Whisper: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Novel (Spectra Book 3)

by Lan Chan

  “Interesting,” Zeke said. “Not Psi-Hospital.”

  “The question is, how do we get to see her without throwing a red flag about how we know she’s in there?”

  “I have special status with the Kings, remember?” I said. “Let’s just say somebody told me. I’m in too deep now to get out of it anyway.”

  We all looked to Rich for permission. He massaged the bridge of his nose. “We’ve got no other choice. It’s too far out of our hands now.”

  Zeke rode shotgun and I slumped in the back seat. After seventeen years of being relatively illness-free, I’d found myself in more hospitals in the last six months than I’d care to be in a whole lifetime. At least this time I wasn’t the patient.

  We found out immediately that we should have brought Bianca. This might not have been the Psi-Ops hospital, but they were treating Collins as a top-priority patient.

  “Why all the security?” Zeke asked as Oz tried to cajole the reception staff into letting us in to see her. My attention settled on a man stalking up the other side of the corridor. I knew him from briefings at school. Bingo.

  “That’s why.” I inched my head towards Senator Collins. “Her dad’s a bigwig in the senate and he’s coming this way.”

  Without thinking, I jumped out in front of him as he made to move past. “Uh, hi,” I said. “Senator Collins? Willow Nguyen. I think you know my aunt, Jennifer Atherton? She’s good friends with Minister Carra.” A sure sign of someone overreaching was dropping as many names as possible.

  “I’m busy,” he snarled. Charming.

  “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Mentally flagging Oz down, I gave the senator a reassuring grin. “My colleague Oscar Hoffman has been working the Second Sight case with your daughter, and I…uh…got some intel from a Court informant that she might have been hurt in the incident in Sunbury last night.”

  “How did you know she was here?” Thin lines appeared around his mouth, displeasure radiating from every pore. Kudos to him for at least caring about his daughter.

  “As I said, I have informants.”

  “Well, you can tell the Kings that if they wanted a war, they’ve got one. We don’t take attacks on our agents lightly.”

  “If at all possible, we’d like to avoid that situation,” Oz said. “I’m sure you can agree that a war would be detrimental to all parties involved. In any case, we’d just like to see how she is. It’s hard not to take something like this personally.”

  It was Oz’s eyes that did it. Those big pools of crystal blue that conjured up clear skies and calm waters. Who could say no to that? “Just for a moment,” the senator said. “She’s still resting.”

  You didn’t even need to use your powers, I thought, slightly disgusted.

  Sometimes the only way to go is diplomacy. Oz scratched the side of his nose.

  Yeah, right, Zeke snorted. I’ll bet he knows your parents.

  Regardless of the reason, I was thankful. We wouldn’t have been able to slip past the four agents guarding her door or the two inside the room. Not to mention a highly rankled Flynn who took one look at me and snarled mentally.

  Collins was in better shape than expected. I kept thinking she’d be like Moore but then remembered they’d only tranquilised her.

  “There you are!” she snapped when her father strode in flanked by us. Her expression dimmed for a second before she recovered. “Can you please call your watchdogs off? I’m completely fine. The doctor says I’m ready to be discharged.”

  “You’ll leave when I think you’re ready, young lady. Not a second earlier.”

  Sheesh. And I thought my dad had been overprotective.

  “What are you doing here?” Flynn asked. He had the decency to at least direct his comment at Oz rather than me. Though I suspected if I weren’t there, he wouldn’t have any issue with their presence.

  “We heard about what happened,” Oz said. “Wanted to see how you were doing.”

  Colour me gobsmacked when her face crumpled. “They got Iannou.” Wiping away furious tears, she focused her attention on me. “Those bastards don’t give a damn about human life. I suppose that’s how you knew I was here?”

  If Zeke hadn’t mentally muzzled me, I would have pointed out that the Psi-Ops fired first. And if Selina hadn’t made the ultimate sacrifice, it would have been me mourning this morning. And that would have been bad for everyone.

  “We’re so sorry,” Oz said. How he managed to sound genuine was beyond me. Then I looked up at Flynn giving me the evil eye and I was sorry. Sorry it had been Iannou and not him. Nobody ever accused me of being nice.

  “The girl who saved you…” Oz ventured.

  “I have no memory of it,” Collins said. “They say it was this Spectra vigilante, but I don’t remember. Last thing I recall is being shot with a tranquiliser and then waking up in the ER parking lot.”

  So that’s why she wasn’t in the Psi-Ops hospital. Fake Spectra must have dropped her off here.

  Oz kept pressing. “Do you have any reason to think why Spectra saved you specifically?”

  Collins shook her head.

  She’s lying, I thought to Oz and Zeke.

  I know, Oz returned. But we couldn’t very well read her with her father and Flynn here.

  Why not? The Psi-Ops were going to do the same to Moore.

  “Doesn’t matter now,” the senator said. “You managed to catch the people who were manufacturing S2 and that’s all that counts.”

  Not the lives of her colleagues or the people in the Court. Or the fact that none of those lives would have been lost if they hadn’t gone in there, guns blazing. Because you know, they were Psi-Ops and nothing else mattered.

  Flynn grunted. “We’re not discussing any of this with unauthorized personnel in the room.”

  I could take a hint. Whether I wanted to or not was another matter. Only when Oz prodded me did I relent. It was a surprise when a moment later, the senator joined us.

  “Don’t tell me you’re not authorised either?” I said.

  “Technically no.” A wan smiled curved over his lips. “At least I know she’s in good hands.”

  The agents outside were hyper-vigilant regardless of the fact that the senator was with us. It got uncomfortable after a while so we turned the corner and went to sit in the waiting area.

  I don’t like this place, I thought to Zeke.

  Figures, he responded. Last time you were in one of these places someone did something to you.

  Now probably wasn’t the time to psychoanalyse why I hadn’t felt the same clawing dread at the back of my throat when I was in the League hospital with Ryan. The fact that we’d had zero contact since the other night didn’t help things. I suspected he’d tried to call but that the others were running interference. As if I was some reckless kid in need of a babysitter...oh wait.

  How’d you do on the test? I asked him for the hundredth time in the past few days. The test he sat while I was getting my ass kicked would mean he’d go into an even more accelerated program to get permission to be included in actual Academy missions.

  I told you I haven’t gotten the results yet!

  Jeez, I was just asking. The link furnished me with a tightly wound ball of anxiety. He seemed to feel like failure wasn’t an option, and if he didn’t get in that it was somehow a blemish on his record.

  Too busy trying to assure him he was fine no matter what happened, I didn’t notice the ruckus around the entrance of the emergency room until somebody started shouting.

  “Get them off me!” a man screamed. He hopped around scratching at himself like someone was firing guns at his feet.

  “Sir!” The nurse behind the counter tried to approach him with her hands up, palms open. “If you would just calm down.”

  “They’re everywhere! Please, please, get them off.”

  Zeke and I were on our feet in an instant. The senator craned his neck around the corner to see what the commotion was about, only to be surr
ounded by agents. Pushing past them, he stepped into the room. Either he didn’t have much training on how to preserve his own life, or he didn’t care. He looked on with piqued interest as the deranged man continued to scratch.

  The itch appeared to be everywhere on his body and the scratching became self-harm as he tore great lines of red over his arms.

  “Sir,” the nurse repeated. “I’m going to have to insist that you keep your voice down.”

  He gave gargled cries as though somebody was choking him underwater. Two male orderlies approached him from the left, arms up once again.

  “Stop it. Stop it. I don’t want to hear anymore.” When he started flapping his arms around, it was the final straw.

  “We have a code yellow in progress,” the nurse behind the counter spoke into her microphone. “I repeat, code yellow. Immediate assistance required.”

  As Hyper agents, we had the same authority as Academy officers. Just when Zeke stepped forward, Collins’s door opened and Oz strode out. Thank goodness. A proper officer with some authority. Of course, the stiffs went for their firearms. The patient wasn’t armed and he didn’t seem to be in the right frame of mind. Hardly a match for four Psi-Ops agents armed to the teeth.

  Oz flagged them down as three hospital security guards raced around the corner on the other side of the corridor.

  “Hey there,” Oz said. The patient turned to him, eyes glassy and…yellow.

  Uh oh. Unsure whether to move forward or back, I froze in place. Oz’s thoughts glided into my mind. Can you hear anything?

  I bit my bottom lip. No. He’s still too far away.

  Come with me.

  “We’re going to make it stop, okay?” Oz kept his voice low and soothing. Another piercing scream drilled through my skull and into the base of my neck. Through the link, I felt Zeke shudder. We really shouldn’t have watched those pre-Reset movies about those mental institutions. It was Lily’s fault for pirating them for us. For a kid who was otherwise defenceless, she sure had an iron stomach.

  “It’s okay.” Oz continued to speak as we advanced on the guy. “Nobody’s going to hurt you. We’re here to make it better.”

  As soon as my probe got to within two metres of the man, the whispers assaulted me. The man’s eyes snapped open, revealing red veins shot through the yellow. His screams gargled in his throat. A million inessential whispers flitted through the link between us and layered over the top with an irresistible urge to find shelter. To go home.

  The pull was magnetic. The man took a running start. Too late, Oz realised what was happening. Not that I was being attacked but that we were surrounded by witnesses. Blinded by his need to help the patient, he’d almost forgotten what the consequences would mean for me.

  The man reached out, his gnarled fingers almost swiping the tip of my nose before an invisible force grabbed him and halted his movements.

  Back up, Zeke said to me in my mind. The patient sputtered, spit pooling on either side of his lips like a rabid animal. His body jerked in an unnatural rhythm that didn’t coincide with his very forceful thoughts. I felt Zeke’s intent as the patient bent his knees and collapsed to the floor.

  “He’s having a seizure,” one of the nurses screamed.

  Without hesitation, I reached out and placed my hands on his back, pretending to turn him and hold his head. The whispers surged where my skin touched the base of his neck and I was momentarily psychically blinded by the magnitude of the exchange. A wave of euphoria and calm washed over me. And then pop, the vacuum occurred. The patient stopped seizing, but he curled up into a ball and sobbed.

  His mind was blank now that the nanobots weren’t there anymore, but a resounding feeling resonated from him. Gratitude. Unyielding gratitude for the silence that he had taken for granted.

  He clung to me well after the area was cleared. Finally, when it was just us and the staff left, the nurse who had tried to calm him down unlatched him from me.

  “He sure likes you,” she said. Kind eyes made my throat sting. It was no coincidence that Zeke was between me and the agents when I turned back to where they were standing.

  Though the Basics had translated the incident as a mere psychotic episode, the way Flynn’s gaze bore into me left nothing to the imagination.

  He might not understand what had just gone on, but there was no way he was going to believe something fishy hadn’t just happened.

  “What was that all about?” Flynn said immediately.

  “When I touched him and he kept jerking, I might have electrocuted him a little,” I said. That was a nugget Zeke and I had come up with during a night time brainstorming session.

  “Is that why he stopped seizing?” the senator asked.

  “Could be.”

  “Most likely it’s a coincidence,” Oz added.

  “We’re enforcement,” Flynn said. “We don’t believe in coincidences.”

  I waved a hand dismissively. “Neither do I. Like for instance, why Iannou was heading up an investigation into a manufacturing plant where there would clearly be esper involvement. You’d think sending in someone with telepathy would have been a smarter move.”

  There was no need for the warning from Oz in my head. If Flynn was going to make accusations, then I was going to do the same.

  “That’s none of your business and also classified information.”

  “Convenient,” I muttered. Sure, I was only digging a bigger hole for myself, but after the events of last night, sitting around and just waiting didn’t seem like an option. And I was getting tired of listening to him mouth off about me.

  “You forget that we’re the legitimate agency,” Senator Collins said. Mouth open, I wanted so badly to list all the things their legitimate agency did to make the lives of the people in the city worse. But when I went to speak, nothing came out. Oz was interrupting my verbal command centre. I clamped my mouth shut and crossed my arms.

  Fine, have it your way, I sent him.

  “We should get going,” Oz said. “There’s just one last thing. Willow’s contacts in the Court have let it drop that the Shadowman is after this vigilante who claims to be Spectra.”

  “Claims to be?” the senator said. “You don’t believe it’s really her?”

  For a second I thought he might lie, but then Oz tugged at his right ear. “While I don’t agree with her methods, there is no mistaking Spectra is well trained. She’s meticulous to the point of paranoia. This new incarnation that’s been showing up since Second Sight… It’s hard to believe it’s the same person. Regardless, this person seems to have an interest in your daughter. If she contacts you, she needs to be told she’s in danger. The Shadowman isn’t going to pull his punches for anyone.”

  Was it just me or did it seem like you offended them, Zeke thought to Oz as we walked back to the car.

  “I think any pretence of cooperation between the Psi-Ops and Hyper just went up in smoke,” Oz said.

  I huffed. “Oh well. No big loss.”

  But I had no idea what I was talking about.

  28

  Two days later, we were having Sunday breakfast when the phone rang. “Don’t answer it,” Zeke said. “If it’s important they’ll call back.”

  I tended to agree. Unfortunately, not picking up a ringing phone was anathema to both Lily and Bianca. Since it wasn’t ideal to allow Lily to speak to people, for obvious reasons, Bianca raced to the phone and must have just got it on its last ring.

  Figuring it couldn’t have anything to do with me, I focused on the news. Or the lack thereof. Normally, if a drug bust happened like this, there would be a lot of clamouring from junkies and dealers to get their hands on the remaining supply. Being Second Sight, I thought there might be a riot. For the first twelve hours, it was feasible to excuse it as the calm before the storm. We’d waited with bated breath for the storm to hit, but it was worse when nothing happened.

  “Will, it’s for you,” Bianca called out. Zeke raised a brow at me.

  “Who is i
t?”

  No answer. She’d already put the receiver down and gone back into the kitchen where she was sitting alone staring out the back window. This Selina thing was hitting her harder than any of us would have thought. Adam and I now had a third person joining our insomnia club most nights. One more and it could be a party.

  Walking over to the phone, I picked it up. “Hello?”

  “And here I was thinking you were trying to avoid me, darling.” Endearment notwithstanding, there was an odd catch to Ryan’s voice that made me bite my lip. I turned my back to the room the moment Zeke’s head popped up like a meerkat. He had some kind of Hades radar, for sure.

  At times like this, I really would have liked to have a phone in my room. Then, of course, I asked myself what I would need to say to him that I couldn’t say in front of everyone else.

  “No,” I said, knowing the lowered pitch of my voice was highly suspicious. “Just been busy.”

  “Too busy to even return calls?”

  “What calls?”

  A pause. “Never mind. What are you doing today?”

  “Let’s see, it’s Sunday, so I have a dance recital and then it’s off to church for a rousing hour of contemplative prayer followed by a dozen Hail Marys. Then maybe dinner at the Stirling and then a shadow boxing match.” It shouldn’t have shot heat through me so quickly when he laughed. This just wasn’t the best idea. “For real, though, I have a ton of homework I need to catch up on and this pesky issue of Gabe being missing to deal with. Why?”

  “Do you think your tight-ass boss will let you off the leash for a few hours? I need a favour.”

  “Of course you do. And may I ask what this favour entails?”

  Silence again. “I don’t want to tell you in case you say no.”

  “Then I’m saying no.”

  “I thought you might,” he said. “So how about a return favour to sweeten the deal. Right now, I bet your cute butt isn’t allowed anywhere near the Rendezvous. But mine is. If I can get info on whether Gabe made it back in one piece, you agree to come with me.”

  How could I refuse after he complimented both our butts? “Fine. Pick me up at twelve. And Ryan, this favour better not involve your sister—” He hung up before I could continue. Fantastic.