‘I’m sorry,’ I said, blinking. ‘Did you say Nepal?’
‘I hope you will forgive me for not consulting with you first, but I took the liberty of asking my sister if she would consider having you live with her for a while. She does live quite far away in a remote mountain village. I cannot think of a safer place for you.’
‘Nepal?’ I repeated.
He smiled. ‘She could train you if you’d like. The way you have always spoken of. She will even tie a log to your back and have you run up snow-covered hills.’
‘Don’t you use my Rocky fantasies against me!’ I suddenly shouted. ‘No way!’
‘It is remote, but—’
‘It’s not that, Choden!’ I said, shaking my head. ‘Look. I appreciate that you are trying to protect me. I really, really do. But I’m not hiding. Not from him. Not anymore. No way am I letting my father have that kind of power over me.’
‘He already does have power over you,’ Choden countered in his gentle persistent way. ‘I once asked you if you thought you would ever be able to forgive your father. The question is more important than ever now.’
‘Okay, soon, this ice-cream is going up your nose,’ I said, gripping my plate. ‘You just told me you think it’s likely he’s cooking up some twisted scheme to destroy me! Uh-unh. Is this why you and Ryder are kicking me out of the club? To keep me out of harm’s way? No way. I’m not leaving. I plan to spend the rest of my life getting right up in his face. I don’t care what he has planned.’
He smiled sadly. ‘You are not your father, Bremy St. James.’
‘I know that!’
He nodded.
‘No. I really know that. In fact, my life’s goal is to be nothing like my father! That is pretty much the one thing I’m sure of.’
‘Which gives him a great deal of power in your self-definition.’
My mouth opened, but nothing came out for a moment. ‘You … you suck.’
He nodded. ‘I have been told that before.’
‘Really?’
‘No.’
I shook my head and slumped back into my seat. ‘I don’t want to hide, Choden.’
He pressed his lips together before saying, ‘My desire is not to be cruel, but when it comes to your father, in this case your emotions may cause you, and others, more harm than good. Training with Ryder was certainly dangerous before, but now you are no position to protect others. You are the target.’
My leg bounced up and down as I looked around the diner. Suddenly my eyes flashed back to his. ‘What does Ryder have to say about all this? Why isn’t she here?’
Something in Choden’s face changed, but I couldn’t read what it meant. ‘I assure you that Ryder is in agreement.’
‘Really?’ I asked, licking my lips. ‘I want to hear her say it. To my face.’
‘I’m afraid that’s not possible right now.’
‘So, that’s it?’ I threw my hands in the air. ‘That’s all you’re going to tell me? I’m afraid that’s not possible right now?’ I didn’t expect an answer. I already knew I wouldn’t get one. He wasn’t going to tell me what was going on with Ryder, maybe, because he knew I couldn’t handle hearing the answer.
He reached over again and touched my hand. ‘Think about it, Child.’
‘Nepal?’ I repeated, my voice barely a whisper.
‘The mountain air is quite lovely.’
***
I spent the entire night dreaming I was running up a mountain covered in mouths with razor-sharp teeth. Nepal.
Choden wanted me to go to Nepal. I mean, what the hell? Nepal?
Don’t get me wrong, part of me really liked the idea of devoting myself to awesomeness training, but it just seemed so extreme, and I was tired of being subject to my father’s control.
But there was the fear to consider.
I was scared. Really, really scared. Scared for me. Scared for my sister. Scared for everyone who had come in contact with me since I had left home. My father was a puppet master at heart, and God only knew what he had already set in motion. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these days I were to wake up chained to a bathtub with a hacksaw in reach. He’d probably make sure it was encrusted with diamonds just for, you know, irony’s sake.
Choden was right. Loyalty was everything to my father. I was being completely naive to think he didn’t have something planned for me. But then again, in fairness, I had been so completely irrelevant to him most of my life, it was odd to think I would actually be worth his time now. But then again, again, it really wasn’t about me, was it? It was all about him. How could he dominate the world if he couldn’t even get me, his own daughter, in line?
I couldn’t just leave though. What about my life? My friends? Pierce? Jenny? I especially couldn’t leave with things being the way they were with my sister. There had to be another choice between hiding, and waiting for my father to enact his twisted revenge. There had to be. Just then my phone buzzed on the toilet.
‘Hello?’
‘It’s Tanya from The Pink Beaver.’ Oh yeah, and then there was my job. How could I forget my job? Who’d give that up voluntarily? ‘You need to get your ass in here now.’
‘What?’ I asked, rubbing my eyes. ‘I’m not scheduled to work today.’
‘Mr Raj wants to see you now. He’s says if you’re not here within the hour, then don’t bother coming in at all.’
Suddenly mountain air did sound appealing. ‘Alright, I’m coming. I just n—’
She hung up on me.
Half an hour later, I was hurrying down the street, clutching my new eighties windbreaker tightly against the cold wind. Yes, it was horrifically ugly, but I had learned that there were more important things in life than fashion. Not freezing to death was one of them. Who knew?
Not even the cold, though, could stop me from thinking about my conversation with Choden. Nepal! kept flashing in neon pink in my mind. It was crazy, totally crazy. But it might get me closer to my goals. I wanted to be like Ryder. What better way than to train like her?
Ryder.
Suddenly my foot thrashed out and kicked a nearby garbage can. It made a pretty awesome metallic sounding clang. So awesome I kicked it again.
‘Hey!’ somebody yelled.
‘Sorry!’ I shouted back, before continuing on my way.
This was all Ryder’s fault. Showing me what it was like to be awesome, and then cutting me off. Well I say, forget it. No way. It was decided. I wasn’t going anywhere until Ryder told me face to face that we were done. Choden had been a little sketchy on the details of what was going on with her, and that did not sit well with me.
As I got closer to the street that would take me to work, I was finally distracted from my thoughts by the strangest sensation that had been building since a few blocks back. It was hard to put a finger on it, but something in the air of the city felt different today.
I stopped and focused my senses. Hmm. What was it? Everything looked downtown city-like. The alleyway I was currently in was definitely dirty, what with all the overflowing dumpsters. My eyes caught an old newspaper skittering along the pavement. Totally appropriate. I took a sniff. Yup, cat urine and rotten cabbage. That seemed right. But still, there was something … off.
Wait a minute! I knew what it was. Where were all the people? I did a quick scan in all directions. Hmm, no one but me, myself and I. And it was quiet … deathly quiet … except for … what was that? I cocked my head. It sounded like … rushing? Yup, definitely rushing, and, oh boy, it was getting louder. I looked up to the mouth of the alley. People. People running! All in the same direction!
What the hell was going on? I watched the people tear past the slice of space between the buildings. Were they running away from something?
I listened again. No Godzilla footstep sounds in the distance. That was good … and the people, they didn’t seem panicked, really, just in a hurry. I took a tentative step forward. The few people still straggling behind didn’t look scared, but this was definitely not normal human herding behaviour.
The thought suddenly occurred to me that I should probably go home. I didn’t have good luck with strange happenings on city streets. Then I noticed a businessman, walking normally in the opposite direction of the way the people had been running. He didn’t look scared. If anything, he looked kind of annoyed. So obviously death couldn’t be that imminent. I bit my nail, racked with indecision. I did have to get to work, and work was that way. Really, it seemed silly not to at least go check it out. I watched as the number of people racing past dwindled down to nothing. The street at the mouth of the alleyway was completely vacant.
I made a frustrated grunt as my muscles twitched in protest. I wanted to go, but I also wanted to be smart about things for a change. The curiosity, though, was really killing me. I could barely stand it.
Suddenly somebody shouted, ‘Help!’
I ran for the opening in a flash. In fact, I was running so hard I overshot the mouth of the alley and ended up skidding to a stop in the middle of the now empty street.
I caught myself and spun in the direction I had seen the people running. What the …
In front of me, stood at least a hundred people in a grid formation, faces slack.
Uh-oh.