27. Christopher
Chapter twenty-seven
Christopher
The worst part of all this is seeing the pain on Maria’s face.
No, the worst part is imagining what the renegades might do to Zinnia.
After talking to us, Tig sends out a message along the Lux alert channel, asking for donations. We wait. Pacing. Discussing plans. Talking with Willow again.
It feels like decades pass before supplies start trickling in, but it’s barely been a few hours.
Soon, we receive way more than we need. Some of the boxes are marked with red crosses—packaged vampire blood for fast healing.
Others are labeled as forty percent ABV, which means alcohol-infused blood by volume, the kind I shared with Maria on our picnic a month ago.
A few other, rarer varieties of packaged mortal blood are among the donations.
Tig makes another call, and in response, Willow flashes us two handheld devices that transmit over the same radio frequency we use between preservation domes and reminds me of the touchscreen cell phones of yesteryear.
Tig grabs one. “The devices include a camera function. We’ll keep one and give the other to the renegades.”
Then the chief—because that’s what I’ll always think of Tig as—dictates a note promising the renegades another ten boxes if they send an immediate video of Zinnia to us and another one at dusk tomorrow.
The note continues with an offer of parley and explains the ancient idea. Three of their leaders will meet with the three of us in the picnic area at the state park to negotiate. They’ll receive the additional boxes containing one hundred and twenty pouches then.
Each side can bring three armed guards to ensure no one breaks the peace. I’ll leave a white towel and a small roll of duct tape with the boxes. If they agree to a parley and safe passage, they’re to duct-tape the towel to the old flagpole that still stands in the park.
We use my computer’s printer to print out the message on reusable paperine—a paper analogue made from recycled plastic that doesn’t need ink. I secure the note to the top box, then pick up all ten along with a bag carrying the other items.
“I’m going with you,” Maria and Tig say in unison.
There’s room for both of them. The truck will seat five—a fact that haunts me, since we could have brought Zinnia out with us yesterday, given that she was off school.
But we discussed this option many times before.
Maria is too afraid of the risk renegades pose out on the open highway, and our scavenging inside buildings stirs up the bacteria and molds that have mutated and grown since the weather collapse.
Exposure could compromise Zinnia’s health.
But my protectiveness is putting the brakes on taking Maria out into the renegade shitstorm right now. Who knows what evil they have planned next? Plus, I have a feeling Tig wants to speak to me privately. “Sunshine, I’d feel better if you stayed here under guard.”
“I’m going.”
“Maria—”
“If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for you. We should all go together.”
“The kidnappers’ note said I should come alone. Tig will be with me as backup. Invisible, so they don’t see her—”
“I can be invisible.”
“Yes, but Tig knows the weapons better than you do. And if we have to fight, I’d worry about you. I might get all of us hurt if I’m distracted trying to protect you.”
She bites her lip, hugging Sage. “But Zinnia’s my daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
Maria swallows, nodding.
I never thought I’d say that in my life, but it’s the truth. “Our daughter,” I repeat, “And I’m going to get her back. I promise.” I kiss Maria’s forehead, knowing I just made a foolish promise. But I’ll do anything I can to make it come true.
She deflates, dropping onto a chair, her face in her hands. “Okay, I’ll stay. If that’s safer for everyone.”
“Here.” I hand her two blood pouches from one of the open boxes. “Feed. Tig and I will be back before you know it.”
I swing around and jerk my head toward the hallway, and Tig follows. She briefs Zeke and Colin, and once we’re on the road, I say what I didn’t want to in front of Maria. “Let’s discuss the plan for tomorrow night.”
It’s weird talking to an empty seat. I know Tig is there, but per our agreement, she has her invisibility crystal enabled in case the renegades watch our exit and follow us. We want it to look like we’re going along with their demands.
“Okay, basics first,” she says. “During the day, a surveillance van will be delivered carrying a special response team and your doors will be repaired by an engineering team. While we’re meeting with the renegades for parley, a sterilization team will clean your living area.”
I whistle. “When you move, you move fast.”
“Live as long as I have, and you’ll get good at moving fast in a crisis, too.”
I feel an invisible hand pat my arm, and I rocket out of my seat, hitting my head on the truck ceiling and swerving the wheel, skidding in the layer of sand on the highway. “Shit, Tig. Don’t do that. I can’t see you. Creepy as hell.”
She withdraws her hand. “Sorry.”
Once my pounding pulse slows, and I have the truck under control, I ask, “What about inserting flash relays into the cavern?”
“Last I heard from Willow, they’re working on the idea.”
“And that’s it?” I huff. “What’s the rest of the plan? I figured you had something in your back pocket you didn’t want to discuss in front of Maria.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Why else would you volunteer to come?”
“Because you do need backup, and I need to assess the area myself for planning.” Tig pauses. “There’s not really much else to say. We’ll meet with the renegades’ leaders and, the ancestors willing, flesh out a plan for coexistence.”
I grind my teeth, chewing hard on nothing. There’s one other issue we haven’t settled yet. “I don’t want Maria with us tomorrow.”
“Chris, you’re not going to be able to keep her away. Don’t try. I’m surprised you managed it tonight. She’s the child’s mother. The only reason I think you should participate tomorrow night is because they asked for you. They feel like they know you, even though you’re the enemy.”
I glower at her, offended by her characterization of my role in this. “I’m the enemy?”
“Look at it from their position. You’re rich compared to them. You’re well fed. You’ve got a modern vehicle and weapons. And you aren’t communicating with them or sharing with them.”
“Because those are my orders from the vampire council!”
“I know that. But they don’t.”
I drum my fingers on the steering wheel. “How are we going to stop them from just holding Zinnia indefinitely, demanding nightly deliveries of blood after this parley?”
“The council gave me authority to offer them a truck and a dome.”
I almost run us off the road. “You’re giving them weapons?”
“No. We’re giving them tools they need to scavenge and trade. There’s talk of establishing a transition location, like a rehab, for renegades who want to join a mixed dome. For ones that are willing to change and submit to our laws.”
“Sounds like wishful thinking. I know I said to rehabilitate them, but they kidnapped a child. Maybe their brains are trained for survival mode and nothing else.”
“Look. Obviously, you’re feeling angry right now.
They took your kid. But it was spur of the moment, an opportunity grab.
You had a different perspective before—a good one.
You got lucky. So did Maria. Why shouldn’t the renegades have a chance at a better life now just because they weren’t citizens of a mixed community when the Collapse came…
or because they were turned after the Collapse? ”
Blast it. Tig’s right. Luck? Fate? Divine intervention? Who the hell knows why I was lucky enough to live in a treaty community when the Collapse came. I’m well aware of my good fortune. I’m just filled with terror and rage over Zinnia. “Okay. But I’m leading the negotiations.”
“Chris, you’re a musician. You’re not trained for this.”
I laugh darkly, no humor in it. “Do you know how many times I negotiated contracts with greedy concert promoters? I have a pretty good idea of what drives these people. That and, as you pointed out, they know me, even if I’m the selfish villain in their story.
But they don’t know you. They’ve never seen you before.
No offense, but they won’t trust you. I live in the ark and want peace…
not to mention getting Zinnia back. They’ll understand my motives. ”
Tig huffs. “I want this to work. If the council is finally addressing the problem, I’m not giving them a reason to go back to ignoring it by fumbling the negotiations. So, you may lead. But if things go sideways, I’m jumping in.”
I don’t answer her. We’ve arrived at Kartchner Caverns State Park. Weather, age, and use have chewed up the two-lane road. We rumble over the broken asphalt, slowly dipping through potholes hidden by sand, and I drive past the dilapidated visitors’ center.
If this is an ambush, if the renegades are going to attack, they’ll do it now.
But nothing in the note said I had to make it easy on them. I flip on the truck’s invisibility shield, then park to the side of the visitors’ center, not in front. Then I turn on my own bracelet and open the moonroof.
The mounted machine gun rises through the opening and swings to face out. Ghostly.
“I’m in position,” Tig whispers.
I open the door and whoosh around the truck with the boxes and sack, staying in the truck’s shield.
The moment I set the stacked boxes on the edge of the porch they become visible, so I push them deeper onto the porch, toss the bag with the note, camera communicator, and white flag next to them, and hightail it to the driver’s door.
No gunfire. No attack. I start the vehicle and pull away, heading to the picnic area.
I want to pick out the table we’ll use for negotiations.
Better to know the lay of the land and ensure there aren’t any elevated areas where the renegades could place snipers.
Better to be prepared than to be waylaid.
Satisfied with what I see, I exit the Kartchner Caverns Campground and drive onto the highway.
Tig still has her invisibility crystal turned on. A ghost lowers the machine gun and locks it into place, then plops onto the passenger seat—I can tell by the sound.
I hit the virtual button to close the roof before more sand drowns us. “What do you think?”
“It was too easy.”
“Which means they’re desperate, right?”
The second comm device we kept dings. Tig turns off her invisibility bracelet and taps the device. The virtual screen appears in front of her.
A video of Zinnia, dirty but still alive.