“No. And how did you know about it?”
They didn’t escape through the tunnel. No wonder.
“A lucky guess. We found the entrance. Keisha brought the house down behind us.” I gave Keisha a thumbs up. I spoke loud enough she could hear my side of the conversation. She managed enough energy to stick her tongue out at me.
“Where are you now?” I asked Ashula.
“Parked on a logging road. Helicopters have been out looking for us.”
So, no help that way.
“Okay, we’ll get back in touch, later,” I said.
“Good luck,” Ashula said.
Easy for her to say, she’d taken all the luck with her. I pushed the necklace back inside my shirt.
“Gotta find our own way, don’t we?” Keisha pulled herself up. “Figures.” It sucked, but we didn’t have any choice. “I’ll find us our own ride,” she said.
Our ride turned out to be a pickup truck parked at an all-night restaurant in what passed for a town. Keisha hotwired it.
“I’m driving this time,” she said.
I shrugged. “Have fun.”
We drove into Portland. We left the truck at a big truck stop and walked a few blocks until we found a motel. Keisha lurked outside while I checked in.
We ended up with a corner room on the second floor, overlooking a lot full of junked cars and weeds. If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I’d hear the weeds, but I was numb to all that.
I fell on the bed closest to the window. Keisha took the other one.
“God, I could sleep for a week,” I said. I kicked off my boots, laid back on my bed. Even with the curtains closed and the room lights off, the neon and mercury vapor lights outside gave the room in an ugly glow. Damn, I just wanted to sleep. I closed my eyes.
“Mat.” Keisha didn’t sound sleepy at all.
“What?” I said, eyes still closed. We both needed to sleep after nearly getting killed. My nightmares were going to have nightmares after today.
“Let’s leave.”
I opened my eyes, rolled over to face her. She sat on the edge of her bed, the neon glow from the motel sign reflecting off her dark skin.
I groaned. “We gotta sleep somewhere.”
“No, Mat, I mean let’s leave all this crazy.”
I rubbed my eyes, sat up. “You mean, just take off. Leave everything and everyone behind.”
She looked like she wanted to spit. “We don’t know jackshit.”
She had a point. “Mushrooms,” I said.
“Damn straight. What about Connor or Simon? Did they make it? Or did they die?”
Simon was the survivor type, but Connor, the kid could be compost by now. He’d been a nasty little twerp when we first met. His attitude had had no where to go but up, and it had. He’d done his share. But he was still new to being Empowered.
“Sucks that we don’t know,” I said. Guilt settled into me. Why hadn’t I asked Ashula? “Should have asked Ashula when I had the chance.”
Keisha’s laugh was bitter. “Yeah, like she’d have said anything, even if she knew. They didn’t tell us about the fucking escape tunnel. If you hadn’t figured it out, we’d be extra crispy barbecue about now.”
Leave. Man, just up and leaving sounded awesome. No more Scourge with its obsession with overthrowing the Hero Council. No more Zhukova riding my ass.
No more getting attacked by assholes.
“I’d love to leave.”
Hope rose in Keisha’s face. Damn it. I hated to break it to her, but I couldn’t go anywhere.
“But I can’t.”
“Why not? Shit, girl, let’s just fucking leave.”
“How long before the Hero Council catches up with us?”
She snorted. “We can keep clear of those idiots.”
“What about the horror show?”
She stared at me.
“Come on, Keisha, you saw those things. And you saw the children. We’ve gotta stop Ellis and his nightmares.”
“How, for god’s sake?” She was practically shouting.
I glared at her. “The same way as always—we take it to them.”
“How? What plan? Something Nefarious and Ashula promised you? Screw them, they didn’t stick around.”
“They didn’t know we weren’t dead. Why stick around when those things were everywhere, backed up by armored goons with nasty guns?”
She stopped, stared at her hands. “I’m tired of us getting nearly killed every other day. This is nuts. It’s no way to live.”
It wasn’t. But I had to see it through. She’d probably try and kill me if she knew why I had stuck it out for this long, but that wasn’t the reason right now.
I sat beside her. “We have to do this, we have to try and stop Ellis from turning the world into his labs.”
“Yeah, it would suck to have to deal with killer plant things all the time.”
She laughed, a sad laugh, and I joined in.
What else could we do but laugh?
Yeah, I had nightmares about armored cacti and devil-thorn-bush crab monsters. I woke up from a bad one at 2 a.m. Keisha was sound asleep.
I suddenly felt the urge to call Winterfield. I don’t know why. It was nuts. I should wait, but I couldn’t.
I crept outside, closing the door softly behind me. There was a payphone in the parking lot. Kinda put me in plain sight if Keisha woke up and noticed I wasn’t in the room, but it was close by.
I went through the damn phone protocol.
He answered, sounding like he’d been expecting me. Did the guy ever sleep?
“Glad you finally decided to check-in, Brandt.”
“Glad to talk with you, too.” Jerk.
“Give me the cliff notes version of what you’ve been up to.” he said.
“Things went to shit today,” I said. “Mister Money Bags Corporate Vice President had a superhero guard.” Winterfield was silent. “The temp agency I work for decided to look into things, and got hit. TWICE.”
“Got it. The boss appreciates you getting you know who out.”
Cooper. “Couldn’t let that stand as it was.” I would never get used to talking like this. Beating around the freaking bush.
It had been a very long day. Things blurred together.
I went on. “There was a bad episode on the mountain. Monsters walked. People died. On both sides.” No, I shouldn’t be out in the open with this, but screw it, I was exhausted.
“Understood.” For once, Winterfield didn’t get all hard case on me. “I believe the boss will rethink things, based on what you’ve said.”
I shook myself. Seemed too good to be true. “Didn’t think she ever changed her mind.”
“Sometimes,” Winterfield said. He hesitated for a moment. That wasn’t like Winterfield. “She wants me to meet with you out in the field.”
“When?” This was nuts. Definitely not procedure.
“Now.”
“Now? But my team mate is going to wonder where I am.”
“It can’t be helped.” Something in Winterfield’s tone told me he thought this was more than a little crazy.
I couldn’t exactly argue out here. “Okay. Where?”
He told me. It wasn’t far at all from here.
“I’d better go.”
“Thanks for calling.” I hung up before realizing that Winterfield never thanked me for anything.
My cell phone rang, making me jump. Simon’s number. So there I was, standing in front of a rundown payphone, answering a call on my cell phone, right after agreeing to meet with Winterfield ASAP.
I flipped it open. “Yeah?”
“I see you survived as well.” Simon sounded like he was ordering a coffee. Slightly bored sounding.
Relief flooded me. “Where are you?” I didn’t know I cared that much, but suddenly things didn’t seem so bad. It was crazy, I didn’t know him at all, he was one of the bad guys, but at that moment I was glad he lived.
“At your place,” he replied.<
br />
“Connor okay?”
“The kid is sleeping like the proverbial baby.”
They were damn lucky. Maybe some of Nefarious’s probability-improving mojo had shone on them.
“We’re in a temporary residence,” I said. “Can you come pick us up?”
“I’d like to get some sleep, but if you ask, I will.”
“Come by at 6AM.” That would give me tons of time to meet with Winterfield come back and get some rest, leave before the sun came up. I gave Simon the hotel address, hung up, and then headed to meet Winterfield.
The meeting place turned out to be darkened alleyway, next to a dumpster. Mold grew on the sides of the old bricks. Moldy newspapers, rotting cardboard, and old bottles were strewn everywhere.
“Nice place you picked for a talk,” I said.
Winterfield wore a turtleneck sweater, jeans, and a knit cap. He didn’t look like he was enjoying this any more than me.
“Not my choice,” he said. Figured. He preferred greasy diners to greasy dumpsters.
“The coffee sucks even worse here,” I said.
“Funny.”
“Enough chit-chat,” a familiar female voice said from behind me. I whirled around, reaching out with my power to the mold. Spores were a long shot, never been able to do anything with them.
Zhukova stood there, in a big wool coat and a knitted cap. She wore jeans tucked into knee-high leather boots. She was absolutely the last person I expected to find here. That explained why I’d been dragged out to this garbage-infested alleyway.
I opened my mouth but didn’t know where to begin.
“We needed to talk immediately, and not spend time with security procedures,” she said. She reached into her coat and drew a pistol from a shoulder holster and pointed it at my chest.
I stiffened. I didn’t think I could hit her hard and fast enough to avoid getting shot but I had to try.
She cocked an eyebrow. “Insurance.”
“What?” That stopped me from charging her.
She glanced at Winterfield, gestured with her head. “Draw your firearm.”
He seemed to crumple, then he drew a pistol, but kept it aimed away from me.
She gave him an exasperated look.
“What gives?” I asked. “You could have killed me anytime you wanted back in the dungeon. Just don’t want to clean up your own mess?”
“Your loyalty is in question.”
“This is supposed to make me more loyal?”
“No, this is insurance.”
Insurance, in case I wasn’t loyal? “Nice friendly way of asking me if I’m still on the team, boss.”
“Report.”
“I already told Winterfield.”
“Not good enough.”
So I ran through what happened, again.
She listened, didn’t ask any questions.
“So, Drake is now focused on Emerald Biologic.”
“Yes.”
“He needs to be stopped.”
I sighed. “Really? I never would have guessed.”
“Keep your voice down, Ms. Brandt.”
I glanced at Winterfield and rolled my eyes. He shrugged.
I ignored the pistol pointed at my chest. “Fine.” Stage whisper time. “What do you want me to do?”
She must have liked that question, because her cold, cruel smile came out to play. She lowered her pistol.
I guess I had passed a weird test too subtle for a simple woman like me to notice.
“Our intelligence indicates that the Scourge is smaller than we had thought.”
“I’m just in my own little silo.”
“Of course,” she waved the gun dismissively. “We believe that the organization has less than half the number of Empowered we believed it to possess. The incidents we recorded, spikes in activity around North America, we believe were a ruse to inflate the Scourge’s numbers.”
“Okay so it’s smaller than you thought.” There had to be more to this. “What else do you know?”
“You aren’t as stupid as you let on, Ms. Brandt.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Zhukova got deadly serious. “We have been able to determine two other cell leaders have arrived in Portland. Along with the Inner Circle, which we now believe is in actuality a cell, that makes four cells. Assuming each cell has four to six members, plus a few support members like “Frank,” we are dealing with less than thirty individuals. And all four leaders are here, counting you.”
So the gun had been insurance. If I hadn’t started answering her questions, I’m guessing she would have killed me and then seen about capturing my cell, and taking out any leaders she could. But that wouldn’t be her first choice. Not by a long shot.
It wasn’t.
“Our calculations indicate a high probability Nefarious has called a meeting of the cell leaders in order to plan action against Emerald Biologic.”
Why did I think she was about to try and put a stop to that? The bitch could care less about the monsters Ellis and his favorite company were working on.
“This is our opportunity to decapitate the Scourge once and for all. If done properly, meaning capturing the leadership alive, we will be able to locate the cells and take them out.”
She definitely cared nothing about anything else. This came back to destroying the Scourge. Ellis could do what he wanted to the world. But I wouldn’t let him do whatever he wanted with the world, with plants, with people, any of it.
“Let me guess, you want me to call you from the meeting, so you can swoop down.” I didn’t bother trying to hide my sarcasm.
“Actually, yes,” she said.
“How—ask them to keep talking while I make a cell call? Or would it be better to go find a payphone?”
She held up what looked like a duplicate of my wrist comm, right down to the scratches on the back. “With this.”
“How is that any better than whipping out my cell phone?”
“It’s a passive locator, as well as a fully functional wrist communicator.” She pointed at the stopwatch button. “All you need to do is press this button three times, then hold it down for three seconds. That will activate it for a very short interval, but long enough for our monitoring network to find you.”
She handed me the duplicate wrist comm. “It is imperative you activate it as soon as the meeting starts, no more than five minutes in. We will be able to scramble strike teams to respond.”
“Great, the Hero Council is going to swoop down, kill people, and break things.” My voice was a low snarl. “Or is it break people and kill things?”
“Who said anything about involving the Hero Council?” Zhukova replied. Something about her tone made my blood run cold. It also annoyed the hell out of me.
She was so sure of herself and her nasty little plan. “We will be utilizing our own resources.”
“You think you can take out the leadership of the Scourge with a bunch of armored goons.”
“No. We can capture the leadership with nullifiers, force field containment, and armored goons.”
I gestured at Winterfield. “What about you? This sound like the plan to save the world?”
He shrugged. “It will work.”
Zhukova stepped closer to me. “It is feasible. This plan has an excellent chance of capturing the cell leaders, including you.”
My stomach twisted. “Including me? I work for you already.”
“Yes, and this will allow us to maintain your cover, for future ops.”
Future ops. She was lying. They’d have gotten what they wanted—the Scourge destroyed. They wouldn’t need me. I was an ex-criminal. A dangerous Empowered to be let free. They’d never let me foreswear my power. It would be back to Special Corrections, this time for life. Unless she wasn’t lying, in which case I’d be a goon for Support forever. Either option sucked.
“Put on your replacement comm,” she ordered.
I hesitated. She raised her eyebrows. I ground my teeth, but did as
I was told.
Chapter 22
The next morning back at the duplex, Simon and Connor gave Keisha and me a quick version of how they’d survived. Simon had been the guy with the flame thrower, who managed to retreat out a side door in the front of the house, while Connor hit the nearest goons with a static shock.
I returned the favor, but left out the part about the apparition. I’d pushed it out of my mind yesterday, but now couldn’t stop thinking about it. The air had been thick with the stench from unlife, the rotten plant smell. Support had thought it was a hallucinogenic, and Keisha and Simon had the same idea after Colombia. So I kept my mouth shut.
“What are we going to do?” Connor asked. He looked like a scared rabbit, wide-eyed, sweaty.
“What we are ordered to do,” Simon said, ever the good little soldier.
Keisha just scowled.
The Scourge didn’t keep me waiting long. Ashula contacted me through the necklace just after noon. I told her the squad had survived.
“I am glad to hear this, Mat. We were very concerned.”
Thanks for caring. “Well, we are all together.” I left an open question hanging between us.
“Drake wants you to join us as soon as possible. We are going to act against those who attacked us.”
Keisha was not happy I was taking off again. She took a butter knife from the kitchen drawer, laid it on the counter, and twiddled her fingers. The knife spun up into the air. She twitched her hands. The butter knife crackled and broke into bits.
Her neck muscles were tight as she gestured. The metal steamed, then flowed back together. More steam, and then what looked like an ancient dagger slowly revolved in the air. She handed the dagger to me, hilt first.
“If you won’t take me, then take this.”
I didn’t use knives. “Thanks.” I wrapped it in a towel. Easier to take it than refuse and piss her off.
I drove the Dasher down to Salem, to a storage facility there. Ashula had given me the entrance code. The place had cameras over the gates and in each row of units, but I guessed that, against all odds, they had broken down and somehow the person in charge didn’t know about it. Not yet.
Speed Guy waited outside, in an overcoat and fedora, which made him look bulky. Pretty obvious he wore the fire retardant clown suit underneath the coat, which looked straight off the rack.
Empowered: Traitor (The Empowered Series Book 2) Page 19
