Page 131 of Almost Midnight

It must have been more of a reaction than he realized, because Wynter looked over, her own eyebrow arched. Her eyes held an open scrutiny when she looked between him and her ex-husband. She didn’t speak, but Nick saw her make a subtle hand gesture, and then the very faint sound of the music she’d been listening to went silent.

“You’re saying we can’t go there,” Nick said. “That’s what you’re saying, right? England is out for us, as a refuge. We’re no longer welcome.”

There was a silence, then Walker exhaled.

“We’ve discussed it, as I said. They aren’t idiots, Nick. They know the H.R.A. and the New York authorities are playing fast and loose with the truth. I’ve convinced them to take you to France instead. Until we can determine the best way forward.”

His eyes held a subtle meaning Nick couldn’t possibly be misunderstanding.

France.

Nice was in France.

The caves in Nice with the petroglyphs and prehistoric paintings were in France.

The portal Nick had fallen through with Dalejem was in France.

“What about your person?” Nick asked, his voice quieter. “I thought you said they were in England. That we would pick them up in London––”

“I did say that,” Forrest affirmed, his voice a touch lower, too. “But I managed to get ahold of her. She’ll meet us in Antibes. It is one of the few viable docking areas in that part of France.” He paused. “It’ll extend our trip by about a day.”

Nick felt his shoulders start to unclench.

Even so, a nagging doubt remained with him.

“Antibes isn’t all that close to Nice,” he pointed out. “There are no docks nearer?”

Forrest frowned, his eyes holding an open puzzlement.

“No, Nick,” the hybrid said. “You understand where Nice is, don’t you? That entire section of coast is part of the Dead Zone. It’s completely uninhabitable.”

* * *

They’dall moved their chairs now. They adjusted them all so that they sat nearly in a circle with the center being the aisle between the two sides.

Kit and Malek were the only two in a different row, and they leaned against the backs of their chairs so they could see everyone as they began to talk.

Everyone now knew about the change in plans.

Everyone understood they had to find a way to reach the cave in Nice.

“There must be some kind of vehicle that goes out there?” Kit ventured. “I mean, they used to send people out to Zombieland back home, didn’t they?”

“They didn’t last long,” Wynter said, giving the twenty-something human a sour look. “It’s a death sentence, Kit. It’s worse than a death sentence, from what I know. Which is why they don’t allow it anymore.”

“But Nick can do it,” Kit pressed. “It’s how I met him. He was outside the dome surfing.”

“Nick’s a vampire,” Tai pointed out.

“The point is, how do therestof us get out there,” Charlie added in a grumble.

Walker interrupted before they could get any further, his voice a touch louder, and more authoritative-sounding.

“It’s worse than that,” he said. “Their ‘Zombieland,’ orTerres Mortes,as the Europeans call it, is particularly toxic. And nowhere is as bad as the shores of the Mediterranean. The war wasbrutalthere, with vampires holding most of Europe towards the end of the war, and the seers under Charles using all manner of biological weapons to hit them from Africa and the Middle East. They used ships as bombs filled with nuclear waste, and even now, the water is so badly irradiated, its basically a toxic sludge that can kill a human being in under five minutes. There’s even been discussion of draining the sea entirely, filling it in with treated sand, or some other neutralizing agent… or even putting it under its own dome. Nick might remember this. Malek tells me you fought during that part of the war, and mostly in Europe…”

Nick blinked in surprise.

He glanced at Malek, who returned his stare unblinkingly.

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