Page 54 of Concluded (The Bureau #13)

I t was Des’s turn to sing again.

The group of them had been sitting together for what felt like centuries, since nobody could sleep, even if they tried.

They’d all told stories from their lives.

Any stories were allowed, as long as they were positive, hopeful, or funny.

Abe had the biggest collection of tales since he’d been around the longest, and he was an excellent storyteller.

But everyone had something to contribute.

Even Achilles, who shared some anecdotes from his slightly misspent youth.

Quite a few of the stories had to do with love—romantic, familial, or platonic—because those worked especially well to stave feelings of doom and helplessness.

Achilles surprised himself by remembering the times his sister had patiently helped him with homework or his parents had made a big effort to understand American customs and the English language so they could help him navigate childhood obstacles.

Periodically they’d decide to pause the stories and sing instead, but aside from Abe, Des was the only one with a decent voice.

So he good-naturedly taught them songs from his childhood in Belfast. Some of them were raunchy, but that was fun too.

Right now they were on the third round of a ballad about a drunk man who falls from a ladder and busts open his head, which didn’t seem like it would be a cheery topic but was, nonetheless, because whiskey revives him at the end.

And then something heavy landed on Achilles with a thud, knocking him to the ground and pinning him in place.

It was a body… and gods, he knew that body. When Dee tried to scramble off him, Achilles held him tight, ignoring the commotion of everyone else around them.

Dee must have been stunned or confused, which was understandable, but he came to his senses almost immediately, cradling Achilles’ face in his hands and bringing their foreheads together. “Achilles, Jesus, Achilles!”

Then they were both talking at once and everyone else was squawking and yelling and it was all chaotic. But Achilles didn’t care because Dee was here, in his arms, right now.

Except then he wasn’t, because Dee had wiggled free from his grasp and was frantically trying to pull Achilles upright. “Come on, come on,” Dee chanted. “We gotta go. Gimme a charm.”

“But we’re?—”

“Irina gave me a wish and sent me here but all the bad guys are gonna be royally pissed and I doubt it’ll take ’em long to pull me out so come on !”

It took a few seconds for Achilles to process this, then he swore. “It’s not just you and me, Dee. There’s, uh….” He did the math in his head. “Ten. There’s ten of us. I think that’s all—we searched and haven’t found anyone else—but that’s a lot of people to move.”

Dee paused and then let out a noisy breath. “I think I can do it. We don’t have time to worry about it. Give me a charm, Achilles.”

That was a little problematic since everyone was naked and there were no angels or demons with convenient feathers in their group. “Hair?” Achilles suggested.

“Too insubstantial.”

Achilles was seriously considering biting off one of his own fingers when he heard a grunt, and then someone pressed something small, hard, and damp against his arm. “What’s that?” he demanded, but he got it in his hand before anyone answered. “Did someone just knock out a tooth ?”

“Veneer,” answered Kurt. “It was loose anyway. I was meaning to see the dentist.”

Dee grabbed the veneer away. “Hurry!”

“I wish all of us were safely out of here and….” Shit. Where should they land? “In my condo in LA.” It seemed as good a choice as any. At least Achilles had some clothing there, and some cash.

After mumbling something very fast, Dee gave him back the veneer. “Hang on, everyone!” Achilles ordered. “This may be a bumpy ride.” Then he made his wish.

* * *

Several people puked, and most of them didn’t make it to a toilet or a sink. Achilles could hardly blame them, although he was too busy to give his own nausea its due. As soon as he had his feet under him, he scooped Dee into his arms and started ordering people around.

“Mazur, get John comfortable on a couch. Abe, Kurt, and Des, raid the closet and dresser for clothing for everyone. Pandya, Lu, if you’re finished barfing, clean it all up. Buhalis, see if there’s anything edible in the kitchen.”

The amazing thing was that everyone obeyed without a single quibble. As if Achilles was in charge, which had never before been his role. As if they trusted him to know what to do.

And at the moment, he did know what to do, because Dee was out for the count and Achilles needed to make sure he was okay.

He set him down on the other couch, checked him over for obvious injuries, and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t find any.

Then he covered Dee with a blanket and sat on the floor beside him.

“You okay?” He brushed hair away from Dee’s face.

Dee’s eyelids fluttered but didn’t open, and he grunted softly.

“Is he hurt?” Abe, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants that bunched around his ankles, handed Achilles a tee and pair of shorts.

“I think he’s just exhausted. Doing his thing saps his energy.” Achilles stood to get dressed.

“That was quite a thing he just did.”

“He’s fucking amazing.”

Without opening his eyes, Dee smiled a little. That was wonderful to see.

Speaking of which, it was surreal to finally see everyone, all of them now arrayed in the living room wearing various items from Achilles’ wardrobe.

It had been years since he’d seen Kurt and Desmond, both of them now in their seventies.

And John… well, it was painful to look at him.

He was skeletal, his pale skin crossed with numerous angry-looking scars and his scalp bare except for a few wisps of transparent hair.

He was sitting upright, though, propped by pillows, and his eyes were bright and clear.

Everything in the refrigerator had gone bad in Achilles’ absence, but with some help, Buhalis managed to cobble together enough food from the freezer and cupboards to fill everyone’s plates.

They arranged themselves around the living room in chairs and on the floor, and Achilles reflected on the fact that this was, by far, the biggest gathering he’d ever hosted.

In fact, it was the only gathering he’d ever hosted.

His nice condo with the expensive furniture had been his alone.

It was kind of nice to have guests, even under such bizarre and fraught circumstances.

Kurt was the first to state the obvious. “I’m incredibly grateful to be here, but you do all realize we can’t stay, right?”

Of course not. It was far too obvious a place for them to hide out—and not really suitable for the next step in the plan. Which they wouldn’t be able to attempt until Dee had recovered.

“I’ve been thinking about this.” Achilles used a spoon to chase some rice around his plate. “And I know where we need to go.”

“Where?” asked pretty much everyone all at once.

He sighed. “Bureau HQ. Assuming nobody’s taken it over, that is.” He waved hands to silence the questions. “It has plenty of space. There might be useful supplies there. And dammit, that’s our building.” In a way, it had been much more his home than this condo had been, and for longer.

“I agree,” said Abe. “For the reasons you state. Also, some places are… charged. There’s something special about them.

I don’t know if that location was always that way or if having HQ there made it that way—or maybe that schmuck Townsend did something to it.

Anyway, it’s good for what we have in mind. ”

The validation was nice, and nobody argued with the idea, so apparently they were set.

Mazur, who was very young, cleared her throat. “Um… how are we getting there?”

Shit. Nobody had a phone or a credit card.

Achilles had left his car—which wouldn’t fit all of them anyway—at HQ.

It was too far to walk, especially for John and Dee.

The two of them also wouldn’t be able to manage public transport, even assuming there was a way to get to HQ by bus; Achilles had no clue whether there was.

And Dee was in no condition to wish them all there.

Achilles started to laugh. He was aware there was an edge of hysteria to it, but the situation was so damned idiotic . They’d come so far, literally and figuratively, and now they were stalled by a few impassible miles of Los Angeles.

Abe put a gentle hand on Achilles’ shoulder. “Are there shops nearby, boychik?”

“Um… yeah. There’s a strip mall about a quarter mile north of here.”

“And you have a little cash?”

Achilles had a couple thousand bucks, in fact, squirreled away in a safe, along with his passport and a few other important papers. He fetched the money and distributed some to each person. Even Dee, who was still asleep.

Abe and Lu set off. For lack of anything better to do, Achilles started cleaning up the kitchen and his colleagues joined in right away: emptying and scrubbing the fridge, washing and putting away dishes, wiping everything down.

Some of them tackled the rest of the place, which had gotten dusty while he was gone.

Maybe all of them knew the exercise was pointless—Achilles would probably never be able to return here—but it kept them busy, gave a sense of accomplishment, and settled their nerves.

They were just finishing up when Abe and Lu returned, both of them grinning broadly and clutching large plastic bags. They dumped the contents onto the coffee table.

“Cell phones?” asked Pandya.

“Yep,” said Lu. “One for each of us. We found a phone store. It was a challenge at first since all we had was cash and they want credit cards. But Abe could sweet-talk candy from a baby. He worked it out.”

Not the least bit modest about it, Abe gave a theatrical bow. “On our way back, I made my first call. Charles was very relieved to hear from us.”