Janie pulled back, her face wrinkling in disgust. “But you’re not sure. You’re not sure what you saw.”
Bane pulled her back around to face him. “But I’m sure of what I felt,” he said, remembering the numbing heat that had surged into him in the death-filled apartment. “This boy’s got some crazy power. Maybe COBRA gave it to him and wants it back, I just don’t know.” But suddenly he did. “Or maybe it all has something to do with the disappearing plane that cost Jake Del Gennio his life. Maybe that’s—”
“You’re not making sense,” Janie broke in anxiously.
“That’s the point. None of this makes sense. Forty men in New York looking for one boy. A contract assassin hired to bring him in. No, none of it makes sense, and it all started when Davey Phelps didn’t come home after getting off Flight 22.”
“Didn’t come home? What are you talking about?”
Bane explained that part of it to her.
“So is that where you’ll take him from here?” Janie wondered. “Back to the Martinis?”
“It won’t be safe for him there either. COBRA won’t be giving up the chase so fast.”
“Then what do we do?”
“First, we get you out of here.”
Janie shook her head, slow but sure. “Uh-uh. There won’t be any running for me. This is my home and that’s the way it’s gonna stay.”
“That’s probably the same way Jake Del Gennio felt. If they made him disappear, they can do the same for you.” Bane sighed. “At least let me call Harry and have him come over and watch the place while I take the kid to a safer lodging.”
“Wouldn’t make a difference if I said no, would it?” she asked.
“You need protection.”
Janie moved away from him, eyes cold. “And you need a bandage on that shoulder. Let me see what I can dig out of the medicine cabinet.”
Bane pulled a Coke from the fridge before waking Davey up at three A.M. Janie had fallen asleep in front of the television in her bedroom, leaving them alone in the den.
On the first touch to his shoulder, Davey sprang to a sitting position, eyes flashing madly, trying to accustom himself to his new surroundings.
“Wh-wh-where am I?” he stammered. “Who are you?”
Bane handed him the can. “Drink this and relax. You’ve been through an awful lot tonight. Let it come back slowly.”
Davey took the Coke hesitantly and gulped a third of it down. The blanket had slipped down beneath his waist; his shivering was apparently over. Then Bane saw him shudder beneath his leather jacket.
“The apartment! It all happened at the apartment!” Davey’s deep-set eyes sought out Bane’s. “You were there. I remember now. Those men wanted to kill me and you stopped one. Hey, your shirt’s got blood on it.”
“I got a little careless.” Bane sat down next to him on the couch. “Well, Davey, we better figure out what to do with you.”
“How did you know my name? I never told you my name,” the boy snapped defensively, shrinking away.
“My name’s Josh. I’m sorry we haven’t been formally introduced. I got your name from the Martinis.”
“You knew where to look for me?”
“So did the men who found you at the apartment.”
Davey shrugged and curled his lips. “They’ve been after me since it all started.” He looked at Bane suddenly and recognition flashed in his eyes. “Say, wait a minute, I do know you. You were the man I saw at Rockefeller Center yesterday. You chased me a couple blocks. Why’d you do that?”
“You looked like someone I used to know,” Bane said distantly.
“I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
“Hurt me?”
“The fall. It looked like you might’ve broken something.”
“Because of some cripple on a skate-wheel platform, not you.”
“I made him do it,” Davey said simply. “I put the thought in his head.”
Bane was speechless. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall together.
“I tried to make The Chill work on you first,” the boy went on, “but I couldn’t. Something blocked it.”
“The … Chill?” Bane asked, recalling the feeling of having something push back against him suddenly as he had run.
Davey nodded. “That’s what I call it ’cause that’s what it feels like when I make it. ’Cept it didn’t work for a while tonight and it really hurts my head now.”
“That’s how you killed the giant in the apartment….”
“But he was going to kill me! I know it! I saw it!” Davey roared. “I only did exactly to him what he was planning to do to me. Sort of like a mirror. I gave the reflection back to him. The Vibes showed it to me. They’ve showed me lots of things the last couple days.”
“The Vibes?”
“That’s what I call them anyway. They’re what told me you were looking at me by the fountain and most of the time they warned me when the Men were close. Other times, they showed me things I didn’t want to see but it doesn’t help to close my eyes ’cause I guess The Vibes come from the inside, kinda like a movie projector in my head.”
“And you can use The Chill as much as you want?”
Davey looked down. “For a while I could. Then it started to hurt my head, so the last couple times I’ve only been able to make it work when I really needed it. Like tonight.”
“You disappeared from the airport after your flight came in.”
“’Cause they were watching me.”
“But you never went home.”
“’Cause I knew they were watching it too.”
“But you called tonight.”
“I got … lonely.” Davey eyed Bane curiously. “You said I reminded you of somebody. Who?”
“A boy who would’ve been about your age. He was killed in a car accident five years ago. He was my stepson.”
Davey looked away. “My parents are both dead too.”
Bane squeezed his shoulder tenderly. “I know.”
“How come you know so much about me?”
Bane pulled his hand back. “Something happened on the flight you took back to New York. You remember anything about it?”
“Nah. I slept most of the way. Had this funny nightmare where I thought I woke up, only everything was funny colored. The light was gone, but it wasn’t dark either. And where all the other people had been sitting, all I could see were traces of them like they weren’t really there anymore. I could see right through them.”
“That’s all you remember about the nightmare?”
“The weird thing is I don’t remember waking up, or the plane landing, or getting off it. Next thing I knew I was standing in the terminal. I must’ve been in a trance or something.” Davey regarded Bane hopefully. “Are you gonna take me home now?”
Bane shook his head slowly. “It’s not safe yet.”
“Shit,” Davey muttered; then quickly he raised his hand to his mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.”
Bane smiled. “That’s okay. You deserve it.”
Davey smiled back and the bond between them tightened. Then Davey’s smile disappeared. “There’s something I want to tell you.”
“I’m listening.”
“I don’t exactly know how to say it. It’s … The Vibes. A couple times I’ve felt them real strong, different from the other times, stronger but farther off.”
“Like what you’re seeing might be coming more in the future?”
“I guess…. But these Vibes have been the worst of all. I don’t see anything specific, just lots of things melting, breaking apart, and people—” He looked suddenly at Bane. “Something awful’s gonna happen. Lots of people are gonna die.”
“For now I’m just worried about you.”
Davey toyed with the seams of his jeans. “I’m scared, Josh, real scared. I don’t know what I did, I don’t know why these guys are after me. Why do they want to kill me? What did I do?” He paused, swiped at his watery eyes. “Can I … go home now?”