Red Herring:

Las Vegas, Nevada

Max

35 minutes. I tapped my foot impatiently. 35 minutes! Holden stood next to me and nervously gulped every once in a while. "We should go inside," I repeated like I had every time I checked my watch.

36 minutes. "We should stay here," Holden said and stared at me like he had been left with a ticking time bomb.

I sighed. "I'm not going to do anything."

At least not yet.

We had already circled the convention center, but I started the circuit again with Holden trailing in my wake. We stood on the corner of an intersection, waiting for the light to change. I scanned the sparse crowds walking down the sidewalks. No Erasers, nothing dangerous. But I couldn't help but feel twitchy and a little sick. I should be inside, helping the others. I should be doing something to help. So I kept uselessly scanning the faces in the crowd.

No. It couldn't be him. It was too much of a coincidence. "I think I saw…" I trailed off.

"Who?" Holden asked, corkscrewing around to look behind himself.

I blinked, twice and felt the smile on my face that told me here was some serious butt I could kick. Instead of waiting for the light to change so we could do the same circle we had been doing, I charged the opposite direction.

"Wait!" Holden screeched, but I ignored him.

He jogged to keep up with me, asking where I was going, but I couldn't wait. Vance Howard might get away.

I followed Vance Howard down the road, across another intersection to the entrance of Circus Circus. Holden was a broken record, whispering "Wait," over and over again.

I paused behind a bush and peered out at Vance Howard standing on the curb with his back to us. Holden huffed, catching his breath and asked again, "What are we doing? We're supposed to be waiting."

"Vance," I growled and jerked my head in the direction of the slimy traitor.

Holden got very pale and when he spoke, it was very fast. "I don't think we should be doing this."

Vance Howard had paused on the curb, but now he turned and headed in through the front doors of Circus Circus, pausing only long enough to wrench the door open and disappear inside.

"Let's go," I didn't even wait for an answer and Holden reluctantly followed.

It was dark and claustrophobic inside. It was the very worst possible place for me to be hunting down a possible white coat. The blinking lights of the arcade made it even worse. "Do you see him?" I muttered to Holden.

Holden shook his head. "You go that way around the side, and I'll go the other. We'll meet or we'll find him."

Holden didn't want to, but I didn't give him a say. Instead, I wove through the crowds, keeping to the right side wall and scanning for that familiar brown hair. There!

I followed him, trying to keep Vance in my sights. There wasn't time to find Holden when Vance turned into a carpeted hallway. I trailed him to a set of double doors and watched Vance push on the release and slip through the door.

There wasn't anything else I could do. I tiptoed forward and cautiously pushed in the right door. Vance was already walking briskly down the concrete hallway that clearly wasn't for regular guests. It had to be a trap, but not if I caught him first.

Vance's footfalls echoed on the hard walls and floor, but I could be quieter than him. Bird bones help out with that. I took a few steps into the hallway just as Vance turned the corner.

I followed, rushing to the next turn.

"Hello Max."

I nearly fell to a pile at Vance Howard's feet. Jeez, he came out of nowhere. Had he known I was there all along?

"You!" I jumped to my feet, pulled back my fist, and lunged forward.

Vance easily avoided my attack, but the athletic, cheerful, normal guy was gone. Now he moved with military precision and his eyes glinted with something evil I hadn't noticed before.

"You've already managed to hit me once Maximum," he said evenly, without emotion. "You won't do so again."

"Who are you?" I yelled to distract him.

Once again I tried to send him to the ground like I had done at the cabin. Vance lazily dodged my fists and kicks without any appearance of effort. He was so fast! Vance laughed while I retreated.

It was an awful, chilling, maniacal laugh. I was in trouble, big trouble, and it was my fault. I hoped Holden had seen us go down the hallway. I hoped a lot of things, but it didn't seem likely that a miracle would happen. That's not the way it works for us hybrids.

Vance Howard briskly reached into his pocket as I backed away. It was too late though. I had barely begun to turn and run when he sprayed a sickly sweet mist into my face. The last thing I saw was Vance Howard's fading leather shoes before the black took me.