Free Angel City by Jon Steele

say.”
    â€œYou think?”
    Officer Jannsen nodded.
    â€œListen to me, Katherine: We’ve monitored the baby from the beginning. You were given everything you needed to make sure the baby would be healthy. He’s fine.”
    â€œIt’s a boy?”
    â€œYes, Kat, it’s a healthy boy.”
    That night, after a triple shot of Night Clouds tea, Katherine lay in the moment of half sleep and she imagined herself standing in the nave of Lausanne Cathedral. It had been one of her favorite falling to sleep dreams. Light pouring through the giant leaded-glass window in the south transept wall. Bright, warm . . . like standing in the middle of a rainbow. She could feel the colors seep into her body. But that night, falling to sleep, she heard a voice in the dream. A voice telling her to be not afraid, that the life within her was pure, that she was the bearer of the light. Katherine knew it was a crazed imagination. But just now, drifting deeper into sleep, it was comforting.
    Early the next morning, she decided to sneak out of the house for a walk. She wasn’t twenty steps before Officer Jannsen stepped out from behind a tree.
    â€œYou’re not supposed to leave the house alone.”
    â€œI’m not alone, I’m carrying a passenger, remember?”
    â€œWhere are you going?”
    â€œI don’t know. Town, I guess. It’s only nine kilometers.”
    â€œNine and a half. I’ll go with you, Kat.”
    â€œI don’t want you to go with me.”
    â€œToo bad.”
    Katherine watched Officer Jannsen pull a cell phone from her belt, dial some numbers, hit send. Then came the Glock from under her coat. She checked the magazine. That done, she pulled two matching gold rings from her pocket. She held one out to Katherine.
    â€œCripes sake, Anne, it’s just a walk.”
    â€œYou want to walk, this is how you walk. You don’t like it, we go back to the house.”
    Katherine held up her left hand.
    â€œOkay, I do.”
    Officer Jannsen slid a ring on Katherine, then herself.
    They walked down the wooded drive to a narrow road. The road wound down a hill, not passing another house or driveway till they reached Carson Highway. They stopped at the edge of the road and waited for a timber-laden eighteen-wheeler to come and go. Katherine looked at Officer Jannsen, noticed the backpack over her shoulder was rather large.
    â€œWhat’s in the bag, a bazooka?” Katherine said.
    â€œOne ballistic blanket, spare nine-millimeter clips, four stun grenades, one field medical kit, two liters O-neg blood.”
    Katherine rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Louise.”
    They crossed Carson Highway onto Rainbow Falls Road for six more kilometers before it ended at Grover’s Mill; population 970, not including the bus tours to Rainbow Falls that passed through town, twice a week on Tuesday and Friday afternoons like clockwork. Officer Jannsen turned to Katherine.
    â€œAll right, we walked to town. Now what?”
    â€œI’m hungry.”
    â€œThere’s food at the house.”
    â€œIf I wanted food at the house, I would have stayed at the house.”
    They walked along Main Street to a place called Molly’s Diner. Katherine had seen it in passing once, after a trip to the doctor down in Portland with Officer Jannsen and two bodyguards. Katherine remembered asking if they could stop and go in and have a cheeseburger and Coke. The answer was NO. The answer was always NO. And now, damn it, Katherine was going to have it
her
way.
    The place was filled but for a corner booth. Katherine walked to it and slid in. Officer Jannsen followed her, took off the backpack, and set it on her side of the booth. There was a small jukebox mounted to the table. Katherine flipped through the selections.
    â€œSee, that wasn’t so bad. Nobody even tried to kill me.”
    Officer Jannsen pulled out her cell, hit a few keys, pressed send.
    â€œI’m