“He’s dead,” Dani said. “He’s not going to be out for anything.”
Xavier’s attention shifted to her. “That’s good news indeed.”
Dead? Jaxon felt Dani’s words like a jab to his stomach. Had he only imagined the recognition in the Controller’s eyes? He didn’t know if he should be relieved that the monster would never again interfere with his life, or if he should scream out at the unfairness of it all. So many years he’d hoped to find answers, and now whatever knowledge this man held for him was lost.
He pulled off his helmet and tossed it on the ground next to his fallen scrambler. Dani looked over at him in concern, but he shook his head to ward off comment. His head pounded and dizziness threatened his vision, but he’d be fine.
“You will not make it far on the scramblers,” Xavier was saying to Reese. “Special Forces is already searching the area for you, and I estimate they’ll reach our position in ten minutes. There will be drones, I’m sure.”
Reese didn’t waver. “El Cerebro contacted New York’s underground, not KC,” she spat.
Xavier smiled, one side of his mouth rising higher than the other. “A lot has changed in seven months. For both of us, apparently.” His gaze at Reese was pointed. “As CORE Elite continued to tighten their choke-hold over Estlantic, Kordell Corp has expanded its interests. As have you, or so it would appear.”
“We are not on the same side,” Reese retorted. “When I investigated your company, I was doing my job. Your company was running juke. Is running juke. You destroy lives.”
Xavier was unperturbed. “Yet tonight we’re working together. We now have about seven minutes until enforcers reach this area. Are you going to shoot me or follow me to your shuttle?”
“Reese.” Jaxon moved slowly to her side. “We have to get out of here.”
Her face turned toward him. “This was what you saw? Us meeting him?”
He nodded. “And you have to let him go.” His gaze swung first to one side of the trees and then the other. It was growing steadily darker, but he could still see crouching shadows out there. He added quietly, “He’s not alone. With Dani we could probably take them out, even if she’s one-handed, but maybe not. We got what we came for. Now’s not the time for a confrontation with Kordell Corp.”
Reese’s chest heaved, and he could tell she wanted to reject his words. But she gave a sharp nod and jerked her face back to Xavier, lowering her gun but not putting it away. “Lead on.”
Xavier turned his back and led them through the woods, checking only once to see if they were following. Dani left her brother and slipped between Reese and Jaxon. “Six more in the trees. Want me to dispatch them?”
Jaxon shook his head. “We need to get you and Tauri somewhere safe.” He gestured to her arm. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re bleeding.”
She nodded and didn’t contest his suggestion, which told Jaxon more than anything that she was worried about her arm and perhaps her brother, who seemed too quiet to be okay.
“He’ll be fine,” Dani said, seeing Jaxon’s glance behind them. “He saved me in there. I couldn’t have escaped without him. Or without you guys.” There was a hitch in her voice, but Jaxon couldn’t tell if it was because she hadn’t expected them to come for her or if she was simply grateful.
It was probably the closest thing they’d get to an apology for her rashness, but Jaxon didn’t care. His crew was safe. They might be half insane, but they were safe.
For now.
Two minutes later, they reached a clearing near a wide dirt road leading off through the trees. Parked on the road was a shuttle. “Follow this road until it leaves the trees,” Xavier said. “I recommend taking the back roads. The shuttle has programming to avoid roads with cameras, but they’ve killed all the shuttle traffic in and around the city, so you’ll be noticed even without cameras. The shuttle will begin broadcasting a nonconsequential ID in twenty minutes. If you’re stopped, you’ll have to fight, and I won’t be able to help you.” He sounded almost happy at that. “When you’re finished using it, just leave it. We’ll pick it up when everything dies down.”
“And the scramblers?” Reese asked. “How will you hide those?”
One brow arched. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re worried about me.”
Reese rolled her eyes and started to get inside the shuttle. Xavier’s hand reached out to touch her arm but stopped as she flinched away from him, her face stiff. Jaxon moved to step between them, his hand going to his gun. Not that Reese couldn’t defend herself, but because whatever sketch she must have received from him, it hadn’t been anything pleasant.
Xavier’s gaze met his briefly and then slid past him to Reese. “It isn’t over between us,” he said. To Jaxon, he added, “Tell El Cerebro he now owes KC a favor.” He turned and strode away as Reese glared at him.
“I know,” Jaxon told her. “I . . .” Whatever he’d been going to say was lost as a premonition settled over him.
The Controller stares at him, much as he had in the auditorium at HED. “There’s something I need to tell you,” he says.
“Stay away from me,” Jaxon retorts. “I have nothing to say to you.”
Pain shoots through him. He opens his mouth to scream.
“Jaxon!” Reese’s voice sounded far away. He tried to assure her it was just a vision—and obviously not a real one since the Controller was dead—but before anything escaped his lips, the medley of images pressed against his mind.
He saw Reese in a bed sleeping with a bare shoulder peeking above the covers, Eagle without his special glasses as his face twisted in pain, Lyssa—or was it Lyra?—holding an infant, Lyssa’s boyfriend with a broken neck, Lyra—or was it Lyssa?—quivering at the wrong end of a loaded pistol, himself as he stared down at Brogan’s still face, enforcers and Fringers firing at each other, Reese with tears skidding down her face as she beat out a rhythm on a prone man’s chest. His chest.
Then everything went black.
Chapter 25
REESE’S ANGER AND upset at her confrontation with Xavier was overshadowed by the sketch about the Controller from Jaxon’s mind. Before she could process what she’d seen, the kaleidoscope of sketches he’d emitted at the C-lodge in New York were back, rushing at her with a rapidity that made her nauseated.
“Help me get him in the car,” she said to the others. Dani and Tauri grabbed Jaxon and helped settle him in the back seat.
Reese climbed in next to him, and the others took the front. She leaned forward to give orders to the shuttle. “Go to Morry. Take the back roads at maximum possible speed. But avoid any cameras for as long as possible.” The shuttle bumped into life. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be picked up by drones.
“Reese?” Lyssa said in her ear. “What’s wrong? What happened to Jaxon?”
“I’m not sure.” Reese ran shaking fingers over his uniform, checking for any possible cause but knowing the rush of images had to stem from his ability.
“Um, I might know what’s wrong,” Eagle said, his voice hesitant and subdued in Reese’s comlink. “It could be the juke.”
“What are you talking about?” Reese worked her arm under Jaxon’s neck and checked his pulse. It was slow now, and the rapid images had disappeared since he’d lost consciousness. Except in her own mind, where the sketches demanded to be put on paper.
“Apparently, Dr. Kentley told him juke intensified abilities.”
“I know that.” Fury shot through Reese. “I was there. Did Jaxon also tell you it speeds up onset of the madness?”
“He didn’t mention that.” Eagle sounded miserable. “I knew it was a bad idea. But he was determined to figure out how to get the nyckelira case to Dani. I gave him the counter agent when he passed out. He should be okay.”
“Okay?” Reese mocked. “You can’t be serious. Juke can be addictive with a single dose. That’s why they don’t let enforcers test it in training anymore.” In one of Jaxon’s pockets, she found a black hypo mar
ked with a white J and tossed it to the floor in disgust.
“I know, but he’s strong. And he was going to do it anyway, with or without me.”
Reese’s fury died a quick death. “I know how stubborn he can be, but you saw how bad he was already. You should have stopped him.”
No, she should have stopped him instead of hiding at the C-lodge from Kordell Corp. What if Jaxon never fully recovered? What if this rush of images became his constant world until the insanity killed him?
“Please make the report to the captain. We’ll call when we get to the safehouse.” She cut the connection, too upset at Eagle and Jaxon to remain connected over the T-link.
She scooted closer to Jaxon, stroking his cheek and murmuring in his ear. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not angry with you anymore. Please wake up.”
No response. In fact, his pulse was even fainter.
She called Brogan on her T-link. “Something’s wrong with Jaxon,” she said. “He won’t wake up. Is Kentley with you? Maybe he knows something I can do. Tell him Jaxon took juke to find out where to leave the nyckelira case. He also took the counter agent. I don’t have any medical supplies, except the standard kit in my suit. So if he can’t help, I’m taking him to a hospital.” She could do that alone and send Dani and Tauri on to the safehouse.
“Kentley and I will intercept you,” Brogan said. “But I’m sending new coordinates. We’ll have to risk you traveling farther west. In the meantime, Kentley says to give him a hypo with a stim.”
Reese scrounged in her kit for the medicine. “Okay, I’ve done that. He doesn’t seem to be reacting.”
“Let us know if there’s any change.”
“Okay. But hurry!”
After staring at Jaxon for ten minutes, checking his pulse every few, Reese fished for the tiny drawing pad in the pocket of her uniform and began drawing. As the images formed under her pencil, her shaking stopped.
Feeling a gaze on her, she looked up to meet Dani’s eyes. There was something different about her, but Reese couldn’t pinpoint what.
“I didn’t know that’s how you got the case to me.” Dani’s voice was low and husky in the dim light.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Reese said without conviction. Because if Dani hadn’t taken off as she had, Jaxon might be okay.
“They would have killed Tauri,” Dani glanced at her brother, whose face tightened. “And me.”
“I had no choice,” Tauri said, making no sense to Reese.
“Yes, you did.” Dani’s voice grew hard. “You could have let them cut off my hand. You made the right choice. If you’d used your ability sooner, they wouldn’t have been able to take you at all.”
“Maybe.” Tauri’s jaw clenched as he gestured at Jaxon. “But what happens when the madness takes me like that? No one I know will be safe.” His voice grew as hard as Dani’s. “You should have left me there.”
“They would have used you.”
“I wouldn’t have given in.”
“Then you would be dead. You saw what that man was capable of.”
Tauri’s voice was soft. “Yes.”
Reese didn’t know anything of what had happened to them at HED, or what Tauri’s ability was, and now wasn’t the time to ask, but whatever happened had shaken them both. Jaxon would be happy his sacrifice had saved them from certain death. For Reese the idea of losing Jaxon was more than she could bear.
Dani was silent for a moment. “If juke increases the ability, maybe it’s related. Maybe it’s part of the treatment. The Controller said it had to be administered often. That sounds like a drug, not a cure.”
“Kentley tried using a derivative for a cure,” Reese told her. “It didn’t work.”
Dani nodded. “Well, if the doctor is as good as everyone in Santoni seems to think, he’ll be able to do something for Jaxon, at least temporarily. And then we’ll figure out a more permanent solution. We won’t give up.”
Dani was right. They rescued her and her brother at great odds, and she wouldn’t expect less for Jaxon. Reese dared to hope.
But a short time later as their shuttle made a descent on a dark, winding road that had Reese longing for the sky train, Jaxon stopped breathing. Reese pushed him down on the seat and began pounding on his chest.
“Breathe!” she yelled at him.
Nothing.
“We need another stim!” she shouted.
Dani stopped the shuttle, and they pulled Jaxon out onto the road. Reese kept pumping his chest as Dani administered the medicine.
Still nothing.
She felt Dani’s hand on her shoulder, willing her to stop, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. Not until there was some reaction.
Then she remembered the juke. The drug in its first stages was a stimulant. She dived for the open shuttle door and fumbled for the hypo. A few precious seconds later she stabbed it into his neck and then continued her compressions.
Less than five seconds later, Jaxon took a shuddering breath. His eyes opened. “Reese?”
“I’m here.” She leaned over to put her cheek next to his. What was she going to do when he crashed again as he inevitably would?
She pulled away and saw that his eyes were shut, but he was smiling.
“Let’s get him back into the shuttle,” she said. “And check your suits for stims. I want to have them ready just in case.”
“I can walk,” Jaxon protested. She and Dani ignored him.
Back in the shuttle, as they sped into the night, Jaxon put his arms around her, and only then did she realize she was shaking. “It’s okay,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s okay. I feel great.”
Of course he did. That was the juke talking.
Jaxon pulled her tighter and kissed her neck, her ear, the tears on her cheeks, moving in a trail until he found her lips, pushing them open with his own.
Reese kissed him back, the fear making her anxious and greedy.
“Woah,” Jaxon drew back as the visions began to come again.
Visions of them. Reese clung to him, seeing rapid sketches in his mind, one after another, vivid and bright, filled with emotion. Until she didn’t know what was real, his touch or the sketches. His hands knew all the right places to caress, the hard lines of his body fit along hers perfectly.
She never wanted the sketches to end. This was how it was always supposed to be, the two of them together. She understood that now.
But it did end. All too soon.
The sketches of them together ceased abruptly. Innumerable images came next, reaching her in distorted, horrific sketches. With a cry, Reese doubled over and heaved, but nothing came up. Again and again she heaved. Her hands shook and her head felt ready to explode.
“Sorry,” Jaxon muttered. She wiped her mouth and clung to him anyway.
Just when she couldn’t take anymore, Jaxon passed out and the images ceased. With a shaking hand, she checked for a pulse. Still strong but fading fast. She’d get the stims ready. Should she give them to him now? What if they did nothing for him like the last time?
“We’re almost there,” Dani said.
How long had it been since they’d spoken to Brogan? Reese had no concept of passing time. She knew only that she might fly apart at any moment.
“But there’s no way this is the halfway point,” Dani muttered as if reading her mind. “It’s only been a few hours. Give me your T-link. I want to check the coordinates. Okay, it’s right. But unless they . . .”
Whatever else she said was lost as the multitude of sketches claimed Reese’s attention. She fought to stay alert. For Jaxon. But her mind wouldn’t obey. She began sketching in the air, not coherent enough to reach for her drawing pad.
Then hands were pulling at her, and she was vaguely aware of Kentley’s hands rubbing her arms. The terrible compulsion to sketch leaked away, in a mere trickle at first and then in a flood. She sighed with relief.
“Get them inside,” she heard Brogan say.
Dani’s arm went around Ree
se as she half dragged her out of the shuttle. All around them houses rose in every direction, but no lights penetrated the darkness except those in the house in front of them. Reese watched Brogan carry Jaxon inside, his thick arms and shoulders barely straining at the effort. Reese felt a sense of safety that somehow Brogan always emitted, and the fear inside her seeped away like the sketches in her mind.
Brogan set Jaxon on a couch, and Kentley knelt beside him, running his hands over his body. “You’re just in time.”
“I gave him more juke,” Reese admitted. “He stopped breathing. It was the only thing we could do.”
Kentley twisted his head to stare up at her. “Right. That would work. But only because you got him here quickly. I’ll take care of that in a minute, but first . . .” He injected a hypo into Jaxon’s neck. “This should reverse the madness.”
Reese gaped at him, the suddenness of the declaration taking her by surprise. “You found a cure?”
Brogan stepped away from the couch, turning to her. “We found water in several of the old sauce skins you left at your aunt’s house. The doctor did an analysis and was able to separate the drug they gave all of you from the water and other additives.”
“Viribus,” Dani said. When Brogan looked at her in confusion, she added, “That’s what the Controller called what they gave us.”
Brogan snorted. “Finally, a name for it. So after plugging this viribus into the formulas he’d already developed, Kentley thinks it’s a cure. But it’s never been tested.”
“It will work,” Kentley said. “I know it. I feel it.”
Reese looked down on Jaxon, who was still out but breathing more steadily now. Was that because of Kentley’s presence or the cure?
“It’s going to take me longer to get the juke from his system,” Kentley said. “I can’t guarantee he won’t crave it, but I can limit the effects.”
“Then the cure isn’t connected to juke?” Reese had to be sure. The last thing they needed was to cure Jaxon of the madness and hook him permanently on the drug.
Kentley’s narrow face grimaced. “On the contrary. It is connected, as I suspected all along. Juke is positively a byproduct of the, uh, viribus. Historically they both appeared about sixty years ago after the colonies were created. But the viribus isn’t a hallucinogen or anything like it.”
Visions Page 29
