Read Online Napier's Bones by Derryl Murphy - Free Book Online Page A

climbing out, “you scrunch on
over and let me drive for awhile. I’ll explain as we go.”
    Jenna climbed
over the bucket seats and tried to settle in, but her knee bumped against the
glove compartment, which noisily popped open. Inside was a manila envelope
which slid down onto Jenna’s lap, as if pulled along by an invisible wire.
Numbers swarmed everywhere, but none of them appeared to be dangerous, and when
Jenna delicately picked up the envelope with her fingertips they all faded
away.
    “Jesus,” said
Dom. He’d opened the driver’s side door but had stayed outside when the
envelope appeared.
    “Open it,”
suggested Billy. “The numbers that were here didn’t seem dangerous.” After a
few seconds of dubious thought, Dom nodded in agreement.
    Jenna slowly
peeled open the envelope, then shook the contents out onto her lap. Two U.S.
passports. Carefully, Jenna picked one up and opened it, closed it again and
handed it over to Dom, eyes wide open.
    Dom climbed into
the car and leaned back before he opened the passport. He noted with some sort
of distant interest that when he did look inside, he felt no surprise at what
he saw. A picture of him, accompanied by the name Eric Wood; even his signature
using that name. He turned to look at Jenna, saw the passport she was holding
up, her own picture inside accompanied by the name Lisbeth Sorenson.
    “Someone else is
in on all this,” said Dom finally.
    “Someone who
wants to help us, I think,” replied Billy.
    “But why
passports?” asked Jenna. Her voice was tight and quiet, but Dom could hear the
quiver of fear there.
    Dom started the
car. “First thing, we’re off to Canada.” He pulled out and headed for the
highway.
    “Canada? What do
you mean? Why Canada?” Her voice was even more panicked now.
    Billy put a hand
on her shoulder. “Settle down, Jenna. Give Dom the time to explain things
instead of getting so upset.”
    She closed her
eyes, leaned her head back and took a series of deep breaths. “I’m sorry,” she
finally said, voice barely above a whisper. “The passports coming out of
nowhere, that picture of me I
know
was never taken, and I have trouble
with blood at the best of times, and seeing those numbers crawl
inside
me like that just made it worse. It was like something out of a horror movie,
bugs climbing inside you and making your skin bubble and crawl and flow through
your blood and you can see it like you’re watching a Discovery Channel
documentary and they’re little and even though you say they’re supposed to
help, they—”
    “Whoa!” yelled
Dom. “Jenna, your freaking out is freaking
me
out. Shut the fuck up a
minute and let me explain what’s going on.”
    She turned to
look at Dom, lip quivering but eyes set hard. “All right. Tell me, please.” Her
voice was deathly quiet now.
    Dom took a deep
breath, concentrating on the traffic for a minute. “Right,” he finally said.
“First, the passports. They’re pretty obviously a gift from someone who knows
what shape we’re in. I doubt that crossing the border is going to help us get
away, but there are things I have squirreled away in Canada, things that can
help us deal with our situation here. And since they’re closer than anything in
the States, it makes sense to go that way. Although . . .” He scratched the
bridge of his nose as he thought for a few seconds. “Don’t know if I like the
idea of someone out there knowing that about me already.”
    Billy shrugged.
“Too late to do anything about it now.”
    “Not so,” said
Dom. “We could drive somewhere else, mess up their plans.”
    “We have the
wire you just got us,” replied Billy. “Will it last long enough if we have to
go further?”
    Dom pursed his
lips. “Probably not. Shit. So Canada it is.”
    “What about the
wire?” asked Jenna. “Why’d you have to poke me with it?”
    “Well,
synchronicity is what makes our world go round,” said Dom. “Any time there’s a
sequence of numbers