Chapter 10: Ten

Lucas stood outside the yellow line with his hands buried in his coat pockets. It was a surprisingly warm day, but he couldn’t enjoy the weather. Two days had passed since Elsa had left his apartment, her face flushed and her hair sticking to her cheeks. And yet, he’d bought a pint of coffee and let it brew to fill his house with her scent. But it didn’t smell the same as it did on her skin.

There was a crowd of parents waiting in front of him, all eagerly staring at the front doors. He towered in the back, keeping his coat around his front and trying to focus on the doors like everyone else. 

He sighed when they finally opened and a stream of colorful jackets poured over the steps and lined up by the gate. Names were called out as kids raised their hands, shouting with smiles: I see my mom, my dad, my grandma.

Allison’s face popped out of her plump purple jacket, and Lucas waved. The teacher smiled, and he remembered how surprised he’d been when he walked through the door on parent-teacher night. He took his daughter’s hand as she ran up beside him.

“How was school?” he asked, guiding her through the rush of people. The block had come alive as parents ran to collect kids or usher them away from the candy trucks.

She made a face, bunching up her nose exactly like her mother. “Someone pushed me in the gym today because I took too long to pass the ball.”

Lucas glanced down at her as she skipped along. “Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm.” She pulled on his arm before he could say anything else. “Do you have work today?”

The explosion, the vein pulsing on Elsa’s strained face, the sweat running down her front, the guns, flashed in his mind. He shook his head. “Not till tomorrow night, sweetie.”

“Can we order a pizza?” 

“Maybe after you finish your homework.” They came to a stop in front of the apartment building. The sign of a CVS flickered on the corner, drawing his attention as he pulled out the keys.

“Daddy…” she complained, pushing past him and running up the stairs as soon as the door opened. He glanced down the street before shutting it and following her.

The house still smelled like coffee. Allison had questioned him in the morning, to which he’d just muttered, “Trying something new.” 

She settled in the living room with a dish of sliced apples and the television on. It was the show with the nerdy aardvark and his friends. Lucas sighed and slipped into his room, trying to ignore the rolled up painting that he’d stashed under the bed. But he could almost feel it drawing his hands towards it, unfurling each curve and those piercing eyes, forcing him to submit to her image, but he bit down on his lips and walked over to the windows.

Through the bars of the fire escape, he eyed the street below. Throngs of kids laughed as they passed the CVS; taxis rolled by. His room felt too electric as if he could still feel her presence. He threw himself on the bed, placing a hand over his eyes.

But the moment of rest was not to last, as Allison called out for him. Lucas got up, adjusted his pants, and then walked into the living room. The TV was off, the plate was empty, and she was sitting on the couch in her pajamas, her homework on her lap.

“How long was I out?” he asked, yawning, his head pounding with every beat of his heart. When had he even fallen asleep?

“Like two hours, dad.” She blinked at him as if he’d grown an extra head. 

Lucas sat down on the couch and tried grabbing the paper she moved out of reach. “Did you call me?”

“No, Dad.” She shook her head, then scribbled something down. Lucas watched her face, eyebrows screwed up in concentration as she looked over the math on the page. Her mother’s hair, frizzy and dark, clouded around her head, and he put his hand through it.

“Where do you wanna go for our next vacation?” Their last one had been Hong Kong, a flurry of medicinal treatments, coughing up blood, and finally the doorstep of the Chung’s.

“I wanna go to China again,” she said, smiling. “They have the best dumplings.”

Lucas laughed. “What about London. Remember London Bridge?”

“But it fell down,” she said, stifling a giggle. “There’s still like a hundred months left before the summer, dad. Can’t we talk about this later?” She could get so focused on her work; he wondered if she would be a heartbreaker like Maya.

He made to grab her, wanting to lift her, kiss her, hold her to him and never let go, but his phone vibrated and she stopped giggling. They exchanged a look, and he stood up to grab it.

“Hello?” Lucas nodded as the voice crackled in his ear. “Give me a minute.”

Allison sat up, her homework put aside, and stuck her lower lip out. 

“I’m sorry, baby. This won’t take long.”

Her eyes were wide, soft and brown. But she was a tough little girl.

Lucas patted her head. “Don’t open the door until I get back.”

She rapped her knuckles against his stomach, replaying their secret knock: two fast ones and a delay before the third.

“Pizza when I get back.” He bent down and kissed her forehead, before grabbing his coat.

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The sky was darker now, even though it was only half past four. Winter schedule. The sleek dark body of a town car was parked in front of his apartment, blocking the fire hydrant. Lucas sighed, glanced around the empty block littered with street lights and the bags of recycling that had yet to be collected. Then the passenger side door of the car’s back opened, and he stepped into the darkness.

“Hello, Mr. Sunshine.”

“Agent Six.” Lucas didn’t enjoy the thick smell of leather in the car. It was almost as bad as coffee, and it didn’t even drudge up anything nice in his head. 

The man in the suit laughed. They were separated from the driver by a black screen, but he knocked twice, and the body of the car rumbled to attention. Lucas watched his street roll by with the faces he vaguely recognized and people hidden by hoodies.

“I wish we could chat today, but there seems to be a war brewing.” Six wasn’t a large man. He had a sharp widow’s peak, but he wore it proudly with his hair slicked back. “The Russians are on the move and the French have disappeared. I don’t like it.”

Lucas nodded. “The Chinese took out the French leader two nights ago.”

Six glanced up with a half-smile. “So we found. What is your little Mrs. Chung up to, then?”

“I don’t know. Haven’t seen her in a few days.” He glanced outside as they turned the corner, realizing the meeting would end after one trip around the block. “Meeting her tomorrow.” Then he flinched when Six put a hand on his knee.

“Sorry,” he said, taking his hand back. “But Intel has it that something serious is going to go down around her. Your Asian girlfriend is going to be caught in a shit storm.”

Lucas nodded, feeling rather uncomfortably close to the other man. “No one except us knows that the Chung’s were responsible for the attack.”

“No one else yet, but you already know how fast news can travel.”

“Then why haven’t you arrested her yet? You have more than enough. Why send me in at all?”

Six laughed. “You haven’t figured it out yet?” He rolled his leather gloves off, revealing soft pale fingers better suited to play the piano than to fire a gun. “She’s just a pawn in this. We don’t want her.”

“Then what is it?” Lucas swallowed, wondering if he was actually the one who’d stepped into the shit storm.

“It’s the drugs, man. The Delight. We want the manufacturer.”

“Her family?”

Six nodded as the car rolled to a stop. He reached into his coat and pulled out his phone. “Look.” He held the screen towards Lucas. On it was a picture of Elsa, looking much younger with one side of her head shaved. 

The caption read: Los Angeles, 2006. 

“Los Angeles?” Lucas held the phone, studying every feature on her face. She was glancing off to the side, her lips parted with suspicion as if she somehow could feel the camera zooming in on her face. There was another woman in the background, a younger and rounder copy of Elsa. Was it her sister?

“Delight is big there,” said Six, taking back his phone. “Your girlfriend helped flood the streets, and it picked up a lot better there than it did here.” Then he grinned and looked up at him, holding the image up. “Say, have you fucked her yet? I hear them Orientals are wild in the sack.”

Lucas clenched his jaws, trying to keep his memories from surfacing. But Elsa was there anyway. Lying on his bed with her legs spread, her lips parted, and her head shaved like in the photo. Her eyes on fire as she reached out and moaned.

But all he said was: “Is there anything else I need to know?”

Six grinned and shook his head. “Everything’s been clear for your daughter’s treatment. You don’t owe a dime.”

Lucas nodded, allowing his breath to escape. “Thank you.”

“But you know what you need to do to earn your freedom.” He slipped his fingers into his gloves once more. “Get close to her, Mr. Sunshine. Bang her if you need to. But get enough so we can finally end this shit from fucking our country.”

Lucas stepped out. The car rolled away as soon as the door shut, leaving him standing in the midst of the darkness. A street lamp flickered nearby as he gazed up at the brown bricked face of his apartment building. The light in the sixth story window was his; he imagined Allison curled up on the sofa reading.

This was all for her. Everything. She was healthy again. The operation was paid for. And he would almost be free to stay with her. Everything was going to work out.

So why hadn’t the weight left his shoulders yet? He walked into the building trying to push the image of a bloodied, shivering Elsa out of his mind, trying to enjoy his small victory, and trying to ignore the sinking feeling of dread that clung to his heart. There was definitely a war brewing, but it wasn’t just on the streets of the city.

 

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