“Let’s get going.” Kristan shrugged. “Nothing I need to do here. Make sure we have what we need to get around once we’re there. We could probably use computers for these two. That way we don’t have to find a library to check in on things.”
Lindsay looked at his watch, a cheap plastic thing they’d picked up at a pawnshop. It looked too big on his wrist, but it covered the scars even when his sleeve slid up his arm. “Nothing will be open yet.
We’ve got a couple hours. I’ll go downtown with... Ylli, you can come with me, pick out whatever you need.”
“Everyone who isn’t me or Lindsay should be trying to get some sleep in that time.” Noah poured boiling water into a cup with a tea bag and drew the fire out of the kettle. “We might not get another night to sleep before we have to get down to business.” He caught Kristan’s pitiful look, sighed, and made another cup of tea.
“We can’t take the car,” Kristan said. The ride back from the Great Circle had redefined uncomfortable, and if they got Dane out, it would be worse. Beppe’s sedan had been plenty big enough for three, but with Ylli’s wingspan, five was pushing it and six would be ridiculous. “When you guys go downtown, drop me off at Apollo 11, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Be careful,” Lindsay cautioned. “We might not be back here any time soon, and I don’t want to end up with a debt I can’t repay.”
“Hey, don’t teach Grandma to suck eggs.” Kristan took her cup of tea and poked the teabag with her finger, sinking it deeper. She looked over at Lindsay, her expression guileless. “I can get what we need without any problems. Trust me.”
“There’s some famous last words.” Noah gestured at Zoey. “Come on, kid. Nap time.”
“Let’s go.” Ylli waited until she was up and followed her out of the kitchen.
“I’ll go get pretty.” Kristan hopped down off the counter, tea in hand. “Before you say it, don’t.” She eyed Noah and Lindsay and then huffed with annoyance on her way out. She’d set herself up for an insult, but Noah managed to keep his mouth shut. “I can hear you thinking it.”
Noah finished making Lindsay’s tea and offered him the mug. “One for the road?”
Things were about to get very hectic, and if luck was with them, next time they could relax, Lindsay would have Dane back. That was what Noah wanted more than anything, though he was going to miss having first rights to cuddling Lindsay. He’d have to cuddle his fill before they left.
There was tension around Lindsay’s eyes, but he gave Noah a smile as he accepted the mug.
“Miamisburg. That explains the Hounds I felt when we were looking for Ylli and Zoey,” he said quietly, looking over at the stairs. There were still footsteps and shuffling sounds from the others moving around upstairs. “And something else was looking for us—it was like the Hounds, but I felt it hunting in my head. I knew Moore’s people were somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t figure out where without risking that they’d notice me.”
After a moment, he shook himself and took another sip of his tea, then set it down on the counter as he came over to stand in front of Noah. He didn’t say anything, just leaned up on his toes and nuzzled against Noah’s cheek like a cat.
Cat kisses. Noah remembered Rose calling it that when the family cats would rub against her. He wrapped his arms around Lindsay and nuzzled back. Really, they were marking their territory, but it was all the same as far as he was concerned.
“It’ll be okay,” he murmured in Lindsay’s ear. He would have been surprised if Moore hadn’t been hot on their heels. She had more resources than they did, and all the same information. Knowing gave him certainty about what they faced, and how much it needed to be destroyed.
Lindsay hummed his agreement and nodded. “It has to be.”
Chapter Fourteen
This rest stop looked a lot like the one Lindsay saw last week. Maybe all the Ohio rest stops looked the same. The similarities made it hard for Lindsay to shake the feeling he’d been here before—caught in a loop of failing and surviving, but never catching up to Moore...
This time, though, they’d already seen where they were going. The site of the former Mound Labs was down the road, and they’d scouted it as best they could before coming back here to regroup. Ylli had a camera, and Lindsay had risked hiding him under the illusion of a turkey vulture to get some shots of the installation.
“We’re going to have to use one of those busses to get in,” Lindsay said, turning away from the highway to look at the others.
“You can make sure no one notices if I board the next one.” Noah was sitting on the ground, back to a tree, watching Zoey work. The girl had bonded with the sparkly pink computer Ylli had put together for her to the point that Lindsay half-expected her to disappear into the screen like Alice down the rabbit hole. “We can’t take her in, and that means someone needs to stay with her. As much as I want to get Dane back, that has to be a priority.”
Lindsay looked around. Neither Ylli nor Kristan would be able to get themselves out if things went wrong, and sending Zoey in was a ludicrous proposition. Lindsay wasn’t sure what he’d consider things going “right”, at this point, except all of them walking away alive and whole.
“I should go.” He’d escaped Moore more than once. He could do it again.
“Over my dead body,” Noah said flatly. “First, because it will be my dead body if I get Dane out but lose you. Second, because that girl you said talked to you... How the hell do you think she found you? She can do it again, she’ll feel you if you get into her sphere, into the place she considers hers.”
Lindsay didn’t want to send Noah in there, hated the idea, but Noah was right. Lourdes knew him, and she might not be the only one. The hunters were still out there searching for him, the feel of them growing stronger in Lindsay’s mind the closer he was to the lab.
“If you don’t come out, I’ll kill you again myself.”
“I’ll be fine.” Noah gave him a wry smile. “If I can’t kill me, who’s gonna do it? Get me in and give me some cover, okay?”
“All right.” Lindsay could do that. “We’ll get you on the next bus that comes in for gas.”
They’d already tracked two busses that had pulled in at the same gas station. That would give them an opportunity for Noah to slip on board as a stowaway.
“I’ll get you in there and stay with you to make sure nothing goes wrong.” That would keep Lindsay from going crazy with worry that he was sacrificing Noah to save Dane and would end up losing both.
He’d never dreamed he’d be in that kind of position. “We’ll follow the bus, get as close as we can. Zoey and Ylli can handle the security system from outside to help smooth your way once you’re in.”
“And you can stand around and look cute,” Noah said to Kristan. “Or try. Practice.” She threw a stone at him and he rolled to his feet, laughing.
She got up as well, brushing dirt and grass from her jeans. “Just for that, you can drive.”
“Everything’s going to be fine.” Noah came over to Lindsay.
He had said the same thing last night. Lindsay wanted to believe him. Needed to believe him.
He caught Noah’s hand and raised it to his mouth to kiss the soft, new skin of Noah’s palm. “Yes. I’m going to make sure of it.”
Noah kept telling Lindsay it would all be okay because he was desperate to believe it himself. Hope wasn’t something he was very good at. In the past, he’d been adamant that he’d simply used up all his hope waiting for his magic. But with the second life Lindsay had given him, he’d had such things restored to him, as though he’d been refreshed.
He and Lindsay were alone in the front of the passenger van they’d rented through one of Patches’s friends. The thing would seat fifteen and yet Ylli, Kristan and Zoey were holed up in the back. Noah guessed it was an attempt to give him some time with Lindsay. It was endearing, really. Kristan, at least, wasn’t usually that subtle, even if it was a very small value of subtle.