Defector

by Susanne Winnacker

  “All you need is love. Want me to sing the song?” he joked. But the grin died on his lips when he saw my expression. “Not a good day to make jokes, eh?”

  I shook my head. I stared down at the clothes clutched in my hands.

  “Alec’s beating himself up because of the whole thing,” Tanner said. He was rubbing his checkered sneakers over the floor, back and forth, back and forth. I focused on them instead of his face. “He wanted to tell you. But things aren’t that easy when Major is involved.”

  I raised my head. “So you know about his Dual Variation?”

  Tanner hesitated, his dark eyes cornered. “Yeah, but—”

  “Did he tell you?”

  Tanner gripped his mohawk. “Jeez, Tessa, I’m making a mess of things.”

  “So he told you but not me?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  I pointed a finger at him. “Oh no, not you too. I’ve heard those words so often, and I’m sick of it.”

  “Alec was worried about how you’d react if you found out. But believe me, he wanted to tell you.”

  “Did he send you to talk to me?” I demanded.

  Tanner snorted. “Alec? Please. You know him. He tries to deal with stuff on his own. He’d probably kick my ass if he found out I was here.”

  “I really need to change into Pollard now,” I said.

  Tanner nodded and moved toward the door. His hand on the handle, he turned to me once more. “You two need each other. You should give him another chance. Everyone makes mistakes.”

  “Believe me, I know. And I never said I wouldn’t give him another chance. But I’m upset, and I really need to focus.”

  Tanner hesitated as if there was more to say, but then he slipped out and closed the door without a sound. I stared at the white surface for a moment, trying to calm my raging emotions before I started undressing. How was I supposed to focus now?

  I didn’t bother to put Senator Pollard’s clothes on, since they would have been too big for my current body.

  My transformation started off slow because I was distracted, the rippling decreasing to a gentle tremble. But I returned my focus, and within seconds I had changed into Senator Pollard.

  Holly came out of our bathroom, and her eyes widened as her gaze traveled over the foreign body. “Oh my God,” she breathed, flushing pink.

  It took me a moment to realize why she was reacting like that. I stood naked before her—in Senator Pollard’s body. There wasn’t any part of it that was covered. Laughing, I staggered toward the pile of clothes and thrust my legs into his underpants.

  Holly helped me get dressed. I jammed the hem of the shirt in my zipper three times before she stuffed the fabric back into the trousers and zipped me up. She didn’t stop giggling.

  “I hope you don’t have a laughing fit during the mission. I think people might get suspicious if the empty air starts to make a sound,” I said. It was meant as a joke, but I regretted the words when I saw the anxiety on Holly’s face. This was her first mission, and her Variation hadn’t exactly been reliable in the past. I put a heavy, long-fingered hand on Holly’s shoulder. “Everything will be fine,” I told her in Senator Pollard’s deep voice. “Alec is there. He won’t let you fail. If things get tough, he’ll just use his freaky Variation to manipulate your emotions.” I could almost taste the bitterness on my tongue.

  Holly peered at the hand on her shoulder with a little frown before she burst into laughter once again. “I’m sorry. This is just too absurd.”

  “I know,” I said with a smile, glad that her dark mood had disappeared. When the suit was in place, Holly and I headed for the heliport.

  Major and Alec were already waiting for us. “I’d like a word with you, Tessa,” Major said, walking away from Holly and Alec, and leaving me no other choice but to hurry after him. He stopped abruptly, and I almost ran into his back. It was the first time that I had to look down on him; Pollard was quite a bit taller than Major. “Listen, if it was up to me, you wouldn’t be part of this,” he said. “We still don’t know enough about the threat, much less if the attackers will strike today. I don’t like the thought of being in the dark like this. And I don’t think this is a good time for you to leave headquarters.”

  I nodded, though I didn’t understand his reasoning. Why was he telling me this if I still needed to go?

  “But you think Abel’s Army has something to do with the death threats?” I asked.

  Major frowned. “I don’t see why they’d bother with Senator Pollard, unless they misjudge his importance. It’s not like his advisory role in matters of organized crime is stopping anyone, and even his involvement with us isn’t worth mentioning. I think there’s more at play here. And frankly, I don’t trust Senator Pollard.”

  That surprised me.

  Major glanced at his watch. “It’s time to set out. We don’t want you to be late,” he said. “Alec will make sure that nobody’s up to something, especially the security staff.”

  “You mean by reading and manipulating their emotions?” I wasn’t sure why I’d said it.

  Major’s eyes snapped to Alec, as if he thought he might have revealed his secret to me. “He didn’t tell me,” I murmured. “I figured it out by myself.” This would have been my chance to get Kate in serious trouble, but for once she wasn’t the one I was angry with. Without her, I’d still be in the dark. I supposed I should be grateful to her, even if her reasons for telling me weren’t innocent.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

  Major raised his eyebrows. “There was no reason to. But we’ll discuss this further once you’re back from the mission.”

  “It’s time!” Alec shouted, pointing at his watch, before he boarded the helicopter. The blades began rotating. I hurried toward Holly, and together we climbed inside. Major gave a nod before he closed the door and backed away. Then we lifted off—toward my second mission.

  CHAPTER 9

  It was sweltering. Without a word, Connors and Orlov, Senator Pollard’s usual bodyguards, positioned themselves next to the windows. They were solid, pretty much walking wardrobes. I could see the muscles bulging under their suits. If I’d met them in a dark alley, I’d have run as fast as my legs would have taken me. Orlov especially: With his square jaw, hard features, and cold steel-gray eyes, he could have played the hit man in every Hollywood production. Neither of them even glanced Alec’s way. He was new and, it was pretty obvious, unwanted. Of course they judged him on his appearance. They didn’t know about the power hidden beneath his lean muscles.

  Sweat gathered at the nape of my neck. I twisted my head back and forth in an effort to widen the collar. But it was useless. The suit and the button-down shirt felt confining. I didn’t think I could fight in them—even if I didn’t have Pollard’s unfamiliar body to consider.

  I inched a finger into the gap between my neck and the clammy collar to try to loosen its hold once again. Nothing. The fabric was stiff with starch and resisted my tugging. I sagged against the brown leather couch. The dark green carpet smelled flowery in an artificial way, as if someone had used a carpet cleaner shortly before we’d arrived. The smell tickled the inside of my nose.

  “You all right, sir?” Orlov asked in his thick Russian accent, taking a step toward me. I waved my hand dismissively. “I’m fine. Do your job and watch the windows.” I hated how rude I had to act toward them, but I couldn’t step out of character.

  Alec came up to me—without asking for permission and thus breaking protocol. His expression reflected the worry that he couldn’t voice in front of the others. “What are you doing? Go back to the door,” I snapped, Senator Pollard’s voice emerging rough and clipped from my throat. Alec’s lips tightened, but he strode back to his designated spot. Elation flared up in me at my position of power over him.

  I was glad to have some distance between us. Something bru
shed my arm, the touch warm and comforting. Holly. Her form hadn’t once flickered during the thirty minutes we’d been waiting in this room. Her invisibility seemed to work just fine. I hoped it was her own doing and not Alec’s manipulation.

  I wanted to smile at Holly to show her that I’d felt her comforting touch, but I didn’t move a muscle. Senator Pollard’s bodyguards and Alec were all watching me. Though Alec seemed busy guarding the door, I knew he would never take his eyes off me.

  Outside the door, I could hear the current speaker wrap up his speech. I was next.

  I dug Senator Pollard’s fingers into my legs and tried to feel nothing. I focused on my breathing, on the way the trousers clung to the back of my thighs, on the way the strange hair growing in my ears tickled. Slowly a wall of calm came up around me. But my reprieve was short-lived. Applause rose outside, and someone knocked at the door. Alec stepped back, a hand over the gun at his waist, as he opened the door a gap. The same middle-aged woman with a tight ponytail who’d first taken us to the greenroom appeared in the corridor. “It’s Senator Pollard’s turn,” she said politely.

  I hoisted myself to my feet and followed the woman to the back of the stage, Alec taking up my front and Orlov and Connors my rear. I could feel Holly moving at my side, and it was her presence more than theirs that eased my nerves. Five hundred people made up the audience—law students and journalists and possibly someone intent on Senator Pollard’s death.

  “You’re safe,” Alec said under his breath. “Don’t worry. Security measures were tripled.”

  “If it’s so safe, why am I here and not Pollard?” I whispered, glaring at his back, as I lumbered up the stairs onto the stage. A wave of applause welcomed me, and I raised my arm in Senator Pollard’s trademark greeting. Every gesture, every move was perfect. Nobody would realize I wasn’t him—not even his enemies. I walked up to the speaker’s podium in the center of the stage as the clapping ebbed away. I let my gaze swivel over the audience, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But there was nothing. Most of the blue chairs were occupied by men and women in their twenties. They’d probably fall right off their seats if they found out a sixteen-year-old girl was actually the speaker.

  I cleared my throat and opened my lips to recite the speech, but the words faltered in my mouth. Something was off. The hairs at the base of my neck rose. I wasn’t exactly sure what caused me such discomfort. A wall of silence lay before me as people stopped talking to stare at my mute form. I coughed and glanced at the notes on the speaker’s desk in front of me.

  My voice was calm and businesslike as I started the speech. I’d seen videos of Senator Pollard giving speeches and knew that he was a good orator. He possessed the natural charisma and verbal skills to grab an audience—which made this that much harder for me. I forced myself to look up every now and then to smile at my audience and search the auditorium for suspicious activities. A few minutes into my speech, I raised my head again, my mouth already dry from reading, and the words died in my throat. Every muscle in my body bristled with anxiety.

  My eyes landed on a familiar face in the audience. It was the man who’d been watching me a few weeks ago back in Livingston, the man who was most likely a member of Abel’s Army. He was leaning at the back of the auditorium, returning my gaze with unsettling calm. Brown hair, pale skin, dark sunglasses, unidentifiable age. He wore a long beige coat. What was he hiding beneath it?

  Alec stared at me, then followed my eyes across the room. Of course he hadn’t seen the man before, but he could feel how nervous I was. The man was wearing exactly the same sunglasses and coat he had last time. Was he the only Variant in the room? Was he here to enact some sinister plan?

  I took a deep breath and continued my speech. The audience was starting to whisper about my strange behavior, and I couldn’t risk losing their attention. Alec gave me a tiny nod and moved off to the side of the auditorium as he tried to make his way toward the back. The man’s eyes flitted briefly to Alec but then returned to me, as if Alec wasn’t even worth his attention. I couldn’t sense Holly anywhere near me. Where was she? Maybe she was also heading for the strange guy.

  Connors and Orlov had picked up on the tense atmosphere, of course (they weren’t that bad, no matter what Major might think), and were watching Alec’s progress across the room with barely hidden contempt.

  Maybe I should give them a sign to follow Alec. I didn’t like the thought of Holly getting involved in a possible fight.

  A loud boom sounded in the auditorium, and with a rumble, a shockwave thrust me backward. A second later, everything was pitched into darkness. I tumbled down the stairs of the podium, unable to stop Senator Pollard’s tall body from hurtling forward. My face smashed against the ground, and I tasted blood in my mouth, coppery and warm. My nose was clogged with liquid, and when I touched it, pain shot through my face. Probably broken. I gagged. My ears rang, but slowly my hearing returned. Screams and shouts surrounded me on all sides. The auditorium was filled with bitter, grayish mist that stung in my eyes and nose.

  I tried to jump to my feet, but the ground had started shaking. I knelt, trying to find my balance. Pollard’s body was more difficult to maneuver than my own, and the trembling ground wasn’t helping one bit. Panic flashed through me. I had to do something. Could I risk changing back to my own body? I still heard shots and shouting. How could anyone fire when they couldn’t possibly see their targets in the darkness?

  Where were the others?

  “Tess!” Holly’s scream echoed in my skull. I stumbled to my feet and changed back to my own body. The ground vibrated under my feet, and a sudden burst of motion sickness hit me. I forced myself to remain calm. My clothes began to slip off, much too big for me now that I was no longer Senator Pollard. I hastily changed into Alec’s body, which was better for fighting. Tightening the belt a notch, I looked around. “Holly?” I called in Alec’s deep voice. “Holly, where are you?” She’d sounded so scared.

  Orlov lay sprawled on the floor beside the speaker’s podium. I couldn’t tell if he was alive. The shaking ground made it look as if he was having spasms. Keeping my eyes on my dark, misty surroundings, I bent over him and pressed my fingers against his throat. The moment his pulse thrummed against my fingertips, I straightened and hurried past him, ignoring the tightness in my chest and the way my eyes watered from the gas.

  “Tess!” Holly screamed.

  I whirled around toward the sound. It was coming from somewhere to my right, from the seating area. A few people were still running around in panic, and half a dozen were lying on the ground, unmoving. I could only hope they’d lost their balance, hit their heads, and lost consciousness when the shockwave collided with them. Thankfully, most of the audience seemed to have fled the auditorium. But I still couldn’t see Holly.

  My eyes swiveled around the room. In the back I could make out a struggle between several forms. I decided to head that way and was halfway there when suddenly Holly appeared in front of me, her body slowly flickering into view. Her blue eyes were wide when they found me. “Holly!” I’d never heard Alec’s voice sound that scared. Realization flashed across her face. “Tess,” she said quickly, fearfully. “We have to leave.”

  Her legs were materializing inch by inch when a man popped into view behind her. “Grab the girl! It’s her,” another man screamed. Did he mean Holly or me? But then I realized I was in Alec’s body right now. They didn’t even know I was a girl.

  “No!” I screamed, but he didn’t even look at me as he wrapped his arms around Holly’s waist. Her eyes grew wide with fear and she clamped up. She had to fight! But she seemed paralyzed with terror. I stormed toward them, staggering from left to right as the ground’s vibrations picked up once more. I had almost reached them when they disappeared into thin air. My fingers closed around nothing. Holly was gone. One moment they had been there, and then they’d vanished. I stared at the spot, trying to make sense of
what had just happened. I turned around myself. “Holly?” There was no answer.

  Tears sprang into my eyes. Where had she gone? Alec ran in my direction then jerked to a halt when he saw that I looked like him. I shuddered and returned to my own body, not caring if anyone saw it. But there was no one around who was able to pay attention. The trousers fell off my body, but I couldn’t even bring myself to care that I was only wearing a dress shirt and a tie. Blood was streaming out of my nose, over my lips, and down my chin. “Holly,” I groaned.

  Alec bridged the last few steps between us. His clothes were torn, and his gray eyes were wild. He touched my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  I blinked up at him, and somehow it seemed to happen in slow motion. “Holly,” I said voicelessly.

  “What? What’s the matter, Tess?” His grip on my arms was the only thing keeping me upright. “Holly,” I croaked. “She’s gone.”

  “Where to?” Alec looked around like she might be springing up from the ground any second.

  “She vanished. She was right there.” I pointed toward the spot behind Alec. “And then a man grabbed her, and they vanished into thin air.” A hysterical laugh burst out of me.

  “Hey,” Alec said softly as my legs buckled and he picked me up. I wasn’t sure if it was the gas or Holly’s disappearance, but I was cracking up completely. “I caught one of them. He’s over there.”

  Alec carried me to the back of the building, where I’d seen the man with the sunglasses. He stepped over unmoving bodies without stopping to check if they were alive. “Are they dead?” I whispered. The taste of blood was overwhelming.

  Alec’s grip on my legs tightened. His fingers felt hot against my naked legs, and I shivered in only the thin dress shirt. How could I have thought it was sweltering just minutes ago? “I didn’t have the time to check them all. But the ones I did were alive, just unconscious. We have to hurry. I already called Major to tell him about this. He has to make sure that law enforcement doesn’t get wind of it. We can’t risk them finding out about us. We should be gone by the time they arrive.” I could already hear sirens in the distance.