I’ll kill you myself. How did you get it? When was it taken?”
“I took it!” Hal leaped forward. “I was at the hospital.” He pointed at his raccoon eyes as evidence. “And I was completely stoned. Still am slightly. Pain medication. Makes me all loopy.”