Lexicon Read Free

go.”
    “Then I’ll drive you somewhere! Stay in your seat!”
    That was an idea. Driving. “Yes.”
    “You’ll stay if I drive?”
    “Yes.”
    She reached for the ignition. “Okay. Just . . . stay. I’ll take you to a hospital or something. All right?”
    “Yes.” He felt relief. Weight stole through his body. He wondered if it was okay to slide into unconsciousness. It seemed out of his hands now. Cecilia would drive to safety. This car was a tank; he had mocked it before, because it was so big and she was so tiny but they were equally aggressive, and now it would save them. He might as well close his eyes a moment.
    When he opened them, Cecilia was looking at him. He blinked. He had the feeling he’d fallen asleep. “Why . . .” He sat up.
    “Shhh.”
    “Are we moving?” They were not moving. “Why aren’t we moving?”
    “Just stay in your seat, until they get here,” Cecilia said. “That’s the important thing.”
    He turned in his seat. The glass was fogged over. He couldn’t see what was out there. “Cecilia. Drive. Now.”
    She tucked a wisp of hair behind one ear. She did that when she was remembering something. He could see her across a room, talking to somebody, and know she was relating a memory. “Remember the day you met my parents? You were freaking out because you thought we were going to be late. But we weren’t. We weren’t late, Wil.”
    He rubbed condensation from the window. Through the whiteout, men in brown suits jogged toward him. “Drive! Cil!
Drive!
”
    “This is just like then,” she said. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
    He lunged across her, groping for the ignition. “
Where are the keys?
”
    “I don’t have them.”
    “What?”
    “I don’t have them anymore.” She put a hand on his thigh. “Just sit with me a minute. Isn’t the snow beautiful?”
    “Cil,” he said. “Cil.”
    There was a flash of dark movement and the door opened. Hands seized him. He fought the hands, but they were irresistible, and pulled him into the cold. He threw fists in all directions until something hard exploded across the back of his head, and then he was being borne on broad shoulders. Some time seemed to have passed in between, because it was darker. Pain rolled through his head in waves. He saw blacktop and a flapping coattail. “Fuck,” said someone, with frustration. “Forget the plane. They can’t wait for us any longer.”
    “Forget the plane? Then what?”
    “Other side of those buildings, there’s a fire path, take us to the freeway.”
    “We drive? Are you kidding? They’ll close the freeway.”
    “Not if we’re fast.”
    “Not if we’re . . . ?” said the shorter man. “This is fucked! It’s fucked because you wouldn’t leave when I said!”
    “Shush,” said the tall man. They stopped moving. The wind blew awhile. Then there was some running, and Wil heard an engine, a car stopping. “Out,” said the tall man, and Wil was manhandled into a small vehicle. The short man came in behind him. A disco ball dangled from the mirror. A row of stuffed animals with enormous black eyes smiled at him from the dash. A blue rabbit held a flag on a stick, championing some country Wil didn’t recognize. He thought he might be able to stab that into somebody’s face. He reached for it but the short man got there first. “No,” said the short man, confiscating the rabbit.
    The engine revved. “How’d it go with the girlfriend, Wil?” the tall man said. He steered the car around a pillar marked D3, which Wil recognized as belonging to the parking garage. “Are you ready to consider that we know what we’re doing?”
    “This is a mistake,” said the short man. “We should stay on foot.”
    “The car is fine.”
    “It’s not fine. Nothing is fine.” He had a short, angry-looking submachine gun in his lap. Wil had somehow not noticed that. “Wolf was on us from the start. They knew.”
    “They didn’t.”
    “Brontë—”
    “Shut