Nathan cried out in pain, but managed to punch Jordan in the back of the head.
“Enough!” Caden yelled.
Jordan stopped fighting when he felt the barrel of a gun press into his nose.
“That was a bad move, Jordan,” Caden said and backed away.
Nathan picked his gun up off the floor, eyeing Jordan as he moved around. The two were still squared off. But Caden had the gun on Jordan.
Without warning, Nathan hauled off and punched Jordan in the side of the face, sending him sprawling to the floor. Jordan touched his face where he was hit and a trickle of blood smeared his fingers.
“Bad move, you prick.” Nathan spat blood from his mouth.
“Hey,” Caden admonished. “Not on the carpet.”
Jordan shook it off, got to his knees and pulled himself back up on the seat.
“Are we all done?” Caden queried. “Don’t make us kill you. I mean, we’re going to kill you anyway, but I’m certain you want to see your beloved Kayci one last time. If you’re good, I won’t make you watch her die. I promise to kill you first and quickly. But another stunt like that and I’ll rip her apart piece-by-piece and make you watch. Do you understand?”
Jordan nodded.
“I was looking for a verbal response. I said do you understand?”
“Yeah, I understand.”
“Good. See how easy I am to get along with?” Caden’s smile was crooked and sinister. It didn’t seem to fit his unnatural looking blond hair and aqua eyes. But Jordan guessed that was the real color, unless the man dyed his eyebrows too, which he considered a distinct possibility with the amount of vanity he’d already seen in this crew. Apparently, being a psychic spy made you egomaniacal and narcissistic.
Caden tilted his wineglass and said, “Nathan, take us to the South Street Seaport.”
Jordan watched Nathan slip past him to the front of the cabin where he fired up the engines.
“Why are you doing this?” Jordan asked, but he only meant to think it. He knew there was no point in trying to think anything.
“Why does anyone do anything, Jordan? I’m doing this for purely selfish reasons, I assure you.” He drank more wine.
“Who are you?”
“I’m just like you, only older. See, Jordan, I’m doing you a favor, because once the NSA finds out what you are, you’ll never have a life either. They’ll turn you into an asset, use you up, and throw you away with no money, no applicable skills for the real world. They killed me, took my life, and refused to give it back.”
“You’re part of SORC?”
Caden sipped more wine and shook his head. “No, I quit the NSA many years ago. I’ve been something of a freelancer ever since. They’ve been trying to kill me for the better part of a decade, but lucky for me, they don’t have anyone that can find me.”
Something just occurred to Jordan. “You’re the one. This was you all along?”
Caden smiled. “That’s very good, your mind learns quickly.” He leaned back in the seat. “I wanted the piggybank, and I wanted to make sure they’d never come looking for me again. I just want to take my money to paradise somewhere and not have to worry that the NSA has some new psychic spy looking for my frequency modulation. They took my best years and left me with nothing when I refused to work with them. Then, as if leaving me penniless was not enough, they started sending one young psychic after another to try and kill me. Thanks to Nathan over here, that all ended.”
Jordan looked to Nathan. “You trust that tool?”
Caden laughed. “Yes, Jordan, that’s it, divide and conquer.”
Jordan shrugged. “Well, he is a tool.”
“He may be, but he owes me. Isn’t that right, Nathan?” Caden tipped his glass of wine to Nathan, who didn’t turn around. “See, I gave Nathan the key, the ultimate key to his historic elevation in talents. I told him how to woo the girl.”
Jordan squinted at Caden, studying his face.
Caden smiled. “You’re curious, aren’t you? I like that. You’re a sharp guy. It’s too bad we have to kill you, because you have as much potential as any psychic I’ve ever seen. You remind me a lot of myself. It’s no wonder Kayci fell so hard for you. It’s not her style to fall like that.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
“Not yet, but you could be. I assure you, Jordan, that if you had been exploited and ruined because of your ability, you’d be just as bitter as I am now.”
“No way. I’d never kill people to get money.”
“You’re young and idealistic. That changes when you become disposable yourself.”
“You’re an asshole.”
Caden laughed a short cackle and then tilted the rest of his wine into his mouth. “You’ve got guts. It’s admirable. Stupid, but admirable.”
Jordan could feel this man’s secret, just beyond his reach, just out of touch.
The boat’s engines slowed. Nathan pulled the boat in between two docks and cut off the engines completely, bringing an unwanted silence to the boat.
Nathan turned away from the steering wheel and pulled out his pistol. “Get up,” he commanded Jordan, who looked to Caden to get confirmation on this move. He only smiled.
Jordan stood, and Nathan pointed him over to the rear of the cabin. He forced Jordan into a rickety wooden chair. Nathan used thick nylon rope to secure his wrists to the arms of the chair.
“I apologize, Jordan,” Caden admitted. “But we’re going to be a bit busy and can’t trust you not to do something stupid again.”
Jordan didn’t try to resist. He knew enough to understand if he tried to reach out to Kayci they would block it. He let his mind’s eye see the frequency plane. It had never looked like this before. The two modulation lines on top, likely Caden and Nathan, were so powerful that no other lines were apparent. He didn’t know what to make of it.
Chapter Forty-Five
Kayci didn’t expect it to be so soon. She felt Nathan probing her mind, looking for a way into that intimate connection. She tried to block him, but he was shockingly powerful. Again, she felt as if he had a booster, someone to help him. But who it could’ve been was a total mystery. Then she felt Jordan and knew he was in trouble.
The worst thing about psychic warfare is that nothing is ever as it seems. If Jordan was helping, he was not a willing participant. Nathan was either hacking his brain, or worse, he had him.
Suddenly the hotel phone rang, breaking her away form the frequency plane. She picked up the phone.
“Did you feel me, Kayci?” Nathan asked seductively.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” she replied.
“This is just the beginning.”
“You’ve got nothing, Nathan. That’s why you’re on the phone. You can’t get in, and it’s killing you.”
He laughed. “No, what’s killing me is the anticipation of putting a bullet into the head of you boyfriend here.”
Kayci didn’t believe him. “You’re bluffing.”
“Am I? Why don’t you say hi?”
“Kayci?”
“Jordan?”
“Don’t come for me, just get out of here. don’t…”
Nathan must have pulled the phone away. “There’s enough to prove we have him.”
Kayci was seething. She could only imagine how in the hell Nathan had pulled this off. He was not powerful enough to compel Jordan alone. None of this was adding up. He had to be working with someone.
“Well, Kayci, are you going to let him die? Or are you willing to trade me something for his life?”
She knew what he wanted. It was not even a question. “Where are you?”
“Come to the South Street Seaport. You know the place, back side past the ice rink.”
“What’s my guarantee you let him live?”
“You don’t have one.”
Kayci laughed. “After you had your little dog shoot me, I’m not going into this without a guarantee.”
“Sorry, Kayci, it’s not happeni
ng. You come here, and maybe we toss him into the water a mile out. If he can swim to shore, he lives. That’s your guarantee.”
She tightened her lips into a knot. Something was so wrong about this. The frequency plane was a wreck. Nothing on the bar made sense. Nathan’s signal was too powerful. If she didn’t know any better, someone was running stealth.
“Who’re you working with, Nathan?” She knew there was no way he’d answer the question, but she hoped perhaps it would give away the second frequency linehe had to be coating.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kayci.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“I think you’re slipping in your old age. You’re getting paranoid.”
“I’m getting suspicious.”
“You’re getting sloppy. Look at your frequency line. It’s all over the place. You look like an amateur. As usual, you’re letting your feelings cloud your ability.”
“Methinks he doth protest too much.”
Nathan laughed. “Think what you want, Kayci, but you know we’re all that’s left. Now, if you’re not at the seaport in one hour, there’s going to be one less protégé psychic in the world. You’ll find his body floating in the river at the sixty-one minute mark.”
He ended the call.
Kayci had only one choice.
Chapter Forty-Six
“You’re on,” Nathan pointed to Caden.
Jordan watched Caden settle into his meditation pose. He knew in an instant what he was going to do. There was no way to match these men. Nevertheless, he was going to try to do what he could.
His eyes drifted out of focus. The black bar of the frequency plane germinated in his mind. There was Kayci. Like an angler, he dropped his bait into the water and reeled in her line, knotted their frequencies. Trying to compel her to stay away was his plan, but he could tell nothing was getting through. He suddenly felt Nathan running interference, trying to upset his mind. It was an odd feeling. He could sense a twitch in his synapses, a spike of electricity that grew and turned into a pain like he’d never felt. Every time he tried to think something, it hurt.
With everything he had, Jordan tried to fight this man. He could feel his mind sluggishly shutting down, as if a vise were crushing his brain. He broke off contact, exhausted.
Nathan walked over to him, clearly winded and tired. “Nice try,” he said. “But you’re still a long way off from beating me.” He then punched Jordan in the face, hard.
Jordan’s ears rang from the impact.
“There,” Nathan declared, running his hand over his hair to put it back in place. “This should keep you from meddling again.”
Jordan’s head was spinning. Everything was a total buzz and vibration. He decided to pretend the hit knocked him out. He dropped his head to one side and closed his eyes.
***
Kayci asked the taxi driver to drop her off one block from the seaport. On the sidewalk, she adjusted the pistol tucked into the rear of the NSA-issue black pants and pulled the black jogging jacket down. She smiled and nodded to the young couple that walked past her laughing. Not many people were out this late at night, even in New York City.
Once again, she tried to check the frequency plane, but it was still a clogged up mess. Maybe Nathan was right, and her emotions were messing her up. She hated to think he was right, and she hated to think Jordan had this much hold over her. She did love him. She loved him enough to trade her life for his, which is exactly what she was walking into. If she were lucky, she would be able to get the drop on Nathan.
Nathan would not expect her to kill him. Losing her powers was a necessary sacrifice. The worst-case scenario was that it might cause a break from reality. It was the same way Anna ended up stuck in the laser world with no way out.
She saw the boat, a fifty-foot cabin cruiser, bobbing slightly between the last two docks. The bright glow inside the cabin cast two shadows.
As she moved a bit to the left, she saw Nathan standing in the middle of the cabin. She could get the drop on him.
She moved quickly, quietly, making almost no sound. Low to the dock, she stepped over the short rail, onto the deck. She pulled her gun and slinked into the open cabin door. Nathan had his back to her.
“Get your hands up, Nathan.” Kayci felt a moment of pride.
Nathan raised his arms and stepped aside to reveal a man pointing a gun at Jordan’s head.
“Hello, Kayci,” the man said. “Now drop your weapon.”
She was focused on the gun, but then she looked back at the man’s face. At first she didn’t recognize him. But, then, the shock of what she saw was enough to halt her bodily systems. She couldn’t breathe and the focus of her eyes betrayed her for a moment.
The rush of panic, fear, everything she had known just exploded in a bright fireworks display in her eyes. She felt her legs grow weak.
“It’s been a long time.” Caden moved forward.
Kayci felt the gun go limp in her hand. She tried to speak, but no sounds would escape, and her lips mouthed phantom words.
“Shocking, I know.” Caden reached over casually and took her gun away.
“This…whah…how?” Kayci’s words were thin, hollow.
Caden walked up close to her and moved loose strands of hair out of her face. “You’re every bit as beautiful as your mother was. I’ve seen you a few times over the years, but you never saw me.”
She drew a deep breath, her vision blurred by wetness. “What is this?” She looked to Nathan as if he might help her. “How is this possible?”
“I know.” Caden shook his head. “This is a lot to take. You should sit down and let this sink in for a while.” He led her over and sat her next to Jordan, who looked up at her with wide eyes and a bloody face.
She finally gathered herself enough to speak the words. “You’re dead. We buried you. How are you here?”
Caden nodded. “Yes, I’m dead. Well, my name is dead but as you can see, I’ve very much alive. That wasn’t my plan. I didn’t want to go out like that, but you know how the NSA works.”
She looked to Jordan. He urged her to pull it together with a steely glare. She nodded. “Jordan, I’m sorry.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
She looked back to Caden. “Jordan, I’d like you to meet Caden Taylor, my father.”
She looked back to the impossible man standing in front of her, the man she had not seen in nearly twenty years. The man whose death had driven her mother to suicide stood alive before her, and her mind was just not able to reconcile.
Caden moved over and sat on the bench adjacent to her. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
She looked at him in wonder, but as usual, she recovered quickly and turned pain into hate and anger. “I’m at a loss for words.” She slumped back into the bench. “How did this happen?”
Caden took a breath. “Nathan, take us back out into the channel.” He watched Nathan fire up the engines and slowly navigate the boat. He then looked back, keeping the gun casually trained on her from his lap. “When the NSA discovered my talents, they conned me into helping my country. They convinced me I would be helping the greater good, you know, all that bullshit. Problem was the only way to do it was to disappear forever. I had to be dead, so they killed me. That’s just felt it was the best option for my case.”
She shook her head. “You let Mom die…you let her kill herself.”
“All part of the job, Kayci. You know that as well as anyone. She was an unfortunate piece of collateral damage. I didn’t want her to die. She was weak.”
“What about me? Now I’m just collateral damage too?”
“No, you’re much worse. You’re dangerous.”
“How am I dangerous?”
“You’re here, aren’t you? You tracked Nathan all the way to Costa Rica for the FBI. Didn’t you?”
She didn’t know what to say. The truth was already evident. “I didn’t want to either.”
“I know,” C
aden replied. “You’re a product of the system…broken system…broken products.”
“So that’s it? You’re just going to come back into my life after almost twenty years and kill me? Your own daughter?” She laughed. “Real nice”
“Well, I wish things could be different. I wish you had not agreed to help the FBI with their case against Fletcher, but as I said, here you are.”
Kayci shook her head slightly. “It doesn’t have to be like this. You could give us some money, and we could disappear, together, all of us.”
Caden rolled out his bottom lip and turned his head. “I’m sorry, but it’s too late for that now. There’s not enough money to go around, and you’re too much like your mother.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re too weak, too good. You’re mother was wholesome and kind, always saw the good side of things and never understood the big picture in anything. She was simplistic, empathetic, and it was her undoing. I thought she would be able to stay strong for you, but she couldn’t hold it together. When they told me she died, I knew it was for the best. Her death strengthened you, made you into the agent you were.”
“And for that you’re going to kill me.” She rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks.” She didn’t look at Jordan, but she knew what he had been doing. He had nearly slipped his hands out of the restraints. They had one shot at this.
She was impressed at how Jordan’s mind worked. He had somehow managed to do something she’d never seen. He had created a new channel outside of the standard frequency bar they all used. He had literally begun thinking outside the box. It was unprecedented, but there it was for her to see. In that box, they could communicate with each other, but Nathan and Caden had no idea.
Just as the boat engines stopped, Jordan flashed out of the chair, heading toward Nathan. Caden raised his gun and fired a shot at the streaking figure, but Kayci managed to twist his arm off aim.
Jordan slammed into Nathan with the force of an NFL tackler, crushing his unsuspecting body into the steering wheel and instrument cluster. Nathan let out a wail of pain, and Kayci struggled with Caden for the gun. He was strong, and she could not wrest it away.
Savior Frequency (Frequency Series Book 1) Page 20
