| |
The sandy-haired man stepped forward. “Agent Stone. Agent Miller.”
Tilly raised an eyebrow. Apparently, Miller was her last name. Good to know.
Agent Miller stepped forward. “Agent Garaveldi.”
Beside her, Mattie and Trevor inhaled sharply. Tillie frowned. She knew that name. Where had she heard the name Garaveldi before?
The sandy-haired man bared his teeth in a snarl. “I’m not an agent anymore, you brainwashed bastards.”
“Anymore?” Tillie narrowed her eyes. Whose side was this guy on?
He glanced over at her. “I’m sorry, Tillie. There hasn’t been time to explain, and I don’t think there’ll be time now either.”
“You know this guy?” Mattie elbowed her in the side. “This bastard stole my phone.”
“He what?” Tillie frowned. “I thought he was working with you.”
“Why would you think that?” asked Trevor.
“Well, because he answered your phone,” Tillie admitted.
“Everybody just shut up!” shouted Agent Miller. Everyone looked at her and she pointed to Tillie. “You are coming with us.” She pointed to Agent Garaveldi. “We would like you to come too, but if you don’t come quietly, I’m sure no one will mind if we just kill you instead.” She glanced at Mattie and Trevor. “No one gives a fuck about the two of you, so you’d best just stay out of the way. We’re getting impatient and killing you is on the table too. Clear?”
Fawn stepped forward. “And me?”
Agent Miller glanced toward her. “Honestly, I’m not really sure who you are.”
“She owns the shop,” said Agent Stone. “Kind of a bitch, but I don’t think she’s actually done anything that would warrant killing her.”
Agent Miller nodded. “Fine. You just stay out of the way and you can live to sell another book.”
Fawn nodded and Tillie’s heart sank as Agent Miller grabbed her roughly by the arm. If Fawn had been willing to fight on her behalf, she might have had a shot, but she wasn’t sure that this Garaveldi character was the ally she had originally thought, and she wasn’t willing to let Mattie and Trevor get caught in the crossfire.
“Here’s the thing, though,” said Fawn.
Tillie lifted her head as Fawn lifted her hands, which had begun to glow.
“This isn’t your fight,” warned Agent Miller.
“Oh, but it is,” said Fawn with a fierce grin. She caught Tillie’s eye and Tillie abruptly dove to her right, coming up in a tight somersault just in time to see lightning flash from Fawn’s outstretched fingers toward Agent Miller. The stitcher’s body arced and she fell to the ground.
“You bitch!” shouted Agent Stone. “Do you have any idea who you’re messing with?”
“I believe I do,” said Fawn, grimly. She aimed an electrical onslaught toward him, but it skittered off a shield. “The Auditors are a power-hungry–“ She jabbed her hands toward him, her lightning seeking any weakness in his shields. “Murderous–” Jab. “Corrupt–” Jab. “Dissolute–” Jab. “Evil–” Jab.
“Yeah, okay, we get it!” said Agent Stone through gritted teeth. “You don’t like us. What did we do, kill your father?”
“Yes,” said Fawn. One more jab and Stone’s shields came down. He gasped as the lightning hit him, but either the shields took most of the brunt or his greater bulk made him harder to take down. Still standing, he threw a fireball at Fawn and she ducked.
Tillie rushed toward him, kicking at his head to give Fawn time to recover. He dodged at the last moment and she staggered past him, off-balance.
Just then, Agent Miller lurched to her feet and began moving her hand in a stitching gesture. Tillie mentally switched into seer mode, attacking the stitcher with her krav maga. The woman responded with her own physical attack as Tillie kept one move ahead.