“Send them to all of us,” Reese told him. “And any codes we’ll need to activate them or open their storage compartments. We’ll need to stash our weapons and battle helmets on them as soon as possible.”
“Will do.” Brogan paused and added, “How confident are you about this plan?”
Reese looked over to where the others were getting ready to leave. “I don’t know, but it’s all we’ve got, short of storming the place, and you know where that would leave us.”
“With a whole lot of collateral damage.”
“Right.”
“Okay. Good luck.”
They would need it. She cut the connection and returned to the others.
“Do we have transportation?” Jaxon asked, sounding more like his old self.
She grinned. “How do you feel about riding a scrambler again?”
Jaxon chuckled. “Nice!”
“Clud,” Eagle said with an exaggerated sigh, “You guys have all the fun. I almost regret volunteering to stay behind.”
JAXON, REESE, AND Eagle stopped off at the Coaster barely in time to catch Jaxon’s friend Ekan Donnel, who was leaving despite the texts he’d exchanged with Jaxon. “Thanks for waiting,” Jaxon said, waving him back to his seat and setting the nyckelira on the table with a flourish. “Look what I found at the marketplace.”
Donnel eyed the case with doubt. “Is that the instrument that’s currently making the rounds in the streets?”
“Nope.” Jaxon sat, his legs still wobbly from his encounter with the juke. “Well, it could hold a nyckelira, but it’s designed for something much more useful.” He opened the case to show the velvet interior, then motioned to an enforcer at the next table. “Come here a minute, would you? Let me see your rifle.”
The enforcer stood and joined them, followed by a few of his Special Forces buddies. He handed Jaxon the rifle, obviously expecting him to ooh and aah over the gleaming surface. Instead, Jaxon set it deftly inside the nyckelira case. “See? Fits a couple of magazines as well.”
Eagle chuckled. “Sweet, isn’t it? The designer must be a genius. What a great present for our captain.”
“Yeah, too bad he doesn’t actually play the nyckelira,” Reese put in. “Does he have any kids who do?”
“No.” Jaxon pretended to study the rifle inside the case. “But it works so well to disguise a weapon that he’ll like it anyway. Or maybe he’ll use it to grease the wheels for a promotion for himself. It’s all the same to me, as long as I’m the recipient of his good graces.” He laughed, watching Donnel from the corner of one eye. Would he have to bring up the Controller?
“Hey, our captain might like one of these too,” said the enforcer whose rifle they’d put inside the case. “But he’d probably pass it on to the Controller.”
Donnel’s hand landed possessively on the edge of the case. He leaned close to Jaxon. “I’ll buy it from you.” Urgency laced his voice.
“You can go get another one.” Jaxon tried not to smile. “I’ll show you where.”
“Has to be tonight.” Donnel leaned closer and whispered so Jaxon alone could hear. “The Controller collects instruments. I hear he’ll be in attendance tonight. This is my chance to move up. Maybe even be chosen for his personal guard.”
Jaxon felt a twinge of remorse. If he gave Donnel the case, he’d probably end up in more danger, even if the case’s part in their plan was never discovered.
“Please, man. I’ll pay extra.” Donnel dragged a hand through his thick head of black hair, his eyes digging into Jaxon. “You can get another one tomorrow for your captain.”
Jaxon stared at the shorter man for a good ten seconds before nodding finally. “Sure. Whatever you need. I got time. But it’ll cost you five hundred credits.”
“That puts me out,” said the other enforcer, who removed his rifle from the case and left the table with a friendly wave.
“Done,” Donnel said.
The price was high for an average case, but far less than it was actually worth. With a few taps of Donnel’s iTeev the funds were transferred, and the man slung it over his wiry shoulder, muttering something about wrapping the gift.
Jaxon waited until Donnel was gone and they were all out on the street before saying, “That went well.”
Reese nodded. “Let’s walk over to HED. We can chat outside until Donnel shows up. I want to make sure he gets through security.”
They strode toward HED behind a group of other enforcers from the restaurant. Reese had her T-link over her eyes and swiped to read her messages. “Our scramblers are in place,” she reported. “Lyssa just dropped off the weapons, using a fake CivID, of course, and Lyra is heading to the shop. They’ll have both exits covered within three minutes.”
Eagle snorted. “Dani might not use a typical exit. They know that, right?”
“Of course, but she’s got her brother with her,” Reese said. “Hopefully. So that will make her choices more limited.”
If Dani didn’t have access to her brother, would she leave HED, even if she found the weapons in the nyckelira case? Jaxon doubted it. Trust in the vision, he told himself. Doing so wasn’t easy. It had been so vivid, but the use of juke changed everything.
Reese bumped him with her arm, as if knowing he needed a jolt. “This is going to work,” she said. “But you should review Brogan’s recommended escape route. Depending on pursuit, we may have to deviate.”
As a plan, it was simple, but everything hinged on the nyckelira case, which made it the worst plan in history. “She might not get the case until tomorrow,” Jaxon said.
Reese shrugged. “Then we’ll wait.”
But they all knew each minute that ticked by was one more opportunity for Dani or her brother to break. Or for something else to go wrong.
Jaxon’s attention was distracted as a sleek blue car drove past, the windows tinted as dark as those on any shuttle. He paused to watch the surface of the vehicle change from glittering navy to star-studded black as it drove past, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually changing color or if the effect came from the way light hit the surface. Whoever was driving had a healthy bank account, and Jaxon bet it wasn’t someone coming to the memorial.
Unless it was the Controller himself. Jaxon watched the car until it was out of sight.
Next to him, Reese had also stopped and was studying the increasing number of enforcers who were jumping out of shuttles or walking down the sidewalk, angling toward the building ahead of them. “Donnel should be here,” she said. “Do you see him?”
Jaxon shook his head. “He’ll be here, but maybe you should go inside and find a seat while we wait for him. We need to make sure you’re in the right position to help him catch up to the Controller.”
Reese’s mouth lifted at the corners, obviously finding his reminder amusing. “There’s still time.”
Jaxon experienced a sudden urge to pull her to his chest, to kiss her until she looked at him through half-shuttered eyes like in his premonitions. An ache started in his gut, deep and wide, and his shakiness returned. Would those premonitions ever come true? What he wouldn’t give that moment for another hit of juke. He craved the feeling of invincibility and unending confidence. To know he was right and that he could do anything. Maybe if he used it again, he’d know for sure when Dani would escape. There was at least one more hit in the hypo they’d purchased.
No, that was not going to happen. The danger of addiction quadrupled or more with each use of juke. He understood that. Yes, it had given him visions, but at what cost? He’d already seen Dani escaping among a crowd of enforcers. That was enough to pinpoint it to tonight or some other large event.
If the visions were real.
“Hey, don’t look now,” Eagle leaned over to whisper to them. “But there’s this weird car with changing blues and blacks that’s been around the block three times now. It’s stopped in front of that group of scramblers. See? Someone inside is talking to a man on the sidewalk, the one dressed in that fancy
gray outfit. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but three times around is weird, and they’ve been looking this way for the past minute. Not at us necessarily, but in this direction. Maybe at the enforcers going inside.”
Reese gave a slight gasp. “I know that man, the one on the walk. He had longer hair then, but he’s from KC. He was there the night they attacked me.” Reaching for a gun she wasn’t carrying, she started forward, but Jaxon grabbed her and hauled her instead to the double glass doors leading into HED.
“Saca, Reese!” he said. “What are you going to do, confront him?”
She stopped struggling. “Maybe.” She gave a tight smile to the Special Forces guarding the door as he gestured them toward one of the two scanners.
Jaxon lifted one hand in a waiting gesture as they stepped to the side to allow other enforcers to enter and move through the security. A few civilians also came inside, but not the man dressed in gray.
“He can’t hurt me in front of all these enforcers, can he?” Reese stepped in front of the door, ignoring the jostling of an enforcer trying to get past her. “And I’ve got a bone to pick with him.”
Jaxon pulled her back to the side. “Who knows what they can do,” he whispered fiercely in her ear. “Besides, we need to focus on Dani.”
Reese’s jaw worked, but she nodded. “Okay. Look, there’s Donnel. He’s finally here. We can go on through. This thing isn’t going to pick up our skin tags, will it?”
“No,” Eagle said. “It won’t register anything more than the heating units in our suits or our iTeevs, which are permitted inside. Or T-links in our case, and they look enough alike to pass. Just keep them powered down until we’re through so the scanner won’t pick up any unusual emissions. It’s not like they’re expecting trouble.”
Jaxon followed Reese through a scanner, feeling more than a little exposed without even a stunner. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Donnel had made it to the other scanner, where two Special Forces were removing festive wrap from the nyckelira case. His heart beat heavily as they opened the lid and ran their hand-held scanners over the entire surface.
“Relax,” Eagle said from behind him. “They won’t even be able to sense the additional compartment, not with the density of the material. It’ll come across as molded plastic. I tested it on ours back home.”
Still Jaxon worried until the enforcers returned the nyckelira case to a disgruntled looking Donnel, who crumpled the ruined wrapping paper and tossed it into a garbage bin.
“Let’s go,” Jaxon said.
“You guys go ahead.” Eagle reached into a pocket. “I’ve got to join some perfectly innocent substances I brought. In case we need a distraction.”
Jaxon nodded. “We’ll let you know when it’s done.”
They followed the crowd until they reached a huge auditorium. Jaxon remembered now that he’d been here several times before in training, but the sense of déjà vu came from the vision, not those more distant memories. The walls were alight with holo feeds from other enforcer districts, showing the faces of people who for whatever reason hadn’t been able to make the trip to New York to honor the lost team supervisor.
Reese led the way down the aisle until they reached a pair of empty seats. It looked about right, so Jaxon slid into a chair. Anxiously, he stared across the heads of the people. The parents of the dead enforcer were on the stage with an official Jaxon assumed was HED’s captain. Where was the Controller?
Then he saw him in full dress blues, stepping onto the stage and bending over the mother, then shaking the father’s hand. Both arose, awe at the honor of meeting the Controller himself shining through even their grief.
A figure moved hastily toward the stage, down the far aisle, just like in Jaxon’s vision. It was Donnel, the nyckelira case awkwardly slung over his shoulder. That’s when Jaxon noticed a pair of musicians on the far end of the stage motioning to him. Thankfully, Donnel ignored them.
When the Controller left the parents, striding across the stage and into the near aisle with broad steps, Donnel hurried after him, scrambling in an awkward way that made everyone stare. But he was forgotten the minute he stepped off the stage.
Jaxon glanced over at Reese. Her fists were shut tight, and he knew she was probably receiving sketches from the people around her. Her face looked okay, though, strong and determined. She didn’t glance his way, but one hand opened and gently touched his thigh. He was so aware of her that even through the thick enforcer uniform, her touch penetrated. He felt calmer having her close.
They waited as the Controller approached.
Now, Jaxon thought. But she didn’t stand.
Finally, as the Controller was about to pass, Reese stood up in his path. The man moved to step around her.
Jaxon’s gaze shifted momentarily to Donnel, who was still too far away. It’s not going to work, he thought.
That was when his gaze met the Controller’s. Something flickered in the man’s blue eyes and he stopped. Familiarity washed over Jaxon. He’d seen those eyes before, and the high widow peak in the hair. The patrician nose and confident expression. Was it only from his appearance on the Teev? Or from his vision? But why wouldn’t the eyes leave Jaxon’s?
Then the man turned away as Donnel tugged on his sleeve. The Controller’s guards tensed but they allowed the man to speak, and in the next moment the four moved up the aisle together. Jaxon watched them go, knowing he shouldn’t. The Controller didn’t look back.
He’d imagined it then.
Reese sank to her seat next to him. “I think we have a problem.”
“The guy in gray?” Jaxon immediately began scanning the crowd.
“No.” She leaned so close he could smell her scent, musky and compelling. “The Controller. He knows you, Jaxon. He didn’t stop because of me. He stopped because of you.”
Jaxon remembered the visions he’d had under the influence of juke. In the whirlwind of premonitions, someone had been talking about being his father, the man he’d never known. A man he could never have known with the influx of men visiting his mother in the Coop. For years he’d believed his father would come back, to rescue him and his mother. He’d given up that hope twenty years ago when his mother was murdered.
But Captain Brogan hadn’t been able to mask Jaxon’s origin from Colony 6 as he had the others in the crew, and Bensell Summers, before Jaxon had shot him, had hinted at Jaxon’s parentage. He’d insinuated that he’d been at Jaxon’s house in Colony 6 on someone else’s command.
“You think he’s the one Summers reported to?” Reese asked. “The reason Summers was at your house that day?” The week before his mother died, she meant.
Jaxon felt another wave of nausea. “I think he knows something about me.”
Reese gave him a penetrating look. “Let’s get out of here. We’ve done what we came to do. The rest is up to Dani.”
Chapter 22
DANI HAD SLEPT four hours, at least, since talking to the Controller, and spent the rest of the day pacing or exercising. Two large steps brought her across the cell, but taking six smaller steps and bringing her knees to her chest gave her more movement. Push-ups on the floor or off the wall kept her focus away from how small the room really was. Pulling on the bed was even better, her neck straining with effort—until the bolts jerked free and she ended up with bruises on her legs where the bed crashed into her.
Bruises that were almost gone, like the gunshot wound which she barely noticed anymore.
She was going to die in here. Or go stir crazy until she beat her own head into the wall to stop the fidgeting. Maybe she’d tear down the door of the cell and all the walls. Then they’d probably lock her up in one of the observation rooms the Controller had shown her—the ones with concrete or metal walls and heavy vault doors. Better that she keep her cool and wait for an opportunity to escape with Tauri.
They’d brought her a single lukewarm readymeal for breakfast and another for lunch. The boxes were supposed to cont
ain all the nutrition a person needed. For her it would have been ample, if not for the drive that forced her to stay moving. Once she could have sat perfectly still all day—she had done it just for discipline. She’d slow her breath until it was almost nonexistent, reserving all her strength. But that was before her gift started to malfunction.
Yes, she was going to die, or starve in this little box. She took a deep breath, which filled her with more energy—and hunger.
Still she couldn’t stop moving.
When the two enforcers opened her cell door, she experienced a sense of inevitability. She’d have to act sooner rather than later. While she was still able.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked as they fastened new shackles over her wrists.
The male enforcer, one she hadn’t seen before, grunted out a reply, “The Controller wants to see you.”
She thought about taking them both out and going for Tauri right now, but she didn’t know who else was watching the monitors. Better to see what Ramsey wanted, maybe take him hostage. She craned her neck as she passed Tauri’s room, but she couldn’t see him inside.
The guards led her from the cell block out into the reception, where two more enforcers manned the desk like before. One was heating a readymeal in the wall microwave, presumably to take to the other prisoners, and her stomach growled. Just her luck that the Controller wanted to see her now instead of after dinner. The holo screens behind the desks showed only empty rooms. Where was Tauri? Could he be with the Controller now?
She could take them all with little effort, but getting out of this room and the building itself was another thing altogether. How many people would she have to kill? She’d do it, though, if she had to.
The guards opened the door to the white room where she had met the Controller before and pushed her inside. Warrick Ramsey arose from one of the pale couches and dipped his head in greeting. He had lost the shimmering pants of earlier and now wore an enforcer uniform, but the black outfit sported a high collar that jutted nearly to the ends of his earlobes. Dress uniform, she knew, but why was he wearing it? Was it something she could work into an escape?
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