Chapter 12

Gaia did not go to school the next day. If she went, if anyone was watching her would see her leave the school and follow her. She hung out in the Starbucks. At 1:50, she walked over to the Frame Shop, which had an out of business sign across its window. She walked in to be greeted by Will and Mr. Sanders, who were already there with a box of doughnuts.

"Don't they teach you anything in police training?" she asked them as she turned off the lights and opened the blinds. She indicated that they sit in the table in the shade. "If you meet in an abandoned store, make sure it looks like an abandoned store."

"Where did you learn all of this?"

"Will you hold on a second? In case you didn't know, I've got no money, and these doughnuts are just about my only source of food at the time." She stuffed an entire doughnut in her mouth.

"Okay," she said as she swallowed her third doughnut. "So, to answer your question, I learned all this from my dad. He was in the CIA and would train me for hours each day."

"Why?"

"Because he noticed that I was-"

"That you were fearless?"

Her eyes widened.

"Backround check," Mr. Sanders said, simpily.

"Gees, you guys look more into stuff than NYPD. Ok, that I was fearless and unusually bright and fast learning. He thought that that would lead me to trouble so I might as well be prepared. Now fighting is like yoga for me."

"That's comforting."

"Hey, I go into the parks at night and if I'm lucky they prey on me instead of some other girl who can't fight them off. Then they learn their lesson and back off. It sometimes takes a few times though."

"You are one extrodinary girl."

She snorted. "Nah, I'd say more like freak of nature. I mean how many girls look like a female Arnold Swartunator (sp?)?"

"Ok, point taken."

"Anyways, I hated it, but I did it anyways. I was doing calculus by third grade, I didn't know how to swim but I jumped in the deep end when I was two anyways and I did it the next day, too, until I was able to swim. Stuff like that."

The two officers sat there with there mouths hanging open. "What happened to Mary?"

In a flash, the vulnerable child shone through. It only lasted for a second before she set her face to a blank, expressionless mask. "I don't want to talk about Mary. Besides, these questions aren't going to catch Loki, not that you two could."

"What do you mean? We had one of the top police forces in-"

"Look, no offence, but I'm not one for police, and also, do you think that if the CIA has tried and failed to catch this guy, that this dinky little police force could catch him. He's not your average, run of the mill murderers. He's more towards the terrorist level."

Will's confidence was starting to wear thin. If the CIA couldn't catch this guy, how was he to expect his police force to be able to catch him? "Okay, so what do you suggest we do?"

"Okay," Gaia leaned forward. "Sleeping in the parks and subways is an obvious place to search if Loki knows anything about me, so that's out. So, I'll have to find a family to stay with that's willing to risk their lives."

"You can stay at our house," Will said.

"You may be a police officer, but I put a greater risk on your family than you do with your job."

"Let's just keep that option open in case we can't find another family soon, okay?"

"Okay. I don't think that it would be best if I stay in Arcadia for very long."

"Are you thinking of going back to New York."

"I really do wish I could, but no."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Depends on the question."

"You keep on saying that you have to stay away from your friends so they don't die, do you mean-"

"You think that I kill my friends? That I would kill my mother? My best friend? My foster mother? That I would kidnap my now-ex-boyfriend? No, I'm just cursed, that's all. An illness. A plague. You know, that kind of stuff."

Will and Mr. Sanders shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "So, why don't you stay at my house until we find another place for you or you leave?"

"I guess."

"Do you need to pick up anything? We could run by the store."

"Nope, once you give me back my bag, I'll have everything I need."

"Why don't you come with me and we can pick up Joan from school?"

"Oh, joy."

"What was that?"

Gaia stood up and said. "You drive, I walk. I never really was one to ride passenger."