“I thought Esmeralda was your mother?” Lisa asked, staring hard at me as I slumped in the seat and began pulling off my stolen uniform.
“It’s a long story,” I replied, glancing up at the mirror to see Roberto watching me, but not in the creepy ‘I’m watching you undress’ way. Even still, it made me turn so my back was to him.
“You have time. We won’t reach the safe house for a few hours. There’s some sandwiches back there too if you get hungry.” He shrugged. “Might as well get the ‘telling her the story’ out of the way now.”
11
“I can’t believe everyone in our town has been abducted from their parents,” Lisa said for perhaps the fiftieth time. Honestly, it was starting to get a little annoying. Was this how I’d been? Surely not. “I can’t believe my parents aren’t my parents.”
“Well, you’ll get to meet your real dad soon, Lisa,” Roberto replied, speaking for the first time in an hour. “After you were taken from Folsom, I was able to reach out to him. He’s going to help us.”
Lisa swallowed and turned so pale she might as well have been a ghost. “My dad? You mean I’m going to meet my birth father?” Her eyes dropped to her hands as she fiddled with them in her lap. “I’m not sure how I feel about that…”
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” I replied, reaching over and giving her a hug. “But to be fair, you’re doing better with it than I did.”
“It’s not that, Abby. It means everyone, all our friends are hostages.” She looked up at me, strangely determined. “We have to save them, to get them out.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible…” I trailed off, looking at Roberto for help, but he was staring out at the road, ignoring us. “Besides, I’m fairly certain a lot of them wouldn’t exactly be happy finding out. A lot of them probably like their lives.”
Lisa waved me off, ignoring my point. “What if we made everyone there like you? We could all be badasses and escape.” Lisa looked up at me. “I bet I could figure it out.”
“Lisa, I’m not sure how to even help you do that… And it sounds crazy…” I shook my head. Giving everyone my ‘super powers’ was impossible right? If it was easy, the agency would have a million people way more bad ass than the goons I’d fought thus far. No, I was special, dammit.
“You’re what, Lisa, seventeen? No matter how smart you are, you don’t have the background to figure out how to do it,” Roberto said, voice calm. “Abby’s sort of special in that it actually worked. It’s not like she’s the first one we tried this on. In fact, it only worked because her genetics were so similar to Gabriella’s. She has the same innate talents as her mother which is why the skill transfer worked, but if you really think about it, the experiment failed because Gabriella’s mind didn’t come along with those skills.”
“You just aren’t thinking about it correctly.” Lisa was waving her hands excitedly. “See, the flit works on anyone, right? What if we could make it so that the flit enters you, and instead of it having access to your body to do whatever it wants to do, you have access to its body of knowledge. We’d just need to make some kind of profiles to load into you…” She smiled at me in a way that made my stomach sink. If she managed to do that, would it work? Would it give everyone access to skills and techniques they never knew? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that…
“The flit is gone.” I shrugged. “We destroyed the ritual room, remember?”
“Until they rebuild it,” Lisa replied, pulling out her stolen circuit board and staring at it, equations and other complicated thoughts sparking across her eyes. “Either way, I’m going to figure it out.” She shrugged. “I mean, fundamentally, what’s the difference between you practicing to throw a punch or shoot a gun, and me downloading the ‘training’ into your brain? Not a whole lot, I’d wager.” She stared at me like I was exhibit A. “I mean, we all saw the Matrix, right?”
“Well, let’s take a time out from that. It’s time to meet your dad,” Roberto said as he pulled up to a decrepit gas station. It was sort of funny because the G on the sign was burned out so it read ‘as and Sip.’ Lisa’s face fell so far it could have been an Olympic record as Roberto backed the van into a spot behind the convenience mart that boasted all things cold and beer.
“You ready?” I asked, reaching out and touching her shoulder.
She looked up at me and smiled weakly before nodding. She stood up in the tiny van and moved past me toward the door and fumbled with the handle for a bit before the door slid open to reveal Roberto. He was still clad in his stylish sky-blue jumpsuit which made me sort of wish he’d changed. He was going to stick out like a sore thumb.
He must have caught me looking at him because he looked down at his jumpsuit and smirked. “Oh, yeah,” he mumbled to himself and shoved one hand in his pocket. He must have done something because the colors on his jumpsuit melted together, morphing so that a moment later it looked like he was wearing a long-sleeved black button-up and jeans.
“Cool!” Lisa squealed, grabbing the shirt and tugged on it. “I need something like that.” She turned and smiled at me. “You could have told me about all this cool stuff.”
“Yeah, next time I’m on the run for my life, I’ll write you a letter.” I turned away from her and stared at a flickering streetlight. I hadn’t meant to sound so bitchy, but it wasn’t fair. I’d been through so much and now Lisa had figured out a way to give herself super spy powers in all of what, thirty seconds? That didn’t seem fair.
It made me wonder what would have happened if she’d been abducted instead of me. Would she be ruling the world right now with the Agency crushed beneath her tiny heel? I shook the thought away. There was no use going down that road…
Lisa stared at me, a curious expression on her face. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“Yes, well great,” Roberto said, ushering both of us toward a beat up jalopy in the corner of the lot. “Time to get the hell out of here.”
“You mean we’re supposed to ride in that?” I asked, eyeing the rusty splotches covering the hood and body of the car. “Does it even run?”
“You should see what’s under the hood,” Roberto replied as he stepped up to the car and tapped the tune to jingle bells on the window with one huge knuckle.
It slid down to reveal a thin Asian man with bleach blond hair and black stubble on his chin. He was wearing a white wife beater and had a gold chain around his neck. It was a little weird because he had to have been over forty, but instead, he looked like he was barely in his twenties.
“Is that my daughter?” he asked, voice light and cheery. “Lisa, is that you?” He was out of the car an instant later, wrapping Lisa in his arms and pulling her into his chest. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
Lisa pushed him away and stared at him. Then she held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Lisa Ann, pleased to meet you. What is your name?”
Her dad stared at her hand like it’d just stolen his best piece of candy. The smile slid off his face and hit the parking lot floor with a wet, gooey splorch.
“Um… Tom.” He shook his head. “Well, that’s what my friends call me, anyway. It’s short for Tomofumi.” He swallowed and took her hand, shaking it. “I remember you as a tiny little sprat of a thing, always screaming and crying. You figured out how to crawl out of your baby jumper when you were only a couple months old…” Tears welled in his eyes as he spoke, still holding onto her hand.
“You can see why this is a little weird for me. I recognize that you could, in fact, be my father. But I rather like my foster parents. I have no problems with them. They’re good to me.” She shrugged. “I would have never known I was adopted.”
“You’re not supposed to know you’re adopted. That’s sort of the whole point,” Roberto said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Either way, you need to get in the car so we can get out of here before agents show back up, and we’re forced to blow up this lovely gas station.” He shrugged and shot a sideways grin at me. “Though I am a fan
of blowing stuff up.”
Tom nodded, releasing Lisa’s hand and swinging the back door open. The inside of the car was nice. Not just nicer than I’d have expected, but capital-N-nice. It looked like it had to have cost a hundred times what the outside of the junk heap did.
When Lisa made no move to get in, I reached out and took her hand. I squeezed it once and sort of pulled her into the backseat with me. “At least I know where you get your fondness for crappy cars,” I said, helping her buckle in because she was still staring at Tom so hard I thought he might burst into flames.
“My car is not crappy,” both her and her father said in unison. It was a little eerie.
“Of course,” Roberto said, reaching over and shaking Tom by the shoulder. It was a little weird because his hand was pretty much the size of Tom. As I watched the exchange, I wondered why Roberto was helping me. Hadn’t I offed his boss when I killed Gabriella? Shouldn’t he want revenge on me? Or was he working for someone else, and if so, who?
Admittedly, that thought made me want to run off on my own, but I really didn’t have a better idea of what to do. Maybe Roberto did? Either way, I wasn’t sure I could trust him. I’d have to keep an eye on him, just to make sure he didn’t try anything suspicious.
I glanced around, careful to take everything in as Tom turned the key, and the car roared to life. I’d just have to rely on my magic-infused skills to keep both Lisa and I alive if Roberto or Tom tried something. Still, as far as I knew, they were on the Agency’s hit list. What was that saying, the enemy of my enemy?
Deep bass rumbled through the back seat as the car shot forward into the street. The world outside the windows was a blur of scenery. Tom shifted, throwing the wheel to the right as we skidded around a semi-truck and fishtailed for a second before tearing down the road in a squeal of rubber.
“Abby, you’re hurting me,” Lisa said, tugging her hand free of mine.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, putting my hand in my lap as the car lurched again.
Lisa smiled at me and shook her head. “He is not where I get my driving from either.”
I smirked and tried to relax in my seat. I wasn’t quite sure where we were going, but the chances of Tom being as bad as Gabriella were slim, right? And so what if he was just as bad? As long as he was on our side, I could use a little bad…
I swallowed as a sudden thought popped into my mind.
“It’s okay, you can say it, Abby. I won’t tell,” Donovan’s voice leered in my ear like he was sitting next to me. I stared out the window, watching sandy hills roll by like ocean waves and shook my head.
“Abby, is something wrong?” Lisa asked, reaching out and putting her hand on mine. I looked down and stared at our hands as Donovan appeared outside the window, his face stretched into a smile that seemed to loom over me.
“No,” I murmured, squeezing her hand, though I wasn’t sure why.
“Go on, tell her,” Donovan said, his stupid teeth perfect and gleaming in the moonlight. “Tell her you wish Gabriella was alive so she could help you take down the Agency. Tell her you were wrong and Gabriella was right. Tell Lisa Ann that if you had to do it again, you’d help Gabriella take over the world, that you’d press the button. That you’d kill everyone if it meant taking down the Agency. Tell her the truth, Abby.”
“No,” I repeated because I hoped Donovan wasn’t one hundred percent right, and Lisa squeezed my hand back.
12
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been driving when we pulled behind a big red semi with a bright silver crate on its back. It was weird because Tom had been going out of his way to swerve around traffic, even though it was pitch black outside and the road was mostly one lane. So why was he trailing behind a semi, now? Especially since this one was going way slower than we had been.
As I opened my mouth to ask, the back door of the semi slid open and a ramp fell down, crashing into the asphalt and throwing up sparks. A guy in a white jumpsuit stood just inside the cargo hold, and he waved at us, signaling for us to what? Drive inside? That was crazy, right?
Tom revved the engine, and my heart felt like it exploded in my chest. He wasn’t seriously going to… We shot forward. The car hit the ramp with a jolt, and for a moment, the tires spun in midair before we lurched up into the back of the truck before coming to a stop inches from the wall. The guy in the jumpsuit hit a button, and the door behind us hissed shut, sealing us inside.
Halogen lights came on, bathing us in hostile white light as Tom unbuckled his seatbelt and spun around to look at us.
“Pretty cool, right?” He smiled so broadly he reminded me of a teenager who had just jumped a gorge on his bike. I was unimpressed. While cool, I wasn’t sure it had been necessary. Couldn’t we have just stopped the car and driven inside? It’s not like we were under attack right now.
“That was cool, I guess,” Lisa Ann said, looking up from her circuit board and staring at him for a long while.
“Thanks,” Tom said, reaching out, his fingers extended toward her before thinking better of it. Lisa watched his hand, her cool brown eyes taking in every movement as he pulled his hand back and turned in his seat. He sat there in silence for so long I was beginning to think he’d forgotten we were in a hurry. After what felt like a year, he swung open his door. “Let’s go,” Tom huffed, getting out of the car and opening Lisa’s door. “Welcome to my mobile lab.”
“So, uh, who is driving?” I asked, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to risk taking off my seatbelt. I wasn’t sure it’d actually help, but I wasn’t exactly inclined to give up my faux-safety just yet. Besides, for all I knew, this car was invincible.
“The ghost of a dead NASCAR driver,” the man in the jumpsuit said. His voice was so deep it damned near rattled my stomach. “He’s actually really talkative. Want to meet him?”
I glanced at him as he opened my door for me and held out his hand to help me up. He was a lot taller than me, standing well over six feet and was as thin as a flagpole. His skin was so dark it reminded me of melted chocolate.
A strange smile crossed my lips as I let him pull me out of the vehicle. It was immediately followed by an outpouring guilt that somehow, despite Stephen trying to kill Lisa and me, I was doing something wrong. I tried to shake off the feeling, but there it was. Guilt that I hadn’t saved Stephen from the Agency, that still, somehow he had been mind-controlled, and there I was, smiling at attractive men only a couple hours later.
“Troy, want to get Roberto and Abby some refreshments? I want to show my darling daughter the lab. Then maybe she’ll pretend to like me.” Tom threw a look at Roberto who was just getting out of the car that said, “Please just go with this.”
“Sure thing,” Roberto replied, walking up to Troy and physically pushing him out of the way so he was standing between us. “Where’s dinner? I’m starved.”
“Um…” Troy said, biting his lip and looking around for help, but Tom was already disappearing up some stairs with Lisa in tow. She hadn’t even said goodbye. What a traitor… then again, how would I have acted if our situations were reversed? Probably pretty much the same only with a lot more whining. I remembered how angry and betrayed I’d felt upon meeting Gabriella, but in my case, most of my vitriol had been directed largely at my foster mother, Esmeralda.
Lisa’s anger seemed focused on her father. It made me wonder what she’d do if our situations had been swapped. Would she have left me in the dark so I could keep living my crummy, ordinary life? Except that was the difference between us.
As unspecial as my life had been pre-magic-powers-mode, Lisa’s had bordered on the extraordinary. Sure, she’d been relegated to the loser table like me, but she’d long been hailed as Folsom’s class smarty pants and had a whole host of awards under her belt.
Unlike my post-junior college plans of working in my foster mom’s restaurant before buying a bunch of cats and lounging in a too-small bathtub with a whole bottle of wine, Lisa’s plans had started with choosing between MIT,
Stanford, and whatever other colleges she’d decided to set her sights on. Hell, I’d heard she’d already been approached by some tech companies to skip the rest of college altogether and just start working…
“Um is not a destination, Troy,” Roberto said, looking the man up and down. “My daughter needs a meal. Do you want her to starve?”
My world sort of spun, twisting out from under me as my breath whooshed out of me. “What?” I squealed, grabbing Roberto’s hand and pulling him toward me so I could stare into his face. “What did you just say?”
Roberto smiled, his face stretching into a broad grin, before wrapping me in a hug that swallowed my entire body. “I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while, Abby, but Gabriella didn’t feel it was best.” He kissed my cheek. “But since she’s gone, I figured it couldn’t hurt things.”
“So, wait,” I said as another thought struck me. “You had sex with Gabriella?” I asked, raising one eyebrow at him. “I mean, I know that’s how kids are made, but I always assumed she sort of duplicated herself via mitosis, or ate her mate like a black widow.”
“We did not have sex,” Roberto replied, a grimace spreading across his face. “I hate to say this, Abby, but you were conceived in a lab. Hope that doesn’t ruin the romance for you.”
I shrugged because I had no response to that. Somehow, I wasn’t really surprised I’d been a lab baby. It was a lot to take in, true, but at the same time, I’d never had a dad before. Not even a fake one. This… was kind of cool.
“I’ll, uh…” Troy cleared his throat, “take you to get something to eat.”
He spun on his heel and began walking toward the front of the cavernous semi, which was weird because I hadn’t remembered it being this big from the outside. Then again, for all I knew, we were in a huge base that only looked like a semi from the outside. Maybe they used magic to actually make it bigger on the inside. Hell maybe we were flying through the air… maybe we’d docked with some super-stealth way-station in the clouds. At this point, I was willing to believe pretty much anything. It was just easier that way. If I started trying to understand things, I’d just give myself a migraine because at the end of the day, magic, and all that came with it, was real.
The Magic Within: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Found Magic Book 2) Page 9
