The Cure

by Teyla Branton

  “A new name might help.” I wondered if he still craved the limelight.

  He grinned. “Yeah. Guess I kind of got attached.”

  “So can I see you wrestle a croc?” Benito asked.

  “Uh, I don’t think so.” A hardness filled Irwin’s face as he refocused on the task at hand. “So where are your passengers?”

  “Inside the plane.” I wanted to ask him the reform rate versus how many Emporium Unbounded they had to try and execute for their crimes, but I found I didn’t really want to know. Not yet.

  Ritter and the others were already heading up the stairs, and I followed quickly. The faster we got this over with, the faster we’d warn the senator and get on with the search for the scientists and their research. I wanted to bring Stella good news for a change.

  Ritter’s step faltered near the second set of four seats, but he recovered quickly and continued on to the back. No one else appeared to notice. I was almost afraid of what I might find inside, yet nothing prepared me to see Mari curled across two seats, once more asleep.

  Jace stopped and stared, his eyes going to me. “Wasn’t she in the Pinz? How did she get in here?”

  There was only one answer that made sense in my mind. Mari might be a shifter, a teleporter who could travel through space. She was talented in math, and it was logical that tough equations would be needed to shift, but to actually suspect it was happening under my nose was nothing short of miraculous. If I was right, her existence might signal a new era for Unbounded. Shifting hadn’t been seen for a thousand years.

  “Better help them,” I said to Jace. He nodded and hurried down the aisle.

  Belatedly, I remembered Benito and went outside to check on him, but he’d settled in the back of the Pinz on one of the bench seats that lined each side of the vehicle. When he spied me staring down at him from the plane, he shook his head and crossed himself. “I don’t touch dead people.”

  “I told you they’re not dead.”

  He snorted. “They look dead.”

  “Stay right there.”

  “Where else would I go?” He gave me a bland smile. “I have no money.”

  I’d have to see that he remained without funds for as long as we were here. At least that way he’d be close where I could watch him—until we dumped him someplace safe.

  With two extra hands, the transfer of the captives went quickly, though Irwin insisted on giving them all an additional dose of sedatives.

  “That’s going to knock them out for another few days,” Keene mumbled.

  Tenika shot him a glance. “What’s that to you?”

  “Nothing.” But his scowl didn’t vanish.

  “Things sometimes go wrong,” Irwin said, as though commenting on the weather. “Occasionally, we have to stash them and retrieve later. With only two of us to transport this many, we’d be fools to leave anything to chance.”

  The idea of hiding the captives under a bush was ludicrous, but not as much as it would be in, say, downtown Portland. It was Irwin’s turf and he seemed to know his business.

  “Just make sure you keep track of which ones are mortal,” I said. “Don’t give them too much.”

  “Uh, I’m guessing those would be the ones with mortal written on their foreheads,” Irwin said. “In permanent marker, no less.”

  Who on earth did that?

  “We know you don’t have a sensing Unbounded to help you tell them apart,” Ritter said, avoiding my eyes. That man never ceased to surprise me.

  Irwin grinned. “We usually just wait to see which ones heal fast.”

  “Works for us.” Tenika slapped Ritter on the back with a familiarity I envied. I wondered what stories she might tell of him if we had more time. “Luck.”

  “You, too.” There was real warmth in Ritter’s voice.

  “Call if you need help. Like Irwin said, we could stash these guys in a swamp somewhere. The crocs might do us a favor.”

  We all laughed, though ultimately I knew our attempt to reform the Unbounded we captured was one more thing setting us apart from the Emporium. I watched with relief as the van sped away.

  “Don’t know what they want with dead people anyway,” Benito complained from the back of the Pinz.

  Ritter pretended not to hear. “Erin, better get Mari out of the plane so we can close the doors. Try to keep an eye on her until we can find someone to watch her. Jace, you’ll ride shotgun. Stay alert. Keene, you’re in the back with the others.”

  Keene smiled lazily. “Aye, aye, captain.” He winked at me. “Any time.”

  Ritter scowled and headed for the Pinz. “Can I drive?” Jace asked, running along beside him. “Please?”

  Within a few minutes we were speeding down the dirt road. Well, not speeding, exactly, because the Pinz could go no more than just under seventy miles an hour, but with the vegetation whipping by, it felt faster than that. Every now and then Jace had to slow the vehicle as he drove over rocks, rotted logs, and brush, or skirted the deeper potholes and puddles of mud.

  Mari slept on one of the bench seats, and I sat next to her, making sure one of the sudden lurches didn’t throw her to the floor. Keene and Benito sat opposite me making a late lunch of food they’d raided from the plane.

  The interior was open to the front cab, and I raised my voice to address Ritter. “Any word from Cort and Dimitri?” I’d seen him talking on his phone a few moments earlier, half leaning out the window to find a clear connection with the overhead satellite, but he hadn’t shared any information. I was tempted to try to contact Cort myself but even if I could get a satellite signal through the thick canvass, on ops like this we weren’t supposed to bypass our leader.

  Ritter turned in the passenger side seat, where the FAL rifle in his hands looked a part of him. He stared at me blankly for a few seconds as he digested my words, as though having difficulty pulling his thoughts back from wherever they had been.

  I thought of our fight on the rooftop, the feel of his body pressed against mine. Stop, I told myself.

  “No word yet,” Ritter said finally. “Every time I’ve tried, there hasn’t been an answer. I’ll call again now.”

  So he hadn’t been talking to Cort. Then who? Not Ava because he’d called her from the plane. Maybe it had something to do with where he’d been for the past two months. Until that moment, I’d told myself he’d been following leads to find the missing Renegades, but now I wasn’t so sure. Ava told me he took off regularly, returning only to train our group or to participate in missions. He could have an entire life that no one knew about. He certainly had one that didn’t include me. That meant I needed him like I needed to get hooked on curequick.

  Holding the phone out the window to connect better, Ritter dialed. I edged closer to eavesdrop, nearly losing my balance as Jace drove over some washboards. I glanced back at Mari, but she appeared undisturbed. It wasn’t a natural sleep, though, and I worried for her state of mind. Anyone could break under so much trauma. The sooner we could get her to Dimitri and his healing hands, the better.

  “Good, you answered,” Ritter leaned out the window to talk, his voice rising to carry over the sound of the engine. “I was beginning to worry. Say again? Oh, we’re traveling toward Palenque. We hoped you’d be nearby. Where are you?” A long pause. “Any news?” Ritter’s neck tensed. “They after you now? Okay, send me the coordinates. We’ll get there as soon as we can.”

  Ritter turned back to me, suddenly moving into my space—or his space rather, since I was leaning so far over his seat. I pulled back as Keene stepped up beside me, stooping as I was so our heads didn’t hit the tarp overhead. “Well?” I asked.

  Ritter frowned. “Cort and Dimitri have one of the scientists, but the Emporium beat them to the other, and he’s the one who had the thumb drive with the research. Cort and Dimitri aren’t far behind the Emporium, but their Jeep died on them.”

  “What else?” I didn’t need my sensing ability to know there was more.

  “I’m not ex
actly sure because he kept cutting out. But he’s worried.” Ritter looked past me to Keene. “We’re going to have to meet them instead of heading directly to Palenque.”

  Keene shook his head. “I have to disagree. The senator’s more important. If he’s killed, his death could affect thousands.”

  “The one versus the many.” Ritter’s voice was hard. “That might mean something if the one wasn’t family.” His words chilled me because they so closely resembled my own feelings. I wanted to help the senator, but saving Bronson for Stella, even if only for the twenty or so years he had left of his regular life span, was more important to me at the moment. It was an emotional decision, but if we lost that emotion, didn’t we lose the very thing that kept us human?

  I placed a hand on Keene’s arm. “If the Emporium has the scientist, we may all be heading to the same place anyway.”

  Keene nodded and moved back to his seat, picking up his discarded plate and tossing me a brownie wrapped in standard airline plastic wrap.

  I slumped onto the seat next to Mari. “Thanks.” It was the first food I’d had all day, and it felt comforting to bite into.

  The interior of the Pinz was sweltering, and I was glad I’d ditched my extra clothing earlier. The brown tank was perfect, but the loose jeans chafed my waist. I should have worn my favorite jeans instead. For now, I pulled the jeans a bit lower on my hips.

  I looked up to see Keene watching me, an unreadable expression in his eyes. He glanced at Benito on the other side of his bench, but the man had propped his feet up on one of our tent bags, his head back and eyes closed, his hands folded over his stomach.

  Keene leaned forward, his eyes holding mine. “I’ve missed you.”

  “That’s funny. I seem to remember annoying you more than anything.”

  “That, too.” His grin sent warmth to my belly.

  He didn’t say more, or ask me if I’d missed him. That’s the way Keene was. He didn’t ask for anything, and he didn’t make me feel as if I was losing myself. I leaned forward until our heads were inches apart. “I’m sure we’ll have ample opportunity to annoy each other on this trip, don’t you think?”

  “I’m looking forward to it.” Keene laughed, the sound coming a little too loud with my proximity, and I glanced at the front to see if they’d noticed. Ritter’s gaze flicked toward us and back to the window again. A muscle twitched in his jaw.

  “Holy crap!” Jace slammed on the brakes, throwing me into the supplies. “I don’t like the look of this.”

  JUMPING TO MY FEET, I peered through the front window. Three huge trees had fallen over the dirt road, one lying on the other two.

  “No way we’re getting over that,” Jace said. “And it’d take the rest of the day to get through even with our chainsaw. We’ll have to go around. Hopefully we can find another road. I saw a break in the trees a quarter mile back, I think.”

  “Might be a trap.” Ritter looked at me. “Erin, what do you sense?”

  I’d been checking as we sped along, but now I climbed outside and did a deeper search. The vegetation framing the road had thickened and I suspected we were close to our original destination of Palenque, which seemed to be a gateway to the Lacandon Jungle, but nothing alerted my senses. There were numerous tiny life forces, but nothing large enough to be human. I was almost sure we were alone, but it was the “almost” that worried me. If Ava were here, she’d be able to tell for certain. Besides, my range didn’t extend that far. What if Emporium agents or some worse danger lurked just beyond the trees?

  I didn’t realize how exposed I was until I noticed Ritter and Keene flanking me, both gripping their weapons and scanning the greenery. “There’s no one out there,” I said. “Not close anyway.”

  Ritter nodded. “We go back, then.” The tenseness in his voice reminded me that every passing moment meant more space between us and the kidnapped scientist who held Bronson’s possible cure.

  Night came early in November, and even earlier in the jungle, but despite the increasing darkness, we found the break in the trees easily, and it turned out to be a rather passable, if narrow, road. Ritter wasn’t happy about the foliage overhead, though, which made it difficult to follow the GPS coordinates on his sat phone. Fortunately, he was also equipped with a compass and there were enough breaks in the foliage to occasionally verify our position with the GPS.

  “This might actually get us to Cort and Dimitri faster than that main road,” Ritter called back to us at one point.

  I might have been happy at the news, but something was bothering me. I couldn’t put a name to it, but something felt wrong. “Stop!” I jumped to my feet and lurched to stand near my brother’s shoulder. “I mean, don’t stop, just slow down.”

  “But we’re not going very fast now.” Jace pointed to the speedometer. “Impossible in the darkness with all this brush.”

  “Do as she says.” Ritter’s voice was calm but firm. “Now.”

  Color leaked from Jace’s face, but he nodded and did as commanded.

  “There are people ahead,” I said after a moment of searching. “They’re really close.” Their life forces were clearer with every passing foot. “They’re not together, though. Scattered, unmoving. It’s almost as if—”

  “Ambush.” Ritter didn’t sound surprised. “How many?”

  “Eight. That I can see.” I hesitated before adding. “But my range isn’t very far. There could be more.”

  Ritter’s hand went to his door. “Erin, take over for Jace. Keene and Jace, you’re with me.” He pushed the door open and jumped into the darkness.

  That’s right, leave the woman to face an ambush in the dark with only two helpless people for backup. But I trusted Ritter. Whatever was or was not between us, I knew he’d give his life to protect me.

  Awkwardly, I slipped into the driver’s seat as Jace opened the door and dropped from the Pinz. I glanced around, but Keene was already gone. He’d wakened Benito, who now scrambled toward the front.

  “Where did they go?”

  I explained the situation as clearly as I could. “Just roll up that window over there and lock the door. Then get in the back and cinch up that tarp covering the opening. Tie it down tight and stay still. Don’t try anything. We’re trained for this. We’ll take care of you.” I hoped I was telling the truth.

  Blood rushed through my veins in anticipation. I drew my Sig and set it in my lap, needing both hands to keep the Pinz creeping through the rough terrain. I wasn’t going even five miles an hour now. We approached the first hidden assailant, and belatedly I wondered how the men would find them. Worse, what if these were the Emporium agents and they had a sensing Unbounded with them who might be masking the presence of even more people hiding close by?

  No. I pushed this thought aside. The Emporium had an agenda with the lab and the scientists. They wouldn’t waste time creating traps unless they were certain they were being pursued, and Cort hadn’t given us any indication of that. Besides, these life forces were bright, signaling unshielded minds, though I was too far away to decipher their emotions.

  I drove slowly onward, passing three more people, once again hidden in the dark brush. When would they act? And where was Ritter? Wait. I could sense someone moving fast through the foliage, toward one of the people I’d passed. It was Jace, still having a problem masking himself. Concentrating harder, I also sensed Ritter and Keene, though the mental light emitting from their minds was considerably dimmer than Jace’s signature, and at this range I couldn’t tell one from the other.

  I passed two more hidden watchers and was coming up on the last two when a stack of fallen trees blocked my path, resolving my curiosity about how they planned on stopping the Pinz. These weren’t huge trees like those stretched across the larger road, but big enough that we’d have to get out to move them before continuing on.

  I wished one of the others could communicate by sensing so I could tell them, but I’d have to trust that they knew their jobs. If I pushed hard, I could p
robably send a thought to Jace’s mind—he might be within my range—but I needed to stay sharp and ready to use my ability against our attackers.

  Taking my foot from the gas, I let the Pinz lurch to a stop before the log barrier. I left the engine running, hesitating to leave the safety of the cab because the second I did, I’d be a target. I didn’t know if they intended to murder as well as rob us. It might not make a difference in the end. Better to wait.

  A swarthy, dark-haired man carrying a huge assault rifle rushed the Pinz from the side, aiming his weapon at my closed window. He was short and wide, with muscles as large as Ritter’s, his face brown and wrinkled by the sun. Definite mortal.

  He blurted something in Spanish, and motioned with his gun. “He wants you to get out,” Benito said from the back.

  “No, he wants to dance,” I retorted. To the man outside I shook my head.

  Grinding out what I assumed were threats and curses, he let fly a few bullets into the air before pointing the gun back at me. Leaving my Sig in my lap, I brought my hands to my face, feigning fear.

  He growled and reached for the door.

  “Just a little closer,” I murmured. “Benito, lock the door after me. Keep out of sight.” Some distance away, I sensed Jace had reached his target, and I had to assume the others were equally in place. No way I’d let them have all the fun.

  Thrusting my weight into the door, I slammed it into the man, feeling a satisfying clunk! He staggered backward, bringing up his rifle. Leaping from the cab, I fired as I rolled. One, two, three, bullets from my Sig before he went down.

  Another figure emerged partially from the foliage, the bright life force signaling that he wasn’t one of ours. I fired, and he dodged behind a tree. Hard to see what I was shooting at in the dark. Before I could move to find a better shot, bullets sprayed the brush behind me, drawing my attention back to the broad man, who apparently wasn’t out of the game after all. I dodged, tossing one of my knives. He cried out and went still. More bullets, this time from the guy behind the tree. A shot ricocheted off a boulder near me, sending a shard deep into my hand. My gun dropped to the ground. I threw another knife with my left hand, but it slammed uselessly into the tree. My third knife followed.