The Fount of Dragon Fire

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Camry and Silvia were clasping hands, trembling and shaking, but finding strength in holding onto the other. Silvia's eyes were wide, but she wasn't crying. She looked too horrified to even form a thought, much less a tear.

Higgens was trying to keep people away from the body, but he was a single officer. Camry could still look over and see the unnatural position that Adler had fallen in, his leg resting at an odd angle. There was a surprisingly small puddle of blood. She heard one of the president's security saying that his heart must have stopped before he hit the ground as he passed them by.

Silvia refused to look in that direction.

Ash was standing guard over the two of them. Meaning that he was preventing any curious All Goods or Geovation workers from getting close and harassing them. Camry couldn't say that she felt very protected. Not when she could see the dull black of his pistol still strapped in place at his thigh. She kept getting rapid flashbacks of seeing him holding it at the ready as he disappeared into the crowd. She didn't want to have the thoughts, but the gun was right there in her line of sight...

Ash only had to guard them for as long as it took Becker to drive down in a separate WPA van - Ash's currently bearing the president - to pick them up. He gave Camry an almost satisfied, knowing look as he loaded them into the van.

Still, Silvia couldn't seem to be shaken from her shock.

Then they were driving away, leaving Adler's body behind. Camry wanted to scream at him to go back, that they couldn't leave Adler behind.

Despite the sight of his body being burned into the back of her eyelids, she felt as though he must still be all right and if they could just get to him...

It was a stupid thought. And she knew it was a stupid thought. But part of her just couldn't bring herself to accept the reality that Adler was...

Camry choked on her breath, finding it hard to bring in another. Becker gave her an unsympathetic glance in the rearview mirror. Silvia didn't even blink, but her fingers tightened around Camry's where they held them between each other. A reflexive motion, as much as it was anything. Silvia didn't even seem to notice that she had done it.

The firehouse was exactly as intimidating as Camry remembered it. Worse, now, because she honestly hadn't thought that she would be brought back here. For a moment, she couldn't even fathom why she had been.

It took until she was being pushed into the same small storage closet/interrogation room to remember that she was already under suspicion for another murder. A chill crept up her spine and she was forced to hold onto herself because she had been forcibly separated from Silvia.

She didn't want to return to the interrogation seat, but there wasn't anywhere else that she could go. She couldn't even say that the other chair was any different. She plopped herself down and stared at the faux wood grain of the table and tried not to see Adler's body in the whirling shapes.

Or Ash's gun pointed at him.

She shook her head quickly, covering her eyes in an attempt to block out the images. The darkness only made them stronger and she collapsed down against the table, her head thumping against the wood. She remained in that position until the door opened some time later. She couldn't tell if it had been hours or minutes.

"I truly, honestly didn't expect to see you back here so quickly." Becker's cold voice sounded somehow amused as he walked across the room.

Camry felt the table shift as he sat down, but she didn't lift her head. She didn't want to face Becker again, she didn't think she was strong enough to handle it a second time. Especially not alone. She wished Silvia was here, though she didn't know what her friend could do.