Page 5 of Wonder
He blew out a breath. “It’s the most effective and fastest option. If you want to be quiet, you can’t slash the tires, because the inner tube will burst. Lettin’ the air out through the valve will take too long.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, you can try blockin’ the exhaust pipe, but whatever you put in there will most likely get blown out by the air pressure when the engine turns on.”
I looked around. “Would rocks be heavy enough?”
“Only if you wedge ‘em in there really good.”
I resisted a hysterical giggle at the innuendo my brain wanted to make. Refocusing, I frowned. “It wouldn’t be airtight.”
“No, but the van’d have trouble getting’ very far. If you can open one of the doors, you can remove the fuses. But you’ll need to find out where the fuse box is, and that might take a good minute.”
I ran my hand over my face. “Fuck. I’ll start with the exhaust and see how I feel about opening the hood.”
“Please be safe.”
“Thanks. You’re the best, Tucker.”
“You’re buying the beer later.” He hung up.
I found some decent-sized rocks almost under my feet next to the fenceposts, so I grabbed some likely-looking options and stuck them in my pants pocket. I crept around the fence and braved a run to the vampires’ house, my hand clamped over my pocket to keep the rocks from clacking against each other. I crept along the front of the house, ducking under the windows and hurrying past the front door, until I could sprint to the rear of the van.
I took a photo of the license plate and sent it to Tucker just in case. Then I pushed three rocks into the van’s tailpipe as hard as I could without making a ton of noise. I wasn’t sure they’d stay, but it was better than nothing.
I heard raised voices in the house. Fuck. I crouched down by the rear passenger tire, the one furthest from the windows, and held my breath until the voices went quiet. The front door didn’t open.
If I was going to try to raise the van’s hood, I needed to do it sooner rather than later.
Wishing I believed in Tia Esperanza’s religion, I crab-walked forward until I was next to the front tire. Peeking over the hood, I couldn’t see anyone through the windows. Hopefully the vampires were occupied at the back of the house.
I didn’t let myself think, I just jumped to the front of the van and felt under the edge of the hood for the release lever.Yes!
The hood popped open with a small thunk, but unless the vampires in the house were listening for it, I didn’t think they’d have noticed. I held the hood up only as high as I needed to get my left arm inside, then I started pulling on things. Some stuff I couldn’t budge, but other things came loose. I counted in my head, resolving to be done after thirty seconds. Except right as I counted outtwenty-nine, I found what had to be a fuse box. Ten extra seconds scored me a handful of fuses.
I lowered the hood but didn’t bother latching it. Even if the vampires noticed the van had been messed with, they still wouldn’t be able to drive it.
The yelling in the house started up again, and I could make out the words, “Move it! Come on!” I pocketed the fuses and ran for the side of the house, intending to head around the corrals and back to the trees.
The vampires would see me if they looked out any of the back windows or if they came out the front and went to the passenger side of the van. They were faster and stronger than I was, and if I didn’t make it to the trees before they saw me, I was screwed.
I gave up on being stealthy and ran.
TWENTY MILES NORTH OF GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – MARCH, 1946
There weren’t any bodies. A few spatters of blood, but no bodies. The five estate cars I’d sent to meet Prince Nicol and his party at the airfield were parked by the side of the road, every door open. Drops of blood were visible here and there on the road, but not enough for anyone to have bled out. A few bullets had punctured the upholstery inside two of the cars, but there were no corresponding bloodstains indicating someone had been wounded or killed.
All five Guards who’d been driving had pulled over, then every Guard plus Prince Nicol had been forced or manipulated into exiting their vehicles. Kinnon had been in charge of the Guard contingent. I’d been training him to take my place as Captain one day, and I could not imagine a scenario where he would’ve allowed all five cars to stop and for every single Guard inside to get out. It went against every security protocol.
Some of the grass by the road appeared disturbed, so there may have been a fight. But, based on how quickly all of their connections had been severed, my Guards had been overpowered in minutes. Twenty-nine Guards, plus Prince Nicol.
I breathed in and out, pushing down my anger and grief. I couldn’t be emotional yet. I had to be the Captain of the Royal Guard and determine what had happened and who had killed my people and the prince.
But where were the bodies? Why take the bodies? I thought uneasily of the Nazi experiments on Wonders during the war, but none of them had happened in Britain, and most Nazi scientists had been relocated to the United States by now.
Mairead came out of the woods on the west side of the road. “Nothing to indicate anyone tried to get away in this direction, Captain.”
“Same over here.” Peadar shook his head as he picked his way across the grass. “I’d say they weren’t expecting it. Someone pretending they needed help, perhaps.”
