Free Night Betrayed by Joss Ware Page A

only a few hours to rig an NAP , and he sent off an actual message back to Lou, who would be in the Resistance’s Command Center, hidden two stories below the ground of New York-New York. Later, he might even be able to send him webcam pictures of the place. Lou would be fucking insane to get here, get his hands on this stuff.
    By the time he finished that and sent off a message to Lou, Sam was calling up the stairs that it was time to leave for Yellow Mountain. And, mindful of Frank’s warning that the place must be kept secret, Theo had no choice but to leave the Bat Cave before everyone came looking for him.
    “Once upon a time there was a magical place with castles and princesses, and a little, winding river. A bright red-and-yellow train trundled along on a track that surrounded the land, stopping at three different stations. There was a busy place called Main Street, filled with families and couples walking along. Shops lined a street where people could buy ice cream or chocolates or wonderful sandwiches called hot dogs . . .”
    As Vonnie’s sure, easy voice lulled the audience, Theo found himself alternately sliding into the story and watching everyone and everything around him. And fantasizing about getting his fingers back on those sleek, dust-free touch screens.
    The audience sat on an expanse of grass, safely inside the walls of the settlement of Yellow Mountain, with a fervent fire blazing in a stone-lined pit in the center of the group. He estimated about eighty people of all ages had either settled on the lawn on blankets or on portable chairs similar to those he’d taken to picnics or sporting events fifty years ago, except these chairs had seats made from curtain remnants and supports from broken pieces of wood or reformed plastic. A few dogs settled near their masters and mistresses, and off to the left, a man had just put his guitar aside.
    The fire gave off a bit too much heat for a warm July evening, so there was a ring of empty grass around it. The sun was just sitting on the horizon, and its disappearance would plunge the world into dangerous darkness in an hour or two. In the air lingered the remnants of barbeque smoke; and behind the crowd, the carcass from the roasted pig still hung on its spit. A few yards away were the scattered buildings that made up the settlement, the largest of which was an old McDonald’s.
    “Hot dogs weren’t made from puppy dogs, of course! Who would want to eat a sweet little puppy?” Vonnie said with a little laugh after one of the girls squealed in horror and clutched her own dog closer. “They were meats, long and skinny, these hot dogs,” she explained to a group of youngsters who sat in the front row and gazed up at her with wide eyes. “And you’d put them in a special long bread called a bun, which sort of hugged them. They tasted sooooo good, especially with ketchup on them. Princesses loved to eat them, and there were lots of little shops in this magical world where you could buy them or other tasty things called corn dogs.”
    A little pang flipped inside Theo’s belly. Every so often that happened—a sharp reminder of what he’d lived through, what it had been like before. How many hot dogs had he had by the time he was the age of those kids there—eight, maybe nine or so? And none of them would have seen or tasted one in this world.
    Not that the lack of processed food was anything to be upset about.
    “And there was something called cotton candy,” Vonnie went on, her own eyes growing wide and a big smile rounding her cheeks. Her voice dropped into a tantalizing whisper as she bent forward to the young audience. Theo smiled. Here, for the first time, her enthusiasm was channeled into something more deliberate, more controlled than when she was in the kitchen or caring for Selena’s patients.
    Selena.
    Theo shifted his attention to the so-called Death Lady, who was sitting on a small rise of ground above and behind Vonnie. It put her in his