Visions

by Teyla Branton

  “Apparently, our only option is to approach him at work,” Jaxon said. “Looks like his listed address is his receptionist and her husband’s apartment, but he doesn’t actually live there. Since he doesn’t keep regular hours on Saturday or Sunday, tomorrow is our only shot.”

  Dani scowled. “Sounds like he’s got something to hide.”

  Of course the doctor was hiding something—his ability at the very least—or Special Forces wouldn’t be after him. Reese going in alone did seem to be the least threatening option. Unless Jaxon’s visions kicked in and said otherwise, she was also the logical choice to fill him in about the danger he faced. A simple sketch glimpsed from his mind would prove her ability and her Colony 6 origins.

  Jaxon regarded the others. “Unless anyone has an objection to the basic plan, let’s go over what Reese should say. We’ll also need to discuss what to do if he rejects her invitation and how we’ll deal with Special Forces if they show up, which given Brogan’s intel seems likely.”

  “I was thinking we might need a distraction if Special Forces looks like they’ll make a move while we’re at the doctor’s office.” Eagle held up a device. “Something like this planted at the sky train station would be the best, I think. It can ignite a fire close to the control booth that will sound the alarms. The stations are always unmanned, so there’s no chance of it being put out too quickly, and the sirens should bring Special Forces to investigate. With a few carefully placed clues that hint at finding the vandals, we could probably entice them over to a river that runs by the town and buy ourselves a little more time to pick up the good doctor.”

  “I like it,” Jaxon said.

  “If he doesn’t come willingly,” Reese said, “we could use a temper laser. He’s probably not immune.”

  They talked over additional possibilities until people gradually filled up the train car and privacy became an issue. By then they were only rehashing old ideas. The train nearly emptied again as they reached the last large city before hitting Santoni. Only a knot of people at the far end of the car and Jaxon’s crew remained.

  Jaxon went over the plan again in his mind to see if they’d overlooked anything, but his thoughts were interrupted by a commotion at the end of the car.

  “Stop!” a man yelled. “Thief, thief! I’ve been robbed!” He jumped from his seat and began running after a small figure with a blue hat pulled low over its head.

  Instinctively, Jaxon jumped to his feet, his hand going to a hidden weapon. The small figure bore down on him, followed closely by the man. He reached out and grabbed the figure. The hat fell off, revealing the dark curly hair and narrow face of a street urchin Jaxon recognized only too well. Nova, Brogan’s niece.

  Jaxon sprang forward and caught the man’s fist as he launched it toward Nova’s face. “I don’t think you want to do that,” Jaxon said. “You could go to jail.”

  “She’s the one who stole from me,” the big man said.

  “Did not!” Nova shouted, anger radiating from her like heat from a cup of brew. “Prove it.”

  “Give it back,” Jaxon said to her. “Or I’ll make sure you answer to Captain Brogan.”

  The girl’s face darkened. She pulled an iTeev from under her ratty sweater and shoved it at the man. “It’s old anyway. Stinkin’ pus licker.”

  The man’s face flushed, and he looked ready to pounce on Nova, but Jaxon pulled her away. “I’ll see that she’s turned in to the authorities,” he said. “I have connections.”

  The man paled and backed away. “Fine. Thank you.” He was back in his seat before Jaxon hauled Nova to where the others waited.

  “Seriously, Nova?” Reese said as Jaxon thrust the girl into the seat. “What are you doing here?”

  Nova’s chin jutted out. “Just going for a ride. Sky train’s free, ain’t it?”

  “Lovely. Just lovely,” Dani muttered. “Now we have to babysit.”

  The speakers on the train came to life. “Next stop is Santoni,” came a pleasant voice. “If this is your stop, please gather your possessions and prepare to leave.”

  “I can help,” Nova said. “I lived in Santoni for two years before my father died. I know every part of it. That’s why I came when I figured out where you were heading.”

  “And how did you find that out?” Jaxon demanded.

  Nova shrugged, leaning over slightly as the train came to a stop. “I’m El Cerebro’s niece. I know everything.”

  “Uh, you might want to be a little careful who you announce that to,” Eagle said, his eyes pinned to the window. “I think our friends out there might be more than a little interested in that kind of information.”

  Jaxon followed his gaze to see a group of enforcers, who were exiting a train on the opposite side of the platform, the train that had come from the direction of Estlantic. Each of the four wore a Special Forces patch on their sleeves.

  Nova gasped and ducked instinctively, while Jaxon gave Brogan silent thanks for their civilian clothes and their new CivIDs. If they’d come in as enforcers, no doubt they would have alerted these soldiers to their presence, which might be a problem if there were complications with the mission.

  “This might move up our agenda,” Jaxon said. “We may have to act tonight.”

  “Except we have no idea where he lives,” Eagle reminded him. “His receptionist may have no idea either. Unless Special Forces has figured it out, they’re as stuck as we are until morning.”

  “I’ll follow them,” Dani said. “I’ll contact you through the T-links and let you know what I find out.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Jaxon shouldered his bag.

  Dani gave him a withering stare. “If I go alone, I won’t be seen.”

  She had a point. With her gift, she could move much faster and more subtly without him. She could climb buildings or run around to other streets without breaking a sweat. Telling her he didn’t quite trust her wasn’t going to win him any points with her or anyone else in the crew.

  “Okay, but I want you reporting in every fifteen minutes.”

  In a smooth motion, Dani grabbed her bag and sprinted from the train.

  Jaxon turned to see Reese staring out the window. “What is it?” he asked.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea, letting her go? I don’t think any of them were in my sketch of her, but there might be more Special Forces waiting wherever they’re going.”

  Jaxon reeled. He hadn’t thought to look for the man in his vision, the one who would capture Dani in the future, and now it was already too late. The Special Forces and Dani were gone. With only a sudden pressure as warning, the world disappeared as another vision descended on him, stealing his breath and moving him to an entirely different place and time. Not to the vision of Dani and the enforcer as he expected, but something much worse.

  Children sprawl over the floor, their skin eaten away with blistering sores. Their mouths open in soft moans, their breaths coming so faintly, he can’t be sure how many still lived. Their makeshift beds look inadequate and uncomfortable. One tiny figure is covered completely by a ragged brown blanket. Too late for that one. A loud, agonized wail fills the room, its concrete wall pitted with structural damage . . . and imbued with human suffering.

  “Come on.” Eagle tugged at him, pulling him to the door and off the train.

  Jaxon stumbled blindly along with Eagle, his vision clearing only as he felt the train speed from the station. Eagle handed him his bag. Reese propelled Nova forward, gazing at him in horror. No chance she hadn’t received a sketch of that. He pitied her, knowing it would be bright and vibrant in her mind until she transferred it to paper.

  I’m sorry, Reese, he thought

  She ran to the nearest trash receptacle and began vomiting into it. He glanced around the platform, but it was empty. No one was interested in leaving the train at Santoni, except for them and Special Forces.

  “What is it?” Nova asked, looking around her anxiously. Her hand went to the small knife he knew she ca
rried at her waist.

  He shook his head, unwilling to share with this child, no matter how jaded she was, no matter how her father had died of radiation poisoning.

  “She needs to go back,” Reese said, staring at Nova. Her hand clenched at her sides, a sure sign she was fighting a sketch. The one from his mind plus however many she had glimpsed from strangers on the train.

  Nova’s face showed betrayal at Reese’s comment. “I thought you would understand. They killed my father just like they did yours. This is my fight too.”

  “We’ll deal with her later,” Jaxon said. “Let’s get to the C-lodge where Hammer made us reservations.”

  “We’re staying at a C-lodge?” Nova perked up. “I’ve never been to one before. No one I’ve ever known has, except maybe my uncle.”

  Jaxon had stayed at only a few himself, normally while on vacation when he’d lived in Estlantic. All C-lodges, or Commonwealth lodges as they were formally called, were owned by the CORE, and the fees for renting a room included the usual boxed readymeals. A few of the larger places he’d stayed at in New York also had an adjoining restaurant where he’d bought a fresh meal at almost the same price as a room for the night. No, he didn’t guess that the average resident would spend much time in a C-lodge, much less an undergrounder like Nova, even if she had a valid Civ-ID in her bag of tricks.

  They hurried through the streets, not bothering to call a shuttle because the C-lodge in Santoni was close to the station. Inside, the gray-haired woman at the desk pointed her iTeev at Jaxon and appeared satisfied with whatever appeared on her screen.

  “A two-bedroom suite,” she said. “The charges will come automatically from your account.” She flashed them an insincere smile. “Thank you for visiting C-lodge Santoni.” Without waiting for a reply, she turned back to the large Teev holo screen behind her where a couple was kissing with exaggerated passion.

  Before entering the room, Jaxon checked Nova’s CivID to make sure it was a valid one. One never knew where the child was concerned. Anyone entering a room at a lodge was scanned and recorded, and the last thing they needed was Nova bringing down the local enforcers upon them.

  “Welcome Reba, John, Ernest, and Nora,” the room chimed as they entered. Nova rolled her eyes at the fake names, which Brogan had presumably chosen by the sole fact that they began with the same letter as their real names.

  Jaxon turned off the automatic greeting, signaling Eagle to check to see if any recording devices were on in the room. After pulling equipment from his bag and fiddling with it, Eagle shook his head.

  “We’re clear. But no doubt the surveillance hardware is in place, so I’ll leave up a monitor, just in case.” Eagle set a device on the table. “I brought a 3D printer, so I’ll make monitors to put in the other rooms as well.”

  Eagle busied himself unpacking his equipment. With the new interface Brogan had provided from pre-Breakdown tech foraged from the desolation zones, Eagle could connect his mental 3D renditions directly to the 3D printer. Jaxon had little idea how any of the pre-Breakdown tech worked, except that it used brainwaves and attached to the surgical implants Eagle already used for his regular glasses. But the combination of his ability and the printer meant the team was now limited only by the schematics he could create, the materials they could carry or get hold of, and the size of the printer.

  “I don’t volunteer to tell Brogan about her,” Reese said to Jaxon, casting a glance at Nova, who was already choosing a readymeal from the dispensing machine in the small alcove of a kitchen. “I voted for her to go home.”

  “No one has to tattle,” Nova retorted. “I promise, I’ll just stay here out of the way.” She sank onto a couch and waved her hand to turn on the life-sized Teev holo.

  Jaxon shut it down with a reverse motion. “Not now. I have to call Dani.” Like Reese, he also worried about telling Captain Brogan that Nova was with them, and at the same time he felt a strange reluctance to send the child home. Whether because she might get in trouble on her own, or because she might be useful, he wasn’t sure.

  A tap at the door made them all jump. Jaxon pulled his gun and Reese did the same. He motioned her behind the door, as he turned on the door’s viewscreen to see who was outside. He half expected Special Forces.

  “Stand down,” he said to Reese. “It’s Dani.” He opened the door. “I thought you were following the enforcers.”

  “I did. You’ll be happy to know they are just downstairs. They checked in a few minutes before you did, so I was already here. I followed you up.” Dani doffed her bag and set it by the door. “They met two others. I wasn’t able to hear much, but I did set a pressure pad outside their door. It’ll send me a warning if they leave. Catching up with them won’t be a problem.”

  “You have a pressure pad that works?” Nova asked. “Cool. We found a couple in the empty zones but never could get them to work.”

  “There’s a reason we’re helping the CORE scientists escape.” Dani sat down on the couch and began to unlace her boots. “It’s one more thing we have that the CORE doesn’t. They don’t care about a lot of tech these days.”

  “Why should they?” Eagle looked up from the counter he’d strewn with enough banned equipment to get them all sent back to Colony 6. “They have surveillance everywhere and that’s really all they need to remain in control. That and enforcers.”

  Dani gave him a grin. “Well they don’t have cameras in the corridors of this C-lodge. Apparently as of a few minutes ago, spider webs have seriously obscured some key angles. We’ll be able to get in and out without being examined too closely. Should take a day or two for them to figure it out.”

  “By which time we will have left town.” Eagle bumped his closed fist to hers. “Nice.”

  “Let’s get some sleep then,” Jaxon said. “We have to beat them there in the morning.”

  “First I should set up the distraction we discussed on the train.” Eagle picked up his bag that still looked half full. “With the arrival of the additional Special Forces, we’d probably better set off the blast tomorrow morning as soon as they leave their room. I’ll need help gathering and setting the false vandal trail. I’m thinking leaves and mud from the river as a path leading them away. We’ll have to use the skin tags Dani provided so the cameras don’t catch us.”

  Dani jumped to her feet. “I’ll help. I want to do some recon anyway. I need to stretch my legs.”

  If Dani said she needed to stretch her legs, her fidgeting would drive them all crazy within a few minutes, so Jaxon was glad she’d volunteered and that Eagle would be around to keep an eye on her. “We don’t know what Special Forces’ timetable is,” Jaxon reminded them, “which means the distraction may still be only a backup. They might be planning on more surveillance or a direct offer, not to kidnap him.”

  “Oh, you mean like they did to us?” Reese’s smile held no mirth. “I seem to recall too well the knife they used during our first so-called invitation, and then the guns on our second meeting.”

  “Which is why Eagle’s plan is a good one. Nothing is for certain.” Jaxon waved Eagle and Dani to the door. “Go on and get it done. Reese and I will go over her approach to the doctor tomorrow.”

  Hopefully, Kentley would come without protest—and before Special Forces showed up.

  “We don’t need to go over it again,” Reese said as the door shut behind their friends. “Unless you have anything to add from our discussion on the train.”

  “Maybe we can agree on a few signal words. In case you need to send us a message over the T-link while you’re talking with him.”

  “Good idea.” Reese glanced at Nova, who was eating and watching them with intense eyes. “Let’s talk in the bedroom.”

  “Can I watch the feed then?” Nova asked plaintively.

  “Yes,” Jaxon told her. “Don’t turn it up too loud.”

  Reese scooped up her bag and headed for one of the two bedrooms. Jaxon hefted his own bag and followed her. The room wasn’t a luxu
ry suite by any means, but it held two large beds. She sank onto one of them and began drawing rapidly on her ever-present pad without any hesitation. She knew where each line should go, almost apparently without looking.

  Jaxon knew what she was drawing before it came to life under her hand. The sick children in his vision, looking even more lost and forlorn in her pencil sketch. Though he’d seen them in color, her vibrant image leapt from the page, burning his eyes with its offense. His premonition might not come true for months or even a year, which so far had been his longest vision, but it would still come to pass.

  “It could have been us,” she said. “The Coop was close to the radiation zone. I used to think that’s why my father and the other adults were so angry all the time.”

  He knew what she meant. Radiation poisoning could excuse a world of hurt in a child’s heart.

  He sat next to her and took her hand. When it was just the two of them like this, the old days didn’t seem so old. She was still his best friend, and it didn’t matter that his adult self was also in love with her.

  “If we find the children—when we find them—we have to help.” Her hand tightened on his. “No matter what.”

  “Of course.”

  Their world had gone crazy. The CORE was rotten, corrupt, and someone had to figure out who was behind the rot and fix it. Brogan had chosen them.

  Chapter 4

  LYSSA SLOAN SAT back in her seat and stared at the holo display of the TAD-Alert. There was only one active call at the moment, about vandalism near the Freedom Fountain, and her co-worker Zevolun was handling it, though the Teev program had already identified which enforcers they should send out.

  Nothing like the gathering at the sky train station that had required a dozen enforcers with weapons. The participants had been subdued quickly, thanks to Jaxon and the others, but the reports submitted by the crew were unusual, especially in regard to the powerful temper lasers. The man Jaxon called the preacher was in lockup now, denying any wrongdoing and insisting that it wasn’t his problem people had stopped to listen to him. He claimed he hadn’t planned a gathering or broken any laws.