Awakening - The Last Science #1

Transitions - II

  Jackie Nossinger had a lot of regrets in her life, but trusting the tall college girl from Rallsburg wasn't one of them.

  Her battered old squad car actually managed to survive the chaos in Rallsburg relatively intact. The windows were shattered, and there was an odd noise coming from the engine, but it ran. She'd always loved that car. It had followed almost her entire career, even as a detective when she could've gotten something more normal. She'd even persuaded her superiors in Seattle to let her keep it when she transferred out, and it followed her all the way to Rallsburg—repainted to suit the town, but otherwise the exact same car she'd always driven. It had seen thrilling chases and endless stakeouts, and it had carried many of the worst Seattle had to offer in the back seat at one time or another.

  Today, it was one of three vehicles in a convoy, ferrying away the survivors of Rallsburg.

  The strange grey-eyed girl everyone tended to avoid, the Silverdale girl who couldn't talk, and the Winscombe girl had apparently cleared out the roadblock leading back toward Olympia. The Silverdale couple rode in the last vehicle with their daughter and the new kid in town. They were to take that truck into Tacoma somewhere, drop the kid off, then their daughter would destroy it down to the last scrap of metal. It was Robert Harrison's old truck, which they'd recovered from his lodge outside town. Jackie figured he'd probably miss it, if he were still alive. Sucks to him.

  Boris drove just ahead of them in his own truck. The old Ruskie kept his ride far outside town, sparing it from the magnet storm—or whatever the hell Rachel had called it. Dan Rhodes, Hector Peraza, and Julian Black were packed in with him, off to Canada. Boris had recommended it as a solid option for a getaway, but he didn't get any volunteers from the rest of the group. Jackie certainly didn't feel like roughing it, even if it meant a greater chance of discovery. If she knew those four, they'd be splitting up the moment they crossed the border.

  Boris had a bit of bonus cargo in his trailer. Jackie's overeager but competent deputy and his impossible sister were hanging out in the back, along with the creepy cult leader with the crazy voice and her red-haired sidekick. Apparently, the two grey-robed kids were keeping the convoy totally invisible as they drove, to make sure they didn't show up on any satellites or aerial feeds. Jackie didn't understand how in the slightest, but she didn't doubt it anymore. Not after the week she'd had. The Bowmans would be heading off to Canada as well, while the two Greycloaks were only sticking with them for the first leg. They'd find their own way back.

  Jackie glanced over at Rachel in her passenger seat, who had finally fallen asleep. The tall girl was barely visible from the glow of the instrument panel. She really felt for the kid. Rachel was still young, even if the world called her an adult. Folks might make fun of the current generation for being the 'adult at thirty club', but when the hell did someone really become an adult anyway? Jackie had worked with plenty of officers way less mature than Rachel DuValle.

  She wished she could have done more for Rachel, but Jackie still felt totally in over her head. She hated that feeling. It was the reason she'd eventually driven away from Seattle and never gone back. Jackie handled her cases just fine, with or without a parade of partners good and bad, but the city just kept piling them on. She started taking shortcuts and accepting the easy answers even when she had doubts, because it was just too much for her to cross every i and dot every t—or whatever she was supposed to do. It got so bad that Jackie eventually just marched into her captain's office, cited her stellar record, and demanded she get sent out to the loneliest, quietest post she could find.

  Sure, sometimes she missed the loud bustle and excitement of the city life, but Rallsburg was worth the loss ten times over. She'd finally felt at peace, right up until her nice quiet town had—quite literally—exploded.