"Something like that." Johnis held out his hand. "How old is this one?"
"2008."
"Can I touch it?"
"Long as you don"t scratch it. The boss has won his share of races in this. Modified. I"m a Harley guy, but I don"t mind saying she"s a beauty."
Johnis let his fingers run along the dark red skin. "Fantastic. It"s like silk!" Silvie followed his example, impressed by the hard sh.e.l.l. She was still more fascinated by him than this cherry.
The attendant opened the doors and let them both sit inside, talking them through the "fundamentals of driving," as he called them. "Insert and turn the key to start it, like this. Put it in Drive. Most street racers are manual, but Joe likes the automatic. That"s the brake to stop it. That"s the gas to make it go. You steer with the wheel."
"Fantastic!" Johnis stared at the wheel in his hands, ran his fingers over the workings on the black dash, kneaded the leather-wrapped gear stick. It was enough to make Silvie jealous!
"Okay, come on, that"s it. Out. I have a customer."
Johnis crawled out, then stuck his head back in and took one last long look. "Where"s the key?"
"That wasn"t part of the deal. You mess with this car and you"ll be sorry you were ever born. In case they didn"t teach you this in Tibet, knives don"t do too well against shotguns."
The man left them at the door, and they headed behind the building.
"Come on," Johnis said, running back up the hill. He slid to the ground over the top of the hill and spun back on his elbows, giving him a full view of the Texon station below.
"Now what?" Silvie demanded, dropping in beside him.
"Did you feel that skin, Silvie? The smell of the leather, the smooth lines of that bodya""
"It"s a mechanical beast, not a woman!" she whispered.
"I have to have this Chevy!"
"There are hundredsa""
"No. I have to have the cherry Chevy." Johnis tried to explain, stumbling over his own words. "It"s a dangerous thing, this driving a This is the only car I"ve touched a I know where the levers are a It"s calling me, Silvie." Then in a stern voice, "We have priorities. We have to get to the Books of History, for the love of Elyon! We"re wasting time here!"
He jumped to his feet.
"Where are you going?"
"Wait for me by the Chevy. I"ll meet you there."
"No, Johnis, not without me. You can"t leave me!" "I have to get the keys! Meet me by the Chevy!" "He has a shotgun a"
Johnis plunged over the slope. "What"s a shotgun? I need that Chevy!"
And then he was racing down the sandy hill.
o change?"
"You speak as though I should know more than you. I expected more considering your power."
"The moment you stop watching the girl is the moment you become useless to me. Is this difficult to understand?"
"Forgive me," she said. "Meeting here, below the earth, among the dead in Romania, affects my judgment. No change."
He held her in a steady glare.
"And the others?" she asked.
"They"ll show up eventually. When they do, I have a feeling the whole world will know about it,"
"How so?"
"They"re not the quiet type."
"Foolish."
"No, chosen." he said. "Which makes them as dangerous as they are loud."
"Then we"ll just have to shut them up, won"t we?"
ilvie crouched beside the Chevy, peering through both windows at the gas station"s front entrance. The doors to the car were locked, but even if she"d found them open, she wouldn"t have dared to enter the small s.p.a.ce alone. Johnis might have found a new love in this Chevy, but to her it was still a pile of leather and metal and strange smells, finely crafted or not.
"Come on, Johnis," she muttered. Her nerves had her fidgeting like a young girl. He"d been gone too long! "Come on, come on! I knew it! He"s in trouble."
She had to do something. Silvie stood and was about to run for the gla.s.s door when it slammed wide and spit Johnis out in a full sprint.
A horrendous boom shook the air, and the gla.s.s door shattered.
Johnis"s feet slid on the flat concrete as he spun through his turn. Then he was pelting for her, arms pumping like batons.
The Chevy chirped like a bird, and Silvie jumped.
"Mount it!" Johnis cried. "Inside, get inside!"
Silvie jerked the lever that operated the door, flung the contraption wide, and piled in. The car had unlocked on its own?
Ray rushed from the station, bearing what appeared to be a long stick. A shotgun. If the weapon in his arm was responsible for the shattering gla.s.s, they were in trouble. Her knives were worthless in such a tiny s.p.a.ce!
She nearly dove back out, but Johnis was there, jerking his door open. "He won"t harm the Chevy!" he screamed. "You can"t put a scratch on the car, can you, Ray?"
The shopkeeper used the shotgun again. Twin blasts of fire belched into the air, chased by a thundering volley. But he"d held the weapon high.
"Don"t touch it!" he roared. "I"ll fill your backsides so full of lead you won"t be able to stand straight."
Johnis dove in and slammed the door shut. He fumbled with a small metal object, searched for the hole that Ray had pointed out earlier as being the ignition.
"I ran into some trouble," he panted.
"Really? And it doesn"t look to be over."
"He won"t hurt the car."
"He"s coming a"
The man was storming toward them, shotgun cradled in his arm.
"He"s coming, Johnis!"
Johnis wasn"t having luck with the key, so he pulled it back and pushed at several small b.u.t.tons on a black k.n.o.b attached to the device"s metal portion.
The car suddenly chirped again and the locks clacked shut.
Johnis looked at her, unable to hide his smirk. "Fantastic a"
A hand slammed on his window. "Out!" the tattooed man thundered. "Get out before I blast this door open!"
"He can"t! He won"t!" Johnis ignored the man and went back to work on the key, this time with more deliberate concentration.
Ray was cursing bitterly, but Johnis was right; he couldn"t risk damaging the car. They were safe in this coc.o.o.na"for the moment. But they would face even greater danger when an overzealous Johnis got the contraption moving.
"This doesn"t look good, Johnis!"
"He"s a stubborn thug!"
"What were you thinking?"
The man stood outside the car, voice muted, message clear.
"You"re dead meat! You can either get out now, and I might send you off with a good kick in the behind. Or you can make me go back in for the other set of keys, but if I do that, I"m going to take it out on you. You hear me?" He slammed his palm against the window to drive his point home.
Silvie felt like a small child cowering under a monster. "He"s got another set of keys?"
The man whirled around and stormed off, leaving a trail of furious words behind him.
"He"s got another set of keys! Stop fumbling with that thing and get us out of here!"
"I"m trying, but I can"t see a"
She grabbed the key from him, lined it up as she saw it must go, and slid it into the hole. Without a second thought, she twisted the key as their instructor had shown them earlier.
The Chevy roared and she jerked back.
Music boomed, louder than she could bear. Not just any music, but the sound of a man screaming, as if the musician was trapped in the motor and was protesting in no uncertain terms.
"Turn it off!" She jabbed at the b.u.t.tons and controls on the dash. "Stop it!"
Her knuckle must have hit something right, because the music halted as abruptly as it had begun.
Johnis sat frozen. Both hands hovering over the steering wheel, enraptured or terrified or both.
"Here he comes!" The man was running back toward them with a key dangling from his right hand.
Johnis dropped his right hand onto the shift lever and jerked it back. The Chevy started to roll.
He gripped the leather wheel, knuckles white, staring ahead like a shocked monkey.
"Faster!" she cried, seeing the man close on them, sprinting now.
"Careful, careful!" She jabbed her finger at the building to the right. "Watch the stable. Don"t run into the hill! Watcha""
"Silence!" Johnis shouted. "I"m trying to drive the Chevy!"
The man was on top of them, banging his palm on the window, cursing obscenely in words that made no sense to Silviea" but she understood the language of his red face clearly enough.
He used the shotgun again, jolting them both.
"Faster, faster!" They were going no fester to escape this monster than if they"d taken a leisurely stroll.
"Okay, okay!" Johnis leaned back, took a quick look at the levers on the floor, then pressed one with his foot.
The Chevy stopped abruptly.
"The other one!"
The car surged forward, effectively silencing them both. Like a rock flung from a slingshot, they sped across the ground and past the stables, heading directly for the sharp incline behind the station.
It was dark, but the moon was full, and Silvie could see clearly enough the metal fencing between them and the hill.
"Stop, stop; turn, turn!"
But Johnis did not stop. He"d frozen, like a boy on his first rope swing, swaying beneath the tall trees near Middle.
"Johnis!" Silvie grabbed the wheel and jerked it hard.
The Chevy spun wildly to the right. Its wheels squealed in protest. They narrowly missed a head-on collision with the fencing and were now racing beside it.
"Let go; I have it!" Johnis cried. Another fence cut across their path ahead, and seeing it, he yanked the wheel as Silvie had done.
The Chevy spun again, but this time it didn"t stop spinning. Johnis kept the wheel turned, forcing the car into an arc that filled the air with smoke.
The force shoved Silvie against him. "Straighten!"
Johnis flung the wheel in the opposite direction. The Chevy shot forward, this time headed for the upright pumps a and the red-faced attendant standing in front of the pumps.
"Stop!"
"No, no!" Having mastered the skill of turning the Chevy, Johnis opted instead for pulling the wheel to his left. They blasted by the man, who had thrown himself to the ground. Another car was entering the station, and Johnis narrowly avoided a collision.