Hardbingers

2

He found the Lady in the main waiting area, sitting and seemingly staring at nothing through her dark glasses. A German shepherd in a seeing-eye harness sat at her feet, its tongue lolling. It looked at Jack as he dropped into the seat next to her.

"Thank you," he said.

She nodded. "You have questions. Let's walk."

Questions was putting it mildly.

They rose and Jack waited while she unfolded her white cane.

"Are you really blind?"

She turned her face toward him so he could see his reflection in her black lenses.

"What a question."

What a non-answer, but he let it slide.

He took her arm and guided her out into the cold, bright afternoon. They sat on one of the benches near the roundabout driveway. Neither spoke for a few moments, then Jack could wait no longer.

"Emma… the baby… I guess it was expecting too much to think you could raise the dead."

"Not too much. It has been done."

"She was dead too long then?"

"Perhaps. But even if not, the Ally would not allow her return."

Jack stiffened. "But the deal was—"

"I know about your threat."

"But how could you?"

"That does not concern you. What does is that you should know that you have some value to the Ally, but you are not irreplaceable. I think it may have amused the minor molecule of its being that pays attention to this sphere to partially comply."

"Partially…"

"Yes. Allowing me to return your Gia and your Victoria to you, but not the baby, was its way of sending you a message."

"That I don't call the shots."

"Precisely."

"But the deal was for all three."

"There was no deal. Only your threat."

Jack was beginning to see, and what he saw became a crushing weight on his shoulders.

"A threat I can't follow through on now that Gia and Vicky are back."

No way he could eat a hollow-point and leave them to face the coming apocalypse without him.

She nodded. "Yes. It has negated your threat without fully acceding to your demands…"

He felt his throat tighten. "Why not fully? Why couldn't it simply free Emma too? It would've cost it nothing and… and she's just a baby."

"You are thinking emotionally about a force with no emotion." She turned her dark lenses toward him. "You had to be shown who is boss."

Utterly spent, Jack slumped on the bench and stared at the naked trees within the roundabout, the steady stream of cars dropping off and picking up patients and visitors.

He'd been outflanked, but at least his battles with the MV hadn't been for nothing. At least he had Gia and Vicky back.

"How am I going to tell Gia?"

"She will know something is wrong as soon as she awakens and realizes there is no baby in her belly. Her first hope will be that it was somehow saved, that her infant awaits her in the neonatal ICU. You must be there to comfort her when she learns it is not."

She cocked her head as if listening.

"What?"

"They will be conscious soon. Do you wish to be there when they wake?"

"Of course."

He wanted to be the first person Gia and Vicky saw when they opened their eyes.

"Then you must go now."

Jack jumped out of his seat and helped her to her feet.

"You coming?"

She shook her head. "No. I have no place there."

She tapped her cane on the walk and she and her dog began to move away.

"Where are you going?"

"Not far. I am never far."

He watched her until she'd rounded the corner of the nearest building, then he turned and hurried back inside. He had to be there to tell Gia about Emma.

Guilt clung to him like a school of leeches as he headed for the elevators.

Tell Gia about the baby, yes, but he could not tell her everything, could not let her know that it was no accident, that she and Vicky had been deliberately run down because of him… simply because they meant something to him.

No. Couldn't tell her that. Not yet. She'd have enough to deal with as it was. He'd tell her someday when she'd gotten over the worst of losing Emma, but not yet.

At least they were safe now.

No, not quite. Safe from the Ally, maybe—Jack had made it clear that losing those two branches meant losing the spear. But what of Rasalom? Would he try to strike through Gia and Vicky? It certainly wasn't beneath him.

Only time would tell. Jack had an idea that he didn't rank very high on

Rasalom's list of priorities. Nevertheless he'd have to keep his head down and stay on guard.

Always on guard.