Dark Star || Loki [1]

[65] The Acquaintance

4 MAY, 2012

ASTRID

Of the hundreds of victims trafficked directly to Mara Harris in the wake of Astrid's foolishness, she had managed to rescue back nineteen.

She was lucky to run such an efficient hospital. Her medics had stood by while Extraction brought in the nineteen to survive the journey back into the city. They'd lost one to sustained injuries: the old man who'd spoken and pleaded to Astrid for salvation. She couldn't give it to him.

And while Astrid and Angus shoved Mara Harris into a cell below the hospital, uncanny to the one Kate had been locked inside for six years, her medics had worked for weeks to save the remaining nineteen from tipping over the edge; lost and tired and scared to death, just as Astrid had been when she'd first discovered her power.

"Fred is worried sick," said Angus.

"Must be a Tuesday." Astrid leaned against the wall outside the hospital. The groans and cries of the victims had long since faded, but she'd come here every night she could spare, breathing another sigh of relief whenever one of the nineteen finally got up and started walking. Or talking. Or smiling. She liked trying to make the little boy named Ari smile.

"Little Andrews hasn't come home from her date." Angus was laughing the way he did, shoulders shaking while he tried to be as quiet as possible. A spy's work was never finished.

Astrid smiled wryly. "Fred's lucky I don't tell him everything Kate tells me. She's in fine hands."

"I'm glad I don't have a kid." Angus shuddered. "Fred's dad anxiety has rubbed off on me. I'll never be the same."

"She's enjoying her last month before Jeremiah leaves. She'll feel lonely at that school next year." Astrid chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Kate doesn't trust friends very much."

Angus's head fell back against the wall. "I'm glad we put that psycho bitch in a cell."

"If only we knew how to get information out of her," said Astrid. "The woman's a steel wall."

"She still thinks she can escape. She's counting on something to give her the chance to break out."

"She'll be waiting until she's a skeleton, if I have anything to do with it."

Angus snorted. "Have you checked on the little Gomez?"

Astrid nodded, an absent smile pulling her lips. "She's getting bigger."

"As humans tend to do."

Astrid shoved him. "Asshole."

"I'm glad the cabrón is enjoying his time off."

"If only I could afford to give you some time off."

Angus nudged her with an elbow. "I'm flattered."

Astrid watched the nineteen through the doorway for a moment before she said, "I wonder if we could do what Mara couldn't."

Angus frowned. "You mean-"

"Give them a chance to fight, if that's what they want." Astrid looked up at him. "They're afraid, like I was for so long. But if I could help them learn their way around it..."

"They could be strong." Angus gave a weighty shrug. "I'd imagine a lot of the people in there would like that chance."

"But if we could get my mother's blood out of them..."

"Is that what you'd want?" Angus raised a brow. "If you had the chance, would you get rid of your power?"

Astrid's gaze drifted back towards the nineteen, sitting up in their hospital beds or wandering around and stretching out their weak muscles. She was in a position to help them, to give them an opportunity to be strong when all they'd ever known was fear. So she smiled fondly, watching little Ari chase a nurse around his bed while the boy's mother, Anika, laughed, rubbing her once-broken ankle, and said, "No, I wouldn't."