The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 48

Bobby never thought about the purple streaks in Eva’s hair until the girl turned. He’d caught a glimpse of her hair countless times during the trip from Japan. He’d had ample opportunity to consider its color. It had never dawned on him that the absence of purple might be evidence the girl was not Eva. Only when he saw her face did this occur to him. The girl was not wearing purple lipstick either. And he’d never seen Eva without her lips painted her favorite color. Eva was all about purple, and to Bobby the color purple was all about Eva. In his mind, the two were inseparable.

This girl had no trace of purple about her.

And yet, his heart leapt in his chest nonetheless, for the girl he’d faithfully followed for the last three days was Eva.

Other than the absence of purple, she looked exactly the same as he remembered her, except she was totally different. Her high cheekbones seemed more drawn. Dark circles surrounded her eyes. But the creases that sprang to her forehead when she realized there was a man behind her caught Bobby’s eye. Only three years had passed since he’d seen her last, since her uncle — the Coach — had told him she’d died. And yet she looked ten years older. Not in a bad way. In a mature way. The latter observation struck fear in Bobby’s heart. Maybe she’d think he was too young for her again. She was nineteen. He was about to turn eighteen. Maybe in her eyes he’d gone back to being a kid.

The creases vanished. Her eyes came alive. They shone with intensity. Her lips curled upward. No, they weren’t just curling upward. They parted to form a rapturous smile, an uninhibited look of joy the likes of which he’d never seen from her before. She’d been the tough girl with the inscrutable expression. Now she stood before him looking like he were the person in the world she most wanted to see.

He offered her his hand.

She took it. Grabbed it as though it were the hand of her personal Moses. The man who had come to rescue her. The man she knew was coming to rescue her from the moment she’d caught a glimpse of him at Fukushima.

The Hawaii Five-O beat gathered itself for its climactic run. The horns blared. The drums pounded. Bobby felt invincible.

He turned and pulled Eva toward the stairs. The name of Moses rang in his ears.

Luo, he thought. He couldn’t leave Luo behind. He decelerated. Felt the slack in Eva’s arm as she stepped closer to him. Luo would have crossed the entrance to the media room if he thought he could do so undetected. But he didn’t, so he couldn’t. There was nothing Bobby could do to help him. If Luo was an imposter, he deserved his fate. If he was Eva’s father, he would be screaming for Bobby to run—

Bobby raced down the hallway with Eva. He pulled the stairwell door. A dim light shone under the door at the top of the stairs. The peripheral glow from the lights aimed out at the lake, he thought.

Bobby released Eva’s hand. He powered up the stairs. He heard her follow behind him. The sound of her footsteps blended with his. Perfect cadence, just like in the Zone when they scavenged for scraps of metal that could be sold on the black market. They hadn’t seen each other in three years, but they were already communicating without speaking.

The music rose to a crescendo. It was muted by the door behind them, but Bobby could still hear it as he approached the top of the stairwell.

He pushed the door open. The handrail stood twenty-five feet in front of him. Beneath it, the cliff. Below the cliff, their skates. Beyond their skates, a runway made of ice, ready for takeoff.

Bobby emerged onto the observation deck. Eva pulled up beside him. The honey scent of her hair, the sound of her breathing, the heat of her shoulder rubbing up against his, electrified him. He found the grapple hanging at the bottom of one of the iron beams.

“There,” he said.

Someone slammed the door shut behind them. Two men in suits stepped out from against the walls surrounding the door. They pointed their rifles at Bobby and Eva. Both men wore earphones. One of them took his eyes off Eva and spoke.

“I’ve got the girl on the observation deck… Yes, the observation deck… Obviously he’s an idiot because she’s with me and not in her room… And get this. I can’t believe it.” The man looked at Bobby. “She’s not alone. The boy’s here…. That’s right… I have no idea how he did it, but he got inside… just like you said he would.”