Mindsurge (Mindspeak Book 3)

by Heather Sunseri

  Coach got a call that Roger had been released due to some fancy work done by his attorney. He was on his way to tell you when he saw you exit the dorm and get in a cab. He followed you and called me.

  “Addison?” I called out.

  Addison appeared. “I thought you needed help.”

  “Now you help?”

  She shrugged. “I was watching you all those times Maya was on campus. You didn’t need help then.”

  That was one opinion. “You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t believe you.” I was arguing with a kid.

  “I need Sandra to think I’m doing everything she’s asked. She hasn’t had contact with Maya or me in a couple of days. Not since—”

  “Since Maya delivered her ‘gift.’” I couldn’t stop the anger that flared.

  “Sandra made her—”

  I towered over Addison. “I don’t care that she made her do it. Look at Jack, Addison. Whatever Maya did to him… Sandra’s killing him.” My voice cracked.

  Jack grabbed my hand. “Addison didn’t do this to me.”

  I stared up into Jack’s bloodshot eyes. There in the dark, his irises looked almost onyx. I brushed my hand along his cheek, then pressed a little harder, making sure I had his full attention. “I don’t care. She played her part. She also helped give Jonas over to Sandra.” Addison was the only way Sandra could have gotten on campus to take Jonas.

  Addison sniffed, and tears fell from her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” Her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath. “I will do whatever I have to do to make it right between us.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say that, Addison. Because you’re going with me to Palmyra.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The flight to Honolulu was long and tiring. Jack slept through most of it, thankfully. A hot, humid island breeze greeted us the minute we stepped off the airplane.

  Jack crossed his arms while he watched the ground crew unload the plane. Drivers pulled up and began loading our luggage into a couple of SUVs. Jack’s eyes glazed over, and he wobbled on his feet a bit.

  Wake up. I nudged him playfully, yet gently, for fear I would add to his instability. We’re in Hawaii. I tried to sound excited, even though this was far from the ideal way to see a tropical paradise for the first time.

  His eyes lifted and found mine. I’m trying. He removed the jacket he had needed while still in Kentucky and tied it around his waist. His pants hung at his hips loosely. He was losing weight.

  I know. I’m sorry. You feeling okay? A stupid question.

  He lifted his hand and rocked it side to side. So-so. He smiled.

  I was thankful Seth had thought to bring plenty of anti-nausea medicine and other medical supplies we might need on the trip.

  I looked down at my watch. The captain of the boat—an ex-marine Coach had found to take us to Palmyra—expected us at the marina by six p.m. We were early.

  Our entire group—Seth, Coach, Alyson, Kyle, Briana, Addison, Maya, Jack, and I—looked like we needed a good night’s sleep. We were missing Georgia and Fred, but I’d left instructions in case they changed their mind and could join us. I refused to force anyone to participate in this mission who didn’t want to. Well, except for Addison and Maya.

  I continuously searched the area for anyone who looked like they might be interested in our group. I counted on members of International Intelligence Agency to be present wherever we went, but I wasn’t too worried. Briana had altered our appearances so we looked like a college group going on a holiday excursion.

  Once the luggage had been loaded into the vehicles, Coach, Kyle, Addison, Jack, and I climbed in the front vehicle. Alyson, Seth, Briana, and Maya piled in the second. I put Briana in charge of Maya.

  We left the airport and rode through the streets of Honolulu. As we traveled, I caught Coach glancing over my shoulder to the vehicle behind us several times, verifying that it was still with us.

  Jack’s eyes were closed again, his breathing slow and even. I brought up an image of the inside of his head and began examining every nook and cranny. His neurons and synapses were firing normally for a person sleeping. His skull was intact. His brain appeared normal. I saw nothing that would cause his constant vertigo and lethargy.

  Beads of sweat formed along his hairline while he slept. My mind immediately began thinking of all the things I might do to Sandra if anything happened to Jack—the many different ways I could make her suffer slowly.

  “We’ll be at the marina in five,” Coach announced from the front seat.

  “Is everything in place?” I asked.

  “Ready and waiting for us.”

  I nodded, and brushed my fingers down Jack’s cheek. He started, drawing in a deep breath.

  “I’m sorry. I hated to wake you. We’re almost there.”

  He nodded, then grabbed my hand, rubbing his thumb over mine. You must think I’m the weakest boyfriend ever.

  I cocked my head. Weak? Because you tried to help someone who didn’t deserve it? I looked out the window briefly. I couldn’t swallow the anger that heated the blood coursing through my veins.

  When I turned back, Jack was staring at me. I unbuckled my seatbelt and scooted closer. Sandra is going to pay for everyone she’s hurt in our lives. She’ll pay for doing this to you. She thinks she’s weakened me by making you sick, but she’ll soon know I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. So, weak? No. You are my strength.

  Would you have come if I had asked you not to? Jack asked.

  I chewed my lower lip while I considered how to answer that. I opened my mouth, but immediately closed it.

  Jack smiled. I know you would have.

  Yes. This is something I have to do. My father made it possible for me to be the voice for the innocent souls that Sandra murdered, and for the many others she continues to harm.

  How much of coming here is to save Jonas? Jack asked.

  Before I could answer, Coach spoke up. “We have a problem.” The alarm in his voice had me scooting off of Jack’s lap and looking out the front windshield. Lights flashed in front of us. “It’s a roadblock of some sort.” Policemen and men and women in dark suits were leaning down into vehicles in front of us.

  “You think it’s for us? Could those suits be IIA?” I didn’t even give him time to answer. “I’ll take care of it.” Bree, you seeing this?

  Yes.

  Can you alter our appearances from where you are?

  I’m on it. But my energy level is running low. Don’t know how long I can keep it up.

  Do your best, I encouraged.

  Our driver rolled down his window. “Is there a problem, officer?”

  “No, just looking for a group of kids in the area causing mischief tonight.”

  They’re blocking the entrance to the marina. Do they know I chartered a boat? How could they know? I mindspoke to Jack, panicking.

  He placed a hand on my knee.

  The officer looked carefully from our driver, to his ID, and back to the driver again. “Where’re you people headed tonight?”

  “Oh, just taking my group here down to a dinner cruise.”

  The officer handed back the ID. “Okay. Have a good night.”

  Our driver put up his window and moved forward. My shoulders slumped forward as I let out an anxious breath. Jack eased his death grip on my leg.

  I resisted the urge to turn around and watch the second vehicle. A vein pulsed on the side of Coach’s neck. His head was angled in such a way that I knew he was watching through the side mirror, and I saw the driver’s eyes keep darting to the rearview mirror.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “They’re talking—shit! They’re making Seth exit the vehicle.” Coach directed our driver to back into a nearby parking spot. From here we had a direct, although distant, view of the interrogation.

  Bree? What’s happening?

  Not now, Lexi. Her voice was strained, angry.

  Bree, give us something. Jack leaned
forward to watch out the front window.

  They’re just talking to him. Her voice was softer now. I rolled my eyes. I’m trying to make them think they’re seeing someone they’re not. It’s almost as if they’re trying to intimidate him or get a rise out of him—asking questions about where he’s going, what he’s doing in Hawaii and at the marina…

  “I should have just asked our government contacts to drop a bomb on the island and be done with this,” I said out of frustration. I couldn’t mindspeak to the officers because, as I’d found out while inside The Farm, many IIA agents had been trained to recognize when I had gotten inside their heads. These officers may or may not be IIA, but I couldn’t take the risk.

  “But then innocent lives would have been lost, including Jonas’s.” Jack didn’t look at me, but I knew he was letting me know that, although our discussion had been cut short before, it wasn’t over.

  He was right, though. I had no intention of allowing harm to come to Sandra’s victims. The cloned humans of the world hadn’t asked for the lives they were given. If I could give hope to any of them at the end of this, I would have fulfilled my purpose. And if I could get revenge on my evil DNA donor in the process…

  Is that what this is to you? Jack asked as he overheard my thoughts. Revenge? He ran a hand through his hair. You’re putting your life in danger for revenge?

  I refused to look at him, just stared straight ahead at Seth and the officer while I worked hard to close off my thoughts. I couldn’t be angry with Jack for invading my thoughts. For anything, really. I wouldn’t waste my energy on anger when I only wanted him to feel loved. I knew that Sandra could take anyone from our lives without notice.

  My eyes welled up. Is it so wrong to want revenge on the person responsible for so much pain and suffering? And I wasn’t just talking about Dani, Ty, and my father, if she had any direct responsibility for that. I was talking about the hundreds or thousands of souls she extinguished every day inside test tubes.

  “He’s getting back in,” Coach said. No one in our vehicle moved while the officers walked around the SUV. “That’s it. Let them go,” he said, mostly to himself.

  Only when the vehicle pulled forward and passed us in the parking lot did we all relax. The officers didn’t seem too concerned with the passing vehicle and went back to checking others.

  Coach turned in his seat to address Jack and me. “We probably shouldn’t all be seen loading the boat and climbing aboard together. Alyson and Seth will get members of the crew to help. I’ve instructed them to act like a married couple. If anyone asks questions, the crew won’t look guilty since all they know is someone chartered their boat for an extended vacation off the coast.”

  “Lexi and I will take a stroll around the docks.” Jack opened his door and, after grabbing my hand, pulled me out after him. “We have things to discuss before we set sail.”

  ~~~~~

  “The sunset is beautiful.” I leaned against Jack, my back to his chest. He circled his arms around me to rest his palms against my ribs. We had found a deck outside the restaurants and retail stores surrounding the harbor. We looked out past the sailboats and other vessels to the sun sinking into ocean.

  “When this is over, I want to take you somewhere like this where we can just be.”

  “I want that, too,” I whispered, scared that the fear of something happing to him would show in my voice.

  He rested his chin on my head. “Nothing is going to happen to me. We’ll figure out what Sandra has inflicted me with, and you’ll heal me.”

  I wished I had his faith. But all I could think was, what if this was my punishment for not embracing my ability to heal sooner? If I had been spending more time honing my abilities, I’d have figured out how to identify the problem and cure him already.

  I closed my eyes and savored the feeling of being held by the strongest man I knew. He had to survive this.

  After several beats of silence, I turned in his arms and looked up at him. “I began planning this trip the minute I discovered I had the means to take Sandra down. When the attorney told me the amount of money my father left me, and when Sandra continuously showed me the monstrosities she’s capable of, I started brainstorming a thousand different fantasies of shutting her operation down and freeing everyone she’s trapped inside her world.”

  “What about Jonas?”

  “I’m beyond mad that he’s not with us right now helping us plot against that evil woman. I hope I can free him from his mother forever. Yes, a small part of me kicked this plan into a higher gear when he was taken, but not because I’m in love with him.”

  “I didn’t say—”

  I placed a finger over his lips. “You have nothing to be jealous of when it comes to Jonas and me. Sandra did something to his tracker, forcing our closeness, and yes, I have had feelings for Jonas. I have no idea how he gets under my skin, but he does. But I love you. Not him. And he knows that.” I turned my head to look beyond the dock, out into the great ocean. “Jack, I know in my heart that Jonas would put his own life in danger to save either one of us.”

  “He would.” Jack brushed a loose strand of hair off of my face. “And we’ll do the same for him.”

  I rose on my toes and brushed my lips across his. “You and I are going to survive this, and after that we’ll spend the rest of our lives making sure our love is an epic romance that no one can touch.” I smiled.

  “I think I can handle that challenge.” He matched my smile with one of his own, but it didn’t mask the worry in his eyes. “Now, where is this boat you chartered?”

  I pointed toward the dock. “See that dinghy?”

  “You got us a dinghy?”

  I gently elbowed him, laughing. “No. Look past that, do you see the boat just beyond the three sailboats?”

  “That’s nice. That could get us there.”

  “Yes, but that’s not the boat I chartered. I got the one beside it.”

  “That triple-decker?” Jack attempted, but failed, to mask the excitement in his voice.

  “Mm-hmm.” I had chartered a two-hundred-foot yacht capable of sleeping fourteen guests comfortably and twenty crewmembers if necessary. “Her name is La Luna y el Sol.”

  “The Moon and the Sun,” Jack whispered into my hair. “I like your little boat.”

  I smiled. She most certainly could not be described as “little.” But he could call her whatever he wanted, as long as she got us where we needed to go.

  ~~~~~

  “This is not a boat,” Briana said after asking for permission to come aboard. “This is a freakin’ mansion on water.”

  “I thought we needed the space.” I shrugged and leaned against a pillar supporting one of the higher decks. It would take several days to reach Palmyra by boat, but it would be a quieter approach than arriving by seaplane or landing a private jet on the small landing strip on the atoll.

  “Wow,” Kyle said as he walked across the plank from land to boat. “I must be keeping good company these days.”

  Alyson and Seth traded pleased glances. I narrowed my gaze toward them. Alyson caught my look and moved to stand beside me.

  “What’s with the smiley face?” I wasn’t sure I’d seen her with a happy look since she’d arrived in Midland.

  “It’s just nice to hear happy sounds coming from you and your friends. I hope to hear more of them in the future.”

  “Mmm.” Even though the group did sound more joyful than usual, there was still an underlying sense of urgency and sadness. We knew what we were up against.

  “I’m going to start setting up the control room for our mission,” Alyson said. “We need to be ready. If I know Sandra, she already knows we left Wellington and is looking for us, which is why those men were at the marina.”

  “You think those men knew it was us?”

  Alyson played with her short ponytail. “I don’t know. We have to assume she knows all.”

  A crewmember appeared. “We can depart immediately, Miss. Dinner wil
l be served in an hour.”

  Jack raised a brow at me. Not too shabby.

  Yeah, well, I spared no expense. It might be the last nice thing I get to experience.

  Don’t say that.

  “Got room for us?” a familiar voice asked.

  I spun around. Fred and Georgia stood on the dock.

  “Always room for two more,” Seth said.

  Better late than never, I mindspoke to Georgia, giving her a smile. She looked similar to Jack: sunken eyes, dark circles, ashen cheeks. How are you feeling?

  Meh. I’ve been better. She walked onto the boat and directly over to me. We go get Jonas, and then we destroy that bitch.

  I laughed. Okay, then. Let’s do it.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  We pushed off from the dock before I was out of the shower. The yacht had the staff of a boutique hotel, so I had someone bring soup to my cabin. My stomach was in knots. I wasn’t sure I could even eat.

  Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, I exited the bathroom while towel-drying my hair. The smell of mango from my shampoo wafted through the room.

  “I don’t think you should go to Palmyra.”

  I spun around, my wet hair whipping behind me, my hand covering my heart. Addison sat criss-cross in the middle of the bed. “Sheesh, Addison. Ever heard of knocking?”

  “That would defeat the purpose of sneaking around, now wouldn’t it?”

  “What do you want?” I draped the damp towel over a nearby desk chair and began brushing my hair.

  She climbed off the bed and began walking around the room. “I don’t want you, Jack, or anyone to go to Palmyra.”

  I set the brush on the desk and grabbed a bottle of body lotion, then slowly climbed up on the bed. I sat on one foot while the other leg dangled. “We’ll be okay. We can handle it.”

  “Let me go instead. I’ll figure out what the cure is for Jack and Georgia, and I’ll get back out. I can move around much more easily than you can, being invisible and all.”

  “Why would I let you do that? You’re a kid. You wouldn’t even know how to get there. You think you can just row a boat up to shore?” I squirted some lotion into my palm—the label promised the smell of the ocean breeze—and began spreading it on my arms and legs.