by Rysa Walker
Graham Cregg had choices. Most of the ones he made were horribly wrong. But would any of that have been changed if he’d had someone to hold him that day as he stared at the broken body of the person he loved most?
CHAPTER THIRTY
Carova Beach, North Carolina
April 28, 2020, 5:42 p.m.
When Caleb is cried out, the waterwall surrounding us rolls down, refilling the tub almost to overflowing. I feel Ashley stand and carry Caleb out of the bathroom. Kelsey is waiting with towels and blankets to replace our wet clothes. Caleb curls up into a small, still-damp ball in the middle of the large bed, his eyes drooping with exhaustion, as my hand gently rubs his back.
Then, without a word, Ashley swaps places with me. The filmy barrier between my brain and my body slips away. I feel the fuzz of the blanket beneath my fingers and hear Caleb’s soft, ragged breaths as he drifts into sleep.
I’m surprised at how late it is. I wouldn’t have thought we were in there more than ten or fifteen minutes, but the clock says it was more than an hour. I’m also surprised to see that the dry clothes Kelsey is holding are actually my clothes.
“Taylor grabbed the things you left behind at the cabin. I can stay here with Caleb if you want to go up and talk to her.”
“Maybe we could talk in here? I don’t think I should leave him yet.”
Kelsey goes to get Taylor, and Sophie, who has been sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed, says, “You think it’s okay for me to step out? Lily’s hungry and tired . . .”
“She’s had a rough couple of days and she needs her mom. I think we’re fine, at least for now. And thanks for your help, Sophie. I wouldn’t have been able to get through to Caleb without you holding him back.”
She nods and gives me a nervous smile. “I’m glad I could help. But I’ll be honest. He makes me nervous. When I block the others, even your father, I see clear waves. Actual patterns that I can push back against. But I was having to shift constantly with Caleb. I don’t know if he was purposefully trying to get around my block or if it’s because he’s dealing with so much emotion right now, but it was like fighting a hurricane.”
Once she’s gone, I discard the blanket I’m wearing and change into the jeans and sweater on the dresser. Caleb tosses a bit, but by the time Taylor comes in, I’m next to him again and he settles back down.
Taylor hands me the drawstring bag I bought in DC. “Your phone and some other stuff.”
“Why aren’t Aaron and Deo here?”
“Why hello, Anna. Happy to see you too.” She grins. “Don’t look so guilty. If you showed up here without Daniel, I’d have asked you the same thing. Aaron will be back soon. And coming here without Deo wasn’t my idea, okay? Kelsey needed someone to help her with Caleb and Maggie. No one was really in need of a remote viewing, so I was the obviously expendable member of the Scooby Gang.”
“Okay, I’ve got a lot of questions, but maybe we should get Daniel and my dad in here so you can catch us up all at once?”
“I already filled them in, and . . . they’re . . . sort of not here anymore.”
“What?”
Caleb stirs uneasily, and Taylor says, “Okay, you need to listen and not get upset. They just left with Aaron and Jasper Hawkins.”
I’m stunned into silence. All I can think of is Jasper standing on the beach at Long Point Island last autumn, gun in hand, clearly fighting the urge to shoot me for simply being Scott Pfeifer’s daughter.
“That’s . . . not good. Jasper hates my dad. He’ll kill him.”
“Maybe he would, except Dacia has his wife and children at Sandalford. Your father wants to help rescue them. I can’t guarantee the truce will last beyond that rescue, but Jasper has a nice little cache of weapons—some at their fishing cabin and others stashed over at Long Point Island. Weapons are something we’re seriously lacking, so that’s where they’ve gone now. And from what Daniel was saying about this Colonel Smith, Jasper may be the only armed ally we have.”
“Did Daniel hear back from Smith already?”
“Not yet. Against my better judgment, I just e-mailed the Colonel links to most of what we have on Senator Cregg. But Daniel doesn’t seem hopeful. Do you think he’s wrong?”
I just shake my head. Daniel knows Smith better than I do. If he isn’t hopeful, neither am I.
“They’re stopping here on the way back to pick us up. Well, us if you think you can leave Caleb.”
“We’ll see how well he’s sleeping. I’m not sure how much I can—”
“He’s Daniel’s kid, isn’t he?” Taylor interrupts, nodding toward Caleb.
Her question surprises me. And the fact that I didn’t respond with a quick how the hell would I know seems to be all the answer Taylor needs.
“I should have noticed the resemblance before. I’ve seen family photos from when Daniel was only a little older than that. His hair darkened, and he keeps it short now, but he had those same curls back then. And that same little dimple in his chin.”
I’m worried she’s going to ask more questions. But luckily, Kelsey arrives, bearing a tray with three mugs. I’m hoping it’s coffee, but as she comes closer, I catch the scent of chocolate.
It will do.
“There is no coffee,” Kelsey says with a knowing smile. “And I’m afraid this cocoa is from a packet. We had to jimmy the lock on the owner’s closet, and there’s not a lot to choose from. Mostly granola bars and beef jerky.”
She puts the tray on the bedside table and sits down next to me.
“When did Dacia arrive at Sandalford?” I ask.
“A little after three this morning,” Kelsey says. “It was Dacia, seven additional guards, an unconscious Caleb, Maggie, and another child. The helicopter landed right in front of the house, so there’s no way they could have taken Magda’s security by surprise . . . the noise woke the entire house. I think Magda was expecting something of this nature. Maybe Senator Cregg offered Miller more than Magda was paying him.”
“According to Ashley,” I say, “the Senator and Dacia have definitely parted ways.”
“But that’s a fairly recent development, right?” Taylor asks. “And since Miller was . . . indisposed, shall we say . . . the news may not have filtered down to his team. They probably got their marching orders back when Miller left with Dacia.”
Kelsey sniffs. “Miller has always thought Magda is too lenient with the adepts, so whoever paid him probably didn’t need to sweeten the pot much. Whatever the reason, they walked right past Miller’s men and into the house. Into Bell Isle, as well. Magda knew something was going to happen. Even before she got back to Sandalford, the military scientists had packed up and moved out. The three parents who were there as well, along with their kids, because they refused to leave them. Magda called a meeting last night to inform me and the nurses that we’d be receiving medication—a cure, to use her words—for the adepts within the next few days and would need to monitor them closely for at least a week. And then she went back to her house and we went to bed. I think she was expecting the Senator. If she’d thought Dacia was the one who’d be showing up, and that Dacia’s guards would be holding her captive in her own house, she’d have grabbed her girls and left without giving anyone else a second thought. The adepts knew, though. There was this sense of . . . anticipation . . . all day. The only thing I have to compare it to is how kids act right before Christmas, but it wasn’t as positive. When the helicopter landed, the children were awake. Maria greeted Dacia like a long-lost friend.”
“But . . . that doesn’t make sense. Snoop sent me this address, saying Maria gave it to him.”
“She did,” Taylor says. “Snoop has also been sending messages from Maria to someone in Dacia’s camp for the past month now. Offering to help them fight the Senator if she’ll help protect the adepts. I suspect Dacia fully intends to renege on that deal, but it doesn’t matter. Maria is playing Dacia.”
“You don’t play Dacia Badea!” I lower my voice to k
eep from waking Caleb. “She reaches out and combs through your mind to see if you’re lying, Taylor. To see what you’re hiding. And that other kid Kelsey mentioned? She’s probably the little bear in the video they played at the Senator’s speech last night. If she could talk her way through the gates at a nuclear facility, the kid can convince Maria or Stan or any of the others to tell the truth. This plan can’t possibly work.”
“Do you remember the way Maria sent you the information about your dad?” Taylor says. “In the meeting. How she kind of pushed it out to us?”
I nod. It’s pretty much the same thing Caleb did a few minutes ago. Only a few of the Peepers can both send and receive. None do it quite as well as Maria, but Caleb could give her some real competition in a few years.
“Okay,” Taylor says. “That’s the rest of the plan. Maria will be sending a message when Dacia scans her thoughts.”
“More likely she’s already sent it,” Kelsey says. “Dacia hugged Maria for a very long time when she first saw her last night. It was long enough that some of the older boys were exchanging glances. Normally they’d have been snickering or telling them to get a room. But none of them said a word.”
“What message was Maria sending?”
“The script Stan and I helped write,” Taylor says. “Training the adepts, but only the stuff we want Dacia to know about. How much Maria hates the Creggs. Why she doesn’t trust Magda. A few fake personal details that Maria wouldn’t want revealed so Dacia will think she has leverage. Maria shoved all of that out while Dacia was scanning, and hopefully Dacia thinks she pulled the truth out of her. Oh, and as for that kid in the video . . . she was one of the wabbits. She only wound up with Cregg because she was on the wrong side of The Warren that night. Maria doesn’t think she’ll take Dacia’s side.”
“You may be underestimating Stockholm syndrome. Most of the adepts at The Warren seem to have had a rather healthy case of it. They may think of Dacia as their friend.”
But Ashley disagrees.
No. Not Dacia or Lucas. They considered them worse than Graham Cregg. I was there for nearly a year, and I can tell you those two were universally hated. Even the teenage guys who I’m certain thought Dacia was hot steered clear of her.
Couldn’t that have been because they were afraid of Lucas, though?
Maybe. But don’t forget, Dacia could read Lucas’s mind. Which means she knew what he was into and tolerated it. Or more likely, enjoyed it. There were no secrets in The Warren. They knew which Fudds were the bad ones.
Kelsey is watching me closely when I return to the world outside my head. So is Taylor.
“That was Ashley. Not Cregg. She doesn’t think any of the adepts would side with Dacia over Maria. But . . . even if we grant that, which I think is a very dangerous assumption, what’s to stop Dacia from scanning someone who can’t send her a false script?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Taylor says. “The other adepts will steer clear of her as much as possible. And Maria will stick by Dacia’s side like glue. She’ll try to send a message to block their actual thoughts if Dacia reaches out and grabs one of the other adepts. But we couldn’t write a script for everyone. Maria will have to improvise, based on what she knows about the person. And then there are language issues . . . Maria’s English may trip her up. Also, Dacia’s ability is probably a little different from the Peeper we used during our practice sessions. It might not work exactly the same . . .”
Taylor trails off, probably because I’m staring at her, openmouthed.
“Yes, okay? We’re well aware that there are several dozen ways this could go horribly wrong. That’s one reason Maria needed Deo there to boost her ability. And that’s also why this has to end tonight. According to Stan, every path on which we survive ends in a fight with the Senator tonight. The longer we drag things out, the more danger for everyone, but I’m guessing especially for Maria.”
Kelsey nods. “Maria’s the one who convinced Dacia to let me take Caleb and Maggie from Sandalford, although . . . Dacia believes we’re back in the hut on Long Point Island.”
“Dacia trusted you to go back there on your own?” I ask. “That doesn’t sound like her.”
“No.” Kelsey looks down at her lap, and even in the very dim light, I can see that she’s uncomfortable. “She assigned two guards to transport us.”
“Which is about the time we entered the picture,” Taylor says. “Aaron followed your advice about calling Miranda, but we couldn’t reach her. So . . . he called the construction company where Jasper has been working and left a message. Jasper called back almost immediately. He hasn’t been able to touch base with Miranda since yesterday morning. She has the kids call him every night before bedtime, but there was no call last night. He tried to call again early this morning, and it kept going through to voice mail.”
Taylor says that Jasper decided to give it until his lunch break and then drive over to see what was going on. But he left early when he got Aaron’s call. They agreed to meet at the halfway point, a few miles north of Sandalford.
“Which meant we had to drive right past Sandalford on the beach,” Taylor says. “This was a little after nine, so we decided to wait until the wild-horse tour showed up and join them. We drove past quickly, but even from down on the beach, we could see there was an extra guard at the gate and guards on the deck over at Bell Isle, which was new.”
Once they met up with Jasper, he’d agreed to drive Deo to Sandalford. They worked up a cover story claiming Deo had been over on Long Point Island, hoping it wouldn’t clash with anything Maria might have concocted if Dacia was already asking why the resident amp was missing. The guards let Deo in, but not Jasper.
“It’s a miracle Jasper kept his cool,” Taylor says. “But he knew he couldn’t take on all those guards on his own. So he meets us back at the rendezvous point. Once Deo was inside, we started getting a much clearer picture of the situation. That’s why Snoop was finally able to get the message to you, even with your walls up. And I suspect that’s also why there’s no window in the great room at Sandalford now.”
Kelsey nods. “Dacia seemed to think Caleb was a one-trick pony, possibly because she was relying on the records from The Warren. They show him as strongly psychokinetic. That’s something they’d have trouble hiding with an infant. But the other things we’ve seen him do—planting thoughts, clairvoyance, precognition—none of that’s mentioned in the records. I suspect Ashley did that?”
I check and report back. “Yes. Ashley hid his abilities from them as much as possible. Also, Caleb’s mom before she was out of the picture. Daniel, too. They were worried that Cregg might decide Caleb was a . . . liability. Or maybe just too much of an asset. The more they could hide, the better.”
“Well, Dacia seriously underestimated him,” Kelsey says. “It’s a miracle no one was hurt. When he woke up asking for Ashley, Dacia thought she could lie. Or maybe she just thought Maggie could block him sufficiently if he was upset. Apparently, she told Caleb he’d see Ashley soon. But first, they were going to go outside and play the “go boom” game again. I guess she wanted to test him further, to see what he could do. Caleb must have picked up on her lie about Ashley. A few seconds later, the window shattered and Dacia was flying backward along with the glass. And Maggie.”
“Caleb showed me that part. He said he didn’t want to hurt Maggie or the other adepts. I just don’t get why Dacia wants to use Caleb. She’s got hired guns. People who can blow things up the old-fashioned way. And now she’s got other adepts, although a lot may be the temporary kind.”
“It’s probably for show,” Taylor says. “Or poetic justice. I mean, I’d settle for simply taking down Ronald Cregg. But wouldn’t it be sweet if he was taken out by a force he’s tried to twist for his own personal and political gain for the past four decades?”
Thump.
Ashley doesn’t startle at Cregg’s nonverbal communication this time.
I’ll second that thump.
“An
yway,” Kelsey says, “Maria convinced Dacia to keep Caleb away from the other adepts for the time being. Away from Deo, too. She tried to get Dacia to let the other little ones go as well. Dacia almost agreed, but then one of her bodyguards said the little kids would be useful as hostages, if nothing else. And so it was just me and Maggie and Caleb in the van.”
“What happened to the guards?”
“Jasper shot the one who was driving. Caleb disarmed the other one,” Kelsey says. “Jasper would probably have killed the second guard, too, but we convinced him that one shot might be mistaken for a car backfiring. Two shots might make someone come investigate. We have the guard locked up downstairs, but he should have already been back at Sandalford with Maggie. Dacia is nervous without a blocker. Before Daniel left, I had him nudge the man into calling his supervisor to say there was trouble with the boat, but—”
Kelsey stops, listening, and for a moment, I think she’s worried that the guard has gotten free. But the noise is outside. The glow from outside is a little brighter, too.
Taylor goes to the window. “The guys are back. We should have disabled the stupid motion sensor, though. What good is sitting in the dark if it flicks on every time someone comes to the door?”
Kelsey heads down to open the door and caution them to be quiet. Assuming Sophie had any luck with Lily, there are two sleeping babies in the house. I put a small pillow against Caleb’s back and tuck another blanket around him. When I look up, Aaron is in the doorway.
“And . . . that’s my cue to leave,” Taylor says.
I’m glad. Not because I have any qualms about kissing Aaron in front of his sister. But tears are stinging my eyes, and I actually do have qualms about crying in front of Taylor.
The past few days have been a rollercoaster of worry, and it’s unbelievably wonderful just to have Aaron’s arms around me. I breathe him in, and the stress drifts away. I’m sure it will be back, but I want to savor this moment.
“Taylor said you picked up Ashley. Does Caleb know?”
I nod. “She’s the reason he finally calmed down.”
