Gifted Connections [Book 2]

by SM Olivier

  “As everyone knows,” Will said as he continued posting the pictures on the board. “We have a major mission I will like to set into motion by Friday. I want teams of ten. Right now, we have eighteen of us. That leaves us with twenty-two spots to fill. This is the pool we must pick from. Unfortunately, due to the sensitive nature of these missions, you will be split up. I don’t even want the other members on your teams to know what or where we are going. The team leaders and the people in this room, will be the only ones who know when, why, and where we are going.”

  “Our reconnaissance team is currently gathering all the intel necessary for these missions,” Steven stated as he took a drink from his beer. “Everyone selected for these teams could have less than twenty minutes to meet at the training center and leave for their designated spot. Everyone needs to have their phones on them at all times. In other words, don’t make any plans this week. Right now, we’re saying next Friday, but it can be as early as Wednesday morning. Tomorrow morning, we will be contacting the candidates for the open spots.”

  “Was the meeting moved to here because of Ms. Bullock?” John asked shrewdly.

  Will, Steven, and Jace exchanged looks. “Yes,” Will admitted with a nod. “With the help of Gavin and Jemmy, we have been able to investigate people on our payroll for weeks. Her name, and a few others, have red flags on them. After the attack on Blake today, and because we don’t have enough evidence on them yet, we are keeping our cards close to our chest. We don’t need Horatio tipped off on our next moves.”

  I looked over in surprise at Gavin and Jemmy. I wasn’t aware that they had been doing anything for the investigation. I also noticed they weren’t sitting next to each other, and I hoped they resolved their issues soon.

  Jace spoke, “We know Jemmy and John will be on two separate teams because of their ability to take out any cameras. So that leaves us with finding two other people capable of taking out cameras.” Jace took a picture of Jemmy and John and placed them under himself and Terrance.

  “I can do it,” a voice on the cusp of changing, stated from above.

  I hadn’t even noticed the children and teens had crept to the balcony above. The last time I saw them they were happily munching on pizza, watching movies, and playing in the boys’ room. It was Micah who had volunteered.

  “Micah,” Remy said hesitantly. “We would love for you to help us, but I’m not sure you’re ready yet.”

  I flashed a grateful smile at him. There’s no way I wanted my brother anywhere around there.

  “But he’s supposed to be there,” Ella stated as she came down the stairs and handed Will a piece of paper. His eyes widened, before he handed me the paper.

  I stared down at the picture of Micah, Troy, Rachel, myself, and a female I didn’t recognize. We looked like we were sitting in a diner. We were all dressed in our uniforms (except for the female), and we looked like we were covered in soot. I didn’t know what it meant, but my gut was telling me I needed to trust Ella’s vision.

  “Well,” I said quietly with my heart in my throat as I looked at my guys. They all nodded at me knowing my unspoken question. Should I let him go? “I guess Micah’s going.”

  Micah and Ella exchanged a look before they gave me a wide smile.

  There was a part of me that wanted to refuse. He was thirteen. He had no business going. However, I knew if I told him no, it would show Ella and Micah that I had no faith in their gifts. Micah had survived on the streets for years. He was resourceful and smart where it counted.

  “So, do we begin the videos so we can pick the rest of our teams?” Remy cleared his throat as he looked at me with concern.

  Will pushed play, and we were able to watch the events of the day from the comfort of our living room.

  Chapter 28

  We got the phone call after dinner the following Thursday night. Our reconnaissance team had gathered all the intel that they could. Beth and Cora were already in route with their children. We had already planned to have them come over here and mind the children while we went on our mission.

  I felt anxiety begin to grip me as Micah ran off excitedly to get changed. We had worked with him every day the last week and a half to get him ready for tonight. He was becoming more accurate with his teleporting abilities. Remy and Troy had even blindfolded him and drove around with him for hours last night, so he could lose his bearings. They dropped him off twenty miles down the road. He made it back five minutes after they dropped him off, long before they even made it home.

  We knew he was capable of transporting only one person with him. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, he couldn’t increase that number. He had gotten increasingly frustrated, but Will had reassured him. He had told him he had never met a teleporter capable of carrying more than one person with them, and in some instances, they weren’t even able to do that. Micah seemed to be somewhat mollified at that information.

  We also met up and trained with our new teams. I was assigned to a team with Steven, Troy, Michael, Rachel, Micah, and four other people I had just met. Troy and Michael had worked with them in the past and had nothing but positive things to say about them. They seemed like they were nice enough guys, but they weren’t my guys. I wished I could’ve been with all my guys.

  Remy and Jace had argued to the same effect and was instantly made to realize that, with our gift levels, our gifts should be spread across the teams, to strengthen each team. It was a valid argument, but not one we all agreed with.

  “Ready?” Jaxson asked as he slid on his black boots.

  “No,” I answered him truthfully as I leaned into him.

  He turned around and embraced me. He kissed my forehead. “Me neither.”

  “It’s more than that,” I insisted as I turned around, so he could zip me up in the back. “I woke up this morning with the most unsettling feeling.”

  “I’ve been feeling the same way,” Jace stated as he walked into the room followed by Remy, Drake, Noah, and Troy. They were already dressed in the black and silver uniforms, and I couldn’t help but admire how great they looked. I was one lucky girl.

  “We all have,” Remy stated gruffly.

  “Have I been projecting my fears?” I asked Jace in surprise as he pulled me in close.

  I could feel him shake his head. “No. You’ve gotten really good with your barriers.”

  “I’ve been agitated all day,” Noah admitted.

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” Drake said eventually.

  “So, do we tell Pops?” I asked desperately.

  Troy shook his head. “I don’t think he’ll understand. He’ll probably think we’re being obstinate.”

  “Do you think our connection is trying to tell us something?” Jaxson asked.

  “I think it is,” Drake stated resolutely. “We’ve already proven that our connections aren’t normal. We’re learning as we go. If we were to go to Pops, he won’t understand.”

  “What should we do?” Noah asked.

  “Nothing,” Remy grunted before he gently extracted me from Jace’s embrace. “We take the orders given to us. We all come back here in one piece.”

  I wrapped my arms around his waist squeezing him. I wanted to draw from his natural strength. I wanted the confidence he exuded, although I saw the doubt lingering in his eyes too.

  “Pops said we need to roll out,” Jemmy stated as she came into the room. She looked ragged, worn, and heartsick.

  Gavin hadn’t moved, but when he wasn’t training or going to school, he was working on a new program for the training facility. After going through the obstacle course, Gavin decided to create a simulation of something like that experience. He wanted to create a training environment where our gifts could be tested for an individual as well as a team. Each simulation would be custom fit to our abilities and gifts. Will had been excited by the idea, and Gavin started to run with it. He had little to no time for Jemmy.

  Without a word, we all turned and headed down the stairs. Will was w
aiting outside, and I could see a look cross his eyes before he hugged or shook hands with everyone apart from Remy and Jaxson. They were going with him.

  I hugged everyone as well before turning to climb in my own vehicle. I had never gone on a mission without most of my guys, and I knew I might be overreacting, but something within me was telling me otherwise.

  Drake handed me his iPod before I entered my vehicle. Jaxson pulled me in close. “I love you,” he stated simply, in my ear, before squeezing me tight. “Please be safe.”

  I was dumbstruck for a moment. Some of the guys had hinted at having stronger feelings for me, but no one had outright said they loved me until that moment. He never even gave me a chance to respond before I was ushered into the truck.

  I slid into my seat on the helicopter and saw Troy turn from the pilot’s seat. I tried to give him a reassuring smile and thumbs up, but I know it looked forced. He was worried about me, but I didn’t know what to say or do to ease his concern. I couldn’t dispel this feeling.

  The feeling in the helicopter was off. There wasn’t the easy camaraderie I had for Terrance’s team or our team. Troy was pensive, his jovial flirting self was nowhere to be found. Rachel was trying to pull me from my thoughts, but all her attempts were falling short. Steven seemed to have noticed my withdrawal, because he had taken Micah under his wing and offered him the jump seat beside him and Troy. Michael wouldn’t shut up when he wasn’t playing on his phone. He went on for about fifteen minutes about this new dating app he found, until Rachel told him to be quiet, but in a less friendly way.

  The quads seemed to be regarding me with a mixture of wariness and awe. I didn’t remember their names. I was ashamed of myself. I remember how it felt to be invisible. I tried to make it a point to include everyone I encountered.. Unfortunately, I had been too beyond stressed to be completely present to anything.

  It had been confirmed that Rose hadn’t been working alone with nearly killing me. The empath was cleared of any involvement, but Ms. Bullock and Rose had been involved. Neither one of them would give us any other names. Rose helped her out of spite for me, but Ms. Bullock wouldn’t tell us who she was working for or why. We didn’t want to rule out Horatio. All this time he seemed to want to capture me, and not kill me; so his change of modus operandi was confusing.

  I had a lot of projects, exams, and work to complete in school. I had received my first “C” this past week, and that had made me upset at my loss of focus on school. I was an overachiever, what could I say?

  We helped Chip and his mother find an apartment near the school. Will had even given Amy a secretarial position in their offices. Unfortunately, Chip still needed a firm male hand, so one of the guys had been over there daily. Amy and Chip needed our help, but part of me wished that Amy would have accepted Will’s offer to stay with us for a little while longer.

  I understood her need for independence. However, she was also inadvertently taking time away from us. I had needed them more so than ever this past week. I wanted to be reassured by their presence, and I knew I wasn’t alone in these feelings. The guys had been with me as much as possible as well.

  I pulled out Drake’s iPod, hoping it would lighten my mood and when I powered it on, I smiled. His sweetness knew no bounds. He had created me a new playlist.

  We were being sent to a location in Detroit, Michigan. Apparently, Horatio had purchased an old abandoned building in the seedier part of the city. We were running this mission differently. We were told there was a total of ten females, but only three guards.

  Our intel was that Horatio was giving them the basic care, and he had gotten slightly arrogant and complacent. He assumed that since we had Dr. Neil and we hadn’t taken his previous bate, we had given up on the women.

  The extraction was supposed to be a fairly simple one. Quad 1 was going to continue to drive around, while Quad 2, our healer, would drive the other van. Micah would walk with us to the facility, transport into the camera room with Steven, and remove all the threats. Once we were given the all clear, Micah was to return to the van. Troy, Michael, Rachel, Quad 3 and 4, and I were directed to diffuse further threats and secure the women. When the women were safe from all threats, we would call Quad 1 and 2 to pick us all up.

  We walked up to the building, and I couldn’t believe the condition the it was in. We tried to pace ourselves, waiting for Steven and Micah to tell us we had the all clear.

  “All clear,” Steven stated as we came closer to the building. “One guard down.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Michael stated as he walked into the door. Seconds later we heard the click of the lock before Michael opened it with a smile.

  He beckoned us in with a wave. We followed him down the dark narrow hallway. Dim, lights emitting a soft yellow glow were mounted on the moldy, water-stained walls. The smell of rat urine assaulted our noses. If I looked closely, I swore I could see a few rats the size of cats, scamper across; their little beady eyes glaring at us.

  I shuddered, and Troy squeezed my hand reassuringly. I tried to smile at him, but the smell was overwhelming. I pulled a bandanna out of my back pocket and tied it across my face.

  “I smell females up there,” Quad 3 stated. His gift was that of a tracker. He was the blood hound of the gifted race. He could sniff out any gifted person.

  We quietly advanced forward. Quad 3 pointed towards a door at the end of the hallways. Michael popped in and nodded. “I don’t see any guards in here,” he whispered urgently. “I’ll go look for them,” he volunteered.

  “I’ll go with you,” Quad 3 said as he turned down the hall to the right.

  “Better them than me,” Quad 4 muttered. He was highly uncomfortable with the rats and creeped out.

  I had to stifle my inappropriate giggle. I hated rats, but it was funny seeing the muscle-bound man almost squeamish.

  We opened the door and I cringed when it squealed loudly in the silence. I saw 10 females laid up in beds. It reminded me of the films I watched of children in the orphanages, how they slept in rows on cots. They looked like they were sleeping. Some of them were obviously pregnant as well.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I muttered. My uneasiness had only increased, even though everything seemed to be going off without a hitch.

  Quad 4 ambled over to the first girl and ran his hands above them, hovering over them. “I don’t feel anything,” he said in confusion. He had the ability to detect foreign objects or disease in any living mammal.

  Troy and I exchanged glances.

  “Maybe he’s found a way to just inject them into submission, without installing those balls,” Rachel said hesitantly.

  “Can you finish checking them and we’ll start carrying them out?” Troy looked over at Quad 4.

  Quad 4 nodded, and Troy, Rachel, and I carefully picked up the females as they were cleared of any devices. Rachel and I decided to tag team it, despite my ability of strength.

  “Heading out with our first patients,” I muttered into the headsets.

  We had already loaded four females when the sense of unease still wouldn’t dissipate. Micah was acting like someone twice his age as he helped Quad 1 and 2 settle the females in comfortably. I was really proud of him as I smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder. He almost preened at my praise.

  I hadn’t heard from Michael or Quad 3 in quite a while. Steven had reported the top two floors clear of any guards.

  “Casper,” I whispered into the headset, using Michael’s call sign. “What’s your status?”

  “All clear,” he stated quickly. It was too quickly. His voice sounded strained and we both heard it.

  Troy and I exchanged a quick look. “Somethings not right,” Troy stated, his jaw tightening.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I had to repress the shudder coursing through my body.

  I could sense Rachel’s uneasiness. I wish I could explain to her how I felt. She must have seen it in my gaze, because she nodded. Troy nodded as well, and we ran back throu
gh the darkened parking lot. We ran into the little room housing the women, and Quad 4 looked at us with confusion.

  “We need to get out of here,” Troy stated. “Let’s get them out of here and leave.”

  “This one’s the only one with anything,” Quad 4 stated as he put a bracelet on her arm. We had been told to tag them as we located the implants.

  Rachel and I lifted the only girl with an implant that we could find and started to carry her out. As we hit the frigid air, the girl gasped, and blinked at me. “It’s a trap,” her large brown eyes blinked at me. I froze for a moment as I realized she was in the drawing Ella had given us.

  She was the unknown girl in the picture with me, Micah, Rachel, Troy in the diner.

  I heard Rachel’s gasp echo mine. “She’s the girl in the picture,” she said awestruck.

  I turned to look at Troy, and from his look, he had heard her, too. “Everyone report to rendezvous,” he bit out as shouts and gun shots began to ring out.

  Micah appeared next to me, his face ghost white. “The woman,” he gasped. “They used their gifts to kill Lyle and Dave,” he looked at me wildly.

  I guiltily realized that Quad 1 and Quad 2’s names were Lyle and Dave. My brother had taken the time to remember their names and I had not.

  I set the girl down on shaking and weak knees, “Hide and take her,” I told him urgently. I shoved my phone in his hand. “I’ll call you when we’re okay.”

  I knew she had to go. There was a reason she was in the picture.

  He looked like he wanted to argue with me.

  “Micah,” Troy said firmly.

  Micah nodded before he disappeared with the girl. We took off towards the shouting and gun shots. As we went in the building, all went silent. We cautiously walked towards the room. I took a deep breath and tried to feel the people around me. I could feel Troy’s quiet, strong determination. He was worried, but not for himself. I squeezed his hand in reassurance.