Of animals. Not of boys. Not even bad boys like Zil.
Taylor bounced.
Sam’s house. Nighttime. Astrid asleep, Little Pete asleep, Mary out at the day care working the night shift, John asleep.
Sam’s bedroom empty.
There was still trouble in paradise, Taylor thought with some satisfaction. Sam and Astrid had not made up.
She wondered if it was permanent. Sam was way hot. If Sam and Astrid had broken up for good, hey, maybe there was an opportunity.
She could wake Astrid. That would probably be the proper thing to do. But her instinct said no, especially after Astrid had chilled her earlier.
Boy, was Astrid going to freak when she found out Taylor had gone to Sam first. But this was the kind of thing you took to Sam right away. Too big for Astrid.
Well, too big for anyone, really.
Taylor thought of the fire station. On occasion Sam had stayed there. But all she found there was a sleeping Ellen, the fire chief—the fire chief with no water to spray. Ellen grumbled in her sleep.
Not for the first time Taylor considered the fact that she could be the world’s greatest thief. All she had to do was think of a place and, pop! There she was. No sound—unless she happened to bang into something once she had materialized. In and out—no sound, no sign—and even if someone was awake, she could bounce right back out before they so much as breathed.
Yep, she could be a great thief. If there had been anything to steal. And only as long as it was small. She couldn’t move anything much more than the clothes on her back when she bounced.
She bounced from the fire station to Edilio’s place. Edilio now ran a sort of barracks, or whatever you called it. He had occupied a big seven-bedroom house. He had one bedroom to himself, and the other six were used to sleep two guys each. It was his quick reaction force. Half the boys and girls had automatic weapons within easy reach of their beds. One boy was awake. He jumped when he noticed Taylor.
“Go back to sleep; you’re dreaming,” she said with a wink. “And, dude: smiley face boxers? Really?”
For Taylor it was like changing channels on the TV. It didn’t feel like she was moving as she bounced, more like the world was moving around her. It made the world seem unreal. Like a hologram or something. An illusion.
She thought of a place and, like tapping a button on the remote control, suddenly she was there.
The day care.
The beach.
Clifftop—but not Lana’s room. The word was out that the Healer was extremely cranky since she’d been practically sucked into the gaiaphage. And no one in her right mind wanted to piss off the Healer.
Finally, it occurred to Taylor where Sam might go to crash on a couch if he was fighting with Astrid.
Quinn was awake, getting dressed in the dark. He seemed strangely unperturbed by Taylor popping in.
“He’s here,” Quinn said without preamble. “The bedroom at the top of the stairs.”
“You’re up early,” Taylor said.
“Four a.m. Fishing is a job for early risers. Which I am. Now.”
“Well, good luck. Get a tuna or something.”
“Hey, you talking to Sam? Is this some kind of life-and-death emergency? I need to know if I’m going to get killed on my way down to the marina,” Quinn said.
“No.” Taylor waved a dismissive hand. “Not life and death. More like death and life.”
She bounced to the top of the stairs and then, with unusual consideration, knocked on the door.
No answer.
“Oh, well.”
She bounced. Sam, asleep, tangled in a mess of sheets and blankets, facedown in a pillow like he was trying to dig his way through the bed and escape the room.
She grabbed an exposed heel and shook his leg.
“Unh?”
He rolled over fast, hand raised, palm out, ready for trouble.
Taylor was not too worried. She’d done this many times before. At least half the time Sam woke up ready to fire.
“Chill, big boy,” Taylor said.
Sam sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, trying to banish sleep. Definitely nice chest and shoulders. And arms. A little skinnier than he used to be, and not as tan as he’d been back when he was a serious beach rat.
But, oh yeah, Taylor thought: he’d do.
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“Oh, nothing too big,” Taylor said. She examined her nails, having fun with the moment. “I was just out spreading the word. You know, talking to kids who were heading out to see Orsay. It’s all way nocturnal, you know?”
“And?”
“Oh, a little something came up that I thought might be more important than trashing Orsay for Astrid.”
“You mind just telling me what’s going on?” Sam grated.
So much, Sam, Taylor thought. Sooo much. But there was no point complicating things by recounting some crazy kid’s story about Drake. It could only distract from the excellence of her main piece of news.
“Remember Brittney?”
His head snapped up. “What about her?”
“She’s sitting in Howard and Orc’s living room.”
THIRTEEN
45 HOURS, 16 MINUTES
ORC HAD ENDED up crushing every couch or bed Howard had ever found for him. Not immediately, not as soon as he sat down, but within a few days.
That had never stopped Howard. He just kept on trying. The current arrangement was more bed than couch or chair. Three king-size mattresses piled one atop the other and pushed into a corner so that Orc could sit up if he chose by leaning against the walls. A plastic tarp went over the top of the mattress pile. Orc liked to drink. And sometimes when Orc had enough to drink, he might wet the bed. Sometimes he vomited all over it. And then Howard would gather the corners of the tarp and drag it into the backyard to join the pile of similar fouled sheets, broken furniture, puke-reeking mattress pads, and so on that covered most of the yard.