JACKAL
The male antechinus has so much sex that he disintegrates.
I’ve never held one of my own babies, but here I am holding Folsom’s.
They’re squirmy, all octopus legs and arms, with cries so shrill they make your eyes bug out. I take special care with him because he belongs to two people I love. The drive to the meeting point is ten minutes away. I lay Rebel in a box and place the box carefully on the floor of the car. The car belongs to Aries and I have to have it back in thirty minutes, just in time for the ensuing chaos to unfold when they find Rebel gone. The ignition kicks on, and I pull onto the road without turning on the headlights. The drop-off spot is a secluded dirt road five miles away. I miss it in the dark and have to circle back around, wasting at least five minutes. The baby screams from the box, and when I glance over, I see flailing arms and angry fists.
“Me too, little dude,” I say.
The road is bumpy, but I don’t slow down until I see the flash of lights from the waiting vehicle. I jump out as soon as I’ve put the car in park and run around to the passenger door, lifting Rebel from his hiding spot.
“He’s hungry,” Sylvia says as I pass him to her.
They’ve come prepared. She pulls out a bottle and Rebel’s cries are cut off.
“He’s about as loud as Gwen when she’s pissed off,” I say.
She starts cooing immediately and gets him secured into a protector. Bisa keeps watch in the driver’s seat.
“Aries pull through?” Sylvia glances at me.
“We wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t,” I say.
Other than loaning me his car, Aries’ only job was to arrange the after-party at the Villanova house to keep Langley occupied—which so long as you have a dick is an easy feat. I owe him a solid.
“Good luck,” I say, closing Sylvia’s door. She grabs my hand through the window.
“You’ve taken a lot of risks for the people you love,” she says. “I guess you have a heart after all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
I tap the hood of the car and they take off.
When I get back to the Villanova estate, all the lights are back on and the front lawn is teeming with people. I don’t pause to see what’s happening. I drive around the back and pull Aries’ car into the spot where he’d left it. I have twenty minutes to get back to my mother’s house on foot. I’m going to have to run.
Rachel is waiting to drive me to the airstrip when I get back. I pretend to be drunk, slurring my words and knocking into my mother’s china cabinet. She rushes me out of the house before I can wake my mother. I slide into the backseat of my mother’s car. It smells of her—perfume and the illegal cigarettes she buys on the black market. I open the window slightly.
I’d woken my pilot up in the middle of the night, telling her I had to get back to the Blue fast. With hardly any notice, I know the pickings for a flight crew will be slim, which gives us a better chance at sneaking the baby to the Blue undetected. When I step onto the plane, my skeleton crew is already there, sleepy-eyed and trying to appear cheerful.
“We’re giving a lift to two of my friends,” I say. “They should arrive shortly.”
I have them make me a drink and I sip it slowly, as I watch out the window for Bisa’s car. They should have been here by now—they were only minutes behind me. Ten minutes pass, then twenty. My leg bounces beneath me. I check my messages. Nothing.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I say when we reach the hour mark.
“Sir, the pilot would like an ETA on your guests’ arrival.”
I look up to see the flight attendant standing above me, a stiff smile on her face.
“We leave when I say we leave,” I snap.
She nods apologetically. “I’ll let her know.”
“Give me a few minutes,” I say, standing up. “I have to make a call.”
She moves out of the main area, and I stare at my Silverbook. I’m not supposed to call. They’re supposed to contact me if anything goes wrong.
I could jeopardize everything. I check the time. Phoenix should be back at her hotel by now. Is she sharing a room with Sean, or is she alone? The thought of her in bed with the governor temporarily distracts me from the problem at hand. I take a few minutes to seethe.
“Call Phoenix,” I tell my device. As an afterthought I say, “Tell her Ruby is calling.”
When she picks up, she’s breathless. “Jackal,” she says. “I need your help.”
“Where are you?”
There’s a pause. “I’m driving. I have the baby.”
“Tell me where to meet you,” I say. I’m jogging down the stairs.
“Don’t go anywhere,” she says. “I’m bringing the baby to you.”
“Phoenix,” I say. “What happened? Phoenix…?” The line is dead. She’s already hung up.
I meet her outside of the airstrip, beyond the fence of the rickety airport. Her eyes are panicked as she hands Rebel to me, wrapped in a blanket and asleep.
“They have Mama B,” she says.
“What? How?”
“Roadblocks. As soon as they found Rebel missing, the governor shut down the roads. You got out just in time.”
“But how did you get him?” I stare down at the baby. This is impossible. How am I going to get him on the plane alone?
“Moma—Sylvia—got out of the car with him before they reached the roadblock. She hid,” she says. “Bisa drove through and they took her in for questioning when she didn’t have a good excuse to be out. Sylvia called me and I snuck out of the hotel.”
“Phoenix…” I shake my head. “I can’t just walk on the plane with a baby. They’re not my crew, and even if they were, I wouldn’t trust them—they all work for the Society. They’d sell me out in a minute.”
She bites her lip. “I know. Sean and I leave in the morning. I don’t know what to do. They’re going to shut down all air traffic once they have clearance from the Statehead. That could be any minute.”
“Shit,” I say. “Shit. We had to steal the most famous baby in the Regions, didn’t we?” I run my hands through my hair, my heart racing. “All right...okay. I think I know what to do.”
I root in my pocket for my Silverbook. Right now we don’t have many options. If we don’t make a risky move, we might as well hand Rebel back and turn ourselves in. Phoenix watches me with wide eyes while I make the call, still cradling the baby in my arm. The pilot answers.
“I’m going to need you to send everyone home,” I say. “They’re shutting down flights out of the Red. I don’t want to be responsible for stranding the crew in the Blue, where they’re unable to get home.”
“Sir,” she says. “They won’t let me fly without a copilot.”
“I’m your copilot,” I say. “Keep the cockpit open for me. Call me once everyone is off the plane.” I hang up.
“You have a pilot’s license?” Phoenix asks.
“Hell, no. But, I’d rather pay the fine when I get back than go to prison for kidnapping.”
“Oh God, this is a bad idea.” Phoenix covers her face with her hands, but I pull them away.
“It’s our only idea. Bye, little thief.” I kiss her on the mouth once, twice, before she lifts her hands to my hair. I feel her fingers on my scalp as I slide my tongue in her mouth.
The pilot calls back, and I have to cut our kiss short.
“Everyone’s gone,” she says. “Let’s go.”
“Sleep hard, Rebel.” Phoenix kisses him on the forehead, hands me a small bag, and waves as I take off toward the plane.
Rebel starts crying as soon as the doors close. So much for good luck. I stick a pinkie in his mouth and let him suck on it while I shut the door.
“What the fuck are you doing?” the pilot asks when I carry him into the cockpit. I sit in the jumpseat and dig around in the bag for a bottle.
“I’m kidnapping a baby,” I say. “And if you don’t get this plane off the ground, you’ll be arrested for conspiracy to kidnap a baby.”
She stands up, her face pale. She drops her headgear and turns toward the door to make a run for it.
“Sit the fuck down,” I tell her. “This isn’t just any baby. This is Rebel Donohue. No matter what pathetic excuses you give the police, they’ll lock you up for so much as breathing in his direction. Do you really want to lose your pilot’s license?”
She looks at me, frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do.
“You just dismissed an entire flight crew, including your copilot,” I say. “Think about it. All looks pretty premeditated, doesn’t it? You sit down and fly out of this place, and no one will know you had anything to do with it,” I say. “But make no mistake, you get off this plane or say a word about it to anyone, and I’ll take you down with me.”
She sits down.
“Good girl,” I say. “Do I need to make my own drink…?”