Part 3 (1/2)
”I'm not the one being questioned here,” The Voice reminded her.”Dawn.”
She felt that mental pull again, a jarring loss of her senses, but she pushed against it, concentrating on the groove instead. It was sharp, like the scar from an ax that had embedded itself there.
That's when Kiko bowled into the room with Breisi on his tail. Without preamble, Dawn gasped to full attention, roaring on all cylinders again, oddly refreshed.
It was almost as if she'd just woken up, like the past few minutes were pieces of a scattered puzzle and she'd just arrived in the office to fit them back together.
”Thank you, Dawn,” The Voice whispered. ”You're stronger than I imagined.”
Before she could ask what that meant, Kiko spoke.
”Sorry we took so long.” He was still in excitement mode and oblivious to everything else. ”Our locator turned up something big.”
Breisi wore an ap.r.o.n that came to mid-thigh and revealed black parachute pants. Up close, she looked older than Dawn had first thought, with fine wrinkles hugging her eyes and mouth. Dawn doubted they were from smiling, either.
”Nathan Pennybaker just got back into the country,” Breisi said. ”Kiko and I need to pay him a visit.”
”And we should take her with us.” Kiko glanced at Dawn.
She blinked, the past half hour of weirdness all but forgotten.
”It's too soon,” The Voice said.
Kiko stepped forward, shaking his finger at the TV. Aha-the screen acted as The Voice's ”eye,” his face.
But where was the rest of him? Dawn thought. Behind the wall in a control room? Down the street in another house?
A chill fluttered up her spine as she focused on the TV, feeling it watching her....
”Remember what I saw?” Kiko continued. ”She's key.”
”Me?” she asked. ”I'm...what?”
Again, the psychic brushed his gaze over her, and she felt as if he were actually digging around her heart, trying to pull it out. Tired of feeling under attack, she stepped back, protectively laying her hand over her chest.
He turned back to the TV while Breisi kept an eye on Dawn. Unidentifiable emotion flashed over the other woman's eyes, but she glanced away before Dawn could define it.
”We need her,” Kiko said. ”So let's just cut to the chase, put Dawn on the payroll, and deal.”
”Payroll?” This was all going too fast, a scribbled comic-horror strip. But she had to find Frank, and if they were willing to help, she'd take their offer-no two ways about it. It wasn't as if her job installing cabinets or laying tile in Virginia was going to miss her.Thiswas where she needed to be. ”All right, I'll do anything, tag along with you, answer any questions...”
Over the speakers, The Voice sighed. Harsh. Resigned? ”Anything,” he repeated. ”You are telling me how far you would go to find your father?”
Her heart picked up speed. ”I'd doanythingit takes.”
Breisi came to stand beside her, parallel to Kiko.
”Frank was working on finding a missing little boy whose mother hired us,” she said.
A little boy? Unsettled, Dawn turned away from them. That meant facing a wrecked mom, digging into the possibility of what might have happened to the child...to Frank.
She crossed her arms over her chest. But if this was an avenue to find him, she had to take it.
Before she could respond, the plasma TV blipped to life, an eye of Big Brother. In its iris was a scene fromDiaper Derby, a very bad comedy that had opened at thirty-three million dollars a couple weeks ago at the box office. How The Voice had gotten a hold of it already, Dawn didn't know. Maybe it was a pirated copy. If it was, she might have to give him a good cuffing, because that sort of c.r.a.p cut into film profits and, thus, her paychecks-if she could ever get another film gig.
The scene played out. In a cozy loft somewhere in a clean, pristine, fictional big city found only in the movies, two grizzled men, who were clearly not fatherhood material, were arguing over a crib that was emanating fake baby cries. They were tug-of-warring a soiled diaper between them.
Dawn didn't want to guess what was about to happen next. But it did happen, a big explosion of...
”There,” The Voice said, the TV freezing on a most unfortunate image.
Dawn, Kiko, and Breisi all shook their heads.
”Comedy at its finest,” Kiko said. ”I swear, today's movies-”
”Kiko.”The Voice obviously had another point in mind. ”Dawn, did you see that?”
”I saw plenty.”
”I'm referring to the case. Just focus on the windows in the rear of their room.”
When she glanced back, the picture had been rewound and frozen again, this time to a frame in which the men were back to pulling at the intact diaper.
”Watch,” The Voice said, and the image zoomed in to focus on the windows in the background.
At first she didn't catch anything. Just a glare, a play of light from a super-powered bulb. But the more she looked, the more she saw in the close-up: A young boy with big blue eyes and a striped s.h.i.+rt, scratching at the window. He looked like he couldn't have been more than a preteen, but he'd tried to force his age by growing his black hair into a careless mop; there were piercings, too-a diamond stud in his nose, his eyebrow.
He seemed familiar, but she couldn't...
”So he trespa.s.sed onto a set,” Dawn said, and even though she sounded as smooth as dry ice, she was unable to tear her eyes away. ”Why is everyone acting shocked about a boy in a fake window? He wandered into a shot. It's not like he's floating up twelve stories. He's not a ghost or something.”
Both Breisi and Kiko glanced at each other, then back at Dawn.
She wasn't so sure she realized the full extent of what was going on. Big shocker. It matched the entire Limpet experience so far.
Still, she was definitely going to get her answers soon, come h.e.l.l or high water.
Kiko spoke up. ”We've consulted with special effects wizards and they say no movie magic was used. But more important than that, this boy's mom tells us that superimposing the kid's image isn't possible anyway....”
”Dawn.” The Voice paused. He'd said her name like she'd already failed him. ”You don't recognize him?”
Maybe she did. Or maybe her mind just wasn't accepting it.
But Kiko helpfully jumped in.
”That's Robby Pennybaker,” he said. ”And you, of all people, should know that he shouldn't be anywhere near that movie.”