by Angela White
Adrian didn’t hesitate, never asked her or the Eagles which way. He took them straight to the park.
The team stared in surprise at the clear, undamaged city block that stood before them. The businesses and homes on either side of the street that still had parking meters and telephone poles standing, were dusty, neglected, abandoned, but intact. The convoy crossed into the area with expressions of surprise and longing.
The small city park had green trees, fading playground equipment, and weather-beaten picnic tables with little, ash-filled grills. Adrian’s mind went to his childhood as they pulled up in front of it. He and his mother had spent a lot of time here, long afternoons waiting for the fancy black car to pick him up.
He keyed his mike. “Team Two, perimeter. Team One, Point.”
Angela missed being with Kyle’s crew, but that wasn’t her job tonight. When Adrian lit a smoke and pulled his hood up before stepping out into the dank, chilly night air, she sent her mind back to the search. She had a good idea of how many, and she was getting their anger, their hate clearly, but she didn’t have the location yet. She pushed harder, forcing her mind through the thick levels of darkness and was rewarded with a light in the shadowy distance as a door swung open. One of their enemies was dreaming, and that was her line in.
She didn’t see Adrian wave two men over to guard each door of the truck she was in, but Angela felt it anyway.
7
Surrounded by molding trees that blocked the view of even the dark skyline of Little Rock, the pristine park gave off an unreliable feeling of seclusion and safety. Staring at it, Adrian’s mind took him to one of his most vivid memories of his mother.
“The car’s coming. Be good now, Adrian.”
“Yes, mother.”
Her arms were long and smooth, hard enough to hurt when she squeezed.
“Ouch, Mommy!”
Her soft chuckle floated down. “We’ll have to toughen you up, now that they’ve let you out.”
A long black car pulled up in front of them, and the hated driver rushed to open the passenger door. “Mr. Milton sends his regards.”
His mother blushed furiously and guided him into the car.
“Mind your manners, now. They don’t take just any student into this school.”
“Yes, mother.”
He slid into the cool car, noting the man on the opposite bench and the shining gun he wore.
Adrian politely acknowledged his father’s personal guard and his mother leaned down to buckle him in.
“You’re only five Adrian, but you’re not like other kids. You know that, don’t you?”
He took it in with that intent, nothing-else-allowed mindset that the scientists had found so fascinating. He absorbed one thing at a time, fully, until his understanding of it was exhausted.
“Yes, mother.”
“And do you understand why?”
Adrian glanced over at his father’s man, noticing the interest in not only the conversation, but also in his mother. “No.”
Satisfied, she kissed his cheek and her silken blonde hair brushed his hand. “Keep it that way. Such information is not for the likes of you.”
“Yes, mother.”
I’ve been chasing it ever since, Adrian thought, coming back from the past in a quick snap.
She’d intentionally triggered his genetic need to challenge the destiny that had been set, to discover why he was odd. The classes and forms of training he’d received as a child had created the man, but the mind that drove him had been given by his mother. Once she’d gotten him back from the Lab, nothing had come between them. She’d made certain that he had everything he needed for this very place in time. Until her murder when he was eleven, they’d been inseparable.
“Will you tell a bit more?” Angela yawned as she joined him, estimating it had to be around midnight. Even with the extra lights that Kevin’s team had brought, it was shadowy. The full moon gave them a baleful glow, covered in layers of an unnatural orange fog that made Angela think of nuclear tests and Stephen King stories where monsters came out of the mist.
“If you tell me something.”
Adrian’s answer was spoken lowly enough to make her come closer.
Angela stopped within a foot of him, rubbing her chilly shoulders. “What do you want to know?”
Adrian’s hands slid into his pockets. “When she died, I was sent to a school in Arizona. I escaped.”
“Escaped?”
Adrian thought of the high-towered school and the guards, and the hundreds of other children like him. “They were gathering us. It was killing me not to know why. If she hadn’t triggered that, I would have stayed.”
“Because you were with others like yourself?” she guessed.
“Yes. It hurt to leave them behind.”
Angela waited, hoping she wouldn’t have to ask again, that he trusted her enough to share a few more of his own ghosts. He was so good at healing others and so bad at doing it for himself.
“I was given a clue during a visit from my father. He explained that he was a descendant of powerful old blood, that he and his line were destined to lead.”
“What was it you were being brought together to do?”
“We were trained as weapons to keep his…my bloodline in power. They kept a stock of us.”
“What did they have you do?”
Adrian’s response revealed a layer of his personal torment. “Can’t you guess? Children make perfect assassins. No one ever suspects the eleven-year-old standing out in plain sight, or the twelve-year-old in the shade of a brick alleyway. Or the fifteen-year-old in the hotel kitchen.”
“I thought you escaped!” she exclaimed, almost brought to tears at the images of the things he’d been forced to do.
“Which time?” Adrian spun into the darkness, clearly done.
He was almost out of view before she remembered their deal. “What was it that you wanted me to tell you?”
Adrian stopped. He needed to know. “Would you trade my Eagles for another child?”
“Yes,” she gasped immediately, thrown back into her nightmare. The death of her baby was something she didn’t think she’d ever fully recover from.
“Marc will give that to you.”
“Yes.”
When she didn’t add more, just stood there staring back with that tempting blush, Adrian couldn’t stop himself. “Are you working on it? Ten months is a long time for your team to be without a leader.”
Angela was both embarrassed and angry at the personal question. “I haven’t asked for it.”
It was amazing how quickly he felt better knowing that. The noises and shadows were Marc slowly working his way up to the finale. Adrian applauded the brilliant strategy even as he loathed it.
Adrian went to his truck. Once inside the cold interior, he flipped on the CB. Marc knew better than to break radio silence, but Adrian could at least let them know everything was okay. He had no doubt some of the camp would be listening by now, worried and giving the wolfman shit because he wasn’t their true guardian.
“This is Eagle. We’re still clearing. Everything is 5-by.”
The static cleared instantly with a brief sound of a small crowd cheering in relief.
Following instinct, Adrian adjusted the second set to a less used frequency. It was a shipping channel that he’d taught a special boy to use a long time ago.
“This is Eagle. We are in the city. Hang on. We’re coming.”
He didn’t hang up the mike, instinctively knowing there would be a response.
“You have to hurry!”
It was a low whisper, and Adrian keyed the mike, not recognizing the voice. “Be ready. It will happen fast.”
“But you don’t even know where we are!” the child moaned.
“Be ready,” Adrian insisted. “We’re close, and we make a lot of noise.”
There was no answer, and he switched the radio off, knowing other people were likely monitoring the channels. If the h
unters got to the kids first, there was no way it would end well.
8
The very thin boy stared at the large group with longing and fury. His dad was finally here.
Conner pulled his ragged clothes closer, ignoring the cold and the nasty muck soaking into his duct-taped shoes. Desperate, his intent stare never left the large group of new people.
Even if Conner hadn’t recognized the man from pictures, he could have picked out the leader by the way he cared for his people and by the respect he was given. It was almost a dream for the teenager, seeing that walk and the blue eyes that so perfectly matched his own.
Conner swayed lightly on his feet, almost unable to believe Adrian had come. The men with him convinced the boy he wasn’t hallucinating. There was no mistaking that style of protection.
Instead of the relief he could now allow himself to feel, or even anger at how long it had taken, there was only fear in Conner’s mind. He was terrified of making the wrong choice and getting his kids killed, but his heart was already yearning to be a protected member of his father’s camp instead of leading his own.
9
“Is it working?”
“Yes.”
Embry came to glance over his team leader’s shoulder, as if he didn’t believe him.
Hudson didn’t get offended. They were all wired that way. The Major’s men liked knowing things for themselves.
The scouts watched the new people on the screen that was static-layered, but at least working. It was one of a dozen tracking devices they were using to monitor those living here. There wasn’t a lot of technology left that worked, but what did, the Major was great at ferreting out.
They’d known where Conner and the kids were hiding since almost the beginning of this run, but the Major didn’t need that gifted, marked child for anything but bait. The government reward was for his father.
The younger and dumber of the two bounty hunters stood up. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“No,” Hudson sneered at Embry’s eagerness. “The Major said not to go without him.”
“But now is the perfect time!” Embry whined. “They’re settling down. We’ll catch them off guard.”
Hudson, so named because of his birth near the infamous waterway, offered one more warning. “The Major has a plan, Embry. I’d be careful about stepping on his toes.”
“I want to go in now,” the younger guard insisted, scratching at his head.
Like all of the Major’s crew, he and Embry were bald under the black bandanas, skin tones burnt to the same shade from the harsh environment they toiled in. They could have been brothers but for the hatred that existed between them.
Hudson gave him a curt glare. “Go on, then. I’ve wanted Lenore for a while. With you dead, I’m next for her.”
Embry’s expression darkened, mouth opening for a brief second before snapping shut.
Hudson laughed at him, but the sound was deep with loathing in place of amusement. “What you’ll do is report to the Major.”
Embry paled. “Me?”
“Yes, you. You’re the one who wants to move in ahead of schedule. Get lost.”
Embry gave a stiff salute, hoping the Major wouldn’t kill him when he suggested attacking now.
Embry turned around, entire body wary. “You really want my woman?”
Hudson’s expression was cold, devoid of empathy. “Yes.”
Embry spun toward the hill, and Hudson went back to observing the green dots on the screen. He was already sure the Major wouldn’t kill Embry unless he got out of line. They needed all the men they could get for this hit.
“We’re ready,” he muttered.
As the world fell apart, Hudson and the rest of the Major’s team had been sent out to collect Adrian Mitchel. And the Major never went back without his man. They would have this bounty wrapped up in the next few days, maybe even hours.
But instead of going to the last bunker holding, Hudson thought Garret would keep the gifted pair for a while. He might hand them over after he’d taken his pound of flesh, if they survived. Hudson wasn’t sure the standing reward would be enough to keep either of them alive. Adrian was at the top of the Major’s most hated list, and rightly so. When the shit went down, Mitchel had struck back twice as hard and taken the Major’s wife. He’d returned her, pregnant, six months later. That kind of hatred was impossible to ease with gold, promotions, and guns. It required blood.
Chapter Twenty
Those Late Nights
1
“It’s FND.”
Kevin stared in shock, unable to believe the jealousy spiraling through him. He knew who this choice had come from and he even understood why. It was the how that he was choking on.
Sitting at a dim picnic table near the couples’ tents, Cynthia kept her head down. “I was offered a cruel deal,” she stated miserably. “If that matters to you.”
Kevin didn’t think so upon first hearing, but after a few seconds of asking himself what he might have dumped her for, he asked, “What was it?”
Cynthia looked up with shame and defensive determination. “I get to be her XO for the next runs. Among other things.”
Kevin blinked. Yes. He would have ditched her for that chance, too. It was the equivalent of being handed second place on Kyle’s infamous team. It didn’t stop the want or the frustration, but it did lessen the sting.
“She said...” Cynthia slammed her mouth shut. What if Angela was wrong?
Kevin was slowly recovering. He’d only stopped by to confirm that their date was still on before he left to catch up with the clearing crew. “What?”
Cynthia was now sure of a rejection either way and she didn’t answer. Was all the power really worth hurting him this way? Was it enough to quiet that new loneliness that came with dusk each night?
Kevin studied the reporter, seeing she wasn’t happy, but that she planned to follow through. She was an Eagle–a real one, now–and he had no right to stand in the way of that.
Could he wait until she’d served her duty with Matt? Could he stand watching a romance develop? Kevin wasn’t blind to the changes taking place in Safe Haven. Many of the couples that were forming here were lasting pairs. Their sparks, their compatibility, was too rare to miss.
“I’d like to know what she said.”
Cynthia had expected him to tell her off and storm away long before now. It gave her the courage to answer.
“She said you’d wait for me.”
Kevin stared at her teary, hopeful eyes, and was pulled into the drama of camp life against his will. If Angela said it, he could trust that, right? “I might.”
Cynthia smiled in surprise. “Really?”
Kevin caught sight of Matt coming from the showers, his second today, and frowned. “I need guidelines, Cynthia. Soon.”
He left without saying anything else and she watched until he faded into the shadows around the parking area. The rest of the clearing crew was heading out. She would miss him being around and that said it was going to be hard to honor her new duty.
Matt dropped heavily onto the seat next to her, sliding close, and Cynthia sighed unhappily at the frowns of those who saw. She then put on her training face and turned to him with a welcoming smile. “You smell good.”
Matt blushed, pleased, and stared at her in worshipful happiness. He would sleep in Cynthia’s tent tonight, instead of with the livestock.
The teenager’s dreamy gaze went to the vehicles disappearing into the darkness and he dropped his head before anyone could see his other face. On that clear, furious facade was glee that Kevin was leaving and an endless hope that the man wouldn’t return.
2
Late night fell over Arkansas like a cloud, smothering the dim light and replacing it with the unknown. For most of Safe Haven, that wasn’t something to be feared, but for the Eagles, it meant limited visibility and depending on the dogs to do their job. Thanks to the wolf, their three dozen workers were constantly roaming the perimeter, becomin
g more and more aware with each step.
Did these animals understand they would likely be the first to die? That they were the sacrificial lambs between the light and darkness?
Dog would have said no, their brains didn’t equate fear to rebellion, but Dog was biased and he missed the signs. It was understandable. The grass didn’t whisper when the wolf came by on rounds, nor did the wind have advice to give, showing sympathy to his plight. When the wolf came by, there was silence. And since Dog believed the mutts to be inferior, he didn’t consider that the quiet meant they were hiding anything.
Until Adrian rolled away from Safe Haven.
Dog padded around the metal cleaners, tired but proud for his human. Marc was in charge of the herd. How far they had–
“Join us or die!”
Five of the working dogs, without their red collars, padded out of the shadows to surround him. Their eyes glowed with rage, the kind that always drew blood.
It only took the wolf a second to understand the grave error he’d made, but his reaction didn’t change.
“Traitors! I’ll kill you!” Dog lunged for the throat that had given the ultimatum.
“Point man to the showers!”
“Copy.” Marc was already on his way there as fast as he could go without panicking the camp. Dog’s yelps were awful.
Guards pointed the way, guns in hand.
Now out of sight of the herd, Marc ran through the trees and his shadow followed.
Those guarding that area were trying to keep a tight circle around the snarling, rolling mass that had grown to include over half of their working animals.
“Get off of him!” Marc ordered.
