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

by Lan Chan

  “It’s a simple procedure,” Collins said. Her eyes turned pleading like a fawn begging a wolf for mercy. “It won’t hurt.”

  Adam snorted. “Because that’s the part we’re concerned about.”

  “What are you concerned about, Mr. Locke?” Flynn asked.

  “Let’s just say stiffs don’t have the best reputation for upholding human rights.”

  The agents bristled. Rich’s eyes threw daggers at Adam. Rule number one when dealing with Psi-Ops stiffs: Never call them stiffs to their faces.

  I sat with my palms on my knees, trying not to clench them. In my mind, the conversation between my friends was a flurry of images ranging from all-out assault to a Hyper-wide refusal to subject ourselves.

  And through it all, I felt their underlying intention. They were afraid for me. If I allowed them to, they would get themselves thrown in prison before handing me over. Even Rich, who was so against any kind of anarchy, remained quiet throughout the conversation.

  My gaze settled on the two uniformed agents standing behind Flynn. Both were in precision black attire, guns at their hip in a side holster. I imagined more of them flocking to the compound like locusts. That was how many of them would have to swarm the place to bring down four alphas, a genetically engineered freak, and a child genius.

  Once they had us, though, there was no telling what would happen. I didn’t like our chances in prison. As much as Oz felt the guilt of being privileged, none of them were natural-born killers. Above all else, I couldn’t allow myself to drag them down as well.

  “So stop talking and do what you have to do,” I said. Zeke’s arm squeezed my hip like a vise. The link vibrated violently between us, but I clamped down and shut it out. “No wonder you don’t have a clue what’s happening if this is how you run your investigation.”

  The vein in Flynn’s jaw flexed. “Take hers first.”

  The two uniformed agents went to work. I rolled up the sleeve of my top to reveal the veins in my arms. The pinprick of the needle barely registered against the roaring of the electricity pounding in my head.

  Zeke! I choked through the link, needing his help to keep the black instructions issued by the nanobots at bay. My arm clenched at the wrong time and the needle snapped. Blood spurted all over the carpet, creating a red patch on the beige.

  The agent who was doing the procedure glared at me. “Like it’s my fault,” I snapped. “You’re the one who hit a nerve!”

  If possible, Zeke’s body was more rigid than mine when the agent plucked the broken needle and inserted a new one. I could feel all the eyes in the room watching the syringe fill with blood. The agent stopped the outlet and replaced the syringe with another.

  “You don’t need that much blood to do a simple test,” Lily said.

  “I know how to do my job,” the agent snarled.

  “No,” Rich corrected, and I almost choked. “She’s right. That’s enough.”

  The agent turned towards Flynn who nodded warily, his eyes focused on Rich. I’d never noticed before but my commanding officer had a pretty good poker face. I wondered if Mum taught him how to do that.

  I was so intent on tracking their interaction that I only started paying attention again when Zeke hissed mentally.

  Turning towards the agent, I saw him encase the vials of blood in a portable freezer device. A headache pounded in my skull at the pressure the nanobots were exerting on my mind. Electricity built up behind my eyes, wanting desperately to strike out, to regain what was lost from them. The lights in the room flickered. Bianca came to sit on the edge of the couch, her mind reaching out at the same time her hand touched the base of my neck. Against all of my better judgement, I lowered my shields so that her push could take hold.

  Calm down, she sent. Immediately, my mind stilled. There’s nothing to worry about.

  I turned my head towards Zeke’s shoulder, resting it there and wondering why I had been so upset before. The electricity in my mind was amped up, but without a target it seemed to turn in on itself in a loop.

  My eyes fluttered in exhaustion as one by one the others had their blood taken. Lily stood stiff as a board, her eyes wild when the agent approached her. She keened not at the needle but at the thought of being touched by somebody she didn’t know.

  “Let me do it,” Rich said. When he was done and Lily’s sample had been frozen, Flynn gave us a self-satisfied smile.

  “I’m sure there won’t be any surprises,” he said. “We’ll be in touch.”

  Every one of us waited with held breath and didn’t relax until they were off the premises.

  33

  “We need a plan of extraction,” Adam said immediately.

  Oz held his hands up in a time-out gesture. “We don’t know if they’re going to be able to find anything in her blood. It’s likely the nanobots will degrade.

  Lily paced in a circle. “Not if they’re frozen. If someone was able to stabilise the nanobots for Second Sight, it means they have a way of keeping them active. May I please hack into their database?”

  Rich tried to quieten us down. “Let’s just take a moment to digest what’s happened. They’ve got more samples to collect and then tests before we need to worry.”

  “What planet are you on?” Zeke snapped. I wasn’t the only one surprised by his outburst. In my mind, the dark green light in the link grew bleaker until it was almost black. “Why were we the first ones targeted? Have they checked their own ranks? They know there’s a link between Willow and the S2. Now they’re just waiting to catch her out.”

  Oz scrubbed at his face with both of his hands. “I’m afraid he might be right. At the hospital with Collins, I think they might have caught on that she can communicate with the whispers. I’d hoped they might have dropped the notion, but it seems they’ve decided it’s important.”

  “When I get my hands on Collins, I’m going to wring her neck,” Bianca said.

  “I repeat,” Adam said, “we need an extraction plan. We can’t wait around to find out if they may or may not decide if Willow is the source of S2.”

  Oz pinched the bridge of his nose. “If they find out we’ve aided in her escape—”

  A wine glass tore out of Bianca’s hand and smashed into the kitchen wall. “If they come after her they’re going to have a problem,” Zeke said.

  “Even if they can corroborate her blood with the S2, they can’t tie her to manufacturing it,” Rich reasoned.

  “So you want to hand her over so they can do experiments on her?” Zeke said. I wondered now if his compliance up until this point was for show. Then the link gave me my answer. He’d thought Hyper was the best place to protect me. Now that might not be the case anymore and he would do anything to keep the Psi-Ops from getting to me. The vital link was a connection, but it was also a noose around his neck.

  “Stop,” I said. “I’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about me.” I clutched at his knee, trying to send soothing calm down the link.

  “What are you talking about?” Adam said. “People have been known to disappear in the Psi-Ops L&D division.”

  “I’m not people.” Unable to help the reaction, I looked up into Rich’s eyes. Without reading him, I knew we were both thinking the same thing. My mother disappeared off the face of the earth. She’d trained me to do the same thing. I’d had an extraction plan for myself from the moment we stepped foot back in Melbourne. Sure, it had changed along the way, but as Mum always said, plan B isn’t good enough. You needed a plan C and D. And E and F if possible. The problem now was the people I would be leaving behind. Friends. Mum was having the last laugh. They were a liability.

  “You’re not going to run.” Zeke inched forward as though unable to comprehend what was happening. There was no point lying with the vital link in place.

  “Nope. No running. If they come for me I’ll go with them.”

  “What the hell?” Adam snapped.

  “You can’t!” Lily said.

  “If I run, they’ll co
me after everyone I know. You guys, Jenny, Daisy and her parents, Mr. Hikari, Abigail…Ryan.”

  Bianca’s eyes were stormy. “If you stay, they’ll cut you open.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “Now who’s being stupid?” Lily said. “Whatever has been done to you is a medical marvel.”

  “So, I’m a victim. I don’t know what’s in my blood and how it has been used. I’ve never been to a hospital before. It’s plausible.”

  “They’re not going to believe that,” Rich hissed. “You’re not a star student but no one who spends five minutes with you would make the mistake that you’re stupid.”

  “Was that a backhanded compliment?”

  His jaw clamped down. “Can you be serious for five minutes?”

  “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”

  “What would it take to tamper with the Psi-Ops results?” Oz said. My head snapped in his direction.

  “I said don’t. This is where I draw the line for you.”

  “We can’t stand by and allow you to be experimented on.”

  “Believe me, I’m the last one who wants that to happen. But I’m not going to run either.”

  “Then what do we do?” Zeke’s hand shook as he rubbed his palm against his knee.

  “We don’t do anything,” I said. “I will handle this somehow. Or at least, my extensive legal team will. I don’t think the Psi-Ops will know what hit them if they try to take a minor into custody for medical experiments. Not once Jenny rolls through them. Not if Gabe insists on being able to see me at least once a week when they take me. If I’m not well, I don’t think the Psi-Ops will be in any position to bother me for a while.”

  As soon as I said it, even Rich’s lips twitched. “I guess sometimes we forget the other half of the law happens in a courtroom.”

  “Yep. And if worse comes to worst, I unmask. Let’s see them try and cut into the real Spectra without the city doing worse than they are now.”

  “I take it back,” Rich said. “You’re worse than Rose ever was.”

  “I suspect that was the plan all along, don’t you?”

  “Okay,” Adam said, “time-out with all this cryptic shit. Are we seriously just not going to do anything?”

  “Here we go,” Lily said. “I’m already inside the Psi-Ops database.”

  The vein above Rich’s left brow spasmed. “Lily!”

  “You didn’t say no. I took it as implied consent. They’ve batched the blood samples. They’ve done initial tests on Willow’s blood but it has come back inconclusive. If they had any brains they’d do the tests on the frozen sample.”

  I rubbed my eye with the base of my palm. “I need to call my lawyer.”

  Rich let me use the phone in his office. As expected, Aunt Jenny was less than impressed with my news. Of course she cut in as soon as I said the magic words: Psi-Ops and Experiments.

  “We’re not doing this over the phone,” she said. “Meet me tomorrow at the Purple Plume at eleven.”

  Why did I think she was going to be alone? I wasn’t, but at least Zeke was someone she knew could be trusted. Sitting beside her at a table near the back of the restaurant was Jon Carra.

  Around us, servers in purple uniforms pushed carts of steamed dumplings around the crowded restaurant. “Tell me again why we agreed to this?” Zeke asked. “This place is crawling with people.” Though his eyes were glued to the trolley just as mine were. What was danger in the face of hunger?

  “Umm,” I said when we stood in front of Jenny’s table. “Can I talk to you aside for a second?”

  She stood up and pulled me into a hug. “You’re going to kill me one of these days, you know that?”

  “Funny. That’s not the only time I’ve heard that.”

  Over her shoulder, the Defence Minister smiled at me. I really wanted to read him, but as far as bad plans went, that was the motherload. Jenny moved from me to Zeke.

  “Look at you,” she said. “You keep getting bigger every time I see you.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “And yet his brain remains the same size.”

  Zeke tried to hit me but I dodged and rammed my hip against the cart behind me. “Ow!”

  He huffed. “Serves you right.”

  Jenny took me by the elbow. “You remember Jon.”

  “Yes, I do. How are you, sir?”

  “I’m fine. Thank you for asking. Jenny never mentioned how polite you are.”

  “Well, my aunt doesn’t want to remember that I have another aunt who taught me which spoons and forks to use in good company.” I reached over and plucked a spring roll from the shared platter with my hands. “But you know, she likes to see the good in everybody. That’s her failing.” I took a bite of the roll. “What are your intentions?”

  “My intentions?” He traded an amused glance with Jenny who was turning a shade of pink.

  “Willow! This isn’t why I brought Jon along.”

  Ignoring her, I leaned in and put my palms on the table. “I don’t have a lot of family left. Not ones I care about. So I don’t give a crap if you’re the Minister for Defence. I don’t care if you’re one of the most powerful men in the country. If you hurt her, we’re going to have a problem.”

  “Willow!”

  I grinned sharply at her. “Did I say something wrong?”

  To my surprise, the minister chuckled. “You know, that’s almost the exact same thing your aunt said to me about you before she dragged me out to lunch today. Now, can we please sit down and discuss your problem with my department taking your blood?”

  “You told him?” My eyes widened with incredulity.

  Shit, Zeke said in my head.

  “I had to.”

  I put my head on the table. All this time I’d been trying to keep my secrets hidden and she just went and told the person in charge of the organisation that could lock me up.

  34

  Zeke came to stand behind me, arms on either side of the back of my chair. Jenny sat down next to the minister. She reached out and patted my forearm in a gesture that I’m sure she thought was reassuring.

  “You can take a seat, young man,” Jon said to Zeke. “I’m not in the habit of harming teenagers.”

  Just sit, I sent Zeke. It’s not like we can’t out-gun him.

  That’s not what I’m worried about! But he slid out the chair next to me and sat down. It put him between Jenny and me and as far away from Jon as possible on our six-person round table.

  If things were different, this might have been Zeke’s version of heaven. A private audience with the Minister for Defence. The man in charge of all of us. Today he was the line in the sand between me and a one-way ticket to the Psi-Ops lab.

  Servers came past at regular intervals, seeming to know when to interrupt and when to keep their distance. No doubt this was also one of Jon’s other favourite haunts. If I could penetrate Jenny’s mind, I would be asking her how long this had been going on. Instead, she eyed me coolly, face perfectly serene after getting over my outburst.

  “Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Jenny said. She reached over and heaped dumplings onto my plate with mock-ivory chopsticks.

  “I’d rather not.”

  Eyebrow raised, the minister clasped his hands in front of him on the table. “I swear that nothing said today will leave these walls.”

  “You bet it won’t. Because I’m not saying a single thing. Forget this ever happened.”

  “Willow!”

  “Stop saying my name like that!”

  When she glanced at me, her lips flattened. Even though I couldn’t read her mind, she was too smart to misconstrue my motivations. “I trusted you and you bring him here?”

  “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady,” Jenny said. “You need help. This is the best I can do.”

  I scoffed. “For real? I tell you I have a problem with the Psi-Ops and you bring me to their leader?”

  “Just listen to him. Speak to him. One of these days you�
�re going to have to resign yourself to the notion that authority doesn’t necessarily mean imprisonment.”

  We glared at each other. Esper and Void. Correction. Freak experiment and Void. “You’re not hers anymore, love,” Jenny said quietly. “You can stop running.”

  It was a low blow bringing Mum into this. Jenny always knew how to hit me where it hurt. That was the problem with loving people.

  “Can I?” The words came out coated in bile.

  Don’t do it! Zeke warned. We both came from the streets. We knew the value of information.

  “Trust me,” Jenny said. How could I? I couldn’t read her mind, and without that, I was vulnerable. Under the table, my knee was shaking so hard I had to press my hand against it to still the involuntary reaction. The food in front of me had gone cold.

  Lifting my head, I stared into Jon Carra’s mocha-brown eyes. He nodded his head at me and I wanted so much to breach the space between us with a probe. And that was when I realised there was no electricity. My nerves were frayed to the edge of snapping but the nanobots hadn’t reacted.

  “Fine,” I said. “My blood is the origin of Second Sight. Last night the Psi-Ops showed up at Hyper and took a sample of it. It’s not going to be long before they figure out I’m the cause.”

  That was the thing about secrets. People always thought they were ready to be told. Turns out, not so much. If Jenny and the minister thought their little eye-contact display was discreet, they were delusional.

  In my head, Zeke mentally tensed, ready for the order to be given for my immediate arrest. Jenny knew exactly what he was thinking, because she hooked her arm around Zeke’s, locking him into place.

  “You know the whole point of TK is that you can’t physically restrain me, don’t you?” Zeke said.

  She tried to speak but nothing came out. This was almost too good, and if I wasn’t on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I would have mentioned it.

  “How sure are you of your findings?” Jon asked.