Hush Money

by Susan Bischoff

  “No problem. I…didn’t look.” Sometimes when you’re invisible, you see things that are really embarrassing.

  “Well, we’re brothers for life now.”

  I have to say that I really liked Rob. “Life or longer. Look, thanks a lot for coming with me tonight. I was way over my head and I really needed your help. I owe you.”

  “Yeah, well, just keep me out of jail.”

  “I got your back.”

  I turned to open the window, but he stopped me.

  “Dylan, there’s something else I’ve gotta tell you. Something I found in the computer…”

  Chapter 17

  Joss

  I inadvertently had lunch with Dylan on Tuesday. He was the latest invader of my stairwell space. I blame Kat.

  He led with the pictures and didn’t give me a chance to feel too awkward about my meltdown, nor did he let me coo over how he got them for me. Which was cool, because I’m not the cooing type. Instead he launched into a rapid info-dump. I was trying to get over the fact that he got poor Rob involved in my problems and in breaking and entering. Plus, it’s not always easy for me to think when Dylan’s talking to me. So I really didn’t get a chance to start processing it until History.

  Mr. Dobbs was working for NIAC. With encrypted files on us and everything. It made him seem like more, somehow. Not just an obnoxious loser who wanted to build himself up by destroying our lives, but now an obnoxious loser who wanted to build himself up by destroying our lives who had a badge. I mean probably, somewhere, he’d have a badge, right?

  Anyway, bottom line, more to hate, more to be worried about. Just what I needed. And Dylan said there was a narc. NIAC had planted someone among us, someone we thought was a student, and they were sending information back to NIAC. Who? Could be anyone. Was it Marco?

  I’d been up all night thinking about what to do about him, and I thought I was close to coming up with something that might just save Jill, Kat, and even Dylan—all of us. But if Marco was already known to NIAC, it wasn’t going to work. How the hell was I going to find that out, just ask him?

  I leaned back in my seat and let my gaze wander the room. Maybe if I sort of emptied out my head and started over fresh it would look different. And then I noticed Heather sitting over by the windows. She was looking at the teacher, but she wasn’t taking any notes. Her pencil was vertical and she was lifting and dropping it, bouncing it on its eraser.

  Heather. Are you tuned to Joss network? Tap your pencil, once for yes, twice for no.

  Tap. She turned and looked at me sheepishly.

  Ok, don’t worry about that, and don’t look at me. Did you get all that stuff about Dobbs being affiliated with NIAC.

  Tap. And she gave me this wide-eyed eeep! sort of look.

  Seriously, face front, okay? Did you hear what I thought about the narc? Do you know who it is?

  Two taps for that one. Of course, that would be too easy. Then I had another thought.

  Would you tell me if you did?

  Tap.

  Can you tell me if it’s Marco?

  Tap.

  Damn. That bastard.

  Tap tap.

  What, he’s not a bastard? Ok, wait. Syntax. Is Marco working for NIAC undercover?

  Tap tap.

  So it’s not Marco. Ok. Then all we have to do is get you to listen in on everyone in the school until you find out who it is.

  Tap tap.

  I’m sure it’s a pain and against your rules, but this is really important.

  Tap tap.

  No, what? Oh my God, this is so annoying.

  “Jocelyn. Are you with us? Do you have any thoughts on this question?” Mr. Grier asked, rather snidely. I guess I’d been too obviously not paying attention. Crap.

  I felt a hand on my back and then words, and the desire to say them, just popped into my head. “Um, the…formation of the Holy Roman Empire?”

  “Correct. Thank you,” Grier said, looking annoyed, and then moved on.

  Thank you, Matt.

  Heather turned to me and mouthed something that I was pretty sure was, “He can’t hear you.” I narrowed my eyes at her.

  Are you going to help me find this narc or what?

  Tap.

  I was trying to figure out the best way to go about it and settled into thinking about my conversation with Heather the night of the party.

  Hey, you said you hear some people better than others. Does that mean there are people you don’t hear?

  Tap, and, it seemed, some enthusiasm.

  Maybe that’s what you wanted to say before. You think the narc might be one of the people you can’t hear.

  Tap.

  NIAC might be able to train their people…makes sense.

  Tap.

  “Heather? Do you know who I’m talking about?” Grier asked.

  “Pope Clement the second,” she answered, without hesitation.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Whose head did you pull that out of, Rob’s? Isn’t that against the rules?

  She glared at me. And I almost laughed. I’m not talking to you anymore. Pay attention. I’m just going to let all this marinate a while.

  Someone among us was a NIAC mole. That was huge. But I didn’t have a way to find that out right now. The most I could do was warn any Talents I knew—and I didn’t really know anyone except Kat and her friends. I was pretty sure I could count on Heather to spread the word, and we’d have to work on that threat later.

  We. Jesus.

  My immediate problem was Marco. Dylan was going to become a bank robber in two days if I didn’t figure out what to do. Marco wasn’t the narc, but he was a Talent. He had just as much to lose as the rest of us if someone had the kind of pictures of him that he had of Krista. I thought I could work with that.

  * * *

  Joss

  “Um, yeah. I guess it would be a date.”

  “Jocelyn, you know how your father feels about you dating.”

  “That’s why I’m asking you. Please? It’s just pizza—at Donatello’s, not the Pit. We won’t be anywhere near the store, so Dad doesn’t even have to know.”

  “Joss! Are you suggesting we lie to your father?”

  “No, Mom, it’s not like that, it’s just…Look, I know Kat’s party was a big disaster and that Dad wants me to stay away from her, and her friends, and…Dylan.”

  “And this boy, Eric, he’s not part of that crowd?”

  “No.” Lie.

  “You really like this boy?”

  “I…” For some reason, I found it harder to lie about this part. I felt awful about having to lie to my mom and to play her like I was about to. It sucked. But it was when I got to the point of lying about which boy I liked that I balked? Stupid brain. “I know that I’m not like other kids. But sometimes I just want to pretend like I am.”

  “Aw, honey.” Mom pulled me into her arms and I felt so bad I almost cried. “You’re such a good girl. I know you try so hard to make things easier for Dad and me. You’re such a help to us. I don’t want to have to tell you no.”

  “Then don’t. Just let me go and have this one afternoon. I don’t really think anything’s going to come of it. I know I can’t really have a boyfriend. I just want to know what it feels like—to be normal.”

  My mom pulled back, brushed her lower lashes with her fingertips and blinked a few times. Then she sighed. “At least I don’t have to worry if you can take care of yourself if he gets out of line.”

  I laughed, relieved. This was going to work. “Don’t you hate it when those chair legs just break, all sudden-like?”

  Mom laughed too. “Just make sure you’re home before your dad and don’t make me worry. Now, what are you going to wear? Should we do something with your hair?”

  * * *

  Dylan

  “Hey man, guess what I’m doing.” Eric said, as soon as I picked up.

  “I can hear the wind, so I guess you’re driving. I’m afraid to ask what it is or who i
t belongs to.”

  Marco had gotten us cell phones, the cash-only kind with no names attached. I think this enhanced his self-image as a crime boss. I had thought about flushing the damned thing, but I didn’t want to piss him off right now. The night before I had dreamt that the whole grocery store job was just a way to trap me in the store and call the cops. Eric, it seemed, was embracing the convenience.

  “Ha ha. It’s my car. I’m on my way to pick up your girlfriend.”

  “Why? From where?” I was getting so used to people calling Joss my girlfriend I was forgetting to argue or pretend I didn’t know who they were talking about. I was also forgetting that I didn’t have the right to be so unreasonably pissed off at Eric’s news.

  “From her house, and I don’t know why, actually. Kat grabbed me after school and asked me if I’d give her a ride somewhere later and got my number. She just called and told me I had to go pick up Joss at her house and then I’m supposed to go get Kat. She wouldn’t tell me where they’re going or what’s up, though. She was just really particular about me getting Joss first, even though Kat’s house is closer. Girls, man. I got no clue. But you want me to swing by and pick you up?”

  Something was definitely up. Something Joss could have let me in on if she’d wanted to. What the hell was that about? What did I have to do to get this girl to trust me?

  “Hey, what did you say? I think the connection’s going.”

  Maybe I was supposed to trust her first.

  “No. No thanks. I got some stuff to do right now. But do me a favor and call me when you get where you’re going. Maybe I can hook up with you guys later.”

  “Yeah, ok. Later.”

  Eric clicked off, leaving me wondering, Joss, what the hell are you up to?

  * * *

  Joss

  “So wait, I don’t get it,” Kat said, trying to keep her curls from blowing around. “How are we going to do this? Why did you send Eric away? We’re going to need him.”

  We were standing in the middle of a construction zone, inside a skeleton of steel beams that would someday be some kind of conference center and pricey lunch spot overlooking the river. Right now it didn’t look like much. Not to Kat. To me it looked like opportunity.

  But I was as scared as I had ever been. More scared, maybe than I had been at Kat’s party. Then, everything had happened so fast that I didn’t have time to feel it, I didn’t have the luxury of thinking things over, and now I could tell myself that I couldn’t be held completely responsible for my decisions.

  This was totally different. This was a carefully thought-out plan—well, as carefully planned as it could be in the less than twenty-four hours I’d been working on it. I told myself I had to try now so there would still be time for a plan B if something went wrong. But really, I just wasn’t giving myself time to chicken out.

  Now I had come to the first irreversible step and I had to stop asking myself whether or not I really trusted Kat and just take the leap.

  “We don’t need Eric. I don’t want anyone else involved.”

  “So you know how to hot-wire a crane?”

  “You mean that crane?” I concentrated on it, on manipulating the safety devices that locked it in place. And then BOOM, the crane’s arm plummeted from its raised position.

  I caught it, moved it back up and locked it in place again. The giant magnet swung wildly on its cable. Kat was staring at me with giant cartoon eyes, and I was a little dizzy myself.

  “Ooops. Maybe we should just…skip the crane. I’m not licensed.”

  “Did you really…?”

  “Here’s what we’ll do…” I focused on a pile of beams at the edge of the worksite. One of them began to work itself up above the rest and hovered there while I refocused. Damn was it heavy. Maybe the heaviest thing I had tried to lift and that worried me. I raised it up several feet in the air and dropped it, catching it before it hit the pile again.

  Kat gasped.

  “I meant to do that.”

  I tried it a few more times, raising it, letting it go, catching it. Getting a feel for it. But I was getting tired. I set it down and rubbed at my temples.

  “That was freakin’ amazing, Joss!”

  “Um, thanks.”

  “I mean really, seriously, like—wow! I can’t believe you can do that. I mean, I just can’t believe that you… Oh my God, you are such a faker! All that talk about me not being cautious with my Talent—”

  “Hey, that’s why you’re here now.”

  “—and all that time it never occurred to you to say, ‘Hey, by the way, I can move shit with my brain’? What kind of friend are you?”

  I could see by her face that she thought she was funny. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not real comfortable with the sharing.”

  “Really?” she snorted and then we were both quiet for a few minutes.

  I pondered what I had just done. It was the first time I had ever showed my power to someone who wasn’t family—on purpose anyway—since before the fire. What did that mean? Was that because of Kat and who she was, the way she had swooped into my life and made me her friend? Or did it have something to do with me, and how I was changing? Because I was…changing.

  “Joss,” Kat said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Yeah.”

  “You totally owe me a kitchen.”

  * * *

  Dylan

  I had been pacing my room with the phone in my hand for the last half hour. I should have just told Eric to pick me up before. I could have confronted Joss right then and then I wouldn’t be standing around here like an idiot wondering what she was up to. “Yeah?”

  “Hey man.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Um, ok, intense much? So the girls just wanted a ride. That’s it. Then they told me to get lost. Can you believe that?”

  “Well, where’d you take them?”

  “You know the Riverfront Development thing? The big conference center project? Kat made me drop them near there.”

  “At the construction site?”

  “Near there, yeah.”

  “And you just left them there?”

  “Well since that’s what they wanted, yeah. I mean, I thought I made it obvious I wanted to hang, but, you know, I wasn’t about to beg.”

  “Yeah yeah yeah. So what are they doing? When are you supposed to go back?”

  “Dude, you need to chill. Who knows what they’re doing? Use a guy for his wheels and then it’s ‘See ya!’ So anyways, I’m free. You wanna do something?”

  What the hell were they up to? At a construction site? I pretty much hated the idea of Joss—and Kat—out there by themselves. Because the longer I sat here alone and thought about it, the more I was sure she was up to something stupid. I thought about the picture I had given her at lunch and what I suspected. That kind of power might be a match even for Marco. Then I thought about him pawing at her out in the courtyard the other day and how she didn’t do anything to stop it. Did she have the Talent or not? Would she even be willing to use it if she needed to?

  “Helllloooooo? Dude, you still there?”

  “Yeah. Listen, I need you to swing by and pick me up. I need a ride.”

  He made a disgusted noise. “Eric’s taxi service, coming up.”

  * * *

  Joss

  “You rang?” Marco asked as he crossed the concrete toward me. “So what’s up, Joss? Why are we meeting out here? It’s too early for my surprise birthday party.” I was standing right where I wanted him, so I let him come all the way up to me, finger the collar of my jacket. “You must have thought more about my offer. Was this the only place you could think of to be alone? I’ve got someplace better and it’s actually not too far away. Come on.”

  He tugged at my jacket, and I took a few steps back, breaking his hold and putting my hands up defensively. My heart was starting to beat hard, and I couldn’t remember what I had planned to say. This was possibly the most important—and most dangerous�
�thing I had ever done. Had I planned to act nervous or was that just me?

  “Thanks for coming but…I…just want to talk, ok?”

  “What have we got to talk about? Please don’t tell me you called me here to ask for favors, Joss.” He was faking a whine, sounding pained. It was really annoying and helping me focus a bit. “I’ve got something you need: my silence. You need to give me something in return for that. It’s that simple. Plus, baby, I got other stuff you need if you would just—”

  “Can we not go there? I’m asking you one more time to be reasonable.”

  “I can’t believe you dragged me all the way down here for this crap.”

  Above us was the sound of metal scraping against metal. The thought flashed through my mind: when he thinks back, will he realize that I was looking up before it fell?

  Then I was screaming his name, running backward, getting out of the way as the beam plunged through space. Inside my head though, everything was calm, focused, concentrating on the moment when I might have to save him if he wasn’t fast enough—or strong enough—to save himself.

  He threw up his hands defensively and the beam landed. It was so wrong, like something out of a cartoon. There was a bend of his knees, a slight sinking of his body into a weight-lifter’s stance as he took the weight. Then he was straightening, holding the huge steel girder above his head, and looking straight at me.

  “What the fuck, Joss?” And he tossed it at me.

  Shocked, I shrieked and stumbled backward, falling and landing on my butt in the dirt surrounding the concrete pour that was now cracked and gouged. I could have blocked it, I realized belatedly. I could have caught it and tossed it back to him. We could have made a game of it just to see who would tire first. But he had made me panic, and besides, he needed to be the star of this video.

  “Oops,” he said. “I guess it slipped. It’s heavy.”

  “Um, yeah. It looks heavy,” I agreed, getting up and brushing off dust. I raised my voice. “What do you think, Kat? You think that was heavy? Hey, did you get all that?”