Chapter 36: Blizzard

Heart pounding in my chest, I leaned forward, barely managing to preserve the appearance of calmness.

'Where is he?'

Tanya blinked. Her skin grew pale.

'I don't... this is strange.'

'What is? What's wrong?'

She raised her hand, commanding me to be quiet, and looked through me, concentrated on something that was happening inside her mind. Her face tightened.

'Tanya? What's happening?'

'Wait. I can't...'

Suddenly, there was something akin to fear in her face. She stood up sharply.

'I can feel him. I know where he is. But...'

'But what?!'

'I've never sensed anything like it. It's like... like he felt me too.'

She looked at me, petrified.

'It shouldn't be possible. I've never heard of anything like it!'

'What are you talking about?'

Tanya shook her head.

'It's like that quote from Nietzsche! His mind is... it's wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. And when I looked in it, something looked back!'

The meaning of her words slowly sipped in.

'You've never sensed a sick wraith before?'

'No, of course not!'

Sensates used their Ability to touch people's minds. What does it feel like to brush against the madness caused by the Disease? I shuddered.

'And your father, was he a sensate like you?'

'I... I don't know. Maybe?'

I jumped from my seat.

'When you found him, he found you too, right? Do you feel his Affect still on you?'

'Yes. No. It's not... it's not just one Affect. There's... I don't know, many.'

She froze, then looked at me.

'He is moving now. He is... growing closer! I think, I think he sensed me looking, and caught my Affect. And now he's on his way to its source. To me.'

Shit. The fact that Zero was coming to us on his own was great. The only problem was that there were at least three Protectors outside of the library, and if he were to get here with them around... who the hell knows what was going to happen.

'How much time do we have?'

'I think he's on foot, so plenty. But I don't know how to hide from his Sense. He will find me, eventually, no matter where I am. Maybe half an hour?'

Shit, shit, shit.

'Go downstairs, grab your coat. Wait for me.'

'What are we going to do?'

'Don't worry about it. Trust me.'

She looked at me with hesitation, then nodded and left. I grabbed my phone.

'Mickey!'

'What's up?'

My fingers flew over the screen.

'Plan C!!!'

He didn't respond for a couple of seconds. Then the phone buzzed:

'Shit shit shit.'

#

During the past month, we had plenty of time to come up with a plan of how to approach Zero once we had found him. The problem with that was that he was unpredictable. We had no idea what to expect from the meeting with an insane wraith. Still, we had contingencies. Plan C was one of the worst scenarios we predicted -- a scenario in which we had no control over the timing of this meeting, and thus had no idea whether or not the Protectors will be on our tails.

One thing we knew for certain was that Zero and the PA should not cross paths under any circumstances.

So, we needed to be in a place where the Protectors won't follow.

Walking down the stairs, I put a headphone in my ear. A press of a button, and I could suddenly hear Mickey. He was panting.

'What's happening?'

'Ah! Fuck! You scared me!'

'That's great. What are you doing?'

'Ditching the assholes. I can't use my usual route, because it's daylight, and the alternative path is... fucking... narrow.'

'What's your ETA?'

'My what?!'

'When will you be there?'

'Well I can't exactly use my car, you know? They're watching it. So... fuck... twenty minutes? Half an hour?'

'You have fifteen. Run if you have to.'

'... Thanks, Matt. I'll do that.'

Tanya was standing in the foyer of the library, putting on her coat. I walked to her.

'Matt? What are we doing?'

'We're going to lead Zero to a place where the PA won't see him. Stay calm, listen to what I say, and everything will be fine.'

'He's on his way. I can feel him growing closer.'

'That's okay. I need you to exit the library, turn left, and start walking toward the university campus. Do you know the way?'

'To the campus? Sure. That's where Peter works.'

'Great. Go.'

'Wait. You're not coming with me?'

'I'll be a couple of hundred meters behind you. This way the PA won't see us together.'

'Oh. Okay.'

'When you get to the campus, go toward the main building. I'll find you.'

'Alright. See you there, I guess.'

She looked at me, nervous. Then she closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, her usual mask of confidence was back. She turned away with complete indifference and walked into the snow.

I waited for a couple of minutes and followed.

It was hard to see her in the blizzard. The white coat she wore was almost indistinguishable from the snow, so all I really saw was the fluttering emerald ribbon of her scarf. Luckily, I knew where she was heading. Poor Protectors didn't have that advantage, and yet they were there, following me, silent like shadows.

I realized that I grew accustomed to their presence.

We were getting closer to the campus. My mind was split between two paradigms. One, sharp and burning, fueled by the cold feeling, was focused and aware, calculating every possible outcome of what was about to transpire with incredible speed. The other, a remnant of my past, less effective self, was repeating one thought over and over: shit, shit, shit.

The situation wasn't optimal indeed. But then, when was it ever?

'Mickey, how far are you?'

'Almost there. Fuck it's cold! What the hell happened, exactly?'

'Tanya had found Zero with her Ability, but he sensed it. Now he's coming towards her.'

'She did what? Is it, like, a familial bond or something?'

'I'll explain later. We'll be at the campus in five minutes, give or take. Will you be ready?'

'Do I have a choice?'

Do any of us? Maybe not.

Finally, we reached the university. I saw Tanya walk under the arch that had almost become the place of Claire's and my first kiss. But it never happened. I walked away.

That day, Zero had burned the PA facility in the hospital. What was he going to do today?

We chose the campus for the destination of Plan C because it was the only place we knew where the Protectors relied on digital surveillance instead of their usual three-man team shadowing routine. There were security cameras everywhere, filming my every move, watching. And yes, just as always, the woman tailing me disappeared as soon as I passed the arch. I was alone now.

If everything was going according to plan, Mickey was already here, sneaking into the technical tunnels that ran beneath the campus and joined its many buildings into one interconnected electrical web.

'Mickey, what's your status?'

'Just give me a minute to... pick this... fucking... lock...'

'Has anyone seen you?'

'Yeah, sure. But I stole a janitor's uniform, and it makes me practically invisible.'

'No one paid you any attention?'

'It's like magic, man. Their eyes just, sort of, slip past me.'

'Good. Tell me when you're ready.'

'Give me three minutes.'

The blizzard was dying out, and I could actually see the sun through the rifts in the clouds. Everything was covered in pristine white snow.

I hastened my pace to catch up with Tanya. Two minutes and thirty seconds.

Mickey quietly cursed in my headphone.

Two minutes.

Tanya stopped in front of the Peace Memorial at the center of the campus.

One minute.

I was getting closer to her. I could already see the inscription at the base of the memorial.

Thirty seconds.

'I'm ready!'

I took a breath, calm, collected, and said:

'Do it.'

Somewhere underneath me, Mickey had physically connected a chip plastic router into the university's grid. He was opening his laptop now, giving the malware loaded into the router a command to attack. I could almost see his fingers flying over the keyboard, white lines of code appearing on the black screen. We prepared for this. We practiced this moment. There was no reason for anything to go wrong.

'Mickey?'

'It's done. Fuck yeah!'

Somewhere out there, the Protectors were watching me on a screen, switching from one camera to the next. That screen had just turned black, because the signal from the cameras got cut. University's security was blind now, too. The only person who could see me now was Mickey.

'Watch the southern entrance.'

He whistled.

'Yeah. Transferring the feed into the AR set now. We're going mobile, baby.'

I walked over to Tanya and took her by the arm.

'Follow me.'

'Where are we going?'

'Main building.'

'Why?'

Right now, the Protectors were checking their equipment for signs of malfunction. Pretty soon, in a matter of seconds, they'll realize that the problem is not on their end. It was safe to assume that after that they'll send the team to get eyes on me. At this point, I needed to be somewhere where that'll be hard to do. The main building was vast and filled with students. Even without Mickey's interference, locating me there won't be an easy task.

'To hide from the PA.'