by Lan Chan
“I think Ryan can look after himself.” When she reached up to clasp her hands on either side of my face, I wasn’t expecting the earnest fear in her eyes.
“She died, you know.”
“Who?”
“Ruby. My dog. She squashed under the bridge and went to heaven.”
“Bridge?”
This time I did look up at Ryan. He glanced back at me steadily, expectantly...waiting. A bridge. A little girl. A dog. My mind cast back. I’d just won a shadow boxing tournament held by the Shadowman. I’d just learned my mum was dead. Then by what I suspected was a set-up, I was there when two TK espers went at each other on top of the bridge. Their telepathy smashed into the bridge, causing it to collapse. A little girl and a dog had been under the bridge at the time. Abigail and Ruby. I’d always wondered what happened to her. Now I knew. She was stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
“I’m sorry,” I said. She patted my cheek and let go. I picked up the ice cream and almost sprinted away. Footsteps on the concrete behind me didn’t slow me down. I pressed my palm against the entry pad, not bothering to swipe my pass. In a nanosecond, the gate released and started rolling open.
“Willow.” He reached out for my elbow but I pushed him off and stalked through the gate. He came after me and finally got hold, turning me around to face him. This time, everything I had was keeping the shields up and his mind out. “Why are you angry?”
“I’m not angry.” Angry was too light a word. “All this time you didn’t think to tell me?”
“It wasn’t relevant,” he said, searching my face for an explanation that he couldn’t get from my thoughts.
“Forget it. I have to get inside. They’re probably watching us right now.”
“Who cares?” He placed his hands on my face in the exact same spot his sister had done. “Talk to me.”
I shook my head, trying to get out of his hold without losing grip on the ice cream. “I’m only going to ask one more time.” The dominating tone in his voice ruffled my fur the wrong way.
“Or what?” I snapped.
“Or I’m going to kiss you, and if they’re watching…” He let the thought trail off. Even without hearing his thoughts, the edge of his lips twitched and I knew he was contemplating it anyway.
“I could have saved her,” I blurted. “I should have been able to stop the bridge from falling, but I was too weak from being injured. If I was faster—”
He brushed his lips against mine, quick enough to steal my breath but tender enough to get his point across.
“Hey!” I said.
He tilted my head up so I was looking into his eyes. They seeped a sadness that cut right through the heart of me. “I was less than a hundred meters away from her and I couldn’t get there in time.” His jaw clenched. “I was too busy arguing with the owner about letting Ruby in the store. If you hadn’t....” He swallowed.
“Don’t,” I said.
He nodded. “She’s alive. That’s all I care about. Don’t be guilty. I need you to not die while I’m away. I’ve got enough to worry about.”
Hey, lovebirds! Zeke’s voice cut into our thoughts. You have about two seconds before Rich comes out there and tears you apart. Get your ass in here! I can only stall for so long!
Heat flooded my cheeks and it made Ryan grin. “Take care of yourself, darling.” He waved and took off, leaving me to face the music.
30
“Don’t you dare say a single thing,” I said as five pairs of eyes tracked me into the kitchen where I put the ice cream into the freezer.
“So,” Adam finally said, after I’d come to sit down beside Zeke. “Had an interesting day?” They burst into a fit of laughter. My face flamed.
“Shut up! What are you guys, like, five?”
“Probably should have kept it off the premises, Sparks,” Zeke said.
I tried, I told him mentally. You know that little girl I tried to save? He’d seen the memories in my mind when the vital link was created. Turns out it was Abigail.
His mild shock whipped through our link along with realisation as to why Ryan had always been so interested in me. It took him less than five seconds to notice his mistake, but by then the seed of doubt had already burrowed into my mind.
Aww, don’t do that, Sparks, Zeke thought. You know what I meant.
Really? He has legions of women throwing themselves at him all the time. Why else is he interested in me?
It took all of about one second for Zeke’s amusement to turn into annoyance. I read his intention before it even became a thought. If he hurts you, I’ll break his legs.
Get in line. This got me a smile, though his expression was still cloudy. I’d bet he was contemplating the day when he would have to defend my honour against the man he hero-worshipped.
Outside my head, Rich was giving me a speech about responsible relationships. I grimaced. “I don’t hear you lecturing the others about who they go out with.”
If possible, Rich’s eyes bulged from his head. “What do you mean go out with? You’re seventeen!”
Oh man, Adam said in my head. This is the best day ever! I think there’s actually steam coming out of his head.
I thought an obscene gesture at him. I needed to put the brakes on this before it got out of hand. Cutting across the top of Rich’s rant, I raised my voice. “Scarlet Manning told me the Shadowman’s implemented a curfew on the Row.” All conversation ground to a halt.
Oz’s left brow twitched. “There hasn’t been a curfew in Melbourne in years. Why hasn’t it been on the news?”
“I said it’s the Shadowman’s curfew. Not the city’s.”
“What does that mean?” Zeke asked.
Bianca’s lips were drawn in a tight line. “It means anyone caught out after dark is in the firing line. All allegiances are off during curfew. If you’re too stupid to toe the line and you’re killed, there can’t be any retribution from remaining family members.”
“How does that work if half the city doesn’t know about it?”
“It doesn’t,” Bianca said. “The whole point is that it’s designed to cause maximum casualties. It draws in the power players, and if this new Spectra is dumb enough, which I suspect she is, she’ll think she can handle it.”
“The new powers,” I breathed. “She’s probably thinking the electricity makes her invincible.”
“When in actual fact, there are probably tumours growing in her brain right now,” Lily said. “I wonder how much longer she has until it reaches critical.”
“Thanks, Lil,” I said. “That’s all very reassuring.”
“Don’t worry. I’m ninety-five percent sure you’re not affected.”
“So there’s a five percent chance I’m going to die of a brain tumour?”
“Only way to know for sure is to scan your head, but the last time we tried that you didn’t do so well, remember?”
Rich cleared his throat and even Lily knew to shut up. “Why did Scarlet tell you? She should know better than to inform a Hyper officer of the Shadowman’s business.”
“Money.” It was a cold calculation but it was the truth. “If her clients can’t go out in the dark, then she loses money hand over fist. The longer the curfew goes on, the worse it is for her. I have a feeling the whole Row is holding its breath for Spectra’s death.”
“We have to warn the city,” Rich said. “Tonight. Only problem is that I can speak to the Psi-Ops, but whether they do something about it on time is another matter.”
“Why would they delay?” Zeke asked.
“Because they want Spectra too.”
“That’s messed up,” I said. Then I had a thought. “If we can get an announcement into the drone system…”
“We’d be charged with tampering, with improper use of government property, grand thef–” Oz said.
I called time out before he could go on. “That’s only if we get caught. We have a genius on our side, and they don’t.”
“So we
either do one or the other,” Bianca said. “If we alert the Psi-Ops we can’t tap the drones. That’s too obvious.”
“We’re not tapping the drones,” Rich said.
“Why not?” Lily questioned. I could see the cogs in her brain turning with all the possibilities. I suspected she didn’t even care about the curfew. But the challenge of commandeering every drone in the city was too good to let slide.
“Because we’ve circumvented the law too much already. If we do this, we’re breaking oaths we made.”
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t make any oaths,” I muttered under my breath, but it was a moot point.
“I’ll contact the Psi-Ops now. The rest of you gear up. We’re going out on patrol.” He turned to me. “Stay here with Lily.”
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly.”
“Why?”
“Because the Kings are gunning for Spectra. I don’t want you in the crossfire.”
“They don’t know I’m Spectra!”
“You’re staying here. That’s an order.”
“Why do you hate me?”
He simply walked out of the room and to his office where he had a private phone line. Sharp pain shot through my jaw where I had it clenched shut.
Adam patted my shoulder. “Tough luck.”
“This is so unfair.” There was silence followed by Oz and Bianca trying to tiptoe out without saying a word. “Don’t tell me you agree with him.”
At the door, Oz turned back. “Let’s just say we’re not really itching for you to get your head blown off.”
I trailed behind Zeke to his room and ranted while he got ready. “Can you believe this?”
“Yep.” He stuck his head in the closet. “I don’t know how you didn’t see it coming.”
Flopping onto his bed, I balled up a pillow and punched it. “Hey! Leave the pillow alone. It didn’t do anything to you.”
“I know this city better than Rich does!”
“Doubtful. Maybe you know the underbelly better, but he’s been an officer for a long time. If he thinks this is the best way to get it done, we’ll be more successful if we’re cooperative.”
“Sorry,” I snapped. “Didn’t mean to insult your boyfriend.”
He raised a brow at me as he took off his T-shirt and shrugged on his Academy polo.
“Willow?” Lily screamed. “Are you in the boys’ wing? I need to speak to you.”
“Come in,” I yelled back.
“Negative. Please come out here.”
“Please go out there,” Zeke said. “My ears are ringing.”
“Bring Zeke with you!”
It was impossible not to laugh at the face he made. Zeke hastily laced up his boots and followed me out of his room. “What’s up?”
She waved us towards the lab. Inside, Lily closed the door and pointed to the cerebral monitor. “What are we looking at here?”
“Well, you know how we’ve been brainstorming contingencies for you to piggyback off the others while they’re on patrol?
I nodded, even though she was painting it very loose with the word brainstorming. More like she talked at me while I tried not to look too slack-jawed.
“I think I’ve come up with a prototype which uses your vital link to boost the signal. If we can tap into the drones as well, you should be able to stay in constant contact. I want to see if we can test it tonight.”
Zeke was already shaking his head. “It’s not a great night to be testing anything. We’re going to be distracted as it is.”
“You’re going to be herding sheep,” Lily responded. “Anyway, you won’t need to do anything. Willow and I will do the tests. Just bear in mind that we might be popping in and out, so don’t make a big deal out of it.”
“Have you told Rich about this?”
The fingers of her left hand tapped against her thigh. “He’s a bit busy right now. And anyway, it’s not dangerous, so I don’t need to tell him.”
Throwing me a warning glance, Zeke shook his head. “Fine. Just try not to distract me. I’ve gotta go.”
We followed him and watched as the others got into their cruisers, leaving in pairs. Rich came out of his office, uniform on, a scowl on his face. “I take it the Psi-Ops were less than forthcoming in their sympathy.”
He shook his head. “There’s a fire in City Square. It looks suspicious. The blowback for the drug shortage might be starting. Do not set foot off this property. I mean it.”
And then he too was gone. He was too high-ranking to be on foot patrol. I swallowed my sudden apprehension. As cadets, regulations dictated that we were only to be left unsupervised in cases of emergency. Every cell in my body protested being left behind for that very reason.
“It’s just us now,” I said to Lily as we made our way back to the lab.
“Good. There’s too much talking otherwise.”
“You ever wonder what we’d do if this place was attacked while we’re the only ones here?”
“I have a contingency plan.”
I had a feeling I knew what that plan entailed. “What if the power is cut?”
“Oh…I suppose we surrender and wait to be rescued.”
I stared at her. “Seriously? You’re like the smartest kid in the country. You can come up with something better than that.”
She didn’t stop walking or look at me. It wasn’t how she was wired. But her brows knitted together. “I am clever. But my…eccentricities are a weakness. As is your fear of the dark. We could be overcome easily.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. We might need to rectify that next chance we get. I don’t want a repeat of Ballarat happening.”
We arrived at the lab and she waved away my negative thoughts and pointed to the cerebral monitor. “Put it on.”
The filaments wove through my hair, massaging my scalp when Lily activated the monitor. I could have done it telepathically, but she didn’t like someone else taking control in her lab. As a bonus, I fed the video captured from the drones to her computer.
“See if you can find Zeke.”
It took less than five seconds to locate him on the highway with Adam. “Piece of cake,” I said. Knocking on his shield, I felt the outer layer melt away to allow me access. The vital link sparked with recognition, glowing green and gold. It was so pretty I tried to reach out and touch it, only to be dragged into its flow. Oh crap.
Zeke ejected me immediately. Do you mind? he thought. Stay out of there!
One of the drawbacks of the link was that it was without barriers. Nothing could be hidden in there. A kind of baring of the soul that most people were uncomfortable with. If the link hadn’t forged itself when I almost died, I don’t think either Zeke or I would have volunteered to establish it.
In the few seconds I was in there, I was bombarded with too much information. Like Zeke’s enormous crush on Bianca. It was nothing emotional either. Purely physical, which made me want to kick him but I couldn’t because they were his thoughts, and I wasn’t allowed to judge him on what he thought.
Of course, it was a double-edged sword and in those same seconds, he’d seen everything about me and Ryan. That was going to be the subject of an uncomfortable conversation later on. Pushing it aside, I settled into an unobtrusive corner of Zeke’s mind and waited.
Ten minutes later, as they hit the edges of the city, the cerebral monitor’s reach flickered. “Lil, the signal is starting to degrade.”
“Okay, give me a second.”
I heard her tapping keys as I took in the city through Zeke’s eyes. He sniffed and turned to Adam. “Do you smell that?” Zeke said aloud.
“Hard not to,” Adam said.
“Okay,” Lily’s voice rang out. “Time to drone jump.”
Casting out, I located the closest surveillance drone. It was flying over the edge of City Square and the Row. Using the boosted power from the monitor, I tapped the drone’s eyes and ears to stay connected to Zeke. With my concentration split in too many directio
ns, I didn’t realise Adam had changed course towards the smoke rising on the horizon. As the signal from the drone solidified, I knew where it was we were heading. Towards the ice cream shop I had visited with Ryan a few hours ago. The breeze blew smoke through the open window Adam had cranked down. It collected the scent of Adam’s aftershave and wafted it past Zeke’s face. From him, I caught the smell and it made me choke back a gasp.
Smoke and cherries. The very things that stalked me in my dreams.
It begins with a whisper.
31
As they drew closer, the sound of sirens added to the cacophony. The streets surrounding the explosion were choked with bumper-to-bumper traffic and hordes of bystanders from neighbouring areas. Up ahead, the blue and red flashing lights of an ambulance and its wailing siren called unceasingly. A fire truck honked its horn in a long beat, unable to get through because of the congestion.
There was absolutely no chance of catching the perpetrators in this chaos. “We’d be better off getting out and walking,” Adam commented. Neither he nor Zeke made a move to exit the car. Outside, the smoke was reaching epic proportions, cutting off their line of sight to about three metres in front of them. Even if they did go on foot, that would leave the car blocking the road and creating a hazard.
“Wish Bianca was here,” Zeke said. “She could make all these people go away. If the firefighters can’t contain the blaze, it’s going to take out the buildings next to it as well.”
“Don’t forget the gas lines,” Lily added. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Trying to get a better visual of the situation, I retreated out of Zeke’s head and back into the drone. Several had been redirected to the scene, taking as much footage as they could. From my aerial perspective, the smoke appeared to be coming not from the store itself but from what appeared to be a truck that had somehow managed to careen into the back of the store. The smoke fanned out in all directions, causing a mushroom to expand all over the place. Citizens of the Row stood on balconies and in the streets but I paid them no heed.
Instead, I focused my surveillance on the rooftops. The very place that Fake Spectra and I were so drawn to. The very place the Kings would know to look out for her. Fed up by the lack of progress, the firetruck in front of the bottleneck sounded its horn and then moved forward regardless of the cars in front of it. Drivers scattered when their vehicles were pushed out of the way, running to safety and then making their displeasure known. Following the coattails of the first truck, the second was able to squeeze through with only the slightest dent to the cars on either side.
