Prairie shuddered. “This is… unconscionable.”
Cutler tsked and pulled the sheet back from the body on the bed with a flourish. The young man’s torso was swathed in bandages. Prairie reached involuntarily to touch the smooth, undamaged patch of exposed skin above the bandages. He was not yet even a man; he was a boy barely older than Kaz, shot down on foreign soil, far from home. She guessed that he’d lost a great deal of blood, that his brain had been deprived of oxygen long enough to leave his body unable to sustain life on its own.
“You want to touch him, don’t you?” Cutler said, unable to restrain the excitement in his voice. “To heal him.”
Prairie jerked her hand away and took a step back. “No! I told you, I won’t do it.”
“Oh, but I think you will,” Cutler said. “In a few days, when you are settled in and ready to begin work, I will turn the machines off. This young man’s heart will stop beating, and oxygen will cease to reach his brain. His systems will shut down. And then you will lay your hands on him and say those words. You’ll do it because you cannot help yourself, deep inside… Heal him, and we will leave your friends alone. Refuse, and we will be forced to go find Kazimierz and Anna Sawicki. Are you willing to gamble with their lives?”
“No,” Prairie whispered. “Leave them alone!”
Cutler shrugged. “As you wish. And welcome to the team.”
10
THREE OR FOUR BLOCKS from the train station, Kaz’s cell phone made the ting that signaled a text message. He dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen.
Then he frowned and showed it to me:
WE HAVE PRAIRIE TARBELL AND THE BOY
“They’re… Oh God, Kaz.”
“You think I should call them?”
“You have to,” I said without hesitation. “Only we need to get rid of these. Wait.”
I dug a pen out of my purse and wrote the number on my hand. Then I turned Kaz’s phone off and threw it in a trash can. If these guys were good enough to track down Chub and Prairie that fast, Kaz’s cell phone wouldn’t give them any trouble. That they hadn’t tracked him down yet was proof that they were only using him to get to me.
We caught the el and rode it north. Only after we’d cleared the city did we get out, at the Howard stop. A few blocks away was a tiny park, a triangle of mowed grass with concrete paths and a few scrubby shrubs. Already most of the benches had been claimed by homeless people: some beside carts loaded high with possessions, some lying on their sides asleep, faces obscured by caps and jackets slung like blankets over their still forms.
We found a bench that was unoccupied near the far edge, and I dug the emergency phone from my purse and handed it to Kaz. “They can’t trace this one,” I said, and then I turned my palm up so he could read the number I’d copied.
As he dialed, I leaned in close so that I could hear both sides of the conversation. The phone barely rang before it was picked up.
“Prentiss,” a deep, clipped voice said.
“This is Kazimierz Sawicki.” There was no hesitation or tremor in Kaz’s voice. He sounded sure of himself, even dangerous. “I’d like to speak to the General.”
I heard a dry chuckle. “ ‘The General’? Only Safian ever called me that. Young man, it has been a long time since I wore the uniform of this country or any other. My name is simply Prentiss now. Alistair Prentiss.”
“Where’s Prairie and Chub?”
The man laughed again, a sound that held no trace of warmth. “So you want to get right to business, eh? No time to chat, to get to know one another?”
“All I need to know about you is that you have kidnapped two innocent people and I want them back.”
I put my hand on Kaz’s hard-muscled shoulder. He played lacrosse for St. Stephens High School in the city, and his training regimen had carved and strengthened his body. Despite my fear, despite the danger and uncertainty, I felt my fingers tighten against his skin, and my heart sped up to match the beat I sensed deep in his veins.
Prentiss laughed shortly. “I think there’s a little more you need to understand, Kaz. Okay if I call you Kaz, isn’t it? Since that’s what your mother calls you.”
I felt his muscles tense under my fingers, but when Kaz spoke again, his voice was cold and calm. “That’s none of your business.”
“Tell me, Kaz, you’re doing very well in your AP bio class, aren’t you?” Prentiss continued as though Kaz hadn’t spoken. “I believe Mr. Tanenbaum was quite pleased with your lab report last week. I hope I’m not breaking any confidences when I tell you that you received a ninety-two on it. Enough to bring you up to a B-plus, if I’m not mistaken.”
“How the hell do you know that?” Kaz demanded. “Tap into the Secret Service computers… General?”
I was learning something about Kaz: he didn’t experience fear the way I did. He seemed to skip it and go directly to whatever emotion followed, to the thing I would feel in his circumstances only after I was finished feeling utterly terrified. In this case, it was anger, and I understood that, understood how violated it must make you feel to have someone finding out the most hidden details about your life.
But in my experience, anger had not served me well. It never paid to get angry at Gram; she’d just laugh her hard-voiced drunk laugh or yell obscenities at me. And it never changed things.
But Kaz was a warrior, like his father. Anna once told me that her husband, Tanek, had passed along a legacy of bravery and conviction-other Banished traits that had died out when the bloodline had been thinned beyond recognition.
“I already told you, my name is Alistair Prentiss. No title-my years in the official service of our great country are, regrettably, over. Now I must operate with, shall we say, sensitivity to the demands of national security.”
“So, what, they threw you out of the army and now you’ve got some sort of grudge? Or is it all about money, selling to the highest bidder?”
Kaz knew as well as I did that if Safian had managed to use Healers to create and sell battle zombies, Prentiss stood to make a great deal of money. Unimaginable amounts.
“I shall pretend you did not say that,” Prentiss snarled. “But I caution you, do not underestimate my convictions or my commitment. Do not make that mistake again.”
“Yeah, whatever you say, Prentiss,” Kaz muttered. “You’re the great patriot, that what you’re telling me?”
“Patriotism takes many forms, young man. I hired Safian because he was a pragmatist. You might call him a point-A-to-point-B thinker. And he was hungry. I used his hunger for money and affirmation-yes, I stroked his ego and encouraged him. It was easy.”
“He’s dead. Guess he wasn’t the best choice after all.”
“He was weak,” Prentiss shot back. “Weak enough to fall for his subject, after we had set it up so perfectly. If you knew what lengths we went to, to maintain the illusion that your friend Prairie was working on those-those ridiculous holistic health practices-”
He spoke as though it pained him, as though the words themselves were foul. “That won’t happen again. I learned, you see, from my mistakes. Putting one man in charge of the operation was too risky. Now there are several. Hand-selected, my young friend. And if it helps you make your peace with what you are about to do, allow me to reassure you that these… leaders, shall we call them, are most humane. They are not interested in hurting Prairie or Hailey. They will be grateful for the ladies’ service, in fact, and accord them the dignity and respect of a fellow team member.”
“Hailey’s never going to be a member of your so-called team,” Kaz said, his voice low and dangerous.
“Ah yes, we have your young romance to consider, don’t we? How clumsy of me, to forget the illusions of puppy love, the way it makes tender hearts burst with noble thoughts. And hormones, unfortunately, which are a bit counterproductive.”