Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(77)

“Hold it!”

It had taken only a moment. The flash was gone, and when my eyes readjusted, Rhys was next to me, holding his gun up at the unhinged girl still pointing a gun at his mother’s head. Brendan shut the door, moving the other guard’s limp body next to the one Jessie had killed.

“She’s crazy,” I hissed, rubbing my eyes.

Rhys kept his gun level. “Yeah, I know.”

Jessie positively lit up at the sight of him. Her body twitched slightly as if she couldn’t contain it. “Hi, Aidan!” She didn’t seem to mind or even notice when Brendan cocked his gun in her direction. “I always said I wanted to meet your mom, remember?”

It was incredible. One minute she seemed determined to kill him and the next she looked as if she wanted to kiss him.

Rhys didn’t move. “I remember.”

“You promised you’d take me. But then, you promised a lot of dumb shit that didn’t end up happening, didn’t you?” Her hand clasped tighter around Naomi’s mouth. “Well, I’m here now,” she sang. “I’m alive, Aidan. Aren’t you surprised? Don’t I look pretty now? The surgeries turned out great, didn’t they?”

“Let my mother go,” Rhys ordered her calmly. “You’re surrounded.”

He nodded at the window behind her, and in the darkness I could see a figure moving, a gun glinting.

“Director Prince Senior is managing things outside. Nobody is any the wiser and we’d like to keep it that way.” Brendan followed suit in training his revolver on Jessie. “It’s over, Ms. Stone. Slide your gun to me and come with us—quietly. Let’s not disturb the people here.”

“It’s over . . . ?” Jessie was enjoying this. She stifled a laugh. “Gonna take me in, huh?”

“Don’t worry.” Brendan smirked. “You’ll be with your friend Vasily in the Hole.”

A shadow passed over her porcelain face. “There’s only one Devil’s Hole.”

It was slight, but I caught it: the twitch of Rhys’s hand, just as Jessie’s pants pocket vibrated.

“Oh, good!” Her eyes were back to shining again. “Finally!”

She lowered her gun, pushing Naomi forward with a shove to the back of her head.

“Mom!” Rhys and Brendan cried at the same time, though neither lowered his gun.

As Jessie began rubbing her neck again, I grabbed Naomi’s trembling hand, pulling her behind me. “You can have this, too!” said Jessie. “You’ve been looking for it, right?”

She slipped her hand into her pocket and threw something small and glittering at the floor. A wedding band. Naomi’s? I didn’t know what she was up to, or how petty theft featured into Saul’s grand plan, but whatever was going on ended now.

“Brendan’s right.” I lifted my right hand, ready to fight. “It’s over. You’re outgunned. And I’m not going anywhere.”

“Well, you got one right. I am outgunned.” In a show of surrender, Jessie bent low and slid the gun right to my feet. “We’ll see about the other thing.”

Shutting her eyes, Jessie breathed deeply, lowering her head.

“Mom, go,” said Rhys, inching toward Jessie carefully. “Go find Dad.”

“Wait, Aidan.” Naomi lifted her hand up. “Something’s not right. She’s—”

Someone stirred behind us.

Someone dead.

“Oh my god,” I breathed, my chest heaving. Rhys and Brendan whipped around, training the gun at the dead security agent with the tiny hole dripping blood out of his head. His corpse was suddenly rising to its feet, his eyes rolling back.

“What the hell?” Brendan yelled. “What . . . what?”

They shot at him, several rounds each splitting the air. The guard twitched and jerked but kept stumbling forward. The same as in the tunnels. Jessie . . . Jessie was—

“Maia. Look at me.”

I turned back around to find Jessie holding up a tiny black phone—the one I’d almost picked up for her in that hallway. It stopped buzzing.

“Listen” was all she said before she clicked the button.

That noise . . . sounds like interference. . . .

That was the last thought I had. My mind went blank.

The door burst open.

“What’s going on in here? Naomi?”

Blackwell. I didn’t register the terror in his eyes as he saw the guns, the dead security guard lurching toward two freaked-out agents and their equally spooked mother. But then, I didn’t register much of anything at all.

The interference. Its hellish screeching tore through my brain as I picked up the gun at my feet and shot Blackwell in the stomach.

“Maia!”

It was a bad shot, or maybe Blackwell didn’t react quickly enough. It hit the left side of his gut. Gasping in pain, he fell back against the doorframe.

People were yelling various things I didn’t care about. There was a shot through the window that shattered the glass and hit Jessie’s shoulder. I took care of the agent who fired the bullet, swinging my arms fast, letting the flames dash across his face. Now he was screaming.

The back of my neck was burning. It was out of control now. But my feet carried me away nonetheless, as fast as I could run in heels, my gun still in my hands, even when Rhys yelled at me to stop. Jessie and I were out the broken window, my dress tearing a bit from the shards of glass. Together we ran down the grassy courtyard off the cobbled path.