The text came from Lulu. Lobby. Now.
Because Lulu never communicated unless it was an emergency, Tyki ran, not surprised to be met en route by Wisely, who was about half out of his costume, his hair still wet around his face and neck from removing his make-up. "What's happening?" Wisely asked.
"I don't know," Tyki said.
"Where's Road?"
"Probably changing. Come on!"
When they got to the lobby, they found a corner of it roped off and two large security guards obstructing their view.
Let us in!" Tyki said, not liking what he saw behind them.
"I'm sorry, sir, there's been an accident."
"Let them in," said Lulu. "They're family."
The guard unclipped the rope.
Road hadn't changed. She was already there, still in her costume and make-up, sitting on the floor beside the Earl with his head cradled in her lap. When she looked up, Tyki saw that she was weeping quietly.
"Road!" Tyki said, kneeling beside her and resting his hand on her back. "What happened?"
"We're not sure" Road said, sniffling, "but it might have been a heart attack, so we called an ambulance. He's fine now.
"He doesn't look fine," Tyki said. The Earl lay so still that the only signs of life were his breathing and his tears.
"A heart attack?" Wisely asked. "How? He has a pacemaker."
Was Tyki losing his mind, or did Road look a little guilty? "That's why we're not sure if it was really a heart attack," she said. "He can still have one even with the pacemaker, but it might have just been a bad shock."
"What happened?" Wisely demanded.
Road was uncharacteristically silent.
"Lulu?" Wisely asked.
"I don't know," she said, her normally impassive face distraught. "He was fine one minute, then…"
"Then what?"
Her lips thinned. "He thought he saw someone."
"Who?"
"No one," she said. "It wasn't a real resemblance. He saw what he wanted to see."
"Who did he think he saw?" Wisely's eyes narrowed.
"Nea," Lulu said quietly.
Tyki thought that his own heart had stopped.
"He thought he saw Nea," she continued, "but that's impossible. Nea's dead."
"Who's onstage?" Wisely asked.
"That new Order kid, Allen Walker," Lulu said. "Where the hell is the ambulance?"
Wisely turned to Tyki. "Who the fuck is Allen Walker?"
"I have no idea," Tyki said, turning to look at Road.
Road jerked her head toward the auditorium. "Go look."
Tyki stood and went to the door, squeezing through as quietly as he could.
As soon as he heard the music, he froze for a second, feeling the blood drain from his face, but he knew that voice. How was this possible? Even if one of those recordings had survived, how on Earth could it have gotten into the hands of Allen Walker?
When he reached a point where could see the stage, it was clear that the song was winding down, and at first, Tyki thought Road must have misspoken. The dancer's hair was dark brown, not white, but as he turned toward the audience, the floor seemed to drop out from under Tyki's feet, and he understood what had happened to the Earl.
He ran back into the lobby, no longer caring about making noise, and grabbed Road's arm, shaking her. "That's not possible!"
She gave him her phone.
"Holy shit!" Tyki gaped at the picture that filled the screen, but it was too incredible to be Photoshopped. "Where did you get this?"
"From Allen," she said, taking her phone back. "He doesn't know yet, so be careful, all right?"
Careful? Tyki wasn't going to say a word to anyone because even now, he didn't really believe it. It was either too good to be true, or too awful.
The paramedics lifted the Earl onto a stretcher and were talking to Lulu. Road leaned up and hugged Tyki. "I'm going with him, so do your best without me, okay?"
"You're going in that?" Tyki asked. The only reason her make-up was still in place was because it was alcohol-based, but she was going to look like a freak in the hospital.
"I'll clean up once he's settled. I'm sure they'll have something I can use. Text me your score, okay? And get my clothes when you leave."
"I will," he said, grateful to her for bringing him back to reality. He still had a job to do. He'd deal with this mess afterward, when he'd had a chance to have a nice, long talk with Road.
He watched with Wisely as Lulu, Road and the paramedics accompanied the stretcher, everything he'd just seen drifting aimlessly in a fog of alternate possibilities. Those recordings might have gone anywhere, or maybe he'd just misheard. He'd only caught a few bars, after all. The hair color was right, but it wasn't Allen's usual color. Only the picture on Road's phone seemed definitive, but a lot of people looked like other people. That's what the whole Separated at Birth thing was about.
But what if she was right? What if everything he'd been told was wrong, and Road was right?
"The new Order kid did this, eh?" Wisely said softly. "The Order is going down!"