Previously
In The Yellow Hoods (Books 1-4)
We last left the Yellow Hoods (Tee, Elly, Richy,
and Mounira) at the ruins of Kar’m, a secret base for inventors and rebels
under the leadership of Christina Creangle.
Caterina, also known as the Lady in Red and the
Regent Catherine, had sent her ground forces and Skyfaller airships to attack,
aided by secret agents of the Fare loyal to her.
The Yellow Hoods, with the help of Bakon and
Egelina-Marie, as well as fellow inventive teen, Alex, brought down the Skyfallers
before all was lost.
Tee’s grandfather, Sam Baker (the Baker), and
Elly’s grandmother, Eleanor DeBoeuf senior (the Butcher), made a desperate deal
with the Moufan-Men to repel Caterina’s ground forces, saving many lives but at
a cost of dissolving their secret society, the Tub.
Marcus Pieman, who had been captured by Caterina
(along with Tee’s other grandfather, Nikolas Klaus) at the end of Book 3, has
avoided execution at Caterina’s hand and has played the Great Game masterfully.
Now, his guilt or innocence for crimes against his fellow continental leaders
will be determined at the first Trial by Royals in more than a century.
And Nikolas Klaus, is being held in Relna’s keep
in the kingdom of Belnia as a political prisoner tied to the Trial by Royals and
Marcus’ fate.
Chapter 1 –
Liddel Problem, Book 5
The shepherd stretched out his arms and yawned
at the cloudy, late summer sky. “Time to go home,” he said to his sheep that
were milling about on the grassy mountain plateau.
He pulled his grandfather’s old crook out of
the ground and cleaned off the bottom with his hand, just as he had for his
father. The hooked staff and the trade that came with it had been passed down
for centuries from one Liddel to the next. It was for good reason that they
were trusted with all the sheep of the village.
“Go,” he urged a sheep that stared at him
blankly. “Can you not see the smoke rising from the chimneys? It means our day
is done.” He pointed, but the sheep seemed unconvinced. “This is not one of my
stories. Can you not feel it in your belly? Surely you’re full, and I can have
my dinner.”
After a look of contemplation, the sheep
nodded, turned, and started trotting away.
“Listen to Chikahn, my friends. It is time for
us to get home, eat, and rest. We will be back tomorrow.” He used his crook to
get the stragglers moving and gradually they all headed down the mountain.
Arriving at the valley floor, he corralled the
sheep and counted them quickly. He checked the eyes of two of them, and the
hooves of another. The Liddel family was known for their meticulous care of
animals in their charge, and their passionate storytelling around the dinner
table.
As Chikahn was about to get the sheep moving
again, he noticed something in the sky approaching the village in the distance.
Putting his free hand over his eyes to block the late afternoon sun, he
wrinkled his face at the sight. “Is that an air balloon? I haven’t seen one in
years.”
He smiled and patted one of the sheep. “Can
you believe that? An air balloon. This is a sign of something. Maybe we will
have good fortune on this day! Wait… It looks like two… Two air balloons?
Unbelievable. They are strangely close together, though. Something is
connecting them like they have one huge basket or… it almost looks like a
ship’s body connecting them. This doesn’t look like the one used by the
Official Cartographer of Teuton. Maybe it is new?”
Clapping his hands, stirring the sheep to get
moving. He glanced up at the sky periodically as they approached the village.
“What an odd air balloon ship.”
Bat-like wings came out of the sides of the
airship, catching the wind and propelling the ship quickly forward.
“What further strangeness is this?
Unbelievable. What a story it will make for dinner: a wind ship. I wonder where
it’s…” His heart skipped a beat. “It’s heading for our village.”
Chikahn nudged the sheep anxiously with his
crook and swallowed hard as his heart sped up. His eyes fixed on the airship.
“There is something evil about. I can feel it. We must go. Go my friends! Go!
Go! Go!”
As the airship pulled in its wings and slowed
over the village, Chikahn abandoned his position behind the sheep and rushed to
the front. His ears filled with the sound of his blood pounding.
“Leave!” he yelled, waving furiously. “Go
away!”
Glancing back at the sheep, he threw his crook
and bolted down the dirt path. “The sky! Everyone, look at the sky!”
Tripping on a small hole, he slid on his hands
and knees. Brushing off his bloody, dusty hands, he watched as fiery streaks
fell from the airship onto the unsuspecting village. The pastoral silence
shattered as explosions filled the air.
Chikahn fell backwards, his hands over his
ears. “What are you doing? Who are you? Leave my village alone!” He scrambled
back to his feet and ran for all he was worth.
As he came upon the white post in the road
telling him the village was only a half-mile away, the world fell silent. He
slowed to a walk and then dropped to his knees. There wasn’t a building left
standing. Everything was on fire that hadn’t been destroyed, and he couldn’t
hear the cry of a single child. His blood ran cold.
The airship put out its wings again. The wind
passed no judgement on it and gave it a strong push.
“No!” he yelled, standing. “You do not get to
float away!” He turned about, his hands outstretched. “Where is the justice in
this? My village did harm to no one! Who will right this? Who?” He lost his
words as he noticed a strange cloud floating the wrong way. Squinting at it, he
shook his head. “Am I dreaming?”
The cloud then lowered in the sky and
accelerated towards the escaping airship. The air filled with the sounds of a
hundred windmills.
“Are you… the god of the sky?” he asked.
The strange cloud maneuvered behind the
airship and then two claps of thunder erupted from it. The airship’s balloons
and parts of its body blew apart. As pieces tumbled towards the ground, the
mysterious cloud sailed up and away, the sound of a hundred windmills going
with it.
Chikahn’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking. “What…
what miracle of justice have I just seen? An airship destroyed by a cloud…” He
glanced at his village and then at the sky again. “Thank you! I shall never
forget.”
With a deep breath, he forced himself to look
at the smoking remains of his village. “I will seek not vengeance, for as my
grandfather said, it only consumes a man. No, instead I will tell the world of
this miracle.”
He stared up at the sky, turning about. “Do
you hear me?” I shall tell all of this day: the day that a piece of the sky
fell to vanquish evil. You have the promise of Chikahn Liddel.”
Chapter – Air Apparent
“Slowly,” yelled Abeland to his crew through a
bullhorn as the Hotaru lowered. “Keep those turbines synchronized. We don’t
want to lurch to the left like we did the last time we landed. After a perfect
combat test like that, I’d like a perfect landing. Everyone ready?”
“Aye!” yelled back his crew.
“Cheeky monkeys,” replied Abeland with a
laugh. “Are you all pirates now? Stay focused.” He put the bullhorn aside and
placed his leather-gloved hands on two longer, bronze levers among the dozen
before him. Then he looked over his shoulder at his crew of eight, everyone at
their positions, each by a turbine or large, magnetic-coil gun. The engineer
sat at the back, an array of silver bells and levers in front of him, just like
Abeland’s, and a cabin door behind him.
The Hotaru eased below the tree-line and
wobbled delicately over the railroad platform, its turbines still belting out a
deep, rhythmic thumping sound.
He pulled one of the levers and grabbed his
bullhorn, which was roped to the console of meters and gauges above the bells.
“Are we ready to drop the ropes?”
A member of his crew peeked over the bow of
the Hotaru and gave him a hand sign of two fingers straight up.
“Good. Then ropes away!” Abeland pulled the
lever.
The crew below grabbed the ropes.
Abeland looked at the silver bells and their
cryptic labels. He plucked out one and gave it a ring.
The engineer rang his confirming bell, and the
turbines slowed even more.
“While the Skyfallers are clumsy and sluggish,
the one thing I’ll give the Lady in Red,” said Abeland to himself, “is that it
was genius to move airships by rail. I don’t mind stealing that, given that we
built the yigging rail system.”
The Hotaru banged back and forth as it fit
into place.
He smiled at the sound of the engines shutting
down, and the wub-wub sound of the turbines slowly giving way to the sounds of
people working furiously. With a satisfied sigh, he bent down and picked up his
metal and glass breathing helmet, and detached its hose from the deck floor.
“All clear?” called someone from the ground.
“All clear,” yelled back Abeland.
A second later, ladders were leaned against
the Hotaru and a team of engineers and support staff climbed aboard.
“And?” asked the chief engineer, suddenly
appearing in front of Abeland.
“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think
you were trying to give me a heart attack.”
The short, grey-haired man smiled. “You
Piemans are hard to kill.”
“That we are,” replied Abeland with a smile.
He handed over the helmet. “On the positive side, the breathing apparatus
worked beautifully this time. I had no problem getting air from the tanks below
deck. Check with everyone else that they found it better, but I believe we’ve
solved the problems of altitude. Now, if you could do something about the glass
before my eyes fogging up when we go into the clouds, that would be wonderful.”
“You what? You’re… I’m sorry, but these aren’t
designed for that purpose.”
“How will we know our limits if we don’t test
them?”
“Is plummeting out of the sky to your death a
reasonable outcome then?”
Abeland raised an eyebrow and slapped a hand
on the man’s shoulder. “Isn’t science about learning from what we do and
engineering about ensuring we don’t die while we do it? And are you not my
chief engineer?”
The man glared at Abeland.
“I’m glad we understand each other.” Abeland
offered a half-grin.
“Any other impossible tasks you’d like me to
contend with?”
“We need to boost the speed of the Hotarus.
Maybe by… twenty percent?”
“Why not just say a thousand?”
Abeland gave the man a sharp look. “Because I
know you can do twenty percent. The steam engine’s not at maximum efficiency. I
can feel the vibrations and loss of energy when we try to give her all she’s
got. Also, I think that finding a way to rotate the turbines, so they can push
us along, not just give us some lift, could go a long way. It doesn’t need to
be much, just a bit more. It would do wonders.”
“Hmm…” The chief engineer scratched his head.
“I’m not promising anything, but I’ll give that some thought.”
“That’s all I’m asking for.”
The chief engineer grumbled and marched off.
Abeland took off his gloves and stuffed them
into the pockets of his long, brown coat. After a satisfied glance at all the
activity, he disembarked and started walking southwards along the rail lines.
As he left the bustle behind him, he thought
about Caterina, also known as the Lady in Red. Recent reports about her steam
engine trains and new Skyfallers were disturbing and indicated potential to
reduce the Piemans’ advantage significantly. Worse was the news that the Lady
in Red had not only had the Council of the Fare murdered, but Caterina had
managed to get most of the Fare’s factions to pledge themselves to her. Her
forces and spy network were quickly matching that of the Piemans, and her
financial resources were significantly stronger.
He stared up at the sky, thinking.
“You have that sour face, Uncle,” said
Richelle, stepping off a rail-raft and waving off her four soldiers. She was
wearing a dark brown jacket and pants, with black boots and her trademark red
hood.
“Did I really not hear that approach?” he
asked, surprised, as the soldiers pumped the rail-raft off to join the Hotarus’
train.
“It’s not the first time I’ve caught you lost
in thought lately.”
He grimaced. “It doesn’t matter that the
Hotarus are still a hundred times better than the Skyfallers, the only captains
we have are you and me. Everyone I’ve tried to train has nearly cost us a
Hotaru. They just cannot think in three dimensions.”
“Hmm,” said Richelle.
Abeland kicked at the ground. “Even if each
Hotaru can take out a dozen of Caterina’s airships, she’ll overwhelm us given
the latest numbers I received.”
“Well, I have a lead on someone I think might
be able to be a third captain,” said Richelle. “They’ve proven themselves to
be… very adaptable.”
Abeland raised an eyebrow.
“I won’t be saying a word more about it until
I know that they are on board.” She started walking back to the Hotaru; Abeland
followed. “How did the ship handle this time?”
“Honestly?” he said looking back, “I’m rather
pleased. The latest set of changes had exactly the effect we wanted. The MCM
engines now provide the extra boost we need to get in the air more quickly, and
once the steam engine takes over, the MCMs allow our weapons to fire and reload
quickly.”
“I still think the single best improvement was
painting the bottom to look like a cloud in the sky,” said Richelle. “You are
aware I originally meant it as a joke, are you not?”
“Some of the best truths lie in jest. On
another note, we downed an actual Skyfaller,” said Abeland.
“Pardon?” said Richelle, stopping in her
tracks.
“We found it and followed it from a distance
until it bombed some small mountain village a few dozen miles from here. We
blew it right out of the sky before it even knew what was happening.”
A huge smile crossed Richelle’s face. “So, the
magnetic coil weapons work?”
“Magnificently.” He motioned for her to
continue walking. “Now, you find us some captains, and I will get more Hotarus
ready. Then when we hear back from Father, we’ll be ready.”
Richelle took a deep breath. “Are you worried
about this Trial by Royals? It’s been more than a hundred years since leaders
from throughout the continent have come together to judge another leader’s
crimes. There are no real rules, from what I hear. Never mind that Opa has a
lot of enemies these days, the Lady in Red’s got some serious influence over
many royal families, never mind having the entire original Fare under her
command.”
“Concerned, yes. Worried, no. I’ve learned
never to underestimate my father. He’s already caused Caterina no end of
frustration. First, she tried to execute him, but he forced a trial. I suspect
next he’ll find a way to avoid the trial altogether.”
“She won’t lose well,” said Richelle,
evaporating Abeland’s good mood.
He glanced about. “No, and we’ll need to be
ready. Any word about the remains of the Tub?”
Richelle shook her head. “There are rumors
that the Butcher and Baker have been active near Relna, but nothing
significant. Maybe it’s the last, desperate flail of a dead secret society.
Like Caterina’s will be soon enough.”
Chapter Three – Whispers to Fear
Tee peeked out from behind a big pine tree.
She pulled her yellow hood back down over her face. “I don’t see them,” she
whispered to Alex.
The fifteen-year-old towered over her,
standing right beside her.
He was dressed in his daily garb of a worn,
green, long coat and high-collar shirt. The cuffs and elbows of their clothes
were threadbare, and the stains and small tears told much of the story of the past
two months since Kar’m.
The dense forest was carpeted with autumn
leaves of all shapes and colors. The majestic trees seemed innocent of it all,
with the canopy high overhead still thick and blocking some of the afternoon
sun.
A rifle crackled in the distance.
“That was further away than the last time,”
said Alex, his Enderian accent crisp and sharp. He tugged on his cuffs and
pulled up his coat’s collar. His chin raised, he scowled at the landscape.
“See, I told you they’d go the wrong way,”
said Tee, leaning against the trunk of the tree. She pulled back her yellow
hood and put down the leather sack. She slid her backpack to the ground,
rolling her shoulders in relief. “I have to admit that was more of a chase than
I was hoping for.”
Alex grumbled, running a hand through his
short, tight-curled, black hair. “These missions the leaders of the Tub have
been sending us on are getting more and more dangerous. We shouldn’t be doing
them.” He gave Tee a sideways glance. “There’s no Tub, so why are we doing
their bidding?”
“Because that’s the only way we’re going to
get my grandpapa back or see any of our families again.”
Alex bristled. “If they wanted to save Nikolas
Klaus, then I believe they would have already done so. That Madame DeBoeuf,
Elly’s supposed grandmother, she has many plans.”
Tee raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking
about?”
His face tensed, and he turned away. “Nothing.
I’m sure she promises everyone something to keep them in check.”
“Alex, what’s going on?”
He shrugged.
Tee shook her head. “I don’t like that they’ve
been keeping us all apart. Madame DeBoeuf, in particular, has been preventing
any of us from having any time alone, but I think it’s because she’s worried
about our safety.”
“Are you that naive?”
“Excuse me?” snapped Tee. “I’m going to do
whatever it takes to save my grandpapa, and I have complete faith in my other
grandfather, Sam.”
Alex licked his lips and looked at Tee. “I
would like Nikolas Klaus to be free; I do. He sounds like a splendid man. But I
am not sure I’m willing to risk my life for his.”
“Ah. Wow.” Tee checked the cable that ran from
her armband grapnel device to the backpack. “We’re all on the same side you
know.”
He slowly shook his head back and forth. “I’m
not sure. I believe if the Butcher and Baker wanted to save Nikolas Klaus, they
would have done it weeks ago.”
Tee’s face twitched. “Is it true that when you
were paired with Elly a few days ago, you basically sat out and she had to do
everything? She mentioned it quickly before we left, but I couldn’t quite believe
you’d do that, until now.”
Alex nervously brushed his sleeves. “We were
asked to break the law, to steal maps from a cartographer. And those maps
didn’t seem to have anything to do with freeing your grandfather. We didn’t
even leave any money to pay for them. That’s wrong.” He gestured about. “Don’t
you see how they’re warping our sense of what’s right and wrong? I mean, you
still have not said anything about regretting killing those men at Kar’m.” His
eyes welled up. “How can you live with yourself?”
Tee stood up and shoved Alex with one hand.
“You’ve got some nerve.”
“It’s the truth, Tee. I haven’t said anything
because I hoped to hear it come from you, but I no longer believe it will. I
thought you were an honest and honorable person. But you killed those men when
you threw them off that airship.”
She glared at him and went nose to nose with
him. “They were killing good people. They were going to kill us. I did my best
to make them stop, and if some of them died in the process, that’s what happens.”
Sorrow was written all over Alex’s face. “How
can you be okay with that?”
“I don’t know what life was like growing up
with your uncle as king, Alex, and I’m sorry you had to flee your homeland, but
where I grew up, if a wolf attacks you, you do what you must to survive. If
there’s no cruelty or malice in your heart, then you didn’t do anything wrong.”
He bit his lip and looked down.
Tee took out a thin leather strip and tied her
hair back. She stared at him all the while. “So, you think I’m a killer? Or is
this a twisted-up sense of being homesick?” She slid her backpack on again.
He stared quietly at her.
She took a big breath. “I’m going to pretend
this conversation didn’t happen. I’m going to pretend that you’re just freaked
out because there are men with guns hunting for us.”
Tee pulled back the white sleeve of her
blouse. Studying the gauges on her grapnel-armband, she turned a dial until she
was happy with the readings. “Give me a second to finish recalibrating this.”
Alex shrugged. “Anyway, shouldn’t we be
scurrying along to the rendezvous point? We’re supposed to meet Monsieur Baker
and Richy a mile or two from here, aren’t we?” He pulled out a compass. “It’s
that way.”
Tee picked up the leather sack and slung it
over her shoulder. “You don’t want to wear the yellow cloak, fine. But don’t
judge what I do from your moral tower. You’re down here with me, and if you’ve
got any better ideas, then share them.” She wrinkled her nose.
“I thought you were going to pretend many
things?”
The edge of Tee’s mouth curled into a snarl.
“Now I will. Let’s get moving.”
After walking in silence for several minutes,
Alex broke the silence. “As the King of Endera, my uncle avoided wars with his
neighbors despite the often prodding from war-mongers and the nefarious secret
societies. He said they whispered poison and could spin one’s moral compass.”
Tee cleared her throat, her fists tightening
around the sack and the strap of her backpack. “Drop it Alex. You have no idea
what you’re talking about.”
“Then what’s in the sack? Where did they send
Amami? Why did Madame DeBoeuf send Mounira off to stay with Christina Creangle
and the Moufan-Men?”
Tee glared at him.
“It was like when she sent Bakon and
Egelina-Marie out west. She did it then told us. She claims it was because she
didn’t want a little child getting hurt, but Mounira was the only one hitting
the Butcher with questions.”
They jumped as a shot rang out.
“That was close by,” whispered Tee, pulling
her hood up and crouching down.
Alex leaned against a tree and pointed. “Did
it come from that direction?”
“I don’t know.” Tee squinted and surveyed the
area.
The air crackled with another rifle shot.
“That was even closer.” Sweat beaded on Alex’s
forehead.
“Where are they?” Tee’s leg bounced with
anticipation. “They’re probably a hundred and fifty yards or so. Let’s go this
way.” She stood up and took his arm.
“How can you estimate like that?” asked Alex.
“We did it in our lessons. Didn’t you learn
that in—what’s it called?—school?”
“No.”
She scoffed. “Well, maybe we’re not the
barbarian brutes you secretly think we are.”
Two more shots rang out, one taking a chunk
out of a nearby tree.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Tee, running and
pulling him along.
Alex looked back over his shoulder. “I can see
something moving.”
“Eyes up ahead. Run and live, look and die.
That’s what Amami says.”
“I don’t think we’re going to outrun them this
time. We had the rain last time to help us lose them,” said Alex, his voice
laced with panic, his hands slick and shaking.
Tee changed their course sharply.
“Why this way?”
She craned her neck to stare upwards. “Do you
see something shiny up there?”
“What are you looking for?” Alex glanced
about.
“I think it’s a canopy bridge. Elly, Richy,
and I found some a while back when we dealt with the Ginger Lady. Grab on to
me,” said Tee, pulling back her sleeve and fidgeting with her armband.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re going to test out the latest edition of
this contraption of mine and hopefully not die. How strong is that belt of
yours?” She pointed her armband upwards.
“I don’t understand,” said Alex, his arms
outstretched, his eyes wide and wild.
Tee pulled him right up to her and glared. He
grabbed on to her, and she fired the grapnel up into the air. “Hang on!”
They zoomed through the air until they came
right up to the metal canopy bridge. It was covered in leaves and branches.
“Climb around the edge and onto the bridge.”
“What are we doing?”
“Please, just do what I’m asking.”
“Is this safe?”
“Now’s not really a great time to be asking
that,” said Tee, looking below for their pursuers.
“This is what I’m talking about. How is this
the type of thing that a young lady should be doing? This is lunacy. The Tub
makes you think this is normal,” said Alex, getting a firm hold of the metal
slats and carefully making his way up and over the side of the canopy bridge.
“How do you even know about this thing?”
Shaking her head at him, she freed the
grapnel. “Good, it’s still usable.” She then turned two knobs on her armband,
and the cable started reversing. Sliding her backpack off, she began feeding
the cable carefully back into it.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting it ready in case we need it again. By
the way, we have company.” She pointed downwards at the confused Red Hoods who
were walking about, weapons out, cursing.
Alex looked at the fifty yards of bridge that
headed off to the east, and then the same distance to the west. “This is huge.”
“Yeah, pretty big,” she said, finishing up
with the cable and closing her backpack.
“Which way are we supposed to go?”
“Shh. Nowhere, yet. We don’t want to make
noise and tell them where we are. Also… I don’t know anything about this
bridge. For all I know, it could fall apart as we run on it. I’ve done the
dangling in front of bad guys thing before, not my favorite moment.”
“What?” Alex put his head in his hands. “Can
you just be serious?”
“I could, but since Elly’s not here, someone
needs to be snarky,” said Tee, watching the Red Hoods below.
One raised his pistol and shot into the air
randomly. He waited then fired another shot in a different direction.
Tee glanced at Alex, whose face was flush and
whose head kept shaking back and forth. “We’re going to be okay.” She put a
hand on his arm. “Really.”
“This isn’t what I was raised for. I’m
supposed to be in a royal court. I’m supposed to be studying and inventing,
maybe leading conventioneers someday. Not hiding in trees and running from
agents of the One True Fare.” He stared at her, tears of terror in his eyes.
“What are we even doing here?”
“You flew in the air to save me, remember?”
“I wasn’t thinking then; I am now.”
“Then just stop thinking. Breathe, and just
be. We’re here and we’re going to be okay.” She pointed to one of the ends of
the canopy bridge. “Over there is either a ladder down or another bridge and
then a ladder down to the ground. In two minutes, we’re going to be on our
way.”
Alex tapped his fingertips on his forehead.
“Okay?”
His eyes met hers. “I am okay. What do we need
to do?”
The Red Hoods fired another shot, this one
ricocheting off a nearby piece of the canopy bridge.
Tee and Alex froze, staring at each other.
They could hear the confused Red Hoods below.
“I can’t understand what they’re saying,” said
Tee.
Alex put a finger to his lips, his eyes moving
side to side intently.
Tee waited anxiously, scouring the landscape
for more signs of trouble. After a minute, she pulled out the pocket watch her
granddad, Sam Baker, had given her.
Alex put his hands over the pocket watch as he
continued to listen intently.
Glancing down, Tee noticed one of the Red
Hoods pointing a rifle in the air. She grabbed Alex, making sure her yellow
cloak was underneath them.
“What?”
A shot rang out.
“Yigging pargo,” cursed Tee, letting Alex go.
She rubbed her back. “That stings.”
They peeked down and watched as the Red Hoods
threw up their hands and started walking off.
Tee patted Alex on the sleeve. “See, we’re
okay.” She groaned. “Not great, but okay.”
“Yeah,” said Alex, standing and holding on to
the tree-branch-covered railings of the canopy bridge.
“What did they say?” asked Tee, standing up
and motioning for him to start moving.
“They said some things that didn’t make sense.
I think they were mixing in a language I didn’t recognize—or maybe they were
military words? One thing seemed important to them: having seen a Yellow Hood.
There’s a bounty from someone named Lou.”
Tee grabbed Alex’s arm.
He turned to see her face was pale. “What is
it?”
“LeLoup. Did they say LeLoup?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Why? It doesn’t matter;
they’re gone.”
“No. It matters. Did they say LeLoup?” she
asked, her face inches away from his.
Alex frowned at her and peeled her fingers off
his sleeve. “I don’t know. I’m perplexed why this is so important to you.”
“He’s the guy who shot Elly. Who Richy, Elly,
and I first tangled with.”
Alex straightened his collar and shook his
head. “It’s most likely someone else. You are simply paranoid.”
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