Acrobat by Gonzalo Lira

Author:Gonzalo Lira
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2011-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Defenestration

Then they fell apart.

“They knew we were coming—just like in New York, just like in Times Square—they knew we’d be there,” said Monika Summers furiously, panicked and afraid.

No one else was saying a thing, the five of them in the subway car, everyone’s nerves peeled raw as they all came to realize what had almost happened. Monika was so freaked out, she was hanging from the handrail of the Metro car like a nervous blonde monkey going stir-crazy. “How did they know? How—did—they—know?!?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out later,” said Russell, blinking and thinking as one of his massive hands held on to the support rail of the Metro car.

“Not later—now, Russell, I wanna know now.”

“So do I,” said Ljubica calmly, as she turned away from the window, her upper lip trembling as if it were slightly spastic.

Russell looked at the floor of the Metro car and massaged his scalp, pulling himself together.

Monika went on. “We agreed to meet here yesterday—and all of a sudden they’re just there? That’s not possible—they couldn’t just know, they are not fucking psychic.”

“Who did you guys talk to?” Duncan suddenly blurted out, careening around the Metro car, totally confused by what had just happened.

Russell scoffed. “No one, Duncan—who on earth would we talk to?”

“That thing back there, that was Tommy’s doing?” said Monika with a sneer that was too panicked to have any teeth. “Tommy led them straight to us? Not unless Tommy is walking and talking and reading our minds.”

“Nobody said anything to anybody!” Russell shouted out loud, making the random tourists and real people on the train stop and turn to look at them. “Do we have a problem?” said Russell, scaring the beejezus out of them with his size and his relative blackness. The mushrooms turned away, having no problem whatsoever.

“Look,” said Duncan, trying more than anything to get Monika to calm down. “I don’t know how they got there, but they were there, which means that somehow—”

“You don’t seem very perturbed,” said Russell suddenly.

“What?” said Duncan.

“You don’t even seem as if this thing really … surprised you,” said Russell.

Duncan—confused, then understanding—put a cold eye on Russell. “You better be careful there, buddy. Very careful about what you say.”

But Russell looked like he had no doubts. “You’ve always pushed this group into doing crazy stunts, like your ego depended on it—or as if you wanted us all to get blown out of the water,” he said.

Duncan blinked. “Wha—?”

“You were the last one to join us, and you worked for him before you joined us. You’ve always said you hated him, but that didn’t keep you from working for him for almost two years straight,” said Russell.

“You fucking weasel—”

“And you’ve gone out of your way to wave the red flag—”

“Hey!” said Monika to both of them, “This isn’t helping any—”

“I was the last one to join up,” said Tobey, “and I worked for him too! Does that mean—Russell Russell Russell, listen to yourself—”

Russell said, “You know Monika’s right—how did they know we’d be there? Because Monika, you are right—they were just there.

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