Fear Her Wrath III: It Runs on Blood

Chapter 21

"Tell Lovejoy I want to see him tonight," I whispered to Ellie as we walked down the hallway together. The bell for lunch had just rung, and the halls of Sefton Polytechnic were crowded with students, which meant nobody was paying that much attention to whatever Maggie Hunt and Ellie G had to say to each other. I had my hood pulled up, and my hands in my pockets, and I was trying very hard not to walk in a way that advertised the fact that I had three fractured ribs. Ellie, as usual, looked effortlessly cool.

Though, to be fair, she also hadn't fallen off the roof over the weekend.

"Will do," said Ellie. "And, uh, Maggs, please don't be mad at me, but I may have, uh, held back some things over the past couple days while you were, y'know, recovering."

"Such as?" I said suspiciously.

Ellie fiddled a little with her Monroe piercing before answering.

"Well, Izzy got Winslow Mercer," she said in a low voice. "Like, really got him. There was hardly anything left of him when the police got there. Sloane said they had to ID him with his teeth—yuck."

"Did anyone else get hurt?"

"Oh, yeah. Two bodyguards and Mercer's girlfriend also got it. Izzy clobbered the bodyguards and threw the girlfriend out a window. Seemed like she was pretty pissed after that little convo with you."

"Well, I wasn't too pleased with her either. Are all of Mercer's girls are okay?"

Ellie nodded.

"I guess Rosie must've called ahead and told them all to clear out. So that's something. But... there is one other thing."

We paused just outside the double doors to the cafeteria.

"So, like, while you were unconscious in the cave, Psychosis and his gang robbed the Sarnoff Chemical Plant over on Verger Island."

"While I was unconscious?" I said. "Wait, why does it seem like Psychosis only makes trouble when he knows I'm safely out of the way? That... can't be a coincidence, right?"

Ellie shifted uncomfortably on her feet.

"It's not." Reaching into her jacket, Ellie pulled out a long wire with a tiny microphone at one end—like something right out of a WWII spy movie. "We were bugged."

"We were what?" I said furiously.

"Shh," said Ellie. "Psychosis must have put it in, like, six months ago. It runs on the same power supply as all the rest of the stuff in the church tower. I guess he must've been listening in when he planned his escape from Rothko, and when he robbed the armored truck."

"Have you checked for more?" I asked pointedly.

"Yeah," said Ellie. "Swept the whole church from top to bottom—your fangirls are very thorough. This was the only one."

"Well, that explains some of our horrible luck," I said. "So, what'd he take from the chemical plant?"

"A lot," said Ellie, taking a folded paper out of her backpack. "I know you're, like, kind of our science person, but you were... y'know, so I took it to Emery, and she said it looks like—."

"Explosives," I said as I ran my finger down the list of stolen items. "Like the kind Josie used to make, but enough to level a skyscraper."

Ellie nodded.

"Yeah. Very not good."

I groaned, but immediately regretted it, because it made my ribs hurt.

"We better get lunch," I said. "I think I'm gonna tell Izzy I've got a project to work on. Hopefully she won't notice the huge bruise on my forehead."