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IMARA LUNGED AFTER SEF WITHOUT TAKING a moment to think. Down a hallway, she passed a room on her left which seemed to be full of frantic shouts. She heard Keiko announcing updates on some hack she was performing. Half the council members were cheering her on and the other half were muttering about the use of hacking inside the council chambers.
Imara clutched her stun gun as she pressed on, keeping both eyes on Sef and the group of gangsters surrounding him. They’d all sacrificed too much to let him get away.
Willing her feet to move faster, she burst through the doorway to the outside. Once she spotted him, she rammed into Sef’s shoulders and tackled him to the ground.
One of the gangsters pulled her away and held her arms behind her back. Just as she pulled herself out of the gangster’s grip, another gangster took hold of her legs. Then, another gangster grabbed her around her stomach. The first gangster had her arms behind her back again.
She struggled against them, but soon they forced her onto her knees and no amount of pulling would get her free. Someone yanked her by the curls so her head was forced up to stare at Sef.
“I recognize you now,” he said. “You’re with that Nazari kid.” He spat on the ground so near her body, some of the spittle landed on her knee. “He’s been a thorn in my side for two years. I’ll never forget what you’ve done here today.”
“Good,” she said with a rush of courage. “I hope no one forgets. I hope you all remember that fighting for the right thing is worth it. I hope you—”
Someone wrapped a hand over her mouth and her words were swallowed up in a palm.
“You may have won this time, but I’ll start over in a new city. In a few years, I’ll be just as powerful as I was.” He leaned in close and poked her in the forehead, making her feel like nothing more than a child.
As he moved his hand away from her, a musky fragrance filled her nose. Her head drifted forward trying to capture more of the scent.
Intoxicating.
“You won’t tell anyone which direction I went,” Sef said. “I deserve to get away.”
Her muscles had been straining against the arms holding her back, but now they relaxed. Sef didn’t deserve to get away. He deserved to... To... He deserved something, right? Something important.
Punishment? Yes.
Or was it no?
The smell lingered around her as Sef backed away. He grabbed the closest gangster, Rajesh, but nothing seemed more important than taking another whiff of the musky air.
Something nagged at the back of her mind. Someone about this was wrong, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
All that effort thinking only meant less time for smelling.
Before she could sniff again, two figures appeared from around a nearby corner. Naki’s face had hardened to a rigid fear, but she’d never looked so determined.
Naki? Where did she come from?
Her sister waved a stun gun around her head, shooting blasts in every direction.
“Naki, aim!” Siluk shouted as he tackled the gangster running toward him.
Imara jerked her head and blinked several times. Sef. She had to stop Sef. Not let him go. What was she thinking?
Sef ran past Siluk and Naki, waving his arms at them. “I am not in the wrong,” he shouted. “I am not a criminal.”
Naki aimed the stun gun, but her finger paused while a dazed look spread over her eyes.
“That won’t work on me,” Siluk said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m a smell master too.”
He pulled out three tiny spray bottles and spritzed the air with three sprays from each bottle. Naki started shaking her head immediately, then she and Siluk ran toward the rest of them.
As Siluk’s sprays wafted over to Imara, the intoxicating musky scent in the air neutralized. The gangsters around her blinked. The glazed looks in their eyes fell away. They seemed to realize where they were and what was happening and at once, all of them ran the opposite direction down the alley.
Sef managed to grab Rajesh before he could run. He wrapped an arm around Rajesh’s shoulder and said, “I need to use your ID to get out of the country. You want to come with me.”
Rajesh struggled against him, but Sef held him tighter and soon the struggling stopped. Sef glanced up at the building next to him and Imara followed his gaze. A security camera.
“It’s coming from his wrist,” Naki said. “I can taste mist. He must have some hose or something under his shirt.”
All at once, Imara, Naki, and Siluk broke out into a run, heading for Sef.
Sef glanced up at the security camera again and pulled a gun from his pocket. He put it into Rajesh’s hand, nodded toward Imara, and said, “Kill her.”
Rajesh took the gun as he sniffed Sef’s wrist. He aimed the gun at Imara, and the rest of them froze in place.
“Do it,” Sef said.
As she ducked, Rajesh pointed the gun to follow her body. Steady. Until. His finger trembled when she made eye contact with him. Pleading with her eyes. Don’t do it.
He looked down at the gun, and a muscle seemed to flex in his jaw. “No,” he said.
Siluk fumbled with his spray bottles while Naki bit her lip whispering at him to hurry.
Imara took a step forward, maintaining the eye contact she had managed to get. “It’s just a smell. Don’t trust a smell that tries to control you.”
Even without Siluk’s neutralizing spray, the glaze in Rajesh’s eye seemed to clear as he blinked and shook his head.
Sef held his wrist directly under Rajesh’s nose and said again, “Kill her.”
“NO!” Rajesh tried to throw the gun to the ground, but Sef stole it from his hand before he got the chance.
Imara charged toward him. Better to act now than wait around for Sef to aim.
Rajesh grabbed Sef’s arm, attempting to pull the gun’s aim away from her.
A moment later, she tackled Sef just as the gun went off. Her head slammed into his gut. He stumbled back, gasping for breath. Siluk barreled toward him from the side. Naki slapped him across the face, which didn’t help, but it did bring a smile to their lips.
Within seconds, the three of them had Sef pinned to the ground. Another second later, Husani entered the grounds from the council building door. He had with him two women: one in a police uniform, the other a medical one.
When their faces slackened with horror, Imara followed their gaze. Sef’s bullet had missed her, but it found another victim.
Rajesh.
He lay on his back, gasping for air. Blood seeped through his shirt as it gushed out of the wound in his chest. Her hand flew to her mouth while she jumped to his side. She pressed both hands over the wound. She had to stop the blood flow.
“You were right,” Rajesh whispered.
She blinked and swallowed, then swallowed and blinked. “Just be quiet. We’ll get you some help.”
When he coughed, blood splattered over his mouth. He swallowed and said, “It does feel better to do the right thing.”
His eyes fluttered closed, and a lump caught squarely in the middle of her throat. The woman with the medical uniform knelt down beside him and checked his pulse.
Ignoring her, Imara glanced around until she met Husani’s eyes. “Get Abe,” she said through her teeth.
The medical woman pulled the bag from off her back and unzipped it. “It’s too late,” she said. “I’ll do everything I can, but—”
“GET ABE!” Imara screamed. “Husani, go find him!”
Husani clutched his heart as he stared at the pool of blood. His voice made a strangling sound as he tried to clear his throat. “She’s from the hospital,” Husani said, pointing to the woman in the medical uniform. “Abe only has basic medical training.”
“If I have to ask you again...” Imara started.
Husani huffed, regaining some of his control. “Why do you think Abe can do more than someone from the hospital?”
“Because I’m healer.” Abe appeared through the door of the council building, and Imara let out a sigh heavier than her entire body.
The medical woman’s eyes flicked up at Abe’s declaration. She immediately moved back and made room for him. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “Can you tell if the bullet went through his heart? If it did, we’ve already lost him, but if not, I have some procedures. But it’s so hard to tell without an x-ray.”
She continued rambling as Abe knelt down at Rajesh’s side. It took everything inside Imara to not latch onto his arm and bury her face in the soft cotton of his shirt.
A look came over Abe’s face as he stared at Rajesh’s body. No just concentration, but acceptance. He held this life in his hands, and for once, he was willing to bear the responsibility.
She held her breath as he worked. He let one hand rest gently over the bullet wound and he closed his eyes. He kept them closed for ten seconds, but she could tell he had the answer after only three. His body tensed, and a frown tugged at his lips. But he kept his eyes closed and breathed harder with each second.
When he opened his eyes, he stared at the ground. “It went through his heart,” he said. He swallowed. “Then it ricocheted off a rib and went back through it again.”
The medical woman’s lip curled as she let out a curse.
Imara dropped her head into her hands. Why did the air suddenly seem so thin? Abe wrapped an arm around her shoulders and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
A sob shook through her, and she pushed herself into his arms exactly where she didn’t belong. But she didn’t care. He embraced her without question. “He tried to save me,” she said with a shivering breath. “Sef was aiming for me, and Rajesh pulled the gun away, and it hit him instead.”
As Abe pulled her tighter, she heard Naki’s light steps coming to their side. “He was trying to do the right thing,” Imara said. She turned her head and rested her cheek against his shirt. Soft. She saw Naki trying to bore holes into Abe using only her eyes. He never relaxed his grip, no matter how Naki stared. Since Imara wouldn’t let go either, he didn’t deserve all the blame.
“What happened out here?” Keiko said from the council building door. Her eyes went wide when she discovered Rajesh’s body a few seconds later. She gulped. “The Egyptian Council has been reinstated. They’re finishing up the paperwork. The police are rounding up the last of the gangsters, and they’re arresting the cops that were working for Sef. And they have an entire team at the airport ready to arrest Takara when she gets back. I see you got Sef also.”
More officers had arrived, and Sef got hauled off to a police car. Everything they’d fought for was theirs. The victory might have been sweeter if the ground weren’t littered with Rajesh’s dead body.
