by Kelly Oram
The ACEs murmured to one another and Ryan stiffened, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised by the plan. “You want me to act as bait. I can respect that, but what’s to stop him from simply sending more of his supersoldiers after me once I come out of hiding? They almost killed me yesterday. If he sent many more of them than he did last time, I wouldn’t be able to hold them off.”
“We would, of course, keep constant watch on you,” Major Wilks said quickly. “You’d have a permanent military escort.”
“Wouldn’t that be too obvious?” Eyes asked.
Ryan pointed a finger at Eyes, as if he’d just been thinking the exact same thing. “Yeah. Jamie’s not exactly the type to agree to a bunch of lab testing, and Donovan knows that. If she suddenly resurfaced with a military escort and wanted a bunch of tests done, they’d know it was a setup. Donovan’s partner would never approach her.”
Major Wilks shook his head. “They’ve already given her the perfect reason for needing the tests and a protection detail.” His eyes flicked over to me. “You were attacked yesterday, and your friend was kidnapped. You need to figure out who’s after you. The only way to do that is to recover your memories. Tell the doctors you have no other choice. And of course the military would protect the famous Angel if someone were trying to hurt you. No one would question that.”
His plan made sense except for one problem. “No offense, Major, but we’re talking about an army of supersoldiers. The only person strong and fast enough to fight them is me. Do you really think your team would be able to keep me safe?”
Major Wilks cringed, hating the fact that Donovan’s soldiers were stronger than his own. “Donovan doesn’t want anyone to know he’s still alive. He doesn’t want people to know his supersoldiers exist. He wouldn’t risk sending them after you if you had a military escort.”
“That’s an awfully big assumption,” Tyson grumbled. “And probably false.”
Everyone turned to Tyson, but it was Blake who explained. “Donovan is egotistical and power hungry. It’s a dangerous combination. He’s desperate, and he believes himself to be infallible. He may want to keep his operation secret until he’s ready to reveal it, but he needs Jamie.”
Blake risked a nervous glance at me and immediately turned his attention back to Major Wilks. Probably because Abiodun, Ryan, and Tyson had all gone stiff at the sound of his voice. The tension had become stifling instantly.
Blake took a breath and forced his voice steady. “Jamie is the only subject Donovan has ever found who wasn’t born with her powers. She was made into what she is. Donovan wants her more than he’s ever wanted anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was willing to take a few risks to get her back.”
My head started shaking before he was done talking. “That doesn’t make any sense. So what if I was created? Donovan’s already figured out how to give people my strength and speed. He doesn’t need me anymore.”
Now Blake gave me his full attention, ignoring my friends’ hostility. “It’s not permanent.”
“What?”
“A couple of hours ago, the men you captured became sick.”
“Withdrawals,” Dr. Haggerty chimed in. “Agitation, anxiety, sweating, muscle aches and spasms, vomiting…they’re showing classic signs of men going through very severe detox.”
“I don’t understand,” Ryan said.
At the risk of being murdered, Blake answered Ryan. “It’s become apparent that their powers are gone. They are no longer any stronger or faster than normal humans. They aren’t talking, but we believe Donovan has been injecting them with some kind of serum that gives them their abilities.”
“It’s like some kind of performance-enhancing superdrug,” Dr. Haggerty said.
Blake nodded. “But it’s far from perfect. Dr. Haggerty and I have been running tests on the soldiers. Whatever they’ve been taking is too hard on them. It’s tearing apart their internal systems. If they were to continue taking it, it would kill them. If they live through these withdrawals, you may have saved their lives by getting them captured.”
Well, that was completely disturbing and fascinating all at the same time. It was hard to wrap my head around.
“The point is,” Dr. Haggerty said, “the effects don’t last long. The superthugs probably have to take it daily judging by how fast they started experiencing the withdrawals, and the more they take it the faster it kills them. Donovan still doesn’t have the power he wants, Angel, and he believes you’re the key.”
“We can’t predict what his response would be if the Angel came out of hiding,” Smut said. He shook his head and folded his arms. “The plan is too risky.”
“But he’s been so careful,” Geek argued. “The man has made himself impossible to find. He’s been five steps ahead of us since the Visticorp explosion, covering his tracks impeccably. He doesn’t want us to know where he is, or what he’s up to. The man has a plan and he’s not ready to implement it yet. Whatever he’s up to is huge, and he’s not going to risk blowing it by getting in a fight with the military.”
“Agreed,” Tex said, staring at the table as he rubbed the stubble on his chin. “He’ll try to be subtle, sneaky, and smart. It’s been his way so far, minus the sloppy smash-and-grab in Dr. Rajeet’s office, and I suspect that only happened because he got so close to his prize and wanted to make sure he beat us to her.”
Major Wilks had been pacing the front of the room as he listened to his team hash out the possibilities, but he stopped and faced us, nodding firmly. “He’ll send the doctor after her. He’ll try to tempt her with promises of giving her her memory back.”
My heart fluttered at the possibility. “Could he really do it—give me my memories back?”
My question earned me a roomful of sympathetic looks, effectively popping my hope bubble. “I’m sorry, Angel,” Dr. Haggerty said quietly. “I just don’t see how that could be possible.”
“He’ll still tell you he can, though,” Blake said. “It’s obvious that you’re desperate to remember your life. It’s your biggest weakness. Donovan will exploit that weakness. It’s what he does best.”
The emergency lights in the room flickered as I started to lose a grip on my emotions. Ryan grabbed my hand again and leaned over to place a soft kiss on my cheek. “You can still have your life back, Jamie, even if you can’t remember it. I’ll remember it for you, and we can make new memories. We’ll fill your head so full of them you’ll forget you ever had amnesia.”
I closed my eyes against a sudden sting. His offer was so kind, so sweet, but it wasn’t the same thing. There was a story hidden in everything he said, knowledge in every look he gave me, and feeling in every touch. I wanted to understand everything he did, remember the things he did. I wanted to feel the love he felt. I wanted our history.
The room was quiet for a moment as everyone waited for me to regain my composure. I was embarrassed that I couldn’t keep it together, and tried to shake it off as quickly as possible. Forcing myself to get back to business in an attempt to distract the attention from me, I pulled my shoulders back and met Major Wilks’s stare. “I’ll do it.”
Several people argued at once. “Angel, it’s too risky,” Shortstop said. “We’ll be right there with you, of course, but like you said, against an army of superthugs…”
It didn’t matter. I shrugged. “It’s going to come to a fight eventually anyway.”
“But we need to know what we’re up against before that happens,” Johnny G argued, “and it needs to be on our terms.”
Geek slapped a hand down on the conference table. “But he won’t fight us! She’ll be in public. She’ll have a full military escort. Even if he could beat her, she’s proven she can put up enough of a fight on her own that it will be a battle. If you guys are there too, any attempt to take her by force will be an all-out war. There’s no way he’d risk that.”
“He’s right,” Blake said. “Donovan may know the military is onto him and be willing to risk a fight with them,
but not if it’s public. I promise you, he doesn’t want the world to know that superpowered people exist yet. It’s the ace up his sleeve for whatever scheme he has planned. He’ll want to make a spectacle of it when that news is finally revealed.”
Next to me, Ryan sighed. It was a small, quiet action, but it gained the attention of the entire room. “I know how to make it work.” He looked skyward, as if he hated the idea he was about to suggest. “We need to go to New York. It’s time for Jamie to meet Carter.”
“The reporter?”
We all waited for Ryan to explain. He let out a heavy breath and grimaced. “If what you’re saying about Donovan is true, then there’s no way he’d act if Jamie had media attention. We need Carter to make her front-page news.”
“Of course!” Blake gasped, excitement taking over his body as understanding hit him.
I, unfortunately, was completely lost. That had been the last thing I’d expected to hear. But, whatever his intention, the answer was still easy enough—no way. Major Wilks cringed, also not thrilled by the idea. His hesitation to put me on TV warmed him to me just a little bit more.
“If we run your story, you would be instantly famous,” Ryan said. “Donovan couldn’t just show up with a bunch of superpowered soldiers and snatch you when the whole world was watching your every movement.”
I couldn’t believe what he was suggesting, but at least his face looked sickly at the thought of it. I rubbed my head. It was suddenly pounding worse than it had yesterday. I didn’t need my memories to know I’d hate being famous. I tried to be objective, though; this was not about me. “He’s right. It would work. He’d send the doctor after me for sure. He’d try to lure me away from the media.”
“No.” Major Wilks grunted. “I don’t care if it would work. We’re not revealing to the world that Chelsea’s Angel is alive. Angel could be so much more helpful in the future if people continue to believe she’s dead.”
I ground my teeth. Major Wilks was thinking about me as an asset again. Still, I was on his side about this. “I don’t want my identity leaked. It would ruin any life I might try to have someday. And what about my family? You said I have parents. If they were the parents of Chelsea’s Angel, their lives would be ruined, too. And any friends I had…you.” I gave Ryan a look.
Ryan’s answering smile was sympathetic. “I’d do it if it meant your safety, and so would your parents. But I wasn’t talking about revealing you as Chelsea’s Angel.” I frowned, and he squeezed my hand. “You have a different story worthy of prime-time news.”
“I do?”
I glanced around the room and realized I was the only one not caught up. Lightbulbs were going off in everyone else’s heads. “Actually, we do,” Ryan said. “You and me. Remember how I said Visticorp tried to capture you, and you had to run off to The Lair with Teddy about a month before the explosion?”
An uneasy feeling settled in my gut. “Well, as far as the world knows, about seven months ago Jamie Baker was abducted from her college dormitory and vanished without a trace. Her boyfriend was shot in the attack. The story was everywhere. Her return would be huge.”
I gasped, shocked, and my eyes fell to his arm and the round scar I’d seen their earlier. A bullet wound. I looked at Ryan, and he surprised me even more by grinning. “That’s right, I took a bullet for you, babe.”
“You…” My voice trailed off as I tried to get a grip on the sudden swell of emotions raging inside me. Guilt, gratitude, horror…take your pick. I felt them all.
Ryan squeezed my hand. “That’s a good reason to promote a guy to boyfriend status, don’t you think?”
He was joking about this? He was shot, and he wanted to joke about our relationship? Was he for real?
“Don’t fall for it, Angel,” Johnny G teased. “It was barely a flesh wound. It didn’t even hit anything vital. I’ve been shot twice myself. It’s really not that bad.”
As I turned to gape at the Special Forces agent turned ACE, Ryan argued with him. “Hey, considering I was on a football scholarship—which I lost after I was shot—I’d say my throwing arm was extremely vital.”
“As if you needed a scholarship, rich boy,” Eyes teased. “And you didn’t even really like football that much. You’d already given up UCLA to stay close to Angel when she could have run the distance between the schools in five seconds anyway.”
“True,” Ryan agreed. He shrugged and winked at me. “Really, it’s the thought that counts. Boyfriend status. Just think about it.”
Too baffled by their banter—and Ryan’s total nonchalance to the situation—to try and make sense of it, I shook my head and tried to focus on the conversation we were supposed to be having. “So you think we should have this Carter person run a story saying they found the missing college girl. Okay, that makes sense. But I look just like Chelsea’s Angel. Won’t they all recognize me and guess the truth?”
“I think you’ll be okay if we leave your hair natural.”
Joy. Just what I wanted. Become a national news story with neon-green hair. “The guy at the motel was the one who told me about Chelsea’s Angel. He brought her up because he told me I looked like her identical twin.”
Ryan shook his head. “I think it’s the eyes. Not many people have yellow eyes. Chelsea’s Angel wore a mask, so her eyes really stuck out. With the green eyes, you were never recognized as the Angel. We’ll get you some new contacts and you should be fine.”
Geez, the guy just had an answer for everything, didn’t he? I glared at him, and he graced me with another peck on the cheek. He was so touchy-feely. If it didn’t feel so nice every time he touched me I’d have zapped him for it by now, but the more contact he made, the more I started to crave it.
What was wrong with me? I definitely wasn’t as warm with anyone else. I hardly ever let Teddy touch me, and if any of the other ACEs tried to kiss me they’d most likely get zapped for their efforts. But Ryan? I’d practically given him permission to hold my hand and kiss my cheek whenever he felt like it because I never made any effort to stop him. I never even got mad at him for it. Was I starved for attention from being so lonely for the last six months, or had I always been that weak with Ryan?
“I’ll be right there with you, Jamie. You’ll be fine. As long as you don’t blow up any cameras or fry any reporters.”
“That’s a big possibility,” I grumbled.
I couldn’t believe I was really going to do this. This plan had disaster written all over it.
Dave Carter worked for CNN in New York City. I took Ryan and Major Wilks with me superstyle while the rest of the team agreed to wait and follow us by plane later. It gave us some time to work out a plan with Carter, and kept me out of the skies.
Carter’s office was in the Time Warner building on the southwest corner of Central Park. Columbus Circle, a small roundabout with a monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus, rested between the building and the park. It was a nice little sanctuary with a fountain, landscaping, and benches for people to sit and enjoy the city. I stopped there, and both Ryan and Major Wilks immediately plopped down onto the closest bench to catch their rolling stomachs.
“That was interesting,” Major Wilks rasped as he hunched over and took a deep breath. “Is it always like that?”
I shrugged. “Teddy got used to it pretty quickly, and it just feels normal to me.”
Ryan stood and stretched. His face was a lot less green than the major’s. “It won’t take long. This run was already better than our run through the desert last night. I don’t even feel sick to my stomach. Just a little dizzy.”
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, not in the mood to waste any time.
Ryan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ll call Carter, and then we can go from there.” He dialed a number, waited a moment, and then said, “Dave Carter, please. Well, interrupt him. Tell him he has an old friend waiting to see him outside, and that he has five minutes to get down here or we’ll take the story to Fox News.”
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He hung up without saying anything else. “Fox News?” I asked. “You know we can’t take our story to anyone else.”
Ryan gave me a sheepish shrug. “I just wanted to make him hurry. He’s not my favorite person in the world. You’ll understand after you meet him.”
Major Wilks asked Ryan a question about Carter, and while they talked I took the opportunity to look around. I’d seen pictures of New York City before and watched a few movies that took place here, but seeing the city on television and being here in person were two entirely different things. New York is so vast it feels as if it’s swallowed you whole. Standing among all those skyscrapers made me feel like an ant at the feet of giants.
After spending the last six months completely alone in the middle of the open desert and my two-minute walk down the Las Vegas Strip, I think it’s safe to say I’m more of a small-town girl. Especially taking into account the sights and smells of the city wreaking havoc on my supersenses now. I pulled my notebook out of my purse and flipped to the section reserved for dislikes. Flying and large cities both made the list.
“Whatcha got there?” Ryan stepped up behind me and rested his chin on my shoulder. As he slipped his arms around my waist, he scanned the list of words in my notebook.
Could he go five minutes without touching me? I doubted it. “Ryan…”
Completely misinterpreting my warning, he gave me a squeeze and softly kissed my neck once. “Yeah, babe?”
I sighed. How could I ask him to back off when he made holding me seem so natural? “Never mind.” He was completely hopeless. “I call it my Me notebook. It’s everything I’ve learned about myself since my memory restarted.”
Intrigued, Ryan released me and plucked the book from my hands. He wandered back over to the bench Major Wilks was sitting on and flipped through the pages. “Sarcastic, volatile, not a morning person, emotional, impatient…” Ryan laughed and held out his hand to me. “Give me your pen.”
