by Faulks, Kim
When he raised his head there was torture in his eyes. She needed more than a touch on her shoulder, more than these hands could give.
She needed protection, and safety…but more than that she needed the one person who was her anchor—her dad.
Faint lights sparkled in the distance. The town of Dawn stretched out like a blanket of diamonds. I glanced at the dashboard lights. One a.m. Not much was open at this time of the night. “Is there a hotel in Dawn, some place with a valet?”
“There’s Maddison’s, that’s pretty fancy. Though I doubt they’d let you in, no offense.”
I smiled and shook my head. “None taken. But you think you could get us close?”
He glanced at me. “Sure, I can drop you off at the corner.”
I gave a nod and then turned back to Dawn’s city lights. Get a car, pick up the trail…get her dad back. That was all I focused on. My mind wandered…and after we get her dad back, what then?
I glanced to the others, Mavi sitting beside her, and the new guy…Pitch. A nerve jumped in the corner of my eye. I didn’t like him…wasn’t sure I could trust him.
He turned his head and met my gaze—it seemed the feeling was mutual. There was a second where I thought he was going to say something, maybe clear the air…but then he just turned to stare at the road.
Arid landscape turned into rusted cars as we passed a wrecking yard, and then the sprawling sheds of an industrial hub. Mavi let her sleep, even when we slipped into the outskirts of the city and hit the first set of traffic lights.
“Maddison’s is about ten minutes away. The streets are pretty quiet at this time.” The trucker grunted as he worked the gears, hauling the rig through tight corner after tight corner toward the heart of the city.
“Spark,” Mavi murmured. “Babe, you need to wake up now.”
There was a mutter and then a moan of desperation. “We here?”
“No, not yet. But we’re closer,” he murmured.
“I’m going to get us a ride and then we’re out of here.” I stared at the sparkling lights of Maddison between the towering buildings and then glanced at her. “Sound good to you?”
She pushed up from the bench and blinked. Confusion flared for a moment, until the past came crashing down. Her blue eyes dulled, bleeding into a steel grey as she nodded.
“Coming up,” the trucker muttered and down geared.
I shifted forward on the seat as the truck slowed to a stop. Maddison’s glittered black and silver, looking like a remnant of an old motel that had been renovated to a nightclub. Headlights glared from the cars that were lined up along the street.
Valet parking moved slow. Kids no more than sixteen rounded the front and held the door open for Dawn’s elite to climb free.
I held out my hand to the trucker. “Thanks for the lift, man. We really appreciate it.”
“Hey, no problem. I hope you can get a fix on your car issue,” he called as I pushed open the passenger’s door and climbed from the truck.
Oh, I was about to fix the car issue all right. It just wasn’t like anything he expected. Boots smacked the pavement behind me as the others climbed from the truck.
Glittering lights called me, and that old need rose once more. There was money to be made and my palm was itching. But this wasn’t about me, not anymore. That was the old me, the old life.
I looked over my shoulder as the door slammed and the truck pulled away. “I need you to wait here. I’ll be back soon with a ride, it’ll get us out of the city. But then we need to find some place to change it.”
“Wait,” Spark murmured, shifting her gaze to the night club behind us. “What do you mean?”
“Spark.” Mavi stepped close, drawing her gaze. “You want to find your dad, right?”
She nodded as I stepped backwards.
“Then we need to focus on that. Leave the rest to us, okay?”
She was the Senator’s daughter. Straight laced and honest. I doubt she’d ever lied in her life, let alone broken the law. “I’ll be back in a second. Be ready to leave.”
I turned and stepped up onto the pavement, heading for the faint throbbing beat of the nightclub. I scanned the cars lined up for the valet. A Chrysler, Porsche, and then a nice neat Toyota, plain, good on fuel, not as fast as the others, but a car like that…it’d blend in.
And blending in was what we needed right about now. The driver pulled up and then climbed out. He was a fit looking guy, dressed in black and grey. I glanced at the valet that was climbing into the Chrysler and sent out a wave of my power, testing…probing—stealing, and felt the air around me grow heavy.
I crossed the road, and ducked as the Chrysler’s headlights washed over me before they were gone. I stepped past the Porsche and made for the Toyota, stepping around the front of the far end and made for driver.
“I’ll take care of that for you, Sir.” I opened my hand, and reached.
He barely glanced at me, scanning my body before he nodded. “No fucking scratches, or it’ll be your face.”
The keys were thrust into my palm before he strode past and was gone. I smiled, gripped the keys tight and then slid into the open driver’s door and started the engine.
He never looked back, just stepped up to the curb and pushed through the small crowd milling around the bouncer. I started the ignition, rolled forward when the Porsche in front did and then slipped away.
The other cars turned right at the entrance to the underground carpark as I kept driving and then at the end of the street turned left and braked. I pushed the button for the window and leaned across. “Get in.”
Doors were opened. Mavi climbed into the passenger’s seat. The whole thing took less than five minutes…five minutes as my heart boomed inside my chest, and I watched the rear-view mirror like a damn hawk.
I hit the indicator and pulled the car back out into the street.
“Jesus.” Mavi leaned forward and watched the reflection in the side mirror. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
“Can you still track them?” I glanced to Pitch.
His face was a mask, cold, stony eyes glanced at me. “Yeah, they’re still driving. East, east west. He’s still alive. They haven’t hurt him.”
I punched the accelerator and the car picked up pace. “Using him as bait.”
Spark said nothing and sober silence filled the car. I pushed on, turning right and then left, making our way out of Dawn and headed east.
The flutter of a notebook echoed behind me, Mavi lifted the lid of the center console between us and rummaged around before lifting something small and silver free. “Here’s a flashlight. You can read if you want.”
The thing clicked on as I focussed on the road. “What the hell is in those books anyway?”
“Everything,” she answered. “The techniques he designed to brainwash us. The sessions with us as kids, and those who were in control of the program. He has specific names, dates…President Harper’s here…it’s all here.”
A question raced through my head. The same question that had haunted me all these years. I gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead as we left the small city of Dawn behind. “The techniques, what does it say about them?”
“He worked for five years perfecting the techniques before they were used on us. Johnathan Harper, and a woman called Stephanie Holmes, Commander of Covert Operations headed the task force. There are others, no names, no descriptions, only a Mr. P and a Mr. S are used.”
She flicked through the pages, her voice turning deep and husky. “The things they did to us. Torture, and pain. Wait…Fail Safe. There she is. That’s what Chris called her. She was the key, what the hell does that even mean?”
“Does he mention anyone else with her?” I forced the words through gritted teeth.
“He said at first she showed no signs of an anomaly, even though she carried the DNA markers like the rest of us. But it was three others who reacted to her. One they called Blackout…another Switch…and…”
Her breath caught, paper rattled. I glanced over my shoulder as Pitch leaned close. “Hey…Spark, what it is?’
“Tick...” she whispered. “They called him Tick. Five zero zero three…”
“I don’t understand.” I growled as Pitch froze and then pushed back against the seat.
“Tick…” he murmured. “Do you think it’s him?”
“Can someone tell me tell me what the fuck is going on?” I glared at Pitch, and then Mavi, who just shrugged.
“It was all I could hear inside her head,” Pitch murmured and stared at Spark. “Tick…tick…tick…”
“Until tonight when Mom…when she…” Died. When she fucking died…Jesus…she didn’t have to say the words.
“So, this Fail Safe, the one they desperately want, is connected to these three dudes? And these markers in our DNA is what brings us together? I mean, I’m just trying to get my head around it all. Look at it logically. Three of us, being drawn to you.”
“Nice one, Romeo,” Pitch snarled. “Could you be any more fucking brutal?”
I strangled the wheel. “I’m just trying to understand it. You say you’ve heard her your entire life. I was drawn to her when I saw her on the TV. Mavi here could feel her, that right?”
He nodded and shifted in his seat. “Like a cold wind cutting right through me.”
“So, we’re drawn to her without even knowing it, and I’m willing to bet those others…that guy, Sixth, they’re the same. What I’m trying to get at is, if that’s happening with us, then maybe that’s what with them…this Fail Safe and these guys.”
“You know he could be right,” Mavi muttered. “They want her…desperately it seems. So, whatever her power is… I bet it’s some kind of trigger to them.”
Pitch was strangely quiet. Strange being the operative word. Headlights were blinding as they whipped past. Spark clicked off the flashlight and sat silent in the dark until she finally spoke. “I remember the day the ticking started. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the day after they found me. Mom wasn’t the friendliest of people, but for some reason I touched her hand. That’s when it started, the sound. It was faint at first, and then over the years it grew louder…so loud I could barely think. I tried to stop it, smothered it with drugs and alcohol. I tried to stay away from her…b-but I guess I d-didn’t try hard e-enough.”
I tried to swallow the damn lump in the back of my throat. The night had been a blur. I barely had time to think, and right now, thinking was dangerous.
Deep brown eyes, thin lips. The Senator’s face filled my mind. I didn’t know the woman, only saw her on TV from news reports and gossip. But the woman had balls. She stood up for us when we never had a face, when we never had a voice. She not only demanded justice, but exposure.
She wanted to know who was behind the mask. For that I respected the Hell out of her. For that I would’ve fucking died to save her.
Faint, muffled sobs came from the rear seat. I felt her pain. They’d used her…they fucking used her as a weapon. A cold hunger dropped from my belly like a stone, right through my core.
Hate filled me until the shit was all I could taste. I drove the car in silence until my eyes burned and my attention faded. I hit the indicator and pulled over, swapping seats with Pitch.
She was asleep when I climbed into the rear seat beside her. Her head rested against the door, hands rested on her thighs. I gripped the handle of the door and pulled it closed as quietly as I could.
But she didn’t stir. Not until Pitch pulled the car back onto the road and kept us heading east. My eyes watered and stung as I closed them. I leaned back and shifted.
The brush of a hand on my shoulder made me open my eyes. Spark moved, lifting her head from the hard metal of the door and leaned across the space.
It was so fucking natural to lift my arm and let her curl against me…so natural and so damn good.
Darkness rushed toward me. Dreams of lightning slashed skies and motel rooms filled with dead bodyguards. I woke often, with eyes gritty and raw as Pitch swapped seats with Mavi, and the black sky lightened, turning blood orange in the distance.
Still Spark slept, her arm curled around my waist, her head resting against my chest. I closed my eyes again and slipped away. This time there were no dreams of neon white battered skies, this time there was only her…the woman I’d been searching for my entire life.
The blare of a horn woke me with a jolt. I blinked into the hard glare of the sun and looked around. Spark was awake, rummaging in her backpack. She pulled a hairbrush free and turned her head, blue eyes finding mine. There was a hint of a smile and a faint blush in her cheeks. “Morning.”
I shoved against the seat, pushing myself upright. “Morning, where are we?”
“About three hours from Orphic City. That’s where they’re headed.”
Orphic city…a quake tore through me. I blinked and stared out of the window to green, vibrant fields. Farmers worked the land in tractors. Their houses set back from the road. “That’s where they kept us.”
The words were met with silence. Spark lifted her hand and dragged the brush through her hair before speaking. “They wouldn’t go back there, would they? I mean. I can’t…I don’t think I can…”
Her hand and the hairbrush fell into her lap. She lowered her head, and closed her eyes. “What am I saying? If I have to go in there to get him, then I will.”
It was the place of nightmares. The place of our nightmares. “Don’t think I’m letting you walk into that place alone.”
“Me neither,” Pitch murmured and shifted against the passenger’s seat in front of me.
“We’ll all go in,” Mavi said, pressing his spine against the seat as he drove. “We stay together, and we get out alive.”
I flinched …alive…it was damn easy to forget what we were facing—damn easy to forget what was at stake.
I rubbed my eyes and inhaled hard. “We’re gonna need to get some new wheels, and soon.”
“You have the money, right?” Spark murmured. “Maybe this time, we can buy one?”
I shook my head. “Too much time, but we can rent one. We’ll find a place to pull over close to the rentals. I’ll go and get us a new ride, while you clean out the car and wipe it down. We don’t need more heat than we already have.”
Spark shoved the hairbrush into her pack and yanked the opening tight. “And then what?”
“Depends where they take him. Best to find a place to hole up, get some rest, food and a damn shower. We can make plans there.”
“They said the word compound,” Pitch murmured and straightened on the seat. “Somewhere there are interrogation rooms. They’re talking about the notebooks your Mom left you, asking him if he read them. If he knows what the Doctor and your Mom talked about. Your dad’s staying silent, not giving them anything.”
“Good, that’s real good,” she murmured. “They’ll keep him alive while they think they can get information from him.”
Mavi yawned and nodded. “If he keeps quiet, we’ll get there in time.”
“They’re almost there.” Pitch glanced out of the window. “I can hear the excitement in their voices. They said something about a debrief, and when your dad mentioned the word lawyer they just laughed.”
“Fucking assholes,” she snarled. “Fucking pieces of shit. They hurt him…they hurt him and I don’t know what I’ll do…”
She already accidently killed her mother, nothing can be worse. If her Dad was killed too, she’d never come back from that. Not really. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Red caught my eye in the distance. A gas station brightly lit in the early morning hours. “Want to pull over up ahead? I need a coffee and a toilet.”
“Sounds good to me.” Mavi yawned. “I’m more than ready to sleep. I fueled up a while back though. Don’t worry, no cameras, checked it out before I drove up to the fuel pump, so we have enough to get us into the city.”
Cars whipped past
heading in the opposite direction. Mavi pulled the car into the driveway and nosed the car around the back of the building. Kids ran across the lot toward the shop and a small cafe, and tired parents followed.
Mavi braked, and pulled up under the low hanging branches of an ash tree. We piled out, moaning and stretching, and stumbled toward the bathrooms.
I glanced at Spark before she rounded the end of the building. Her head hung low, heavy steps thudding the pavement. She looked lost. No, more than that…she looked abandoned.
We were so damn close and yet the fear welled inside me. Don’t fuck this up, dude. Don’t let her down. She’s been hurt enough.
Need welled inside me.
Until it was all I could feel.
Protect her.
Love her.
Jesus, I swallowed hard and headed to the bathroom. That was all I fucking needed—to fall head over heels for a woman I barely knew.
But there it was, blinding like the damn sun. I shook my head and shoved through the door to the bathroom. When I came back out Pitch was waiting.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot here.” He shoved off the wall and strode toward me. “I’m not here to rain on your parade. I just want to make sure she’s safe and taken care of.”
I felt that twinge in my gut and kept walking past him without so much as a glance. “Well she is, so anytime you want to move on is fine by me.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
I stopped, and then turned. “Then what the hell do you want from me, dude?”
“Maybe a little less hostility? You need me, as much as I need you. So how about we just put the last twelve hours aside and focus less on the hate, and more on her?”
The guy had a fucking nerve. “I spent most of my goddamn life focusing on her.”
“As have I,” he muttered and fell in step with me as we made for the automatic doors to the cafe. “All I’m asking for is a little respect.”
The doors opened and there she was, waiting inside the doorway. The darkness lifted in her gaze as she turned toward us. Blue eyes burned brighter as the ghost of a smile crossed her face.
“Food,” she murmured. “I wasn’t sure what you guys wanted.”
