“Where is Jace?” The words came out choked instead of confident.
“I don’t know.” Her eyes drifted briefly up to the ceiling. “He’s fine, though. After your meeting with the Triad this afternoon, I’m sure Triad Carrington will allow you to see him.” A frown appeared on the narrow lips. “Oops. I think he wanted that to be a surprise.”
I didn’t get it. I was almost sure she was the person who’d tampered with Jeane, but why had she come here alone if she didn’t intend to force me? Or was I already forgetting something I held dear? I pulled out my mental machete and searched my mind, prepared to do battle, but there was no trace of Catrina or anyone else. Just me.
I had to trust myself. “Thank you,” I said, “for telling me about Jace.”
Catrina smiled, and for a moment she looked older. “My pleasure.”
She’d taken a step toward the door when my next words stopped her. “Are you related to Delia Vesey?”
“Delia?” Catrina turned. “Thankfully, no. I come from another line. I mean, all sensing Unbounded probably originated from the same person four thousand years ago or whatever, but Delia wasn’t my direct ancestor. In fact, I was living in Russia until a short time ago. I was sent here after Delia died—my people refused to send me before then. Delia was, however, very involved in our breeding. I think that’s why they hated her so much.”
I couldn’t blame them, but it was interesting to know she had family. That might mean the Emporium had more sensing Unbounded than we’d guessed. “How long ago did you Change?”
Her smile this time was more childlike. “Well, I grew up among Unbounded, but I’ve only been one myself for six months. You?”
“Not much longer. Seven months ago, I’d never heard of Unbounded.”
I wanted to ask if she’d volunteered to be forced or if she was older than she looked, but I didn’t want to pity this childlike woman who was probably the biggest danger to me since Delia.
Her pale eyes danced. “Your brother asked, and I bet you want to. I don’t mind telling you. I’m nineteen, the youngest person ever to have Changed without being forced. It just happened. But many of my ancestors Changed early. It’s a family trait we kept secret for as long as we could.”
I wanted to know if it was Delia they’d tried to hide it from and, if so, how the Triad had uncovered the secret. “I bet Tihalt’s been testing you nonstop.”
Her smile widened. “Not since I learned to break through his shield.” She laughed and resumed her journey across the carpet. So she wasn’t a puppet, at least not the way she was supposed to be.
I didn’t want to like Catrina, but there was something appealing about her. Maybe it was partially because Jeane disliked her so much.
Or had Catrina made me like her?
I hated this.
As soon as the door shut behind Catrina, I reached out to Mari. Let’s get this done. Ropte will be here soon. The relays need to be in place before then.
MARI AND I STOOD GAPING at the three huge generators. They were as large as dump trucks, and stood one after the other, gleaming with bright yellow paint. They were attached to massive, equally gleaming metal vents that umbrellaed each generator like a silver cloud. Ritter had trained us on the schematics of numerous generators after the last time we’d had to deal with one, but seeing these enormous things up close was a little daunting.
“I bet they’d only need one to power this entire building,” Mari whispered, her voice muffled by her metamaterials hood. She needn’t have whispered. I’d mentally followed one of the guards to the generators, and he’d been inside this cavernous space alone when we’d shifted in. If there were cameras or mics here, he hadn’t been aware of them. He was in a corner now, unconscious after a little fast work on my part. I’d have to deal with his memories before long.
The three six-foot metal transfer boxes were located exactly where Tihalt’s plans said they would be in the room, but in case of doubt, block letters stamped on the bare cement above the boxes read TRANSFER CONTROLS. These boxes were what made it possible to use either outside power from the city or power from the generators, transferring between the two systems as needed. Leading from the boxes were thick wires that sent electricity throughout the entire building.
Ignoring the outside control buttons on the transfer boxes, Mari dumped the contents of her bag and went to work loosening the screws on the first panel. The good news was that we’d brought plenty of relays. “Thank you, Cort,” I murmured.
“If only someone would invent a better screwdriver,” Mari growled through the first screw she already held in her mouth.
Our targets were the wires that connected the batteries in each generator to the transfer switches located inside the metal boxes. In the case of a power outage, the battery provided the electricity for the transfer switch to sense the outage and automatically turn on the generators. Placing one tiny relay on each incoming wire would give us the ability to cut the electricity to the switch and interrupt the power generated by the fuel in the generators. In that case, it would switch back to outside current—which should be down—giving us control over the building’s power and its electric shield.
After stripping the wire, we used the wire from Tihalt’s lab as a bypass, wrapping each end over the bare surface of the stripped wire several inches apart, making sure the contact was good before cutting the original wire. No alarms came from the generators, so the bypass was doing its job of completing the circuit. Then we spliced the relay into the original wire, once again completing the circuit before removing the bypass connection.
“Easy peasy,” Mari said, looking almost cheerful.
We separated to complete the other two transfer boxes, double-checking each other’s work when we were finished. If anyone looked inside, the small relays appeared almost as if they belonged. But no one would have any reason to open the boxes until the power went out, and even then they should first attempt to use the outside controls or check the generators for problems. If the power outage lasted long enough, someone would eventually realize the transfer switches were the reason, but we hoped to have the generators back on before they even got to this room. We’d need less than a minute to bring Ritter and some of the others inside.
I took out two more tiny plastic envelopes like the one I’d given Stefan. A drop from each packet on the screws assured us that no one would be removing these panels without some heavy drilling. Stefan really needed to hire better people.
Now for the Unbounded we’d left lying in a corner near two stacks of medium-sized crates. I shifted over to him, and Mari followed, her suit making her almost invisible in the dim light. He was unconscious, but his mind was still partially shielded. Laying my hand on his cheek, I hammered through his shield and passed down into the lake of warm water. For a time, I studied the memory bubbles. Was this how a mnemo worked, except by changing the memories instead of removing them?
I reached out to the memory bubble that showed the guard reeling as I stepped out from behind some crates and punched him twice in the head. If I could just replace that with him hitting his head on something, it would be far more effective. But the bubble vanished as I touched it like they always did when I extracted them. So much for that idea. I opened my eyes and arose.
Mari had been busy while I was occupied. She’d pushed one of the crates onto the floor near him, and another now teetered on the edge. With any luck, he’d assume it had fallen on him and wouldn’t report his blackout. If he did report it and Lew examined him, Lew might be good enough to detect my tampering.
Without speaking, we shifted back to Mari’s suite where we found Keene pacing the room. He looked better with the short rest and the curequick running through his veins, but not yet fully recovered.
“Any luck?” I asked him. I’d been watching our apartments and had seen a life force come to his door, but it hadn’t entered.
“My contact says everything’s in lockdown mode. No one can leave or enter—except Rop
te, who they’re expecting. We can’t get another phone right now.”
“A lockdown actually works into our plans,” I said. “Especially once we’re in place. Until we have this building secure, we don’t want anyone trying to get past Ava’s blockade to help them.”
“Any problem with the relays?” he asked.
Mari shook her head. “Everything looks great.” She removed the tiny remotes from the remaining buttons on her jacket and handed one to each of us. “Press and hold for as long as you want the generators to quit.” I peeled off the back paper and stuck the remote behind my ear.
We stared at each other, and I said, “They won’t cut the power until sixty minutes after Ropte arrives. Now we wait.”
TO PRESERVE MY STRENGTH, I did my waiting in my own small suite, lying fully dressed in my original clothing on the surprisingly comfortable bed. In order to catch Ropte’s arrival, one part of my mind lingered on the lobby and on the floor leading to the rooftop where they had a helipad. I knew he wouldn’t come alone, so I just had to be aware of a group of life forces arriving. At that point, I’d alert Mari, and she could begin a countdown with her internal clock. What took far more effort was extending my shield around Mari so we could leave our connection open.
Waiting was torture. I felt Ritter’s absence like an ache, as if I’d left an arm behind. Being separated from him by the electric grid surrounding the building made me crazy.
Instead of focusing on that loss, I combed upward through the floors, trying to find my brother. Jace was nowhere in the building, not even on the lowest floor, but I did find a gap on the top floor that made it appear as if half the level didn’t exist. Only another separate electric grid could do that, and it made sense for Stefan to use the new technology in his private quarters, especially to protect him while sleeping. Catrina had seemed to indicate that Jace was somewhere above me, and I had no reason to trust her, but maybe Jace was there.
Time clicked on. I kept my eye on the ornate clock on the wall, breathing deeply and absorbing until I felt my energy at full strength. Even the pain in my chest was completely gone. No one disturbed me. I wouldn’t have eaten anything they might have brought, to prevent being drugged, but their neglect worried me.
I found myself thinking about Edgel and the odd numbers attached to him in my mind. I went after the memory now, searching in the depths of my subconscious where I kept those pieces of Delia. They hadn’t given me much, except the occasional tidbit of knowledge, but maybe this was important. Or maybe it was only a code between Edgel and Delia, long in disuse and no longer valid.
Jeane stared up at me, horror in her eyes. “No. No!” Her voice rose to a scream. “I hate you! I hate you! I will kill you for this. I swear it!”
“You knew the rules, Jeane. He was a Renegade. He’s dead; it’s over. And if you won’t help, I no longer have a use for you.”
Jeane cringed away, trying to hold in her sobs, turning to Lew, whose embrace was the only thing keeping her upright.
“Clean her up.” Delia’s voice held no compassion. “I want to try another insemination. Yours this time. If we could create a sensing Unbounded with the ability to null, we’d be invincible.”
I gasped for air as the memory vanished. Not the one I’d been searching for. I knew Jeane had been abused, but experiencing the utter lack of compassion Delia had shown her was sobering. Had Delia always been this way, or had it happened gradually over the centuries of loving and losing people she cared about?
More troubling was the next thought: if I lived as long as she did, was I fated to become like her? She’d once told me that was my destiny.
No. I wouldn’t believe that. I had Ritter. I had my brothers. I had the Renegades. I cared. These were memories that weren’t mine, however real they felt. I would ask Ava to remove them when this was over. I’d beaten Delia in life, and I wasn’t about to let her steal any more of my happiness in death.
With relief, I felt my attention pulling in another direction. I had no idea how long I’d been caught in Delia’s memory, but Ropte had just arrived with four other life forces.
Begin the countdown, I told Mari.
ROPTE HAD BEEN IN THE building thirty minutes before Edgel and two other Unbounded male soldiers appeared at my door. I was glad Edgel was there in case I needed to channel him before Ritter arrived, or until I found Jace. Each soldier wore an additional knife at their belts along with their normal guns and swords. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Were they expecting trouble or just trying to impress someone?
We marched to the elevator in silence, with me hacking away at Edgel’s mental defenses. At least Catrina was nowhere to be found.
“So where is my brother?” I asked Edgel as the elevator closed on us.
His dark, angular face showed no emotion, but I was already in his mind, and I felt his surprise. “What are you talking about?”
“Catrina told me he was here.”
A slight widening of his nostrils would have told me little, but his mind registered fear. Of Jace? Of Catrina? Of my knowing Jace was here? No, the fear was definitely of Catrina. I wondered if she’d breached his shield or if he simply and finally understood that his mind was not the sanctuary Delia had led him and the others to believe all these years. That would explain why Stefan now shielded his quarters.
The elevator was fast, the numbers changing as we hurtled upward. “So, where is Jace?”
Edgel’s mouth finally cracked, as if pried open with a crowbar. “You’ll have to take that up with Stefan.”
“Don’t you mean Stefan and David Ropte?”
Edgel didn’t reply. A bell dinged, and the elevator door slid open on the nineteenth floor.
The two Unbounded guards standing outside it stepped back, and Edgel gestured me out. He kept pace with me while the other two guards who’d ridden up with us followed several feet behind.
Edgel needed to loosen up. Of course, he wanted to kill me, and that might be why he was so communicative.
“Has Jeane seen her brother?” I pushed. “Ropte seemed very interested in meeting with her when they talked this morning, and strangely enough, she seems to care about him.” Or at least enough that she wanted us to put him in prison instead of killing him.
My comment again surprised Edgel. From his thoughts, I caught a glimpse of Ropte’s face, the handsome features contorted in bloodlust, a sword in his hand. A woman was screaming. I was pretty sure the woman was Jeane. What had happened between her and Ropte? I needed to know.
My curiosity stuttered to a halt as I felt Jace. I’d stopped looking for him, but now he filled my senses. He was here, somewhere close. I reached out to him, but his shield was tight. Good boy, I thought, but of course he couldn’t hear. There seemed to be a few life forces near him—no, under him, rather. He must be on the floor above us.
Edgel turned a corner before stopping at a wide door guarded by three men, where he ignored the handprint reader and knocked. A slight rustle, and the door was opened, not by a guard but by Catrina, who was now dressed in tan business slacks and a patterned silk blouse. I should have known she would be here. Lew probably wouldn’t be far behind.
Inside the room, four long couches faced each other in a square, with three feet of open space at the corners. An oversized coffee table, also square, sat in the middle of the couches, where cups and a pot of steaming coffee lay on a tray. The wall on the same side as the door held a large screen, while the opposite had north-facing, floor-to-ceiling windows. The right wall boasted an impressive display of swords that looked only too real, and against the left wall, a well-stocked minibar offered a variety of refreshments. At least twenty feet of bare rock floor separated the couches from the bar and the windows, with less than half that on the two other sides of the couch arrangement. Black pillars filled each of the four corners. It seemed a strange place for a battle, but here the fate of the world would be decided.
Catrina smiled and shut the door behind Edgel and me, leaving the oth
er two guards outside the door. I was glad I’d released Mari for the moment, or Catrina would surely have noticed the trail of my shield as it snaked downward to Mari’s location.
Wait. Had I still been connected with Mari at my first meeting with Catrina? I couldn’t remember now.
Catrina reached out to Edgel and me, and we both shrank from her touch. Her smile dimmed as she motioned for me to precede her farther into the room. Edgel remained near the door, and I felt his relief at the increasing distance from Catrina.
As I guessed, Lew was present, and also Jeane, sitting across from each other on the couches. Stefan leaned against the bar, and Ropte stood by the windows, staring at dark clouds gathering in the distance, the gray on his temples more pronounced in the light. Next to Ropte was one of the bodyguards from his luncheon, and I decided that the three men in the hallway must be the others who’d accompanied him. Tihalt was nowhere in sight.
Stefan came toward me, swirling a cup of amber liquid in a glass. “Thank you for coming, Erin.” He smiled graciously, the perfect host, exuding confidence and a magnetism that was strong even for an Unbounded. I was glad he wasn’t my real father and that I’d glimpsed inside his mind on our first meeting and knew his heart. If I hadn’t, I might want to believe.
“You’re welcome.” I didn’t try to hide my irritation. “What are they doing here?” I looked over at Jeane and Lew. “My message is for the Triad.”
Stefan’s eyes hardened, and his face lost some of its welcome. “Jeane will be leaving before our meeting.” He glanced across the room at Ropte and then back at me. “Her brother wanted to check on her welfare. However, both my sensing Unbounded will be present. We have to be sure, you know.”
I wasn’t about to open my shield for either of them to check the veracity of my statements, but we’d get to that later. “Where’s Triad McIntyre?” I asked. Tihalt had to be a part of our group for our coup to work at all. If he was buried in some lab with hundreds of soldiers between us, that might be a problem, even with Mari’s ability.
The Takeover Page 26
