“What do you mean?”
“Besides nulling—neutralizing—other people’s Abilities, does it, say, give us a little power boost, too?”
Gabe froze in the process of zipping up his brown and tan ski coat. “Is your telepathy back online?”
“No.”
“Then how the hell could you have possibly known that?”
Smiling mysteriously, I told him, “A girl can have a few secrets, can’t she?”
He studied me suspiciously, but after a few heartbeats, nodded. “Just make sure they’re the right secrets,” he said, walking to the door. He opened it, motioned for me to follow him out, and secured the lock. “Time for the tour.”
Two hours later, we were leaving a large cafeteria. It was part of the same university complex as Gabe’s lab, which had once been an Air Force Academy. The room had been filled with several hundred Colonists, some in lab coats, some in sweats, and some in scrubs. Other than the people in scrubs, everyone was wearing either yellow or black armbands, and only those with black armbands were acting…normal. Everyone else seemed to speak only when necessary, and even then only in hushed tones. It wasn’t that they were whispering schemes to overthrow the General or anything nefarious, unfortunately. They were just…quiet, subdued. Gabe and I had said nothing the entire time we’d been sitting across from one another at a small, square table, drinking a cup of coffee and sharing a turkey and cheddar sandwich and a blueberry scone.
He’d shown me enough of the base—including the perimeter, with its ever-moving patrols, the school, and the location of the warehouses storing food and weapons—that I realized how foolish my assassination plans had been. Seeing classrooms half-filled with perfectly cooperative and focused children of all ages had been the creepiest stop along the tour. It was unnatural. The kids were clearly under the General’s mental influence. I feared that manipulating brains that were still developing would harm them permanently. That man is all kinds of evil.
I was uncomfortably aware of two very important things: everyone in the Colony had an Ability and was actively training to strengthen it, and nearly every single person was an emphatic follower of the General, either because of his mental manipulation or by choice. True free will was absent. Herodson’s will was law.
I was resolved to contact Jason and Zoe once my telepathy returned, no matter how long it took me to actually find them. It wasn’t just that I missed them like crazy—I did—but I needed to make sure they were okay. I needed them to be okay. And if they were, it was likely that they were planning some sort of prison break. I couldn’t imagine Jason not planning such a thing, reckless as it might be. It was imperative that I pass on what I’d learned about the Colony.
“There’s one thing that doesn’t quite make sense,” I said to Gabe as we walked from the cafeteria to a neighboring building. Wanting to make sure I passed as much relevant info on to my friends as possible, I intended to scour Gabe’s mind for pretty much anything he could tell me.
“Which is?”
I moved closer to him, keeping my voice hushed. “Back in the cafeteria, most of those people were acting sort of zombie-ish—like they have no thoughts beyond what the General tasked them with. But everyone in your lab was busy and active, talking with their colleagues.”
Gabe nodded but said nothing.
“Then there was that guard with the yellow armband who was getting all handsy at the entrance to the General’s building,” I explained. “He seemed to be operating outside the ‘guard my building’ parameters. It all just seems really inconsistent.”
After several drawn-out breaths, Gabe said, “That guard was probably given multiple commands, one of them being to actively attempt to procreate.”
The breeding program…Project Eden. I scrunched my face in disgust.
Ignoring my reaction, Gabe continued, “That’s been a pretty standard order given to the men. The women are told the same…and that they should be open and willing to any man’s advances.”
I made a choking sound. “That’s…that’s…ugh!”
Gabe nodded.
“But…he didn’t give me that command,” I told him.
For once, it was Gabe who frowned. “I can only assume that’s because he didn’t want the pursuit of reproduction to interfere with your communication tasks.” He was quiet for a moment. “That, and he likely wants to choose your future, uh, partner…someone with whom you could produce children who have your Ability.”
“Hmmm,” I murmured, processing his disturbing words. I was still processing as he led me into a squat, boxy gray building. The sign protruding from the overgrown grass proclaimed, Humanities Building.
Holding open a heavy glass door, Gabe said, “This is where you’re intended to work once you’re given a clean bill of health.”
“And how will that work, exactly?” I asked, hoping I would be long gone before that could happen. I wasn’t planning to stick around for much longer; I just had to figure out how to not stick around.
I followed Gabe down a bland hallway and through a second set of glass doors that led to some sort of reception office. I leaned in closer to him, acutely aware of the woman organizing papers at the front desk, and whispered harshly, “I’m supposed to just do his bidding, fully aware of my actions? What does he even need telepaths for, anyway?”
Gabe offered me a tight-lipped grin and murmured, “He uses them to spread the word…to draw people in. You remember what I said about the Colony being the new center of civilization?”
“He wants me to bring people here so he can control them?” Horrified, I stared into Gabe’s cunning eyes as he towered over me. “I will never do that,” I vowed.
Gabe shrugged. “You may not have a choice. When it’s your life, or the life of someone you care about, versus a relative stranger…what’ll you choose?” With one final, significant eyebrow-raise, Gabe left my side and approached the woman at the desk. She was pretty enough, in a perky, blonde, former-cheerleader way, and the smile she offered Gabe contained more than a hint of “come hither.”
“Emily, so lovely to see you again,” Gabe said.
Emily giggled, sounding about ten years younger than she appeared. “Hi, Gabe.”
It took an effort not to roll my eyes.
“I’ve brought someone in to meet you. She’s your newest telepath.” Gabe reached back, and closing his long fingers around my arm just above my elbow, he pulled me forward. “This is Dani. Dani, this is Emily—she’ll be coordinating your schedule and assignments once you begin work.”
When I said nothing, his grip tightened.
“So nice to meet you,” I chirped.
Emily glanced at Gabe’s hand, which was still on my arm, and her eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly before returning to my face. Jealousy, it seemed, was still ready and available through the lens of the General’s commands.
“Welcome to the Colony,” she said.
“Dani’s the one General Herodson’s been waiting for—the sender and receiver,” Gabe explained.
Emily’s face lit up with recognition. “Oh! How exciting!” she gushed, her enthusiasm genuine. She’d instantly transformed into my biggest fan. Apparently, like me, her commands included a directive about enthusiasm for her tasks. “We’ve got big plans for you!”
“Great,” I said, trying as hard as possible to keep my smile from melting. “Can’t wait.”
“We have your office all ready and a huge list of communications to start you off,” Emily explained excitedly. “We’re going to draw in so many more new Colonists using you!”
Using me. “Awesome,” I said with so much fake perkiness that I wanted to vomit. I was becoming used to my stomach being in a general state of nauseated discomfort. I needed to get the hell out of the Colony before I started luring in hapless survivors. I didn’t care what Gabe said. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t.
As we left the building and returned to my house, I pondered the massive amounts of information I’d learne
d since leaving that afternoon. One fact kept bouncing around in my mind: the General had known about me and my Ability before I’d arrived. He’d been expecting me. He’d been waiting. The more I thought about the implications, the more pissed off I became.
Gabe.
A second after Gabe shut and locked my front door, I rounded on him. “When I was still brainwashed, you said MG was a guy I’d trusted and that he’d betrayed me.”
“Dani—”
“What did you…I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid!” I yelled as I stepped closer and slapped him as hard as I could.
“Dani, I can explain—”
I slapped him again and felt wicked satisfaction when he brought his hand up to his reddening cheek. “‘You were attacked. Our patrol rescued you and brought you back for medical attention,’” I said, throwing his words back at him. “How could you? I asked for your help to find Zoe. You knew where we were. I—I trusted you!” I raised my hand to hit him again, but Gabe caught my wrist before I could land the blow. “It wasn’t Crazies who attacked me, it was Colonists—because of you. I got knocked out and abducted because of you,” I hissed, yanking my wrist out of his grasp and spinning to stomp down the hall toward the family room. I had to get away from him.
“I’m sorry, Dani. It just—”
I stopped mid-step and spun to face him. “Oh, shut up! You’re such a bastard! You…you…” Unable to find a word that adequately described how I felt about him at that moment, I growled in frustration. “Just tell me why. Why’d you do it? Why’d you set me up? Why’d you pretend to help me…to care?” He’d been my only human companion, even if it was only in my dreams, when I’d taken the sabbatical from my other companions several months back. He’d been the one to comfort me when I discovered that Grams was dead. I’d cared about him. I still did. The crushing betrayal weakened my voice to a sad whine as I asked, “Why did you let me kiss you?”
Gabe sighed, and having followed me into the family room, he lowered himself onto the couch. With his elbows on his knees, he clasped his hands together. “Herodson has people he calls Truth Guards—they’re like human lie detectors. Their Ability allows them to hear truth and lies in what people say. He keeps them around at all times, just in case someone manages to break through his control.” After a moment, he added, “And the neutralizer doesn’t block that particular Ability; it doesn’t block any that aren’t directed at a person specifically.”
So the neutralizer has limitations, and the General has people like Ben. Good to know. Stopping in front of Gabe, I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrows, silently telling him to continue.
“Every time I visit the dreams, I have to report back, and he or one of his seconds—they’re called his Controllers—always asks me a series of questions in the presence of one of the Truth Guards. Did I find any people with Abilities I thought could be useful to Herodson? Who are they, and what are their Abilities? Where are they? And so on.” Gabe paused, pleading with his eyes. “If I’d lied, he would have known I had a way to break his hold. He would have—”
It was an effort to unclench my jaw, but I managed it. “What? Killed you?” I wasn’t some idealistic fool to believe that a man I’d never met in person would forfeit his own life to prevent me from being captured and mentally enslaved, but still, his betrayal hurt.
Staring at my boots, Gabe shook his head.
“Then what? What would he have done to you?”
“Not to me.” He sighed. “There’s a woman. I’ve known her most of my life. She’s like a little sister to me, and…well, it’s my fault he has her.” His voice gained strength. “If I lie, or even if I simply fail to bring in people with the Abilities he’s searching for, he’ll hurt her. Badly. He won’t kill her—she’s too valuable to him—but he’ll make her wish she was dead. He calls it ‘extrinsic motivation.’”
Holy crap. “I understand,” I said, my voice rough. I liked to pretend I was noble, to tell myself I wouldn’t draw someone into the fire, but threatened with the safety of the people I loved, I wouldn’t even hesitate.
“I’m really sorry,” Gabe said softly, finally glancing up at me. “I didn’t want to. Dani, I—”
“It’s done. Apologizing doesn’t fix anything.”
“I know,” he agreed, sounding defeated. “But I did leave something behind…something for your friends to find.”
My eyebrows rose of their own accord. “You did? What?”
“One of the yellow armbands. I know you said some of the people you were with were in the military; they would’ve recognized them. I just wanted to leave them a sign. I didn’t want them to give up, to stop looking for you.” He shook his head in defeat. “I wish you’d never asked me to help you find your friends. I wish you hadn’t trusted me.”
I studied him for a long moment, took a deep breath, then sat on the sofa beside him. “We need to get out of here,” I said. “You, me, the woman, and Dr. Wesley. We need to escape.”
“But—”
“No buts,” I interrupted. “You know what he wants me to do—to bring in who knows how many more survivors. Like what you’re doing times a thousand, or however many people are left alive. They’ll just become his mind slaves too, and then he’ll be that much more powerful.” Enunciating each word very clearly, I repeated, “We need to get out of here.”
Gabe’s eyes left mine, and he studied his hands. He seemed to be mentally warring with himself. Finally, he said, “Okay. I’ll do whatever I can.”
Exhaling, I reached for his forearm and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you. I don’t think I can do it without you.”
Standing, Gabe started making a circuit around the room. “We won’t have long before you have to report to duty—a week at most. I can get Wes to extend your sick leave, but any longer than that and they’ll become suspicious. Really suspicious. Herodson’s been looking forward to obtaining you for a long time, and he wants to start using you as soon as possible.”
God, that’s disturbing. “Okay.”
“Is your telepathy functioning yet? Can you get a message to your people? Tell them not to do anything stupid?” he asked.
I checked quickly and was incredibly relieved to find the telepathic portion of my brain alive and kicking. Nodding, I said, “I was planning to do that anyway, assuming the power boost from the neutralizer is strong enough for me to reach them and maintain contact. One question…”
“Yeah?”
“Define ‘stupid.’”
Gabe threw his hands in the air as he continued his laps around the room. “Pretty much anything. They need to just sit tight. We’ll need to coordinate with them…use them to set up a distraction or something, but we’ll need time to study the perimeter guards. I haven’t exactly had a need to pay much attention to their routes and Abilities in the past.”
“Got it.” I followed him around the room with my eyes. “I’m still mad at you, you know.”
“I know.”
Pursing my lips, I watched him stride into the kitchen and take a saucepan and skillet out of the cupboards beneath the stove. Apparently he was going to make dinner for me. Where the heck does he live? I was surprised I hadn’t wondered about it earlier, since the only place I’d seen him sleep was on the couch I was currently sitting on. But I didn’t ask; I had a far more pressing issue. I needed to make sure my friends were okay.
Closing my eyes, I opened myself to the millions of minds throbbing around me, and after spending a moment basking in the glory of the collective, I focused only on the human minds. I knew the general direction of my friends’ camp, and that knowledge, along with its distance from my current location, should have been enough to guide my awareness to my friends’ minds.
It wasn’t. Or rather, they weren’t where they were supposed to be.
Oh God…did something happen? Crazies, or…or the General? But Dr. Wesley assured me they were fine…that if they’d been hurt, it would’ve been noted in my file. I suddenly felt like there was a f
ive-hundred-pound weight on my chest, suffocating me. Had she been lying? Did his people attack them when they took me? Are they hurt…or dead? No, no, no, no, no…
They’re not dead! They can’t be! I need them to not be dead!
There were other human minds in the area a few miles away, and I zeroed in on them. Relief flooded my body. It wasn’t all of them, but I sensed Chris, Carlos, Zoe, and three others I was vaguely familiar with. Where’s Jason? And Ky and Ben? Mr. G? The rest of Zoe’s people? I fought the urge to curl into a ball under the sudden resurgence of anxiety. Where are you, Jason?
I took a deep, if shaky, breath and focused on Zoe. Each individual’s mind had a certain feeling, almost like a signature or a fingerprint. As far as I could tell, I only had to touch a mind once in order to recognize it later. Zoe’s felt hard and focused, similar to Jason’s, but with fewer of the thorny briars that guarded his.
“Zo? Can you hear me?”
“Holy shit, D! Am I imagining this?” Zoe asked, sounding completely flabbergasted.
“Uh…no?” I felt giddy with relief at hearing her mind-voice.
“Damn it, D! I felt your pain. I thought you were dead. What was that? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, I just—”
“We know you’re in the Colony. We were coming to get you…but we ran into a few, um, issues. But we’ll find another way.”
I cringed and shook my head. “No! Bad idea. Really, really bad idea. It’s too dangerous for you guys to try to get me out right now.”
“What? Why? What the hell are we supposed to do? We’re freaking out over here.” She was starting to sound kind of pissed. It wasn’t like I’d wanted to get abducted.
“It’s just that going in blind would be a really great way to get yourselves killed. Everyone here has an Ability, and they’ve all been honing them, so they’re all super strong compared to us. And almost everyone’s being mind-controlled. I was being mind-controlled at first, but I’m not anymore. Gabe said—”
“Wait a second…who the hell is Gabe?” Zoe asked, cutting off my rambling explanation.
Into The Fire (The Ending Series) Page 13
